Kendra Sari was spending his vacation in Nusa Penida as he wanted to take a break from working in his secluded office in Jakarta. He worked as a geologist but he mostly works on finding solutions for his company’s profits and business. Usually, he would have stayed at home and watched something on Netflix, Kendra was feeling adventurous and wanted to enjoy his time in Nusa Penida. The next thing he did was book a flight to Denpasar and find a boat to travel to Nusa Penida. Kendra loved being close to the ocean as he loved feeling the saltwater on his hands and loved how his hair flowed against the breeze. He always admired the oceans and their inhabitants, especially its green sea turtles. Once he arrived at Nusa Penida, Kendra was staying at a resort called Seashell Lagoon. His resort room was 306A and the room itself was medium-sized with an oceanic theme such as water beds. He wasn’t planning on meeting new friends, as he had a shy nature towards new people. Little did he know, this trip was going to surprise him.

Larasati Setiawan was a nature journalist who wanted nothing but to help out turtle species from all over the world. Her blogs sometimes made her readers interested and want to participate in eco-friendly events, such as cleaning the beach day or donating money for certain NGOs. Larasati currently lived in the rural part of Denpasar. Larasati had heard about a turtle protection event in Nusa Penida; she decided to join. She made a reservation at Seashell Lagoon Resort and hired a boat. The event was organized by FNPF--Friends of National Parks Foundation. The event would be filled with turtle conservation experts from around the world. Larasati arrived at Nusa Penida; the Resort had sent a vehicle to collect her. Her resort room was lovely, with plenty of space for her camera equipment. Her resort room also had an oceanic theme, such as a seashell couch. Being a journalist had its perks as she appreciated meeting new people. She wondered if she would meet a new friend during her turtle mission. 

Both of our adventurers started unpacking their luggage and exited their resort rooms to begin their exploration around the resort. Kendra explored the spacious ballroom, the swimming pool, and the gardens, while Larasati mostly explored the beach, observing the children laughing and playing in the water and adults relaxing on their towels. As soon as they arrived at the bar, Larasati’s hazel eyes met with Kendra’s dark chocolate eyes. They both stared at each other for a moment; Larasati proceeded to sit down at the bar.  Larasati’s move to the bar made Kendra tense and he walked away from the bar, which made Larasati confused. She was curious about Kendra, but she silently scolded herself for perhaps seeming too aggressive. They did meet again when both entered the restaurant for dinner.  Kendra saw Larasati working away on her laptop while eating nasi goreng with egg and vegetables. Kendra wanted to apologize for seeing rude earlier in the bar, but couldn’t bring himself to approach her and saw that she was occupied with her work, so he just sat down at a table across from her table, and began to eat his sate ayam with peanut sauce. As dinner concluded, they both went up to the third floor and discovered they were three doors apart from each other. As Kendra was about to open his mouth, his phone rang. Larasati glanced at Kendra. Kendra blushed a bit and nodded as he opened his resort room door and entered the room while he was on the call. Larasati found the interaction both hilarious, yet interesting as she grew more curious about Kendra. She shook her head and went inside, planning to sleep in her water bed. The moon shone into both rooms.

Larasati woke up by her alarm clock and got ready to go to the beach with her camera equipment. Larasati dressed in a white swimsuit, sky blue sandals, and light green shorts. The camera equipment wasn’t as heavy as that carried by cameramen from National Geographic, but Larasati struggled a little bit at carrying the large camera and tripod to the beach spot where she and other turtle conservation experts would meet.

While Larasati was setting up her equipment and waiting patiently, Kendra was awakened by a ray of sunshine as he loudly groaned and got ready for the day. He planned to spend his time relaxing at the beach. He wore a red Hawaiian shirt with dark green swim trunks and sunset-colored sandals. Kendra packed his towel, sunscreen, change of clothes, and extra swim trunks. He headed out to see Larasati sitting onto her towel with her camera equipment and was about to walk up to her until he saw something lumpy and huge in the distance. He walked up towards the mysterious object and gasped in disbelief. There was a green sea turtle stranded on the sand with some fishnets connecting to its flippers and shell. He screamed for help whilst running back towards the resort. Some of the resort guests heard Kendra’s shouts; Larasati and a few of the staff members rushed towards Kendra who was sweating a lot and couldn’t maintain his breath. While he was maintaining his breath, Larasati bought him a bottle of water. Kendra thanked her and took big gulps of water before he started talking. “Please help, there’s a turtle that is covered in fishnets.” Larasati eyes widened. “Oh, my goodness, can you please lead me to the turtle? Meanwhile, can anyone please call the FNPF organization and tell them what’s happening?” A lifeguard nodded her head, to which Larasati gave her the FNPF phone number. Kendra nodded and grabbed her wrist, as he led her to the injured turtle.

Once they have reached their destination, Larasati gasped and instructed Kendra on how to carefully get rid of the fishnets. As Kendra was slowly freeing the turtle, the injured turtle showed pain as it retracted its flippers into the shell. Miraculously, officials from FNPF arrived with the help of the lifeguard who gave them directions of where the pair ran to. They had a container filled with saltwater and placed the injured turtle into the tank. To prevent the water from escaping, there was a plastic lid placed on top of the container. Larasati, Kendra, and two FNPF officials carried the container to the medical tent which had been set up on the beach for the Turtle Conservation Event. Once they arrived at the tent, some turtle conservation experts saw the turtle’s distress and quickly prepared medical equipment for the turtle. Larasati and Kendra carefully placed the turtle down onto the bed and three veterinarians began their work. Even though the veterinarians told everyone not to be close to the turtle, there was a sea of curious, yet anxious eyes. Both Larasati and Kendra were worried but knew that there was at least a possibility that the turtle would be saved. Larasati and Kendra noticed that there were two different groups at the event--one group was taking care of or worrying about the injured turtle and the other group was protecting turtle eggs from potential predators.

Larasati grabbed one of her cameras and made sure it had no flash on before going around the event, leaving Kendra alone. He had never been to a turtle conservation event, so he felt left out by the turtle enthusiasts. Once Larasati was done interviewing some experts and taking pictures of the event thus far, she came back to Kendra. “Hey, I wanted to say thank you, on behalf of FNPF, for finding the poor guy. Let’s just hope that he’s going to be alright.” She smiled at Kendra before lightly face-palming herself and reaching out her hand for him to shake. “Oh right, my apologies. My name is Larasati Setiawan. I came here for an article I am writing about this turtle event with FNPF.” Kendra shook her hand and replied, “No problem. I’m not a big turtle enthusiast, but I do care about the environment. My name is Kendra Sari.” His response made Larasati giggle a bit and they started to talk until one of the veterinarians walked up on the miniature stage and made sure that the mic wasn’t too noisy for the turtle and the turtle eggs before announcing, “Ladies and gentlemen, our medical team and I would like to announce that the injured turtle is healing and will be in our facility for proper care. Once the turtle is completely healed, we would like Ms. Larasati Setiawan and the man who saved the turtle to help set the turtle free. Before anyone returns to their activities, are there any questions?” There were a lot of whispers until a hand was raised and Larasati asked, “Can we have some details about the injured turtle?” Some of the beach community nodded in agreement. The veterinarian cleared his throat and replied, “Yes, we found out that we have saved a female green sea turtle. After a lot of debate, we decided to call her Dewi. We have healed her wounds, but there is some damage on her shell; Larasati glanced at Kendra and mouthed, “Thank you” to which Kendra responded with nervously rubbing the back of his neck. After the veterinarian completed the announcement, everyone returned to their designated volunteer assignments. Larasati helped out in each turtle event activity and even persuaded Kendra to participate. The event was a success as the baby turtles successfully swam into the ocean without any predators and the community grew bigger with new volunteers who were willing to join FNPF and other turtle conservation NGOs. After the event was finished, the veterinarian told Larasati and Kendra the schedule for visiting hours so they could see Dewi. The news brought them delight as they admired the green sea turtle.

Several days passed and the pair often visited FNPF headquarters to see Dewi. The more time they spent with Dewi, the more they realized that their friendship was growing. The week had passed and Dewi’s injuries were completely healed and she was ready to return to the sea. When some FNPF officials told Larasati and Kendra it was time to release Dewi, they didn’t hesitate to watch their green sea turtle friend depart from the shores of Nusa Penida. Larasati, Kendra, and the FNPF officials went back to the resort’s beach with Dewi in her container once more. Both Larasati and Kendra wore their swimsuits and were given instructions, from the officials, to carefully hold Dewi close to the open waters once they took Dewi out of her container. Larasati and Kendra felt the chilling feeling of the saltwater and carefully swam with Dewi. Before swimming down at the depths of the oceanic water, Dewi thanked the friends by slowly nodding her head. Larasati and Kendra could hear distant applause from the officials and decided to swim back. The friends swam back and were greeted with many high fives from the officials. Once the officials drove back to their headquarters, Kendra found Larasati staring into the distance and stayed with her. Both of them knew that they were going to miss the turtle, but understood that they had to let her go. Once the sun went down, the friends went back to the resort and started packing their bags as their adventure was coming to an end. The next morning came around; both friends arrived at the harbor to get on their boats back to Denpasar. Even though they had their final moments before they went back to their normal lives, the friends exchanged phone numbers so they could chat and not lose contact.

They made it to the Denpasar Harbour and bid farewell to each other before they spilled ways. Both of them had one thing on their minds as they were on their way back home, ‘Who would have thought an injured turtle would lead to a new friend?’