"Snail Lords"

(As told by Queen Sapphire to her adopted son Sky.)

 

"It was not long before more snails joined Ebony in the Crystal Caverns. The great Snail Lords discovered the entrances to many caves littering the bank, each finding his own crystal chamber deep inside the outcroppings that flanked the old streambed.

 

Ebony, who had settled in the first cave and taken it from the fox, became High Lord, which is what they called kings in those days. For many seasons, the Snail Lords lived peacefully in the Crystal Caverns. But, as you know, peace does not always last.

 

It was during a fierce storm that trouble came. The sky bruised and darkened, belching sheets of rain over the land. The dry streambed filled quickly and spilled over the banks. Before long, the rising water reached the entrances to several caverns, filling them with the dirty floodwaters.  Many Snail Lords could not escape their homes and drowned in the water, their patterned, glowing shells snuffed out for good.

 

But those who survived became severely ill once the waters receded. The great Snail Lords became confused--many of them crawling onto the ceiling of their caves and remaining there until their bodies grew weak and dropped to the floor, shattering their shells. As they lay dying, a strange thing happened. Something grew between their eyestalks, bulging the skin outward like a swollen parasite. At last, a single, pale mushroom burst from each of their brains, killing them instantly and pinning them to the spot where they died.

 

High Lord Ebony and three other Snail Lords had managed to escape the floodwaters, and that means they escaped the deadly mushroom spores that the flood had brought with it.

 

But they did not escape everything, for the flood brought with it other dangers.

 

Dangers they were not prepared to face."