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Quest of the Heart: Chapter One, Cont

Of Ghosts and fiends in Twilight, Cont.


A thought flashed in my mind from the old tales told
The lore of the beast and I had felt his foul breath
I had seconds to act or be devoured alive
I had to lead in this desperate dance with death

Just then a sound like rushing wind came from below
I tried to swing my feet up to catch on the wall
A tremendous force blasted up from behind
It grabbed me up from the stone with one huge claw

The myth of the dragon become fierce reality 
We soared upward onto a dizzying height
Then downward we rushed towards the tower parapets
The black-heart, crimson red beast clutching fast and tight

So quick his decent the world surged up in a blur
I would surely be dashed to a pulp on the stones
His great wings spread wide and we slowed to a hover
He loosed his grip and dropped me onto a pile of bones

In his nest of decay, corpses of long dead knights
Half-eaten and rotting lay the dreams of brave men
I looked up into his red eyes now fixed and blazing
His mouth oozing spit turned up in an evil grin

His jaws moved to speak as smoke and ash poured forth
He hissed, “Thou shalt never see thy Lady again!”
“She is wed to my Lord and thou art about to die!”
The lie was a stench on his breath offensive as sin

“Thou knowest not, foul beast, of whom thou hast besieged!”
Clutching Wolven Stave I proclaimed loud and clear
“I hath come for my Lady for she is my bride,”
“’Tis thou whom whilt die, and shouldst the Pale Rider fear!”

The brute took in a vast breath and made to exhale
I took up Wolven Stave and held him before me
He spewed out a searing stream of fire and hot ash
The blazing wave split and flowed around my body

Before the smoke cleared and he saw me unconsumed
By the hilt of Wolven Stave I unsheathed a sword
A long, dark grey blade forged of mountain steel
Wielding ‘Grey Bane’ for my Love I lunged forward

With the speed of a cat I sprang at my foe
“Have at thee!” I cried as I thrust for his black heart
“For my Lady’s honor I send thy soul to Hell”
 That day my aim was never truer to its mark

Grey Bane sunk deep within the monster’s heaving chest
His life’s blood spilled out in a steaming river 
I pulled back, heart still pounding impaled on cold steel
His hideous form was felled and stilled forever

The heart beat its last as I cleaved it in two
A great wailing arose up from the Nether World
The ground shook and lightening crashed through the sky
The Dark Lord awoke his wrath to be unfurled

I returned my thoughts to my Fair Gennifer Lynne
Restored Wolven Stave and went back into the keep
To take up my quest interrupted by the beast
And find the Evil One awaken from his sleep

True love and honor of family name swear me
To find my Lady Fair and destroy her captor 
To this end I am bound and glad to be so
For I am alone and incomplete without her

I followed a long dark corridor downward
That ended at a large, locked wooden door
Passing Wolven Stave right to left it swung wide
Opening up to a cavernous chamber

Stepping inside the door slammed hard behind me
The chamber was dead calm and eerily still
My pace stealthy and slow as I tread the stone floor
A feeling of dread was now challenging my will

The lit torches about the walls all dimmed at once
A warm air stirred with the stink of rot and decay
Spectral forms appeared and swarmed all around me
Legions of the dammed, the undead come to prey

In command of the force, a large black daemon
Screaming and moaning they descended to the ground
Worm ridden ghouls and bony, fleshless wraiths
A maddening sight and blood curdling sound

They all came forth and backed me up towards the wall
I cried, “Halt, dread souls, my fight is not with the grave!”
The daemon then grunted, “Thy fight ends here and now!”
“We are charged by our Master thy soul to enslave!”

He barked a command and the attack did begin
A blood-spewing zombie, first to test my wrath
Unleashing Grey Bane I sliced off his gruesome head
I spun right around and sliced two more in half

A vampire was next, red eyes and blood-dripping fangs
I took up Wolven Stave and ran straight through his chest
Another had at me and I hacked his head off
They were bound to do their worst and I my best

Beset by more blood-sucking beasts of the night
I grabbed up a flaming torch from the cavern wall
Brandishing fire I set forth to engage them
Screeching they turned to ash as I set ablaze all

At that moment the ghouls took to surround me
Returning Grey Bane I struck Wolven Stave on the floor
The blue stone atop it glowed bright as the full moon 
The putrid spectres dissolved to return no more
 
‘Twas now the ghastly wraith’s time to do me battle
Skeletal warriors waving swords and spears
I released Grey Bane again to meet his victims
I loosed him hard upon them for holding me here

I hacked off the heads of the skeletons and cleaved them in two
I lunged at the wraith and Grey Bane found his stony heart
I made short work of the entire evil hoard
But this battle had just begun to start

Copyright © Jeff W. Watson | Year Posted 2020

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