Dreams Beneath a Starfilled Sky

A/N: Yes, very short. Burn me for it. But seeing as the next chapter will be radically different in theme, I leave it as short as it is…

Chapter 30: Past injuries causes present concerns

The room was quiet, everyone gathered merely sitting and trying to force their minds to accept the fact Stumpet just had given. Catti-brie turned her head, glancing sideways at her fiancée, trying to determine his reaction to the news given – it was, after all, his health it concerned.

He had an almost blank look in his eyes, looking into the empty air with a look of clear disbelief, yet, what surprised her the most, just the faintest shadow of happiness lay beneath his expression. Though, as she thought about it, the true meaning of the drow’s condition struck her, and she all of a sudden realised the reason for his happy look.

“There is no cure?” Drizzt asked slowly, as if not truly believing the news.

Stumpet shook her head.

“Sadly, there ain’t…,” she replied, her gaze dropping to the floor.

None had thought that when Stumpet had summoned them to the healers’ quarters, she would have dumped these news - that the poison had not left Drizzt’s body. But though it would not kill him instantly, it would dramatically reduce his lifespan, leaving him with what the dwarven cleric believed to be something between sixty and seventy years more.

In short, it meant that he would live as long as Catti-brie…

And that same thought struck everyone when the smile crossed the drow’s lips.