Chapter 22 preamble

I will never forget returning to Menzoberranzan.I was born in that city and spent my childhood.Then, as I crossed Lake East Negatton on a raft, the city loomed before my eyes.Fear and longing are intertwined in my heart.It never occurred to me that I would return to Menzoberranzan, but I do imagine myself returning here.Is this place really as bad as my memory tells me? I remember very well the stalagmites that popped into my view as we passed through the arch. It was a moment of disappointment. I wasn't outraged, and I wasn't in awe.There is no homesick warmth flowing through my body, I am out of my childhood, even the good times with Zach Nafein are just a memory in my mind.

In that life-or-death moment, all I could think about was the light shining in that city.This is an unusual thing.For Menzoberranzan City, this may even be an extremely serious matter.All I can think about is how this will affect my mission and how I can get it done as quickly as possible.I do feel fear, but it comes from a purely rational consideration, not a whim or a meaningless shadow cast on my mind by childhood memories.I am walking into the lair of a mighty enemy.To do this, I will wake myself up with fear. Later, whenever I think back on that moment, I wonder how disappointed and indifferent I was.Why did the city that was my home for the first thirty years of my life not touch me?

I didn't understand why until I returned to the northwest corner of the Spine of the World, into Icewind Dale.Menzoberranzan is only a station in my life's journey, it is not my home, and never will be.As the blind witch's riddle said, Icewind Dale was my first home.Everything before this and since - from Menzoberranzan, Blingdenstone, the surface, even the enchanted forest of my ranger mentor Monterey Dibloch, they are only part of the journey of my life . When I return to this corner of the Spine of the World and see the valley for the first time after ten years, the feeling of home is so clear.A never-ending cold wind blows my face, and the same wind is always here waiting for me.It is also the origin of the place's name.

The word is so complex - home.It means different things to everyone.For me, home is not a place, but a feeling, something that makes you feel warm and comfortable.Home is a place where I don't have to justify my actions or remember the color of my skin all the time.I was bound to be accepted there because that was where I belonged.It should have both a personal space and a companion with whom you can share everything.A home is always one's own, for one is surrounded there with friends. Unlike my first glimpse of Menzoberranzan, warm memories haunted me as I gazed at Icewind Dale, and the closer I got to her, the more vivid and distinct they became.I've sat on the slopes of the Cairne Cone, looking at the stars and the bonfires of the barbarian tribes on the great plains, and remembering fighting with Bruno against the tundra snow apes.I still remember the pained expression on his face when he licked the blade of the battle ax and discovered for the first time that the brains of the tundra snow monkeys were so unpalatable.I remembered the first time I met Katie.She is now my constant companion, when she was just a little girl, a sincere, beautiful fairy.The vitality of nature condenses in her body, she has natural tolerance and natural slenderness.

I remembered so many things, and the warmth of the past filled my heart.Although my task is as difficult and urgent as it was in Menzoberranzan, I don't care about it one bit. At this moment, everything is rendered insignificant.I just thought of one thing, I went home. — Drizzt Do'Urden