I found your trail where the black pines bend Two days old in the morning rain Heel dug deep on the northern slope Little flecks of blood on the thorn and cane You crossed the creek to lose your scent Cut through stone where the trail went dark But I saw one thread on a broken branch That’s enough for a hunter’s mark Go on, Run Put another mile between us By sundown I’ll know every step you took I put the hunter’s mark on you Now every road leads where you run Through the briar Through the dark Underneath a dying sun You can bury every footprint You can vanish with the dawn But the wild tells me everything And I keep moving on I’ve got a shortbow across my back A good blade riding against my thigh A handful of berries to keep me moving And enough old magic to get me by Nothing grand enough for towers Nothing learned from a leather-bound page Just roots that tighten when I call them And thorns that answer when I take aim I put the hunter’s mark on you Now every road leads where you run Through the briar Through the dark Underneath a dying sun You can bury every footprint You can vanish with the dawn But the wild tells me everything And I keep moving on Something Wild pads along beside me Just beyond the firelight Sometimes fur and sometimes shadow Always watching through the night I never asked it for obedience It chose the trail beside my own When something stirs beyond the fire Neither of us walks alone Cross running water Double back through stone Wait until the moon is gone And move without a torch Break branches heading west Then turn and travel south I’ve hunted things much smarter than you I know what fear figures out. Through tooth and thorn Through fang and fog Through Feywild bloom And Underdark rot Let every creature lose your trail… My mark never fails I put the hunter’s mark on you And I’ll carry it till you fall Past the edge of torch and timber Past the last old city wall You can pray for rain to hide you You can run until you’re gone But the wild tells me everything And I keep moving on
