"Sequence is key and the question of why is important."
"What jibberish are you spewing snail?"
"The sequence of events leading to this situation. The span was short and the question of why. Why did one of my own do this? You must be wondering as well." Then the ancient snail began to chuckle as if the situation was funny to her.
"This is no laughing matter."
"I'm laughing because she's smart. One of my own lineage for sure, but she's smarter than I thought."
"What do you mean?"
"The rotations. We all know that that place is thoroughly guarded. But how, how did this happen? Don't we all have members of each colony guard at the same time? One from each colony in rotations? How could she have killed all of them?"
"What's the point snail?"
"We were always prepared for an attack to come from the outside that we didn't even both to think that one from within would attack. We stupidly thought that sending a representative from each of our species would be enough to balance the power within our groups. Yet, how did this happen?"
"You tell us how snail!"
"With only one representative being allowed in the actual nursery at one time, what do you think would happen?"
"Are you suggesting that it was an inside job by that one representative? How was your granddaughter the cause?" another species asked.
Pausing for a moment my great-grandmother sighed as if she was disappointed in their response.
"It was indeed an inside job, but as I said it was completely done by one of my own."
"Then she shall be killed. Problem solved."
"No," my great-grandmother said as she paused once more. "I won't allow that and besides, you are mistaken. I mentioned that it was done by one of my own, but it was my grand-daughter herself."
"What? How could such a hatching even accomplish that?"
"I repeat the answer is the rotations but it also has to do with my own lineage. You see there was always a tiny gap in time where our representatives switch between the rotations. More so, I'll tell you all a secret. You see... in our clutches there is always a single snail that hatches first. That snail, though young develops faster, is just smarter. You see we take great pride in this, but since we are all allies, here I'm divulging this information."
A pause. The meeting was going nowhere as many creatures began to discuss amongst themselves. I'm sure all the ancients in the room were all doubting my great-grandmother's claims.
As if she sensed it, the ancient snail spoke once more. "What you still doubt me? I was born first. Do you doubt me? My daughter who's not training to replace me was also born first... how much do you doubt me? Now my grand-daughter was born. Faster her siblings, she was the first to observe the world. And thus, she devised a plan."
"How could a hatchling devise such a plan?"
"Do you doubt my lineage?" the ancient snail asked angrily. "She took the opportunity and slaughtered them all in under three minutes. That's how long it took. Three minutes."
"What? How could you be so certain? If you're trying to trick us, this ruse is getting out of hand."
"No signs of forced entry, tiny snail mucus trails everywhere over their all their bodies. Some bodies looked like she had attempted to eat them, but couldn't. It was a total massacre when I arrived. If I couldn't put the situation together, then I would be completely useless. It was her. I'm certain."
Silence. Silence crossed the room as the magnitude of the situation set in.
"Monster." one of the leaders muttered. "She's definitely a monster born from a monster's lineage."
"She didn't know any better." the ancient snail replied while ignoring the creatures first comment.
"WHY HAVE YOU LET THAT MONSTER LIVE?" the one called Green yelled out in an outburst after holding in his frustration for a long period of time. Similar statements repeated in the room as they all agreed.
"I was. Believe me, when my daughter reported this to me, I wanted too as well. But I was curious. So I met my granddaughter. And do you know what she said the first time she saw me?"
"Looking up from a pile of corpses she smiled and asked me this: Can I have more playthings? I seemed to have broken them all."
Outbursts filled the room. "DEMON!"
"INCARNATION OF A DEVIL!"
"No. Not a demon. Just misguided. Would you believe that we are all born as a blank slate? Somehow this child of my progeny had developed this... twisted mind within just a few days of being born. Now..."
"There is no now..." another husky voice interrupted. "I vote to kill her. There is no reason to keep a demon child alive. Not in my colony, not on this tree."
"Enough!" the ancient snail shouted sternly. "She's one of my own and she's just misguided. I'll personally teach her and guide her besides..."
But before I could hear the rest of their conversation I felt the force again. I was being pulled away once more.
'Wait! No!' I thought as I was being pulled back. I knew that the ancient snail had a plan for my mother. She always had a plan. I couldn't believe that the ancient snail would just stop there. I needed to hear more.
Clinging on I heard her voice speak out once more. "You all missed the bigger picture..."
The darkness around me was growing. My footing on the illusionary branch began to slide as I clenched my foot as hard as I could.
"We can use her. If she could slay thousands within three minutes at just a few days old imagine what..."
Those were the last words that I heard before I was pulled out of the scene.
...