Chapter 32 Chapter 27 A Distant Hope

There was only one candle burning in the room, and Catti-brie sat beside Bruno and watched him, her beloved father, who was lying in the nursing bed, his face ashen ashes, in the dim candlelight. It wasn't the light's fault, she knew.His chest was hardly heaving, and the bandage she had just changed was still stained with blood. Another sling from outside struck close, and the ground trembled, but Catti-brie was unmoved, for she was still used to it.The rhythm and strength of the stone-throwing attack have been raised to a higher level. Almost every twenty stone bombs, there will be a fire bomb fired. Its trajectory indicates disaster and often triggers a fire in the town.Three fires in the mage's tower have been cleared, and Dagna Jr. said the building could no longer hold up.

But they didn't transfer Bruno because there was nowhere else to go. Catti-brie sat quietly, gazing at her father, thinking back to all the happy times in the past, all the things he had done for her, all the adventures they had shared.Her reason told her that it was all over, although her emotions disagreed with this conclusion. In fact, they were only waiting for Bruno to die, and when he breathed his last, all of them--all of them who were still alive--would crawl out of the hole, out of the wall, and head south, desperately.It was the last chance, and though there was little hope, it was.

And Catti-brie could hardly imagine that she was waiting for Bruno to die.She could hardly accept that the stubborn old dwarf's chest would become motionless, not even breathing.She always felt that he would outlive her. She had seen him fall into a ravine before, and she had thought he was doomed, that time when he rode a shadow dragon into the ravine of Mithril Hall.She could also remember the heartbreaking feeling of an unimaginable hole in her heart, and the desperation, emptiness, and disbelief pouring in from there. She fell into that mood again.Only this time, she could see the result with her own eyes, an irresistible end where there was no room for hope.

The girl felt a big, powerful hand on her shoulder, and turned around to see Wulfgar walking beside her.He put his hands on her shoulders and she buried her head in his firm chest. "Hope Drizzt will come back," Wulfgar said softly, and Catti-brie looked at him, "with Regis." Said the Savage, "We shall get through this together." "Including witnessing Bruno's death together?" "All," Wulfgar continued, "flee south together, or fight here to the last man. Both." They were silent, not necessarily so, they both had the same emotion, both remembered the same past.

The stones on the surface are still pouring down like a torrential rain. "How many orcs are there?" Innovindi asked Tarasher. The two elves were flying through the night on Pegasus away from the area of ​​the Moon Forest, so she had to shout for Tarasher to hear.Even so, most of her voice was covered by Night Breeze. They were in a hilly area north of Shallow Water Town, looking back at the bonfires in the hundreds of orc camps. The fires were also connected in the town, and the recognizable towers were still very conspicuous at this time. The two landed on a ridge, which made it easier to talk.

"We can't help them," Tarasher said to her sympathetic traveling companion as soon as they landed.At this time, he could see the expression on her face more clearly, "Even if we can go back to the Moon Forest and gather all the clansmen, we won't be able to come back in time to ease the situation; what's more, we can't try to do this." With her hesitant look, he added, "Our first duty is to get back to the forest that we call home and inform. If these black people cross the Surbring River eastward, we will inevitably have to fight for a while." battle."

"What you said is true," Innovindi admitted. "Even so, I think we can go and see, maybe we can save a few people from the disaster before death approaches." Tarasher shook his head, with an expression on his face that seemed to say that there was no need to discuss it, and this matter could not be done. "The arrows of the orcs will come after us," he objected. "If they shoot down Min Ming and Mu Miao, won't we be holding them back? If that's the case, who else will return to the east for us?" People's Daily News?" He advanced his argument further, although Innovindi no longer wanted to hear it.She understands her responsibilities, and as such, this is her limitation.She knew that the troubles in the South were beyond the power of her and her friends, beyond the power of her people, to take any effective action.

Seeing Shallowwater razed to ruins pained her, pained both of them, and while they weren't friends with the townspeople, they weren't enemies either. They had to stand by and watch. He climbed with considerable difficulty, and the swelling and pain from his sprained ankle made it even more difficult.Following the last ray of light above his head, Drizzt climbed up this natural steep gap with his hands alternately. The sun is going down. The drow stopped, halfway up the three hundred feet, and the fading light made it clear to Drizzt that this was not his second day in the cave, but his third.He was amazed at the scale of this cave, it was simply a complex underground network, he spent nearly two days wandering in it, looking for a way back to the surface.Following the rising airflow, Zall was led several times to dead ends, steep slopes, and gaps that were too small to drill through.

He even suspected that this was also a crack that could not be drilled out, but he continued to climb up.It was still dazzling when he first saw the light from above, forming a stark contrast with the dark cave, but Drow realized that it was just a coincidence that the sun was shining in from a lucky angle, not because of the huge gap. . He climbed another hundred feet before he was sure he had to turn back, the opening that probably wouldn't let an arm through, let alone his head. Remembering that his friends needed him, Drizzt turned back. An hour later, Drizzt sprinted as fast as he could take care of his ankle injury and exhaustion.He thought about turning back and returning to the place where he entered the tunnel in the first place, maybe it could also remove the stone that the giant had built there, but he shook his head against that idea.

The sun was already high when Zall found the next opening, and the exit was big enough. Drizzt stood in the sun, squinting in the blinding light, letting his eyes adjust as quickly as possible.He spent a long time looking at the surrounding environment, trying to find landmarks that could lead him back to Shallow Water Town.The direction he is facing now is not quite right. Using the sun as a reference, he can distinguish east, west, north, south, and head south.He hoped to reach Fell Pass, hoped to find a flat terrain so that he could continue his trek. He tore off a length of sleeve, tied his ankles tightly, and walked quickly, ignoring the pain.Out of the corner of his eye he watched the sun, as it passed directly above his head, as it began to move towards the western horizon, as it finally set.

A few hours later, he found Fell Pass and identified the path. Across the hills, he ran eastward, his eagerness growing with every step.Not long after, he saw a beam of light in the distance illuminating the southeast night sky. He ran to the top of the hill, but what he saw was a more thrilling scene, pillars of fire rising towards the sky. Flame rises from Witherglu's Tower. Drizzt didn't turn around and head south, on the contrary, he rushed directly to the giant's position, determined to fight them again.Although he didn't want to summon Guan Haifa at this time, he still stroked the magic statue. "Get ready, Guenhwyvar," he whispered, "we're going to fight right now." The firelight at night often confuses the real distance between the two places, and Drizzt knew this well, so he already knew the time it took to return to the vicinity of the town and attack the giant. He dived to the northern edge of the Rift, from where he had a clear view of Shallowwater, and he could see defenders running around.The tower was ablaze—though not as brightly as before.Most of the guards are concentrated around there. The giants seem to be very busy with the offensive in front of them. He took out the statue, placed it on the ground, and made up his mind to summon Guenhuffa as the vanguard to storm the camp, but one item caught his attention—the one-horned helmet he was all too familiar with. "Get them done, Bruno," Drow murmured, a vengeful grin on his face. Almost as if reminded by this sentence, a series of boulders smashed into the tower body, and one of them hit near the brightest fire source, bursting out a large amount of sparks. The dwarves stand at the top of the tower and command the people below to fight. Drizzt's smile was about to spread when suddenly there was a roar and the sound of stones breaking through the air behind him.Drizzt's eyes widened in terror as he watched the tower collapse, and the dwarf on top slide to the edge, where he hung helplessly. The tower fell to the south and broke in two, with one part disintegrating and the other remaining at its foundation, so the unfortunate dwarf was buried under tons of rubble. Drizzt was barely aware of what he was doing, not aware that for that ghastly moment he had slumped to the floor.Now, he was sitting on the icy ground. Undoubtedly, no one in the world survived such a catastrophe. A deep cold seized him, his hands trembled, and tears flowed from his purple eyes. "Bruno..." he said over and over again. He stretched out his hands towards the empty night sky in the south, but he couldn't grasp anything.