I let out a slow breath.
"If I'm going to understand this body... then I should probably start by understanding how it naturally rests."
My gaze slowly dropped toward my shell before another sigh escaped me.
"...I seriously miss my human body."
Back then, finding a comfortable position was easy. Sit down, cross your legs, straighten your back, close your eyes, and that was it.
Now?
I looked at my four legs before glancing at the shell covering most of my body.
"...Yeah... that's not happening."
A human meditation posture clearly wasn't going to work on a giant swamp tortoise.
Fortunately, I wasn't completely clueless.
Even before all this, I'd read quite a bit about tortoises. They didn't sleep in strange positions or twist themselves into uncomfortable poses. Most of the time, they simply rested in whatever position allowed their bodies to relax naturally.
...So I just need to figure out what that is for me.It sounded simple enough.
It wasn't.
I stretched my neck farther forward before immediately shaking my head. "...No. Too much pressure." Pulling it back didn't help either. "...Also no. Now it feels cramped."
Chk.
I shifted my front legs, then adjusted my hind legs as well. "...Ugh... somehow that's even worse." For the next several minutes, I kept changing positions, stretching my neck, tucking my legs beneath the shell, shifting my weight, then trying again.
"...Nope."
Another adjustment.
"...Still doesn't feel right."
I clicked my tongue in annoyance.
After several more failed attempts, I stopped moving altogether.
"...Wait."
This one...
I stayed completely still.
My front legs rested comfortably beneath me without supporting too much weight. My hind legs settled naturally beneath the shell, while my neck remained slightly extended instead of completely withdrawn.
Nothing felt forced.
Even my breathing became easier without me trying to control it.
"...I think this is it."
Not far away, the old skull silently watched everything unfold. The blue flames within its eye sockets flickered once.
"...Strange."
Throughout its countless years, it had seen beasts of every kind, yet never one that struggled with something as basic as resting.
Every beast was born understanding its own body. They never needed to learn how to stand, breathe, sleep, or move. Their instincts guided them from birth.
Yet this little brat...
He was treating something so natural as though he had to learn it from the beginning.
"...I've never seen a beast so unfamiliar with its own body."
The old skull's gaze lingered on the young tortoise for a moment longer before drifting toward the faintly circulating Qi within him.
His Qi moved with remarkable stability.
His core remained just as mysterious.
Yet the more he watched, the stranger the contradiction became.
Any ordinary beast possessing such a body should have moved according to instinct long ago. Instead, this little brat hesitated, questioned everything, and seemed to be learning his own body from the beginning, as though the mind within it didn't quite belong.
The thought lingered only for a moment before he pushed it aside.
A quiet whisper escaped his lips.
"...Just what are you?"
Unaware of the old skull's gaze, I slowly closed my eyes.
"...Alright."
"Now... let's see if I remembered anything from those boring yoga sessions."
I slowly let out a breath.
"...Alright. Posture... done."
Now came the next part.
Breathing.
A faint memory surfaced almost immediately. "Before meditation comes the breath. Don't force it. Let it become slow and natural." I couldn't help but smile bitterly.
"...Easy for you to say."
That instructor had been talking to humans. I looked down at my own body before letting out a quiet sigh.
"...I'm a tortoise."
Human breathing and a tortoise's breathing were probably not the same.Still... standing here thinking about it wasn't going to help.
I slowly closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
"..."
Nothing.
I tried again, making it slower this time. A few moments passed before I frowned.
"...Too fast?"
Another breath.
"...No... maybe too slow."
I adjusted my breathing again and again, trying different rhythms each time. At one point, I became so focused on doing it correctly that I accidentally held my breath.
"...Ugh."
I quickly breathed in again before shaking my head.
"...Seriously?"
This was somehow more troublesome than finding a comfortable posture.
Eventually, I stopped forcing one pattern after another.
"...Maybe I'm overthinking it."
I took another breath, then another, paying closer attention to it this time.
Before I knew it, I was changing the rhythm again.
"...No... that doesn't feel right either."
I tried slowing it down.
"...Still wrong."
Then faster.
"...Ugh... no."
Not far away, the old skull silently observed him. The blue flames within its eye sockets flickered thoughtfully.
"...Strange."
Five years ago, the brat had unknowingly entered a peculiar state where even his breathing seemed to follow the flow of Qi. Now he was consciously trying to repeat it, yet everything felt completely ordinary.
The breathing itself wasn't wrong.
"If anything, it looked as though he was blindly fumbling around."
Yet...
Something was missing.
"...He's trying too hard," the old skull murmured. "The body already knows what to do... but the mind keeps getting in the way."
Unaware of the old skull's thoughts, I continued breathing quietly.
"...Why isn't anything happening?"
I stayed like that for a while, keeping my breathing slow and steady. Nothing changed. No strange feeling, no response from my body, not even the slightest reaction.
A quiet sigh escaped me.
"...What am I missing?"
The posture felt comfortable. My breathing had finally settled naturally. As far as I could remember, I had followed everything that instructor used to say.
So why was it different now?
I thought about it for another moment before slowly shaking my head.
"...Forget it."
There was no way I was going to figure everything out in a few minutes. If it really took this long, then so be it.
I closed my eyes again and let out a slow breath.
"...Let's see how long this takes."
I closed my eyes once again and continued breathing, repeating the same process over and over without changing anything.
Time slowly passed.
Not far away, the old skull watched everything in silence. The blue flames inside its eye sockets flickered more and more violently with each passing moment.
"...Unbelievable."
The blue flames trembled as he let out another heavy sigh.
"I take back what I thought before."
"Genius? Hmph... this little brat is nothing but an utter fool."
His gaze remained fixed on the young tortoise. The more he watched, the more his head began to ache.
"...Ugh."
"...Just look at him."
He's trying to learn something every beast is born knowing... and he has already forgotten everything I told him.
"Did I not tell him to observe his own body and the flow of Qi? Yet here he is, chasing something completely different."
The blue flames trembled as he let out another heavy sigh.
"...Just why?"
"...Why did it choose this little brat?"
"He doesn't even understand the most basic thing about his own body."
The old skull remained silent for a long moment.
The blue flames within his eye sockets burned brighter and brighter until the entire cave seemed to grow colder.
"...Enough."
His patience had finally run out.
"OI, BRAT!"