[Intro]
Smoke on the wind
Ash in my lungs
Names on my tongue
I’m coming
[Verse 1]
Boot prints burned in the blackened ground
Char on the chapel, village torn down
Toy sword snapped by the well where they played
Two small cloaks in the dirt where they prayed
I was out on the ridge with the steel and the shield
Heard one scream in the distance, then nothing, then fields
Lit up red, monsters running that raid
Every oath that I swore just shattered that day
[Pre-Chorus]
Map in my mind, I trace their tracks
Claw marks deep in the oak out back
If fear is a chain, I crack that link
If fate is a beast, I gut that thing
[Chorus]
I ride, I ride, for the ones who bear my name
Through fire, through fang, through the dark and through the flame
You can tear down stone, but you can’t touch blood
I’ll drag you from your cave, from your throne, from your mud
I ride, I ride, till the sky runs dry
For my son, for my girl, hear your father’s battle cry
Every scar I earn, every cut, every line
Is a road I carve till I get you back alive
[Verse 2]
[low vocal register]
Tracks head north past the hanging pines
Bones in the ditch, but the shoes ain’t mine
Found her ribbon on a rusted spear
Blue thread frayed, still bright, still clear
Monsters howl from the hills, they roar
I remember your laugh, I remember that door
You drew me a knight on the floor with chalk
Now your dad is the storm coming down this rock
[Pre-Chorus]
Fear in the forest, I taste that scent
Blood in my beard, my armor bent
I talk to the wind like, “Carry my shout” (hey!)
If the world blocks paths, I’ll carve new routes
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
[fiddle solo]
Steel sings back to the cursed and cruel
I’ve bled too long to be played as a fool
If I fall in the pit, I climb right through
If my heart stops dead, it still walks to you
[whispered vocals]
Hold on
Hold on, I’m close
[Chorus]