How the Terrapin lost its shell

Many full moons ago, before Sheritra the Goddess of belonging had chosen her name; the Ray became a Turtle and then it became a Terrapin and then a Tortoise. This occurred on a stormy night when the eggs (which are round and pale just like the moon) were hatching on the beach. The clouds obscured the view of Selene the beautiful moon, and she could not guide her little creatures back to the ocean, so they grew up on the land and their flippers turned into feet. From that time, on the day before hatching, the Sun God Ra shines extra hard, to make certain that the Storm God does not block him and Selene’s light from the Tortoises. He sent his yellow rays to the island where the Tortoises were to burn the clouds away; however, some of the Tortoises became so hot they tried to go back to the sea to cool down. Some lagged behind, did not make it to the waves, and so came to live in the stream, the pond or the swamp. The mother Turtle could not see for the sunlight and she did not realise that as she laid each of her eggs, the Hawk flew down to take them, because as there were no clouds around the Hawk had spotted her laying. The hawk could not eat all the eggs and dropped some onto the Turtle’s back making a pattern on her shell. One little Terrapin fell onto its back and could not turn over again, how he struggled trying to right himself, he waved his flippers about madly so soon the Sea God gave him a wave to wash him over. The big wave washed him all the way up the beach and straight into the jaws of a Crocodile who was so shocked he snapped his mouth shut breaking the little Terrapin’s shell into a dozen pieces. The Hawk had been feeling guilty so agreed to put the shell together again using his beak, some Pearls and Anemone glue from the windy rock pool. When he had finished mending the Terrapin’s shell it was even more beautiful than before as the moonlight reflected off the pearls. The Terrapin did eventually lose it’s shell as the glue from the Anemone did not last forever, but it also grew fingers and became known as the New Terrapin shortened later to Newt after it had made friends with the Adder who had issues with his nose and tail, but that’s another tale.