Excerpt: Madeleine of Sun Scorch

Just as the head Beetle-ess rose her hands and the animals yelled, a great grinding noise was heard and the animals all leapt back in surprise. Maddy turned her head but couldn’t see what was going on.
There was a sound of collapsing rubble and stone, and a ballooning cloud of dust rose from the back of the crowd. The Head Beetle-ess stopped in her speech and stared at the spot. Animals scattered, trying to keep away from the rubble and the dust. Then from the huge hole in the ground several animals jumped. They were so fast that all Maddy saw was blurs—they were brightly colored blurs at that, and refreshing contrast to the dull colors that the other animals wore. A purple blur, a red blur, a bright blue blur… it was like a rainbow had come zooming out of the ground.
The zooming blurs spread in different directions in the crowd, bouncing around like rubber balls set bouncing from a multi storied building. Maddy smiled despite herself. It was funny to watch the solemn animals run for cover in the face of the bright colored blurs.
“Baubos,” Kehr told Maddy and she nodded. She remembered what he had told her about them—they liked to make trouble for the other animals in the religious order that still doesn’t have a name. Does not. Well, they were definitely making trouble now. Maddy cracked a grin again, and Kehr seemed to be smiling though he tried to look disapparoving at the bouncing colors.
Now that they were around or something, Maddy was able to see the Baubos more clearly and was immediately struck by them. They seemed to radiate a certain happiness and joy for life… or maybe it was joy at the confusion they were causing the animals from the religious order that still doesn’t have a name. Does not.
One of the Baubos that was nearest Maddy was a turtle, her shell painted brightly with yellow and green swirls. She wore a floaty fabric over her face and her beaky mouth was pulled into a grin as she tickled a stern looking bore, who dogded out of the way and then snapped at her with his powerful jaws. She took no offense and merely reached for him again, this time getting a canary that was nearby instead. The canary twittered for a moment, then took flight to hover above the dangerous turtle. She laughed.
Maddy laughed too. She saw that most of the Baubos were trying to tickle the other animals, though some were armed with pies (which they threw in people’s—er, animal’s—faces), banana peels, and loud horns that they blew in other’s ears.
The animals jostled around her, and Maddy had trouble keeping up with the others, as elbows and wings hampered her way. She was afraid she’d fall and be crushed under the running hooves and paws and feet. Still yelling deafeningly, the animals rocked from side to side, beginning one of their chants and Maddy felt herself blocked between two very tall animals, rocking side to side as her feet tripped over themselves and she felt her ankle turn, and she knew she was going down…
Heat pressing around her from the scorching sun and the body heat from the animals, who seemed not to feel the other heat, Maddy sank down in the crowd, things going fuzzy again. She thought she heard someone yell her name, but she couldn’t be sure; things were more muffled now that she was knee-level with the animals. All she saw where the bottoms of robes as they rocked and no animals moved to help her; her hip hit the stone hard and she grimaced, holding the place where she’d hit and pulling away her hand to see that she was bleeding.
Between the sight of blood and the heat and the moving bodies, hooves stomping around her, she couldn’t breath and she was sure she’d get crushed if she moved. She tried to set her hands down to push herself back up but every time she began to put her hand down a paw or foot descended on the spot she’d been eyeing. Yanking her hand back, she started to dispare, when a human hand reached down between the animals. She took it, and was pulled up with greater force than she thought Daniel capable of, yet it was Daniel on the other end of the hand. She smiled weakly at him and together they ran for it.