The Conquest of Forestwatch

By: Demetrios Posted on: March 30, 2006

This work is a companion work to "The Fall of Forestwatch," which is a poem submitted this month by Wivylma Winterwind. We endeavored to write about the same event from two, different points of view. They are fictional, but in such a way as to permissibly fit into the recorded history of Forestwatch.

What follows is a chant intended for live performance, preferably with a percussive instrument. The emphasized words should at least be vocally emphasized by the performer by saying them loudly, however they might also be emphasized by the use of the instrument, or being said along with the performer by the audience or a chorus.

The Conquest of Forestwatch

Listen to the humans as they chatter and they hum:
Treacherous dogs with teeth all shining.
In walls we defended, we see them dining,
On our spoils dining,
Building on their fortress like the beating of a drum,
The walls all aligning,
Pounding in the postern like the beating of a drum,
Thrum, thrum, THRUM!

Blood rings my ears as I look through the haze,
The buckawns on my flank are quietly creeping,
Behind those walls, their Lord is sleeping,
No buckawns sleeping,
Then CHARGING to the fortress in a militant phase,
Their children are weeping,
Cut down by our solidiers in a militant phase,
Raze, raze, RAZE!

BURN for the lies and false promises made!
FALL to our explosion of death-edged lust,
Taking our pleasure with their women in the dust,
Bring them to the dust,
The spirits in my veins are coming to our aid,
Our vengeance is just,
My chants bring forth the spirits, coming to our aid,
Raid, raid, RAID!

I am the witch man that conjures their doom.
The Buckawn Lord leads with bow and blade,
Hooves of his buckawns stomping down this glade,
Taking back our glade.
Our dread Lord orders me to occupy a taken room!
All my totems laid.
My guard defends me as we occupy a taken room.
Fade, fade, FADE!

BOOM bangs the door, inside the Keep's Lady barges.
Glaring at me now with imperious eyes,
"The Lady of the Keep now comes and tries -
with her blade tries -
to hinder me?" I cackle with insolent charges.
O, her battle cries!
Her conscience goes unbothered with insolent charges.
Lies, lies, LIES!

Withering her limbs as I breathe out my curse,
She mends up those limbs as her shortsword sings.
I cannot hear my chanting as the cold iron rings.
On my bone shirt, it rings!
"Coward!" she comes calling as my guards disperse.
Aid me, primal things!
A last call to my totems as my guards disperse.
Brings, brings, BRINGS...

The spirits of my Vodun come crashing through the halls,
Breathing in the darkness in a sibilant sigh.
From underneath Thoth's realm, I draw them nigh!
The dead are coming nigh!
Even her beloved comes to answer to my calls -
The lightning in my eye -
The body of her Lordship comes to answer to my calls!
Die, die, DIE!

See how she falters at her husband's grisly sight?
He bludgeons her to Maya's Hall as I explain with glee,
"Your husband died a coward! His life is held by me!
His body now serves me!
Slaughtered by my buckawns in his ineffective flight -
And O, how he did flee!
Hid up in his bedroom in his ineffective flight.
See, see, SEE?"

He strikes her body down as my guards begin their work.
I soak up her despair like an exquisite balm,
She knows that, like her husband, I shall have her in my palm,
Her cold corpse in my palm.
She begins her own prayers as I watch her with a smirk
She breathes a desperate psalm.
She strikes a bargain with her gods? I watch her with a smirk.
Calm, calm, calm.

The spirits of the Dryads whisk her soul from my cold cage!
Curse this thieving wisp, this malevolent sprite!
My eyes go blind themselves with a storm of yellow light,
My hatred in that light!
I hold this room, eternal, as a token of my rage.
Dryads, humans - blight!
I'll chase your souls forever, as a token of my rage!
Fight! Tight...
Night.