Swish. I felt the air moved around my body as I was transported - closer to the World Tree towards it.
The feeling that I got from it was getting stronger - much stronger than you could imagine. It resonated with me and I felt a sense of strength and fulfillment that I had never experienced before.
But still... it was only a memory. I'm sure that the feeling would have been greater years ago.
But now in the present, it was definitely gone.
Questions presented themselves before me as I continued to wonder about how such a massive tree would disappear in just a few hundred years.
What happened to the tree? How was my mother connected? Well, I soon found it.
...
As I moved, I could see the scene clearly. Creatures that I haven't seen before, those that flew through the air with grace and those that didn't. Numerous creatures big and small populated the giant tree and occupied all its branches living beside each other.
You would imagine that such a scene was chaotic right?
You're wrong. It was peaceful and tranquil.
Fruits of different lengths and sizes populated the tree and every being looked well-fed.
Everything was peaceful... but it wasn't.
Soon I was moved towards a particular branch. One with the diameter so huge that I couldn't even imagine how the branch could exist. But it did.
And soon voices filled my head.
It was a familiar voice - that of the ancient snail.
...
"SHE DID WHAT?" the ancient snail's voice boomed.
Although my ancestor was younger, she didn't look very different from what she looked like during her battle with the hare. But one thing was strikingly different. She didn't have any flowers on her giant spotted shell.
I followed her as she moved over the branch towards another large snail of a slightly similar size.
"Mother... calm down. I'm not sure how it happened but it did." The second snail (my grandmother) said while her face showed the same amount of concern as the ancient snail.
The consolation didn't work as the ancient snail grew angrier and angrier as she looked down towards the branch. Her glowing yellow eyes seemed to glow even brighter before it dimmed almost immediately.
"Let's just kill her." the ancient snail said sternly after she seemed to deliberate the situation.
"But mother..." my grandmother snail replied in a complaint. "She's just a child. She doesn't know any better."
"Are you going to defy your senior daughter? How can I tell the others that... that my great-granddaughter destroyed all of the nursery leaves. Killed all the eggs before they hatched and we didn't punish her?" The ancient snail asked angrily.
"But mother... She's just a hatchling. It was an accident."
The ancient snail sighed.
"Remember dear daughter... You just don't know how WE tried so hard to establish ourselves. The war. The battles. The deaths. Banding together we were finally able to claim a spot on the leaf. What do I tell all the other Ancients? Our own made a mistake and now their progeny are all dead?" the ancient snail questioned while my grandmother looked downwards at the branch beneath her foot.
"... can't we make a compromise? You know... she's the only one... the one left." my grandmother began as tears began to roll down her eyes. "She's the last of my last clutch..." the snail began to wallow. "Can't you understand the pain I'm going through? I know that it's wrong. I know the rules after the war. Life for a life... but it isn't that simple. That snail is still my child." my grand-snail continued to bawl.
The stern look of the ancient one started to melt away as she continued to stare at my grandmother. Although the matter was of utmost concern, my great-grandmother still seemed to hold on to just a bit of her compassion for her daughter - my grandmother as she slid up next to her.
Sighing the ancient snail's face seemed to physically age as she sighed once more.
"I'll talk to the other ancients." She whispered towards my grandmother who looked up from the branch as she said so.
...