I knew I had to slow down the Spike-shelled snails or distract them in some way. 60 was an important bargaining chip. I knew we needed her just in case more of my plans went awry. I knew I was the only snail that could do something at that moment. The plan had to go on! I knew I had to sacrifice myself.
Urging myself, I turned around and rushed at the spiked line of bodies that were chasing us. Despite chasing us for such a long period of time, they stayed in a solid line. They were way better than the defence team at staying in formations over a long period of time. But I guess this was their instinct to stick together.
I moved straight at them for a few minutes and I was soon face-to-face with the 10 spiked-shelled snails who stared angrily at me. They didn't slow down. No. Instead, they seemed to charge at me even faster.
I also knew I couldn't slam into them head-on. My two wounds that had opened up again due to all my movement was a constant reminder that I shouldn't run straight into their shells.
So then what did I do? I used my faster speed to my advantage.
I angled myself diagonally and slid to towards the branches edge on my right. The Spike-shells changed their direction of movement to try to cut me off. I put my body to the test and moved even faster as they pulled up even closer.
Wham.
An eyestalk narrowly hit me as I passed by them. I didn't run in the opposite direction. No. I needed to anger them more. I needed all of them to follow me. I slid around their backsides and held out my eye. Like running a stick over a metal fence, I felt my eyes give their butts a good old slap as I crawled by behind them.
Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. x4
They screeched in reaction as they stopped in their tracks and tried to turn around and get back into their formation. I quickly slid around them once more around them and started to bop them on their faces as they turned which slightly dazed them.
I pulled my eyes back and bolted down the branch towards their colony. 'Hopefully, they'll chase me.' I thought as I watch them try to shake off their slight dizziness from my beating. Before they could even react, I turned around once more and used up the last of my reservoir of mucous I had that was stored in my shell. I had angered them even more. They hastily tried to shake off my mucous along with their dizziness and begun to chase me.
'It was working.' I thought as I marked my path towards their colony. 'Now I just need to distract them for fifteen more minutes and I can make my escape back to my family.'
They continued to chase me as they tried angrily to peel off the layers of sticky mucus that I doused their bodies with. But suddenly, one of them screeched. They seem to catch onto my plan as their formation broke in half soon after. As I looked back, I watched as five of the snails turned and began to chase the 4 SMSS snails that had 60. The other five snails continued to chase me!
'Damn. They are smarter than I thought.'
I turned around. I knew I need to get the five that had turned around to chase me once more. Taking this chance, I decided to use one of my secret plans. I slid diagonally once more, but this time I slid off to the side of the branch. I felt my body tilt vertically as I tried to stick to the side of the branch.
Well, I tried to stick to the side of the branch. That morning I didn't think that the branch was different from leaves. The bark was uneven and dry. Being the heaviest snail in my family didn't help my situation either. Slowly, I felt my foot slipping off of the branch.
'No!' I thought as I reacted quickly. I slowed down my movement and thickened my mucus until it became thick, then even thicker and finally I made it the thickest it had ever been. With the new mucous, I stopped moving momentarily to regain my footing on the side of the branch. I sighed in relief as I felt myself sticking to the branch once more.
Seeing that I had slowed down, the five snails that were chasing me charged even faster towards me. One of the Spike-shells was way too excited and took the lead. Seeing their charge, I moved forward once more.
Using my eyes, I looked behind me as that snail that was in the lead lunge forward at me. I dodged. Whoosh. I heard as they missed and slid straight off the side of the branch. They couldn't stick to the branch like I could and flew into the abyss below.
"REEEEEEEEE!" they shouted as they fell off.
'One down.' I thought.
The other four-spiked shelled snails who saw the first snail fall tried to slow down as they approached the edge of the branch. Instantly, they felt the pull of gravity as they also began to slide down the side of the branch as well.
Unfortunately for me, they recovered after a few seconds and managed to pull themselves back on top of the branch. But fortunately, they gave me a chance to gain some distance. I needed to get around them to get to stop the other five snails that had split off to chase down 60's captors.
I used my brief chance and I carefully slid back on top of the branch. Feeling my footing get better, I increased my speed once more and charged straight at the line of five snails that were further down the branch. Putting my giant leg to use, I moved as quickly as my slime would take me and I bolted behind them.
After a minute, I caught up and rammed straight into their spiky-shells in self-sacrifice.
Well not straight into them. I tilted my self to the side of my shell hit them instead. I felt my shell slowly grind up against the spikes of theirs. With my momentum, I hit their formation pretty hard. Soon the two snails from the centre of their small wall were knocked forward as I broke into their line. With my shell once more I slammed the shells of the spiked-shelled snails that were closest to me. I turned around once more. With my eyes, I aimed for the feet of the other three snails and gave them a whack as I ran away from the direction of my colony.
I did it. I got their attention again. Soon all five of the snail turned and looked at me angrily once more. Screeching, the five snails that I had bumped into and turned around and started chasing me once more.
Just as I thought I the hard and most dangerous parts of my distracting plan, I noticed that the four snails that had almost slid off the branch when they chased me had struggled to get back on the branch. They had managed to get back into formation and they had created another wall to try to trap me.
At that moment I had enemies towards my front as well as enemies towards my back. Sweating mucous because of my situation, I quickly slid diagonally towards the side of the branch once more. This time I had already prepared some extra sticky mucous as I slowed down. Seeing that I had done this, the five snails from behind me tried to rush towards to side of the branch like the five from before.
"REEEEEEE" The four snails that were in front of me called out to their brethren behind me. Instead of rushing to the side of the branch they slowed down. They didn't make the same mistake as the snails in front of me and stopped just before the branch curved vertically.
They were not as stupid as I thought they were.
A few seconds later, they had caught up to me.
Wham. I felt the first snail that caught up slam their eyestalk against my shell. I felt my grip on the uneven bark below me loosen a little bit.
I tilted one of my eyes and watch them try once more. This time I saw their eye coming. Instead of backing down, I swung my eye in response and grabbed onto theirs. I pulled hard. I felt my body get pulled harder against the branch. I used this new pressure to regain my footing. What about my hold on their eye? I didn't just let go. No. With all my might, I pulled hard once more. Before the Spike-shelled snail could react, I pull them past the point of no return over the rounded part of the branch. I watched as they slid down the side of the branch and into the abyss below.
"REEEE" they screamed as they fell to the unknowns below.
'Another one down.' I thought as I continued to slide forward.
Seeing that they had another fallen snail, they cautiously backed up onto the top of the branch once more. "RE RE RE." They seemed to be discussing. I didn't know what they were talking about so I just continued sliding.
They kept on chasing me but from a distance from the edge of the branch.
Very quickly, the other four snails that I had left behind before joined the other four that were chasing me. They travelled in a chain and blocked off all the possible ways I could get back on top of the branch.
We travelled like this for a few minutes. As we travelled, I felt myself begin to dry out. I only had a limited amount of mucous and I had begun to push my mucous producing powers to the limit. My body was slowly producing less and less mucous. The moisture from my body was being converted to mucous as my body tried desperately to produce more.
Minutes later, I felt my foot beginning to slip. 'I can't let this go on for any longer.' I thought to myself as I looked upwards and both downwards towards the abyss below. 'I can't move upward towards the wall, I can't move downwards because I'll fall. I need to think of something.' I thought.
Noticing that the Spike-shelled stopped attack me for fear of falling off, I stopped moving to take a break. In response, the eight Spike-shelled snails stopped as well.
It was a standstill.
I up stared at them and they stared down back at me. I could see the anger in their eyes and I could understand. They had just lost two of their family members and we had captured 60. Their colony's advantage over ours was slowly slipping away through their eyestalks.
But I knew I was in a dire situation. If I tried to escape upwards, I would die as they could just smash me off of the branch. I couldn't stay on the side of the branch as well. I was slowly beginning to dry up. My mucous reserves were depleted and I didn't think my body could produce anymore. I would at most have enough moisture in my body to produce enough mucus to last another hour. I needed to do something quickly.
'I guess I go with plan 25.' I thought.
...
"Hey," I called up to the Spiked-shells as I broke the silence.
They didn't react and continued their angry stare as if they could make me blow up if they stared long enough...
"How about this? Why don't you take me as a hostage? I want to live and you can probably trade 60 back for me... you know..." I continued.
They stared back once more and didn't move. 'Maybe they still don't understand me.' I thought.
"Look. Take. Snail. In. Me. Snail. Trade. Snail. For. Curvy. Snail." I said as I gestured myself and tried to imitate what 60 looked like and her actions.
They stared at each other in response and seemed to discuss with each other for a moment. Small tiny high pitched screeches filled the air. Then finally, one of the snails nodded and pointed at me and gestured me to come upward.
I didn't quite trust them. I pointed with my eyestalk at part of the branch and pointed at five of them. I kept on pointing to an empty part of the branch. In my mind, I knew that I could probably be able to hold on to the branch if three of them attacked me at the same time, but I couldn't last against eight of them.
They stared at each other. I kept on pointing at me and the empty part of the branch. They started their high pitched debate once more. Once again, they seem to understand me, if only a little. Moments later they separated.
Seeing this, I raised my eyestalks against my shell and let myself be captured by three Spike-shelled snails that stood above me on the branch.
...