A/N: I'm aware that people don't like cliffhangers, but if I didn't have them I would have to give my whole story away in one really long chapter. I know, its evil, but I'm sure none of us would like that. It would be way to long and disorganized. Hopefully everyone has liked this well enough to send me reviews. You don't have to if you don't want to though. Or you can just tell me my story sucks and never to write again.
Warning: Mild spoilers for The Legacy. Sorry but it's important to my plotline.
Disclaimer: Please see previous chapter
Moving on.....
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Chapter Two: Dreams And Nightmares
She was lying at the base of an old oak tree. Blood pooled around her in a crimson puddle. Amazingly though, she was still alive. How was anyone's guess. The four companions made their camp in the clearing, they cleaned and dressed the young woman's wounds and put her down on some extra bedding. She would most likely not wake for a while, though she had stirred when they moved her.
How someone could possibly harm such a beautiful creature was beyond all of them, though three of them were drow and the one that wasn't (though his blood now held the stuff of shadow) grew up on the dangerous streets of Calimport. As much as they sometimes disliked each other, they could all agree on one thing. They wanted to kill whoever had done this.
After a few hours she stirred again. This time she woke with a start and looked around. It appeared that she knew where she was, but didn't know why she was half naked and well bandaged in someone's bedroll. Then all of the sudden she started to cry, she hadn't seen her rescuers yet. She pulled her knees up to her chest and put her head down on them. Her long black hair fell over her delicate, shaking shoulders in a sea of ebony silk.
Finally Entreri could take no more of the sound. For once, something seemed to pull at the assassin's heartstrings. He stepped out of the tree line and walked over to her. He gently put his hand on her shoulder, bidding her to look up as he sat down. She looked up at him and the sight of her eyes stole his breath away, they were very beautiful even though they were tear stricken. Her bottom lip trembled as she willed herself to speak and then finally she asked, "What are you doing here?" The question caught the assassin off guard, he had been expecting her to ask who he was. He answered her question anyway. "We found you here at the base of the tree. We've been taking care of you for the last few hours."
At his answer the girl looked up at the sky, it had been a while since the half demon left her there. It was night time now. "Why?" she asked and her lip began to tremble again. She tried to hold back her tears but couldn't. Entreri put his arm gently around her not knowing what she meant by the question until she continued. "Why did you save me?" Sobs wracked her small body and she repeated the question. The assassin said nothing, he didn't know what to do. Luck was with him though, Jarlaxle stepped out of the trees and sat with the two of them placing his arm around the girl as Entreri had done. "How could we not save you, little one?" he asked her and he petted her hair to calm her. "We could not simply leave you there. You do not deserve such a thing." The girl just looked up at him in a daze and said nothing. She allowed herself to be lain back down and fell into a restless sleep.
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Oddly enough through this whole scene, neither Drizzt or Kimmuriel stepped out of the trees. Drizzt looked on from a different view, as if he was watching something long past. Kimmuriel just watched with a blank stare, not seeing anything. They came out of the trees long after the girl had fallen asleep.
The four sat together around their campfire not knowing what to do or think. This kind of thing had never happened to any of them before. They kept watch in shifts as usual. Drizzt was the first to claim Reverie, followed shortly by sleep for Entreri. Jarlaxle and Kimmuriel stayed up keeping watch together. None of them felt all that comfortable in the woods, not after they found the girl.
Drizzt entered his Dreamcicle normally this time. She was already there waiting for him. Upon seeing him she leapt into his arms and kissed him. He set her down eagerly returning her kiss. When they separated for air he asked, "What was that in the woods?" The look on her face clearly told him that she knew what he was talking about. She took a deep breath and started to explain. "That was something that happened a long time ago. For some reason the spirits in the woods choose to relive it. I don't know why but I think they do because they feel the need to tell the girl's story but don't have another way to."
Drizzt nodded at this. It was something he could believe. As a ranger he was more in tune with the forest than the others were. He had felt a profound sadness upon entering it but had said nothing to the others about it. "So what about my friends then? Did the spirits take them over?"
She nodded. "In a way yes. Two people rescued the girl in the forest. One of them was said to be a cold hearted demon lord, the other was his father who was very kind. They had been traveling together and happened upon her in the forest and took care of her. I would imagine that your friends are of like mind with those two. That's why you were left alone and the other one wasn't all there."
The whole thing made sense to the ranger and he didn't question further except to ask about he girl's fate. She told him that the girl lived and went back to her village. That made Drizzt feel a bit better, at least the girl lived. He wanted to ask what happened to injure her in the first place but didn't. Something about this was making Secret very upset. He laughed inside at the nickname, Secret was keeping secrets it seemed.
The latter looked up at him. "You will reach the village tomorrow. Its about half a day's hike out of the forest. The village is right at its edge." Her form shuddered then. A look of pain crossed her face.
Drizzt panicked "Secret, what's happening to you!"
She fell to the ground, "I don't know! Something is.....attacking...me!" She screamed and it sounded like thunder throughout the Dreamscape. And then just as quickly as she began to shudder, she vanished.
A high, wicked laughter filled the Dreamscape in her absence. Dark tendrils wrapped themselves around the drow ranger's body and pulled him to the ground.
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Entreri woke up as Drizzt inadvertently kicked him in his sleep. He was about to wake the young drow when he saw the state the latter was in. Drizzt tossed and turned violently in his Reverie, it was almost as if something was attacking him. Suddenly the drow ranger's eyes popped wide open. He tried to stand but collapsed back down onto his bedroll. He began the tossing and turning all over again.
The assassin called Jarlaxle and Kimmuriel over to his side. If something was attacking Drizzt it might decide to attack them all. The mercenary leader sat down next to the younger drow not intending to leave his side. "Find out what is wrong with him!" he commanded the psionicist who nodded and fell into a trance that would bring him into Drizzt's mind. He had attempted this during the other drow's other dreams but was pushed out by a gentle force, this time nothing denied him entry. He fell into Drizzt's Dreamscape.
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It was quiet but Kimmuriel knew that meant nothing. For he sensed that there was something very wrong here. Something was in the drow ranger's mind that shouldn't be. Without warning a big black form bumped into him from behind. The psionicist immediately recognized the ranger's panther. "Guenwhyvar? But what are you doing here?" he asked the cat. The panther bumped him again leading him forward. Apparently the panther has sensed her master's pain and had come to his aid. Kimmuriel let the panther lead him farther into the Dreamscape.
Not long after Kimmuriel's sensitive ears picked up the sound of a cracking whip. And a loud, wicked laughter. That laughter sounded strangely familiar. As he neared what seemed to be a clearing in the Dreamscape he soon saw the owner of that wicked laugh, his attention though was on her whip. The long six snake-headed whip of the drow priestesses, a weapon he knew well. A weapon all drow males knew well.
That dreaded weapon came down hard on Drizzt's bloodied form. It would have continued on had not the wielder of that weapon been attacked by six-hundred pounds of angry panther. She screamed, in pain or fury he couldn't tell. Then she vanished before the cat could get the kill. Kimmuriel rushed over to the ranger's fallen form. He was still alive and the vicious wounds were actually healing right before his eyes. The younger drow appeared to be in shock nonetheless.
"But that was....That was....how...how is she here...dead...she's dead..." he studdered almost incoherently. The psionicist didn't normally comfort people but he had to calm Drizzt down if they were going to get out of his Dreamscape. He put his hands on the younger drow's shoulders and held him steady willing him to take a deep breath and start over. Drizzt obliged and continued. "Matron Malice, she's dead. How was she here?" Kimmuriel honestly had no answer for that question. He knew too that Matron Malice was dead. Gently he lead the younger drow out of the Dreamscape.
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Jarlaxle let out an audible sigh of relief when Drizzt and Kimmuriel woke. The ranger was still obviously shaken. Something very bad had happened to him. He told Entreri to take Drizzt over to a nearby hot spring and help him calm down. Meanwhile he sat with Kimmuriel who filled him in.
The assassin helped Drizzt remove his clothes and into the water. He sat at the water's edge ready to give further help even though he didn't really want too. But sill, seeing his former rival in such a state did unnerve him. Never had he seen Drizzt Do'Urden so shaken. Not once in all of their battles with each other or even when they had escaped from House Baenre in Menzobarranzan. Something big must have happened in the drow ranger's dream. He wondered if the girl in his dreams had anything to do with it. His instincts told him that she did not. But still...
He looked over to the ranger who was now attempting to comb his long white hair with his fingers. He reached into his pocket and found a comb which he then handed to Drizzt. The ranger smiled appreciatively and combed his hair.
After a few more minutes, his hair successfully combed, Drizzt finished with his bath, "Entreri?" The assassin looked up from the ground. "I'm done, please help me out." Entreri nodded and easily lifted the smaller elf out of the water. He helped him redress and back towards the camp.
"Entreri?" the drow asked, the assassin simply looked over at him and he continued, "Why are you helping me so much?"
The assassin just shrugged. Honestly, he thought, he would like to know that answer himself. He knew that Drizzt wanted a real answer but seeing that the man had none he let the question drop. Truly Entreri was grateful for that. Had it been Jarlaxle instead, the elf wouldn't have shut up.
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What Kimmuriel reported to him was very disturbing. How had Matron Malice, Drizzt's dead mother, have been in the young ranger's dream?
He knew for a fact she was dead, he had watched as Malice's oldest daughter Briza beat her to death with her snake-headed whip. For that same day, House Do'Urden fell, with no small help from Bregan D'aerthe.
Malice had failed to kill Drizzt with the spirit-wraith of Zaknafain and so Lolth had ordered her demise to First Matron Baenre. The old matron had given the task to Jarlaxle and his band of mercenaries.
In truth, Drizzt's whole family was dead. Or at least they had been.
Zaknafain had been sacrificed to Lolth for Drizzt's 'sins'. Then he had been reanimated as a zombie to hunt his son down. During their last fight the soul of Zak came through, and he would not kill his own son. The spirit-wraith broke free of Malice's control and threw himself into a lake of acid.
Malice had been killed by Briza. Briza and Maya had been killed in the fall of House Do'Urden.
Dinin and Vierna had survived the fall only to go after Drizzt again at Mithral Hall. Dinin had not wanted to go and Vierna, under the spell of Triel Baenre, changed him into a drider, the horrible cross between a drow and an Underdark spider. Twisted and transmutated into one bloated form.
Vierna had unfortunately been killed by Drizzt. He hadn't wanted to kill her, but in the end he was left with no choice. The spell on Vierna had been strong, she fought until the end. Drizzt had warned her not to go after her other weapons after he cut apart her snake-headed whip, but she did. And he had put a scimitar through her heart. Death had ended Triel's spell. The last thing Drizzt had said to is sister was "I am sorry" but Vierna just shook her head. The daughter of Zaknafain thought it better that she die for what she did and she did not blame her little brother. Drizzt buried her on the surface half a day later and placed flowers on her grave because he knew that she would have liked them.
Drizzt's whole family was dead. Or at least they had been.
Drizzt had reported that the girl in his dream said that the village was half a day away. Kimmuriel confirmed this by checking through one of his doors. They set off as soon as the sun rose.
