Sky Sailing / Beyond the Bloom / Wilt

The Lavender Fox descends, and scampers beside me
A pouch of petals fastened under its throat, and I understand
The wind's riddle resolved, our flightpath revealed,
As passenger, I hurl a handful
And we greet the air!

At the whim of the wind
Lashing and pulling
Manoeuvring, eye on our shepherd, our petals of pink
Hoping they're helping and
Trust me, new friend
My heart rests on your wings now
We left the nest with a chasm beneath
Still I trust you, new friend
In our first elevation
For a moment, our course holds steady
And then we're

High again
We're sky sailing
Winding in turbulence
Found in friendship

In awe, we land before the fragrant veil
Our first steps treading technicolour, so far beyond the pale
Though I could cast a fire
T'would be a pity to destroy
When we've no shortage of time

What lies here, beyond Umbra's bloom?
Though I could burn away,
I would much rather preserve this,
Such pleasant distortion
I sheathe my blade,
We push into the bouquet
Stumble into

Rapturous blackness, since we play the fool of the flowers
This prison beyond them is nothing but death-grey decay
All that we touch turns to soot
And we trample on
Yes! We must wander on!
The murk of the gravewood, it vastly encumbers my senses
And yet, I feel sure of a presence that mirrors our stride
The Lavender Fox, it whips around, as if to accuse a wilting shrub
But there is nothing there
Nought but the shade

Lustre illuminates
As soon as I brandish, it is gleaming
I am led by the blade

Deep in the false night,
Tendrils of ghost-wood start clinging
Every step forward, the bracken resisting our stride
I feel it crawling my shin, cut it back - it coils again
Why must you persecute,
Wraith of the glade?

Do we approach the core?
Or do we die here in the strangle
as the plantlife contorts?

The smother continues, but still I slice against its grasp
I strain 'til my eyes sting - ahead I see the source!
Just a little more! This web will not be my grave!

Just as we reach the core,
I turn to see the Lavender Fox
Poor thing, ensnared by its wing...
How much will be severed
By this blade if I...?!

My one-winged companion,
Abandons, in gruesome mistrust, and I'm left alone with my deed
With eyes too inflamed to be fuddled by glamour
I sink my friend-stained blade into the palun
And it sings, as it siphons
The bloom above begins to die

Petal on fox-blood, my new sheath
As all around me
Colour rains, the sun prevails
Yet harm is all I care to deal and dwell on
If I had thought that it would end this way
That every bloom was due its wilt
I would have scorched the opulence
No flower should be worth more than a wing

How could I have known

I lie alone, entombed in what remains of something beautiful
This shedding, never ending
Keep me buried
Help obscure my crime

And as the essence of the palun
Sinks from forest to the blade
I sense its burden, feel its venomous
Reminder of the choices that I've made