The Scoundrel and The Ice Queen

 

A young retired pirate assassin

Came onto the shore one day

Looking for fame to his name

And gold to line his pockets.

A challenge he heard

In the region of his new home

Of a Vampire Queen

Thirsting for blood.

Men feared her wrath

And steered clear of her fangs,

Preferring the safety

Of their small homes.

He nearly died laughing

At the idea of the “danger”

Presented in such a simple adventure.

He’d served under a legend

Fighting men and sea monsters,

Death was nothing more than a tool.

A feeding session with the Queen

Would be barely anything.

 

So he strolled to her palace

And met the Ice Queen

In her magnificent stronghold

Of solid ice and reflective light.

It was almost as beautiful

A sight he had seen

As the love of his Captain

And a wondrous blade-deft angel.

Monsters live in caves,

Not within palaces of ice.

The terrible woman living within

Must simply use her power of nobility

To strike terror into the serfs.

Such an adversary should be easy

Just stride in with confidence

And let her take her amount.

Pirates bleed strong

And assassins live long.

 

Her gift of immortality

She bestowed upon him well.

He had overcome her simple challenge

And she had fed her fill.

Then she tried to have him in

Her honor guard and court.

Such a place is not a place for a rogue,

Scoundrels like him cannot sit still.

He left her company

And lived off of the roads

Pillaging and plundering

The over-rich nobles.

He started a rogue group

And split his riches with them,

Giving the peasant families

A vast income.

His name spread across her kingdom

Making his huge ego grow tenfold.

He and her conversed through messengers

And they steadily grew into rivals.

 

War was declared this night

Between the two opponents.

A war of silence it was to be

Until she ordered his head on a plate.

The guards found him wandering the roads

And chased him through the woods

Attempting to slay the rogue

In his own little kingdom.

One by one he picked them off,

Letting them get lost in the dense trees

And stuck in their heavy armor

In the thick underbrush.

His rapier pierced every body

And he left one alive to run back home

To speak of the fate

Of his fellow guardsmen.

The war was inevitable,

The fat was deep into the fire.

Two forces began combining

Preparing for an epic clash.

 

He and she now stand on opposing hills

And shout insults at one another,

Making promises of torture

And death upon each other.

Who shall win this epic war?

It matters not who really wins

The actual combat in the end,

For it is my name that shall be going down

In the songs of her serfs

Passed down through generations

And remembered for the rest of time

In stories told around drinks and fires.

Reviews

[Captain Blackheart (The..]

Ah, my loyal ship mate. Myself and my crew will join you in this epic battle. Let us ride to glory and our legend will live on. A great write.....BRILLIANT!!!!

[Ice Queen of the Vampir..]

"Making his huge ego grow tenfold"

Oh yeah, you got that right and I hope it explodes. No, I'll be the one remembered for silencing a defiant scoundrel. And besides, the woman ALWAYS wins!!! I'm coming for you, watch your back.

[Marie]

Nice poem, John.