Part 9

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Drizzt walked into the clearing, closely followed by Artemis, and saw that his friends had erected a campfire. "Are we stopping already?"

Regis looked up from putting a few partridges on a spit. "I got hungry," he said plaintively. "All this worry about whether or not we could save you, then Jarlaxle showing up with that creepy psionicist of his, and then Artemis E –" He stopped and stammered ineffectually when he noticed Artemis standing right there. "Uh….um…hi. Want some breakfast?"

"Breakfast," Artemis said. He stared, furrowing his brow. Then he pointed to the sun, almost hanging directly in the middle of the sky.

"You know," Regis said, smiling innocently. "Third breakfast."

Artemis opened his mouth, a ridiculous expression of surprise on his face, and then shook his head, groaning. "Right. Third breakfast. My pardon."

"What happened to second breakfast?" Drizzt asked.

"I ate it on the way."

Drizzt had to bite his lips to stifle the laughter immediately bubbling up in his throat. "I see. Then we may as well eat."

Artemis seemed reluctant, but Drizzt led him to one of the logs around the campfire and sat down, then gestured at the ex-assassin. Artemis looked away, and finally sat. He made the mistake of looking up. He was across from Catti-brie. Her eyes were red-rimmed from crying. She glared at him. He didn't say anything.

"Cat told me what happened between you two," Bruenor said casually, working on grinding up edible roots into a paste. The cast iron pot sat on his knee while he worked with the pestle. "I shoulda told 'er somethin' would happen. Ye get determined sometimes, and when ye do, nothin's gonna talk ye outta it."

Wulfgar nodded morosely. Finally, he looked up at Artemis and muttered, "I know it's only too easy to fall from the path. It's not something trifling."

Artemis didn't look as if he knew how to respond to that proffered compassion. He looked away. "I have wasted an entire life."

"You're not dead yet," Wulfgar pointed out. "At the most, you've only wasted some of one."

Artemis' gaze snapped back to the barbarian. He looked at Wulfgar strangely.

"I would have died if it hadn't been for Delly," Wulfgar said. "The right thing to do is often hanging by a thread. Just because you feel bad doesn't mean you should cut it, alright?"

Artemis finally worked up enough resolve to respond. "What…did sliced meat have to do with your redemption?"

Wulfgar looked indignant, and everyone else around the fire immediately tried to stifle their laughter. "That's her name! She's my woman!"

Artemis blinked rapidly and sat back on the log as though he were recoiling, but trying to look as if he wasn't. "I see. I am happy for you."

Wulfgar crossed his arms, looking miffed, but seemed to accept the apology.

They ate. Artemis suddenly realized he was hungry, and tried not to eat too fast. He also didn't like the idea of looking desperate in front of his former enemies.

"So, Entre –uh, Artemis – where are ye going?" Catti-brie asked. She tried to sound casual, but her smile was strained, and so was her voice.

Artemis looked at the fire. "I don't know."

"Oh." She tried smiling again. "Oh well. Um. I'm suren ye'll figure it out."

"What are you going to do for a living?" Wulfgar asked.

"I don't know."

"Perhaps you have friends you could stay with," Regis said around a mouthful of food. "After all, you're a likeable fellow."

Artemis glared at him. There was only a faint hint of malice on Regis' cherubic face, but Artemis felt his hostility keenly. "Thank you. I suppose I can always find a place in some city. I am used to city dwelling."

"Ye got a girl somewhere?" Bruenor asked, taking a swig from his flask.

"No."

"Aye, well, that's a pity."

Drizzt shifted uncomfortably at all the questioning aimed at the ex-assassin. "You could travel with us to Mithral Hall, perhaps take residence in a nearby town. Nesmé is a nearby town. I could vouch for you. You could start your life anew there."

Everyone stared at him in silence.

"I – I would be happy to vouch for you," Drizzt said, looking at his friends uneasily.

"Of course," Regis said, beaming. "It's only natural. No one should be held to their past. I can vouch for you too. What would you like? 'Good with a knife'? You could get a job as a butcher."

Wulfgar glared at the halfling. "Don't be stupid, Regis! Why would he want to work in a butcher's shop for the rest of his life?"

"I don't know," Regis said, putting on his most innocent face. "I just thought he'd be good at it."

Drizzt looked at him sharply. "Are you antagonizing him? Why?"

Regis pouted. "I'm not antagonizing anybody. I'm just stating a fact. He's a good butcher."

"You are," Drizzt said, looking at Regis with surprised animosity.

Regis shrugged and tried to look sheepish.

"Leave it," Artemis said, turning away. "He can say what he likes. An outcast doesn't have the right to choose what people say about him."

"So now you're the victim?" Regis asked.

"He can't say what he likes," Drizzt exclaimed. He looked at Regis with burning eyes. "You are my friend! If you can't handle the decisions I make, then you should respect them! Instead you're attacking me for choosing to give a beaten man a second chance!"

Regis hid behind Catti-brie. "I am not," he protested. "Find a beaten man and give him a second chance, and I'll be right behind you. I just don't see someone in need of help, here."

"I do!" Drizzt said. "Can you not find it in your heart to trust my judgement?"

Regis peeked out from behind the auburn haired woman. "Um…Not when you're wrong, Drizzt. He's a killer."

"He's a former killer. That's not the same thing."

"Oh, like he's not going to murder us all in our sleep just because he can."

Drizzt quickly looked at Artemis in alarm, but Artemis was just sitting there with a dull expression on his face, staring at the grass.

"No, he's not," the ranger said loudly. "He's not going to hurt us. Any of us. And even if he did attack, it would be to our faces, and not in the middle of the night. He's an honorable man."

Regis gagged on that statement.

Drizzt narrowed his eyes. "If you're trying to drive him away, I won't let you get out of reconciliation that easily." He put a hand on Artemis' arm to make sure the ex-assassin wasn't going anywhere. "You are going to truce with him, and you are going to like it."

"I told ye," Bruenor sighed. "He's a durned stubborn elf."

"Now, let's finish our third breakfast and be on our way." Drizzt glared at them all.

His friends ate in sulky silence. Artemis did not eat anything. Once they were finished, they did the dishes in a nearby stream and packed up their belongings. They walked together, but there was an extra space all around Artemis none of them would enter. Drizzt found himself wandering closer to close the gap in their ranks. He wasn't sure, but he thought that the short glances Artemis kept aiming his way were gratitude.