A Frog Knight's Tale

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In 1995, I first got my hands on Chrono Trigger, a seminal RPG (role-playing-game) that went on to become one of the best games of its genre, ever -- a veritable GOAT (Greatest of All Time). The game follows the story of three time-travelling teenagers who stumble into the post-apocalyptic future, discover its cause, and do their best to save the future by adventuring through different quests that span multiple time periods.

One of the main characters', Glenn, stuck with me for many years after. Rather than being a traditional knight story arc, Glenn suffers many losses:

• His teacher, a heroic knight, gets slain in front of him
• He gets transformed into a frog
• He loses the legendary sword in his possession, retaining only half

These elements turn him into a forlorn hero, as he undergoes a quest for redemption, which I found very interesting and atypical. And these elements inspired me, 30 years later, to write the Green Beast.

The Green Beast follows the tale of Sir Tariq of Mirewood, ex-knight, cursed to become a frog. He, too, witnesses his master's death, and the loss of the lengendary sword. This makes him angry, very angry. A series of events transpire, and he begins his own quest. But is it about vengence, or redemption? Can you be a knight, following the way of Allah, if you seek revenge?

The Green Beast is my attempt to wrestle with those questions, to explore what happens when Furusiya (Islamic knighthood) and rage coexist inside a broken creature. Sir Tariq’s journey isn’t a retelling of Glenn’s, but it carries the same emotional DNA: the weight of loss, the distortion of identity, and the search for meaning when all the noble paths seem lost. It’s a tale born from childhood wonder, grown in the soil of memory, and shaped by the need to ask: what does it mean to remain true to yourself when the world turns you into something else?

You can read more about the book here.