Al-larn-Ghud

Note: No one quite knows where the legend stems from or how it goes, therefore, many versions exist that tell the tale differently with different encounters with this legendary Pala. Here follows Ylving's account, the way he told it to the fellowship at the camp fire at Boldka Hill.

Once upon a time and in this very now
A forlorn shore lay enclosed
The water's swell rose impossibly high
The white a crown like wired barb
Yet the land within so lush and vast

There dwelled ancient woods so sweet and deep
In leaves the moonlight lingered
Bathed the air in bright fair haze
There lived in peace a thousand races
Some known to all, some others lost

There was one soul more fair indeed
Than the brighest diamond star
Of her features songs were sung
And dreams composed in wild young hearts

In her the song of life was born
In her first laugh the spark ignited
Her spirit crumbled mountains into ash
Her voice brought life to dying lands
Yet silence reigned where her shadow graced

Legends told of this island maid
As gentle as the ocean waves
As terrifying as mountain's flame
One with wilderness and bound to wind
A world within her, eternal twinned

When spirit called to spirit kin
She'd come forth from that lonely place
And travel far and wide upon our lands
A cloaked Guardian in secrets wrapped
A shade without a shadowed self

Yet I knew her once...
Time will run out ere I forget
For I met her when I was old
When I was but a bairn in times long gone

She was a warrior more fierce than those of old
In battle she was known as Voi
We followed her like any King
Yet knew not who this being be
It was to her my life was lost again

I felt the blade cut through my heart
With steely cold and burning flame
And greeted death on a bloodied plain
When I was touched by angel's hand
And saw those eyes no mortal can

She took me in her arms and carried me away
To that island with its snowcapped cape
We traveled paths unknown to man
And talked until the hours waned
Never will I know again, such sorrow nor such flame

She took me by the hand and showed me then
A fountain of ancient elven teghn
Therein lights a pattern formed
A life of mine and yet not so
Familiar and stranger than I had ever known

Time moved like rivers do
And it appeared as if the very air
Turned my years in on themselves
To return vitality, strenght and youth
To a weary wanderer with a broken truth

One by one those lights went out
The falling darkness a storm became
Until my light it flickered faint
"Weep not, dear friend," she whispered sweet
"It is not death but life that waits."

There was the smell of iron blood
As I awoke in a solid frozen chill
The battle fought and won, abandoned thus
I made my way through a different world
The island fading like a dream of yore

Still I recall how nature sang
When the twilight hour came
Methought it seemed like the world itself
Had longed to share the songs
Of times long gone and ages lurking in the dawn

I wish I knew those stories now
The stories of Al-larn-Ghud
Of her I have never seen again
But now I know
That Pala was her name