The heat on day 12 was getting to me. I mean it was bad for me, but it was probably worse for the snails that actually had to move. Luckily, my sister snail suggested that we should move to the shaded areas of the branch instead of straightforward. We ended up moving in a spiralled motion around the branch as we ran away from the sunshine.
As the afternoon rolled by, I began to see things in the distance. There were black dots that swarmed the whole branch in the distance. 'Oh no.' I thought. The six-legged creatures were there. It wasn't just me who noticed this. My brother snail, who for some reason kept most of his body erect like a stick, noticed as well. I guess it gave him a height advantage? He said, "Look. The dark stuff that attacked us before during our migration."
The rest of our group stopped and looked at the creatures as well. "We need to make a plan." said the only girl in the group. "What would Toast do in this situation?" asked one of my brothers. "Toast is over there next to the dark creatures. Why don't you go over their and ask him Kevin?" snickered another one of my brothers. "I think we should listen to Melody, we need to make a plan." replied my brother/sister. I mean I couldn't tell what she or he was.
On day 12, I learned that my sister's name was Melody and one of the males was named Kevin. Yes, I didn't know their names. How do you expect me to remember every name of my siblings? I don't even know when or why I was named. I know was that the moment I was able to remember or think, I was Bob.
...
"Yes, we should make up a plan first." the tall snail who tried constantly to maintain his posture agreed. "We were able to get through them before because they picked off our weakest siblings, what do we do now?" asked Melody. "I think Toast would have solved this problem easily," replied Kevin. "I told you, Toast is there! Go ask him." said one of my other brothers. "You're not funny SY, Toast is very funny and you aren't," replied Kevin. "Stop it SY, it's not helping and who is this Toast, hun?" the androgynous one replied to both of them.
After that, Kevin and SY listened to our brother/sister and stopped fighting. Soon, the group fell into silence. We all thought deeply about what we needed to do to get through the six-legged creatures that dragged away from our siblings on a previous day.
Suddenly a voice broke the silence. "Don't worry!" said the androgenous on in a peppy tone. "We can think of something" they added. "How about we think about it tomorrow? It's getting late, I need to go sleep." said the tall snail. "Jeremy, how can you sleep so early?" asked Melody. "I don't know, I'm just used to it." replied my brother Jeremy. "Well, you go sleep first. We'll think of a plan ourselves," said Melody. And then my brother Jeremy returned into his shell.
"We should just slide straight at them with scary faces and they'll be so scared they'll run away." snickered SY. "That's dumb, let's just try to make friends with them instead?" said he/she. "No Jody, we can barely understand each other. How could they understand us? Besides, they probably eat snails..." replied Melody. 'So the androgynous sibling is called Jody.' I thought to myself.
"How about we try grouping together? If we stick closer together we will be harder to attack and the ones in the middle will be protected," suggested Melody. "Sounds good to me, I think Toast would agree to that plan," replied Kevin. "Ok, I call center! I'm the most important after all. I deserve that spot. You guys won't mind right?" asked SY.
"Okay, then that will be the plan tomorrow," said Melody while she ignored SY. "Since Jeremy is asleep, we should all rest and we will continue tomorrow."
Day 12 was the day I learned the names of my other siblings and their mannerisms.
Melody loved making plans.
Jody was always excited and peppy but seemed to be responsible like Melody.
There was something weird with Jeremy. I don't know I think he keeps stretching his body not because he wants to see, but because he likes being taller than the rest of the snails.
And SY liked to make false accusations for fun.
Kevin always seemed like he's idolizing someone called Toast. 'Who's Toast anyways and what does he do?' I wondered.
Finally, there was me. I was the tiny almost microscopic little one that was basically the freeloader of the group. But I had a job. I was the record keeper of our adventures!