[Folk] Drachenreigen
[Verse 1]
Far below, war burns red under banners and smoke, under iron and oath, under drums that cannot reach the height where two riders cut the sky in twain
One red wyrm, broad and fast, furnace-lunged and heavy-winged, one white drake, small and keen, frost-bright, pale, and patient in the turn
The red one falls through air like a hammer, the white one folds aside, hooks back, silver glide, cold spark, scarlet scale opened by ice
[Chorus]
No bow below could reach this height, no hand could break this skybound fight, no order from the ground could matter where they breathe and bank and read each other breath by breath
They fight in sync, not friend, not foe, but something stranger born of war, two soldiers past the reach of words, blade in hand and death in wing
Sky to sky, eye to eye, fire and frost in a circling rite, strike and weave and blaze and glide, thunder wide over the hidden land
No one bound to earth could know the shape of what they write above it
[Verse 2]
The white one threads the storm cloud's tail, static over mail, sword hilts heating, buckles shining, harness lit in lightning lines
The red one follows, jaws unsealed, flame through mist, heat into rain, fire into vapor, frost into pressure, and a storm cloud grows by war defined
Below, the battlefield is gone, does any soul still draw breath, has the war been won, the thought comes once and dies unused, because their war goes on until one dies
White wheels and weaves, needled frost in joint and seam, red answers broad with burning sweeps, a crimson scythe, singed scales it reaps
Red strikes nick, white strikes nail, bulk bears pain, small flesh takes strain, yet still they turn with serpent grace, each reading motion, breath, and pace
[Chorus]
Then flame connects, direct red blaze, white scales blacken but its eyes don't glaze
Rider burning, harness charred, still they hold, still flying hard
The fire falters, something gives, the red one shakes, but the white still lives
One last line, thin, bright, precise, a single lance, a needle of ice
Straight through the eye, no second chance, scarlet death drops from the dance
[Bridge]
Sky to sky, eye to eye, one will fall and both may die, fire is smothered, ice remains, thunder roaring through the rains
As the red one falls through storm and smoke, the white one barely keeps the yoke, one last gaze through pain and fire, one last salute above the pyre
Thunder answers, banners drown, one dragon survives, one dragon down, and in the war no one will know how honor in the sky could flow