Uploaded July 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

---

Horse-Tamer's Daughter track 12. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_horse-tamers_daughter

Find more of Julia Ecklar's excellent music at: prometheus-music.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lyrics:
A shadow in the bright bazaar; a glimpse of eyes where none should shine;
A glimpse of eyes translucent gold, and slitted against the sun.
This the clue and this the sign that sets him on his quarry's line,
But she has seen him in a dream, and now she's on the run.

Faster than a thought she flees, and seeks the jungle's sheltering trees,
But he is steady on the track, and half a breath behind.
She tastes his scent upon the breeze, and, looking past her shoulder, sees
He treads upon her shadow. She fears the hunter's mind.

So now she summons all her wit, and every trick she knows to hide,
To make him lose the twisting track, to throw him off her trail.
In woman form, in leopard hide, fording, leaping side to side,
She doubles back along her track—and sees her efforts fail.

He stands before her, dark and grim. Her terror now she can't suppress.
He blocks the only pathway out, and will not let her by.
Her gold flanks heaving in distress, half woman and half leopardess—
To either side, nowhere to hide; it's time to fight or die.

But what is this? To her amaze, the man has thrown his gun away,
And quietly, he draws near her now, a smile upon his face.
Before she thinks to run or stay, his body blurs like softened clay...
Before her eyes, to her surprise—a leopard in his place.

The hunter they have sought in vain, and now the talk of the bazaar
Is of the canny leopard pair, a sight none will forget
Who once has seen them near or far, in sunlight or where shadows are,
As side by side they hunt and hide. No one has caught them yet!