Belladonna shook her petals pink

and Nightshade clutched her middle.

Hemlock tried real hard to think of something to stop her giggle.

What did they do in their garden dark that caused them so much mirth?

Why did they frighten away the lark from the tree of death and birth?

Stone dragon lifted his head up high to breathe in the colors of night.

The flowers waited as dawn drew nigh to unveil their work in the light.

A stranger lay beside the pond, tongue blackened, eyes a-stare.

He'd come to sip with Belladonna, of her poison, unaware.

Dragon glared with eyes of stone,

Crow screamed his saddened plight, but the flowers only snickered with absolute delight.

The Damned

Where wind whines

through dusty rocks;

where shadows seethe and move, there you will find, deep in the night, all you seek to prove.

Don't pass through here if you're faint of heart;

you will not leave here whole, for we are judge and jury of your damned, immortal soul.

You, whose soul holds purity, fear not when through the rocks our spirits sigh with icy breath into your mind and in your heart to sing to you of death.

Be well warned, blackened hearts, turn back while you can still run.

Or you'll find it too late flee and your soul we'll bind and your body, we'll cleave.

We are held as prisoners here, trapped between life and death until by chance the prophesy saves all our honor as Knights of old and sends us to our graves.

Long ago, when we were men, our hearts wore nothing more than lust and greed and treachery.

Then a wizard damned us to this place till honor sets us free.

When you pass here late at night, if you dare to tarry too long, the rocks will begin to shift and moan.

Listen not, or your life will flee and your soul, undead, will roam.