Chapter 7 part 2
Their only holt Onni’s mage-realm
Where Lalli scout his lair downsets
Safe till waking. Settled, Onni
Frains his cousin if friends he's found;
Lalli replies, lone-scout utters,
Wonders aloud if one he knows
Answering as friend. Emil callow
In the dripping ways and wemmed passages
Of the weed-cloaked school, a scamper hears
Past the ginnel's end. Garred by Sigrun,
War-shame fearing, he wends forward,
Where steps downwards in a dank stavel
Reveal Emil to a vile hound-beast,
Its life corrupted by rash-doom curse.
The dog-shaped lich limps to the stair end
As mild Emil mercy prepares,
Sights his weapon at the warg's brainpan;
His gun targets at the ghastly skull.
But the rash-corrupted runs suddenly
And the shot-burst fails, the form thirling
But no lifestead by lead is pierced.
The scotched hound-beast halts and crouches
Its chine opens from chaps to tail,
Spider-limbs unwrap, expand, their sweeps
Shredding the hide of the horror's back
Skinning the pate of the pitiful beast
Its fell hanging in folds and tatters.
The lich-beast hunts, the hound-beast runs,
Coursing Emil, callow reiver,
Through dank corridors, dangerous ways,
To a soft corner, its ceiling rent
Where clean sunbeams reclaim a space
A memory brought from a brighter time
And a holier world. The hound rash-marred
Pursues Emil to the seige of hope,
Checks in the light, its chase leaving
For a far memory of a master's home
Of a family life; by love heart-stirred
It sidles away. Sword-fettled maid
Sigrun, puzzled, observes a cat
Wandering the hall, a wounded queen,
Her children's hope; the chance mistells
Quick-wrathed Sigrun, sword-minded wight.
She calls Emil coward, stupid
Moggy-fleeing fool. The mother-queen,
Yare guardian of her young kindle
The heart touches of the hild-mighty
Sigrun hearth-ward; she hefts the dam
Stowing her safe in her stash of reaf
While cautious wight, canny Emil,
Her domain checks - but death has come
With cold drowning to the kittens' lair;
In the safeless holt a single life,
One babe alone, weak and bone-chilled,
To life still clings. Clasped in his arms
Hend brand-singer, heart-wise Emil
The drenched catling dries with his hands,
As the crew return to the team's crawler.
The kitten cuddles in the cat-tank holt
But the mother cat, to Mikkel lent,
Too harsh her wounds for healing skill,
So Mikkel wise mercy shows her -
Release from pain and a light crossing
To her other kits. Emil and Sigrun,
In tene falling, protest the deed,
But wise Mikkel, war-fettled healer,
The grace explains, deploring the need
But judges frith and freedom best
For such hurting. The sele kitten:
Milk and warming and Mikkel's care
Help her quickly to health and voice;
Stealing the hearts of the whole friendship
Of the cat-tank folk. Callow Emil
His heart-mood dark with the dam's passing,
And Lalli mage, loyal noita,
A cairn upbuild for the cat mother
Honouring her courage. Emil, grieving,
A movement sees, a meek limping,
In the dark court; the dog rash-beast
From the drowned lair has dragged its woe
To Emil’s feet, enemy and friend,
A far memory of a merrier time,
Of a shent home, of shared delight
With a loved master. Lief-quick Emil
Mercy dealing to a marred foe
A single stab with precise knife
Releases his comrade from the lich-death curse.
