II.
Hunting Unicorns
A Springtime feast leads to boasting,
Raedmon
to hunt;
A Unicorn his quarry. The hunt sowers;
Our heroes are lost, assaulted while resting;
They find their prey. Their prey abandoned;
Punished are they for leaving their lord, loosing their men.
Exiled one year, to Padric's homeland they fly;
Though war bars the way, before and behind.
Dublin bared, southward turned;
The Wicklow Hills bewitch them, the Red Manse they find again;
Setanta their host now, to his service they take;
A year becomes two, for the bread that they break.
III.
A Small Favor
Summer has come, a Chieftan comes
begging,
for his daughter, his youngest is lost;
"Go forth my servants", Setanta does bid,
and away through the hills, do they travel;
A village rebukes them, God's man calls them cursed but Guthmond,
good father, denies;
Down a hole, the girl vanished,
but there no longer, taken away she was by the elves;
To a wood the Gild follows, to be lost in a maze,
though harried by men, made of straw;
To the glade in the center, the Gild finaly comes,
to the girl, they must lay forth their case;
Convinced must they be, both child and the fae,
of a love of a father, at home;
Thus was she returned, a girl to her family,
and so too the Gild, returns homeward;
Winter is coming, and Setanta is tired,
his servants, like the girl shall be free...
IV. Dreams and
Serpents
Spring on the Downs, and life is a'growing;
Glad the Gild is now, Kindred returning;
Peace has come with them, but shadows still cling.
To the Lord's Day, they gather;
their hearts guilt be lifted, Father Bohrum Confesor.
But he likes not the words, and of Devils he fears.
In the courtyard, they talk;
Alfgifu speaks glibly. The family she questions;
Of why Raedmon is missing, hiding at home.
Dreams come to them soon, haunting them nightly;
Raedmon lies dead, on a hill far from home.
A staff stakes him tightly, a fortress fast becomming;
Surrounded by Snakes, under the moon.
Twines too a Wyrm, about the great Tower;
But not what it seems, a stranger explains.
Periebanou her name is, black skinned and fey beauty;
Warnings she states, A Warlord has come;
He builds now the Tower, he traps their lord Raedmon;
He threatens war in the summer, so hurry and wake!
So wake the Gild does, and buckles on armor;
buckles on sword, and dashes to horse.
At the wood's edge they gather, Periebanou there meets them;
A potion of Vigor, she provides.
Then on through the woods go, they dash through the brambles;
The Hill soon they find it, thought the tower's not done.
But warriors guard it, and quick down they rush;
three times their number, the Gild battles now.
On do they fight now, upwards they strive;
the enemy drops 'way like flies. But one foe remains twixt them and
their
goal;
More dragon than man, he's upon them in moments;
A demon he seems, but the Gild they can match him;
Wermer draws forth God's gift, and lets smite forth the Lords anger!
From the field it is driven, more a snake than a man;
To Raedmon the Gild now does fly. But pale is the greeting;
In Alfgifu's arms do they find, the hero thus cradled.
Weep not! A miracle now is coming;
His sister clawing his wound. Lo! He awakens;
All are rejoycing! Raedmon's saviors are prased.
Summer on the Downs, and the North now protected;
The Tower the Gild now has claimed. The Fiery Cross;
Now burns and burns freely, keeping the shadows at bay!
Interlude:
Three Years in Sparrowclyffe
1. Slave of Love
2. Wizard's Apprentice
3. Tapestry
4. Little Lost Lamb
5. The Demon Drink
V. Castle in the
Mist
(comming soon)
Interlude
2:
Aelfgifu's Education
(by Devon Slawson - comming soon)
VI. Pagan Call
Prologue: Ghost and the Darkness
A call to Sparrowclyffe calling for aid; in answering lost family they
find.
A strange girl too do they meet on the road. To old London town does
she travel.
But stalked they are on the road; Great cats thought long gone?
The girl seeks freedom for her lover; In prison he languishes now.
Only to Behrum the Magus does she speak; only to him she reveals her
reasons.
The great cats that follow are Lions, long thought dead in this land.
They guard her well on her journey; Padric and the Hounds are concerned.
Left in London, she leaves now the Kindred,
With her absence, the Lions stop stalking.
A day passes, the heroes look upward.
On a hill, a great roaring is heard.
Four Lions look down, and then leave them,
Only only looks backward, and smiles.
1. Guthlac Abby
(comming soon)
2. In London Town
(comming soon)
3. The Clan
(comming soon)
4. The Bue Stone
(comming soon)
5. The Tower
(comming soon)
The Saga of the Fiery Cross is
concluded, yet the Chronicle of the Sparrowclyffe Kindred has just
begun. Follow them forward into the future in Book
II: Long Night Ending
