The Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel 'Fiefdom 17' Pages Of Excerpt #2...

The Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel 'FIEFDOM 17' SECOND PAGES Of EXCERPTS…By Verily Prime…

Excerpt #2: Remember to read excerpt #1 at http://verilyprime.hubpages.com/hub/Excerpts-From-Fiefdom-17-Currently-Being-Written-By-Verily-Prime

The Spring-like fresh smell of the bountiful rainbow colored fruits and flowers betray this area of Fiefdom’s 17, specifically, Goshen Minor. It is a typical shopping day in the market place of Goshen Minor, which is one of the main commercial sections of the Fiefdom 17 where residents from all of the Fiefdoms come to shop, except the Fiefs Dragon Lords. Children are playing, while their parents shop; some children are sampling/tasting fruits and candy-like items; some are playing with their dogs, while others engaging in rebelliousness are drinking the local alcoholic and non alcoholic concoctions… the latter unbeknownst to some parents.

The main commerce in this section is an assortment and varieties of produce being peddled and bartered among the merchants and the shoppers… some of these items are peddled in the opened markets, some from beneath huge tents and some merchants are operating their own produce shops. On this day, as usual, were citizens, especially many of the children, who took their dogs/pets to the Goshen Minor produce market… when suddenly, those dog owners were startled and worried because their pets were acting skittish, barking, jumpy, and tugging at their leashes… as though they wanted to run away, if they could; others not on leases did run and hide, while others were cuddling up to their masters’ legs in sheer terror and trembling. There are now shouts, gasps, and screams from shoppers, especially the children; their eyes are looking up at the two behemoth Dragons and their riders and the accompanying sulfuric smell, the tell tale olfactory sign of being in the presence of Dragons, which now pungently permeating the atmosphere. Some mothers and children are running and crying profusely, as some mothers cover their own and their children’s eyes. The merchants likewise are nervous… some visibly more so than others. One of the Dragon Lords, who is about 15 feet in the air, dismounts the Dragon and engages the gravity boots, which takes her to the ground below in front of one of the produce shops.

The Dame Dragon Lord is paying studious attention to one of the produce shopkeepers, while the other Dragon Lord, although hovering overhead, draws near overhead to his fellow Dragon Lord’s abandoned Dragon and take its reins... both beast and lord are now about ten feet off the ground and hovering… punctuated by both beasts flapping their massive wings now and then to stay airborne. The dismounted Dragon Lord… like his fellow Dragon Lord floating above is foreboding, tall and hooded… attired from head to toe in military-like paled clothing… with a flaming dragon on the collars of what looks like the formal uniform of the Dragon Lords… with matching boots… and a pale egg-shell, staff-like weapon: its length is six feet… with a two-to-five inch width at its top... a pair-shape six inch attachment that is glowingly white hot and blazing. There is an appendage from the weapon that connects to this Dragon Lord’s right hand… while the one floating above staff and appendage were connected to his left hand.

The Dragon Dame has a face that resembles the typical sea shell that one sees when one visits the Caribbean… she also has an Alabaster colored, Spaniel countenance that is sand-paper smooth… with sea-water blue eyes and matching lips - but the small beady-like eyes are encased in the egg-shell shape features and because her head is a shell… she is void of what we know as hair… she has a typical regal, military-like walk as she approaches the shop-keepers. This Dragon Dame would make a scary looking female human, but can be considered a beautiful partial humanoid creature… if there is such a thing.

Dragon Dame Nera Apolos: Who are the owners of this establishment - come forth!

A couple comes outside looking rather apprehensive and sheepish, yet steady out of fearful reverence...

Dragon Dame Nera: What is your name?

Woman first looking at her husband (the couple knowing that the Dragon Lords know all that is happening in the Fiefdoms and that their tendency is to ask rhetorical questions knowing that lying to them is certain death) and then agreeing by visual communication, typical of a couple who has been together a long time, that she should speak…

Woman: We, we‘re the Neroes… We have done nothing to offend… We are simply farmers who also run our own produce shop. We have given our due portion to the Dragon Lords and our taxes and papers are up to date -I can get them…

Dame Nera, pointing with her staff-like weapons to a drawing on the walls of the produce shop - Who drew this?!

The couple gingerly walks over to the spot on the establishment walls where the Dragon Dame was accusatorily pointing to…

Scribbled on the walls of the Produce shop, but barely visible was written in the ancient language and in lizard green color, “John Mark.”

The husband’s voice is trembling now that he has witnessed the offending phrase… and with his hands gesturing to Dame Nera: We did not do this... it is not a language we know, write or speak… it is something we would not do even if we knew what is the language… These are the acts of idle hands…

Dame Nera voice rising and the flame that is top of her staff seems to match the elevation of her voice: Perhaps, one among your children wrote this abomination… this forbidden name.

Woman: No, our children are hardworking and common farmers like us… not educated to have written that accursed name. As a matter of fact as we speak… our beloved children who are loyal citizens to the Dragon Lords are laboring in the fields of Goshen Minor…

Dame Nera: This is serious seditious writing… I have to close your produce shop and summons the transport and take you into custody. Stand away… I have to further search the inside of the entire dwelling… perhaps, there are more evidence of sedition inside…

The hovering Dragon Lord descends closer to the ground and his weapon too becomes visibly brighter… which causes the Neroes to noticeably shudder. Both Dragons then roared… producing puffs of smoke out of their nostrils. There is a middle aged man of short stature, who seems to come out of the blue, walking bristly towards the Neroes’ establishment and he is dressed in robe-like, Holy-black Ecclesiastic clothing and the attendant gold chain with the symbol of the fish.

You there… stop! Dame Nera’s and the other Dragon Lord rider spew precise warning lightning/fire balls from their weapons directly in the path of the approaching man. The man draws back momentarily, yet gazing up defiantly and continues to come toward the dismounted Dragon Dame Nera…

I am a man of faith, and according to your laws we are allowed to comfort and be advocates on behalf of the citizens of the Fiefdom’s Hamlets, including 17… for those who are accused of breaching the Dragon Lords’ edicts …

Dame Nera walks to meet the man of faith… he tried to extend his hands in courtesy, but is ignored by Dame Nera... perhaps, because, her weapon is attached to the appendage of protruding from her right hand….

I am Ecclesiast Silvanos and though this is not a formal setting, I entreat you Dragon Dame Nera to explain to this humble man of faith why these good people are being charged…?

Dame Nera: Rightly said Ecclesiast Silvanos… this is not the purview of a man of faith yet…

Ecclesiast Silvanos interrupted Dame Nera’s response: May I at least comfort them…

Dame Nera: You may do so while I search the inside of the premises… but see that you do not otherwise interfere with the Dragon Lords’ business...

The couple hurried over to Ecclesiast Silvanos for counsel… but more so for spiritual solace...

After a quick search, Dragon Dame Nera comes outside with what must be to her additional evidence and engages her gravity boots and elevates to show the other hovering Dragon Lord.

Dame Nera looking down from her dragon: Where are your children… are they still laboring in Goshen Minor? This is a statue in the likeness of John Mark… a manifestation of the written blasphemy (Dame Nera shows the male figurine of the supposed John Mark to the Neroes and Ecclesiast Silvanos).

Mrs. Neroe is stammering and is joined by her husband… both in unison: our children… like us have done nothing…. We know nothing of the statue… she trails off and is now in raining tears… as the husband utters something incoherently and his eyes too are flooding with tears and both are again comforted by Ecclesiast Silvanos….

Dame Nera: All are guilty until proven innocent… and ours are laws that implicate the collective family… so I ask again where exactly are your children? Our archives show that you have many sons. .. know that not answering my queries about the whereabouts of your children are grounds for summary judgment and a punishment of death.

The husband secured his arms even more so around his wife and whispers to her… and to Ecclesiast Silvanos... husband, eyes visibly red and teary because his tears have momentarily subsided, looks up in entreating reverence to the two Dragon Lords, but particularly Dame Nera….

Husband: They, they’re in the south-east quadrant… of Goshen Minor… on our collective…

Ecclesiast Silvanos: So you found a marking of a seditious nature… in a language not known to this couple… anyone could have written it… especially those who are educated… say someone who has ill feelings against the Neroes…

Dame Nera: Are you a man of faith or a seer… which is it?

Ecclesiast Silvanos: Pardon me Dragon Dame Nera, but it is the nature of my calling to present a cogent alternative to the charge… and, moreover, your laws afford me this latitude… and, sometimes, we are both… men of faith and seers…

Dragon Dame Nera, ignoring the Ecclesiast, speaks to some sort of communications device located on her left arm. We then hear the buzzing of a craft… it is Beljazza descending on her hover craft, which no longer is in whisper mode… Beljazza is attired in the full regalia of the Dragon Lords… she descends her hovering craft… utilizing her gravity boots to land safely on the ground…. Dragon Dame Nera draws near… instructing Beljazza to go to the South East quadrant of Goshen Minor and secure the Neroes’ sons…

There are looks of sheer hatred coming from the surrounding hidden, and partially hidden bystanders directed at Beljazza… if the hatred could be quantified… it would be even more so for Beljazza than for the Dragon Lords who employ her.

Dragon Dame Nera addressing Beljazza: stop off at one of the sub-stations and procure suitable transport since your hover craft cannot accommodate all of the Neroes’ sons … and see that you do not discuss the nature of the charges at hand.

Dragon Dame Nera’s speaking so that everyone could hear: let the Neroes’ sons know that if any of them were to run … that the penalty of death would summarily be invoked and that it will work corruption of Neroes’ blood… meaning that all of the Neroes’ no matter which generation… first born sired hereinafter will be subject to death…

There are loud sighs from the Neroes and the surrounding citizens, partially hiding within their respective tents, shops….. In the mean time, we see Ecclesiast Silvanos comforting, even more so now, the visibly shaken Neroes as they await the arrival of their sons…

We see four dragons and their respective Dragon Lord riders hovering about five to seven feet in a circular formation over the Tribunal Ponds of Goshen. The presiding Dragon Dame, Nera Appolos, imposingly hovering on her mid-night colored dragon is regally looking down at the condemned and the rest of the surrounding citizen onlookers. The condemned Neroe family, standing upright, in the pond waters below are numbered at four… their wrists are secured. The Neroe family that is condemned is made up of three men and one woman: father, mother, and two of their sons.

Dame Nera is addressing the Neroes and the gathering: lest you say that your Dragon Lords are not merciful, we have permitted the condemned to choose their demise-the condemned matriarch was chosen by the rest to cast the die and alas, the lot fell on demise by fire.

There are sorrowful, somber, empathetic murmurings from the surrounding crowd; with the formal sentence read… Ecclesiast Silvanos emerges from the congregants and makes his way from the shores , to the Neores... some of the surviving sons and family members of the condemned approach the Ecclesiast with apparently what must be last words of comfort…. When the Ecclesiast reaches the condemned Neroes he gazes up….

Ecclesiast Silvanos: I beg of you to pardon the condemned and set aside the Dragon Lords’ Verdict and instead condemned them to hard labor in the precious metal mines...

Dragon Dame Nera: They are guilty of the crime of precursor to rebellion… they had in their possession on their premises… a figure of the rebel, John Mark, the ancient. That name is blasphemous to the Dragon Lords because it brings to shameful remembrance a time when all the Fiefdoms were in opened rebellion. This Fiefdom 17 in particular was the cornerstone of the rebels where much stratagems caused much protracted blood and treasure for the Dragon Lords - but you all are privy to this history… There are no exceptions to this crime and it must be resolved as a deterrent… to the rest of you citizens… and know that the Lords were merciful in their adjudication of this crime and that only the parents who owned the premises where the evidence was found and two of their sons that were educated, evidencing only said sons, being partially, formally educated, could have written in that blasphemous… forgotten language….

All attention turned to the condemned who are in a circle and are temporarily fastened together in the Tribunal Pond… it is only called the Tribunal Pond… it is actually the relatively shallow part of the Goshen Sea. .. where the executions are held for those found guilty of rebellion… and, moreover, this area of the so called Tribunal Pond is the most sacred of place, at least to the citizens of the various Fiefdoms, including 17, because it is where the great hero John Mark was martyred. Ecclesiast Silvanos walks into the waters of the Tribunal Pond and comforts the Neroes and their two sons… and provides the last rites and then makes the somber walk back to the shore to be among the surviving family and citizens….

As the Ecclesiast leaves the condemned family and finally the latter is finally resigned to its fate and with nothing to lose, shouts: Long live the freedom fighters and John Mark! “Long live John Mark and the freedom fighters.”

Dame Nera Apolos mounted majestically on her dragon… nods to the four Dragon Lords whose respective dragons then break their circular formation and descend and lowering their respective heads and proceed to spew hot flames from their mouths directed at the surrounding waters near the condemned. The waters of the Tribunal Pond are soon bubbling like the magma from a volcano and we see dead fish floating, a reminder of the lethal temperature of the waters in the Tribunal Pond… as the temperature increases, the spectators hear the increasing piercing screams of the condemned and soon we see the father and then the mother and then the sons… partially boiled bodies floating on top of the waters. There are tears from the surviving condemned families and fellow citizens and in the aftermath, all that is left is the pungent smell of boiling flesh punctuating the air… resulting in the fish of the Tribunal Pond gathering to feast on the remains of the condemned. Dragon Dame Nera Apolos, along with the rest of the Dragon Lords, takes off in flight as the citizens that were gathered are solemn and retrospective as they go back to their respective abodes in the hamlet of Goshen of Fiefdom 17….

Dragon Dame Nera and her Dragon Lord partner who investigated and brought the Neroes to trial and execution had separated somewhere over the Goshen Sea from the other two Dragon Lords that assisted in the burning execution of the condemned Neroes. Dame Nera and the Dragon Lord are in flight about 40-50 feet, yet hugging the shorelines of the Goshen sea. Overhead, there are thick, dark storm clouds, matching the color of the smoke that normally comes from the Dragon’s nostrils.’ Dragon Dame Nera, trailing her Dragon Lord partner by a mile or so, is looking down at the Goshen Shorelines that has a mixture of Silos that housed the many food products and where there are modest dome shape homes of the farmers, which, from above, look like rows and columns of lighted mushrooms. Suddenly, from the dark clouds, we see a figure in black from head to toe – even the speeding surfboard shape glider is the color of midnight black.

The intruder, dive bombing toward the partner of Dame Nera … causes the Dragon to startle and with it wings flapping aimlessly and losing altitude. The swaying also causes a loosening of the Dragon Lord’s grip of the reins and almost throws him out of his seat. When the Dragon Lord regains his composure and steadies the beast, the stranger is closer but traveling slower and still descending like a spear only now the intruder is aiming what looks like a Winchester shotgun… there is a blast that finds its mark at the right side of the Dragon’s head, blowing that part of it clean off. Dragon tissues rain down on the Dragon Lord before he dismount and enable his gravity boots. What is left of the Dragon’s bloody countenance… mouth area is aimlessly shooting fire balls as it falls to the waters below. The Dragon Lord is hovering, only now he is fifteen feet in the air over the sea. In the interim, the ambush attack by the intruder and the ensuing commotion caused Dragon Dame Nera to avert her eyes from the Goshen Sea shorelines below. In actuality, Dame Nera had no choice since her Dragon instinctively increased its speed to assist the other Dragon Lord.

The intruder is now face to face with the hovering Dragon Lord and though he cannot be seen on account of his dark mask and matching clothing… he seems to be the same weight and height as the Dragon Lord he is about to confront just above the waters… the Dragon Lord is looking back to gauge how close is Dame Nera… he is anxious and disappointed for he realizes that she is not near enough. The stranger, who too has dismounted from his glider and has enabled his boots, is hovering…. The shot gun blast rips through the shell that makes up the face of the Dragon Lord… causing shards of shell and a Gelatin-like tissue to decorate the waters below… as the Dragon Lord’s carcass is taken away with the tide. The hovercraft approaches the stranger in black and he mounts it… and readies his Winchester shot gun… aiming and pointing at the frantically approaching Dragon Dame Nera… who is zigzagging so as to avoid the stranger’s shot gun blasts when he fires.