Sleeper Beneath the Mountain

Asleep, yet never truly sleeping,
She lies within the Black Range.

Her breath is a distant rumble,
Felt deep within the bones of the earth.

For six thousand years she has waited,
Coiled beneath stone and darkness,
Her fury subdued by the mountain
That serves as both prison and tomb.

Every crack of thunder
Is a cry from the heavens,
The voice of a distant prince
Longing for the one denied to him.

Beneath forests ancient and deep,
Beneath peaks crowned in shadow,
The Serpent Princess slumbers.

Above her,
Lightning bridges earth and sky,
A fleeting touch between lovers
Separated by the ages.

She is worshipped by the Cult of the Serpent,
Whose rites and offerings
Keep the ancient sleeper bound.
For they fear the prophecy.
They fear what will happen
Should she awaken.

Far beyond the stars,
Her leviathan prince waits.
His heart is forged from stardust,
Shadow,
And grief.

With every passing century,
His sorrow grows.

Two mighty serpents,
Fire-eyed and scale-clad,
Kept apart by those
Who fear their union.

But no prison lasts forever.
A day will come
When the mountain cracks,
And the ancient princess rises.

Then her prince shall descend from the heavens,
And together they will unleash
Doom upon the world that divided them.

Oceans will boil.
Mountains will fall.
Cities will vanish beneath fire and flood.
All life shall perish
In the wake of their reunion.

And when the prophecy is fulfilled,
The Serpents will depart.

Beyond the stars they shall return,
To the realm of the Ancient Ones,
Where time has no dominion
And darkness stretches without end.

There,
Far from the lifeless husk of Earth,
The lovers will coil together once more,
Never to be parted again.