[Short story #26] - Snails

The writing prompt was:
"Ssssnails."
Provided by @ewkaw
They then further elaborated on the matter:
The snail family was threatened by the big bad snake that they will be kicked out of their homes if they dont hunt a juicy moth for him... And nobody in a snail world wants to become a slug

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Image provided by @rocking-dave

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“Ssseven daysss, sssnails, ssseven daysss,” said the large snake to the snail family.

The snails gathered together and hugged each other, whispering cheering words until the snake had finally left.

The snake had given them an impossible task.

They were to hunt down a large moth to serve as a treat for the snake or they would face homelessness. The snake would have eaten them as their punishment, but it explained it hated the taste of snails and would instead do something far more brutal.

The snake was to take their homes, turning them into slugs.

Slugs, unlike snails who were a highly respected species, were the scum of the earth. Taking the home of a snail was punishment for a crime and it served as branding the incompetent snails for all the world to see. It was the equivalent of the orange prison suits of humans.

“What do we do now, mom?” Cried little Timmy.

“Don’t you worry, child. We’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you. Could you let me speak to your father in private for a moment please?” Cindy replied.

Little Timmy started to slime away and it took several minutes before he was far enough not to overhear the conversation between his parents.

“Any ideas, Charles?”

“I’ll ask that bird friend of mine. He owes me a favor after I got him a couple of worms. Beyond that, I have no idea. We’re not a hunting species. We don’t know how to set up traps. And we most definitely are not night creatures.”

“I’ll ask Mary, see if she can help us. Can you contact that bird today?”

“I’m seeing him today actually, yes.”

Later that day the bird known only by the name of Fetcher arrived to meet Charles the snail.

“Howdy Charles. How’s it going? Listen, I got some of that fine perfume you asked me to get for your wife. But first things first; I’m hungry as hell. Do you happen to have any worms for me?”

“I have a dozen stashed right behind that rock there. And Fetcher, I hate to ask another favor from you, but it’s something very important. Life threatening actually. Could you catch a moth for me?”

“No sir, no moth-catching for me. Those hideous creatures only come out at night, have this disgusting hair all over them and just look straight out weird. Sorry, can’t help you there. Here, take the perfume, and I’ll get the worms. Please doing business with you, as always.”

Fetcher made sure to get out of there as soon as he could without getting further involved into the matter. He didn’t want to hear another word about moths and even ignored Charles when he asked who he could ask for help on the matter.

Cindy on the other hand was a bit more fortunate than Charles. Mary had told her she had connections with some of the spiders in the neighborhood who had been known to catch a delicacy or two from time to time. Spidro and Arachnido were the spiders she was to contact, living in the far east of the forest.

Cindy told Charles about the two spiders and they left to talk to them immediately.

“Hello. Any of you here know Spidro and Arachnido?” Asked Charles when the couple arrived to the spider part of the forest. There were thousands and thousands of intertwined webs and thousands of spiders of all shapes, sizes and colors.

“That’d be me and my brother. What are you doing in this part of the forest snails? I know your species is highly respected, but that doesn’t mean you’re welcome in our home.”

“Mary sent us. Mary the snail. She said she knows the two of you and that you can help us.”

“Hmmm. Mary. We do owe her a favor, yes. Help with what?”

“We need a captured moth.”

“And how are you going to pay for it, eh?” Asked Spidro, seeing the potential profit he could be making with his brother.

The couple looked at each other. They knew there was nothing they could offer that would please the spiders.

“We could clean this part of the forest. It’s filled with litter stuck in your webs. It would take a while, sure, but it’d get done.”

“Fair enough. When do you need the moth?”

Charles looked at his watch and began to sweat profusely. He made sure he double checked the time and date and his face turned white in horror.

“In an hour. We need it in an hour.”

The couple had completely forgotten about the time and since they were snails travelling took a whole lot of time.

“Can’t do it, sorry. It’s daytime now and moths are only out by night. Sorry about that. We can do it until tomorrow, though.”

“Too late,” cried Cindy and leaned onto Charles who also started to cry.

“You guys going to be okay?” Asked Arachnido.

“The snake told us it’d take our homes if we didn’t capture a moth in seven days. Time’s up in an hour – 40 minutes to be exact.”

“And what snake was that?” Arachnido continued.

“I don’t know. Some green one. Not too big. Probably just wanted to prove itself or assert dominance or something.”

“You mentioned you’d clean our webs for us, right?”

“Yes,” said Charles. The couple would agree to anything at that point.

At that very moment the snake had slithered to the party.

“Where isss my moth sssssnack?”

“They are with us now, snake. Leave.”

“What do you mean, ssssspider? Can’t you sssssee they’ve got unfinished bussssssinesssss with me?”

The snake slithered toward the two snails and right before it bit Charles’ shell, Arachnido jumped on its head and bit its eyes. Spidro sprung onto the snake as well and anchored his teeth deep into its neck and secreted his poison.

“You will pay for thisssss!” Yelled the snake, moving wildly, yet blindly, through the air, trying to bite either the spiders, or the snails, but ultimately failing.

Defeated, the snake finally dropped on the floor.

“I… The lightsssss…”

The snake had stopped moving completely and the two snails began cheering louder than ever.

“Thank you, Arachnido and Spidro! Thank you! We owe you our lives!” Said the couple in one voice.

“That you do. Now get to the cleaning. We never discussed how long you’ll have to clean for, but your entire lives sounds good to us. Spidro will go pick up you kid so you can serve us united as a family.”

The smiles of the two snails quickly turned into frowns as they realized they were to serve as slaves to the spiders for the rest of their lives.

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Gif provided by no other than the awesome @rocking-dave

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Previous writing prompts fulfilled:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

• #21 - The red star
• #22 - A terminally ill child wishes to meet a villain
• #23 - School trip
• #24 - Rebellious talking food
• #25 - Long-distance Relationship

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