Betrayed by Swine (Mythic Series Volume Five)

Our reemergence was but minutes old,

As the temple our eyes told,

Short march past

Some angry brush

Stay on course avoid we must

The bloodshed we’ve grown accustomed to,

The pain, the misery, the prayers by some

That each moment should be it for them,

Upon our march, single filed

One man noticed the peculiar absence

Not a noise stirred, no voicing screaming

From the clouds,

We all agreed it was strange indeed

But it was the comfort our ears need,

It’s been long, devastating,

We all are worn, but in that holy place

Our deeds this day, a culmination

Of our past thousand or longer hours,

Spent beneath death, spitting in the face of agony,

But here we are with all odds beaten,

Arrived we have, our war is done,

Moments from the gate of holy men,

Another of my clan spoke a point we had blinded eyes toward,

Since when are boars content to abide by arbitrary mortal law,

Never had they witnessed obliging pigs unconfined,

And then our weakest soldier escaped a thought,

To which blades unveiled, and shields aligned,

“How did not but one, but how did eight boar arrive to this place,

Miles from the level ground, a good distance into clouded sky”

In pattern, in design

The heavens had changed

The lightest blue filtered through a whitened hue,

Transformed to ruby red and dark tinting screen,

The swine had betrayed us,

Our own satisfaction had left is in contentment,

Pig flesh burning, snouts and fangs contorting

And from the swine monsters rose,

All the while biding time to strike

Shape shifters in boars’ clothes

Monsters shapeless without form,

Engorging the peace this mountain morn,

Soon their darkened flesh

Would meet the blood of the fallen

At the mercy of our once tempered blades,

And so it went, only one clansmen

Lost his head, but from which

My eyes found a way, an angle

This led to an ease in victory,

Where every monster would be slain,

As my brother broke containment

Shield in right, left with sword

A trickle of aura tore through painted cloud,

The monsters tail bore swift

Lopped my man in two,

But in this moment of supreme sorrow,

The emanation scarred his shield

And with light reflected their weakness was revealed,

And in such the very manner,

We stood our ground,

Swords high, shields angled,

One by one, they didn’t learn,

One by one,

As is the pattern we’ve wrote before,

The numbers in helvete,

 Have shrank some more

The chalice is behind the temples’ mouth,

 Lest another tries to stave, soon high the chalice shall be raised