Hello all! I've decided to take the National Novel Writing Month challenge again this year, and I'm going with a furry theme this year. The idea of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel in its entirety in the month of November. You're supposed to write now, edit later. Just getting the 50,000 words down is the important part. I've got a bit of a late start, but I'm liking what I have so far. I'd like to share the first thousand (or so) words of what I have, and let you guys judge it. Please, pardon any grammatical or stylistic mistakes, those are edits that I will do when the novel is complete. For now, I'd like to get your feedback on the story and my story-telling method. Thanks!
One day ago, a mass gathering of local lacertans in protest of the Integration Mandate met in the city center and camped in the parks. Fearing the protest would turn disruptive, as lacertan protests seemed often to do elsewhere in the country, the city government requested aid from federal peacekeepers, a request that was granted. Hundreds of peacekeepers of mixed genera, virtually none of them from this city, arrived to support local law enforcement on the morning of August first, the morning on which the mandate was to take effect.
National Resolution 75, referred to by supporters and protesters alike as the Integration Mandate, was a law forbidding the exclusion of students from any school, at any age, based on genus. The country was divided in their opinions of the mandate. Supporters argued that genus exclusion was backwards and led to education practices that bred discrimination later in life for the children. Protesters countered with arguments based on the fact that cultural and historical education of any given genus was imperative. Interestingly, these protesters were nearly exclusively lacertans.
Lacertans were highly evolved people of reptilian origin. They resembled lizards in body-shape and build, though they had evolved certain physiological differences that made walking on hind-legs possible and comfortable, as well as the ability to communicate with other genera through spoken language. Throughout history, lacertan ancestors had fought many bloody wars in defense of their homelands and in desire to be accepted as natural people in the eyes of the world. Some countries embraced the lacertans, others despised them.
Countries that embraced the lacertans quickly took notice of their fiercely tribal mentalities. While some lacertans certainly attempted to integrate as quickly as possible into modern society, many more wanted their offspring to grow up lacertan, learn lacertan history and language, and marry other lacertans.
One institution of lacertan culture that was, to many lacertans, non-negotiable, was the Lacertan Primary School. These schools were of famously high quality. The teaching profession was a high honor and quite well looked-upon in lacertan society, whereas other genera did not put as much of an emphasis on raising and educating excellent teachers. Lacertans in general reached a level of intellectual maturity sooner than in other genera, meaning that the curricula in LPSs moved extremely quickly. The typical Lacertan child attended an LPS from age 5 to age 13, before entering a public or private high school, while most students of other genera did not enter school until 6 or 7 years old.
Lacertan protesters believed that it was the unwillingness of the other genera to accept that lacertan children were intellectually superior that had led to the Integration Mandate. Supporters of the mandate rejected that presumption, instead offering evidence for the fact that LPSs did not emphasize national history, art, or music. LPSs taught instead Lacertan History and extra courses of math and science.
Though the Integration Mandate would simply force LPSs to accept students of other genera, the widely-held belief was that this mandate would be the first step in forcing all LPSs to conform to national curricula, as had happened with some minority groups in similar fashions. Lacertans were far from the small minority they once were, and social leaders were determined not to conform.
In the weeks during which the Integration Mandate was being argued in the Senate, interactions between lacertans and other genera were growing tense. Lacertan business owners offered their services only to other lacertans, or at the least charged people of different genera higher prices. The reaction was exactly tit-for-tat on the other side. Inean, nekon, lupan, and vulpean business owners, to name a few, had shut their doors to lacertans on multiple occasions.
The boiling point was reached on the first of August, when, at approximately noon, the nation’s president, a dark-furred vulpean appeared on television, which was broadcast live to the assembled crowd by the enormous, slowly turning hologram projectors in the park’s center.
“Today, we take a giant step forward towards the future of this great country. Resolution 75 takes effect today. Parents may now begin to register their children for the schools that will educate them for the greater part of their childhoods, regardless of genus. We are proud to say, we are well on our way to eradicating discrimination, wherever it exists.”
With this last comment, the rest of the President’s words were drowned out by murmuring, talking, and eventually yelling from the crowd. He had effectively equated the existence of Lacertan Primary Schools with the existence of discrimination and racism. Without saying it directly, he was calling the Lacertans racists – a sentiment racist in its own right.
As dissent grew louder, the assembled peacekeepers seemed to wake up a bit. They assumed more active postures and from their body language, they seemed to know that the inevitable end to this peaceful gathering was approaching. Within moments of the end of the President’s speech, the large riot-control vehicles churned to life and a police commander’s voice was broadcast to the assembled crowd via loudspeaker.
“The allotted time for this gathering has ended. Please disperse immediately.”
There was no “allotted time” for this gathering. They didn’t need permission to be in a public park, watching television and conversing, but the police were trying to diffuse a situation that was starting to gather momentum.
Many of the assembled protesters who knew what was to follow did attempt to disperse, but not before the crowd’s overall dissent and disobedience spurred the riot police to action. They formed a perimeter around the central holo-news station. Once a secure area was established within that perimeter, leaders could be seen shouting orders into radios and preparing to move.
Gunan-Hai, a 14 year-old recent graduate of the Central LPS, was at the gathering with two of his schoolmates. He didn’t like how the President had phrased things, but he also didn’t like how the crowd was behaving. This was liable to get violent if things didn’t calm down.
“What’s happening, Morna?” Gunan said in the common language to his friend, who was much taller than him and could presumably see over the crowd.
“I can’t tell, there’s just a lot of shouting going on,” answered Morna in the guttural lacertan tongue.
Gunan-Hai grabbed onto the tree that his friends had been sitting in front of before the speech. Now everyone was standing. Gunan hoisted himself up onto the first limb, just high enough to see over the crowd. A line had formed in front of the holo-news station. On one side, riot police and peacekeepers stood with 5-foot tall heavy plexiglass and metal shields, forming a tight circle. On the other side, vocal protesters shouted insults at them in common and lacertan. The police officers seemed nervous and fidgety, and the protesters were gaining confidence by the second, some stepping momentarily into the gap between them to spit towards the police.
The loudspeaker came on again. “Disperse immediately. Your presence is disturbing the peace. You are engaging in unlawful activity. Disperse immediately.”
©2013 JRR, Grisli Aklark
Topic: First Thousand Words (or so) of My New Book - TFF Exclusive! (Read 1117 times)