Chapter Fifteen

Knave had said that, to his knowledge, it should be uninhabited and quite dry. Too tired, cold and soaked to question anything anymore, they all just entered the largest of the few caves delving into the huge rock that marked the clearing. Indeed, the mage had been right once more: the place, though dark and unwelcoming, was empty and quite warm compared to the storm outside. The constant rustling of raindrops falling to the ground had receded and was barely perceivable as an echo from far away.

A short descending corridor led them into a vast cavern with a bolted ceiling, so high above that it made one feel small and powerless. A few rocks of different sizes lay scattered about and some had been arranged in such a manner that they could serve as a table and chairs, while others had been clearly carved and polished into pedestal-like replacements for a bed. Stands had been attached to the walls here and there, but the torches were, naturally, missing. That didn't really matter anyway, since Knave had produced a small gem that shone and glimmered with a mixture of silver and gold; it was of svirfneblin or duergar make, he had said he didn't remember exactly. Once they were in, he simply placed it upon the tallest rock in the middle of the room.

Each of the four viewed the situation differently. While Solaufein was quite relieved to be in what he thought a sorry excuse for a tunnel and Knave was content to lie down on one of the stone beds, Nirra and Torri kept shifting from place to place and exchanging worried glances. The moon elf, especially, did not come to a halt until she had explored every single inch of the room and prodded at every dark corner with the tip of her sword, only to hit solid rock and nothing else.

"I guess we're safe," Torri concluded, when her eon of searching was over, sheathing the blade. She shrugged and turned around, eyeing a chair-shaped rock that was distinctly placed away from the rest and closest to the entrance. She flopped seated there, accompanied by the heavy clanking of armor against stone, and attempted to look comfortable. "The first watch is mine," she announced. "All of you better get some sleep."

Nirra and Solaufein didn't seem to have anything against that; the gold elf just resigned and tested another of the wanna-be beds, then reluctantly claimed it as her own, while the drow just sat on the floor, his back against the table-rock. Knave, however, raised his head to look at the moon elf with a quirked eyebrow. "May I know," he began on a sarcastically polite tone, "what exactly has caused such an unexpected display of generosity from your part?"

"You all have a repertoire of spells to refresh," she noted coldly, glaring at him.

"Fair enough," he shrugged, and his head fell back carelessly; he seemed to be quite comfortable there. "After all, why would I complain? I get the sleep, you get the guard duties."

No one minded his useless ironical musings anymore, though Torri continued to glare for a while, until she finally remembered he wasn't looking anymore, and it had turned into staring from her part. Sighing, she sank deeper into her uncomfortable seat, and her eyes drifted from the human to Nirra, then to Solaufein. All had done exactly what she had said and were trying to get some sleep.

This was as good a moment as any, she reasoned, for a bit of insight, for her to put some order amidst her scattered thoughts. With the next few hours free of any attention-consuming activity, the moon elf was granted more than enough time to study each of them in part.

She began with her old friend, Nirra, and a smile simply found its way to her lips as she regarded the slim, fragile frame with bronze-colored skin and blue robes. Physically, the gold elf was as Torri remembered her; she had surely known a younger version of Nirra, but that had quite slipped out of her memory after all those other long years had passed. Indeed, the two of them went far back, all the way into a past that was barely a clouded, hazy memory for Torri.

They were so different, and complemented each other in many ways – maybe that was exactly the reason they had become so inseparable. It would have been expected of Nirra, as a gold elf, to develop that sense of superiority, and that will to draw a clear line between herself and others; instead, it had been Torri who displayed it, while her friend merely attempted to suffocate it by befriending as many representatives of other races as possible, which was what moon elves normally did. It was an enigma they had given little thought to and had attempted to explain on only a few occasions, but nothing conclusive had been established about it. By herself, though, the moon elf had often given special attention to the way Nirra seemed to so swiftly establish connections with everything that was alive; not just a few had been the times when Torri wondered why her friend hadn't become a ranger or something of the sort. The only conclusion she had reached was that she envied this gift her friend had, and wished she would possess an inborn talent like that, too.

The fondness for traveling, though, was another business; it was a native trait, not one induced by society, and it had been functioning correctly for the most part, with Torri being the one always on the move. Of course, in time it had passed on to Nirra, to some extent, but the moon elf was still the one by far more adventurous and restless between the two. It was always her who urged for a new departure, towards new lands, to try out new things. And still, the gold elf never failed to follow.

Torri averted her eyes before they began to build up tears, welled inside the pool of so many memories and ready to spill – the moon elf hadn't cried in good long years, and she was not about to start now, no matter the reason.

Switching to Knave had an instant effect on Torri, as her features contorted into a scowl, and she rolled her eyes contemptuously. She didn't really want to go over the short period the human had been with them.

Torri was a very proud individual, and Knave had more than once outsmarted her and managed to get on her nerves. However, from a more objective point of view, the moon elf couldn't deny that the human had been a useful asset during their journey, with all his knowledge and skills. Added to that came the fact that he seemed to enjoy traveling as much as she did, seemed not to rest in one place any more than she herself would manage to.

Undeniably, despite all of her attempts to bear him a grudge, Torri had developed a certain degree of fondness for the mage, although it was a long way from anything stable and important. It was getting a bit difficult not to smile when he joked, though, or to compose a sober and exasperated expression when he was trying to get on her nerves. If anything, he was a good entertainer, and there was something roguish about him that simply made the name he bore fit in perfectly; in his case, Torri wondered why he wasn't a bard, preforming here and there for the pleasure of an audience.

Then, – she moved on along with a new drift of her gaze – there was the newest addition to their small group, the drow. Useful as a fighter, Torri had to give him credit for that, and able to place a quick spell at just the right moment, too. Still, he belonged to a race that she would have loved to see extinct, gone from the face of Toril and from below it as well. At least in this case I'm not wondering about his chosen profession, the moon elf thought to herself, unable to contain a smirk. She couldn't keep the prejudicial hate in check, though, as much as she had given it a try. Its past was longer than even that of her friendship with Nirra.

There had been a time when curiosity surpassed all else in the heart and mind of a very young moon elf named Toreen... a time when the race of elven exiles was exerting a strange fascination upon her. She had foolishly defied all warnings from friends and kin, and she'd gone to see for herself, to discover the truth about the drow. They had not only proven ALL of the 'prejudice' to be true, but they had also forced the youthful spirit into maturity way before its time had come to do so. Deeply scarred by her experience with the drow, Torri had never been the same again after emerging from the Underdark for the first time in her life. One found it quite difficult to return to games and celebrations after they had suffered so much and seen death only a step away.

And that was where the hate had begun, a feeling she had embraced willingly, because it saved her the trouble of properly remembering all they had done to her. To build up that strong black feeling she needed only to recall a general idea, and the details she so dreaded could be buried without trouble. The hate would have consumed Torri completely, it would have ended up masterfully carving an abyss between her and her own people, if not for Nirra. The moon elf owed her friend some important lessons; the gold elf had been more than patient with Torri while helping her overcome the most part of the darkness within.

And still, there had always been this significant part Nirra could do nothing about. Torri couldn't help but wonder, as she looked at Solaufein's sleeping form and faltered in her determination to hate him – was this drow meant to finally put an end to that? Maybe she could watch him and finally begin to let go of those remnants of bitterness and hard feelings.

The moon elf scowled at her own weakness, and steeled herself again, averting her eyes from any of her companions. Her head came to rest against stone, her gaze lost in the far-away spot of light marking the exit, at the end of the tunnel.

That was still her state when, unknowingly, she fell asleep.

A loud, rumbling crash awoke Torri from her slumber, and she clumsily scuttled to her feet, alert and looking around. It was dark, though, with Knave's magical gem gone or its reserves depleted, she couldn't possibly know. However, this was a far milder darkness than that of the Underdark, and her infravision worked just fine. Apart from the drow, who had just woken up himself and was as confusedly looking around as she was, there was no one in the room.

A sudden, but terrible quake shook the ground and Torri staggered clumsily, then slipped and fell to her side. It was over with in just a few seconds; quickly, she stumbled back into a standing position, and was just about to turn and consult with the drow, when something distracted her. The moon elf swallowed tightly, when she noticed that there was no more light at the end of the tunnel.

Also, the form approaching her, Knave's, distressed her even more, since the human was carrying a limp, unconscious Nirra, and his own face and arms were just as bruised as the gold elf's own. Suddenly, light flashed again, when the small gemstone came out of his pocket and began to levitate in his wake.

"What happened?" Torri demanded of him, hurrying to his side. She checked on Nirra's pulse, but her friend was alive.

"We've been ambushed," was his only short reply, and he then stalked right past her, to post himself in front of Solaufein. "I've seen you use a Dimension Door in our battle with the umber hulks," he addressed the drow. "Can you do so again?"

"Yes," he received the reply he'd been hoping for.

Meanwhile, Torri had followed closely, and was listening with as much attention as she could muster, considering all that troubled her. "What happened?" she demanded again, more imperative this time, even as her firm hand came to rest upon the mage's shoulder, and her fingers clutched firmly.

"Don't be stupid," the human shook her off dismissively. "I have other things to worry about than your requests for an answer."

"What do you require me to do?" Solaufein intervened quietly, bringing the mage back to the point and saving him from any further trouble with Torri, for the time being.

"There is a small clearing northeast of here, with a river crossing it," Knave replied hurriedly. "Try to picture it as best you can, and use your magic to reach it; the exit has been sealed off... it has... erm... collapsed." Recovering quickly from his attempt at omitting details from the explanation, the mage turned his head to regard Torri. "Take my darling little nuisance here with you, if you can," he continued sternly, if a bit ironical, referring to none other than the moon elf. "I will join you shortly, and bring Nirra."

Torri blinked, and for a few moments failed to yet realize it wasn't a joke. "I'm not going anywhere before you've expla..." she finally began, but came to a halt when the blue, fogged light began to spiral and surround her, quickly forming the usual circle and its interior patterns. Before she could even move again, the cave's image started to fade from view... the void spun about her for a few seconds, then it all cleared out again, and she found herself some place else, blue sparks dissipating all around.

"This is NO clearing," she spun about to face the drow, her eyes flashing sharply as she batted leaves away from her face. Indeed, all that surrounded her was a thick mass of trees, an ensemble of branches and bushes that made any attempt at following a straight path futile.

He shrugged apologetically. "Dimension Door usually fails to take you to the exact location, if you don't know exactly where you're going," he began to offer an explanation. "We should be pretty close to the actual destination, though... theoretically."

"Theoretically," she rolled her eyes, mock-imitating his own tone. "Why, I wonder, wasn't that reassuring?"

"Because you always fail to look at things from a hopeful perspective?" he offered with a small grin.

"Right..." Torri waved him off, mimicking total exasperation. Her eyes began to scour the area quickly, trying to find something even remotely resembling a place where bipedal beings had stepped in the past couple of months, at least. That only caused her distress to grow, since there seemed to be none.

"The hard way?" Solaufein inquired, drawing his sword and slashing his first step through in a random direction.

"How do you know that's the right..." Torri began, only to be interrupted.

"I don't," he shrugged.

"Wait!" the moon elf stammered, shaken by the utter realization that they, indeed, could not find their way to the clearing, and even less so if he just picked the first direction offered to him. "Stop!"

The drow, however, had no intention of doing what she had asked him to, and she was forced to follow when he gained enough of an advantage to seem as if she would lose him. Unsheathing her own swords in a tangled hurry, she messily began slashing and chopping her own way through the wild hedge, right behind him, muttering something about 'mindless drow' in the process.