Saira was awakened by the shock.
She thought it was thunder, so she turned over in a daze and put the blanket over her head.
But the vibration still didn't stop, instead it had a slow and rhythmic ups and downs, like lying on a boat driving in the waves.
She opened her eyes, sat up suddenly, and the blanket slid to her waist. She reached out to touch the scimitar, and her fingers touched the cold copper edge of the scabbard, feeling a little calmer.
"Lin?"
There was no movement in the cubicle of the stone house.
Saira simply opened the rag that served as a door curtain and stuck his head out.
At this moment, Lin Ze is sitting in the open space outside the stone house, leaning against the dwarf willow tree, holding the wand in his hand, staring into the distance.
"Are you awake?" Lin Ze said without looking back.
"What's going on? Why is the ground moving?"
"The ground we are stepping on is a living creature."
Saira's face froze for a moment, "What is it?"
"A giant turtle." Lin Ze stood up and patted the dirt on his butt.
"I didn't notice when we were setting up camp last night. The area we are in is on its back. It started walking deeper into the swamp in the middle of the night last night."
Saira was silent for a few seconds, looking at the slowly retreating reeds in the distance.
"Then what do we do now?"
"Don't panic. I tried it. This thing moves very steadily and has no intention of sinking for the time being. The layer of soil on its back is very thick and is no different from a real island. I think we can use it as our temporary trip for the time being."
Saira stood up holding on to the wall of the stone house. The swaying feeling under her feet made her subconsciously tighten her legs.
"Anyway, we have to cross the swamp to get to the other side." Lin Ze said.
Saira opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end he only managed to say, "You have such a big heart."
"This is called taking things as they come."
Lin Ze took out a piece of heated dough, broke it open and handed half of it to her.
Saira took it and took a bite, chewing with his cheeks bulging and his eyes still looking around.
The back of the giant turtle is very big, and the "open space" where they settled last night is actually just a hillock on the turtle's back.
A few dozen steps further east, the terrain slowly sank, and there was a shallow depression. There was a shallow layer of water in the depression, and it was filled with a kind of dwarf cress.
Looking further away, the edge of the turtle's back is hidden in the fog, and the rough scale lines can be vaguely seen, arranged one by one, like huge stone slabs put together.
"How many years does this turtle live?" Saira asked.
"It's hard to say, it could happen hundreds or even thousands of years."
Lin Ze walked to a far away place where the turtle's back was exposed, squatted down, stretched out his hand and tapped on the scales on the turtle's back.
"How could there be such a thing in the swamp?" Sela came over and asked.
"There are dragons in this world. Is it difficult to understand a giant turtle?"
Saira thought about it and felt that he was right.
"Then where is it taking us?"
"I don't know, but I think it has a purpose. It's going in a very straight direction, as if it's looking for a certain place."
"For now, we are heading in the same direction."
The giant tortoise may not seem to be crawling very fast, but it actually moves many times faster than a human.
With each step, those four thick legs can stir up a large cloud of black mist from the mud at the bottom of the water. After the black mist disperses, strings of fine bubbles will float on the surface of the water.
"What do you think it usually eats?" Saira squatted on the edge of the turtle's back and looked into the water.
"It must be grass-eating. Look at the soil on its back. It's so thick that it probably hasn't been touched for decades." Lin Ze said, leaning on the dwarf willow tree growing out of the turtle's back.
The sun rises from the east and disperses the fog on the swamp.
The giant tortoise walked in a very straight direction, occasionally deviating by a degree or two, and then quickly corrected itself, as if someone had drawn a line for it.
Lin Ze walked around the turtle's back and found that the soil on its back was much thicker than he thought last night, and short shrubs grew in many places.
The roots of the shrubs penetrated into the soil. Under the soil were the scales of the turtle shell, and the gaps between the scales were filled tightly with mud and moss.
Saira folded the blanket and put it into his backpack, walked to the shallow depression in the center of the turtle's back, squatted down, and brushed the short cress in the depression with his hands.
Cress grows very densely, its roots are soaked in shallow water, and its leaves are shiny green.
"Is this food edible?" she asked.
Lin Ze walked over and took a look, pinched a leaf and put it in front of his nose and smelled it. There was a faint scent of celery.
"It's edible, and the taste should be okay."
Saira then pulled out a small handful, rinsed the mud on the roots in the water, and shook the water away.
Lin Ze took out the remaining bacon and pancakes from his backpack, and the two of them sat next to Qianquan and had a simple breakfast with watercress.
Most of the bacon was cut into half yesterday, with only the last few translucent thin slices left. There was quite a bit of pancake left.
Unexpectedly, the cress was very crisp and tender, and made a snapping sound when bitten.
"Don't you have witchcraft? Can you make some food out of it?"
"The conjured food has no nutrition. If you eat too much, you will starve to death." Lin Ze shook his head.
"You wizards are really, at the critical moment, not as good as a horse. At any rate, horse meat is quite delicious."
Lin Ze rolled his eyes when he heard this.
After the giant turtle walked for most of the morning, its direction gradually began to change.
Lin Ze noticed that the dwarf willow on the turtle's back swayed slightly, not much, but it was different from the steady rhythm before.
He stood up and walked to the front edge of the turtle's back, looking forward.
The fog was a little thinner than yesterday, and you could see a few hundred steps ahead of you, a dense patch of green plants floating on the water, neatly arranged, blocking a large area of water in front of you.
The giant turtle stopped in front of the green plant.
"Why don't you leave?" Saira came over.
"It seems there is no way to get through." Lin Ze pointed at the patch of green plants.
Saira squinted for a while, then suddenly frowned. "That's not grass, that's fish."
Lin Ze Taking a closer look, the "green plants" were indeed moving, pushing forward one after another, and the dense dark green backs were squeezed together, covering the water surface tightly.
Each fish is about a foot long, with a slender body and sharp dorsal fins. They are crowded together like a piece of grass growing on the water.
"There are so many fish, why are they stuck here?"
"I don't know, but if the giant turtle doesn't leave, it's probably because these things are dangerous that we don't know about."
Saira took out the scimitar from his waist and pointed the tip of the knife at the school of fish. "What should we do? Let's go there by ourselves?"
"Don't worry."
Lin Ze picked up a stone from the ground and threw it towards the fish.
The stone hit the water, creating a splash, and the fish exploded like cats whose tails were stepped on. They rushed toward the point where the stone landed, squeezing each other, and turning out a silver-white belly.
A few seconds later, the stone was knocked clean, not even a scrap was left.
Saira's scimitar slowly hung down.
"Is this Merpeople?" she asked.
"It should be some kind of carnivorous fish."
Lin Ze squatted on the edge of the turtle's back and stared at the group of tumbling fish for a long time.
"I have a way to lure them away." He stood up and waved his wand.
"Avis"
A flock of gray-white magic birds sprang out from the tip of his staff, fluttering their wings and flying towards the school of fish.
The birds flew close to the water, the tips of their wings almost brushing the fish's back.
The school of fish was indeed attracted, and they followed the fake birds densely toward the east.
"It's done, let's go!"
Lin Ze patted the turtle's back. The giant turtle seemed to understand. It kicked off its four legs and the whole "island" slid forward.
Saira watched the churning green fish back behind him getting further and further away, and let out a long breath.
"This spell is so interesting, can I..."
"No." Lin Ze said firmly.
In fact, it's not that he doesn't want to teach, but that Sela doesn't have the slightest magical talent in his eyes, not to mention that at her current age, she is probably already past the age of magic riots.
The giant turtle returned to the straight route again, a little faster than before. Maybe it was frightened by the fish, or maybe it just wanted to finish this waterway quickly.
When the sun sets westward above the head, the water surface of the swamp begins to darken, changing from gray-green to dark blue.
Duckweeds no longer grow on the water, but instead there are large tracts of dead reed sticks, densely packed in the water, like a burned bamboo forest.