That afternoon, I travelled to the leaf of the Spike-shelled snails. I didn't travel alone though. I had the entire defence team escort me during the two-hour journey. Well actually, it was a one hour journey. We didn't travel the whole way. We stopped halfway there.
Why stop? Duh! Information collection!
Information was very important to me. I had a few suspicions and I needed to confirm them.
...
That morning I thought about many things.
We had to win a battle where they had 7 and 11 as hostages. I didn't want them to die so I couldn't do anything too rash. The Spiked-shelled snails were also bigger, stronger and faster than most of our snails. Their shells were also excellent natural weapons that they could use to hurt us; whereas, all we could do was use our feet and eyestalks to try and pummel them.
Because we were physically at a disadvantage, I thought about ways to beat them. 'Could we do anything to avoid their spikes? Could we separate some of them so we can group up on them? Could we somehow turn their shells from an advantage to a disadvantage somehow?' These thoughts ran through my head until I finally asked myself this: what if their shells were disadvantageous and not advantageous? What if their shells were a weakness?
On that train of thought, I developed a suspicion. A suspicion that their shells and their size could have been a disadvantage. 'A shell that's much bigger and has extra parts... a larger body... how can they be light? They should be very heavy.' I concluded in my mind that morning during my intense thinking.
While observing them that afternoon on the branch, I found some answers to my questions and suspicions.
In the distance, I could see their entire colony sprawled across the top of the leaf. They liked to stay in groups and make walls and lines as they moved and ate. These formations were also used in their defence and to attack. "They like huddling together and separating them would be hard," I said to myself. 'We definitely can't attack them head-on.' I thought. "Scratch plans 1 to 3 we can't attack them," I shouted out loud to the party behind me.
Their formation also helped me confirm something else. I saw that they only stayed on the TOP side of the leaf and not from the underside. You see, my family and I were born on the underside of our leaf so I thought that they could travel on the underside as well just like us. But when I thought more and more about their spiked shells and the extra weight they were carrying, I came up with the idea that they were probably too heavy to slide on the bottom side of leaves and branches...
After I confirmed some of my thoughts, I waved to the rest of the snails and 56 of the defence team turned around left us leaving only 5 snails and me.
What? Why would I only bring 5 snails with me and not the entire defence team?
The answer was simple. They were newbies and weak. By day 18, we had only trained for 2 days so we were definitely not ready for battle. I wasn't going to sacrifice my siblings in a war. Especially fighting a war against a side that had weapons while we didn't.
The correct choice was to bring a small group with me. That way, it wouldn't intimidate them to attack us suddenly. See I thought about everything, okay?
What did you think that I was going to fight them that afternoon and run in like an idiot? Yup. That's right. We weren't going to fight them.
Okay... let me correct myself. We weren't going to fight them FAIRLY.
...
I brought with me the 5 fastest snails from the defence team. Two snails of the snails belonged to the blue team. Yup, those two that outran the red team. The three other snails were those that stood out during our running exercises. We, the group of 6, the Scouting McScout Scouts or SMSS for short, slid towards the Spiked-shelled colony.
After an hour we reached them. But by the time we got there, they had already seen us coming and had created a spiked wall of shells with their bodies to greet us.
"60!" I called out from the branch. There was no reply or movement from their wall.
"60!" I called out again and several times a few seconds later. I'm sure she had heard me but, she probably didn't want to make it too easy on me. Instead, she made me wait. A few minutes later, she crawled out from behind the palisade of snails that stood on their leaf with a row of ten spiked-shelled snails that followed her.
I waved with my eyestalks from the distance as she took her sweet time to approach me.
"Sorry for the wait brother...." She said as she finally made her way close enough that we could talk. "I was attending to something." She smiled and looked back towards the lines of spiked-shelled snails behind me. "So why are you here?" She asked while she turned her head back towards me and stared straight into my eyes.
"I'm..."
"I'm guessing you came here to give up right?" she said as she cut me off.
"No, I'm here for another reason," I replied.
"You mean to beg for mercy? I don't think you would stoop this low, brother. If you're trying to compete on how low you could get with yourself, you have definitely won. Ha." she laughed.
"No, I'm not here for that either," I replied. 'Remain, calm. Don't let her get to you.' I reminded myself.
She paused and then looked at me as she began to slide closer to me.
"Tsk. Tsk. Hmm..Oh... I know. You wanted to know what our demands are right? You want to know them beforehand so you could run away if they don't hold well with you. Typical... You running away from all your problems or just outright ignoring them." She said with contempt.
"60. I'm actually here because I have a proposition." I continued as I tried my hardest to hold in my anger that was growing.
"Oh, and what is this... proposition?" she asked.
"A trade..."
"A trade?"
"Yes. Let's trade snails. Me for 7 and 11."
"Hmm... That's surprising... And why would you think that you are worth more than 7 and 11?"
"60, you know I'm the leader. It'll benefit you greatly if you take me. Oh, and you can kill me for all I care. All I want is 7 and 11 back safely. Right here and now." I said.
"That does sound good..." She said as she crept up even closer to me. "But why would you give yourself up. Image your group of snails without their big brother to keep them in line. You think our brothers and sisters can handle themselves without their big brother leader?" she asked in a condescending tone.
"It's simple, I spoke with them before and I told them that I'll sacrifice myself and I came here. See I only have 5 snails with me. I don't want to fight a war that I can't win. I'm not THAT stupid." I said. Of course, that was a lie.
"...How are you so sure I'd accept?" She asked as she slid even closer towards me.
'She's moving closer. Yes. This is good.' I thought.
"Well, I know you better than you think..." I said as I began to tense up as she nearly touched me with her body and slid past me. 'Just a little more...' I thought to myself.
"Oh really?" She asked as lean closer to me and whispered.
"Yes... Sis... I know every one of my siblings... Even you... and your mannerisms... they way you talk... the way you think... the way you want to get into my head..." I said as I slid my body slowly to put my large body in between her and the Spike-shelled snails.
"I know you even better." She said as she began to slide around me like she did in the morning. That was what I was waiting for her to do and exactly what I expected her to do. I hoped that she would circle around me just as she did that morning.
"You seem tense... Why didn't you think that I wouldn't just take you hosta..." She tried to say, but I quickly cut her off because she had finally slid into a position where my shell had completely blocked off the Spiked-shelled snails' vision of her.
I reacted instantly.
"NOW!" I yelled without waiting for her to finish. I immediately smacked her foot with my eyestalks. The five other snails behind me also jumped into action and attacked her as well.
Hits landed all over her body and she ducked into her shell out of reflex.
This was all part of the plan. You see I thought about our instincts that morning as well. As a snail, our natural instinct is to duck into our shells when there is danger about or a threat. Well, most snails do, but I don't. That was why I had the defence team attack each other as training. I had them do it so they wouldn't instantly duck into their shells when they were attacked like our instincts tell us too. Anyways, it was unfortunate that 60 was one of those snails.
...
After I shouted, 4 of the SMSS that were waiting behind me grouped up into a 2 by 2 formation while the fifth snail turned and left to inform the colony that we were going with plan number 10.
Meanwhile, I swiftly grabbed onto 60's shell with my foot that was already covered in a layer of sticky mucus. Like a suction cup, I stuck my foot onto her shell and pulled upward. Conjuring my massive strength, her body peeled off of the uneven bark below her body.
"What are you doing?" She asked as I lifted her body off of the floor. Ignored her question and I flipped her over. I slammed her head into her shell once again. I slathered the entrance with a thick layer of sticky mucus to keep her in her shell and keep her from calling for help. Then I stuck her shell on top of 4 shells of the SMSS who were waiting to receive her.
"GO! GO! GO!" I yelled after she was in place securely.
Like a cart carrying precious cargo, the 4 snails started to slide off as quickly as they could with 60. This was one of the things that we practiced that morning. We practiced the two by two formation while carrying a snail. I was faster than the 4 other snails, so I stayed behind them. My job was to act as the line of defence just in case something went wrong.
Luckily the Spike-shelled snails took a few seconds before they realized we were snail-napping 60 from right in front of them. That gave us some time to gain create distance between us and them.
Holding up the rear, I turned around. I used my huge storage of mucous that I had been saving up in my shell for my heavenly trial. Yes, that trial. And I covered my foot with it. I swung my arm out rapidly. A disgusting shower of mucous sprayed all over the 10 Spiked-shelled snails that were rushing towards. I was pretty lucky, some of my mucous had landed in the eyes of at least three of the ten snails that had begun chasing us and slowing down the rest.
Turning around, I sped up using some of my remaining mucous and easily caught up to the 4 snails ahead of me. A few minutes went by and we gained a lot of distance as the spiked-shelled snails had stopped briefly to get my mucous off their eyes and bodies.
"Good job everyone... We are almost in the clear!" I yelled in front of me. 60 was still shaking trying to get free from the pile of mucous I slathered to keep her in her shell. Seeing this, I flung some more onto her shell to keep her in.
'I'm getting really good at throwing my mucous around... Well much better than before... if only I only didn't have a limited supply of mucous... I could be... a mucous god!' I thought to myself.
That was also something I practiced that morning. I discovered that I could create and change the thickness of my mucous and I could throw it around. But my aim was horrible and I only had so much mucous that I had saved up for my trial by the heavens...
Anyways, enough mucous talk and my all-powerful mucous controlling powers that I didn't know I had.
I thought we were really "in the clear", but we weren't. We had about another fifty minutes to go until we reached our meeting point. Remember the rest of the defence team we sent away? Yeah, they didn't go back to the colony. No. They were waiting beneath the branch! We were going to ambush the ten snails to hold them as hostages.
Yup! I combined team blue's running plan with teams black's sudden rushing plan into one! I was so smart, right?
Wrong.
Unfortunately, I miscalculated. It wasn't because I thought they were slower than they actually were. No. I miscalculated the size of 60. She was bigger and heavier than what I had thought. When we still had 25 minutes to go, the four snails that were carrying 60 had begun to slow down.
Seeing their pace slow down, I instinctively looked backwards. The spike-shelled snails were catching up from behind us. Our huge lead was getting smaller and smaller! It looked like it would take less than ten 10 minutes before they would catch up and take us down. 'We aren't going to make it!' I thought.
So I did the only thing I could do. I threw more mucous onto 60 and then turned around.
"Go without me. We will go with plan 16! Remember 16!" I shouted as I shot towards the Spike-shelled snails.
Yup. I sacrificed myself as I charged towards the Spike-shelled snails that were chasing us.
...