Chapter 278: Chapter 262 – On a Slimy Trail

“To look around and chart the course of unexplored regions was no easy work by any means. Unexplored regions were unexplored for reasons, usually because of its dangers, either from the terrain itself or from the flora and fauna that inhabited the region.

 

And yet the thrill of adventure and possibility of fame attracted many to risk their lives to these regions. Out of those daredevils, many returned with empty hands after they found nothing of worth. A lucky few returned with worthwhile finds, maybe mines of precious stones or metals and the likes, or flora and fauna heretofore unheard of.

 

The rest never returned at all.” - Vandrin Rousseau, Geologist and Cartographer from the Clangeddin Empire, Circa 196 VA.

Following the trail of the overgrown snail proved to be easier than Aideen expected, as the creature was very slow compared to other inhabitants of the forest. She could easily keep up with its pace from the treetops, leaping between branches and at times swinging with vines, though only after she made sure they were safe to use that way.

 

Most smaller predators shied away from the snail, so it was clearly a feared creature of the region, Aideen thought. One time a predatory bird that was driven away by the snail went for her instead, and she broke its neck with a strike from her staff.

 

The snail noticed the dead bird as it fell close to it, and devoured it as well. Along the way Aideen had noted how the creature also devoured many plants it passed by, so whatever it was, it was clearly omnivorous and not picky about its food at all.

 

Its trail was slow, though fast for a snail, she guessed, probably just as fast as her own walking speed. She followed it through the night before she seemed to have reached its destination, where dozens of the conical shells were strewn around a clearing.

 

The snail she had followed had gone to one side of the clearing, and tapped the ground with its slimy tentacle-like appendage, which caused a couple of smaller snails that had no shells on their backs yet to come out from a small burrow. The larger beast had then regurgitated part of its meal which had not been fully digested yet, on which the smaller ones feasted.

 

Aideen was immersed in the scenery before her while she took her notes, that she had not noticed the rustling of the canopy of the tree she was perched on, having attributed it to just some wind. As such, she reacted all too late when a large snail not unlike the one she had followed dropped on her from above.

 

The creature’s massive weight caused her to lose her balance and fall to the forest floor, entangled with it. The fall itself would have driven the breath out of her lungs had she still needed to breathe, but more worrisome was how the snail’s four tentacle-like appendages wrapped around her body and legs and held her tight.

 

Its large circular maw - now she noticed that it had two rings of teeth, one set of fangs to tear meat and another set of grinders to munch on plants behind - tried to engulf her head, which she barely held back with her hands. Even then, her arms strained under the pressure, the gelatinous flesh of the snail far more powerful than what its appearance suggested.

 

Aideen finally managed to slip her head out of the snail’s grasp as she let go with one hand and tilted her head at the same time. The snail’s maw gnashed and crushed her other hand, and she only managed to pull out a stump which she healed back in moments.

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Then she brought out her weapon, separated it, flicked its blades out, and used them to carve into the snail’s underbelly while it was munching on her hand. The flesh of the beast was far tougher than she gave it credit for, as it resisted her blades even as she forcefully dragged them lower and finally disemboweled the beast.

 

Even so, the snail seemed to ignore it - at least it made no sound she could discern - and its maw came for her once more. This time Aideen used her weapons to tear the creature’s maw wide apart, but all it seemed to do was to merely annoy the creature as it kept coming.

 

Aideen fended off the creature’s maw with one end of her weapon, and used the other to sever the tentacle-like appendages that had held her in place. The appendages were even tougher, each needing several hacks from her weapon before they were finally severed.

 

Finally freed from the creature’s grasp, she rolled back and got up to her feet, as the snail tried to follow. Aideen recombined her weapon and used it like a halberd and struck the snail’s head - or at least where its eyestalks and mouths were - from above and pinned it to the ground viciously. Then she struck it another dozen times until the beast finally stopped moving.

 

Curiously, the other snails in the vicinity had not approached or helped when they noticed the commotion. In fact, all they did was to retract their bodies into their shells and hid themselves. Even the small ones she noticed left their food and slipped back into their burrows.

 

She finally had time to pay some attention to the snail that had dropped on her and finally noticed that unlike the one she followed - which had a creamy white body - this one was more a light shade of yellow-brown in color, and most importantly, had no shell on its back.

 

The six eyestalks on its head also further differentiated itself from its shelled brethren, which had less eyestalks. Considering how it literally dropped and tried to eat her, Aideen also pegged this slug as a sort of ambush predator, rather than a scavenger like the shelled ones.

 

Aideen noted all those down in her notebook, which she found after a bit of searching, thankfully spared from the worst. The next thing she did after that was to head for the nearest river - which was fortunately pretty close by - and wash herself clean.

 

Because the snail had gotten its slime all over her.

 

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