-SCENE ONE-
PEGASUS:
Running alone, trapped in this world;
Not your own, not your home
Pushed down into the dust, left by fate to rust
Feel the pull of the stars from behind your bars!
Crack the sorcery of Sour’s monstrosity!
Perceval run free, come back to me
Look up at the moon child, you will be home soon!
Daughter of the sky, mother light divine
(Around midnight in the small western settlement of Abfall, four young boys—Haughty, Red Boy
Gwayne Boy, and Corncob—enter a stable where horses are kept. Soon they are joined by Drunken Kaye.)
A gun explodes, and a horse goes cold
The valley echoes, and a bell tolls
Young Blanche wakes, inside her a fear quakes;
She learns that life can give, but it can also take
Haughty tightens the noose, says
HAUGHTY:
Draw up for high noon!
The old tree tomorrow, hag heads undone to roll
Drunken Kaye with her hot iron, charged by a cruel fire
Fresh flesh for a star-brand, Sour’s wish is her command
The horses howl, and Perceval lashes out
Kicks Red Boy up to his guts, and the posse laughs and shouts
Kaye stares down the mare
KAYE:
You hidin’ something rare
Behind those sooty eyes. Calm now, else you’re gonna die
You just look down—fix those eyes to the ground
Ain’t no divinity up there who’s gonna set you free
No help is comin’ down, the sky don’t care about this town—
This waste is just a den of creeps, where bullets and life are cheap!
-SCENE TWO-
(Young Blanche alone in her room across town, unable to sleep)
Little Blanche afraid, the sweet white flower of the village
In dreams she danced but in truth she was trod upon like any other weed
The child was never nurtured, she was pulled up by her roots to grow
Her mother knew only pillaging, of empty barrels, promises and bottles
She never knew her father, now long dead, or wild, another buried dream
Beyond the badlands, where the just are cast aside to die
A poison had come to their home and everyone was sick, and no one remembered
Any other way of living, save for lies, villainy and killing
Every night she stared beyond the dust, up at the stars that flickered a promise
The hopeful light of something great beyond the veil of violence and despair
She would sing until her mother came home drunk, and slapped the song out of her mouth
The flower withered, hoping sleep would bring a day when everything would change
BLANCHE:
Mother, there’s a darkness coming in through the window
Please hold my hand, keep me safe from the shadow!
Don’t leave me cold, bring me back to the meadow
Don’t let me go alone!
(The next morning, Blanche’s bedroom)
The sun rose high over gunshots and the awful sound of whipping
Blanche hid under her bed, but could still hear the red blood dripping
Her mother rooted ’round until she found her hidden heir;
She laughed and dragged young Blanche out by her hair

-SCENE THREE-
(Townspeople gather around a large tree on the edge of town
Three horses carry three hooded figures.)
At the hanging tree they waited, on the outskirts of town
A crowd had come for murder, for a spiteful sentence to come handed down
Three figures noosed and hooded, three horses for their final thrones
The rope pulled at their branches, the vultures waited for their bones
A hangman in black leather came to conjure up death’s dance
Fixed in an unholy grin, the dark face of Bloody Lance
He comes erupting smoke, the children start to choke
Under unforgiving skies, there’s a madness in his eyes
The Arch-Prince of waste, the Judge in a lawless place
A ruthless hand rules his corrupted land
Said the man in black:
BLOODY LANCE:
While your noose still got her give
Make peace with your god above, ’cause you ain’t comin’ back
His whip cracked suddenly, a horse bolted anxiously
The first noose lost it’s slack, and the first neck snapped
He lashed that whip again, another corpse to hang
Blanche watched in fear and cried, another dream had died
The crowd all laughed and jeered, Kaye told Blanche to dry her tears
KAYE:
Good riddance to a bad gang, some men were born to hang!
Only one neck remained, waiting for death to claim
Life from its mortal frame, the last innocent name
The dead swung like wind chimes from the hangman’s eternal pine
The boys watched through callous eyes, hateful and serpentine
The last body left to fall sat upon Perceval
Condemned by the same sun, waiting for the whip to run
Hands clenched in defiant fists, rope cut into the wrists
Sweat beads on the face like sap, under a burlap sack
Something new stirred in the air
A quiver of hope within the fear
A growing fire in Perceval’s eyes
Drawn by powers from the sky
One holy bound, hooves press the ground
Her fetters frayed, she’s running free!
Lance just lets them go
BLOODY LANCE:
Don’t chase through death’s door
Leave them for the vultures and crows
Tomorrow they’ll just be bones
That horse is running blind, dragging a corpse behind
That earth is hollow, Sour sucked the marrow
PEGASUS:
Be the river to trace life through a barren place!
Be the vein that sings blood to flightless wings
Be the wind that blows strong, like the buffalo
Be the chalice to hold the promise evermore
Crack the sorcery of Sour’s monstrosity!
Perceval run free, come back to me
Look up at the moon child, you will be home soon!
Daughter of the sky, mother light divine
-SCENE FOUR-
(Perceval runs into the endless desert wasteland
Until she comes across a river.)
THE RIVER:
I am the river, I am the life
Cut through the wasteland, I am the night
I bring the bounty from fields away
I raise the living from where they lay
Pull the magic out from the bone
Make the blood flow up from the stone
Keep pushing power out from the spring
There will be flowers, there will be Kings
I am the movement inside the still
Come like the serpent up from the well
Drink from the mother, rush through the wilds
I am the river, you are my child
(Meanwhile, back at the village
King Sour casts magical spells inside his tent.)
Inside his tent, a spell is made
The magus conjures something vile
Across the slade, the river bent
A chrysalis of blood and bile
The horse bowed to slake her thirst
But found a writhing forgery
A river cursed, barren and foul
It vanished then by sorcery!
Scared and alone, dry as a bone
So far from home, compelled to roam
The way is through, push into fear
Not far behind you, the call of the spear!
(Bloody Lance and a posse made up of Kaye, Blanche, Haughty
Gwayne and Red Boy chart after Perceval through the wasteland.)
Bloody Lance and the posse follow the track
Cracked hands bear the burden of murder and fear
Night’s advance always turns the day to black
These wicked lands, which clutch to death dear
An echo’s dance, the sound always comes back
KING SOUR:
Find the beast, bring the horse back to me
Mother Kaye pulls little Blanche away
Flashes a wretched smile, and gives a pistol to her child
KAYE:
Take the gun, so you won’t have to run when the devil comes
Look me in the eye—don’t you never cry