Kapteyn – The Crackling
A Mirror dragon, fierce and bold,
Walked Sornieth alone,
A tricorn hat upon her head.
As ‘Kapteyn’ she was known.
Sparks flew from each of her claw-tips
And from her flashing eyes:
A child of Stormcatcher she was,
The desert’s crackling prize,
Yet there was no love lost between
This Kapteyn and her god,
For she preferred the sea
And would not be his lightning-rod.
She fled o’er lands of shifting sands
In efforts to be free
From his demands, until wetlands
Beneath her wings were seen.
When she arrived upon the shore
Of Tidelord’s salt domain
She found herself a ship and swore
Not to return again –
Yet for the Stormcatcher only
Compliance would suffice,
So for her penance he decreed
An unremitting price.
At first the sparks danced on her hide,
And then – electric – flew
In arcing bolts that cracked and leapt
To strike the helpless crew:
Although she tried to hold it in,
The lightning would not cease;
It shocked and pained her new-found friends
And left them with no peace.
The static built up in the air,
And so did storm-filled cloud:
The dread that stopped up all their hearts
Descended like a shroud.
The rain began to fall as she
Was cast off from the deck,
And the forks of lightning found her,
Crossing the foamy dreck.
Her leaving saved the ship’s whole crew,
But now her dream was gone –
Swallowed by Stormcatcher’s envy,
Nothing to be done:
She was too great a jeopardy
To crew another ship,
And though she knew it in her heart
The thought still curled her lip.
She wanted only to be cured
Of this demeaning curse
And so she travelled Sornieth
And offered up her purse –
She gave up gold and gemstones old
In pursuit of her goal;
She bought and sold; and she heard told
So many tales of hope.
At last her journeying brought her
To Arcane lands, where she
Believed she’d find at last a way
To transform and be free.
The Arcanist she knew was wise
And curious of mind;
The Arcane Clan that she passed through
Assured her she would find
The cure she sought within his halls
In the Observatory.
Then at last she might return
To sail upon the sea.
I wrote a Ballad! :D
I wanted to write something fairly epic for one of my pirate-looking exalts, and I also was in the mood to write poetry to a specific form. Sonnet forms didn’t suit her personality, and I was tired of Old Norse forms (I wrote this immediately after writing Vindalfr’s piece and was feeling very drained of alliterative creativity!) so I did some Googling and settled on a Ballad. I’m quite proud of this.
... It's been about 2.5 years (if not longer) since I wrote this piece, including the note above. I'm still super-proud of it. I think it might be the best poem I've ever written.
