Anyone can change if they have determination, vision, and guidance—even a turtle who wants to be a princess.
Once there was a turtle who wishes she could get rid of her very heavy shell. She meets a mermaid who was also once a turtle. The mermaid tells the turtle to swim to the bottom of the ocean and eat as many starfish as possible as they had fallen straight from heaven long ago in a meteorite shower and have magic powers. Any turtle can change with determination, vision, and guidance. But the mermaid warns that there are evil sharks that also want the magic. The mermaid wasn’t determined enough and only ate enough starfish to become a mermaid. At least she tried, and being a mermaid is better than being a turtle. The turtle promises the mermaid to eat as many starfish as she can, and to never give up.
So, the turtle dives into the raging ocean waves, swims to the sea floor, and eats one sparkling starfish after another, even when she isn’t hungry. When sharks come swooping past, the turtle hides in its shell. After the turtle eats every starfish in sight, she wonders why she still has her shell. Then she sees one last starfish. As she catches it in her mouth, a shark chomps on one of its pointy legs. Looking at its great white teeth, the turtle wants to swim away and forget her dream but remembers her promise to the mermaid to never give up. With all her strength, the turtle wrestles with the shark and fervently wishes to shed her shell once and for all. A sudden gush of water sends the turtle spinning across the ocean floor with the starfish in its mouth and the shark spinning in the other direction, giving the turtle time to eat the starfish. As she bravely faces the shark, a light rises from her back, blinding the shark. The light is so strong that it breaks off her shell, and she grows a human body with long arms and legs. She swims as fast as she can to the top of the sea.
On the shore, she stands up straight and tall, running to the mermaid. “I’m free of my shell! I never gave up. I ate every starfish on the ocean floor!” she beams. “I’m sure I’m a princess. Now I must find my prince,” she sighs. The mermaid nods to an admiring sailor docking his boat nearby and tells the princess to take the name Princess Yeruti because it means turtledove. The turtle’s shell has become almost like wings to free her to soar for her dreams. Princess Yeruti whispers to the mermaid that she will never forget her. Then the princess and the handsome sailor set off into the sunset, hand in hand. Princess Yeruti tries to tell the sailor that she was once a turtle, but he never believes her for a second.