Summary- Drizzt and co. meet a surface elf maiden and a strange drow that claims to be polymorphed into his present form. Then, strangers from the drow's past come after him, reveal him for who and what he is, and all the Nine Hells break loose.
A/N: Heh, okay; I do not own Drizzt and co. or the F.R. universe, sadly. ((cries)) But, I do own Aari, in both forms, Riakkal, Diamaetus, and anyone else whom you don't recognize, and I shall hunt down and kill anyone who steals them from me. ((snarls viciously, drawing apprehensive looks from innocent passersby))
Disclaimer: Hey, that's my job!
Me: well, too bad. ((sticks out tongue)) alright, on with the story of chaos . . .
Riakkal sighed as she trudged on through the winter snow. The surface elf was unusual for her kind in that she was a hermit, and grouchy and stubborn at that.
At least, she'd used to be a hermit. Now, she was trudging all over the world with the strange drow that was walking alongside her.
Her companion stopped and lifted his face to the sky, tongue out, catching snowflakes on his tongue. She hid a smile underneath her cloak as she called back to him, "Hurry up, Aari! I want to get to Silverymoon before I freeze to death!"
He grinned as he bounded lightly over the snow to her side, waist-length white hair flowing behind him. "Still cold?" he teased, tugging on the cloak she had tightly wrapped about her.
She scowled right back at him. "Yes, I am! And you're crazy not to be!"
He laughed, lavender eyes sparkling. "I know I'm crazy, Ria. No need to point it out to me."
She shook her head, grinning under the shadows of her hood.
After a moments silence, Aari asked somewhat anxiously, "D'you think Lady Alustriel can break the polymorph? I really hate this form."
Ria sighed. "I really don't know, Aari. I could probably help if I knew what you really are!"
He stuck out his tongue at her playfully. "Well, now, isn't that just too bad."
She didn't respond as she plowed through a snowdrift. He leapt ably over it. He was very athletic, more so than any elf she knew. He had incredible hearing, even for a drow, and his movements were graceful and catlike. But, he complained that his current dark elf form was blind, deaf, he couldn't move at all, and he couldn't smell anything. This made her wonder what he had been before the polymorph.
His story was an odd one. She had found him in her woods one day, burned, bruised, and bleeding from a dozen and one wounds, in his current form. He had later told her that he had been in a battle with a wizard, and the wizard had just used a polymorph before she approached and he collapsed. No matter how she pressed, however, he would not reveal to her what he had been before the polymorph. He complained about it constantly, however. He would try to jump over a huge snowdrift, for example, only to find that he could not go that high. He also growled at times, or bared his teeth when threatened or angered.
"Hey . . . Ria, look, I'm sorry," Aari interrupted her thoughts anxiously, thinking her silence to be hostile. She turned and smiled reassuringly at him. "It's nothing, I'm just thinking," she explained.
He smirked. "Bet it was about me!"
"Was not!" she countered, even though it was.
"Was too!" he insisted, a point accentuated when he leaned over and kissed her passionately. When they broke away, he grinned. "Was too."
She smiled as they continued on. She wasn't sure when she'd realized that she loved him – he'd just up and kissed her one night, and she'd kissed him back. He was like that; always surprising, but generally in a good way.
Later on that night, in an inn at Silverymoon:
Riakkal yawned as she stretched sleepily. It was late at night, and, by her own account, time for bed. She curled up on the soft mattress, smiling as Aari walked over and lay down next to her. He draped one ebony-skinned arm about her waist before drifting off to sleep.
She snuggled closer to him, worries about the future suddenly assaulting her. She was worried that, when the polymorph was removed, he wouldn't resemble anything elven or human. But, she was much more terrified of something else, though she never told him.
She knew how polymorphs could sometimes affect the mind. She was terrified that, when the spell was broken, he wouldn't love her anymore.
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The wizard smirked as he peered through his globe at the sleeping couple. Soon, his time would come.
A/N: Hey, does anyone know how to get little asterisks up here? The darned thing won't let me use 'em. And, yeah, for those of you who've read my stuff, Aari gets around quite a lot, I use him in most of my works. He's my personal OC. And, reviews would be appreciated! All flames shall be fed to my pet demon, Shetan. He's glowy, he's green, and he's got issues! So don't make him mad by forcing me to feed him flames!