Chapter 7 Chapter 5 Someday in the future

Bruenor made his way up the rocky slope with calculated strides, his boots on the same footings he had taken every time he reached the high point at the southern end of Dwarfvale.To the people of Ten-Towns who often saw Bruenor standing there, these towering stone pillars that lined the valley-top ridge were called Bruenor's Rock.To the west, below the dwarves, were the lights of the town of Tamarin, and beyond them the dark waters of Pond Dürden, occasionally illuminated by the lights of fishing boats whose indomitable crews refused to go ashore until they had caught steelhead trout. The dwarves are above the vast tundra and the myriad low stars that twinkle in the night sky.The sky seemed to be polished bright by the cold wind blowing after nightfall, and Bruno felt as if he had escaped from the shackles of the earth.

Here he looks for dreams, and those dreams always bring him back to his hometown.Halls of Mithril, home of his ancestors, where streams of rich metal gleamed to the depths, where dwarven blacksmiths beat with hammers in praise of Moradin and Dumathoin Moradin, Dumathoin: Forged Soul Moradin the lord and Dumathoin the keeper of secrets are the gods of the dwarves.In the legend of the dwarves, Moradin is the god of casting and smelting, and Dumathoin is guarding all kinds of secrets. .Bruenor was just a hairless child when the people dug too deep into the world and were driven away by dark things in dark caverns.Now he is the oldest of the few survivors of his clan, and the only one among them to have seen the treasures of Mithril Hall.

Long before humans other than barbarians came to Icewind Dale, they made their homes in the valley between the two northern lakes.They are the only remnants of a once thriving dwarven community, frustrated refugees who have lost their homeland and their ancestral heritage.Their numbers continued to dwindle, and as many elders died of sorrow as of old age.Although the mineral deposits in this area are very good, they still seem destined to gradually decline and die. But when the Ten Towns rose, their luck seemed to improve dramatically.Their valley is just north of Bryn Shander, as close to the main city of Ten-Towns as other fishing villages and towns, and these humans who often fight each other and resist aggression are also happy to obtain dwarven forgings through trade. magical armor and weapons.

But even as life improves, Bruno longs to restore the glory of his ancestors.He thought that he came to Ten-Towns for a short stay because of a problem, and the problem could be solved by rediscovering and retaking Mithril Hall. "It's cold to be so high on such a night, my good friend." A voice came from behind. The dwarf turned to face Drizzt Do'Urden, but he knew the background was the dark cone of Cairn, so he couldn't have seen the drow.Here the whole mountain appeared to be a single black shadow rising from the flat northern horizon.The place was called the Cone of Cairn, because it looked as if someone had purposely piled the pebbles into a cone; barbarian lore said it was a tomb.Now the place where the dwarves built their homes does not seem like a natural landmark.The tundra extends in all directions, and the whole is a flat frozen soil.But in this valley, there is only an occasional bit of soil in the rock walls and crevices.The valley and the mountains on its northern edge are the only places in Icewind Dale that have high-quality rocks, as if they were misplaced by the gods in the early days of creation.

Drizzt caught the look in his friend's eyes. "You're looking again for images that only your memory can see." He was well aware that the old home haunted the dwarves. "That's a sight I'll see again!" Bruno insisted. "We'll get there, elf." "We don't even know the way." "The way can be found," Bruno said. "As long as you look for it." "Some day in the future, my friend," Drizzt greeted him.During the years that he and Bruenor had been friends, the dwarf had been bothering to ask Drizzt to accompany him to Mithril Hall.Drizzt thought the idea foolish, for no one he had spoken to had any clues as to the location of the dwarf's homeland, and Bruenor could only recall fragments of these mithril-filled chambers.Yet the dark elf was sensitive to his friend's deepest wishes, and he always answered Bruenor's entreaties with "someday in the future."

"We have more urgent things to do now," Drizzt reminded Bruenor.Earlier that day, at a meeting in the Dwarven Hall, the Dark Elf had told the Dwarves the details of his discovery. "Are you sure they're coming?" Bruno asked now. "They're rushing, and they'll shake all the stones of the Cairn's Cone." Drizzt left the darkness with the mountains in the background and came to his friend. "If the ten towns don't unite to resist, then they will die." Bruenor knelt down and turned his eyes to the lights of Bryn Shander in the south. "They won't unite, those stubborn fools," he murmured.

"They will, if your men go to them." "No," growled the dwarf. "If they choose to resist together, then we will fight with them, poor barbarians! If you want to go to them, you go, good luck, but this is none of our business. Let Let's see what kind of courage those fishermen can muster?" Drizzt smiled at the sarcasm at Bruenor's refusal.Both of them knew that no one believed in the dark elves, and were even publicly disliked, except in Lonewood, where the speaker was their friend Regis.Bruenor noticed Drizzt's eyes, but the elf tried hard to hide it.

"They owe you more than they know," Bruno declared, turning his sympathetic gaze to his friend. "They owe me nothing." Bruno shook his head. "What do you care about them?" he yelled out. "You actually help this group of guys who treat you badly. What do you owe them?" Drizzt shrugged, driven to find out.Bruno is right.When the Dark Elf first came to the land, the only person who showed him any friendship was Regis.When Regis was in Bryn Shander on business or in meetings, he would often escort the halfling from Lonelywood, across the treacherous tundra to the north of Lake Dulden.They actually met under the circumstances: Regis was trying to escape from Drizzt, because he had heard many horrible rumors about Drizzt.Luckily for both of them, Regis was a halfling capable of keeping an open mind about people and making his own judgments about other people's characters.It didn't take long for the two of them to become friends.

But to this day, Regis and the dwarves were the only people in the region who considered the dark elves friends. "I don't know why I care about them," Drizzt replied frankly.His eyes turned back to his homeland, where loyalty was merely a tactic to gain the upper hand on the enemy. "Maybe I care about them only because I'm struggling to be different from my people," he said, not just to Bruno, but to himself. "Maybe I care only because I'm really different from my people. I may be more like other surface races... at least that's my hope. I care about them because I have to care about something. You and I are not that big We're all different, Bruenor Warhammer. Unless our lives are empty, we'll all care."

Bruno looked up curiously. "You can deny your affection to the people of Ten-Towns, but not to yourself." "Fuck it!" Bruno snapped. "Of course I care about them! I still have to trade with them!" "Stubborn," Drizzt murmured, smiling knowingly. "What about Catti-brie?" he pressed on. "What about this human girl who was orphaned in the attack on Tamarin all those years ago? You bring homeless people home and raise them as your own." Bruno was glad the night shaded his blush. "She still lives with you, but you must also admit that she has been able to return to her people. Perhaps you care about her, rough dwarf?"

"Shut your mouth," Bruno growled. "She's just a maid to make my life easier. Don't be so sissy, okay?" "Stubborn," Drizzt repeated, louder this time.He has a final card to play in this discussion. "And what about me? Dwarves don't usually like common elves, let alone dark elves. How do you explain your friendship to me? I have nothing to return to you except my friendship. Why do you care about me? " "Because you'll bring me the latest intel, when we're in trouble..." Bruenor stopped suddenly, knowing that Drizzt had cornered him. But Drizzt didn't press further on the subject. The two friends watched silently as Bryn Shander's lights went out one by one.No matter how hard-hearted Bruenor looked on the outside, he knew that the dark elf's comment was true; he actually cared about the people who lived on the shores of the three lakes. "Then what are you going to do?" the dwarf asked him at last. "I'm going to warn them," Drizzt replied. "You underestimate your neighbors, Bruno. They are tougher than you believe." "I agree," said the dwarf, "but it's their character that I doubt. Every day we see fights on the lake, and every time it's over the damned fish. These people only care about their own village and the other villages. The goblins don't care if they take it all! Now they have to prove to me and my people that they will stand together!" Drizzt had to admit that Bruno's observation was true.These fishermen have become more competitive in recent years as steelhead trout have moved to deeper lake bottoms and become harder to catch.As each town hopes to gain an economic advantage on its own lake, the cooperative relationship among the towns has reached a low point. "There will be a council in Bryn Shander in two days," Drizzt continued. "I'm sure we have some time before the barbarians come. But I'm afraid of any delays, and I don't believe we'll be able to get these speakers together in less time. It'll take me a while to teach Regis what to do , because he must make Parliament face up to the news." "You mean the glutton?" Bruenor said contemptuously, calling Regis by the nickname he'd given the gluttonous halfling. "The biggest reason he went to the parliament was to fill his stomach! Those people would rather listen to you than him!" "You underestimate the halflings more than you underestimate the people of Ten-Towns," Drizzt replied. "Never forget that he carried that gem." "Fuck it! It's just a better cut gem," Bruno insisted. "I've seen it myself, and it doesn't do any magic to me at all." "The magic on it is too weak for the eyes of a dwarf, and may not be able to penetrate a skull as thick as yours," Drizzt said with a smile. "But there it is, and I can see it clearly, and know the legend of the gem. Regis may have more influence on the Council than you believe, and certainly more than I do. Let us hope so , for you know as well as I do that some Speakers are very reluctant to carry out the combined plans of the towns, whether because of their arrogance of their own power, or because they believe that the barbarians' raiding of other weaker rivals will satisfy their selfish expectations. Bryn Shander is still key, but the largest town only those more major fishing towns, especially Targos joining, will want to make a move. "You know East Exile will help," Bruno said. "They always want the Ten Towns to be united." "And Lonewood, for Regis represents them. Kemp of Targos is absolutely sure that their walls can stand alone against invasion, and that their enemy, Tamaran, will be driven back." "He won't join any organization that includes Tamaran. What's more, if you can't get Kemp, you won't be able to shut up the towns of Kaikoni and Kedi Neva!" "But that's where Regis comes in," Drizzt explained. "That ruby ​​of his can do amazing things, I promise you." "You're talking about the power of that stone again," Bruno complained. "But the glutton said his old master had twelve of those things," he reasoned. "Powerful magic doesn't just happen once it appears!" "Regis was saying his master had twelve similar gems," Drizzt corrected. "In fact, there's no way a halfling would have any way of knowing if those twelve or other gems were magical." "Then why did the master give the only one with magic to the glutton?" Drizzt didn't answer the question, but his silence inevitably led Bruenor to the same conclusion he did.Regis had a knack for collecting things that didn't belong to him, even when the halfling explained that the gem was a gift from someone else...