The Flying Turtle

(Writing with my children #2, March 18, 2020)

Left: This is a flying turtle and there is a one-eyed monster. Right: What do you call a turtle with wings? A flying turtle!

Once upon a time, there was a flying turtle. At a glance, she looked like an ordinary green turtle. Average size, average shade of green. But, if she needed to get away from a predator in a hurry, she had...

(Before I could decide how to describe her wings, the kids finished their writing and it was time to move on. So, later that day...)

I couldn't decide whether to make the wings realistic or not. I wanted to make them big, leathery, powerful wings, easily able to carry a turtle's weight (which is heavier than a bird's weight). But then you couldn't really fold wings like that down and make them un-noticeable. The other option was lighter wings, like a feather or fairy wings, almost translucent and fragile. But I didn't want fragile, light wings, I wanted sturdy powerful ones, and you can't have it both ways unless there's some magic involved and you move from sci-fi to fantasy. I'm always mindful from my husband (the biologist) how good sci-fi makes sense from a biology standpoint - you don't give a big monster itty-bitty feet that wouldn't realistically be able to support its weight, or the creature in the "Star Trek" reboot that's bright red in a world of white, because biologically, it wouldn't survive predators nor be able to hunt prey sticking out like that.

Anyway, a balance between realism and sci-fi is where I got stuck, because I wanted the wings to somehow blend in to the turtle, but wings and turtle shells don't mix and I don't know how the shell could hide or store the wings.

A mix between realism and fear is where we are today and there are some hard decisions to be made.