Chapter 16 preamble

There are no shadows in the Underdark. After only one year on the surface, I understood the significance of this seemingly small difference, the contrast between light and dark.There are no shadows in the Underdark, no magical realms where only the imagination can run wild. What a wonderful thing a shadow is!When the sun was high, I saw my own shadow travel beneath my feet; I saw how a great bear grew in size as the light shot low behind him, casting his mysterious shadow on the ground; Time travels through the woods, watching the leaves turn from green to gray as they hold the last rays of sunlight, watching the darkening patches, the areas only the eyes of the heart can see.Could there be a monster hiding in that?Orcs or goblins?Or is there hidden treasure, like a lost magic sword, or just a fox's lair in a dark sanctuary?

As I travel through the woods at dusk, my imagination is by my side, sharpening my senses and opening my heart to all possibilities.However, there are no shadows in the Underdark, and there is no room for fantasy.Everywhere, everything is governed by a growing and eroding silence, and a sense of existential crisis. To imagine an enemy huddled somewhere, or a hidden treasure, is an exercise for recreation while alive, the alertness induced by imagining.But when the enemies are usually real rather than imaginary, when every protrusion in the stone, every hiding place, becomes a source of tension, then the game is less fun.

A man who traverses the endless corridors of the Underdark cannot keep his imagination at his side.Imagining that there is an enemy behind a certain rock makes it impossible to see the real enemy behind another rock.To daydream is to throw oneself off guard, and in the Underdark, carelessness means death. Back in those lightless hallways, this proved to be the hardest part of my adjustment.I had to turn back into the original hunter again, had to work hard to survive, and was on the verge of nerves every moment, always tense, always ready to explode.Every step of the way, my gift in the dark is to keep looking for hidden enemies in hidden spots.I can't afford the price of imaginary enemies.I had to wait, alert for their presence, watching for every movement.

There are no shadows in the Underdark.There is no room for fantasy in the Underdark.Here there is constant vigilance, here there is no life, here there is no place for hopes and dreams. — Drizzt Do'Urden