Khareesa: Prologue
Inspired by Poe's 'Ligeia', as well as various bits and pieces from 'Legacy of the Drow'. I'm sorry if this first piece moves a little fast, but after trying and trying I just can't seem to slow it down anymore. Obviously I have elaborated on, or outright re-written a few scenes, but it's all tasteful, I assure you.
Warning: Rated M for M/F relations and probable graphic violence- you've been given your chance to get away, and if you keep reading that's your problem, deal?
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters I have...ah...'borrowed' from Mr. Salvatore, nor the concepts I 'borrowed' from Mr. Poe. But as I make no profit, and as it's their fault anyway for writing inspiring stories I hope they'll forgive me. Please? /big puppy dog eyes/
All was dark in the carved rock tunnels of Mithril Hall, the only light the tiny flame of a candle, flickering and alone. It was held in the pale, elegant hand of a young woman, the dim light only highlighting her fine facial features, and adding extra warmth and shine to her burnished auburn curls.
The young woman's name was Cattie-brie Battlehammer, and she was making her way to her bedchamber.
As she passed by one door the peaceful silence, previously broken only by the soft shuffle of her own footsteps, she heard a soft moan from behind the woodwork. It was followed by a muffled whisper. Curious, she stopped and put her ear to the wooden planking, confirming that it was indeed this room from which the sounds were coming.
It was the room of her dearest friend, the drow ranger Drizzt Do'Urden.
A small smile quirked the girl's pretty lips as she stood listening. She knew lustful noises when she heard them, and entertained a brief fantasy of her handsome elven friend. She pictured him lying naked on his bed; ebony skin gleaming beneath a fine sheen of sweat; snow-white locks spread about his head in a radiant halo; eyelids fluttering; pearly white teeth sinking into the soft, enticing flesh of his full lower lip; well-defined muscles shifting and rippling as he moved; dark, pebbled nipples standing out on his chest, and one long-fingered, elegant hand reaching lower…
Another soft moan floated through the door, bringing a pink flush to Cattie-brie's normally pale cheeks.
Just one little peek couldn't hurt, surely?
The young woman cracked open the door with as much stealth as she could muster.
She was both disappointed and delighted; no naked vision of dark elven perfection, lost in the pleasures of his own hand, greeted her eyes, but she was still greeted with a lovely sight. Her more-than-comely friend lay on his back, chest bare, sheets bunched about his waist. Creeping closer Cattie-brie thought she discerned a faint blush suffusing her sleeping friend's cheeks, although such things were always hard to tell against Drizzt's midnight skin. He looked simply delicious in the flickering candlelight; enchanting little mews and whimpers bubbling from his lips, mingled with breathy moans and soft whisperings in drow.
His lithe body arched, hips thrusting slightly, as if seeking contact with another body, and Cattie-brie, leaning close now, smiled knowingly.
"Are ye dreamin' o' me, darlin?" the young woman whispered, addressing her friend far more affectionately than she would ever have dared if he was awake. She longed to reach out and card her fingers through his silky-soft hair; to stroke his flawless cheek. But she doubted Drizzt would sleep through that, and fearing he might wake and find her intruding in his private space, the young woman went to her own bed, somewhat reluctantly, to find her own very pleasant dreams…
oOo
He tried futilely to bite back a moan as she nibbled on the sensitive point of his ear, her hands wandering and finding other, equally sensitive, places. She wound an arm possessively about his waist as those sinfully clever lips moved from his ear down his neck, and somehow the front of her robes had come undone, revealing a well-toned, athletic body, with the distant light from the city casting just enough of a gleam to highlight her curves, glinting on her obsidian skin.
They were in full sight of at least half-a-dozen other drow, and a myriad of orcan slaves, but this didn't seem to bother the female at all as she began undoing his various buckles and laces with her free hand.
"I am Khareesa," she whispered in his ear. "Tell me that you wish to be my slave."
Drizzt moaned again as the attractive drow female dropped her hand lower…
oOo
Drizzt awoke in the darkness, the echo of his own cry of completion ringing faintly in his ears. Flustered, though he was the only one in the room, the goodly drow shyly gathered the now damp sheets about his body, unable to suppress a slight shiver.
Drizzt, despite his stoic façade, was no stranger to intense longing, but this? This was bizarre.
Not only had nothing happened between he and Khareesa, the drowess he had encountered on his ill-thought-out return to Menzoberranzan, despite her best efforts to the contrary, but the attraction had not been mutual. Until now, at least.
Besides which, Khareesa was dead, and fantasizing about a woman who's head he had seen severed from her body was just…wrong. So, why, despite his abhorrence afterwards, was he dreaming about her?
oOo
The drow ranger was not at breakfast the next morning, something which worried his friends profoundly. Drizzt was normally the first out of bed in Mithril Hall, in order to begin his day by watching the sunrise. It was against his very nature to laze about in bed, but that was where Cattie-brie found him.
Drizzt grumbled, trying to snuggle deeper into his warm tangle of blankets, when the young woman flounced onto his bed, tickling him mercilessly.
"Up! Up, ye dozy elf!" she mock-scolded. "Tis already halfway to noon. Come on, get yerself outta that bed!"
The young woman seized the sheet covering the drow's slender form and tugged with all her might. Drizzt tried to stop her, but he was still half-asleep, and his reflexes were dulled by his restless night. The sheet whisked off the bed and Cattie's eyes lit up with delight.
"Oh my," she murmured softly, unable to stop a smile spreading across her face.
"Give me back that sheet, Cattie," Drizzt muttered, glad he was already lying on his belly. "And stop ogling my backside."
The young woman snickered, but returned the sheet, even turning her back while the drow covered himself.
"Ye missed the sunrise, ye know," she told the wall. "I aint never known ye to do that before."
"I didn't sleep well," Drizzt murmured as he moved about the room, taking the opportunity of Cattie-brie's turned back to dress.
"Really?" she asked, a catch in her voice. Drizzt shot his friend a curious glance. She sounded upset, though he couldn't think why.
"I heard ye dreamin' last night," the young woman confessed softly as the drow, in breeches and a rough-spun shirt, wrapped a hug about her waist from behind. "It sounded like ye were havin' fun enough."
Drizzt sighed, closing his eyes and resting his cheek against Cattie-brie's soft hair. They were good friends and told each other everything. He didn't hesitate to pour his heart out to her.
"I never told you," he spoke softly into her auburn locks, "but when I went back to Menzoberranzan I fell in with a slaver band. I- I needed contacts, persons from whom I could prise information about the city. There was a female in the band, the head of it, I believe, named Khareesa. She was…very… interested in me."
Cattie-brie turned in Drizzt's embrace, bringing up her hands to rest one on either of his shoulders. "Why didn't ye tell me this before? Did she…?"
"Nay," the drow shook his head. "She was determined, but…well; I had much more important things to be doing. She's dead now, killed in my capture. I can't say that I was sorry. I didn't think twice about her 'til last night, but then…I had a very…very… vivid dream about her." Cattie-brie pulled a face, not quite able to hide the…disappointment?...in her eyes. "Is that wrong of me?"
The young woman suppressed her own roiling tumult of emotions concerning her friend- she had so hoped it was she that he dreamt of! - and turned her mind to addressing his question. Ever had she been the old head on young shoulders of their circle of friends; the wise one; the one the others looked to for help with sorting out their thoughts and feelings. Drizzt needed her to help and soothe him.
"Tis only natural to have such a dream every now and then." She patted his rump companionably. "I'd be worried if ye were tellin' me that ye never had such urges."
The drow flushed and looked away, embarrassed. Cattie-brie grinned wryly at her friend's discomfit, before letting her hands start to wander a little.
Drizzt made to pull away, then stilled, instead pulling the young woman into a tight hug.
"But why her?" he asked morosely. "She was, well, creepy. And she treated me like a piece of meat. If I was going to dream about a woman I would've thought it would be-", the elf broke off suddenly, blushing so furiously that his normally sable-hued cheeks showed a definite pink tinge. "I-I mean…"
"Drizzt!" Cattie squealed. "Ye can't not tell me! Who? Who were ye gonna say?"
She caught his chin a strong hand, forcing him to meet her gaze. "Tell me," she growled mock-menacingly, using her other arm to pull them even closer together. "ye know I'll not leave ye alone 'til ye do."
Drizzt's cheeks reddened even further.
"Is it me?" the young woman asked, her voice definitely becoming husky. Her friend detected the hint of anxiety there too. "Were ye goin' to say me?"
He nodded shyly, turning red as a beetroot as he was seized around the shoulders and kissed firmly by the jubilant young woman.
oOo
He shifted uneasily, gently testing the bindings on his wrists. They seemed secure enough, and would doubtlessly rub him raw during the course of the evening. They probably weren't necessary either, as the female straddling his reclining form was both taller and heavier than he was, and seemed perfectly confident in her abilities to have her way with him.
But she seemed to think that tying him down would increase her pleasure, and who was he to contradict a female?
He winced as she struck a light, the sudden, bright flare stinging his heat-attuned eyes. He blinked and shifted vision spectrums, watching confused as she lit the stub of a candle, carefully cradling the little flame in her hands.
"What-" he began, but was sternly shushed.
The tiniest curl of wraith-like smoke went up from the candle, and he could smell the heat of it, the slight burnt odour which suggested the candle had been dusty.
It cast an eerie light over the female's face as she grinned at him, and then held the candle out above him, tipping it, so that a drop of hot wax gathered then spilled, falling to land with a sharp sting on his nipple…
oOo
Drizzt started awake, a hand instinctively going to the remembered pain at his breast. His fingers brushed the rough fabric of his simple shirt. As the confusing mix of dream and reality faded, disappearing like so much smoke into the ether, he discerned that he was lying in bed, not bound down, not undressed, and curled quite comfortably about a warm body.
It was Cattie-brie.
"I can feel that," the young woman murmured sleepily, reaching out to pull the drow closer. "Had another dream, did we?"
Drizzt flushed and gasped softly, suddenly realising what it was Cattie was talking about. Both were fully clothed, but snuggled close together (nothing more than a little kissing and tender cuddling had occurred) and the smooth curve of her hip was pressed up against the flat plane of his belly and…
"Oh Cattie, I'm sorry!" he whispered, stricken with embarrassment. "I didn't mean-"
"Shhh," the young woman soothed, regarding him contentedly. "Tis alright, love. I never said I didn't like it, did I?" The smile which curved her lovely lips was warm and genuine, and Drizzt relaxed, his distress dissipating as she brought up a hand to cup his face, her thumb rubbing smoothly over his finely chiselled cheekbone.
Drizzt cocked his head against that gentle touch, enjoying the sensation. Now, why couldn't he dream about something like this? This was far nicer, as far as he was concerned…
oOo
Something, lurking invisible and unnoticed in the corner of the room, heard that thought, and changed tack accordingly…
Awww. Drizzt and Cattie are so cute. Don't worry if you were disappointed by the lack of actual smut in this chapter, for good things do come to those who wait...