I heard a sound. It was a slushy sound. A very slushy sounding sound. Slushy...
On day 18, I woke up to the sound of movement. It was quiet and slush-like. My body bobbed up and down from whatever it was. No, it wasn't the wind. The movement was gentler than the wind.
'Something is definitely moving on the leaf.' I thought. 'Maybe it's one of my siblings...' I thought as i tried to guess what it was. 'No something's off... it like it's something else... something more.'
Slowly, I poked one my eyestalks out of my shell to look around. It was still dark. The sun had just crept above the horizon and begun to tint the sky and those stupid clouds with a shade of orange. 'It isn't those damned clouds.' I thought.
Looking down an away from the horizon, I saw them. A group of darkened silhouettes near the horizon. Six dark bodies contrasted with the orange and the sky behind them. 'Six. Oh, the adventuring team's back...' I thought.
But it wasn't them.
As they approached closer and closer, I began to see some key differences from what I had expected. Instead of smooth silhouettes, they were jagged and had points. 'No... they can't be... that can't be them.' I thought.
As you guessed, the Spiked-shelled snails brought themselves towards me. 'That's actually great. It's been a few days since I visited them. Now I don't need to travel all the way to their leaf today! Great!' I thought.
But it wasn't great.
I crawled out of my shell and slid up to meet them. What surprised me was that the person who was leading the Spike-shelled snails wasn't the large snail that I was used to. No, this snail didn't have spikes, this snail had a round shell like mine. I could faintly tell through the darkness that the snail's proportions were exquisite and had all the right colours in the right areas.
Yup. You got it. The one that was leading the five other Spiked-shelled snails was 60.
She had grown larger in size and seemed more mature than she was a few days ago when I last saw her... I mean my other siblings were all growing, but she grew up pretty large in the few days that she had left. She was almost as tall as 7 was and probably was the third largest snail in my family.
...
I slowly slid forward, but I was soon surrounded by the five Spiked-shells that were following her. I was surrounded to a point where I could barely move. 60 quickly crawled through their formation and gestured something with her foot and screeched. Yup, she screeched. I guess we did have some sort of sound organ just like the Spike-shelled snails after all. Slowly, the Spike-shelled snails backed away me and gave me and her some space to breathe.
"Hello brother," She said while she approached me.
"Hello, sis. Where have you been all this time?" I asked.
"Oh please... like you care. You knew all along that I had left a few days ago," she said.
"Well... I did, but I thought you were doing your own thing to get them to trust us. I didn't want to bother you..." I replied. Yes. I lied. I didn't know what she was doing, but I had a suspicion that she had spent the few nights with our neighbouring snails. I was planning on checking up on her the next day, but I got caught up with the training and the excitement that came with it...
Okay fine. I didn't want to deal with some of my responsibilities for a few days okay?
...
"Well you're not wrong. I got them to trust me." She replied.
"That's great! I'm glad you were able to do it." I said but she ignored me.
"... 7, 11 and Timmy came yesterday... without a special someone... a certain leader of OUR family..." 60 said while she slid in a circle around my body.
"They did?" I asked. At that time, I didn't know that 7, 11 and Timmy had left our leaf.
"How did they do? You know I'm trying to get everyone to make their own choices so they probably tried talking with you and the Spike-shelled snails yesterday. You know plan b and plan c." I added. Of course, it was completely true. Well, it was a half-truth. "I'm sure they did a great job just like you did in getting the Spike-shelled snails to become our friends, am I right?"
Ignoring my question, 60 continued."I'm beginning to think that you think that you don't get why I'm here. Are you that stupid? I mean I think we've both known that for a long time..."
"What do you mean?"
"Can't you see what's happening? Why did you think I came here today with these guys and not 7 or 11?" She asked me in return.
I stared at her and back at the snails that were surrounded me and then at my family who were sleeping behind us. I thought about our conversation so far... And then everything began to click.
"Where's 7, 11, and Timmy?" I asked.
60 didn't answer.
"What did they do to 7, 11, and little Timmy?" I asked once more.
I was beginning to see part of the picture and 60 appeared to take notice of it. She then smiled towards me and gestured towards one of the Spike-shelled snails. "I know you love your cuuuttteee little siblings just as much as I do. Their pretty shells, their tiny bodies, the way they eat..." She said as she turned around and she seemed to pick something up from one of the Spike-shells. "So I brought back a gift from the Spiked-shelled snails... for you and for the family..." 60 continued.
With her delicate and well-proportioned foot, she placed something in front of me. It was still quite dark, but I looked down at the object. Through the darkness, I saw a familiar round shape. I could almost recognize it anywhere. It was one of our shells, it was the shell of a sibling. I looked more closely at the shell. It was tiny.
It was Timmy's shell.
Instantly my short memory of Timmy entered my mind. He was cute little snail who wanted to do big things. He was a cute little snail who wanted to negotiate with the big snails. He was my cute little brother.
"HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN TO TIMMY?" I yelled as a wave of emotions hit me. Sadness. Anger. Guilt. Shame. They all hit me hard and I almost lost control of myself.
"Hey, don't get angry now Big Brother. You let this happen. I mean if you visited earlier or with 7 yesterday, maybe I didn't have to do this." 60 replied with a faked cute tone.
"SO YOU DID THIS? WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?" I yelled. Unable to hold back my emotions, I charged forward. I was angry at 60 who had betrayed both me and our family. I was angry at myself that I hadn't listened to 11 and especially 7 who had come around to warn me. But most of all, I felt ashamed that I decided to choose fun and family time over my duties.
If 60 wanted to get into my head, she definitely did that morning.
My charge was blocked by two of the Spiked-shelled snails. They had reacted quickly and blocked off rampage with their shells. Without reacting, I plowed straight into their sharp spikes. I was so filled with rage that I didn't notice that they had actually pierced into my body.
"Oh silly brother, Timmy's only the beginning... Well that is if you don't listen to our demands." she replied as she gestured with her body again. This time, the other three Spike-shelled snails charged at me. See this, I did the only thing that a snail could do. I hid in my shell. Yes, it was the second time in my 18 days of life that I hid in my shell.
Seconds later, I felt three hard impacts hit me. Thump. Thump. Thump. My shell was hard and sturdy, but I still felt the hits internally as my body vibrated from the hits. After the first 3 impacts, there were many smaller impacts. Hit after hit, my head was being knocked around within my shell and I was beginning to get disorientated and dizzy. Slowly my puncture wounds began to open up further and I felt the pain finally hit me as I winced from the pain.
Thump. Thump.
Thump.
After a few minutes, I felt the hits gradually die down in number and ultimately stop. Cautiously, I poked my eyes out of my shell to see what was going on. I was surrounded by many round shadows. The shadows were the shells of my siblings. Apparently, the ruckus had wakened up my siblings and they had all charged and surrounded me to protect me.
"I'll take my leave now, dear brother... don't worry I'll be back." 60 said in a voice that was quite faint and hard to hear. But that as only because she and the other Spike-shelled snails had retreated into the distance already.
Just as they turned and were about to leave, I had to ask her one question. "Why all this?"
"Oh, I was enjoying the sight of you getting beat up that I forgot to tell you our demands. Oh, stupid me. I guess I'm learning from you. We will come back with demands tomorrow seeing as the family has woken up already." She replied as she turned around to leave.
"Oh and one more thing. Remember we have 7 and 11. If you want them back, I mean really want them back, don't try anything alright?" she added while she and her new posse left.
...
As I stared at the backs of their shells as they left. I felt disgusted at myself and angry. I felt my wounds ache and my stomach burn. I felt beaten for the first time that morning. I could have given up and waited for their demands the next day, but I didn't. No. That morning, what took over my body and actions wasn't a sense of loss, but a sense of determination and drive.
...
"Don't think I'm just going to let you do as you please." I said to myself.
...