Get caught up on Susie’s Adventure and read the previous chapters.

Susie’s Shell Searching Adventure /// Chapter 12

Susie nodded. The two slugs began to slime across the deck when they felt a small bump. No worry. But then the small bump became a large bump and they were both slung into the air as they listened to a fierce scraping sound that took place beneath them.

‘I’m flying!’ Mel said as she tumbled through the sky and past Susie.

Susie shot a glare at Mel as she tumbled past. ‘Look out below,’ she said. She glued her eyes to the deck of the boat and stuck the landing with a satisfying pop. And then she looked towards Mel. 

‘Think sticky thoughts,’ Mel said as she watched the deck start to disappear beneath her, replaced by the river like a video editor had applied the wipe transition too early. 

Susie tried to unplop herself from the deck. She needed to fly. Mel needed to help and here she was, stuck. Where’s a bump when you need it? She watched as Mel disappeared over the side of the vessel. ‘Mel!’ she said, reaching out. She put her head down and moved as fast as she could towards the side of the ship. 

She paused. Looked up. She hadn’t heard a splash. Mel’s eyes poked over the side of the ship first as she slimed up and over the side. As she reached the deck of the ship she shot Susie a grin. ‘Stuck it,’ she said. 

Susie wrapped her antennae around Mel in a hug.

‘Hey there,’ Mel said, unsure whether to return the hug or not. ‘You didn’t trust my skills?’

‘I thought you flew too far,’ Susie said, still holding Mel tight. 

‘What, me? Never,’ Mel said. 

Susie let go and slimed backwards a bit. She blushed. They both looked at their ship and recognized that they were no longer moving, but they still weren’t certain what had happened. They moved about the boat for a bit looking for any signs of an issue. Susie tried moving the rudder but it was much too heavy for her to do so. Stuck. The rudder was stuck, the ship was stuck, they were stuck. Everything was stuck.

Just as they were feeling most hopeless about their situation, another head popped above the side rails of the boat, this one brown and hairy, broken up only by two long streaks of white. Mel slapped Susie with one of her antennae and then pointed the antenna towards the intruder. She didn’t speak, but she didn’t have to. We’re under attack! she screamed silently.

But the attacker didn’t seem too terribly violent. In truth, the owner of the brown head didn’t even seem to recognize the two slugs. The creature rose over the side of the boat, straddling the edge like a fuzzy leather shammy. It turned its head in a sort of curious fashion and then slammed it into the edge of the boat. Chips of wood started to fly out from the boat at a rapid pace and then the creature broke a whole chunk of the boat off. It held it in its hands like an ice cream cone and admired its woody texture, then began to chew ferociously at the ice cream. Mel shrieked. 

‘HEY!’ Mel said. ‘Are you seriously eating our boat?’ She pushed her body forward in some vain attempt to confront the boat chewer and shove them back into the water.  

Susie stood back, mired in confusion. First, there was the hairy creature full-on gorging itself on their boat in a picture of perfect gluttony. While this scene was indeed concerning — the last thing they needed was for their boat to be bit to bits like swiss cheese — Susie was confident there was nothing she could do to stop it. The creature was much too large. And that led her to the more perplexing thing. Mel was rushing into battle without a single thought as to what might come next. She moved with blind confidence, in a way that almost reassured Susie that Mel contained such immense power in her tiny body that she could actually alter the confounding scene playing out before them. Her courage was strange, given her apprehension regarding the maybe nice, maybe not so nice snake. But then, Susie had to admit, this creature didn’t look anything like a snake. They were cute, even. Despite their edacity. 

‘HEY,’ Mel said again, this time with greater volume, hoping to pierce through the sound made by the raucous wood chipper. ‘Stop eating our boat!’

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