Dreams Beneath a Starfilled Sky
Despair
Chapter 14: Despair
Catti-brie did not even realize it was she who screamed, as she saw Drizzt fall. She barely registered Bruenor’s arms around her waist, as she desperately leaped forward, trying to get to her lover, to grab him, to keep him with her. Tears obscured her vision, as she stared down, looking at the edge behind which Drizzt had disappeared, every second hoping he would appear, that he somehow had managed to grab the rope…
But the rope hung slack in the dwarves’ hands, with no weight in the other end.
The dwarven child Drizzt had saved even tied the rope around her waist again and got lowered into the cave again, but she could only confirm that there was no trace what so ever of the drow…
* * * * *
The walls rushed past him, his hands desperately clawing at whatever they could, the pain in his fingers already too overwhelming for him to register. Though only a few seconds passed, time seemed to stretch to infinity as he fell, the air rushing past his ears obscuring all sound.
Yet, his fall was abruptly stopped when he suddenly struck the surface of an underground river. Pain exploded in his back, as he found the surface to be almost as hard as rock, all the air got knocked out of his lungs by the impact, and he nearly passed out. He opened his mouth to scream out his pain, only to find his head already below water. Suddenly panicking, he thrashed wildly in the water, and managed to get his head back through the surface, gasping for breath. He could feel the strong current carrying him along, though he had no idea of whereto.
He turned his head in the direction the river was flowing, and found himself facing a solid wall where the river was flowing into a tunnel. Before he managed to dive, he slammed into the wall, and the world turblacblack.
* * * * * *
She made no effort in keeping her tears from flowing. Burying her face into Drizzt’s pillow, breathing in the scent of him that still lingered there, the image of him falling played over in her mind again and again. Ever since Wulfgar’s banishment to the nine hells, she had felt her feelings for the drow grow. She had followed him into the Underdark, even down to Menzoberranzan – the city where he had been born – to bring him home again, simply because she had realized she loved him. For the same reasons that he had accompanied her on the Sea Sprite for seven years…
Yet, though he at times had seemed far from her, only once before had she believed him to be dead – when he had fallen in the last fight against Artemis Enteri. And that had been when she had truly realized how much she did love him…
The dwarves were still searching, but Bruenor had convinced her to return to the chamber, knowing she would be too shaken to be of any help. She rolled onto her side, hugging the pillow, and looked at the ceiling, her vision blurred by tears.
“Please, Drizzt… Say ye’re still alive..,” she whispered, though she knew he could not possibly have heard her.
* * * * * *
He clawed at the tunnel’s top, his lungs burning and black dots dancing in front of his eyes as he struggled, trying desperately to get his head above water again. But the water filled the tunnel completely, not leaveveneven a single inch where a little air could collect. Blood ran freely from his fingertips, mingling with the water and leaving a reddish trail behind as he was swept through the tunnel, but he no longer cared. He could feel he was close to fainting a second time, deprived of air as he was, and kicked with his feet, trying to get through the tunnel faster, desperately hoping it would lead into a cave or something before he passed out…
Suddenly, the tunnel ended, and he found himself falling through empty air. He only registered that a lake was beneath him, when his skull smacked into a rocky ledge, and everything turned black again.