Mistry by Mab-Onin

Mistry at The Abbey

The relationship between a desert dragon and their rider is strong and often far more than just a friendship.  Mab-Onin, though not usually one for words, wrote a poem about his rider Mistry which lay undiscovered for many years. Dragons are more known for songs than poems, but they do write them for private contemplation.

So strong
How did you become so strong?
You fight with me, again and again
Pushing out into the storm
Across the mountains
Into the enemy's heart.
No stopping you.
Your determination, your heart
It beats hard with the love
You have for your friends
Your warring, desperate friends

High into the clouds
We power like the Fugol
Till breathlessness takes us
Then dive we, so fast,
Screaming with joy!
Our voices whipped away
By the battering wind
Then quiet
Sat upon mountains high
We watch
We wait

They will show themselves
The Enemies, the ghosts
And we will see them
You and I, my darling.
And we will fight them till we are done
And they are finished.

Never has there been
Such as we.
No one flies so fast, so high

Do you love me?
For I love you!
I feel you on my back
Laughing
Tickling,
Then crying.
They don't see you as I do
They do not see when
You curl beneath my wing
Sobbing like the child you are
Deep inside.

They see the impetuous
The foolhardy
The madness of the fighter.
But they do not see your pain.

One day we will stop.
We will land one more time.
I will throw away my hides
And you will break your bows
Then, my darling, darling, girl
You will read and I will dream
Lying close in a village glade.

Then, in years, as your small human life
Fades and weakens, the breath becoming faint,
I will gather you up one more time
I will fly you to the edge of the sky
Into the east.
And when you have passed
I will bury you on the highest mountain
And I will cry
For you my darling,
For the very best of them all.