24 Aug 2000
Category: Songfic
Pairings: A glancing reference to 3x4
Disclaimer: I don't own the prince, or his song.
Song: "One Love," from Pat Benatar's album Best Shots. c1988
Supa Bo Music/Tyreach Music.
// denotes lyrics.
Rating: G
Warnings: Only slight spoiler warnings (unless children's stories scare
you!)
Feedback: always welcome!
The desert air changed with the falling light, going crystalline with the chill of evening. Their evening chores finished, the children gathered expectantly around the old uncle's fire. For the story.
"Tell that story, again, uncle. About the lion prince."
"That one again? Ah, well. Once there was a prince of the desert people--"
"Our people?"
"Of course, child."
"A golden prince?"
"As golden as the sand under the sun, child. Now let me tell the story."
//Once there was a man
And he lived to sing the lion's song
As he traveled on the road of hope
One love is the light, shining over every mountaintop
It will lead us to the higher ground
One day every heart will beat strong against the night
Let it be done right now//
"The prince was born in the stars, and maybe he should have been happy to live so close to his brother, the sun. But he was an exile, held in a cage of metal far from the wind and the sand, up where the sun is just another cold star in a cold black sky." On cue, the gathered children shuddered at the misery of the exiled prince.
"And while he was living in the cage, the worlds became a dangerous place ruled by cruel shadow kings who wanted to control the deserts and the rainy places of the Earth, as well as the metal cities in the sky. But our people tried not to notice. After many millennia of war, you see, our people had decided not to fight ever again. We put our hands over our eyes so we could not see the shadow. We closed our ears to the lion's song, and let the vultures tear at the bones of our peace.
The prince couldn't close his ears or his eyes, though, and he opened his heart to the lion. His family didn't understand when he took sides in the shadow war, when he came down at last into the desert to fight."
"Did he have a horse?" Jael was very fond of horses.
"Only sometimes. But he rode in the heart of a metal warrior that reached all the way to the clouds, with shotels in its hands that could cut through the shadow kings' armies like a dagger cuts through the wind."
"And did he fight?"
"He did, child. With an army of the desert people behind him--for some of us had learned to see and hear--and a cloak of sand to hide him from the cruel eyes of the shadow kings. And then he met the other princes of the sky, who stood with him against the metal armies and their masters."
//Once there was a man
And his words became a song of love
And his song became the golden dream
One love is the light, shining over every one that believes
It will lead us to the higher ground
One day every eye will see truth before the light
Let it be done right now//
"And they were brave!" Mahoud liked this part.
"They were very brave. Standing in the light even when their own people told them to throw down their swords, to bow their heads to the darkness. But they would not, even when the shadow took the prince's father and scattered his family across the stars. The lion prince didn't give up, not even when his metal warrior was destroyed, not even when they tried to take away his heart."
"How could they take that? It's inside, uncle."
"They went inside after it. The shadow kings were crafty, and they used wires and tricks to blind his eyes and break his heart. And almost made him kill the one he loved best."
"The quiet prince?"
"The quiet prince."
The children shivered at the boundless evil of the shadow kings. Jael scooted closer to her brother.
//Some wait, so long
Because our love is strong
This hard road traveled on
Will lead us home, forever//
Jael's brother put a reassuring arm around her. "But it didn't work."
"No, child. His eyes were blind, but the other princes kept the pieces of his heart until they could put it back together."
"Because he was their heart."
"The heart of all of us. And when he was whole again, he came back to us. He would not let us turn away from what had to be done, until he had brought us together into the light."
"Because he loved us?"
"Because he loved us."
//Hear the lion's song,
Voices crying like a desert wind
He's gone into his fathers' land
Africa tonight
For we truly are one in our hearts,
Colors woven in the golden dream.
One day every eye will see truth before the light
Let it be done right now.
One day every voice will speak strong against the night
Let us be one right now.//
"And when the last battle was over, he came back to the people and said, 'Look. Remember. Watch for the shadow, and do not let it rise again.'" The children's lips moved in the firelight, shaping the familiar words together.
"And so we looked. And so we remember. And we shine with his light whenever the shadow threatens to rise."
The children sighed with satisfaction, looking up at the stars where they hung low and bright in the desert sky.
"Did he have to go back to the stars?"
The old man's voice was gentle. "Everyone does, child. But he is here, too, in the wind and the sun and the sand."
Jael was almost asleep. "Gold--gold like the sun."
"Yes, child. And we will not forget how to sing the lion's song."
//So let it be
(We are the children of a thousand days;
We are the people of the hard rain)//
The End
(:./lilias/lionsong)
