Snailtopia

Chapter 1

A sunny day it was, as it always was. Maybe not always. It does rain every now and then, but mostly we get sun.

All was good. As it always was. The warmth the sun gives us, the air the wind brought us, and the cold moist shade these green forests provide for us, that and shelter.

We are but tiny creatures. We have no other way to know about that but by how many predators we have in this harsh and cold world. Frogs, Long legged spiders, even ants that can be smaller than us are able to take a hit on us. We're tiny in a sense that we are weak and powerless. How nice it would be to be one of the bigger kind that could release poison. But we're not like that, sadly. There's no other way for us to protect ourselves but I guess that's just how the world works for us.

The humans call us "snails". They often associate us with things that are slow and slimy. They too, are one of our predators. They're big and smart enough to step on us and kill us cold. Some of them pour that vile powder on us that hurts our skin and burns us and they call it "salt".

It would have been nicer to be a human. I wouldn't have to worry about all these things that are coming for me. No wonder they are top of the food chain.

But I'm a snail, and it is true. Our nature is that we are slow, and we like to keep things slow.

Some kinder humans call us "yellow spiked garden snails". That's how they are. They like to name things based on what they see but not of what they know. Sometimes they even call things they found by their own name, it's like holding that as their property. Humans are weird that way, but somehow similar to other kinds of animals like those dogs and cats that pee on things they mark as theirs. Only, humans do it in a more egoistic manner, as I can see. It's always about themselves, isn't it?

--

We snails are different from the other animals. The dog just by our forest is a big grey one with many wrinkles. He has a big loud bark and often cries when he's alone. He has striking round eyes that are greyish blue in color. He had a body like a boulder. He too, is one of our predators. Although we don't have many ways to defend ourselves from big predators like that dog, we do come up with ways to survive and that is by hiding. Call it cowardice but you would have done the same if you were one of us, dear reader.

It gives me the shivers when he comes over our forest and breathes with that big nose of his. Terrifying one he is.

However this kind of event happens all the time. I'm sort of numb to it all by now. Well, except this one morning.

It was quite early in the morning. The sky was neither red nor blue. The sun wasn't at its peak but his rays shine through the gaps of the walls that the humans built. The air was rather moist. We were already having problems with this frog rampaging and eating to his joyous fill when suddenly,

"See, mother? This is an invasive species, this plant ! Our magic rose died out because these bastards were hogging up the nutrients, leaving nothing for the flowers ! Good thing we're uprooting them today!" Exclaimed a female human. She carefully took our forest away but in such fashion, she also did it quickly. This motion terrified the frog and left him in panic. He was manically and frantically jumping and leaping all over the place to the point he jumped out of the barrier between our forest and the outside world. He was out of our sight. She had finished up the whole grove to nothing. Our home, our fortress, our forest, our safe place. Not even a single little sapling left of it. As she was scavenging for more things to take, a casual human behavior, she spotted some of our shells in the soil.

"A shell !" Surprised she was. As she saw more and more of our shells scattered on the soil, the happier and the more weary she became. She wondered to herself, "Was this the way it was before? Why were there so many shells? I know I had collected some from the beach, but I could have sworn that I have never put them anywhere near this pot. This pot's soil is newer than that. "

As she continued to scurry on our land, careful as to not touch any vermin, as female humans could not stand touching a worm, she found a shell and in it was...

...me.

--