Chapter Five
The day slowly passed into night and the nocturnal creatures began to stir and rise. Drizzt's tears stopped long ago and now he was leaning against Guenhwyvar and staring off into space.
His friends kept on thinking he had slipped into the reverie of the surface elves, but every time someone softly called his name to see if he was awake or not, his eyes would be immediately looking in their direction, just as alert as he always was.
"What are you doing?" Wulfgar asked Drizzt as Regis went into the kitchen to get something for the small group to eat.
"Listening." Was the answer the barbarian got, voice flat of emotion.
That ended that short conversation.
A few minutes later Regis came back, a plate laden down with pieces of cut up fruit and chunks of cheese. "It's not much, but at least its something." The halfling said, for once not feeling that hungry.
"What is it?" Drizzt asked, disgust at having to ask heard in his voice.
"Apple slices and cheese."
Sitting up, his gaze kept on shifting about in front of him, frustrated that he couldn't see the food. He wasn't hungry, but the cheese sounded good. He knew this to be some kind of trick to at least get him to eat something, as his friends knew that he thought of cheese as a comfort food.
Closing his useless eyes, he let his other senses roam and heard Regis putting the plate down. His hand shot out to grab at the plate and landed on a piece of apple. Picking it up, he let his hands wonder until they found a piece of the cheese he was looking for. Withdrawing his hand, he lay back against Guenhwyvar again, began to slowly eat his cheese and held out the apple slice to the panther.
When the cat didn't take the apple, he got confused. "Don't you want it?" he asked. He felt the cat move, but instead of taking the apple slice offered to her, she took the cheese from his other hand.
A surprised look came across his face. He gently turned the cat's face to look at his and he let a small smile cross his face. Guenhwyvar knew that look. Before she could jump away, the slight frame of Drizzt was wrestling with her, a game they played often.
As always, the 600-pound panther won, pinning the dark elf to the floor and flicking her tail across his bare feet, accomplishing what all wanted to hear at that moment. Though having a hard time breathing through cat, Drizzt's melodic laughter filled the room.
"Ok, Guen, you win. Get off me!" He cried out, suddenly unable to breathe at all as the cat moved slightly.
As the panther moved off him and he got into a kneeling position, letting air back into his lungs, Guenhwyvar moved to his side. He felt the cheese the cat had taken from him land on his hand. His face crinkled in disgust at that. "Ugh, you can have it and the apple. Don't steal any more of my cheese."
With that, he followed the sound of his friends and was soon again reaching for the plate. This time he ate the cheese he found fast, before a certain cat decided to steal it from him. He went to grab another slice, but instead found somebody's hand. By the size and feel of it, it belonged to Wulfgar.
"Have you got cheese?" He asked, willing to fight for it at that particular moment.
"No."
"Oh."
"There is none left."
Drizzt pouted. Apart from one chunk and what Guen had stolen, his friends had eaten it all. Usually that wouldn't have bothered him this much, but right then he was . . . delicate.
He closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths and began to slowly count to ten in Drow. If there was one thing he had learnt with this blindness, it was that he had one wicked temper, a rage he could barely control when it came upon him. It reminded him of the time he had spent living in the tunnels of the Underdark.
"Bah! Forget the durned cheese. It not be that important."
His eyes snapped open again to glare angrily in the direction of the dwarf who had dared to speak. In as gentle a voice as he could manage, he growled out, "It is comforting to me."
Getting back to his feet, he realised that his wrestle with Guenhwyvar had him turned about and he didn't know where the couch was. Sighing in frustration, he began to slowly shuffle his way to the first piece of furniture he came across. He came across the chair Catti-Brie had slept in the night before. He sat down, pulled his legs up to his chest and laid his head on the armrest.
"Drizzt?" Catti-Brie called out to him.
"I'm tired." As if to prove the point, a huge yawn forced its way out of his mouth. "I want to be alone for a while." He muttered, though before he had fully finished the sentence he was asleep.
As soon as the others realised he was asleep and not sitting down with his eyes closed, they all went off to do something to take their minds off their friend.
Wulfgar began a fire in the hearth. Bruenor busied himself with the mindless task of cleaning up their breakfast things, which were still on the table in the kitchen. Regis ran into the bunkroom but came out again in a few minutes, the skull of a knucklehead trout in one hand and his knife in the other.
Catti-Brie got the blanket that was on the couch and covered Drizzt with it. She realised that, even after his exhausting cry the night before, he had not slept since he had lost his sight. She went and sat next to Regis, who was busy turning the skull into a small bone wolf.
"Is the wolf Colt?" she asked, not bothering to lower her voice. She was quite sure nothing short of an earthquake would wake the drow now.
"Yep! I figured that the wolf would stay here, though Drizzt seemed to like him."
This made Catti-Brie smile. "That is sweet of ye. I'm sure he'll like it."
Regis shrugged and smiled. "That is the point of making it."
The two soon became three as the fire was blazing brightly and Wulfgar joined them. "Do you think it possible to make something we would all enjoy? I remember seeing a deck of playing cards once, do you think you'd be able to make a deck with the numbers and patterns raised?"
Regis looked to Wulfgar thoughtfully. "It would take a lot of trout, but if someone could sell me what I would need I will see what I can do."
"When do ye think we be headin' home again? I know we be livin' in Mithral Hall again, but I miss the Dale." Catti-Brie said, sighing out her longing for the freezing winds and dangerous terrain she had grown up in.
Wulfgar nodded, agreeing wholly with the woman. At first he had loved the Halls of Bruenor's ancestral home, but now - after his run-in with the yochlol - he also wanted to go back to the freezing plains of his people.
Regis nodded sub-consciously, continuing the whittling of the bone. They immediately stopped their conversation as Drizzt moved slightly in his sleep, moaning something out in Drow, a language only he knew.
Whatever he was dreaming, it seemed to be pleasant enough though and the three soon relaxed and began their talk again. Bruenor joined them soon after they began their talk of Icewind Dale again.
"The kitchen be clean now!" The dwarf stated proudly, before remembering he had just cleaned up voluntarily. He immediately scowled. They fell into silence for a long time.
They all jumped a mile when Drizzt started to shout out words in the drow tongue. "Xsa!" He tossed and turned for a bit as his dreams turned into nightmares. "Nau. Xuat, qualla xuat!"
Catti-Brie was immediately at his side, trying to calm him down. Drizzt, however, gave a strangled cry and bolted awake, his eyes staring wildly about, forgetting he could not see. She watched as his vision switched from normal to infrared.
After a few seconds of trying to toss off the female shaking him, he came more to his senses. It was plain to see he was still trapped in his dream world as he bent low, revealing his back and spouted off more words in his native language angrily at Catti-Brie. "Usstan phlith dos!" He shouted, before becoming silent once again.
When it became obvious nothing was going to happen, he slowly let himself relax, not knowing if doing so would anger the Priestess standing over him.
He closed his eyes and squeezed them as hard as he could. "Naut'kyn! Xxizz . . . usstan uil stre." He whined, before once again becoming silent.
Catti-Brie decided to touch him now would be a stupid thing to do. She moved with a lot of noise so she was right in front of him. She wasn't surprised to see him tense up at her approach.
"Drizzt? It only be me and yer friends here. Yerself would be the only drow."
The effect this sentence had on him wasn't what Catti-Brie was expecting. She expected him to sigh in relief and let them know that he was as all right as possible. Instead, it looked to her as if he was just waking up for the first time, even though he had been awake for a while now.
Yawning and stretching, Drizzt didn't feel as though he had slept for more than five minutes. He remembered dreaming about his time with Zak, then his dreams getting darker as he was being chased around the Underdark. By his oldest sister, Briza and Matron Malice, no less.
"Ye awake now?" Bruenor asked, somewhere to one side of him. He turned, confused, to stare at where he thought his friend was and nodded.
"Bad nightmares." Wulfgar stated, not bothering to make it a question. It was confirmed though when Drizzt sent a quick glance in his direction and again nodded.
"What does Usstan phlith dos mean? You sounded really angry when you shouted that at Catti-Brie." Regis asked.
Drizzt's eyes widened at that, before he ducked his head, flinching. It was that action, coupled with his silence that made them know it wasn't a nice thing to say to someone . . . in any language.
"Well, it doesn't matter now. Ye should be getting' more sleep."
Drizzt shook his head no. "I want a bath." He said, grimacing. "I'm dirty, I'm tired, my clothes are sticking to me and I smell like a wet dog. I need help, though. I don't know if there is a bath here or not."
"There is." All four stated.
With that, Drizzt sighed in relief and held out his hands. While he let Bruenor take his left hand, he shooed Catti-Brie away when she went to his right.
"I'll go get the water ready." Wulfgar announced and left to do so while Bruenor followed slowly after him, leading the blind drow.
The bath heated the water magically in minutes and before long Drizzt was clean and feeling more relaxed than he had since he found out about his ailment. He didn't reject the help to get out of the bath, or into the clean clothes, or into the sitting room once again.
He began to struggle though when he was told that he was going to be taken back into the bedroom again. Even though he knew it would be more comfortable than the couch, he couldn't help but feel uneasy at the thought of going back into the room where he had woken up and realised he wasn't able to see. He kicked out in front of him and one foot connected with Wulfgar's knee.
After that, he was taken back to the couch.
"Guenhwyvar?" He called out, wondering if the panther was still around. The cat, who was getting tired from spending most of the day on the material plane still went to her master and friends side, willing to stay all night.
Drizzt hugged the panther close and lay down. In what seemed to be seconds, he was in a deep, dreamless sleep that lasted the rest of the night.
Regis and Catti-Brie watched as their friend slipped off to sleep. Then they, followed by Wulfgar and Bruenor entered the bunkroom. The three beds laid out in there were for the three males. Cattie-Brie decided to sleep in the bedroom tonight. Before sleep though, they needed to pack.
When Drizzt was bathing, they had all decided to leave the next morning. Drizzt would be more comfortable in a place he was more familiar with. What better place in Faerün - in Toril! - was there than to take Drizzt than to Silverymoon, the place where his other friends, Delly, Alustriel and the spirited young girl Colson were all waiting for them to come back from their orc hunt.
That and the hot baths with the scented oils. Since his bath that night had calmed Drizzt down immensely, they thought this was more important than even knowing friends were nearby.
By the time their packs were all ready and waiting by the door ready for them the next morning, it was close to midnight and they were all tired.
Soon, Drizzt wasn't the only one sleeping.
A/N - Well, sorry this was so late. RL has been busy as of late. Well, I haven't forgotten this story. Just wanted to say thank you to my reviewers ChichiX (4 times, thanks for the reviews on all the chapters so far!) Miss Becky, Alexandra Dragonhart, carlin Robertson, Shandrial and She-Cat. You people are the best. I didn't think this story would do so well.
Drow Translations - if wrong please tell me in a review or email me the proper words.
Xsa - Damn
Nau. Xuat, qualla xuat - No. Don't, please don't.
Usstan phlith dos - I hate you.
Naut'kyn - Blind.
Xxizz - Help.
Usstan uil stre - I am afraid.
And for those curious people one to ten in Drow!
Uss - One Draa - Two Llar - Three Quen - Four Huela - Five Rraun - Six Blyn - Seven Lael - Eight Thal - Nine Szith - Ten
Oh, and sorry about the cheese thing . I have no idea where that came from.
The day slowly passed into night and the nocturnal creatures began to stir and rise. Drizzt's tears stopped long ago and now he was leaning against Guenhwyvar and staring off into space.
His friends kept on thinking he had slipped into the reverie of the surface elves, but every time someone softly called his name to see if he was awake or not, his eyes would be immediately looking in their direction, just as alert as he always was.
"What are you doing?" Wulfgar asked Drizzt as Regis went into the kitchen to get something for the small group to eat.
"Listening." Was the answer the barbarian got, voice flat of emotion.
That ended that short conversation.
A few minutes later Regis came back, a plate laden down with pieces of cut up fruit and chunks of cheese. "It's not much, but at least its something." The halfling said, for once not feeling that hungry.
"What is it?" Drizzt asked, disgust at having to ask heard in his voice.
"Apple slices and cheese."
Sitting up, his gaze kept on shifting about in front of him, frustrated that he couldn't see the food. He wasn't hungry, but the cheese sounded good. He knew this to be some kind of trick to at least get him to eat something, as his friends knew that he thought of cheese as a comfort food.
Closing his useless eyes, he let his other senses roam and heard Regis putting the plate down. His hand shot out to grab at the plate and landed on a piece of apple. Picking it up, he let his hands wonder until they found a piece of the cheese he was looking for. Withdrawing his hand, he lay back against Guenhwyvar again, began to slowly eat his cheese and held out the apple slice to the panther.
When the cat didn't take the apple, he got confused. "Don't you want it?" he asked. He felt the cat move, but instead of taking the apple slice offered to her, she took the cheese from his other hand.
A surprised look came across his face. He gently turned the cat's face to look at his and he let a small smile cross his face. Guenhwyvar knew that look. Before she could jump away, the slight frame of Drizzt was wrestling with her, a game they played often.
As always, the 600-pound panther won, pinning the dark elf to the floor and flicking her tail across his bare feet, accomplishing what all wanted to hear at that moment. Though having a hard time breathing through cat, Drizzt's melodic laughter filled the room.
"Ok, Guen, you win. Get off me!" He cried out, suddenly unable to breathe at all as the cat moved slightly.
As the panther moved off him and he got into a kneeling position, letting air back into his lungs, Guenhwyvar moved to his side. He felt the cheese the cat had taken from him land on his hand. His face crinkled in disgust at that. "Ugh, you can have it and the apple. Don't steal any more of my cheese."
With that, he followed the sound of his friends and was soon again reaching for the plate. This time he ate the cheese he found fast, before a certain cat decided to steal it from him. He went to grab another slice, but instead found somebody's hand. By the size and feel of it, it belonged to Wulfgar.
"Have you got cheese?" He asked, willing to fight for it at that particular moment.
"No."
"Oh."
"There is none left."
Drizzt pouted. Apart from one chunk and what Guen had stolen, his friends had eaten it all. Usually that wouldn't have bothered him this much, but right then he was . . . delicate.
He closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths and began to slowly count to ten in Drow. If there was one thing he had learnt with this blindness, it was that he had one wicked temper, a rage he could barely control when it came upon him. It reminded him of the time he had spent living in the tunnels of the Underdark.
"Bah! Forget the durned cheese. It not be that important."
His eyes snapped open again to glare angrily in the direction of the dwarf who had dared to speak. In as gentle a voice as he could manage, he growled out, "It is comforting to me."
Getting back to his feet, he realised that his wrestle with Guenhwyvar had him turned about and he didn't know where the couch was. Sighing in frustration, he began to slowly shuffle his way to the first piece of furniture he came across. He came across the chair Catti-Brie had slept in the night before. He sat down, pulled his legs up to his chest and laid his head on the armrest.
"Drizzt?" Catti-Brie called out to him.
"I'm tired." As if to prove the point, a huge yawn forced its way out of his mouth. "I want to be alone for a while." He muttered, though before he had fully finished the sentence he was asleep.
As soon as the others realised he was asleep and not sitting down with his eyes closed, they all went off to do something to take their minds off their friend.
Wulfgar began a fire in the hearth. Bruenor busied himself with the mindless task of cleaning up their breakfast things, which were still on the table in the kitchen. Regis ran into the bunkroom but came out again in a few minutes, the skull of a knucklehead trout in one hand and his knife in the other.
Catti-Brie got the blanket that was on the couch and covered Drizzt with it. She realised that, even after his exhausting cry the night before, he had not slept since he had lost his sight. She went and sat next to Regis, who was busy turning the skull into a small bone wolf.
"Is the wolf Colt?" she asked, not bothering to lower her voice. She was quite sure nothing short of an earthquake would wake the drow now.
"Yep! I figured that the wolf would stay here, though Drizzt seemed to like him."
This made Catti-Brie smile. "That is sweet of ye. I'm sure he'll like it."
Regis shrugged and smiled. "That is the point of making it."
The two soon became three as the fire was blazing brightly and Wulfgar joined them. "Do you think it possible to make something we would all enjoy? I remember seeing a deck of playing cards once, do you think you'd be able to make a deck with the numbers and patterns raised?"
Regis looked to Wulfgar thoughtfully. "It would take a lot of trout, but if someone could sell me what I would need I will see what I can do."
"When do ye think we be headin' home again? I know we be livin' in Mithral Hall again, but I miss the Dale." Catti-Brie said, sighing out her longing for the freezing winds and dangerous terrain she had grown up in.
Wulfgar nodded, agreeing wholly with the woman. At first he had loved the Halls of Bruenor's ancestral home, but now - after his run-in with the yochlol - he also wanted to go back to the freezing plains of his people.
Regis nodded sub-consciously, continuing the whittling of the bone. They immediately stopped their conversation as Drizzt moved slightly in his sleep, moaning something out in Drow, a language only he knew.
Whatever he was dreaming, it seemed to be pleasant enough though and the three soon relaxed and began their talk again. Bruenor joined them soon after they began their talk of Icewind Dale again.
"The kitchen be clean now!" The dwarf stated proudly, before remembering he had just cleaned up voluntarily. He immediately scowled. They fell into silence for a long time.
They all jumped a mile when Drizzt started to shout out words in the drow tongue. "Xsa!" He tossed and turned for a bit as his dreams turned into nightmares. "Nau. Xuat, qualla xuat!"
Catti-Brie was immediately at his side, trying to calm him down. Drizzt, however, gave a strangled cry and bolted awake, his eyes staring wildly about, forgetting he could not see. She watched as his vision switched from normal to infrared.
After a few seconds of trying to toss off the female shaking him, he came more to his senses. It was plain to see he was still trapped in his dream world as he bent low, revealing his back and spouted off more words in his native language angrily at Catti-Brie. "Usstan phlith dos!" He shouted, before becoming silent once again.
When it became obvious nothing was going to happen, he slowly let himself relax, not knowing if doing so would anger the Priestess standing over him.
He closed his eyes and squeezed them as hard as he could. "Naut'kyn! Xxizz . . . usstan uil stre." He whined, before once again becoming silent.
Catti-Brie decided to touch him now would be a stupid thing to do. She moved with a lot of noise so she was right in front of him. She wasn't surprised to see him tense up at her approach.
"Drizzt? It only be me and yer friends here. Yerself would be the only drow."
The effect this sentence had on him wasn't what Catti-Brie was expecting. She expected him to sigh in relief and let them know that he was as all right as possible. Instead, it looked to her as if he was just waking up for the first time, even though he had been awake for a while now.
Yawning and stretching, Drizzt didn't feel as though he had slept for more than five minutes. He remembered dreaming about his time with Zak, then his dreams getting darker as he was being chased around the Underdark. By his oldest sister, Briza and Matron Malice, no less.
"Ye awake now?" Bruenor asked, somewhere to one side of him. He turned, confused, to stare at where he thought his friend was and nodded.
"Bad nightmares." Wulfgar stated, not bothering to make it a question. It was confirmed though when Drizzt sent a quick glance in his direction and again nodded.
"What does Usstan phlith dos mean? You sounded really angry when you shouted that at Catti-Brie." Regis asked.
Drizzt's eyes widened at that, before he ducked his head, flinching. It was that action, coupled with his silence that made them know it wasn't a nice thing to say to someone . . . in any language.
"Well, it doesn't matter now. Ye should be getting' more sleep."
Drizzt shook his head no. "I want a bath." He said, grimacing. "I'm dirty, I'm tired, my clothes are sticking to me and I smell like a wet dog. I need help, though. I don't know if there is a bath here or not."
"There is." All four stated.
With that, Drizzt sighed in relief and held out his hands. While he let Bruenor take his left hand, he shooed Catti-Brie away when she went to his right.
"I'll go get the water ready." Wulfgar announced and left to do so while Bruenor followed slowly after him, leading the blind drow.
The bath heated the water magically in minutes and before long Drizzt was clean and feeling more relaxed than he had since he found out about his ailment. He didn't reject the help to get out of the bath, or into the clean clothes, or into the sitting room once again.
He began to struggle though when he was told that he was going to be taken back into the bedroom again. Even though he knew it would be more comfortable than the couch, he couldn't help but feel uneasy at the thought of going back into the room where he had woken up and realised he wasn't able to see. He kicked out in front of him and one foot connected with Wulfgar's knee.
After that, he was taken back to the couch.
"Guenhwyvar?" He called out, wondering if the panther was still around. The cat, who was getting tired from spending most of the day on the material plane still went to her master and friends side, willing to stay all night.
Drizzt hugged the panther close and lay down. In what seemed to be seconds, he was in a deep, dreamless sleep that lasted the rest of the night.
Regis and Catti-Brie watched as their friend slipped off to sleep. Then they, followed by Wulfgar and Bruenor entered the bunkroom. The three beds laid out in there were for the three males. Cattie-Brie decided to sleep in the bedroom tonight. Before sleep though, they needed to pack.
When Drizzt was bathing, they had all decided to leave the next morning. Drizzt would be more comfortable in a place he was more familiar with. What better place in Faerün - in Toril! - was there than to take Drizzt than to Silverymoon, the place where his other friends, Delly, Alustriel and the spirited young girl Colson were all waiting for them to come back from their orc hunt.
That and the hot baths with the scented oils. Since his bath that night had calmed Drizzt down immensely, they thought this was more important than even knowing friends were nearby.
By the time their packs were all ready and waiting by the door ready for them the next morning, it was close to midnight and they were all tired.
Soon, Drizzt wasn't the only one sleeping.
A/N - Well, sorry this was so late. RL has been busy as of late. Well, I haven't forgotten this story. Just wanted to say thank you to my reviewers ChichiX (4 times, thanks for the reviews on all the chapters so far!) Miss Becky, Alexandra Dragonhart, carlin Robertson, Shandrial and She-Cat. You people are the best. I didn't think this story would do so well.
Drow Translations - if wrong please tell me in a review or email me the proper words.
Xsa - Damn
Nau. Xuat, qualla xuat - No. Don't, please don't.
Usstan phlith dos - I hate you.
Naut'kyn - Blind.
Xxizz - Help.
Usstan uil stre - I am afraid.
And for those curious people one to ten in Drow!
Uss - One Draa - Two Llar - Three Quen - Four Huela - Five Rraun - Six Blyn - Seven Lael - Eight Thal - Nine Szith - Ten
Oh, and sorry about the cheese thing . I have no idea where that came from.