Childhood Lost

He leaves the life he's always known
The forest's shelter left alone
To face a world of truth and strife
Where dreams are lost to waking life

A girl so sweet, now his dream
A fleeting hope, a shadowed gleam
Life was full of tale and song
A hero yet born, quite headstrong

But fate is cruel, and hearts must yield
He takes his sword, the pact is sealed
The skies grow gray and stars retreat
Joyful fields beneath war's feet

Blood and bodies mar the land
His friends now bound by his own hand
The world distorts, grotesque, unfair
A fractured mirror of despair

The crimson fades, the rivers clear
He longs to hold what once was near
Yet she has woken, found her way
And gone beyond where dreams decay

Faces known are strangers now
Bound by the same, they took their vow
He seeks the past, a phantom's trail
A childhood lost, he can't prevail

He clutches bliss in dark despair
Trapped by thoughts quite hard to bear
To free himself, he must let go
But freedom burns with sorrow's glow

And so the shadows fade away
Now nothing's left but life's display