This is the full synopsis of The Legend of Rah and The Muggles, the book brought to infamy by Nancy "N.K." Stouffer, who unsuccessfully sued J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, for plagiarism. If this plot seems too random for you, it's OK: blame Stouffer for this, not us. You have been warned.
The Legend of Rah and The Muggles
Introduction
The happy and peaceful continent/nation/city/whatever of Aura is at war, because the population grew unhappy with the Congress of United Peoples (C.O.U.P.), which has become greedy and ended up splitting the population into "Haves" and "Have-nots". All of this was apparently caused by the "privileged youth" taking over, and the abuse of eminent domain laws.Aura is showered by nuclear bombs that lifted "poisonous purple clouds of radiation" in the air, permanently blocking the sunlight, but letting the light of the moon and the stars through. While all the "Haves" have escaped Aura, the "Have-Nots" that were left behind (the poor, disabled, elderly, blind, deaf and "ethnically impure") evolved in the span of 500 years, becoming the "Muggles".The muggles look like human babies even at old age, and have no hair. Their knowledge of the world is archived in an ancient book, the "Ancient Book of Stories".Meanwhile, the setting shifts to another unnamed continent/nation, which is at the brink of conflict.
Chapter One: The House of Sheridan
Lady Catherine, who is nicknamed "Cat" since childhood, is pregnant with twins, and is mapping all the secret passageways of her palace. After she learns that her husband died in the war, she goes into labour and gives birth to the twins. After some time, she and her faithful butler have a feast where they both flirt and dance together. Bombs fall and everyone hides. Cat then puts her own babies on a raft and floats them out in the ocean with a jewel box, a letter, a key and a silk quilt (however, only the jewel box will be relevant).
Chapter Two: The Light
The babies float aimlessly through the ocean for more than a week, before meeting Naddie and Neddie, two "Spooners of the Deep" (the book never explains what the "spooners" are or what they look like), a stuttering sea cow named Benjamin, a New York-accented barracuda named Barry, and a Porpoise named Porchia, who calls four Ocean Cherubs to come and protect them.On the fourteenth day of their journey, the jewel box somehow absorbs the sunlight, and now a sunlike light floats over them as they approach Aura, the land of the Muggles.
Chapter Three: The Arrival
As the raft with the "sun" approaches, the Muggles see sunlight for the first time in 500 years. All vegetation on Aura instantly grows back, and animals repopulate the area, with Muggles celebrating. The Muggles bring the light atop the "tower of time" to spread sunlight over the land. Pitter and Patter, two young Muggles that love each other so much that they have never left hands, find the babies. We're introduced to the oldest muggles of Aura: Yur, who is deaf and arthritic; and his wife Golda, a stereotypical granny.
Chapter Four: New Life on Aura
Pitter and Patter pick up the babies and Nona, the only unmarried daughter of Yur and Golda, adopts them and builds them a treehouse. We're introduced to the Greeblies, ratlike rodents that harrass the Muggles and steal their food, and the Nardles, lion-sized sand dogs that rat the Greeblies and are very faithful to the Muggles. While Yur documents the arrival of the "S-U-N" in the Ancient Book of Tales, Golda sings, along with the entire Muggle community, the "Muggle-Bye" to the babies. We're provided with a two-page score of the song.
Chapter Five: What's in a Name?
All the Muggles hold a naming ceremony at the Pool of Pyro, with elaborate flower arrangements. One of the twins is called "Rah", with means "light" in their language. Because the flowers came after the light, the second twin is named "Zyn". We're told that a name is very important to a Muggle, because it must reflect a characteristic of the child, or indicates a predestined quality.
Chapter Six: An Emergency Situation
The Muggles now have more jobs, labeled as "Keeper of the (occupation)".The twins grow up a bit. Unexplicably, Zyn's hair is turning rusty red, and his eyes have become green, while Rah still has blonde hair and blue eyes. While they're watched by Patter and Pitter, they speak their first words: "Patter" and "Pitter". This makes big news in the Muggle community, because Muggle babies aren't supposed to learn to speak before the age of 6. They tell Golda about it, and Yur wants to know what's going on. He mishears "The babies have spoken their first words" as "The bins have broken by the thirsty birds", and "Nevermind, dear" as "There's a blind deer". Yur, shocked, declares an emergency, and orders all Muggles to prepare buckets of water and Aloe Salve. Eventually, he learns the real news and makes a fool of himself.
Chapter Seven: A Special Place and a Stone
Rah and Zyn are now twelve. They find Golda under a willow tree. She tells them a six page long poem, titled "The Fishing Hole". After that, they listen to the "Snoutfish". Rah can understand what they say, but Zyn can't. Zyn gets a taste of water from Lemonade Lake, and shockingly learns that it actually tastes like lemonade. Golda gives Zyn a "worry stone", which is purported to have magic powers, to remind him how much he's loved. We get hints of jealousy between Rah and Zyn.
Chapter Eight: Doctor!Doctor!
A Muggle boy named Bumper is crying because a cat scared away his lovebirds. Rah finds them for him, and Bumper thanks him.They return to a croquet game they're playing. Zyn harrasses Rah, but the later is not disturbed by his taunts, and makes an impossible shot that only Yur made when he was young. Rah is awarded with a medallion, while Zyn feels jealous and stands aloof. Yur tells him a story from the Ancient Book of Stories about pirates who came on Aura leaving a treasure behind. Zyn decides to go with Rah to look for the treasure. They find a wooden box inside a cave, which has an engraving similar to the medallion Rah is wearing, and have an argument. Rah wants to go away and leave the box in its place, while Zyn wants to claim the box for himself. Rah passes out and Zyn looks for a doctor. Rah has fainted because of an allergic reaction to Bordonian Moss in the cave. Zyn apologizes to Rah, and tells him that he can return to the cave whenever he wants to get the treasure anyway.
Chapter Nine: An Attitude
Ten years pass. Rah analyzes the irrigation problem of the Muggles, and builds them an irrigation system with a mill, which doubles as a house for himself and Zyn. The Muggles praise him as an absolute genius, that will always do everything right.In the meantime, Zyn is stuck in a spiral towards depression, and has become ugly, sarcastic, unhelpful and unpolite, which makes Rah sad. Rah tells Golda about it, and she tells him that he shouldn't help his brother, because Zyn himself is the cause of all his troubles, and his problems are only his alone. Zyn meanwhile plans to "destroy" Rah.
Chapter Ten: The Manchineet Tree
The Muggles are scared and saddened by Zyn's abrupt change and how is influencing their youth. Meanwhile, Zyn has gathered a group of rebel Muggles, which he calls "Nevils". He submits a Muggle named Teeter to his own will, forcing him to shut some birds up. The seven Nevils and Zyn have made their base in a treehouse on the Manchineet tree, a lone tree that sheds radioactive pollen. They refuse to get off the tree, because he doesn't want to give his brother any satisfaction, despite all of them having become ill and weak.Meanwhile, Rah, broodings his sadness, reads a story about greedy rabbits who, after wasting all of the Muggles' food supply, become food themselves.
Chapter Eleven: The Big Plan
Zyn spots an island far away from Aura: Dezra, which only Yur knows about. He orders the Nevils to gather wood and steal twine from the Muggles to build a boat. While they work hard to build it, he watches in silence. They waterproof the hull with hot rubber tree pitch, getting bad second- and third-degree burns, which they heal by leaping into the ocean water. The boat is ready, and they get inside. Rah begs his brother to not leave, but Zyn won't listen as he takes off. Rah cries so hard, he causes a huge wave that capsizes the Nevils' boat.
Chapter Twelve: The Shadow Monsters
Zyn and the Nevils wash up with the boat's wreckage on Dezra, a deserted island of barren rock with no vegetation, except for small patches of weed. They encounter the "Shadow Monsters", towering dark figures that follow them wherever they go, and they run in circles, trying to outrun them. They hide in a dark cave, where the Shadow Monsters can't find them. When they get out, the monsters reappear. When night falls, they can go outside and search for food: they can only eat the scarce grass and seaweed washed up on the beach, from which they get indigestion. Seymour, Yur's white hawk, checks on them and tells everyone about their situation. Rah is glad that at least they're alive.
Chapter Thirteen: Feast or Famine
Seven years pass. Zyn has became skeletal and horribly disfigured by hunger, and the Nevils now have long hairs, webbed feet, long claws and cat-like eyes, adapting themselves to the darkness. While walking alone at night, Zyn finds some giant clamshells, which he and the Nevils plan to use as boats to reach Aura and kidnap Rah. The following night, they sail to Aura, and steal all the food they can, while Zyn and one of them use some Bordonian moss to knock him out. Back on Dezra, they gorge on the food and hide Rah inside their cave on a bed of Bordonian moss.
Chapter Fourteen: A Winged Investigation
Morning comes to Aura, and the birds fly to Rah's window to wake him up, but they don't find him. They communicate the news to Yur and Golda. Seymour the hawk saw the Nevils kidnapping Rah, and tells everybody, in detail, what has happened. Everybody cries his loss and abandons all hope, before Yur takes command of the situation and orders all the Muggles to build rafts with catapults, and fill Chinese lantern pods with fireflies. They plan to light up the island of Dezra summoning the Shadow Monsters (which Zyn and the Nevils don't know they're their own shadows) and keep them there forever.
Chapter Fifteen: The Lantern Lights
The Muggles launch the lanterns on the island, illuminating it. Zyn and the Nevils are very scared of the "Shadow Monsters" suddenly reappearing, and they run hysterically in circles. Two Muggles search for Rah and retrieve him in the cave. They put him on one of the rafts and sail back to Aura. Yur explains Rah that the light will illuminate Dezra, so that Zyn and the Nevils would stay trapped on the island forever. Rah, fearing that Zyn might die of starvation, orders Seymour to bring him food on a daily basis. This is how it all ends: "Every time darkness falls upon the daylight, and you look up and see the stars twinkling in the distance, you will know that Rah is asleep, and all around him is at peace". A sequel hook is provided to us, telling that all of this is written in the Ancient Book of Tales, in the "Year of the Starlight".
