Slugging Away

Freja sat on the big leaf and contemplated life. She’d been in the garden for nearly 300 daylights. The garden had been good to her. At the previous day’s courtyard meeting there was much unrest about the impending beetle invasion. She vaguely remembered the last one when she was just a juvenile slug; They preyed upon the tribe at at sun-brake while they were just coming out of slumber. The elders feared that this year was going to be worse.

“We can’t just simply keep doing our thing and pray they don’t eat us!” Runa the elder exclaimed.

“Certainly we can!” Vidar responded, “I’ve been here for 953 daylights, and it’s the way my mother did it, and they way their mothers did it, and so on, and so on…”

“That’s no excuse for not trying,” Runa continued.

This caught Vidar off guard, “Why certainly it is! Who are you to say that the way we have done things in the past is wrong, it’s what has led us to now. It has to be fine, or else we would be where we are now.”

“On a bunch of leaves?” Egil interrupted, a young slug. The space erupted into a cacophony of laughter. He was a young slug, and quickly making a name for himself. Freja had been noticing him a lot recently, and not just because he was disrupting the meeting, but there was something captivating about him. She couldn’t explain it, but overtime he was around her, her circulatory system would go into overdrive.

“Ahem…” Runa butted into Freja’s train of thought and throwing an icy glance at Egil, “moving on. We need to come up with a plan of action to stop the impending night raids.”

“Psssh…” replied Vidar, “I’ll not change a thing, and nor will my brood, or their offspring. You don’t go against tradition, it’s not…” he searched for a good word and ended weakly on, “traditional.”

“We should build a defense system and a series of battlements that the beetles can’t get through,” the voice sounded so close and terribly far away at the same time. It took a moment for Freja to realize it was coming from her. She had no idea where the words were coming from, but each one was necessary and needed in that order. It all just made sense.

Egil looked right at Freja, freezing her in place. He smiled and winked at her, “I agree with this, it sounds like a great plan!” General murmurs of approval started from the younger slugs and eventually became a full roaring of agreement from the space.

“I think you might be on to something here… um?” Runa looked expectantly at Freja.

“Freja,” she responded lamely, she shuttered and redoubled her response with a lot more force, “Freja is my name.”

“Ah good, I’d like to hear more of this plan.”

“I’d like to offer my expertise,” Egil declared.

“Yes, Egil would have many great ways to expand and make this plan impervious,” Freja added elatedly.

-V-