Cerri absolutely hated the cold. If it wasn't for the fact she had received a mysterious revelation, she never would have come anywhere near the higher peaks of the mountain. That being said, she made sure to pack for an extended trip just to be safe.
Drizzt had been kind enough to help her hunt for enough meat to last her a month without rationing. Something told her she would need it.
Following her instincts, and her magic, Cerri wandered deep into the mountains that even Drizzt avoided. She needed a break from her looms anyway, and this was an interesting distraction. Besides, if she took a detour later she could confirm something her brother was worried about.
As she wandered the snow, praising her common sense regarding her clothing and use of her magical tent, Cerri slowly but surely was drawn towards a certain cave.
If it wasn't for the fact that the revelation she received gave a more...light-feeling...than what she got from Loki or Lolth, she never would have considered coming up this far. However, most gods of light would never stoop so low as to lure someone who was openly neutral to their demise in such a backhanded way. They would send one of their followers to do the deed or be a bit more open about it.
The entire thing reeked of a test, or perhaps idle curiosity on the god's part.
And she wasn't stupid enough to snub a god. Not at this stage anyway.
Shivering, she went into the first cave she could find to warm up. Despite living in Icewind Dale for almost ten years now, she still couldn't get used to the bloody cold.
The further in she went, the more her sense of something being inside the cave got stronger.
You could imagine her gobsmacked expression...finding a massive silver egg that was unmistakable in origin.
Placing her hand carefully on the eggshell, she felt a sense of being tested by something.
She needed to leave, before the parent returned. No way would this end well, as Silvers were notoriously light-aligned and she was a drow.
Before she could move, she heard another sound behind her and froze in place. There was no way to avoid being spotted now. She was too close to the egg and there was nowhere to hide.
She slowly but calmly turned around to face what had come inside.
And found a less than amused mother dragon there. It was like the incident with the bloody Horntail all over again. Except this time she wasn't being forced to steal anything because of a farce of a tournament.
"What is a drow female doing this close to the surface? And near my egg no less?" said the dragon.
Seeing no reason to hide her face, Cerri slowly pulled her veil over her hair so the dragon could see her expression.
"Not by choice. I received an odd revelation from what I presume to be a god of light, though which one I do not know. I have no intention of trying to take your egg," she said calmly.
The dragon sensed no lie from the female, which was odd.
"You are not afraid of me?"
Her expression was deadpan as she stared the dragon in the eye.
"One, I wasn't aware that the revelation would lead me to an unhatched Silver. Two, the last thing I want to do is piss off a dragon without considerable back up...especially one of the metallic set. I'm chaotic neutral, not evil," she deadpanned. "I have no issues with dragons unless they're trying to eat me or otherwise kill me."
The silver stared her down incredulous.
Truth be told, she would have eaten or killed the intruder on sight if it hadn't been for the revelation she received from Bahamut himself.
He wanted to test someone who had caught his interest. He had already acquired a powerful follower that looked to be a force of justice in his name. He wanted to test the woman who had raised him to be so different from his kin.
To that end, he wished to see what she would do with a newborn Silver, who had an innate sense of justice and were naturally light aligned.
He even gave the dragon child the ability to change into a human almost immediately, to better hide his true nature.
The silver was not happy about this, but she would follow the orders of her patron god.
A week later...
Watching the dragonet being born was absolutely magical. There was a certain sense of bonding that came when the infant laid it's eyes on it's mother for the first time. The mother dragon eyed the drow who was absolutely silent during the whole process.
A silent moment of understanding passed between them.
"I think... I understand Bahamut's intent now."
"What do you mean?" asked Cerri.
"You are a mother as well, though your body has never gone through any of the stages of giving birth to your own child," explained the dragon. "Bahamut must have taken an interest in your child, so he wants to see what you could do with one of his own."
Cerri...had a small smile knowing Ren was doing so well on his own. She had worried.
Once she packed up the remaining shell that she planned to give to Bruenor to work with, she then bundled up her future partner.
She named him Ruth.
"You want me to meet my new nephew?" said Drizzt. "I didn't realize you were..."
"I'm not," she deadpanned. "I've adopted another child that I will be raising for the foreseeable future."
"...Is there a reason you've brought me to an area laced with those picture capturing crystals you've made?" asked Drizzt.
"And why ye called all of us out here?" asked Bruenor.
Cerri...had a smile that put Drizzt on edge. It wasn't the terrifying smile of their older siblings or worse, their mother, but it spoke of blackmail and later embarrassment on their part. It was also a strong reminder of why Loki was his sister's patron god.
"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Ruth, my new son."
The expressions on their faces when she brought out a newborn silver dragon hatching was absolutely priceless. She was sure Loki was having a good cackle about it all.
Bruenor was the first to recover, though he was definitely trying to hold back his own laughter at Drizzt's expression. Catti-brie seemed to be overtaken with a fit of giggles, for much the same reason. Regis, on the other hand thought of something else.
"What happened to the egg? Dragon eggs sell for a pretty penny after all," he asked.
"I have the entire thing. I was planning to give it to Bruenor to see what he could do with it, like make a set of armor for myself, Drizzt and later Ruth. Whatever is left over is free for him to use."
Now it was Bruenor's turn to blush slightly, though he looked eager to play around with such rare material.
"Now onto more important matters... it seems the tribes are planning an attack on Ten Towns," said Cerri.
With her prank out of the way, Cerri turned on the climate charms on the chairs she brought. Everyone gratefully sat down to their own circle of warmth.
"Are you sure?" said Drizzt. His life had become a bit easier since he had bonded with his younger sibling.
"I can speak the local dialects, you know. Learning the local languages is a hobby of mine," said Cerri.
That and it was amazing what you could learn if you were willing to cheat.
It was rare for a barbarian to learn magic. Most of them avoided it like the plague as something 'unnatural'. Which meant they had little to no defenses against scrying.
After all, what point was there to scry on the tribes on a normal day? Most people wouldn't find it worth their time to bother.
Cerri was not most people, and she got bored.
Ruth was taking a nap in with his head in her lap, uncaring of the world after the big meal she had fed him. For a surrogate, he could have done far worse.
Though he ended up sleeping through the entire battle of Ten Towns against the barbarians.
After the battle of Ten Towns...
Cerri had seen her brother get knocked out and immediately headed towards him. Only to see the human idiot Regis had to bewitch just to get the other leader to work together.
Without thinking, she let out a growl that caught their attention.
"Get lost mage, this doesn't concern you," said Kemp with as much contempt in his voice.
"Considering you want to kill my brother, this does concern me, Kemp," she sneered right back.
She treasured the look on Kemp and his minion's faces when she pulled the veil on her face back, exposing her ebony skin and blue-green eyes.
One of the men whimpered, for if male drow were dangerous, the females were a hundred times worse.
Besides, she was honestly tired of hiding her true nature. By this point she had established herself in Ten Towns as someone relatively trustworthy.
And since she was going to be acting as a surrogate of a silver dragon child, there was no way she'd be able to hide as before. Might as well get the entire thing over with while there was still enough confusion that it could slide unnoticed.
Cerri calmly went over to her brother, and lifted him up. He was by no means light, but she wasn't above cheating to get him back to her house where he could recover in peace.
The attack on Ten Towns allowed the sudden revelation that there were in fact two drow living in the area to slip by with minimal fuss. Cerri had already established herself as a loner and had built up a reputation that allowed the locals of Lonelywood to ignore her heritage while she wore her veil. While she could go out in her sunglasses, it was going to take a while before she felt comfortable enough to not hide her true nature.
Though he was still just a baby, Ruth watched his mother intently. It didn't hurt that she spoke in a soft, lyrical voice as she worked.
Dragon hatchlings might not be as intelligent as their older kin, but they were still able to comprehend things at the level of a five year old. Ruth was still very young and would be for a century or two. Which meant Cerri had plenty of time to teach him things that would stand him well later.
She was stocking up on healing potions, which were among her best sellers next to her enchanted cloth.
She could also make poisons, but it wasn't really her thing and felt too close to what her 'sisters' would use so she rarely messed with it.
As she finished up, she checked in on Ruth.
The silver crooned when she stroked his scales and checked him over once more. She took immaculate care of the little thing, and it showed.
On the wall was a mirror about the size of a small shield. It was polished to a shine and if one were to look upon it, it would seem utterly unremarkable.
However...Cerri had other uses for it, like scrying. It was how she usually kept in contact with Drizzt, Catti-Brie, and now Ruth's mother who's name she still had trouble pronouncing.
Since this time the mother of her child was still alive, she felt it only appropriate to give status updates and to allow Ruth a chance to converse with his biological mother. After all, who better to train him in how to be a silver dragon than another silver?
Ruth made a questioning sound, which made Cerri smile.
"You want me to read you another story like last time?" she asked knowingly.
Ruth made a sound that sounded like confirmation. He wasn't at the level of speaking human words, but fortunately one of the languages she had learned out of pure boredom (and taught to Ren at one point) was dragontongue.
It was oddly similar to parseltongue, so she had picked it up rather quickly for a humanoid. Ren, not so much. He still stumbled over the words from time to time.
(In temple far away, Ren sneezed three times. It exasperated his gold dragon teacher, who was still correcting him on his pronunciation.)