FR/LotR

Drizzt in Middle-Earth

Chapter I

A New World

The drow shielded his sensitive eyes from the scorching rays of light emitted from the blazing ball of fire in the sky up above. The drow, not accustomed to the surface, began his descent down the rocky spur jotting out just above the beginning of a great waterfall.

The drow, his attention fully consumed by just trying not to be blinded, didn't fully take in the scope of his surroundings so it came as quite a surprise when he reached an outcrop making a perfect look-out point that he was surrounded by blissful blue water. The surprise only expanded into shock when he found himself staring into the forming mouth of the biggest waterfall he'd ever seen in his life. He found himself gazing down a drop of surely a hundred meters of falling water then coming splashing down on the razor-sharp rocks below.

He nearly lost his foothold gazing in amazement at the natural wonder. He quickly found it though and avertedly broke his gaze and started exploring the island, for it was an island he knew, instead.

He found the land mass scarce of both flora and fauna, having only seen small clusters of trees densely packed together in different positions varying of the angle of the spur.

For the island was really just a sharp rock, like an arrow-head, protruding from the waterbed like a plant springing to life. Where the few trees didn't grow it was just bare, weathered rock slanting at a 45° angle. The drow found no passages or paths leading anywhere, and the clearly untouched vegetation, making it very hard to make progress at all and at the same time indicating that no creature has ever set foot here. Hoping that from the high vantage point at the very top of the peak he could he locate himself and maybe find a way out of here, started slowly the difficult climb.

The very agile creature slowly made his way to the peak, and had he not been so agile he would have surely fallen to his death. The drow took a break just before the last climb of the nearly 180° steep wall of rock to the top; he knew he was going to need it.

And surely this last climb took all his energy and agile expertise, but finally he could stand atop the crest of the island as the elf that conquered this piece of devilish peak. As the drow surveyed the surroundings he felt his heart sink and his jaw drop at the same time.

At a thousand meters in the sky he looked at numerous miles of land in each of the cardinal points. And what a view, a lake spread out before his eyes to the north, he saw bare hilly fields in the west, in the south he could follow the great river that ran from the falls along a ridgeline and then turning behind the mountains, out of view. As he gazed to the east his eyebrows rose as he saw a ridgeline of black mountains and blood-red glow behind them. What in the world? he thought but then realized that this was not his world. When he looked harder, focusing his drow eyes, he thought he could discern a city, built on the very river that emitted from the very place he was standing on. Trying very hard to see better he could just make out that the river split the city into two before the dark clouds rolled over and obstructed his view. He knew it was getting late and by the looks of the clouds it wasn't going to be a calm night. The drow knew he'd better start searching for a place for him to spend the night before the clouds rolled in. He had just found a dark and sheltered opening in the cracks of the rocks by time the rain poured down.

At the same time eight companions docked on the western side of the lake and took up refuge.