Once Around the Realms

Chapter 21

"I can't swim!" Shurleen yelled as the raft came apart, dropping her into the icy cold waters of the Sea of Swords.

Curtis, having quickly recovered from his own shock at being dropped into the icy deep, frantically looked in the direction he had last heard Shurleen's scream.

Out of the corner of his eyes, resting among the water-sodden feathers of the raft, he spied a few atcly grabbed for it. Beyond the oar was a dinghy, and in the dinghy a pair of dark arms to help him aboard, and beyond them a pair of bright lavender eyes, glowing orbs in a body that seemed to melt into the darkness that surrounded it.

"Now to get your companions," the figure said. "There are four of you altogether?"

"That's right," the master traveler replied, just beginning to realize how cold he was, and how he couldn't stop shivering.

"There's a pile of blankets on your left," the figure said as if reading his mind. "It doesn't make sense to save anyone from drowning only to have them freeze to death from the chill."

The figure had rowed the boat within reach of Curtis and Shurleen, who were quickly brought aboard, and then turned around to pick up Passepout.

Volo was amazed at how seemingly easy the pilot was able to locate his friends in the storm-ridden darkness.

When all were on board, the pilot announced, "Wrap yourselves in the blankets. Well be on shipboard and dry in no time."

"How did you…?" Volo chattered.

"I saw you go down," the dinghy's pilot replied.

"You're a drow, aren't you?" the master traveler said, putting two and two together: the night vision, the dark skin. Though dark elves were uncommon in the surface world, occasionally drow had been known to travel the Sword Coast. Volo only hoped that this fellow wasn't a slaver rounding up cheap and expendable labor for some underworld toil. Volo was finally beginning to warm up within the thick layers of the blankets.

"That's right," the drow replied, "but you may call me Drizzt… and don't worry. I'm not here to capture you, just to help. I'm alone."

With a sigh of relief Volo turned his attentions back to getting warm.

In less than an hour the travelers were dressed in dry clothes and seated around a roaring fire in the main cabin of the good ship Leominster, sipping hot broth.

The captain of the vessel was a taciturn dwarf named Wolflarson, who soon joined them.

"I and my companions would like to thank you for your hospitality," Volo said. "You certainly came along at the right time."

"Think nothing of it," the captain replied brusquely. "I sure don't. We're docking in Waterdeep tomorrow. You can get off there."

Volo was slightly taken aback by the offhand manner in which he treated their rescue. "Still, if you hadn't stopped the ship, and turned around to get us, sending your man Drizzt out to get us, I…"

In a carefully measured tone brimming with hostility, Wolflarson interrupted, "He's not my man, he's drow, and he's just another passenger. As for stopping the ship, I didn't, and woe to the person I find out that did."

"But…"

"And a «to that drow fool Drizzt, he acted on his own, even paid for the rental of the dinghy. Now if you will excuse me, I have to return to the wheel. I expect your clothes will be dry by the time we dock, so please leave the blankets here when you go. I won't be expecting to see you again."

With that, the dwarf captain left the cabin.

"Weil," Hhurleen commented, "remind me never to book passage on any ship he's the captain of. A regular charmer, he is."

Passepout detected a certain trace of Suzail slang in her voice, which was uncommon to members of the upper class. Ho dismissed it as probably just an affectation she throw in for effect.

Curtis looked around the cabin and stuck his head outside for a moment. When he returned he said, "I wonder where that guy Drizzt is. I mean, he fishes us out of the sea, saves us from a watery grave while risking his own life in storm-swept seas, and then doesn't even stick around so that we can say thanks."

The cabin boy, who was carefully tending the fire so that it never got out of hand, answered. "He's probably in his cabin. The captain gave firm orders that Mister Do'Urden was not to wander the ship unescorted."

"The captain doesn't like drow much, does he, lad?" Volo asked.

"Who does?" the lad replied.

"Is he getting off at Waterdeep, too?" Volo pressed.

"No," the lad replied. "He's booked all the way to Luskan. His cabin is down below, right next to the stores. Just don't tell the captain I told you."

"We should probably go thank him," Shurleen suggested without a trace of enthusiasm in her voice.

"I'll go," Volo replied, getting to his feet. "With my change of clothes from my waterproof pack, I'm pretty much the only one of us suitable for visiting. The rest of you stay here and try to dry off."

Volo left the cabin and looked for the passageway to the hold. The storms had ceased, and the fog had cleared. After a quick bit of reconnaissance, Volo discovered a rope ladder that led to the ship's hold and the stores. Balancing a lantern in one hand, he climbed down the ladder in search of the passenger's cabin.

The master traveler quickly discovered that there was a good three inches of seawater in the hold. Surely, he thought, his accommodations aren't down here. With the available light from the lantern, he quickly surveyed the hold and was about to leave when he spied a door at the far end of the stores.

The water was only about an inch deep there, so Volo trudged on over and up the incline of the curvature of the hull, and knocked on the door.

"Mister Do'Urden," he called.

Groowwwllll!

Volo distinctly heard the sound of a jungle cat on the other side of the door.

"Mister Do'Urden," Volo called louder. "Are you all right? It's me, Mister Volo, whom you fished out of the drink. My friends and I would like to thank you."

"One moment," Drizzt said from the other side of the door.

A moment passed, and then the sound of a bolt and a lock being undone was audible, and the dark elf opened the door and bade Volo to enter.

"Come in," Drizzt offered. "Please sit down."

Volo was astonished at the cramped quarters. Thanks to a ridge in the doorway, most of the water stayed back in the hold, although a puddle was beginning to form by the door. The bare essentials of the efficiency closet were a single rope bunk, a cheat upon which a statuette of some sort was situated, and a tiny porthole that was almost eye level with the sea.

When Drizzt closed the door behind him, the master traveler also noticed a pair of twin scimitars hanging from a hook on the door.

"Handy," Volo commented.

"But not always necessary," Drizzt replied, "particularly when making a rescue at sea."

Having grown tired of bending forward to avoid hitting his head on the low ceiling, Volo took a seat on the chest, next to the statuette, which seemed to be of some sort of panther.

"Pretty," Volo commented.

"But deadly," the drow returned.

Volo realized that his presence was making the drow uneasy, and possibly claustrophobic, given the cramped quarters.

"It looks like you are a man of few words, so I just wanted to stop by and say thank you for rescuing my friends," the master traveler said, beginning to feel oppressed by the dampness and the closeness of the space.

Drizzt pointed out through the porthole.

"I saw you crash through there. I like to look out into the night," the drow related. "I knew that the captain wouldn't have seen you…"

"… or cared, for that matter…," Volo interrupted.

"Oh," the drow acknowledged. "So you've met Wolflarson."

"Charming fellow."

"Would probably feel right at home in Menzoberranzan, if he were a drow, that is. That's probably one of the reasons I left," the drow said, "hut I digress. I launched one of the lifeboats after being sure to attach a safety line back to the ship, and set off after you. Even in the fog you were pretty easy to find."

"You have good eyes," Volo complimented.

"Thanks," said Drizzt. "It comes with the territory."

"Well, I just wanted to say thanks," the master traveler said, reclaiming his stooped stance and heading for the door.

"You are welcome," the drow replied.

"The captain will let us ashore in Waterdeep."

"Safe home."

"The same to you."

"I can never truly go home again," the drow said, a measure of melancholy in his voice.

Volo slipped past the drow and out the door, when he stopped, and said, "I thought I heard the growl of a jungle cat when I knocked on your door."

"It was only Guenhwyvar," Drizzt replied, shutting the door after his visitor.

"Oh," said the master traveler, hearing the bolt being thrown back into place, and not bothering to ask for a further explanation.

"Well, did you thank him?" Shurleen asked as Volo re-entered the main deck's cabin.

"Yes," Volo replied absently, his mind still on their mysterious savior. "I didn't stay long. He seems to be a solitary sort."

"I thought the drow were a cruel and evil race," Curtis remarked.

"Once again, I guess there are exceptions to every rule," the master traveler replied.

"I'm just glad he came along when he did," Passepout added, starting on his tenth cup of broth.

An am I, thought Volo. An am I.