{"sf1_id":240515,"sf2_id":"keNYOkY1","title":"The Ballad of Zoren","author":"GreyWolf19","words":368,"posted_at":"2011-04-14T19:45:00.000Z","tags":["Ballad","Blades","Clean","Fantasy","Female","Poem","Sword","Warrior"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/240515-the-ballad-of-zoren","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/keNYOkY1","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/9c/6d/9c6d7bc2-be7d-4218-8cb0-946d359fb7f2","description":"","content":"This is just a short little poem I wrote about a character that I've had in my mind for a few years now. She was supposed to be one of the main characters in a novel I was going to write, but I had never really gotten around to writing it, so her story was never told. I hope that this poem gives her at least a little bit of justice.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThere was once a hooded maiden  \nWho had trodden many paths,  \nMasking her figure with dark, black cloaks,  \nHiding her face with a sash.  \n  \nFrom northern country she once did hail  \nThough her home it is no more,  \nNow her fate lies with the roads,  \nEscaping her past, full of scorn.  \n  \nConcealed within her weathered cloak  \nLies the truth behind her guise:  \nTwo thick, steel-gray swords  \nStand waiting at her side.  \n  \nThe first of the blades, which damn her soul,  \nWas given as a gift,  \nBy an \"associate\" of her murdered father,  \nWhose death was bloody and swift.  \n  \n\"Do I take the life that ended his?\",  \nShe pondered in the night  \nAnd in the end, the guard was dead.  \nTwo wrongs did not make a right.\n\n\u0026nbsp; The second of the deadly pair  \nShe had forged anew,  \nIn the smithy of her father,  \nAs he had taught her in her youth.  \n  \nWith the weapon of her father,  \nAnd the blade she smithed with skill,  \nShe vowed to hunt with fervor,  \nThose responsible for the kill.  \n  \nMany seasons passed,  \nAnd still she seeks her goal,  \nNever resting, never tiring,  \nUntil their blood runs cold.  \n  \nAnd yet her heart of stone,  \nHardened by death and grief,  \nIs not entirely damned to hell,  \nThere is hope, for even this thief.  \n  \nFor if she learns to cast aside,  \nThe revenge that burns in her soul,  \nPerhaps one day she can atone for her sins,  \nAnd love, like she had once known.  \n  \nBut until that day, should it come,  \nShe'll continue to stalk the night,  \nSearching, ever searching,  \nFor some way to make it all right.  \n  \nThere was once a hooded maiden  \nWho had trodden many paths,  \nMasking her figure with dark, black cloaks,  \nHiding her face with a sash.  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n\u0026nbsp;  \n  \n\n"}