CHAPTER TWO 
CHAPTER TWO 
THE RETREATING RAYS OF THE SUN shone equally on the surrounding red and orange trees and the dark-green ivy covering the old, eerie barn. It was quiet inside. A light breeze swept through the entrance, blowing a few straws of hay onto the half-decayed carcass of a twenty-five-foot python. The headless, once gray, shriveling body was now blue. The smell of rotting flesh and muscle turned the buzzards outside wildly hungry. They wanted to eat their former master’s nearly skeletal carcass, yet the fear he’d instilled in them made them stay away. Nearly a month had passed since Farangis was destroyed and the kingdom was saved, a month of quiet in the ivy-covered barn. The quiet was shattered as rattles from all around made their way into the dark room.
“Sssoooo, Sssiloam. What isss the reassson for thisss meeting?”
Siloam rattled softly. “Friendsss, time hasss passsed since we disgracccefully fled from our massster.” Several snakes hissed angrily at the accusation.
“Remember, Sssiloam. You fled, too!” one said.
“Ssso I did! And now we are all here to fulfill our ssservice to our dead massster.”
“What do you mean?”
“The kingdom our lord wasss going to overtake ssstill exissstsss. Rumorsss sssay an heir to the throne hasss been found.” Hissing grew over the idea of revenge. “I believe the massster knew they would ssseek King Pugsssly’sss heir. Then came the massster’sss unfortunate death!” The evil laughter of a few snakes caused the others to wonder.
“Isss thisss new heir already their king?”
“No. The pathetic human hasss sssaid he will bring him back.”
“How do you know thisss, Sssiloam?”
The rattlesnake raised his neck and glared arrogantly at the rotting corpse. “I have ssspiesss that Farangisss did not care to asssoccciate with… hisss ego wasss hisss demissse.” He hissed loudly and the other snakes, without being commanded, lined up in front of him. “Now I have ssspoken with Sssebassstian.”
“He wasss blinded by the human boy’sss fire, wasssn’t he?” a voice asked.
“Hisss sssight isssn’t what it wasss. He isss ssstill the only one who knowsss the entrance to the kingdom, however.” Siloam’s rattle sounded loudly. “I have given him a new order. He hasss sssent the buzzardsss to sssearch the western landsss and quessstion all creaturesss about the heir. My ssspy sssaysss he will be coming from the wessst.”
“And if they find him?”
“Then I will go and kill him!” Siloam boasted, slithering on top of the gargantuan rotting body of his former master. He hissed loudly and the others rattled in satisfaction. “Friendsss, we will sssoon have our revenge!”