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CARNIVAL WORLD, CHAPTER 46

“The adventure begins!” exclaimed Orlando Bard, from his cushioned Bard Show chair. He added, “And where does ‘The Ballad of Queen Riva, Snake Daddy and the Eight Excellent Eggs, part Three: Sum Ting Wong in Paradise Nursery’ adventure begin? That folks, is what we call a rhetorical question in the theatrical business. The adventure begins, of course, in the Dark Naga Royal Nursery!”
***
Just a few days ago, Riva’s purchases had been sailed over by slow blimp. It had taken Wong and Tamanzi the entire day to piece the cribs together.
Thankfully, although heavy, the bookshelf, made from Scarlet Birch, that was only available in small stands in the Red Dwarf foothills, had come preassembled. The Red Dwarf Anti-Grav ship had dropped it off about an hour or so after the blimp, from Carnival City, had landed on the castle sky dock to offload their Earth Imports Unlimited purchases.
Four strong Naga warriors had come sweating and groaning, an hour or so after the crib assembly had started. Under Riva’s command they had maneuvered the intricately decorated furniture to an open wall for its placement. The protective wrappings had been removed and the eight screw-on wooden transport handles.
Riva had been right behind them. One of her human servants had followed her, pushing a rolling wheelbarrow. The one wheeled cart creaked noisily, clattering even louder as it exited the smooth stoned tunnel and crossed the newly installed white tiled floor, over radiant heating, to keep the nursery toasty warm. The stone egg pedestals, built almost two thousand years ago, had been constructed with a special mineral that was always warm, but never enough to cause burns.
First, Riva dismissed the servant. Next, she reminded the four sweating Naga guards to carry away the screw-on transport bars and protective shipping coverings of the voluminous wooden storage cabinet bookshelves.
Riva had reached her hand into the small drawers of the storage unit until she had found a tiny plastic bag with insertable, color matched, wooden plugs. She quickly screwed them into the transport bar holes. One plug resisted, and she called Sully over with his rubber coated mallet to finish the task, before shooing him back to his crib assembly project.
One by one, the Queen emptied each shipping box from the heaped high wheelbarrow. Board games, playing card sets, children’s books, coloring books, colored pencils, watercolor sets,
2-D and 3-D puzzles, Lincoln log crates and other crafting kits were neatly sorted and put away by the Queen.
Sully had always been known for rarely cussing. Tamanzi, on the other hand, after screwing the wrong pieces together, or when he dropped the multi-purpose assembly tools that came with each kit, for the umpteenth time, blanketed our ears blue with old British Hindi and Serpent Tongue imprecations. His deep, booming, almost musical voice, when he wasn’t laughing at his own jokes, or bragging about past conquests, echoed in the cavernous nursery.
Clicking of metal hardware, pressing screws and dowels into the wood of the cribs, and the intermittent knocking thumps of rubber coated mallet heads, aiding the assembly construction, finely ended long into the end of the afternoon.
The smell of wood dust, from the day’s project, lingered in the air of the vaulted chamber. The oily tang of linseed oil gently muted the strong aromatic cedar fragrance of each newly assembled crib. The eight cribs and the treasure chest toy box, crafted of fine scented cedar, overpowered the ancient dust of ages smell and would, later, dim the new baby Naga odors that would follow the hatch of the huge eggs.
Sully and Tamanzi shook their heads at each other, grinned triumphantly, and breathed matching sighs of relief when the project at last had been completed.
Riva had left the nursery long ago, but curiosity had kept bringing her back to check on the men’s building project progress throughout the busy day. She reminded Tamanzi to take the wheelbarrow back to her father’s smithery topside. Then Queen Riva visited her silent eggs, resting each on its own stone pedestal, kissing each one. Afterwards she happily exited the chamber.
Late the next day, after they had finished assembling the crib units, and performing final preparations for the Royal Nursery, egg number one hatched! The whole palace had then exuberantly celebrated. Children were very rare at the palace and the last noble child even more so. Riva had been that child, three hundred years in the past. Only a small number of common servants and Naga, and no noble or royal Naga child had been born for centuries.
The next day the age-advancement technology had been put to work. Nine days passed.
Along the wall, but not covering either door of the room, the eight finely carved aromatic cedar cribs, rested. Each one had a vibrantly colored baby mobile, designed to stimulate a baby’s visual, motor and cognitive development. But now they sat quietly, unused, but not forgotten.
As Riva smiled at the cribs she remembered, only a few days less than a fortnight ago, their trip to Carnival City.
Not only were the eggs hatched, now, but all eight of Queen Riva and Ambassador Wong’s children had been age-progressed, a day for a year.
Nine wonderous days had passed since the last egg had cracked and eight Naga babies – the Zzzillzzzaga-Wong children – had come into the world.
Crying only a little, moving their fingers, toes and corkscrew tails, as their eyes excitedly took in all the sights and their ears listened eagerly. Unlike normal human babies they were first rolling, and then crawling, on day one, even before the age-progression technology took effect. Each Naga child had its own hologram naga nanny monitored by Miss Zzzorna the sentient ancient’s quantum computer. At nine days old, because of the ancient advance technology age-advancement device, they all looked and acted like nine-year-old humans, but with medium length snake tails and a few slightly reptilian features.
Egg maturation had taken a bit longer than expected. Once birthed, the Naga younglings had matured at the rate of a day per normal year. That is as a one day old, each Naga child looked like a year old. On day two, he or she looked two years old and could walk or run and talk easily. And so on.
Along the wall, but not covering either door of the room, the eight finely carved aromatic cedar cribs rested. By the time two days had passed, they were already getting too large for their cribs. Two other rooms nearby, with storage shelves, carved into the walls centuries ago, were repurposed. The old storage items had been stored in another area or destroyed. Animal skins and blankets and pillows had been placed in each alcove, transforming it into bunk rooms. One room for the girls and one room for the boys.
At nine days – the equivalent of nine years old – the children, affectionately called “the eight,” or individually by their number names, sat. Each Naga child was talking, playing alone or with one or two brothers and sisters, on Disney character blankets. The dolls and planes and stuffed toys had been placed neatly back in the treasure chest a few days prior.
Now “the eight” were reading books and drawing or coloring and playing board games, gathered as needed from the scarlet birch bookshelf.
The hologram governesses had taught them well and they were much more advanced than a normal nine-year-old. Advanced technology had also been used to encourage quiet behaviors and minimize emotional outbursts and misbehavior.
Because they were no longer toddlers, and almost pre-teens, they had human legs and their tiny piglet snake coils had grown into medium sized snake tails.
Only when they reached the equivalent of twelve and three quarters to thirteen years, would they know their true name and choose whether they would be a human or a Naga. And whether they would serve Creator, serve the snake gods or become a “free agent.”
Of course, in earlier Naga culture, choosing to become human, and becoming human had its drawbacks. You became a servant equivalent to a captured human, so few Naga chose to serve Creator.
Unless a youngling Naga had a penchant for evil, they rarely chose to serve the snake gods at their first molting. Most chose to be free agents.
However, as a free agent, the snake gods and their minions would attempt to trick them into serving them. The more a free agent Naga acted selfishly or committed evil, the stronger the dark whispers became in their minds. If one resisted this influence of those dark voices, the dimmer those voices became.
As a Naga chose to serve the snake gods, the more they participated in evil, the stronger those influences became, culminating in greater thirsts for evil. The more the evil, the more the snake gods controlled and possessed them. Suicide, mental and physical illness, and insanity was often the end of a Dark Naga who allied with the snake gods.
Generally, White Naga lived much longer, about three or four hundred years longer, than Dark Naga. One reason for that is that many White Naga served Creator and even those who were free agents, were blessed, with each century of molting, with a strong regeneration ability. Free agents, white, black, or blended, the better they behaved, the less their regeneration ability diminished. If white naga interbred with dark naga, their offspring could be any of the three colors. Most of the eggs, born in clutches of one to eight, were often a creamy chocolate by coloration, both their snake bottoms and human torsos. If the Naga interbred with Caucasian humans their offspring were usually some shades of tan, but ebony, chocolate, chocolate cream, or even white was possible.
The Naga who served snake gods would sometimes benefit by being given supernatural powers, but their regenerative and fertility rates would be greatly degraded. Both White Nagas and Black Nagas could serve the snake gods. Their color did not change. Historically, Dark Naga just seemed to have a greater propensity to seek after evil.
Ambassador Wong, finishing up a bit of official business in his office, had come strolling through the archway into the nursery. Running across the room, on youngling human feet, tails dragging, “the eight” jumping-jacked and hugged their father, Ambassador “Snake Daddy” Wong. He smiled happily as they cried enthusiastically, “Daddy! Daddy!”
Queen Riva laughed heartily as she listened to her children. She heard the same excited cries every day: “Mommy! Mommy!” Except for Primi. Just the day before yesterday, Primi, her oldest, had began curtsying and calling her mother or Queen Mother Z. The Queen, although happy because she was still reveling in the fact that her dream had come true, was in denial as well. Not long-ago Riva had celebrated her three hundredth birthday. One’s first molting always came about three quarters of the way into a Naga’s twelfth year or towards the beginning of their thirteenth anniversary. Roughly every century, give or take twenty-five years, Naga molted.
When nearing their time of molting, they would develop skin issues, lose scales, develop bowel discomfort, and energy dysfunction. They would become as short tempered as a snake “in the blind” as the old saying goes. Only after their molting would their body regenerate, restoring their health and diminishing the ailments and accumulated physical and mental stress. Riva was in denial, but she was feeling the internal signals of that change.
Back to the eight Naga children. They were quite active, although well-behaved, for the most part. Hard work on the part of the governesses and some advanced technology frequency implementation were to be credited. Indeed, all eight of the hologram nannies, monitored by the Queen and Miss Zzzorna, had trained the children well.
The “eight” Naga children had just supped creamed honey tea and cups of juice, with cheese sticks, carrots and sweet pepper rings. Breakfast had been more substantial of course, roasted wild beef chunks, mixed berries on waffles with honey, scrambled eggs with cheese and mushrooms, mashed potatoes with sausage gravy, chocolate dipped crickets and raw minnows. While breakfast was usually large, during the day, when awake, or between training, they had four or five quick and scattered “snack” meals.
Then, following their snacks, the “eight” had their daily soft-shots. The nannies had used an advanced technology needleless serum injection tool that painlessly dispensed liquid anti-pain and sleep herbs.
Earlier in the day each had put away one-third or more of their body weight in food. Tomorrow when they awoke, they would go through intense mental and physical training. On odd days they would sleep and play. On even days they would be trained hard, mentally and physically, and they would eat even a bit more as their quickly growing and training bodies would need huge quantities of food because of their intense and accelerated growth and training.
Today was an odd day. They had big breakfasts, but after that only snacks and play time while awake. Within about fifteen minutes or so each one would fall into a deep slumber – needed to quickly heal and grow.
Child number four, Quartia, softly pulled at Primi’s arm, “Is today the day? Are we going to ask Daddy?”
“Yes!” squealed the ebony Naga youngling Octavius.
The others did not say much but jumping-jacked in place.
Primi curtseyed, “Daddy, we think it is time for you to ask Queen Mother Z for her hand in marriage.”
Both Ambassador Wong and Queen Riva just stood, shocked, with their mouths open. Primi’s proclamation had caught them both unexpectedly.
Ambassador Wong’s face looked happy and scared at the same time. Snake Daddy, switching to a soft but stoic expression, ruffled Primi’s loose blond hair, but said nothing.
Queen Riva felt butterflies dancing in her stomach, but understood, or felt she did, Sullie’s mixed reaction.
“What do we tell them, Sully?” asked Queen Riva with a direct look that caused Ambassador Wong to flit between shy smiles and anxiety.
Sully swallowed hard then asked, “Do you want me, Queen Riva, to tell the truth or lie?”
Riva scowled and exclaimed sarcastically, “What do you think Sully? Do you think I want you to lie?”
All the children watched with bated breath, except for Primi, who was very mature and adult-like for her age. She had despised baby talk from her first day of life! Primi had a supernatural gift for premonition. Primi had, to enhance her natural gift, requested Nanny One to get Miss Zzzorna, the sentient computer, to craft a book on reading social cues like facial expressions, tones of voice and body language behavior.
Sully answered hesitantly, “Riva, you are like the Eighth Wonder of the World…” Riva smiled broadly and laughed again, looking happily at Sully and the children. Moments later she cocked her head at an angle and asked icily, “Do I detect, Sully, that there is an unspoken but at the end of your sentence?”
“You are both astute and correct, Queen Riva.”
“Well,” snapped Riva, “Out with it! If you have something else to say, Sully, then say it!”
Except for Primi, the other youngling Nagas become very sad and fearful. Secundus, Quartia and Septima began to cry. Octavius scowled and pouted, snapping his tail rattle against the floor tiles, but did not speak or cry.
Sully looked directly into the iron-hard, fuming, amber dragon eyes of the Queen and said softly, “While there is no doubt that you are the Eighth Wonder of the World, Riva, and you are as beautiful as you are intelligent, and a ruler par excellence, you are a Naga, and I am a human.”
Riva arose swiftly, knocking over their tea table, which banged hard against the floor. Her chair skittered over the tiles in a tight spinning circle but did not topple. The porcelain cups and containers plunged onto the white tiles, shattered and scattered, tinkled, and scratched noisily over the white floor.
Fancy silver teaspoons spun erratically across the white tiles of the Naga Royal Nursery. Fragments of crystal, puddles of tea, crocks of honey and cream, all spilled in little pools along the tiled floor of the chamber.
For just a moment Riva’s hands dropped to her finely crafted twin short swords, but after merely brushing the hilts, she snapped, “Thank you for reminding me, Sully Tingarius Wong, that there is indeed Sum Ting Wong! You are a slant-eyed peasant soldier, not even from this planet, and I am a daughter of royalty and a Queen, no less.”
All the children, except Primi, began to curl into little bawling balls, half human and half snake. The holographic nannies, except for Primi’s, pulled their little Naga’s to their chests and began comforting them.
As Riva briskly walked near the children, she scowled at Primi, who curtsied, but remained calm.
Queen Mother Riva stormed over to the treasure chest toy box, and with a mighty swish of her scaled tail, sent it rolling across the tiles, dropping a stream of toy boats and ships and trucks and several stuffed toys before stopping with a noisy crash against a baby crib.
Riva stopped and turned around just before exiting the stone tunnel archway. Pointing a beautifully manicured turquoise colored nail at Sully, she snapped, “You don’t know what you are asssking, Ambassssador Wong!
“First, I would have to ssswear allegiance to Creator! That isss the only way I can become human permanently now.
“Temporarily, and with great pain, I can become human. And yesss, it can kick my regeneration ability into overdrive, but then, even though I might heal, I would be in great pain for at least a few daysss, maybe more.
“It would force me into the mossst painful molt I have ever exxxperienccced. It might even trigger a Death Molt!
“I could die in horrible pain, within hours, if that happensss. Or I would become frail, sssleep most of the day, racked with pain, mind dull and fogged with drugs to ease my discomfort. Then, after long, lingering, brutal agony, finally die. Would you sssteal me from my children, Sssully? I have longed for them for over two centuriesss!
“Sssecond, I would be forccced to give up being Queen! Historically, I would be banissshed, or I could be forccced to fight to the death, by any noble in my court, or the ranking warrior captain.
“We will finish thisss discusssion later, Sssnake Daddy!
“Tell everyone that I will be in my personal chambersss and that I do not – under any cccircumstancccesss – want to be disssturbed!”
Just before leaving she turned again to Sully, “If I did make my penance and ssserve Creator, would you be willing to do the sssame? I doubt it. Just like every other free agent, you are your own god. Of all the cheeky, audaccciousss, arroganccce! I am not happy with you, right now, Sssnake Daddy! Can you tell, O’ sssagaccciousss ambassssador, that there is Sssum Ting Wong?”

CARNIVAL WORLD, CHAPTER 47
***
Orlando Bard bowed dramatically from his stage. “Tonight, folks, I am wearing Ambassador Wong’s emerald tuxedo, with green bow tie, silver cummerbund, and chocolate boot-cut slacks. “And,” Orlando kicked up, each in turn, with a practiced skip, hand-tooled, Wellington boots. “a fine pair of boots, imported from earth, of the same make as Ambassador Wong’s!
“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and uhm, uhh, Ghordo!
“Yes, thank you one and all for coming tonight for installment four of ‘The Ballad of Queen Riva, Snake Daddy, and the Eight Excellent Eggs, Part Four: A Malek, Eight Moltings, and a Sacred Ritual!’”
Everyone laughed as Ghordo, in his deep, husky, gravelly Orc’s voice, belted out a long, bull fiddle vibrato raspberry. He followed that with a sharp whistle and several hearty hand claps. The audience joined in Ghordo’s impromptu applause.
Following a deep stage bow, as the applause finally quieted, Orlando Bard exclaimed his signature phrase, “Let the adventure begin!”

***
When Riva’s slithers and tail rattles finally quieted with distance, Primi floated and wriggled to the other children, held by the Naga nannies. Touching them each in turn, Primi whispered, “Don’t cry little brother and don’t cry little sister to each one. Mommy will get over being mad. The sun won’t set, before she returns. Mother will be…different…but don’t worry, she will love us even more than before.”
Then, never faltering, she floated over to her father, sometimes walking on her tiny white feet, at other times slithering, human feet off the ground, on her pearly white snake tail.
Avoiding the human maid who had scurried from hiding to clean up the scattered and broken tea paraphernalia, Primi, curtsied, before her father. Agent Wong smiled sadly at his first daughter. Gently Sully Snake Daddy Wong held out his hand to her, and pulled her to him, as he sat in the nearest chair.
He ruffled Primi’s white-yellow hair and watched the maid clean up the mess from the tea table. Moments later, while Nanny One stood quietly next to a crib and watched Sully and Primi, the other governesses picked up the sleeping younglings and quietly carried them through the archway and down the tunnel to their new sleeping rooms. They were all too large now for the cribs.
Sighing, and talking as a little adult, as was her habit, Primi leaned against her father. She clasped her father’s hand with both of her tiny ones, “Daddy, for an ambassador, your courtly eloquence can be, at times, lacking. We love you Daddy, but things will be sour, and not only for us, if you don’t make things right! You really made mother mad, just now. But you will need to wait until when Queen Mother Z is ready, or it will just make things worse.”
Sully nodded his head and marveled at the fact that Primi seemed to be so wise for one so young. He offered to hold Primi. With a smile she yawned and climbed into his lap and tucked her tail between his forearm and hip, then tucked her rattle tail behind his back.
Sully offered, “Yes, Primi, she was angry. I thought she was going to pull those short swords out and slice and dice me with them, little munchkin! The third day after I came here as ambassador, I was delighted to find that she liked to practice with swords. I am considered a master swordsman, and she really caught me off guard. I won the match, little Primi, but my foolish pride almost ended the duel before it started. She is quite good. Not much she is not good at, daughter!”
Primi nodded but said nothing as she craned her neck and looked up into her father’s kind but strong brown eyes.
Sully said, “Like I said, Primi, your mother is the Eighth Wonder of the World. But she has a short fuse. And when she goes off, she bursts like a thousand incandescent suns that explode into a collectively magnified solar flare, more powerful than the sum of its parts. Not a super nova that melts everything into unlife, or transforms you into a blind paraplegic, just an EMP blast that sizzles the world’s electrical, and energy grids, and turns the power off.
Primi looked up at her father, and nodded in the affirmative, “I do not understand all of your vocabulary Daddy, but I know exactly what you mean.”
Primi yawned, fighting to keep her eyes open. Her mother’s eyes and her mother’s face, but with skin white as freshly fallen mountaintop snow, under a halo of whitish yellow gold hair. About to fall asleep she mumbled, “The malek is going to tell Mommy your secret, Daddy.”
“What secret?” exclaimed Sully, startled, as a bewildered frown replaced his happy father look.
But Primi was fast asleep. Sully Wong carefully exited his chair and took his first-to-break-forth-from-the-egg daughter and gently placed her in the arms of her holographic nanny.
Primi’s governess gently floated ahead of Ambassador Wong, then turned into the newly decorated female youngling bedroom chamber. Snake Daddy peeked into the children’s new bedrooms, the boys’ side and the girls’ side, and smiled at them. Then with a frown and a sigh, he ambled off to his ambassador’s office to write his daily report to Commander Zales.

***
When Riva floated to her room, she snapped at her personal chamber maid to leave at once. She added a terse command not to return until summoned. Feeling guilty, Riva stopped the scurrying maid and tossed her a small handful of gold pieces and told her to go visit the mall gallery. After her chamber maid had exited, Riva walked over to her iron weapons rack and deposited her short swords and scabbard belt.
Riva locked her doors and sat on her large four poster canopy bed, then shifted her tail inside. She drew closed the emerald and burgundy bed curtains.
Rolling into the center of the bed, Riva did something she had not done since she was a child. That was just a bit shy of three hundred years ago, a little less than five years after she had had her first molt.
Less than a week after her first molt, young Riva had dashed excitedly, early in the morning, as a feathered rooster in the nearby henyard was crowing audaciously at the new sunrise.
She had often visited the smithery courtyard, early in the morning, as soon as she could dispense with morning throne room duties, to visit her father. Riva would have freed him from his tether, but her mother, the evil Zzzillzzzaga, while she had still been living, had ordered the audio key device that unlocked it, hidden.
And no matter how much young Riva had threatened or cajoled the warriors and servants, no one seemed to know who had hidden the key or where.
Of course, when the old smith had died, the Atlanticean metal tether had opened of its own volition. And the tether opening and closing device had been found, serendipitously over a century later. She had used the Atlanticean metal tether to chain the audacious and mischievous white flying bull monkey, Kabooki, to the fountain, many decades after that. Kabooki is a male monkey. The white ape had wings, but it was just an ape species that had been modified genetically for flight thousands of years in the past. It and the others of its kind, scattered around the planet, mostly in the southern islands, did not have any cattle genes, thankfully.
Running into the yard, listening to the bubbling of the fountain, young Queen Riva had spotted her Mountain Barbarian father, Kerragon. He was lying in his sleeping furs, quietly, peacefully, dead. He had died in his sleep, on the ground, between the smithery shed and the fountain.
Present Queen Riva, stomach roiling, and so physically tired and emotionally drained she couldn’t think, abruptly ceased her daisy chain of memories. The Queen rolled into a fetal position, on her canopy bed, and cried herself to sleep.
When she awoke, Riva began thinking of her children and Sully. She talked to herself rethinking recent events and pondered about her children again, especially her bold little fortune teller, Primi!
She paced for over an hour, slithering back and forth around her canopy bed. Suddenly she hissed violently as several snake scales painfully popped off her tail and skittered across the room.
Riva angrily crossed her arms over her stomach and bent over, “Great! Bowel cramps! I hope I don’t spend the rest of the day hunched over my chamber pot! And the maid isn’t here to run it to my deep hole chamber in the back of my room!” Riva slither-paced, back and forth across her bed chamber, tale rattling ominously, for several minutes.
Riva abruptly exclaimed out loud, with volume, but more frustrated than angry, “If you are real, Creator, weee need to talk!”
“I don’t know what you expected,” mumbled Riva to herself after five long minutes. She sighed and sat down on the bed again. Scant moments later the Queen arose and began to pace back and forth, her three-molt rattle shaking ominously, at the end of her thick, scaled, muscular snake tail. More scales popped off into the shadows and her skin began to itch like she had head to belly hives.
From time to time, she would flounce her black, feathered and gemmed dread locks.
Suddenly there was a knock on her door. Riva snapped, “I am indisposed! If you are a servant I am going to send you to the dungeons. If it is you, Ambassssador Sum Ting Wong, and I open that door, I am going to ship you back to Carnival World!”
Another knock, but firmer, pounded the thick, wooden, iron studded door.
With a flounce of her dreadlocks and a slap of her tail rattle, Riva sprang to the door, popped the lock bolt with a snarl and a hiss. She irritably yanked the door open, ready to dispense Queenly justice.
As the door opened, she was bathed in a golden light. The snarky and blistering sentence froze in her throat, unuttered. The light was so bright Riva fell forward, leaning precariously, off balance, on her snake tail. The Queen tried to talk but was unable to speak.
“The Creator does not usually come calling, even to kings and queens, when summoned. However, Queen Riva,” said the deep, rich, melodious voice, “I was dispatched to answer your summons instead.”

He gently lifted Riva to her feet. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Malek Jazzaziel. And that is M-A-L-E-K, not M-A-L-I-K. Spelled with the letter e it means angelic messenger. When spelled with the letter I, before the K, it means Islamic Hellfire Angel Guardian. I am most assuredly neither Islamic nor a Hellfire angel! I am not Creator. I am not his Son, Jesu. But I am one of their angelic ambassadors.
“You can call me Jazz. Would you mind, Queen Riva, if we gather in your parlor rather than stand in the threshold of your private sleeping chambers?”
“Yes, Malek Jazz, that would be fine.” Still a bit dazed, Riva motioned Jazz to a cushioned emerald chair. It was a fine chair designed by a master carpenter in the merchant mall. Riva, no longer blinded by the light emanating from the angel, looked him over from head to foot. Jazz stood in excess of several feet tall, dressed in glowing white robes, handsome and muscular, exuding an aura of controlled power, but also elements of kindness and compassion. His eyes were glowing electric lavender. His blond hair shimmered like freshly minted gold in the firelight of the many torch sconces. Jazz plucked at his neatly trimmed dark gold Van Dyke and smiled at her reassuringly.
After taking her seat, Riva offered, “I would offer you tea, Malek Jazz, but the maid is off for the day. And some of my guards are a bit clumsy for that sort of task.”
“No, Queen Riva, that is not necessary.” He waved gently, a deprecatory gesture, then smiled once more, before chuckling apologetically, “Forgive me Queen and please forgive your guards. Your guards are now in a state of suspended animation and standing at post just outside of your parlor doors. They will remain so for a few hours, but will wake up full of energy, and a century younger than they were.”
“Under the circumstances, I understand, Malek Jazz. Since you are a malek,” said Riva, “You must have a message. From what I have read, such visits are rare; what is the message?”
“Yes, indeed, Queen, such visits are rare. And moreso, you are not fully human, which does complicate things. But you are of human stock. Thousands of years ago, even before your mother commissioned them to build her hybrid army, the Atlanticean scientists played their dark and foolish crisper tech games. The Naga Race of Carnival World, as the father of your children names this planet, was one such byproduct.
“As you know, fine Queen, when you Naga reach the proper age, before you undergo your first molt, you have a choice. To serve Creator, to serve the snake gods or become your own independent small g god.
“If you make that choice, to serve Creator, right away, it is much simpler. That said, Queen Riva, in your culture, making that choice may have unfortunate consequences. And since you are not an offspring of the fallen angels, which makes such things almost impossible, you have the opportunity to serve Creator. The percentage of human blood, really the lack thereof, definitely puts a crimp on things. This is not an issue for you or your children, Queen Riva.
“Your father, as you know, dear Riva, all though more of a free agent, until not long before his capture by your mother’s hunting crew, was a servant of Jesu and under Creator’s protection.
Your father could have been killed, but so that you could be born, be made Queen and one day also serve Jesu, his capture was allowed. Further, your mother underwent the painful temporary change into human form to improve her minimal fertility and failing health. Then, while your father, Kerrigon, was unconscious, tethered to the smith shed, near the garden fountain, she used him to fertilize her eggs. That, too, was allowed for Kingdom purposes. Finally, only one egg was allowed, by Creator’s will, to come to full hatching. And, thus, dear Riva, you were born in the proper place at the proper time.
“You were saying, Queen Riva, to Creator, that you would consider being healed of your genetic tampering and become fully human. If you repent of your mistake, to Jesu the Son, in not choosing wisely at the time of your first molt, and other shortcomings, and believe in the power of Jesu, to redeem you, he will also heal and cleanse you. He will make you whole again. And without pain. That is a blessing not often given except to first molt Naga! Just as that is a free will agreement, dear Riva, so too are a few things Jesu asks of you.
“You have the day to consider your choice. There are, however, a few things that Jesu would ask of you. You need to be a good example to your subjects.
“Creator and Jesu appointed you as Queen of your lands and you will always be Queen. That will not be removed from you as has happened to Queens in your culture in the past.
“Walking as a wife will be a fine line for you. While Mr. Wong will one day be your husband, he has not been called to be king, beside you or over you. And yet, in your marriage, you must remember to honor and adore him, in much the same way your people honor and adore you, Queen Riva.
“Read the book of Ephesians. Ambassador Wong has a copy of an Earth Bible hidden away in his office. Note that even though a wife should submit to her husband, it is also true that a husband should pour himself out for her, like Jesu poured himself out for his church.
“Seek Bishop Conner, after your official joining, for insight on this mystery.
“But back to being a good example, as Queen, to your people. It is best if you do not, as Queen, order these things, but that they, of their own free will, be given the same opportunity.
“For example, dress standards should be much more modest. And we have seen, Queen Riva, that you recently took a step in the right direction. The progress you have made recently is commendable. That said, even further modification of your wardrobe would be of great benefit to your people, especially the young adults who function as ladies-in-waiting. Lead by example and you will do well in your task.
“Your ladies-in-waiting must make their own decisions, of course, but a wife should only do – ahh, how shall I say this – perform chambering with their own husband, not with various merchants and guards, as is the custom here. That is, one should marry first, be loyal to your mate, and not seek such pleasures as alley cats on the prowl.
“It is not proper! It is bad form! Your culture is unaware of such things. But for actual servants of Jesu, it is worse than that. For them it is forbidden activity! It is sin!
“Also, you should read Jesu’s book. Read it from cover to cover but focus on the New Testament first.
“Ask Sullivan to give his copy to you. And, dear Riva, I hope you remember me fondly when I go, but you must not seek after any malek, good or bad. Neither will I ever visit you again, nor will I come to your aid again, like this.
“And, by the way, please remind Sullivan, Riva dear, that when he was just a boy, he went on a Bible camping trip. After hearing the preacher, Sullivan went forward and promised to serve Jesu, called Jesus on that world, for the rest of his life.
“Sully’s parents were not believers, and he always stayed very quiet about his choice. Many times, but not always, unfortunately, Sullivan knew what he had read. Based on that knowledge, he often made life decisions grounded by that.
“Tell Sullivan, Queen Riva, that he can no longer hide his faith under a bushel basket. Remember that sentence, ‘no longer hide his faith under a bushel basket!’
“When I leave, Queen Riva, you should have a chat with your new master, Jesu. I will not be returning to you again, Queen Riva. So, Queen Riva, you must by necessity wait on Jesu, develop a personal relationship with him, and in time you will become more sensitive to his will. The Spirit of Jesu will give you insight and wisdom as you read his Bible and learn to walk with Him.
“Sleep after you talk with Jesu, dear Riva, and when you awake, you will still be Queen, but you will be fully human. Remember, Riva, and do not fear! Creator chose you while you were still in your mother’s womb to be Queen and Queen you shall be – all the days of your long life.
“Even though you are now human, and Naga no longer, as long as you remain on Carnival World, your body will still possess great regeneration capability. Sully T. Wong, however, does not have that gift, and unless he uses the advanced technology life extension, every century or so, you will outlive him for multiple centuries.
“Then go make amends with Sully and your children. All your children before they die, dear Riva, will make the good and eternal choice. Only some of them at their first molt will become servants of Jesu. Some will make that change later. One already knows she will serve my master. The other thinks he will be a free agent, but serve Jesu at a distance, like his father. And because he will have quaint notions about what is allowed and what is not allowed as far as free will. The sneaky one will have his come to Jesu moment last of all and late in life, so be patient dear Riva, Jesu has foreseen that all your children will come to him, and though each will make their mistakes from time to time, non will ever serve the snake gods like your mother.”
Queen Riva was going to ask Jazz a question, as she nodded her head in agreement, but the angel had vanished.
***

Orlando Bard yawned and stretched, even wiggling his toes, inside his Wellington’s, propped, back of the heels to the floor, in front of his stage chair. “Here we are again, boys and girls, kitties and doggies, throwing the clock out of the window! Everyone take a break and we will be back in twenty minutes for Part Five of ‘The Ballad of Queen Riva, Snake Daddy and the Eight Exceptional Eggs: Rituals and Choices.’
“Okey Dokey folks, ready or not, installment five of tonight’s adventure, let it begin!”

CARNIVAL WORLD CHAPTER 48

Bard tilted his head, then intoned dramatically, “You, fine folks, are almost at the end of the first ever rendition of this story arc. And now, Part Five, the conclusion of ‘The Ballad of Queen Riva, Snake Daddy and the Eight Exceptional Eggs: Rituals and Choices.’”
***
When Riva awoke, she rolled out of her canopy bed and promptly fell off but caught herself on the curtains. Her scaled tail was gone. Two long slender human legs peeked out of her woolen short skirt. When she rose once more, Riva fell against her dresser and leaned against it.
Riva looked into the mirror that lay on top of her dresser amongst a neat pile of cosmetics and hair combs and knick-knacks. Her eyes flew wide, and she stared into the mirror. Her makeup had dissolved into the pillow, but she was still beautiful. A top model, but not a supermodel. Riva was accustomed to that – how she looked without makeup.
It was her eyes that had caught her attention. The Queen’s lovely eyes were still the same color, honeyed amber with gold flecks. Her pupils, however, were round and black, not sharp-ended ebony ovals. Riva’s height was still the same.
She had been six feet tall, standing on the bend of her tail, and now her long legs brought her above the stone-cold under-castle floor to the exact same vertical position. Riva grinned, then exclaimed to herself, “I will still be able to see eye to eye with Sully! He told me once that those of Japanese blood are often short, but that his inherited genetics from the American side of his family had been tall and athletic, but not body-builder types. Tall like Carnival World’s Mountain Barbarian race, but not built as broad-shouldered nor as stoutly muscular.”
Riva’s legs began to tingle. Her knees pressed up against the fine, but hard-edged teak of the dresser. That in turn caused pressure pain to nibble at her kneecaps. Taking a deep breath, she flexed her legs, first one then the other. Tentatively she stepped away from the bureau. Taking her time, she walked carefully around her room.
Not feeling the swish of her tail or hearing the dice cup rattle of her three-molt tail rings was a bit disconcerting. “And I smell different!” she giggled. But, after a few faltering steps, like a newborn foal, she finally mastered her legs. Riva laughed, exclaimed, “Thank you, Jesu!” and skipped around her bed chamber.
Just about to run to the nursery area and then look for Sully, she stopped, stepped over to her wardrobe, and rummaged through her hanging shirts. At last, she found a knee-length, white fox robe, hanging on a hook in the back. Riva threw it over her clothes, fastened the robe clasps, then raced to the children.
She found them in the nursery with the nannies. Sleepily munching on mixed fruit, muffins, nuts and sausage slices. She apologized to them for her morning outburst.
Primi was the first to smile and curtsy. The others smiled, then cried, “Mommy! Mommy!” but then looked, with awe, at her new legs and missing tail. They did not rush forward, except for Octavius, who after a confused moment, rushed to hug her. Of course, Primi arrived at the same time. The others, still very sleepy, smiled but continued to happily and shyly munch their snacks.
Riva grinned, gently hugged Primi and Octavius and whispered, “You better go finish your snacks before you fall asleep. Pentia is already snoring.” Following a chuckle Riva commanded, “Nannies! Help my children finish their food and get them back in bed. I am off to find Snake Daddy. And boy do I have a story for him!”
The Queen said a quick goodbye to her children again. Tertius was sleeping now on his nursery blanket. And the rest of the children, still staring at her long human legs, were fighting the sandman. The eight governesses began carefully collecting up the children. Some were drowsy and were gently guided. Those who were asleep were carefully picked up and carried. The governesses escorted the Queen down the hall to the bunk chambers to tuck in their charges.
Riva excitedly navigated the maze until she found the ambassadorial suite. Not even knocking, she skipped through the open archway. Riva had already decided that she would pound on his bedroom door if he was sleeping in it.
But now Agent Sully, Snake Daddy of Snake Daddies, was slouched over his laptop computer, leaning forward from his fine leather wingback executive desk chair. His nose pressed firmly into the keyboard. Several paragraphs of alphanumerical gobbledygook were printed on the screen in neat Baskerville font. His errant text was cluttering the word processing file of the day’s ambassadorial journaling.
Standing back from the desk, Riva grabbed a thick leather book and began tapping it on the writing table. Sully mumbled and his nose started a new stream of J, K and I lines of text. Riva began thumping the book, a bit more firmly, grinning mischievously.
Finally, Sully jerked up into a sitting position, still seated but his hands and arms held in a defensive posture. Breaking into a spiel of guttural Japanese, Sully finally put his hands down then said, “Oh, it is you, Riva. You look absolutely ravishing tonight. Are you wearing bunnies or foxes?” He looked up again at Riva, confused, “You’ll have to forgive me, Princess. I must be dreaming. I thought you were Riva. But Riva does not have legs. Yes. I must be dreaming. I am going back to sleep now.”
Rather than falling forward, Ambassador Wong fell back against the wing chair and closed his eyes. He started to snore, but it only came out as a short snort.
Riva laughed, “You are so lucky that I don’t know how to use that calling cell phone of yours. I definitely want to use that camera on you. You, sir, certainly have enough pictures of me and the children!”
Ambassador Sully snored briefly again.
“Sully, wake up!”
“I don’t want to go to school,” mumbled Ambassador Wong in a whiny child’s voice.
“What?” exclaimed Riva.
Riva backed away from the front of Ambassador Wong’s desk and sat down in the first of two guest chairs. She began to chuckle. Then the Queen bent over double and laughed so hard that she cried. Slapping her bare feet against the Persian rug that covered the stone chamber floor of the small room, she exclaimed through the gales of her laughter, “I am seriously going to need to invest in some shoes.”
Sully leaned over to his left side along the wingback chair, head no longer pointing chin up but drooped sideways, “Naga Queens do not…uhh…need…need to wear shoooes.”
Riva threw her head back, feathered and jeweled dread locks flying behind her like Medusa’s hairy snakes and began to laugh uncontrollably. She kicked her feet and slapped the soft leather chair arms with the palms of her hands, tears dribbling down her cheeks.
Suddenly Sully jumped out of his chair. “Who’s making all this noise in my office!
“Oh. Sorry, it is you, Riva. Fancy that. I was just dreaming about you. You were a goddess. Like your name. Dancing with the stars. But, but, but they were all laughing at me! And. And. And. But I was telling them… that …that…you… that you…you can’t have legs. And all …all…all the stars were…were…
“You. You. You have legs… legs…legs…”
Suddenly Sully’s mouth twisted around, he swallowed hard, and his jaws clenched. Then his eyes flew open, much wider than his standard look of surprise. At last, Ambassador Wong sat back in his chair, hands over his eyes, shoulders rocking back and forth. He began to sob. Over and over and over.
“When you are finished with your cry, Sully,” offered Riva gently, “I have quite the story to tell you. Take your time. I have time to wait. I cried myself to sleep this morning. I cried hard, after my embarrassing temper tantrum, with you and the children. By the way…uhm…sorry about that. My temper tantrum.”
Sully nodded his head, but tried to speak and faltered, throat croaking out a few limp and unintelligible mumbles. Finally, he just stopped trying to talk and cried for a few minutes more.
Riva waited.
Finally, Sully was able to speak, “Primi told me that a malek was going to visit you and that he would tell you, Riva, my secret. What did he tell you?” Sully took a deep breath, wiped his eyes and leaned back, suddenly smiling at her, as he waited.
“Well, Snake Daddy,” giggled Riva as she held out a leg and twisted her foot up at him, “that is a little way into the story. If I am going to tell you the story, Sully, I want to start from the beginning.”
“Yes, my Queen.”
Riva rolled her amber eyes and said, “Enough with the Queen business, Sully. Unless we are at court or when we are out in public, that is fine. When we are alone together. Or just with the maids, governesses or our children, I am Riva, and you are Sully.”
“Yes, Quariva,” replied Sully.
“One more time, Sully. You almost had it.”
“Yes, Riva.”
It took over thirty minutes, with Sully popping in with a few questions, hither and yon. Then they spent another hour discussing the children and then he popped the question…about their upcoming wedding. They both agreed that they should marry, and sooner, rather than later. It took them a little more discussion before they finally agreed to have a quick, quiet wedding, with only a few court personages and a few friends. They would have the ceremony at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, but after the children reached their first molt. Which was about four days away.
The nannies weaned the children off the intense sleep and pain killing supplements and softened the training schedule. The “eight” continued learning reading, writing, arithmetic, basic life skills and history at an advanced level. They also learned very basic arms and armor training.
Primi, just before her first molt, announced that her true name was Jasmine. She spelled it human fashion, not with multiple Z’s or S’s common to the British Hindi and Snake Tongue language of the Naga. Some of her siblings, in their turn, did the same. Secundus for example, rather than being called Zzzell became simply Zell.
Jasmine, who had been serving creator already, chose, even before her first molt, to serve Creator and become human. Jasmine also started training in alchemy, healing, artifact studies and court adviser skills.
Secundus became Zell. He chose to become human and serve Creator. He also began training as a Kings and Queens Adviser. He enrolled for a semester at the Flying Serpents Guild, at Lady Q’s Castle, in Carnival City. He also took an internship with the St. Patrick’s guild for training as a cleric. While interning, Zell started a chapel at the Dark Naga Castle, with many members of his family, especially his parents, participating. Even those who decided to be free agents visited his chapel or had meetings in their private parlor areas, occasionally.
Tertius became Zee’Tark. Or Zee Tee. He chose to live as a free agent, learned the black smith and mercantile trade, then worked in his grandfather’s shop near the White Flying Monkey fountain.
Quartia became Valkyrie. She learned battle strategy, sword and shield from the nannies, then enrolled in Lady Q’s guild as a knight trainee (also called Battle Page to distinguish them from Carnival Page). She chose to serve Creator.
She told her family that changing now would be easier than changing later.
Riva agreed with her. Sully suggested that making the choice to serve Creator at first molt was a wise decision, but from the difficulties that Riva had shared with them, if they did wait until later, checking in at Conner’s Hospital would be advisable.
Pentia became Oonah and majored in courtly skill, but with her emphasis on performance arts. She chose to become a free agent.
Sextus became Corstevah. He became a free agent. Corstevah took advanced training in stealth, archery, flora and fauna study, light arms and armor at the Flying Serpent Guild.
Septima became Myrna. Myrna chose to serve Creator. And became human. She studied horticulture and animal husbandry, then tended gardens in a plot near the smithery and henyard. Myrna also imported black angus and Charolais from earth and interbred them into the Angolais (On-go-lay) Breed. Her farms are located just south of the castle.
Octavius Percival took heavy arms (double axe) and armor training from the Nannies. By personality he is good-natured, full of jokes, and funny stories, but loyal and steadfast. Physically he is taller and heavier than his parents, with skin and scales, dark as a starless night.
Percy was always ready with a smile and words of encouragement or helping hands. He was almost the most charismatic of Riva and Sully’s children. Percy was second in that trait only to Oonah. Where Oonah was self-centered and vain, Percival was bold, yet humble. He quickly earned the love and trust of friends and family and kept it. Oonah was quick to receive attention and fans, especially as an entertainer, but earned fame rather than trust and admiration.
Percy took training at the Flying Serpent Guild as a Battle Knight (no Page trainee level to learn gentleman’s gentlemen training, medic skill, tailoring, court etiquette and smithing) for six months, promising to return to Dark Castle as a Naga Knight. That is, before becoming a true Knight, (white knight or crusader knight) at Lady Q’s guild, one was required first, to learn to serve a knight – as a lowly Page.
Percival had told his family that he had thought about making his allegiance with Creator at first molt. After wrestling with that choice, he had stayed a free agent, so that he could be a good example to the Naga Guards at the Dark Castle.
Percival had told his family that he wanted to serve Creator, and would do his best not to dishonor Creator, but wanted to stay Naga, rather than become a human.
Like his brothers and sisters who stayed free agents, his legs disappeared following his next sleep, and his tail grew to support his great black muscular frame. His natural ability to use anti-gravity around his body gave him the spectacular floating and speedy charge and leap capacity possessed by most Naga warriors.
Percival did not gain another set of arms, or belly armor, like a true male Naga. Neither did any of his brothers and sisters. And those who chose to become fully human, as long as they did not slip back into free agent status, every century, until their time on Carnival World was done, they would be regenerated and age regress, youthful and free from disease. Besides the Elf like long life, Naga who became human could be discerned by the rainbow sprinkling effect, like tiny glittery freckles, on their skin.
And those who chose to be Naga free agents, unless they decided to one day serve Creator they too could still look forward to long lives, but not as long.
And what did Malek Jazz say? He said that those who did not serve Jesu at their first molting, would one day, despite the difficulties, serve Jesu.
***

And so, ends the first rendition of ‘The Ballad of Queen Riva, Snake Daddy, and the Eight Excellent Eggs.’
Of course, fine folks, at the time of tonight’s Bard Show, “The Excellent Eight” are all less than fourteen years old! And they were age progressed a day for a year. That leaves long years, if not centuries, for their adventures to continue! And of course, Ambassador Sullivan Tingerius Wong and Queen Riva Zzzillzzzaga are very happily married. Both are very active in Brother Secundus Zell’s Naga Chapel and home meetings.