The Lay of Alaren
A ballad from the Legends of the Throne world about shipwreck, inheritance, and a prince's vow of revenge.
The Lay of Alaren
The wind blew fierce in the moonless night,
The sea threatened death, but the men would fight…
They pulled the sails and they filled their pails
Praying for the light of day.
Looking not every man to his own life,
But also any friend he could save.
As the storm wore on they were battered and torn,
They gave their all, they were tossed and thrown.
They prayed to their gods and they prayed for their lives,
They prayed that they would again see home.
The wind blew fierce in the moonless night
The sea threatened death, but the men would fight…
They were lost at sea, far from their country,
There was nowhere they could run.
The King held his Queen, and in her trembling arms,
She held their only son.
Black as night in its heart and its hide,
A serpent near he drew.
He fell on the mast, they fought till the last
But every man he slew.
The wind blew fierce in the moonless night,
The sea threatened death and to their last breathes the men did fight…
The Queen and her son were alive,
Tucked away in the ship and hiding.
She heard the screams and she heard the shrieks,
But her time for escape she was biding.
The waves and the snake, the wind and the drake,
For her life they all were trying.
But she steeled herself and she stood her ground.
She cried to the world, “Tonight…my son…is..not…dying.”
The wind blew fierce in the moonless night,
The sea threatened death, but a mother will always fight.
She hid him with the apples
In a barrel in the cargo hold.
She said, “My love and blessings go with you,
Be wise and always do as you’re told.”
The serpent shrieked when he found her,
As he tore the ship asunder.
She took up a branch-sized splinter
And was backed into a corner.
The wind blew fierce in the moonless night,
The sea threatened death, and to her last breath the Queen did fight…
The barrel floated for four nights,
The ship and its contents strewn.
The barrel was saved and opened,
Aboard another vessel, the prince again saw the moon.
The men he was with who had saved him,
He had never before seen.
He asked them after his welcome
If they knew the fate of the Queen.
The wind blew fierce on that moonless night,
The sea threatened death, but the prince could not fight.
Raised by the men of the sea clan,
With him grew a thirst for revenge.
He swore though it should cost his own,
The lives of his parents he himself would avenge.
In his twenty-first year he set sail,
With the best of the best, a ship and twenty brave men.
He scoured the world, training more every day,
Preparing for the moment, he would face the serpent again.
Now the wind blows cold every moonless night,
The ghost of Alaren threatens death to the serpent he would fight.