Working Hands

keeper · Lodsmack
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Lyrics

Verse I

Stone breaks clean when you strike it right,

Arm goes down and the edge holds tight.

Carry more, come back strong,

Work is short when the cut is long.

Chorus

Lift the load, lighten the day,

What falls clean we don’t delay.

Take what’s given, leave no more,

That’s what working hands are for.

Verse II

Game runs hard, but not for long,

One true blow and work moves on.

No long chase, no wasted breath,

Clean work keeps us fed.

Verse III

Keep the blade and keep it wet,

Rest means rust—we’re not done yet.

Nothing wasted, nothing spared,

All that drops is fairly shared.

Quiet Verse

If the blade is always fed,

Ask who sleeps and who is bled.

If the work still knows your name,

Ask the cost, not just the gain.

Final Chorus

Lift the load, lighten the day,

Stone to pile and blood to clay.

Carry less, return with more,

That’s what working hands are for.

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The Story

Working Hands is an original song from the TrueDark Rising world. It reflects the era of Lodsmack -- the Lifter of Burdens -- when strength, efficiency, and clean work were prized above all else.

The song belongs to a time when survival demanded sharp edges and steady arms. It speaks in the language of stone, hunt, and shared labor, where nothing was wasted and nothing was delayed. Under Lodsmack's teaching, work was not merely necessity but discipline: strike clean, carry more, return stronger. The rhythm of the song mirrors the rhythm of labor -- measured, deliberate, relentless.

Yet beneath its certainty runs a quieter question. The cost of endless productivity lingers in the final lines, asking who feeds the blade, and who bleeds to keep it fed. Like many songs born of Keeper encounters, Working Hands preserves both the gift and the warning. It remembers the strength gained -- and the burden that followed.

Like all songs of this world, it serves as memory. It is meant to be sung in unison, timed to motion, and understood fully only in hindsight.