A Dragonman’s Wonderland
By Nipaporn Baldwin
Published by Geppetto Garten/Nipaporn Baldwin at Smashwords
Copyright 2012 by Nipaporn Baldwin
1/28/12 © 2012 licensed CC-BY-NC
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
The Poetry.com title of this poem was Deadman’s Wonderland, and it’s title was inspired by an anime I have never seen and the poem itself is inspired by Interview with the Vampire (the movie version of Anne Rice’s book).
Image: Vampire World Bank Protest16 by Justin McIntosh from Wikimedia Commons and licensed CC BY
Dragon emblems by AGELIUS from Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC-By-SA
Other books in The Society On Da run series:
Drachenspheel Arc:
La Cicala di Italia
SECTOR 1
Dragonworld ETC
Butter Pecan Ice Cream is a Must
Imp Empress: Aaron and Seraphina’s Beginning
Lorea Antabella: A Non-Regular Vampire Story
Dragonsongs: Singing the Language of Dragons
Platonick
Space Dragon Poetry (Dragons of Atlanta and Twelve)
Sleepover From Hell
The Legend of Darger Latriost the Bunny
Lyarknar Saga Epoch Arc:
Ashuton and Narcissus
Narcissus Dilettante and the Hapless Dragon
Drachenscolderung
Lennard and Tortenello
The Siege of Rome
Narcissus and the Dragon Birth
HAARPers in the Hallway
We Were Once Hippies
Dance of the Sugar Dragons
The Way We Go
Reawakening Arc:
Aphrodite’s Wasp
Happy 20th Birthday, Floreale!
Dragon Towers
Forest of the Faeries
Dragon’s War Reborn (Alien Dragons)
Dragonwave: Jungle Dragons
Kraken
Sex and Dragons (Upcoming poem)
Ghetto Dragons
Other books:
Sintel – The Story of Sintel and Scales
The Elder Eyes: Earthbound
A Dragonman’s Wonderland
Open your dead eyes
Listen to the sounds
Do you hear them?
Can you hear them?
It's the sound of "them" awakening
Death do them 'part so many times
Yet they stay alive as their spirits wander
They settle into the bones of those that peacefully passed on
And they walk, under the moon and in the fog of the Swedish village
Soon they learn how to cleave flesh and apply it to their bodies
So now the dead can walk, and now they can dance
They learn to be noble men and women
And they use their cunning dead brains to reinvigorate themselves
They are cunning, you see.
They use the blood of others to stay alive
They will always be dead but alive
To them, Earth is a Dragonman's wonderland
Do you hear me, young maiden?
Will you run and hide?
Excerpt from THORN: Floodbridge
Prequel to the Thorn series, a new upcoming book of flash stories centered around VP6
Rushing into the foray that had been occurring in the elevator, Shaw McKinnel dove behind one of the many fallen pylons. The ringing of plasma rounds and clinging bullets had become the traditional sounds of battle and then it would slowly die out as the enemies disappeared. He so badly wanted to radio in and ask for Amanda’s transport, but the LZ was too hot. He listened with despair as he hid behind a rock, listening to his men die off as they futility tried to gold the bridge. A flashback from a once-distant memory had bubbled to the top of his mind:
“Call Card 0174309. Subject Name: Shaw McKinnel. Title: Son of Develin Therau. Subject nationality: British.”
“Step forward.” said the man behind the desk.
A young marine with bright red eyes took the first few steps towards his new future. He wanted to hide his fangs from his boss. He knew that humans discriminated people with vampiric and dragon lineage.
The General beside the man at the desk spoke again, “Subject has served under the wing of His Majesty’s Servant Service as Ward of the Boy-king, Ashuton Karrucci the Second.”
Walkeri, the man behind the desk, lowered his glasses to examine the young man with his true eyesight. He wasn’t as tall as the soldier beside him and this young man had streaks of silver in his black hair. Walkeri, his hands clasped together, leaned over and asked, “you worked as servant of Ashuton Karrucci’s son sometime after the rise of Dragosaya, am I right?”
Shaw corrected him, “Dragosaeya. Yes, I have. I was one of the four servants in a close relationship with the boy. The other three were—”
Walkeri cut him off, “I am not interested in the others. That is all I need to know. You will be assigned to Vampire Team 6.”
Shaw gasped and drew back, “w-w-what? Why them? They’re suicidal!”
“Why them?” asked Walkeri, “they are the only ones with great potential…” he nudged his glasses, “and all the other spots are filled.”
The General beside Walkeri spoke out, “Vampire Team 6—or VT6 for short—will be leading an assault to reclaim the Bridge of Flooder’s Luck, located at the French quarter. Capturing this bridge will enable us to control the Crotonian hive of which it leads to.”
Walkeri stood up, gathering Shaw’s recommendation papers, “your expertise with different weaponry should keep you alive long enough for this mission to be a success.”
Walkeri, the General and the guards left the room, leaving Shaw to prepare for the mission at hand.
He had his eyes closed shut as the memory played out. The scream of a Hive Queen had strung him from his euphoriatic memory. Descending from the ramp, making her way towards the bridge, was the four-legged Hive Queen and her alien children (whom took the guise of humans). The soldiers scattered for cover, leaving the leaders of Vampire Team 6 exposed.
Redder, the red-headed prince of House Bloodfest, held his plasma rifle close. He was ready to blow off heads if need be. Marcello, descendant of the defunct Purella House, was keeping panic at bay. The Hive Queen was a terror to behold and he knew that. The black-haired Ryodearth and the young blonde Malikov stood side by side, wielding Grade A rifles. The two brothers were linked from different fathers of House Ironblade and House Kuro. Cloven, a regular civilian of noble birth, found no fear in the Queen. He only chuckled with a smile on his face.
Shaw ran from his position to join his comrades. They took up defensive positions behind various fallen debris. Ryodearth and Malikov focused on the Priest Guards, whom were wielding Heatlasers.
“Isn’t that perfect?” asked Malikov in obvious sarcasm, “they have heatlasers.”
Ryodearth blew a strand of black and purple hair from his eyes, “I hate heatlasers. Let’s make this quick and painless.”
“Painless? I was thinking of shooting their arms off,” said Malikov.
Ryodearth was amused at the thought of making them suffer.
The brothers took cover when the searing heat was fired at their direction and in unison they fired the last few rounds to eliminate the Priest Guards.
Redder’s cloaking device perfectly concealed him as he took cover behind a pillar. With deadly accuracy, the bullets from his sniper rifle impaled the human shifters in their heads.
Cloven worked alongside Redder, gaining a higher bodycount than his friend. He killed yet another alien, ten points above Redder.
“That makes twenty,” he said joyously, “are you catching up, yet?”
Redder grumbled to himself.
The soldiers were focusing their bullets on the Queen. One soldier had shouted, “Our weapons have no effect!”
The flood waters were rising and time was running away. Shaw knew how to kill the Queen. He had dealt with one many years ago during the times of the Dragon-Crotonian war of Rome. He ran towards her with blinding speed. He jumped high into the air, utilizing his supernatural powers to gain ungodly height. He landed atop her head and grabbed hold of her horns. The last remaining troops tried to climb their Queen’s back in attempt to kill Shaw, but Ryodearth and Malikov eliminated them as easily as they had done to the others.
“Killing a Queen’s army should not be this easy,” said Malikov, “do you think we’re reaching our limits?”
Ryodearth shook his head, “when we reach our limits, we’ll know it.”
They watched Shaw with concentration. They were going to learn first-hand on how to kill a Queen.
She kicked and thrashed herself around to get him off, but the vampire did not budge. A shrill scream escaped the confines of her chest and immediately a swarm of flies took flight to answer the call. Shaw unclipped a grenade and thrust it into the weak spot on the back of her head.
Watching the swarm formulate, Cloven shouted to Shaw, “the Swarm is coming!”
The Swarm is another name for Wingtipper, a small bug leading the group of deadly insects. His mind was spread out amongst the group of insectoid killers and he served as Hive King. Shaw made his escape off the alien as she exploded into pieces of bone, wings, biomass and tricoplasm, but he wasn’t fast enough. The Swarm had reached the much-reduced platoon of soldiers.
Cloven shouted the only words known for a lost mission, “Retreat!”
“I am NOT retreating!” shouted Shaw, “I am going to capture this hive, with or without you.”
He wiped the blood from his mouth and ascended up the ramp, taking big steps with each stride. The remainders of Vampire Team 6 could only watch for a second as Shaw ascended into darkness. Malikov could not hide the tear that descended from his eyes as he looked on.
“Malikov, we must go!” shouted Ryodearth.
The young boy stood there, unmoving, secretly despairing this sad turn in events. His brother had to grab him by the wrist and usher him away. The vampires made their escape from the flooded bridge.
Excerpt from THORN: Merry Despair
The teeny insectoids followed the unfortunate vampire into the cold silence.
He was overcome by the teeny swarm, drowning in the massive onslaught.
He reached out to the unknown figure before him,
Into the thorns he descended
The floor dissolved, or he dissolved into it
Transported, floating in the endless space
He fell through the expanse and was entangled in the field of thorns.
Wriggling his arms as the thorns sunk in and broke the skin,
He was bound to them.
The human form of the now-deceased Queen came to him
“Call Card 0-1-7-4-3-0-9,” she said in a trio of voices; his own, her voice and the voice of the soldier, “Subject Name: Shaw McKinnel. Title: Son of Develin Therau. Why have you come?”
“Let me out of here!” he shouted, his voice raspy and his fangs extended.
“I remember you,” she said with Malikov’s voice, “I am the second of my name, son of Ironblade and brother to Malikov the Teenkiller.”
The Queen stood behind him as the thorns turned black.
“You were the one whom told them of this hell.”
“Stop it.”
“You knowingly led them here. You knew the dangers that I wrought.”
“Let me go!” he shouted again, shaking the now-weak thorns.
“You will kill them, Shaw,” she said in her normal tone, “I will let you go but know this: I will not fail so easily. When you steal from the Cicada, she strikes back in the most unexpected ways.”
Shaw was locked in the corner, confined to darkness
Bits of sunlight poked in from the holes in the structure
Alone in the hell of the Hive, he repeated the words he heard on the night of his first failed mission, uttered in his ear by Malikov’s childish voice, “Another such victory and I am undone.”