Chapter 3

Brave Soundtrack- Touch the Sky

(Monica)

When I woke up the next morning, I all but jumped out of bed and made my way outside and to a small patch of woods by where we were staying. I'd thought about it last night, and I remembered that when I was younger, I loved watching Xena: Warrior Princess on television, and for a while, I used to pretend I WAS Xena; battle cry and all. What's my point? My point is that if I find some sort of semi-heavy stick or something, I could practice some sword/staff or; if I found something to use as twine and a smaller stick, chakram moves and teach myself how to fight while the men are all sleeping. …I wasn't about to attempt her pinch to the neck though. If I pinched someone's neck and blocked the blood flow to their brains, I doubted I could undo it before the thirty seconds are up.

I found a large stick and attempted some of staff moves…which resulted in me hitting myself in the sides, stomach, back, and foot quite a few times. Okay, scratch the staff. Maybe sword moves?

(Drizzt)

I watched the girl in both slight amusement and complete confusion. She'd gotten up and slipped out without a word, and out of curiosity, I followed her. What in Faerun was she doing? Jumping about and swinging a large stick, bruising herself almost every time and cursing about it. And she was making the strangest noise I ever heard. After several moments, she cursed one more time and threw the stick aside violently, heaving a sigh. What was she doing now? Wulfgar and Bruenor had plenty of theories how she could be related to the prince. They seemed to have come together, but the prince had a strange insistence about we the fae against the humans. When we met any wizards in town, I would try to find out about Bethmoora.

(Monica)

I cursed, throwing the stick aside and exhaled. Prince Nuada said that I used some sort of magic or whatever to get us here, so maybe I should try using that to defend myself, since armed combat didn't seem to be working out for me.

"Brisingr!" Nothing from the fire spell from Eragon. Something from my brother's stupid Skyrim game, maybe?

"Fus Ro Dah!" Again, nothing. Harry Potter, perhaps?

"Expecto Patronum!" god, I sounded like such a noob….not to mention an idiot…

"Kamehameha? Abrakadabra? Come on! Something?!" I exclaimed, throwing up my hands in exasperation and flopping down on the ground.

"What are you doing, Monica?" I jumped and sat up, my head jerking in the direction of the person who spoke to me.

(Drizzt)

"My apologies I didn't mean to startle you." I came to her, sitting as well. Monica sighed and laid back down, looking up at the sky.

"How long have you been standing there, Drizzt ?" she asked, wincing from embarrassment, which I understood.

"Not long. What were you doing?" I asked. She sighed and propped herself up on her elbows.

"Well…there's a fictional warrior woman sort-of well-known in my world called Xena, Warrior Princess. I was attempting to use some of the techniques I'd seen her do when I was a child to teach myself how to fight. But…as you can tell, it didn't go as planned. Nuada thinks I'm the one who brought us here. By means of magic. But I honestly don't know! I'm human. I thought if I yelled out some random made up incantations, something would happen, but it didn't." As she spoke, her face reddened and she gesticulated furiously. Then the girl pouted.

I wanted to laugh but that would not be polite. As seriously as I could, I responded, "Well, you did just tell me the spells you attempted were fictional. And as for this "Xena" woman, the manoeuvres you were attempting are completely possible, but most certainly not for a beginner. And something else about spells, unless you are completely focused, they're likely to not work anyway." She sighed again and sat up completely, crossing her legs.

"You have a point. To be honest, I wasn't even really all that intent on succeeding anyway. I understand that Nuada wants to go back to where we came from, but I don't. I love my mom and little brother, but…" she trailed off.

"But what?" I asked.

"But it's SO beautiful here. Trust me Drizzt, if you'd seen where I live, you'd understand why I'm reluctant to go back." She said, standing up and dusting her brushing her clothes off.

"Why do you say that?" I inquired. Monica exhaled.

"Well for one thing, there aren't as many trees; not where I live. There're tall metal and stone buildings, and when you look up at the sky at night, you're lucky if you can see the stars at all most of the time. And…"

As she described to me the things she didn't want to go back to in her world, I understood the reason for her reluctance. Some things that seemed a bit farfetched. Giant metal birds called planes and devices that allow writers to complete their manuscripts without a quill, for instance. What especially surprised me was when she talked about the weapons called guns, and how her voice seemed to have a touch of contempt in it as she described them. The lass seemed to become more livid on the things known as "theme parks", and the animal attractions they had there. Perhaps it was time to interrupt her, as she was beginning to rant…

(Monica)

"Monica, I hate to be rude, but-"

"Will you stop your meaningless ranting!" we both turned to see Nuada walking towards us. I glared at him.

"Bite me, Jerk face." I snapped heatedly, still irritated from the previous conversation topic with Drizzt. Speaking of which, I turned to said Drow and added,

"I'm sorry about going off on a rant like that, Drizzt. I'll try not to do that again." Drizzt nodded and Dumbass said,

"By the way, Witch, is it not about time you found a way to send us back?" I glared at him.

"Call me witch again and I'll slap you right in the mouth like my mother used to do to me when I was little and I repeated curse words I heard her say. And as for getting us home, I told you I don't know how to! Like I said, I'm NOT a 'magical being'! Humans can't usually cast spells unless they learn how to from a mage, and unless you know a damn good one around this freaky D&D world, then I suggest YOU try working on a spell or whatever to get us home!" I snapped. I almost wished I hadn't lost my temper with him, as he grabbed me roughly by the arm.

"If we do not return to the world we came from, I will have your head on a pike, girl!" He snarled, roughly shoving me away from him. Man…why couldn't we all just get along? It's not like I had anything against HIM…other than his need for an attitude adjustment. Man, I said it before, but I'll say it again: I should have spent more of my free time playing Dungeons and Dragons with my brother and less time watching anime. I mean, admittedly my brother made me read his book on the Elven languages, which I decided to try out a little to see if I could still remember what the little nerd taught me.

"Drizzt, will you teach me…. how to…. use scimitars? I think I should learn how…. to fight." I said. It was a bit drawn out, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't calling him anything racist or something. Nuada's eyes widened as his head snapped in my direction.

"Y-you…you speak…?!" Drizzt blinked in surprise. "You speak Drow?" those lovely purples eyes were wide and his brows raised until I couldn't see them!

I smiled sheepishly and shook my hand in a so-so motion. "Kind of. I'm pretty bad at it though, as you can tell. One night my…. "angel" of a brother locked me out of the house when he and I were home alone and wouldn't let me back in, until I agreed to let him teach me how to speak the Elven languages. Keyword being SPEAK, there. I can't understand it if someone else is speaking it to save my life.

(Drizzt)

I smirked, deciding to tease the child a bit. "That's too bad. If you're not careful, you may wind up getting yourself into a fight you cannot win. Or what may be worse, you may find yourself with an Elven husband if you're not careful."

When she gave a huff of annoyance and repeated she had no 'frigging idea', I translated, "Perhaps Nuada and I ought to teach you more than the ways of weapons, little one. It seems we need to teach you the tongues of Elves. There are many dialects And this time, you need to pay attention to the lesson." I omitted the part about the elf husband.

She looked away in embarrassment. She didn't seem to want to learn the Elf languages properly, but she agreed nonetheless. "I just hope you know how to speak HIS language, because I doubt he'll teach me."

I smiled. Nuada ignored this, though I am sure he heard. "Frankly, I only know the languages here. He happened to use some common words such as drow." I had ascertained that the pale elf did not embrace my kind but he could trust my company for now, at least. "If you have difficulties, Wulfgar will not mind helping you too."

"Oh Drizzt, that's cool. Can I ask, is he very young? How many years are you?" she cheered up.

"Ah Wulfgar is my student. I am about fifty years, you are all like younglings to elfkind. Bruenor as well." This question always saddened me, but I didn't feel this way now.

I couldn't help laughing at her slack jaw. "No way. You're rather hot, good looking." Bruenor had come over as well and agreed 'aye and he got no durned idea'

I nudged him not to tease me, my ears heating. Certainly I felt hot.