Ben the Dragonborn by Dianne E Astle

Charla led the way.  The spider clams popped out and gathered on both sides of the stream, like a crowd gathered for a parade. Their razor sharp teeth ground back and forth as they hopped up and down on their eight legs. The sound of their grinding teeth sent chills down Ben’s spine.  
    Ben had not handled an oar very often in his life.  His oar went wide and came close to shore.  The first time it got too close three of the sand creatures hopped onto it and ran towards Ben’s hands.  His scream alerted Jared, who knocked them into the water. “Keep your oar close to the boat,” Jared yelled.    
    Ben grunted and tried to do what Jared suggested.  The sand creatures continued to gather. At first there were hundreds and then there were thousands.  The sound of their grinding teeth made it difficult to carry on a conversation.  
    As they drew close to the forest an occasional tree grew.  One had fallen partly into the water, half of it submerged.  On the part that was out of water, spider clams danced.  There was a narrow gap between the tree and the sandy river bank.  Sand creatures fought with one another to be the closest to the boat when it went through the gap.  They knocked several of their number into the water, where they sank like a stone.  As the boat squeezed through the narrow passage some jumped for the boat, missed and sank out of sight.  A significant number managed to land inside the boat.
    Jared turned quickly to face the opposite direction to Ben so that their backs were to one another.  The boys used the oars to knock the sand creatures off the boat.  At the same time they tried to keep the boat from being pushed closer to shore by the current.  A sudden intense pain caused Ben to look down.  A spider clam was attached to his leg.   He grabbed it by the shell, pried it off, and threw it overboard where it sank like a rock.  Another was climbing up his leg.  He picked it off and threw it after the first one.  Jared screamed in pain and a third spider clam followed the two Ben had thrown overboard.  
    Meanwhile a horde of spider clams was coming from every direction, drawn by the scent of blood.  A steady stream jumped from the log to the boat which was beginning to drift backwards to the sea.  Charla grabbed the rope at the front of the boat and used it to pull them upstream.  
    Ben yelled, “This is impossible.  Push us back to sea.” 
    Jared yelled, “No, we must keep going.”  Then he said, “Help me, Ben.”
    Ben turned to see that the back of the boat was full of sand creatures.  They covered the fish net that lay on the bottom of the boat.  They were attracted by the smell of previous catches and were chewing on the net.  Jared was trying to lift the heavy clam-laden net overboard without getting his fingers taken off.  Ben jumped over the seat and together they picked the net up and tossed it over the side.  The sand creatures climbed on top of one another to avoid contact with water as the net slowly sank.  It reminded Ben of a King of the Castle game that he had played on a pile of snow.      
    Ben jumped back over the seat to battle spider clams at the front of the boat.  Five of them ran at him and bit into his leg. Thankfully, his pants provided some protection, but it was still very painful.  One after another he ripped them off and threw them overboard until there were no more in the boat.  Another boat was directly ahead of them, moored in midstream.  Beyond the boat was a large tree that blocked any further movement upstream by boat.  Jumping up and down on the tree were thousands of spider clams.  Ben sat down and closed his eyes.   
    “What are we going to do?” Ben said flatly. 
    “We can start by mooring the boat.” Jared said.  “Charla, I will put out the anchor.  Can you tie this boat to the other one and make sure they are both secure. I would hate to come back and find my boat has gone back to