A Long Way From Home: A Drizzt Do'Urden Fan Fiction

Chapter 7

Raen felt the steady rise and fall of Drizzt’s back against her own; she fingered her blade lying naked at her side. Drizzt had insisted they sleep fully armed, taking no chance in a city built on risk. Finally feeling sleep overtake her, Raen let her mind drift off.

All too soon, Raen was interrupted from her quest to find rest. Drizzt jerked into a sitting position on the small cot, breathing heavily and brow glistening with cold sweat. Raen flicked her sword up to the ready, almost impaling her companion. The surface elf saw the terror on the face of her once again ebony skinned companion and lay her blade down onto the upswept wooden floor. Concern washed over Raen’s face at the state of her comrade. “Drizzt, is anything the matter?”

The dark elf, returning to his stoic manner, brushed aside Raen’s question. “Return to sleep, it was only a memory plaguing me.”

Raen wrapped her arms around her traveling companion’s shoulders, half expecting to be sliced in two by a scimitar. “If it was only a memory, then perhaps sharing it with another would ease your burden?”

Drizzt patted Raen’s head affectionately. “No, it’s much too dark a tale to be spoken again; I would fear it would infest your dreams along with mine.”

The pair were cut off from further conversation by rasping voices approaching their door. “Thisss one?” A sound much akin to dry branches being dragged across the floor was followed by a light tapping on the door. The tapping intensified to a crescendo of bangs and what sounded like low hisses coming from the mouth of a reptile. The door was ripped from its hinges as a final blow sent it spiraling in. A scaled snout searched for a scent. “They were here…” The figure cloaked in rags sent a sharp command in a harsh tongue to its consorts. The scaled creatures fled down below to street level, hunting for two elves.

By this time, Raen was clinging on to Drizzt’s back as he scaled the side of the tavern building up to the roof. The two had only crouched just outside the window long enough to learn of the Draconian’s intent before fleeing to moderate safety of the skyline of Waterdeep. Raen slid down from Drizzt’s back when they were perched upon tiled roof of the inn. The pair made fast progress as the leapt from building to building, steadily growing closer to the city wall.

Raen narrowly missed a smokestack in her hasty flight across loose tiles. The two elves clung to each other as they nearly fell to the rat infested alley below. The gap to the next building was far too wide to be traversed, and only now did the pair realize that they had been pursued by the Draconians across the roofs of Waterdeep. Drizzt spotted the canopy of a small shop below. Taking a running start, Drizzt leaped off the building with Raen tucked into his arms. The drow fell through the thin awning and into a conveniently placed bale of hay below.

Raen glared at Drizzt as she picked strands of golden hay from her braided hair. “You could have told me your plan first…”

Drizzt grinned mischievously, stretching out his arm to point into the distance behind Raen. “Yes, but, look what I found.”

Raen slowly turned to face the same direction as Drizzt. A horse stamped its hooves behind her and neighed nervously in its stall within the public stables. The surface elf’s eyes gained the same gleam that Drizzt had only moment earlier.

~~~

Drizzt rode behind Raen on the back of a mare “borrowed” from the public stables. The two elves rode hard through the city, taking a few twists and turns off route to avoid their reptilian pursuers. Raen’s eyes narrowed in determination when their goal- the city gate- was just a few yards away. The two fugitive elves sped by the dozing gate watchmen and onto the road leading out of the city of splendor. They were safe, for now.