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Under the darkened, Ancient oak

Gentle in the nights breeze

I stop and stare, rest a while

With hands upon my knees

Through jaded leaves, bush and scrub

I spy my journey's end

Black it looms, silent gloom

The castle called Avend

On I trot, past the forest eyes

Past the horrors of the night

Through the dark, I see a sign

A gentle glowing light

Upon reaching the castle I ascend the ivy

Toward the golden window

My heart pounds and my breath is rushed

As I fight both brick and branch

The ledge is mine and over I sweep

Silent like the falling snow

Quiet, I slip across the polished floor

Tonight, I will dine with chance

The Blue Lotus, a legend, I thought a myth

Old poems and stories gone

A beauty of unimaginable lust

Both men's hearts, and the Gods', were won

Skin like milk, an angel's face

They say her smile could kill

Her hair is the blackest of all black

Stories I thought though, still

So there she lay sleeping upon the bed

Half covered by fantastic silks

Her breast I see, moves with her dreams

A sight I will always recall

A single candle that showed me the way

Through forest, river and hills

Glows upon that lovely skin

Shadows dancing around the walls

Closer I creep, toward my prize

The Blue Lotus lies before me

Her lips are full, red as blood

Moist as they invite me

Stoop I did to kiss those lips

In the glowing room

When suddenly, she did awake,

Her eyes filled with doom

From silks, her hands were round my neck

Escape there was no hope

A brief flash of teeth is all that I saw

And gone was my throat

Her bloodlust deep, she swallowed me

Red was all I saw

She drank her fill and watched me fall

Gently to the floor

A league away my death is found

By locals who tend this land

Who lay me down in shallow earth

A single Lotus placed in my hand.