I woke up to the blistering heat once more on day 13.
I poked my head out of my shell and looked around at my siblings and I counted them.
'Five are missing' I said to myself. Specifically, they were 5 of the named snails.
"Melody! Lil' Sis where are you?" I shouted as I slid around.
"Kevin, SY, Jody, Jeremy, my lil' bros, where are you all?" I continued.
'This is weird.' I thought. 'I need to find out what is going. If there is a killer on the loose, I have to find it and protect my other cute siblings from it.'
I had to put my siblings before my own priorities as their big bro. No. It wasn't because I was afraid of the Spiked-shelled snails and a way to deal with them, nor was it because I was afraid of my upcoming trail from the heavens.
...
Looking around, the first thing I thought about was 7. I mean seven, the fattest amongst my snail-blings could have eaten them yesterday. Slowly and quietly I slid up next to 7 and checked around him. I gently knocked on his shell and questioned him.
"Where were you yesterday?"
He poked his head out and looked at me with a confused face.
"Did you or did you not eat any of the following snails: Melody, Kevin, SY, Jody, Jeremy."
With the same face, he continued to look at me.
'Dammit, this isn't getting me anywhere.' I thought to myself.
I looked around 7. 'If he had really become a cannibal, there should at least be some shells left from his feast, right? Or maybe a huge mucous pile could be found which shows a sign of a struggle.'
'Nope, no struggle, no snail shells, I don't think 7 ate them.'
Once again I sighed in relief at the thought that 7 wasn't a cannibal.
'Why is it that I kept on thinking that 7 was the culprit. I mean, duh, he's the second largest of my family that I knew of, but we have a new leaf right now. He wouldn't decide to eat them without a reason, right?'
I shifted my gaze over to 7 who was still confused. I patted him on the back and said. "I'm sorry for doubting you."
As I slid away from him, I had an idea.
"7. If you want, you can help me look for our missing brothers and sisters..."
He decided to follow me. It was like he finally was able to understand me that day. 'Maybe I'll be able to communicate with all of them soon. That way we can be a true family.' I thought as I smiled at 7 slid closer to catch up with me.
"Seven, you go ask our sisters over there, I'll go over here. If you see anything suspicious tell me. Okay, buddy?"
Nodding with his eyestalks, he left.
After an hour of snacking on the leaf and asking my other siblings if they had seen the missing 5 or M5. I still had no leads. The trail had gone cold. Well, it wasn't like there was a trail to begin with. I had only confirmed that 7, had not eaten them and that they didn't die overnight like those during the migration.
Instead, they had completely disappeared.
I continued to look around until I felt something tap my shell. It was 7 and he looked like he had found something.
"What is it 7? What have you found out?"
He pointed his eyes towards the edge of the leaf and the branch that we were connected too.
"Somethings over there?"
He nodded his eyestalks.
Having told me, we slowly moved towards the edge of the leaf at full speed.
There we found nothing, nothing but clues!
The first clue was the trails of mucus that left off of the leaf. There was a very large trail that had dried up overnight that had entered and left the leaf a total of 4 times. 'That was probably me.' I thought.
But there were also many smaller trails. I pushed my eyes as close as I could to trails to see them more clearly. They were partially dried and still had a bit of moisture to them. 'Interesting.' I thought.
Looking at the paths, they travelled down the branch from where we came from.
'Could they have been taken away or dragged away?'
I looked more closely at the semi-dried snail mucous. The trails were straight and continual with no signs of change.
'No, they slid themselves off of the leaf. But why?' I thought. 'Were they enticed by something?'
I felt another tap on my back, it was 7. He used his eyes and pointed at the leaf below our feet. It was mostly green except for five large patches and a tiny one. These eating patterns seemed quite interesting as we all ate from the side of the leaf furthest away from the branch, but these markings were signs that five snails had eaten close to the branch.
'Man 7, is on a roll today. Maybe I can trust on 7 to help me out with other things?' I thought to myself as I slid over the scraped patches of our leaf.
'The bite location is still moist... they must have eaten here... before they... before they left?' I determined.
I squinted very hard. And sure enough, in the distance on the branch, I saw their tiny shells. They were moving down the branch and towards the trunk.
'They had left. I wonder why.' I thought. I could have tried to catch up to them, but I let them go. I didn't want to leave my siblings behind for a few days only to find them dead or missing. So, I stayed.
I gave 7 another good pat on his shell with my foot and we moved back to join the rest of our siblings.
"Great job 7," I said as we slid.
I spent the rest of the day talking to my siblings. Slowly I was beginning to understand them and they have begun to understand me too. I guess all I needed was to have some patience.
I wondered about why the M5 had left all day.
'Maybe I was a bad big brother, maybe it was me who scared them off...' I thought.
With a mountain of questions, I was only certain of one thing.
My siblings weren't as dumb as I thought they were.
I slept that night in my shell.
Summary of Day 13: 7 helped me solve the case of the missing snails and I learned to speak with my siblings.
+ 1 intelligence
+ 1 leadership
+ 1 charisma
+ 1 humility
- 1 shamelessness
- 1 confidence
[Title acquired: Sleuth Snail]
+ 1 deduction (passive)
[Title: Snail Colony Leader] (Updated)
+ Grants ability to decide [Friendly] snail colony actions when equipped
+ Grants the ability to understand and speak with snail colony members (new)
+ 1 charisma (passive)
+ 1 leadership (passive)
[Quest: Defend the Colony] (updated)
Snails: 158
Defected: 5