Leafiara (prime)/Melodies/Wild and Free
Familiar routines are safer And habits grow hard to break Some choose to forego adventure But that is a grave mistake Embrace the wide world around you: The Hinterwilds call your name! When wondrous things surround you, What more could you hope to claim? Wild and free! Wild and free! Light up the fires of your desires, go there and see In more 'stable' lands, Your every dream gets twisted by conflicting schemes But up north it's given: Cold River's livin' Wild and free! They're people besieged by danger Threats lurking 'round every bend In touch with the truths of nature: Grow strong to prolong your end My troubles had once seemed vivid Before dodging swords thrice my size Now things that used to make me livid Are nothing to my retrained eyes Wild and free! Wild and free! Cold River style Can't stop my smile Live perilously! It's what people seek but rarely find No deep concerns or cares in mind No obligations, no machinations Wild and free! Wild and free! Their ways are so breezy, Everything's freezing Literally! Even the bounties there pay more Up in that town, they know the score! When you have spirit, no need to fear it Wild and free! The ice seems so nice, the cold blows so bold But just venture out and that's when you'll know They've formed all their hordes, their packs on attacks Prepare to defend your soul As war hits the floor, the bands take command With swords, staves, and boards in everyone's hands And when the wyrm lands, you might need new plans To just watch Myharl go! Wild and free! Wild and free! Hear the wargs howling Hinterboars growling Music to me! What else would you hunt, some weak old lich? Seek a real challenge, scratch your itch! See disirs flying, you might be dying Wild and free! Berserker blades swinging Deadly skalds singing Wild and free! Oozes dividing Shield-maidens riding Cannibals biting Disciples reciting Draugrs off stomping Mastodons romping Wild and free! Mutants and golems Wendigos roaming Wild and free! Valravns staring Angargeists glaring Every day's thrilling Up where it's chilling Battles and clashing Winds always lashing Wild and free!
Context:
I wish I could remember how I managed to think of using this specific song after I got stuck on the Shivers parody and opted to abandon it! Anyway, I wrote a pretty early draft of this fairly shortly after the Hinterwilds were released in the live game (and I'd already been loving the place from the test server for months beforehand), but after Traiva talked me into performing at the Revelia Carnivale over a year later, I went back and spent a couple days spiffing it up.
There were two main differences between my first draft and final draft. One is that I shifted to keep a more consistently upbeat feel. I wrote the original during a time where Leafi was feeling more cynical about the future of the Landing and wanted to just move to Cold River, so the early verses focused on that with lines like "Your homestead is always safer," "Don't think about sticking back there," and "No more Empires, chase your desires." I liked it as it was too, but the consequence was that it only barely mentioned Cold River offhand, so I think it wound up much better off becoming more of a celebration.
The second difference is that I repeated the last two verses. I hesitated to do it because that meant I actually extended beyond the original song I was parodying in the first place, but it allowed me to slip in a mention of nearly every creature--only bloodspeakers and undansormrs are left out, whereas it had previously been them plus shield-maidens, cannibals, disciples, mastodons, and wendigos.