Just north of Ishqugulu

[Atehequa]

Selling wolf tickets
Another dog's empty bark
Growling at something
Not long after dark
A day spent barking and taking naps
Penned up and waiting for table scraps
Confined you remain
While the watchmen sleep
Beyond your enclosure
The wild things creep

This high priestess
What an unusual name
Awaiting her arrival
Those she cannot tame
A night spent looking down on others
Enduring the earthy scent of fertility mothers
Garish acolytes hiss
Flickering tongues tasting air
At sacrificial victims
Their inhuman eyes glare

Emissary and spy
Among a few others
From higher elevations
A sister's vengeful brothers
Upon an altar, her blood was spilled
All in this temple would be killed
The spy watched
Acts of self harm
Offerings to bloodthirsty deities
Dripping bloody arm

An ancient evil
Feeding off human fear
Pain and agony
The screams they hear
It's representatives perched like dark carrion eaters
Overly intoxicating maleficence, the high priest teeters
The spy departs
He rejoins his band
One among others
From a savage land

In the forest
Beyond those temple walls
Numerous swarthy tribesmen
Mustered at the falls
A distance upriver, an untamed wilderness land
That primitive, unshorn, painted and fierce band
Out for revenge
Unheard, unseen, and unexpected
Moving like ghosts
Never to be disrespected