On Wings of the Night

[Lang Kai yi]

Ok...some of you know that I have been working on a book for some time now...or more properly, a book has been working on me.

After several stalled efforts on a novel-length story, I decided to do something a bit...well, different: vingettes strung together to form a larger story.

Pretty much all that is left now is a bit of tweaking...and the all-important legal wrangling for rights to use the lyrics I tend to use. I'm also debating on adding a small handful of poems into the mix as well, but...I'm not sure yet...

Anyhow...Here it is...in its first completed rough-draft, chapter by chapter...

[Lang Kai yi]

Welcome intrepid Traveler...for you are about to embark on a unique journey. It is said that an author creates his or her written artistry from the tapestry of their own lives...So as you set on this exploration you might ask yourself...Is this something woven for the environment herein....or is this the true landscape of the heart mind and soul of the one who sits at this loom?? Perhaps the two are the same thing...for I am lost...so very lost. Perhaps we shall meet someday at the Morpheus Gate...and I will hand you a black crow feather and tell you whether truth is stranger than fiction...

________________________________________ __________________

Black crow feathers fall like snow around us...lead us to the Morpheus Gate. We are lost. Oh... so lost and broken...


Dia de los Meurtos...Celebrate the Day of the Dead


My time in the sun too brief I now stretch out a hand to the night and wait for oblivion. My soul`s desire is now to be nothing. No more tears no more pain no more betrayal. I wait to embrace the night for the dawn is nothing more that a false hope- its bright light blinds the heart from truth while the dagger cuts it out and leaves a gaping wound that can never be healed. I stare as my useless heart beats still bloody in my hand and wonder how I could have been such a fool. The Darkness descends and I wait…


No one....nowhere...nothing.

Close my eyes and stretch out my arms. Fall into Night...last flight into the Abyss...



No one....nowhere...nothing.

Close my eyes and stretch out my arms. Fall into Night...last flight into the Abyss...


Nine Inch Nails: The Great Below

Staring at the sea
will she come?
is there hope for me
after all is said and done
anything at any price
all of this for you
all the spoils of a wasted life
all of this for you
all the world has closed her eyes
tried faith all worn and thin
for all we could have done
and all that could have been

Ocean pulls me close
and whispers in my ear
the destiny I`ve chose
all becoming clear
the currents have their say
the time is drawing near
washes me away
makes me disappear

I descend from grace
in arms of undertow
I will take my place
in the great below

I can still feel you
even so far away
So far away...


I kneel at the shoreline wet sand falling from icy fingers. I stare out across the water beyond the breakers to a dream now dead while the ghosts gather at the edge of my vision- crowding in around me to feast on my tears. The gulls overhead give voice to my heart- screaming in rage and pain. The waves crashing on the nearby cliffs echo my heartbeats: eternal cold…and broken.

How strange- I never really cared for the sea Perhaps because too much of me is mirrored in its surface and hidden in its fathomless depths.
I close my eyes and wait. Wait for the tide. Wait for the ghosts…whatever they are. I wait.

It wasn’t always so. Once I was alive. A whole person subject to the ebb and flow of life- those things that make up the essence of humanity: Hate and love Sorrow and joy Agony and ecstasy- the ebb and flow two halves of the whole. They say you can’t have one without the other. I now know that they are wrong about so many things so horribly wrong.

And now I wait. I wait to bring on the storm.
…Like a rolling thunder chasing the wind…

[Lang Kai yi]

The Dream


Down the endless hall I walk…the pitch black almost velvet against my eyes and skin. Though no light filters here I know instinctively that the walls to either side of me are teak and mahogany polished to a smoothness that of silk-though I dare not touch either wall.
My journey eventually leads me to the end of this corridor to a pool of sourceless light surrounding a tall marble angel whos eyes pour tears of crystalline beauty…and in either stretched out hand a card. The left bears a card with the likeness of a beating heart….the right a sapphire-pommeled silver dagger.

“Life or Death”

The angel whispers into the ethereal stillness and I choose. No sooner is the hilt of the dagger in my hand then the blade slashes a deep cut across the palm of both of my hands and my blood runs down my arms. The angel points down the hall to the right with the now empty hand that once held the dagger-and again I undertake a timeless journey. And again as before…I eventually find myself standing before a marble angel bathed in that mysterious light. In outstretched hands lie again two cards…another heart and a black rose.

“Love or Death”

This angel whispers into my soul and again I choose-and my hand now grasps the stem of the black rose the thorns deeply imbedded into my palm. I slowly open my fingers to find the rose gone-but a single black petal pinned to my palm by a single long cruel thorn-and the angel points to the left.
Forever I walk the silver dagger in my right hand the petal still impaled on the palm of my left…sacred relics of the choices I have made…and then I find myself standing in the open doorway of a great hall-the marble floors polished so that the thousands of candles light the vast space as if it were day. I close my eyes and reopen them and notice the angels that line the walls on either side of this great place… all pointing me forward to the far end where I can barely make out a throne and a figure upon it. More eternity passes as I walk towards whatever destiny has placed here for me-and at last I find myself standing before a golden throne and upon this throne sits a golden angel…fierce yet with the weight of great sorrows within his eyes. He rises from the dais and stretches out his hands to me as the other angels did before and with a low voice that spoke of things my heart could not bear he whispers

“Life or Love”

And in his hands there lie my heart and my soul.

And I looked up into his face and answered the only way I could…with the line from a song that has encompassed my life for over twenty years now…

“I want to live but I don`t belong…I want to love but it comes out wrong. I close my eyes and I see blood and roses…”

And I hold up my hands to show him the palms of my hands bloodied and bruised with the pain of my own choices. He looks down at me and with a sad sigh tells me this:

“Your life is not yours to take or to choose Daughter. Your soul has been bought with a terrible price…far more precious than you can ever conceive or understand.

Your love however….THAT is yours to choose. Your heart is also not your own…but you may choose who may own it…even if they do not wish the task.

For you to love or to live for yourself means only that you will never achieve anything greater than a sorrowful existence.

For you to give your life for another…or your heart to another…though no recompense finds it way back to you…

Daughter….THAT is the greatest achievement of all…”

And in pain and shame over the selfishness my life has been I look down at my hands…and see that the petal in my left hand is now blood red…and it slowly fades to a pure snow white…the thorn that once held it there now a small spike on a silver chain. The silver dagger in my right hand now a gardeners tool…and a small mustard seed nestles in the small shovel I now hold.

“Now go…for He who`s wounds your palms echo has paid for your life…do not mock His sacrifice in living a life of hiding such as you have done…

Live though it may feel like you wish to die
Love though it may tear you apart.
For only Fear of the pain is worse than the pain of Life and Love…”

And then I knew this angel was no angel at all…but He who`s hands bear the wounds that symbolized the sacrifice He made for me…though no power in Heaven or hell could have truly held Him there had he not wished it so.

And then…He faded from my sight…the grand hall was gone…and I stood alone on a windswept dune…the wind tearing at my hair the sand stinging my eyes and cutting into my skin. The sun beat down unmercifully upon me and I knew that I would die. Then softly a voice behind me spoke just loud enough for me to hear above the wailing winds

“Child…is your life not more precious than this? Than why have you been forsaken to this desolation? Follow me and I will provide your soul with rest…your heart with love…and whatever else you may have need of “

I turned and looked into such a sincere face….though his eyes were depthless and unfathomable pools. I nodded and said simply

“Show me…”

And then we stood in a sheltered forest glade near a cool mountain stream. My heart ached to linger here all of the rest of my days. He stood beside me and pointed to a small cabin nestled among the trees and to the man and child sitting upon the porch steps in front of the open door…


“Yours…if you should but ask…”

He whispered into my ear…and my heart knew an ache of longing so sharp it stole my breath. I opened my mouth to tell him yes…but some shadow crossed my mind and I asked instead…

“And the price for this bliss?”

And turned to study his well-formed face as the sunlight shone upon it in radiant glory

“Ah Child…the price. You are a wise one to ask…but it is a small thing really. Nothing more than you yourself…and you have already established that you are but nothing…and what I require is but a small part of your essence…you will never even miss it”

And the sunlight took on a chill as my hands begin to ache…and my left hand rose to the silver spike around my neck…and I watched the man and the child as they sat together on the porch…this perfect life in this perfect world…All I ever wanted from life…here…and all I had to do was agree to this one small price…

“No”

I said and turned away…tears blinding me as my heart broke.

“Child…do you not want peace and love and a chance to finally have that which was taken from you?”

“More than you can ever know…but I will not pay the price you require. I would rather live alone and broken before that…”

Anger flashed within the depths of his eyes and I knew then that though I had refused his offer…and though it would bring me such sorrow…I had chosen wisely…

And then I found myself standing in the middle of an empty crossroad…and here I wait…for what I do not know…Someone to rescue me…an angel…a demon…I do not know…Please….someone find me…

Garbage: A Stroke Of Luck

Hanging by threads of palest silver
I could have stayed that way forever
Bad blood and ghosts wrapped tight around me
Nothing could ever seem to touch me

I lose what I love most
Did you know I was lost until you found me?

A stroke of luck or a gift from God?
The hand of fate or devils claws?
From below or saints above?
You came to me…

Here comes the cold again
I feel it closing in
Its falling down and
All around me falling

You say that you`ll be there to catch me
Or will you only try to trap me?
These are the rules I make
Our chains were meant to break
You`ll never change me

Here comes the cold again
I feel it closing in
You`re falling down and
All around me falling

Stroke of luck or a gift from God?
Hand of fate or devils claws?
From below or saints above?
You come to me now…

Don`t ask me why
Don`t even try

A stroke of luck or a gift from God?
The hand of fate or devils claws?
From below or saints above?
You came to me…

Here comes the cold again
I feel it closing in
Its falling down and
All around me falling

Falling falling
Falling falling
Falling falling.


10/16/2006

Darkness descend around me
Enfold this heart so dead
These silent tears now falling
Drown out the words you said

Lost beyond the nothing
My pain screams in silent hate
Forgotten in the shadows
I leave my soul to fate

Empty hollow promise
Broken wings that cannot fly
Reaching out in desperation
I grasp onto the lie

Hold me now I must let go
And fall into the black
Shelter me until I again can breath
Let me go or bring me back.


Standing at the Crossroads of Desolation and Despair...I must choose but I am still standing there....
Why is it that your heart is often the last to listen to what your mind already knows to be the truth?


The wind howls its fury across the Plains of Desolation…screaming over me from the battlefields of Despair. Turning back the way I have come I look out over the carnage and death I have left behind me…black crows feathers drift down onto the field like some macabre snow. My heart is out there….somewhere…an offering to the crows…but refused just as Death Herself refuses me…My own blood still stains my hand…the ragged hole where my heart used to beat aches…though it is but a faint and distant pain now…I would cry but there are just no tears left in me…just an echo of a feeling I once had but is now gone.

Slowly I merge into something altogether different…The StormBringer…The Bitter One…and the demonic SoulReaver: Stormwolf StormLighter…Marah Bitterwing…and Ro Tavvin…we meld into one…but just what we will be we do not know…but we herald forth a New Age…where The Storm of the Bitter Souls will rage…those who thought they knew us best are those who truly knew us not…and now…

Let blood pour from the skies…let the thunder of your screams be music to our ears…we hold your very soul within our grasp and we will crush the meaning from it…your words and protestations will simply add to the sweet melody of Despair as our retribution again brings offerings to the crows…

You know who you are…and you have every reason to fear us…though in your pride and self-justification you think otherwise…for now the creation has surpassed the creator and we will take our due. You will come to know fear…come to know hate…come to know the darkest abyss…the place we call “Home”…and we will take what little joy we have left in this existence to revel in your pain…for in your reckonings you never conceived the possibility that we might one day abandon our heart and learn to live without it…but oh…how we have grown since that day…and oh…how we now crave the darkest furies of the soul…the deepest unquenchable desires of your heart will now be ours to twist and mangle as we see fit…And oh…how we will delight in this destruction…and oh…how you will come to regret the day that we could have simply slipped away into the ether…

And now we wait for you....at the Morpheus Gate...crow feathers clutched in our hand...wet with our own blood. We will see you on the other side of this dread Gate...we are lost...so very lost...

[Lang Kai yi]

Pain

The wind howls across the plainlands, the voice of ages, the harbinger of time itself. Wraithlike, the clouds lower to cover the mountains, and the tears of heaven itself pour out upon the land.

I am dying.

The knowledge, slow and soft at first, gathers force as a storm grows in power. Raw, deadly…and beautiful, this pain uncoils within my heart and soul. I can no longer contain it, and it will soon spill out, my breath and blood, joining with the furies of the tempest.

~I close my eyes, and I see….Blood and Roses.~
{Smithereens: Blood and Roses}

This voice screaming in my head, teeth tearing at my mind, claws shredding my thoughts. Words no longer have meaning, feelings are vague and insubstantial. I am nothing, I am no longer here. I am less than human…as I was in the beginning. I want out. I need to go away. A place where I can belong. Or at least finally close my eyes and drift into the dark, quietly and unseen.

I want to let go now.

Only the pain, real and sharp and ever-present, anchors me. It tells me that I still live, somewhere. Each breath, I am reminded of an entire life taken for granted. Sometimes, as I lay still, inhaling slowly, struggling against the tide, the waves of this ocean that crushes my chest and reminds me so eloquently of my youthful rebellions, thoughts of what I could have been, should have been, yowl and tear at the ever-weakening barrier of my mind. I am dying…I know this now. I hide it well, for now. I wish I could care. I wish I could fight it. But, for what? To live, a damaged animal, sitting in the shadows watching others live?

~Like a rolling thunder chasing the wind…~
{Live: Lightning Crashes}

The darkness knows my name. Not the name heard with the ears, but that which only the stars may sing. My life is like a stone dropped into the water, the rippling rings ever moving outward…but I am the rock, falling to the depths forever. Endless and cold and dark, the pressure enfolds me. I should feel fear, but I don’t. I have been here, in this place, before. I am coming home. I can hear my name now.

~The angel opens her eyes….Pale blue colored eyes.

I can feel it coming back again…
Like a rolling thunder chasing the wind…
Forces spooling from the center of the earth again…I can feel rain.~
{Live: Lightning Crashes}


~Soaks my skin - through to the bone
Pain is nothing that a downpour won`t erase
Rain - you can`t hold on to it
A treasure you cannot frame
Rain - somehow I`m drawn to it
I feel engaged- one and the same
When heavens dressing beads off my face
The pain is nothing that a downpour won`t erase~
{Delerium: Flowers are Screens}

[Lang Kai yi]

Defeated

She lays curled on the floor in the corner of the room. Her tears have long since dried and gone and she stares at the far wall…at nothing. That wall has more feeling than her heart...more substance than her mind…more humanity than her soul now. She is less than human...less than alive...yet she continues to breathe.

Silently...the litany screams within her head “I want to die. Please end this now. There is nothing left here for me…”

But still...the next breath comes. And the next. Each followed by a deepening despair. Darkness is replaced by murky grey daylight as it filters weakly through the curtains and then returns to night again. Slowly like strings being cut one by one she severs the emotional ties that bind her here... destroying each relationship as she goes...cutting off the feelings for everyone around her. Slowly the cold wall is built... and the pain numbs under the growing glacier of ice. Soon...very soon…she will be able to get up and move again among the living- a shell pretending to be one of them- with a false smile that never reaches her eyes. An empty vessel containing nothing but cold numbness. No heart...no soul...no love. As it was in the beginning and shall be in the end.

And the days pass around her in pained brightness- the motes of dust trying to dance for her in the murky gloom... the nights shifting over her like a viscous oil...alive and pulsing…coating the ever-growing wall like a skin. Black ice: solid…cold…and silent. Within her the ceaseless murmurings of who she was and who she needs to be battle on…while the ghosts of things she wanted so badly taunt and torment her.

“No more. Please God…no more. End this now I`m begging you…” Her pleas still unheard fade to silent stone as the light behind her eyes dims...the spark slowly frozen within the shroud of oily ice.

Within the mists- muted to near oblivion- the small voice of a child…one who once held the world in wonder and awe but who now bears the confusion and guilt like the scars on her flesh and heart…asks within the shrouding darkness “Can we go home now?”

“No... we cannot go home. We have no home. We do not belong anywhere…” answers back the Warrior…battered bruised and defeated beyond the ability to fight again. The Banner of Hope now tattered and torn beyond mending now binds the gaping hole where once a fierce and proud heart once beat.

And sighing in the wind the Singer breathes the Travelers Song... laced with fragile filigrees of ice and snow. She tries to bind them together but knows that there can be no healing now. Frozen tears like crystal fall as she holds the hands of the Child and the Warrior and leads them to the place that they must go... behind the walls of ice…where soon a tattered and bloody banner will fly over the ramparts- a reminder of what lay beyond this land of ice and snow- a reminder to never again leave the safety of this Citadel.

And the wind races across the frozen tundra ice crystals dance like shards of glass- cutting deeply- yet now unfelt. And if you look closely on some cold winter night- under the moon muted through the gauzy shroud of snow clouds- perhaps you will see them standing along the high wall of the fortress they have built with their frozen tears…the Child…who once believed the world was hers to play in…the Warrior…who once had something to fight for…and the Singer…who once had a song worth singing. And the bitter wind tears at the ruined Banner of Hope…the silent testament of a life spent chasing after those things which only served to destroy.

[Lang Kai yi]

I remember…

Snow fell like feathers, drifting in the eerie muted grayness of the night. The moon drifted in a thin veil of gauze, casting a soft enchantment over the land. Standing under the large pine tree, the boughs sheltering me as an occasional large flake would caress my face lightly, the cold kiss it left on my skin

I remember it…

The night drifted on around me, as the snows fell from the skies, and the hours fell on the forest floor to gently cover the world around me. Ice crystals glittered in the filmy moonlight as the breeze danced and swirled from time to time

Like it was yesterday…

The world a wonderland of silver and shadows, I knelt under the boughs of the pine as the snow slowly bowed them down. Time went by, and in the gray-blue predawn light, I watched the moon sink low

Yes, I remember it like it was yesterday…

My hand now covered with blood, my breath no longer creating plumes of mist in the cold night air. My ungloved fingers no longer feel the sting, my lips no longer speak. The tears that once coursed down my face are now but icicles against my frozen cheeks. And as I walk along the snow, no footprints mark my way. Yes, I remember it well…like it was yesterday. The night I finally found my peace among the snow.

[Lang Kai yi]

Memory Candles

The candles floated on the water, small flames on open petals, haloes of light reflected on the glassy surface of the lake as the undercurrent slowly drew them out towards the small river that would flow to the sea. Few at first, small fluttering sparks gliding in the dark, soon the rest drifted down from the small inlet where the white-robed priestesses knelt on the bank of the inlet, busy setting the small votives on the large open lotus blossoms, and then setting them into the water before lighting them.

The night was dark and moonless, but the path that circled the lake was smooth, and her feet carried her, guided by some inner instinct, as she kept pace with the blossoms from the shore. Each flame represented a soul, or so the Sisters taught, and she slowed to watch them as they drifted there, most floating together, in a bright cluster, but some- some followed a different current, alone at the edges of the glossy black surface of the water, their light bare flickers in the darkness. She searched those, wondering which one lit the way for L’Aron. Was it the one that pressed on, moving forward, not wavering from current to current as it sailed to the outlet river? Or that one over there, that spun and bobbed, as if distracted even now, in no particular hurry to get anywhere. Either one could have been him, for sometimes he had been single-minded in a task, yet other times, it would take him all day it seemed to complete one simple chore.

She looked to the skies, the stars set in the black velvet shone down like diamonds, adding their pale cold fire to the small flames out on the water, and with a heavy sigh, began her vigil walk again. She wanted to cry…oh, gods how she wanted to just sink to the ground and curl up like a small child, and let the tears carry her away, down to the ocean like the Memory Candles. But obligation and responsibility kept her upright, kept her feet moving one step after the other. She knew she wasn’t the only one to have suffered a loss this last season; the growing number of Memory Candles each season shone in mute testament to this. But how many had lost someone who was a part of themselves, who had shared their very thoughts, no matter the distance that had separated them? How many had felt the searing agony in that moment of final separation, as the life had been torn from him…plunging her into shock so sudden and deep that the Elders had not thought she would ever be able to tear her mind from its icy depths?

Her feet carried her along the path as if they had been here before, had walked this route a hundred times before, and would do so a hundred more. Certainly her heart felt as if she carried the sorrow of a thousand losses, her soul felt torn in half, the half left to her then ground to shards of glass that cut her mind with every breath she took. As she walked the Path of Memories, walking her vigil along the Memory Candles, the emptiness inside of her mind threatened to take hold of her again. She almost let it…the oblivion it offered would certainly be better than the dark screaming nothingness where he used to be. How very easy it would be to simply walk into the water and let herself drift downward into the depths, riding the current beneath the surface, going out to meet the ocean with the Memory Candles. What was left of her ached to do so, to take those few short steps off the vigil path and into the Lake of Souls.

Yes, she would drift out among the lotus blossoms. Their sweet scent filled her senses even now, from the shore. Sweet lotus and candle wax, her hair floating out around her in the water, her robes pulling her downward into the chill water. Cold darkness filling her lungs as she drew in a deep breath, and the odd sensation that she should be frightened, but she wasn’t. A strange lassitude enveloped her, and she tilted her head back to see thousands of stars dancing in on the surface of the water above her head. Slowly even the lights faded and she drifted downward as she was carried to the sea.

Later, so much later, a hand shook her shoulder roughly, and she choked as she drew a deep breath. Wet sand clung to her, scratching her skin. Her robes clung to her in sodden folds, like a shroud. Groaning and then coughing, she rolled onto her back, and stared up at the sky, still dark and still so far above her. A face loomed just inches from hers, and she blinked even as the hand continued to shake her. That face, she would know it anywhere, even with her eyes closed tightly. L’Aron. But, how? Was this nothing more than a cruel trick? It must be. Glancing over to the ocean waves, tilting her head back towards the river outlet, she could see the Memory Candles as they rode out into the waves and slowly, one by one, were extinguished as the lotus blossoms were pulled under the waves.

He spoke, and her heart soared to hear that voice again. The emptiness was gone, he was back and she was whole again. Her hand found his, and their fingers twined together, no words were needed, only the knowledge that whatever had happened, they were both whole again.

And as the sun rose, dispelling the faint mist that hung around them, she began to notice that she could no longer feel his hand in hers, that she was having trouble seeing him. Slowly, like the mists, the sun began to shine through her…and with one final look into his eyes, seeing the pain and loss there, she finally knew the truth. It was not he that had died that night, but her. With her last whispered breath, her fingers barely able to brush across his face as she faded away, she looked up to the western sky, still dark with night, and pointed to the morning star and spoke as she drifted into nothing with the last of the mist...

Ad astrum eternus.


8.12.2007

Fragile porcelain
Beneath the water blue
Egg-shell beauty
Drowning in tears for you
Drifting among the crowded masses
I suddenly realize I am all alone
Avoiding touch as each person passes
My eyes have turned to stone
Tears slide down my face
Useless gesture of a wasted heart
What will come to take your place
Now that I am torn apart?

[Lang Kai yi]

Shadows

And they watched as the mist cleared, and the morning sun shone upon the waves. She knelt in the sand, staring out. Drifting slowly closer, wanting to touch, to feel…to remember again, they waited.

And as the day moved into night, the sun slowly sliding down the sky like one last tear, she stood, and they could see that her fist, held tightly at her heart, moved slightly, and her fingers slowly opened, bloody, to reveal shards of crystal. Her hand, shaking, tipped over, spilling these bloodied fragments onto the wet sand, the tide now too far out to touch them yet…and she began walking out into the waves.

In silent despair, they reached for her. No!! Don’t go! Don’t leave us here. But they could not bring her back. And as they gathered around the fragments and shards that she had dropped, their fingers reverently brushing across them, piecing the broken slivers back together, a sad haunting song began to float out across the waves. They rose as one, singing this final requiem, and then drifted back into the nothing they came from…

Leaving behind a crystal heart, who’s broken fragments could never be made whole.

[Lang Kai yi]

Nights Like This

There are nights, like this one, where the moon hangs low in a sky so deeply blue velvet it is nearly black, glowing yellow as if lit from within with a mysterious candlelight. The night sits in quiet awe as her splendor rises gracefully, arcing across forever like some mystic Queen.

Mist rises like ethereal gossamer to blanket the meadow in a gentle shroud, and I drift among the tendrils as the dream around me whispers a silent aria. Slowly, the cadence of the night swells, from a gentle lullaby to a pounding tribal rhythm, and I leave the drifting mists to walk among the forest, climbing ever upward to the peak of the mountain above. I feel the moon pulling me, her call a sirens song of such power…She sings of sisterhood and belonging…the night around me joins the tidal pull, and ever onward I journey.

At long last, bathed in the full light of Her radiance, I stand at the summit of the mountain…the wind howls around me, tearing at my hair, ice crystals flying around me, stinging my face and arms as I look up at the night sky and hold my arms out at my sides…like wings…I am ready to fly into this endless night. Silently, I fall…downward into the darkness below…and a joy I have rarely felt awakens within me as I feel the rush of air rise up to greet me. I sing in harmony with the moon…a song of rushing winds, of ocean tides, of blood and tears, of beginnings…and endings.

And the snows upon the mountain peak dance and glitter over obsidian scales, left like shining dark diamonds as wings unfurled and took flight. And there, they will remain, covered by time itself…like those left before them, on nights like this…

[Lang Kai yi]

Sentinal

When the final sigh of sunlight whispers across the face of the earth, in the first chill moment of the sun’s death, I will turn my eyes towards the heavens and look out to the stars. From the highest mountaintop I will at long last end my vigil and step out into the new dark. As the last of Earth’s atmosphere, freed from the cosmic energies that kept it tethered to that now dead ball of ice, dissipates into the ether, I will stretch my wings and step from this mountaintop into the Night. Memory and the Word is all that will guide me as I take flight. Purpose and power will lift my wings in the closing vacuum as the Earth slows and ceases to rotate, the Dance now over, the music but a fading echo. The light of distant stars will sing to me a bittersweet lullaby as the frozen tears course down my face. I will take flight, and the Memories of my silent Watch, as the centuries and eons and epochs twisted and churned far below my feet, will I carry home with me. No more will I hear the Songs, the Laments, the Story of Man. No more will the chapters unfold, the future yet to be. I, the first and last Sentinel, will be freed from my duty, and begin the journey Home. For now I wait, unknown and unsuspected by the mortal inhabitants of this Earth, yet Named by the Word. My time and purpose will never be known to those who know only this world as Home. I yearn for my Home, but I stand fast in my vigilance. I long desperately to be finally Homeward bound, yet ache with the knowledge that my freedom comes with a price. Silent I stand, ever watchful, waiting. In that final breath of that last day, I will sheathe my Sword of Fire, and as I take one final look at that which I have protected, I will remember the Promise that echoes through all of Creation, the voice of the Word that now draws me Home.

[Lang Kai yi]

And there it is...like I said...aside from a bit of tweaking, and all the legal stuff, I think I'm going to call this one done.

Feel free to comment...

And oh yeah...should I publish this under my real name, or use a nom de plume? If so, ideas??