Here is the final chapter in the story! I was just going to pull it, but I thought, "I already wrote three chapters; why destroy it now?" So I just decided to finish it.
Thank you all for reading and I hope to get just one or two more reviews out of it. I don't think I'll do another Drizzt story, but it was nice to try writing one! Thanks for reading!
Tragedy
It's strange when death sweeps over the things you love. Not so much strange as heartbreaking. My race is used to death. My race deals death daily, rarely caring who or what they kill, as long as it serves a higher purpose. Or their own cause.
The battle that was fought was long and hard; I need not go into detail, for it is probably being written about in every history book in the Forgotten Realms. None of us escaped unscathed, and many of us did not escape at all. We won the battle, but at what cost? Catti was one of those lost in the fight.
I hope I will never forget how glorious she appeared as she struck her foes, spinning and whirling, her sword flashing. I hope I will never remember how frightened she looked when she herself was dealt a blow, the ax crushing her chest, breaking her fragile bones. She fell, the sunrise shinning in her eyes as they dimmed, their own light extinguished.
I went to her side, hoping there was a chance the blow was not as deadly as it appeared, but my hope was crushed like her heart was. Only it didn't kill me, the heartache I felt at that moment. I killed her attacker after a brief battle. I hardly recall a moment of the bloodbath; I remember pulling Catti away from the battlefield, away from the horror around her, the anguish she could no longer see.
I did not let my emotions get the best of me. I went back and fought, leaving her covered in the patch of grass I had carried her to. I tried to prevent death while I dealt it, attempting to block tragedy from overcoming those of us who survived. What a useless thing to do. Tragedy would always follow death: there was no preventing it.
After the battle, I went to see Catti as she was being prepared for her funeral ceremony. I watched as they brushed her hair back from her face, placing the flowers in her hair and in her hands, dressed in the finest dress she had owned, which was meager by standards. She looked nothing like the Catti-Brie I knew. At least they gave her the dignity of placing her sword at her side, the weapons of her foes at her feet. Her hunter's cloak was wrapped around her and she was brought to the funeral pyre. I watched as the fires were lit around her, but I did not watch her body burn. I had no need to stay. She was free from the trivial matters of the world while I was left behind, expected to help fix the mess that had helped kill her.
Tragedy had come over the land like a dark blanket, reminding me of what I escaped from, of my race who were the master weavers of sorrow and tragedy. I plan on traveling on, to rid my mind of Catti, who I had come to care for just in time to lose her. I plan to wander until I have cleaned myself of tragedy, of the heartbreak I feel.
I plan to forget everything I ever loved and lost.
Drizzt DoUrden
Thank you for reading! Please leave me a review if you have anything to say! (I apologize if I have not spelled any of the names correctly.) Happy Reading!
