By Patrick Lionsbane

When the stars danced, awoke did she

Petals deep purple, the enchanting flower

Fluttering on the wind, protected by her tree

The lonely maiden looked beyond her sylvan tower



By the moon's grace, looked up did he

Waters silver and blue, the young river

Prowling through the land, heartlessly free

The proud youth flowed atop his earthen giver



Fair flower, dance for me tonight? - Asked he

For a color so vivid should not go to waste

In the darkness, your light answers my plea

For your scent has the world never been graced



Dance I for you? Asked she

Then there must be something you shall give

Tell me stories of the world you see

Wild river, tell me of the life you live



I have seen men of steel and blood - Answered he

Of death which turns my waters red

Beauties and their visages captured by me

And use my waters to bathe their babe's golden head



By the changing winds, my constant and faithful servants

I have seen wars, famine, death, and despair

Yet it is Luck, whom I've ferried on my currents

From her I've known peace, joy, life and hope most fair



Gods desire that for them should I serve

For I run fast and strong throughout this land

But it is my freedom and my pride that I preserve

For no one rules me, I answer only to my own command



But - interjected he

Beauty like yours is rare and few

Come, dance, do not hide from me

So gift to you I give the morning dew



Her dance caught the river in a bind

He stopped and watched the beauty unfurl above

Words and thought he could not find

As the river stilled and fell in love



Fall to me and into my embrace - begged he

To sweeten my water for all of time

We shall bestow life to all those we see

Together our days will be sublime



The flower shook her purple petals, said

Fair youth, it is not your nature to be stilled

For one day I will find you gone and fled

Promises forgotten, you will never be fulfilled



But I love you, cried the river, a love ardent and strong

And if I can not have your regard I shall die

Without your light and scent, I will not last long

Would not death be the saddest goodbye?



And I love you, admitted the flower, since long ago

You who harvested with autumn and danced with spring

You who lazed in summer and slept beneath the winter snow

But fall I can not, for I fear the hurt you will bring



Blooms chased after your embrace before

Their scent colored your waters lilac and gold

Yet abandon and think not of them evermore

As you tire of their taste when their scents grew old



By the gods, the river declared, I vow to you, fair bloom

That only your color and scent I will hold most dear

And if I am false then to eternal despair will I myself doom

So fall to me, there is nothing to fear



With you, promised the river, we'll visit all earthly delights

The wind will carry us to foreign bays

I will hold you and show you marvelous sights

Your life I will nourish, I promise always



Your oath is song to me, the flower said

And if you remain faithful, I will fall into your embrace

Dance for you always where ever I'm led

I will live this life at your pace



And so carried by the winds the bloom did fall

For she loved the river with all her heart

And with her fragrance she answered his arduous call

For years they lived, happily and never apart



Until the day the river saw flowers more fair

In a land he had never been before

Forget did he, the promise to the flower in his care

And abandoned her on the bank, at death's door



The grass on which the dying, smiling flower lay

Asked her why she looked so happy as she was to die

Did the fading flower not see the fading day?

Death, after all was the saddest kind of goodbye



No, replied she, the saddest goodbye is to forget

The promises, the love, the good, and the pains

The joy, the laughter, the sorrow and the regret

When the promises fade and darkness remains



My lover, the river, had left me long before now

He that remained was a stranger, nothing more

My end today is nothing compare to his broken vow

Death is a joy, and freedom I see at his door



She sang - So from lonely branch the foolish bloom did fall

To love a river who cared naught

And give and give and give her all

Only to watch the river flow away, all their love forgot.



But Death pitied the fading bloom at his feet

If you chose once more, what would you choose?

The flower smiled, I wish the River and I never did meet

A love like this is one I could afford to lose



His decisions, Death promised, he will one day regret

Will you not wish to be there when his heart returns?

I, said the flower, only wish to forget

And let love die and this longing to burn



Death bowed and honored her wish as well

Carried her away, to be reborn anew on the old branch high

Back to the land where in peace she could dwell

And never think of the river who flowed by and by



The river soon realized all blooms their color fast lost

And remember that bloom whose color never did fade

Did he realize his gains was not worth the terrible cost

And rushed back to the place where the mistake was made



Too late, he knew, as his vow unleashed his curse

She was long gone, only to have branded his heart

Foolish river, for nothing in the world could reverse

The mortal wound she left him when in death did they part



Without her, his waters tasted bitter and ill

Those who touched his poison met their death

He wandered the earth, weak, having lost his will

Longing for her honeyed scent on the wind's breath



And so he went back to the tree where she had grown

And saw the great tree dying, again his heart filled with regret

No flower could compare to the color she had shown

Yet, he spied a lone bud glowed with a light he could never forget



She stood atop, dozing, at the edge of night

Was it she? He asked as he drank her in from afar

He gathered beneath the blackened branches and silver moonlight

Though she was close, she farther than the nearest star



Help me! Cried the river to the wind

Do you not see that my love sleeps high in the sky?

You must carry her to me, your power you must lend

The wind stayed stilled and said with a quiet sigh



Is she still the same her of yesteryears?

She is reborn anew, and in your embrace again she may thrive

But you were the source of her pain and her tears

And would be again, if she remembers your cruelty when she was alive



The river was silent and knew he could not call

For where she grew he could never go

She had chosen to forget, his love and all

And into quiet oblivion he would flow



So he begged lady luck to save his unfortunate mate

He asked her to make his waters golden and to heal the tree

In exchange, he offered his freedom, luck's eternal servant would be his fate

After-all what is freedom, when the one he loved was not free?



No longer wild, no longer free would he flow

But his contentment soared as the tree revived

He lasting fate his former lover would never come to know

How a wild river traded his heart so that his love survived



Sometimes, on the coldest of nights, he would hear her sing

Of lost memories that faded across the years

Of lovers who knew not what forgetting brings

And of her new lover, the night, who comforted her unknown fears



With life anew, her glowing colors will never fade

Danced with the Night, a queen on her throne

He lost her forever, only regret and despair stayed

And chose to watch from afar, a fallen king eternally alone



And so the lonely river watched as her new lover came at her call

His flower who now cared for the River naught

Having lost and lost and lost his all

Watched as the flower love another, all their love forgot