SAMPLE EXCERPT:
After the evening prayer had finished, Ahmad and his companions socialized with the blue and red headdress wearing beavers in the field behind the den. The din of all the chatter and chuckles was like a low hum, or buzz, and certainly filled the field and beyond. Then suddenly, above the humming, buzzing din there arose a cry, as if someone had turned up the volume on just one radio in a shop full of babbling radios.
“R-A-T-T-L-E-R-S!!!!” came the shout.
There fell a sudden silence over the crowd, and Ahmad stopped mid-sentence (he was telling a red-headdress wearing beaver named Baber about the minbar and the crystal slide that led to Dar al-Ashjar). The voice of the shouter was loud and serious, and fear suddenly gripped Ahmad. Frank had mentioned the chain-rattlers, but then again, Frank was not all that dependable. However, given the grave tone of the shouter’s voice and the solemn hush that fell over the crowd, this danger seemed for real.
After the initial pause, every beaver reached his right paw behind his back and unsheathed a shining green sword. From the dining area, had anyone still been up there, it would have looked as though there were a sea of blue and red headdresses, with green lightening bolts rising from its waves.
“Tashjir!” shouted Billy, cuing the Ashjari battle cry.
“Barik al-Ashjar!” responded the crowd of beavers, which means ‘bless the land of Ashjar!’
Ahmad’s legs began to tremble, and panic overtook him. He looked around for Gob-Gob and Sharif, but he couldn’t see them anywhere.
“What are you waiting for?” said a voice behind him, as he felt a smack on his back. Instead of hitting his shoulder, though, the paw behind him landed on the sword’s case that was still slung over his back. “This thing’s not just for bushwhacking you know!”
He turned around, and saw a blue-headdress wearing beaver, waving a sword in one paw, and pointing at Ahmad’s sword with his other paw. Suddenly, Ahmad felt a bolt of energy jolt through him as he grabbed for his sword without thinking another thought about it. He raised it high in the air and shouted “Barik al-Ashjar!” along with his headdress wearing companions.
Sami saw Ahmad from across the field with his sword in the air (Ahmad after all was a bit taller than all the beavers). His eyes widened, and a smile spread across his face. He thought to himself “Maybe there is some hope for this kid after all.”
Just then, the rattling of chains clanged and banged above the battle cries rising from the beavers and Ahmad. Behind the den was the field where they had recently prayed. Behind the field was a row of trees with dark green leaves that looked even darker as night came. The green glow of the beavers’ faces lit the immediate area, but the trees and the sky behind them darkened as the light of the sunset had almost entirely faded.
The clanging of the chains grew louder and louder, and Ahmad’s fear, which had turned to a sort of excitement, was beginning to escalate into over-confidence. After all, rattlesnakes are not that big, compared to a boy with a sword. But there shot out from behind the row of trees five giant rattle snakes, whose silhouettes could barely be seen against the darkening sky. They shot up like five giant geysers, like the one Ahmad had seen in Yellowstone park on the last family vacation. When the snakes came crashing down, they devastated everything they landed on, crushing the trees below them. The beavers scattered away from the spots where the snakes’ bodies came crashing down, jumping in the air and slashing their swords at the chain-rattlers.
Dragging behind each snake was a bunch of chains, attached to their rattlers. The chains moved, as if snakes themselves, and clasped around anything they touched. Some captured tree branches, others a table or torch post, but three chains clamped down on something else. Two beavers and Sharif found their paws with chains slithering around them, knotting themselves and tightening, like a python wrapping itself around its prey. …
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