[filk] follow-on to "Gripping Beast"

replyAt Norwescon you asked me to send this to you. I'm finally getting around to it. :-)

With a journal bound in leather, spelled to wake creative hearts I met with a young singer and I played my ordained part I left her with the journal and a curse she ought to rue For if she keeps it to her death, my standard fee comes due.

	I am the gripping beast, to take souls is my fate
	Master of evil's torment is the duty on my plate
	No matter what my wishes, by your faith I am constrained
	The gifts that I would give must bear the price eternal pain

Both Lord of Light and Prince of Lies, fit master for a bard But meeting such demands can put one's past in disregard For once I ruled all the dead, from worst to very best And when men lost life's struggles they would come to me for rest.

And recently I've tormented the souls of book and bard The singer's pain was what she'll lose if that book she discards The journal's spirit writhed with thoughts of truth it cannot croon That all it truly does for her was done in the first moon

Before me comes the singer's love to see if I'll be kind Not thinking that the creed she follows says she's also mine The harper now will sing to me, 'tis not her greater skill And mortal song will never truly sway the dark lord's will.

So many are the songs of those who somehow break my grip How few the tales of woe of those who try but crack or slip For you all speak of Lucifer who laughs with evil grin But no one sings of Pluto's heart, as soft as human skin Received on 06/05/03