When the Sleepy Snail attended the Gastropod Gala

The Sleepy Snail was quite the reluctant party-goer. Parties were not their cup of tea by a landslide. They weren’t a fan of landslides either. But the promise to their best friend, the Snuggly Slug, was made under the oath of the Big Mollusc Tree – and so the Sleepy Snail had to party-go.

The party that the Snuggly Slug invited them to was the greatest feast of the year. It was the annual Gastropod Gala. All the gentlegastropods of the forest and beyond were invited and the Snuggly Slug just didn’t want to miss their chance to shine. All kinds of freshwater slugs, snails and limpets were coming to the great event. The guest list also included all the important families of land snails and land slugs. But most importantly, from far away, there were coming the exquisite sea snails and sea slugs.

The Sleepy Snail didn’t quite understand how are all these different species were going to mingle together, despite their best friend Snuggly Slug’s effort to try to explain it to them numerous times.

“Everyone is going to have their little bubble which is created by the latest technology for strengthening water surface tension.”

“But how will the bubbles not pop?” asked the Sleepy Snail every time.

“They just won’t! The water surface tension is tweaked to the maximum,” answered the Snuggly Slug, forgiving their friend for asking these questions.

“So what if there is a big leaf falling and it pops the bubble?” the Sleepy Snail continued to ask.

“That won’t do no good to break the surface tension, the bubbles are indestructible, I tell you!” concluded the Snuggly Snail, raising a tentacle towards their best friend. “Let us not get distracted. We must hurry to the gala! Are you ready?”

The Sleepy Snail knew they weren’t ready and would gladly be distracted until the end of the gala. Indeed, there were numerous distractions they could think of that sounded much better than some Gastropod Gala. They could listen to their favourite rock albums and mimic their favourite performers, all from the comfort of their shrub. But to please their friend they said in as confident a voice as they could muster: “yeah?”

It didn’t work – but the Snuggly Slug snuggled up to the snail’s shell and gave them words of encouragement as always: “Don’t worry! It’s going to be fun, I promise. We are going to arrive, get drinks, dance among all the bubbles and then I am going to win the Beauty Queen title. After that, we can go home.”

The Sleepy Snail snuggled up to their best friend and started dreaming of the end of the night… when they would both return to their favourite shrub… dig a nice hole in the ground… follow the trail into the warmth and moisture of the soil… snuggle up into their shell… and sleep…

“Wake up!” shouted the Snuggly Slug into the Sleepy Snail’s ears. “There’s no time for a nap! Not now! We need to head to the gala!”

And so it happened that the Sleepy Snail was following the trail of his best friend the Snuggly Slug. Off they went to the gala.

The Gastropod Gala was a giant, yet gallant occasion. Millipedes and centipedes, earthworms and flatworms, none were invited. Nor leeches, nor woodlouse. The Gastropod Gala was made for gastropods to shine.

As the Sleepy Snail and Snuggly Slug entered the gala room, they were stunned by the beauty of the lettuce decorations. Most of the bubbly guests were already present. Amidst the company of freshwater and seawater gastropods in the technologically advanced bubbles, the land gastropods were joining in with the fashion and wearing the latest models of air bubbles, filled with a generous amount of soil for the comfort of their wearers.

“I want one of those!” said the Sleepy Snail excitedly, gesturing with one of his eye tentacles towards the Giant African Snail bubble, which had enough soil to cover any smaller snail into a comfortable sleep.

“Yeah, you want it to sleep in.” lamented the Snuggly Slug. “But this can’t happen. My best friend has to see me win the Beauty Queen title.”

“Okay, okay. When is this competition? I want to go home!” said the Sleepy Snail hoping that their party-goer experience could be as short as possible.

“I have to go backstage to get my dress and make-up ready. Just wait here and mingle.” With these words, the Snuggly Slug disappeared and the Sleepy Snail was left wondering how long it will take for their best friend to appear again and more importantly, what will they do in the meantime. Mingling wasn’t an option. Waiting, on the other hand, the Sleepy Snail could do. They could find some comfortable corner and sleep there until it was time to go home.

But where is the best place?

The Sleepy Snail looked around the gala room and couldn’t find a single place to rest his soul. The whole place seemed more and more filled with gastropods every minute. The chance that one of these fancy quests will want to throw a word at the Sleepy Snail was terrifying.

With all their speed, the Sleepy Snail snailed his way across the gala room to the relative calmness of the wall. And then an idea struck him.

He started climbing up the wall, hoping he would not be noticed. But as he was moving further and further away from the ground he realised that all of the gala guests were very busy with slimy small talk or dancing on the colossal cucumber stage.

From above, the Sleepy Snail could appreciate the beauty of the event they so despised before. Here nothing could get to them and if they wanted they could calmly fall asleep.

But they didn’t want to? Their eyes were following all the dance moves, their ears were trying to listen to the talk echoing amidst the crowd and for the first time in their life, they enjoyed the company of all their fellow party-goer gastropods. Everyone had so much fun!

But then, the Sleepy Snail noticed the tree.

As they got to the top of the gala room, their eyes peaked above and beyond the enclosure created for the Gastropod Gala this year. The forest seemed too calm, no animals in sight – this was because the bigger animals could sense a storm coming, but the smaller ones, like snail or slugs, could not. In normal circumstance, a shower was an enjoyable experience for gastropods, but the Sleepy Snail knew that this storm would topple down that tree right above the gala room and with that pop off all the bubbles that protected the freshwater and seawater guests.

They could not let that happen. They had to warm everyone. The Sleepy Snail shouted from the ceiling: “Everyone run!”

But none of the gastropods on the ground raised an eye tentacle. This will not do, they need to sound the alarm. They climbed across the ceiling and down to the stage, hoping to get their hands on a microphone and shout once again. But once they got closer to the first microphone they saw, they heard a familiar voice: “What are you doing here?!”

It was the Snuggly Slug. When the Sleepy Snail turned around, they saw their best friend in a flashy red dress, a purple wig and very long eyelashes made from cucumber skin cut into long stripes and tightened along their eye tentacles.

“You look fabulous!” That was the only reaction the Sleepy Snail could muster.

But the Snuggly Slug asked once again: “What are you doing here? I told you to wait and mingle in the crowd. You shouldn’t be backstage.”

“But… but…” struggled the Sleepy Snail. They didn’t know where to start and how to explain what they wanted to do.

“Wait… Me… Wall… View… Tree… Storm… Fall…” Eventually, they started shouting and running around: “Pop! Splash!”

In a moment quicker than the Sleepy Snail’s microsleep, the curtain of the main stage fell and there was the hero of the day with a microphone in their hand shouting: “Pop! Splash!”

All eye tentacles were on them.

“Pop! Splash!” they kept shouting until they noticed their best friend the Snuggly Slug miming at them. They didn’t understand anything, as gastropods are generally very bad at miming, mainly due to the lack of limbs. But they understood that they should turn around.

When they did, they were struck. As mentioned before – ALL EYE TENTACLES WERE ON THEM. What to do? Should they run? Oh no, they have to warn everyone?

Somewhere from the deepest depths of the Sleepy Snail’s soul, came a massive ROAR! And they started singing!

“I wanna shout! I wanna shout! I wanna warn everyone!!!”

“Indestructible bubbles you say? But all I got to say to you is time and time again I say, "no!" No! They all gonna get destroyed!”

At this point, the guests in the gala room were dancing to the tune The Sleepy Snail was singing and the snail band grabbed their instruments and the slug choir improvised backup vocals.

“Tell me it's impossible! Well, all I got to say to when you tell me it’s impossible I say, "no!" No! Tree is coming your way!”

Everyone stopped dancing and looked around. Still waiting for more, they stayed still in their bubbles and listened.

“So, if you ask me who I am I am the Sleepy Snail - There's only one thing I can say to you – I’M A SLEEPY SNAILLLL ROCK! I’M A SLEEPY SNAILLLL ROCK! I’M A SLEEPY SNAILLLL ROCK! I’M A SLEEPY SNAILLLL ROCK!”

The atmosphere of the Gastropod Gala was on tiptoes. Everyone heard a crack of the nearby tree…

“There's a feelin' that I get from nothin' else than sleep and now rested up I want to save the world! Go! Go, go, go, go, go! The power of sleep - I've waited for so long so I could hear my favourite song so, let's go! Go! Go, go, go, go, go! So you tell me you don’t understand the power of sleep. Well, what I have to tell to that is that I’M A SLEEPY SNAILLLLL ROCK!!!”

Some snail scouts brought news of the broken tree standing in a position and how the slug fire brigade is making sure to secure it with their mucus. All the while, the guests in the gala room continued to cheer on the Sleepy Snail.

“Tell me to wake up… Well, all I got to say to when you tell me to wake up I say, "no!" I’M THE SLEEPY SNAIL! I WANNA ROCK!”

They continued their song for ages. All their audience shouting with them:

“I’M THE SLEEPY SNAIL! I WANNA ROCK! ROCK! ROCK”

The Sleepy Snail could feel in their shell that after this everyone would for sure hear their message and run away from the falling tree. What they hadn’t yet noticed was that the song temporarily stopped the tree from falling with THE POWER OF ROCK and thus he had already saved everyone. By the time the Sleepy Snail finished their performance, the tree was safely secured with the latest mucus technology and all was good.

The Snuggly Slug met the Sleepy Snail backstage and hugged him with the sincerest thanks.

“You. Just. Did. That!”

“Yes, but everyone still has to leave, the tree is going to fall,” worried the Sleepy Snail.

“No, it won’t,” reassured him his best friend while opening the curtain to look outside where the tree stood secured and guarded by the Gastropod Guards.

“But… but…” the Sleepy Snail was speechless again. “How did they get there so fast?”

The Snuggly Slug drew his eye tentacles right to the tip of their best friends’ ones and said: “It was your POWER OF ROCK that stopped the tree from falling in the first place.”

And so the Sleepy Snail became a rock star. Their stardom only matched by the Snuggly Slag’s title of the Beauty Queen which they won and went on to spread the fashion of cucumber eyebrows.

These days, the Sleepy Snail is a tiny bit fond of parties. They are still not party-goer. Instead, they are the party-ROCKER.