She was not raised in garden of peace, where
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sunbeams play in blooming trees. She was told
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to be born in battle and brought up among
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dismal and death. Skilled in the craft of killing
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and fight, the girl learned to bear weapons and
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a sword did she yield. No worse than her peers
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she held up her shield and grew into a maiden,
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a fair one and strong. And there among warriors
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all grim-faced and tall she eventually found her
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life and her love. And in an ancient old forest of
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green they used to meet in their ardour and lust.
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They embraced each other and only the trees
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heard their sighs full of pleasure shared under
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the veil of the moon...
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Yet they had to part soon as the battlefield
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called and brought them apart for many a
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league and for months she was sundered from
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his godly voice and this is the song that she sang :
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Ho! To the battle I went
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And killed many a mightier men
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(and even a troll!)
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And my sorrow withdrew
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As I drowned my woes
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In the deaths of my enemies
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And the blood of my foes
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Victories healed her and gave her the strength to rival the severance and the grief of long nights...
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Once roaming along an old brook in the wood, she heard voices and sound of a battle not far -
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so unsheathing her sword the maid hastened for help and could not believe her emerald eyes when
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she percieved Him lying in the rushes alone with crimson red cloud of blood spreading around,
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all pierced with sharp arrows and hewn into parts. To the ancient green forest had he evidently
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returned to seek shades of their happiness long left behind, but ambushed by enemies and
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grievously wounded he was as she leant over him and wept...The shield-maid mourned long
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beside his deep grave, dug by her own hands in a shadowy meadow in the ancient forest of
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menacing old. And this is her last lamenting chant :
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Now to my final battle I must go
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All I ever had is now buried and lost
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And he whom I cherished has taken my strength
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Away to the halls where life never ends
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There now I shall follow and meet him again
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And among the undying flowers and trees
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We'll walk hand in hand in the gardens of death
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-----------------
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Lamenting Shield-Maid
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| Heresiarh |
