Dare Ye Look Into the Mirror
By Roseinfestedsoul

Dare ye look into the mirror?
To bring out all your flaws,
To twist your beauty into degraded nothing,
To make slender fingers into claws.

Dare ye look into the mirror?
For intense appeal,
For more praise for looks,
And more happiness to feel.

Dare ye look into the mirror?
Into the lost chasm of your soul,
To sweeten every bad-mouthed insult,
And instead result in lull.

Dare ye look into the mirror?
Which promised you to be amused,
But has only seemed to pain you more,
And in result became abused.

Dare ye look into the mirror?
And seep into your pain,
And since you've lost everything once had,
Is there anything left to gain?

How the Grumpy Old King Got His Jokes
By Wingasus

Once he was young and frivolous;
Mock battles lost and won.
Now days past monotonous;
No bright spark and no fun.

A kingdom large and prosperous,
With Mortogs to be kissed.
Dungeons for the adventurous;
Whatever had he missed?

He sees his brother's kingdom;
Whose life is bright and fair,
Whose life is filled with wisdom,
Whose knowledge others share.

To be King is a grandiose thing;
Why does he feel no glee?
No followers that each day bring?
No interest does he see?

Why does his brother prosper so?
What secret does he hide?
His brother's castle he would go;
With stealth he slipped inside.

What was going on in there?
A queue in a straight line?
His brother, up front in a golden chair;
With robe and crown so fine.

A citizen steps forward
And murmurs to him first.
The Wise King ponders what he heard;
Then says, "Well, it could've been worse."

Wait! There's more! Another comes!
They say it proud and bold.
The Wise King thought -- then up thumbs!
Presented gifts bound in gold.

The other King thought -- and he thought hard.
A quite hard thing to do;
He ordered food up from the lard,
And gold from the treasury too.

For he knew how to make them care
From the deeps of his brothers' lair.
Because the secret was to share;
And of course with some gold to spare!

Well then, that's that!
'Twas Grumpier with age;
'Cause of his job; and he got fat
With jokes he grew a sage!

Donny's Toy Repair Shop
By Leveret

Atop the highest, coldest mountain
Sits there a greenstone hut.
The chimney does not spew forth smoke,
The door is always shut.

But inside the quaint and quiet home,
A creature hard at work
Whittles wood and shines up chrome
And fixes in the murk.

Across the desk sprawl ribbons, glue,
Buttons, bits of lace.
So little time, so much to do.
The serf quickens his pace.

An ear to stitch, an eye to gloss,
A new tail for this battered toy.
Replace the stuffing with tree floss.
Voila, a new plush Koi!

There is a knock and idle squeak;
It's someone at the door.
Into the room, a shy Kacheek
Pokes her head, unsure.

"Is it done? Is it repaired?"
She asks and claps her paws.
Donny frowns and shakes his head,
"I'll need an hour more."

Farewheel Tae Auld Jim
By _Strabo_

Auld Jim's made o' snow,
But he follows in tow,
As surely as if he had legs.
He rocks back and fore'
Rolls sideways through door,
And ne'er for carryin' begs.

Each day we gae doon,
Tae the monster awl strewn,
Across the Meridell land;
And sometimes I've found,
Tha' Auld Jim turns around,
With a prize. And tha' is just grand!

But today Jim went fore'
Tae disturb the brute's snore,
And found beastie feelin' awl dry.
Int' its mouth Jim was flung,
Tae melt on his tongue,
And stricken, I bade Jim "Goodbye."

Zombom
By Schefflera

In Meridell's future it once came to pass,
Apparently after both Jeran and Kass,
That Lisha gave no more her magic advice,
And Ramtor set monsters to turmoil and vice.

Now Zombom was one who
By right should have known
The price was too high for the power he'd grown.
By Adelan trained, now by Ramtor he's bought,
He left all White River so stunned, no one fought.

So off through the forest to island remote
That only is reached
Through a mountain's cave throat,
And up in a tower with rubbly ground floor,
This mad Elephante you'll find at the core.

If Rohane's to fight him, he'd better take care,
For Zombom's a wizard of powerful flair.
Not really the best, but you're not far along,
And given your level, he's really quite strong.

He'll slow down your steps
And he'll cast Decimate,
But first with some Zeal he will bolster his rate.
He deals out more damage than one healing flask,
Which really can make him a challenging task.

But easy enough if you know what to do
And make sure the better advanced one is you.
With Zombom defeated, the bridge soon will drop,
And then Rohane's got bigger bubbles to pop.