20171231.0430

The Scald’s leader drew up a plan
Based on what they’d learned from the man
Whom they had thus killed,
Whose life they had spilled
Whose blood still from the body ran.

20171230.0430

Some words that he said, he thought true,
For of recent deaths he naught knew,
But aside from those,
Into frantic prose
He spoke no more than breezes blew.

20171229.0430

Yet not all the untruths then said
Were spoken by who kept a head;
The scavenger lied
To them ere he died,
Speaking false in the face of his dread.

20171228.0430

It should not be a surprise
To learn that the hopes were all lies.
They could not afford
To be found, and a sword
Split the scavenger, navel to eyes.

20171227.0430

The scavenger soon revealed all
That of the town he could recall
And said things beside
To preserve his hide,
Knowing his hope was quite small.

20171226.0430

Then forth the Scald’s leader did stand,
And all did obey the command
That torture begin
To help the Scald win--
And soon came things worse than the brand.

20171225.0430

Him, they took back to their camp
And quickly did him with flame stamp,
Seared skin on his face
To assert his new place
And secured him in a tight clamp.

20171224.0430

The scouts of the Scald were not kind
When they interlopers would find
As they showed on that day
When they took away
The scavenger to search his mind.

20171223.0430

The scouts the Scald sent out took note
Of the sounds that came from the man’s throat
As he ran amid trees;
They brought him to his knees
And sharply him on the head smote.

20171222.0430

That he was of fine sort, none aver.
In fact, he was worse than a cur.
He ran away, rather
Than stopping to gather
The body to take home and inter.