National Poetry Writing Month: Day Nine, "The Mountain of Ice"

This poem is actually a based on one of my fantasy short stories, and is written from the point of view of a Halfling bard. Hope you enjoy.

Sit back and I’ll tell you of Heril Geiger,
With the mind of a fox and the ferocity of a tiger,
Listen and you’ll hear of the sorceress strong,
It’s quite a tale but I won’t take long.

Now Heril hails from the Brother Kingdoms,
From the school of Sorcery in the Tower of Thanegons,
She is a power most accomplished,
And in her wake may dark forces diminished.

Geiger for quickly through the order,
From apprentice to journeymen and finally master.
She became the greatest at wielding two wands,
A newfound technique of which she was fond.

As the magical world reeled and recovered,
At this wondrous power recently discovered,
Former colleagues and master did conspire,
To bring their own gain through blood and fire.

Master Naid Hapus, a high mind of the Tower,
Plotted to further his own dark power,
In secret he betrayed his sacred Order,
And opened a portal of wind and thunder.

 

He travelled to the Heavens and the realm of the Gods,
Who watch over our world with axes and rods,
And from the stream of time the sorcerer took,
Three glowing pebbles with a stroke of luck.

 

He returned to our plane with fresh force,
Enough to give even mighty demons pause.
With the great pebbles he summoned forth,
A host of soldiers, giants, ogres and even a dwarf.

 

 

The sorcerers of the Tower could sense,
The grievous betrayal and so sent hence,
Heril and a company of mages,
Who travelled to the renegade with furies and rages.

 

 

Hapus built a mansion upon the side of a mountain,
Where once fire spilled forth like that of a fountain,
He hoped to ward off wary travellers,
For the breath of the mountain stretches farther and farther.

 

 

But the pebbles were too strong and began affecting,
The volcano and its fires began changing,
It’s burning depths froze over,
And threatened to engulf all in a frosty nova.

 

 

Heril and her company journeyed fast and far,
Through the desert of Grubany and the forest of Brnzar,
Until they looked upon the mountain of frost,
And as they stared forward all hope seemed lost.

 

The ground shook and trembled with terrible fury,
And ice spouted from the summit like a dragon roaring,
And with a glorious display of nature’s might,
Snow blanketed the earth in a shower of white.

 

Heril charged with allies at her back,
Against the army summoned by Hapus the Black,
With two wands did she strike true,
Until the monsters had all been cut through.

 

But Naid Hapus was far from dead,
Holding the pebbles of blue and red.
With waves of his hand he tore asunder,
The great mages with bolts of thunder.

 

Soon only Hapus and Geiger remained,
And they collided as burning ice rained,
For the destruction wrought Naid was blamed,
As all around deadly chaos reigned.

 

So powerful were the sorcerers that they were unharmed,
But the Brother Kingdom was rather alarmed.
In hours an ice age had begun,
And for most the day of reckoning had finally come.

The Black Master realised what he had caused,
And as thousands died their fighting paused.
Heril persuaded Naid to give up the stones,
And into the mountain the pebbles were thrown.

 

The volcano shuddered and started to die,
With curious agony its pits did cry,
But the ground gave one final spasm,
And Hapus lost control and fell into its chasm.

 

Heril had won but her Kingdom was ended,
Naid had delivered a blow that had rended.
Destroyed was most of the ancient land,
Buried now beneath snow and sand.

 

And so with the survivors Geiger came forth,
Into Hermisia, our empire in the North,
So if you find yourself in a spot of peril,
You had better hope you’re saved by the sorceress Heril.