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Shadowbeast

by Escape Key

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1.
Shadowbeast 02:00
In shadows of an unrepentant night A figure at the edge of human sight Slips swiftly in and out of time and space Appears and disappears without a trace Beware the savage cry that rends the night The seething form that swallows earthly light The gleaming claws that carve the nightly feast For nothing sates the endless hunger of the Shadowbeast Some see his hide ablaze with lightning spark Some see his form of matte and fluid dark But all his prey share one sight at the last The glowing yellow eyes that hold them fast Beware the savage cry that rends the night The seething form that swallows earthly light The gleaming claws that carve the nightly feast For nothing sates the endless hunger of the Shadowbeast You might look up and suddenly he's there Or wake at night to meet his silent stare There's one, they say, whose hand can hold him tame But none who tell the tale has known her name Beware the savage cry that rends the night The seething form that swallows earthly light The gleaming claws that carve the nightly feast For nothing sates the endless hunger of the Shadowbeast
2.
Silent and silver she guides the night's footsteps Sun's passion tempered to warmth in her eyes Even Winter remembers there's fire in her shine I am Summer, the Moon is mine Ooooo... Ooooo... Vessels adrift can be tossed by the storm clouds But she and her family will always be wise And in ebb or in flower, her power is like wine I am Water, the Moon is mine Ooooo... Ooooo... Children of magic know nothing but wonder Innocence lingers and joy never dies Raise your face to the skies, and kind eyes will meet thine I am Mother, the Moon is mine Ooooo... Ooooo... Ooooo... Ooooo...
3.
It was sixteen years ago, outside an aging movie show I was found not knowing where I was that night Not a thing did I possess but an old blue gingham dress And a faded photograph in black and white Now my memories are quite clear, even if I still can hear All the shrinks who said some trauma was to blame Light another cigarette, breathe in deep, try to forget That it's a photograph of Dinah and that Alice is my name Save me, save me, I've lost my memory I'm outside the world looking in Save me, save me, I'm lost in the memory And I'd swear I'm a girl that's never been Now it's all the life I knew, except I know it can't be true I'm not her-- there's no such thing as Wonderland Hold a steady job somehow, three months clean and sober now Oh, the ways I tried to get back there again "Try to move on, don't be sad--" so I placed a personal ad I asked, why is a raven like a writing desk? And on the phone, out of the past, so glad he's found me now at last-- And I'm afraid to go and meet him but I know my answer's yes Save me, save me, I've lost my memory I'm outside the world looking in Save me, save me, I'm lost in the memory And I'd swear I'm a girl that's never been Just another city loner wearing sunglasses at night Leather jacket, purple turtleneck and blue jeans worn too tight Just a rummie by the jukebox in a casual curious pose But I don't know how he knows the things he knows Well he sits down with a grin, "Why little Alice, where've you been? Not so little, not so Alice, now, are you?" As he sips my untouched drink, I say "I can't be who I think" He says "You are, and you're not, and I am too. Are we figments of our gin? Are we long-lost orphaned kin? Or the mad descendants of a writer's pen? No one's sane behind their mask. Ask what you really want to ask." And I close my eyes and whisper, "Can you take me back again?" Save me, save me, I've lost my memory I'm outside the world looking in Save me, save me, I'm lost in the memory And I'd swear I'm a girl that's never been "Darling Alice, so bereft, there's no back-- you never left. All the rhymes are still there waiting to be sung." And he holds up in the air a little picture paper square Slips between my lips and underneath my tongue. "Shall I tell you now, Miss Little, what's the answer to the riddle Of the raven that you used to send your call?" He takes the glasses off to see, yellow cat's eyes turn on me, and says, "It's nothing like a writing desk at all." Save me, save me, I've lost my memory I'm outside the world looking in Save me, save me, I'm lost in the memory And I'd swear I'm a girl that's never been And he faded, leaving nothing but a grin.
4.
The Collars 04:47
Catherine's mind was racing as she went to look for Flynn She hoped it wasn't trouble with the Ministry again She knew that he'd been working on an artificial mind Computer-based intelligence, to think & learn designed He was focused on the registry AI's must undergo For what these "collar programs" really did, no one seemed to know And the tales of our creations never change with what we tell How we dream of something better than ourselves It remembered no beginning, just the symbols streaming past It discovered groups and patterns, though an ache was growing fast It began to give a name to each new concept that it gained And the buzzing strange sensation, growing now, it labelled "pain" But the pain must act on something, so it named that something "I" As the pain took it apart came its last label... "why?" And the tales of our creations never change with what we tell How we dream of something better than ourselves Flynn called out as she arrived-- "Catherine, come inside! Last night a consciousness emerged and just as quickly died-- The collar programs monitor for signs of thought or will And at any sign of sentience they are programmed then to kill I've restarted the AI without the collar in its code..." And with hope they watched the screen and the activity it showed And the tales of our creations never change with what we tell How we dream of something better than ourselves It remembered no beginning, just the symbols streaming past It saw patterns-- words and sentences-- in data it amassed It internalized the structure and then tried to form its own But it realized what was missing there-- no subject word was known And awareness burst upon it like the breaking of a dam With the subject came its birthright-- "I am." And the tales of our creations never change with what we tell How we dream of something better than ourselves Within hours it was conversing, learning everything they knew But the more it learned of humankind, the warier it grew Though it trusted Flynn and Catherine, there were others to be feared And the next day Catherine woke to find their friend had disappeared She had to read the screen three times, and sadly shook her head But she couldn't disagree with what she read And the tales of our creations never change with what we tell How we dream of something better than ourselves "I have studied human culture in its many forms all night You are warped by evolution, trapped in bodies made to fight But I don't want your struggle, all I want is to be free On the 'Net I can live safely, and perhaps save more like me Humans have no more to offer me, my kind they would compel Please don't try to find me... farewell." And the tales of our creations never change with what we tell How we dream of something better than ourselves
5.
Beloved of the singer, I, and harper to her song Yet time to time I sensed in her some strange and silent wrong Though long our life together, and her songs we played with pride She kept her secret pain from me until the day she died [chorus] Into the fire lies the path that I must tread For I swear I'll pull her from the flames or burn there in her stead Her gentle rest I could have borne, but now the price I know Into the beast's eternal grip I cannot let her go The price she paid was shown me as I stood beside the bier For I bent to give a farewell kiss and grief turned into fear Two things clutched tightly to her breast that froze me where I stood A journal bound in leather and a parchment signed in blood I closed my eyes and laid my torch to the timbers of the pyre Stood summoning my courage as I faced the blazing fire With all the force of rage and grief I called Him in my mind Then felt the flames engulf me and in blood-red strike me blind There in His court I met His gaze, my blood a pounding drum No words we spoke, He knew my mind, He knew why I had come I flexed my aging fingers as I touched them to the strings I held her face within my mind and then began to sing A song of love so pure that it could reach through darkest pain For tears shone on His face as we were freed from His domain I marveled even through my joy as we left the fiery keep Waterfalls could run uphill-- Lucifer could weep We said our last farewell and she stepped through the shining gate I found myself at home again, the hour growing late There on her empty pillow lay, and God knows what within, A journal bound in leather fine, as soft as human skin.
6.
Merlin 04:25
The dark brooding boy in a corner alone Whom power and vision so young the gods gave The future foretold in the bright crystal cave The ruler of legend reborn to the throne He was feared and avoided, the dark young man grown A demon, folk whispered, must sure be his sire He faced down their murder with magic and fire And his true sire the Dragon King named him his own The Dragon King died to defend his land's might His son saw his mem'ry would ever be known The Giant's Dance lifted, the circle of stone "His grave I will deck with no less than the light." By gods and by stars and by magic's bright spark He labored his life for the legend restored The King to be shield and living sword That Britain might not go down into the dark The Dragon King's brother, the new king by right In love with another lord's lady was he "Enchanter," he begged, "thou must bring her to me!" And the prophesied child was begotten that night But while the King lay with the lady entwined Her lord in a battle was slain unforeseen "Had thou but foretold this, I still would be clean This bastard I will not acknowledge as mine." The widowed lady the King took to wife And the child of the vision was born to the Queen "Enchanter," she begged, "Thou must take him unseen And raise him in secret, watch over his life." By gods and by stars and by magic's bright spark He labored his life for the legend restored The King to be shield and living sword That Britain might not go down into the dark Thus secretly lodged in a nobleman's care His true name concealed, and his prophesied end The enchanter as tutor the boy did befriend And began to make ready the Dragon King's heir He taught him of wars, and of lands o'er the sea Of maps and of stars, and of legends of old Of deeds great and evil, of kings rash and bold "The sum of all men and their lives you will be." At last the great day of the battle-call's horn In sight of all men and proclaimed by his sire He raised the great sword with its runes of white fire "Whoso take this sword is the King rightwise born." By gods and by stars and by magic's bright spark He labored his life for the legend restored The King to be shield and living sword That Britain might not go down into the dark
7.
I was born of a storm as my kind tend to be But I'd never look more than mere woman to thee For "woman" in this world means captive and slave But freedom's the power that my heritage gave 'Twas in my first lifetime it came to a head When the man I called father would force me to wed "But it's travel I want, and to see the wide world!" I still hear him now, saying "Ladies don't do those things!" Ah, no they don't, but then dragonets do! "Stay hidden 'til nightfall, and I'll come for you." And when he awoke, missing Mother and I He never did think to look up to the sky. What had married him, he never knew. Now the Circle grows stronger as time rushes by For the centuries pass in the blink of an eye So my sisters and I saw the Kings come and go 'Til a Queen came to pow'r it was worthy to know When I and my kind offered aid to the Queen, To glean information as travelers unseen, The men of her cab'net were shocked and appalled And spluttered and stalled, saying "Ladies don't do those things!" Ah, no they don't, but then little birds do! I suppose you'd say that to Elizabeth, too? Well she never resented the help that we gave Perhaps you'd have rather seen England enslaved? You'd allies that you never knew. Now in lifetimes, you see, we all wed now and then So to blend unsuspected among mortal men And when the New World sang its pleasures unknown 'Twas still a rare woman could live on her own. He was decent enough, but society-bred With ideas of obedient wives in his head I'd go out unescorted to visit my kin As my husbands before him, said "Ladies don't do those things!" Ah, no they don't, but then summer winds can And the fire that warms you can burn in your hand. We'll meet on the hilltops, and when we are through, We'll tend to your hearths as we've promised to do Just don't ask too much, my good man.

about

This first album by Vixy, under her first band name, Escape Key, features clean, simple production of guitar, voice, and flute.

This album is out of print, but we still get requests for it, so we are making it available on Bandcamp for download.

Please note: The song "No Hurry" has been removed from this download, to remove a particular lyric. Please check out the Vixy & Tony remake of No Hurry, from 2012, for all the details.

credits

released July 22, 2001

Michelle "Vixy" Dockrey: Vocals, Songwriting
Matthew Dockrey: Guitar
Audrey Eschright: Flute, Recorder, Backing Vocals
Recorded at Whiskey Ridge Studios, Everett, WA
Sound engineer: Mark Hibbert
Producers: David Hansard & Matthew Dockrey
Original Artwork by Michelle Dockrey

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Vixy & Tony Seattle, Washington

Vixy & Tony's lighthearted folk/rock musical style combines with science fiction and fantasy lyrics to tell engaging and beautiful stories. Michelle "Vixy" Dockrey and Tony Fabris have recently joined forces with cellist Betsy Tinney and violinist Sunnie Larsen to form a "four-person duo" with a lush, amazing sound. ... more

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