"What is this?" Enariel demanded as Chandrelle secured the reins on Ver'rumeth, her white doe. It had been a number of weeks since the visitors arrived and Chandrelle had eagerly spent the time preparing for her journey south.
"I'm sure you'll be more than happy to resume my duties here," Chandrelle said calmly without looking up as the elf came into the stables, no doubt to confront her about her departure. "After all, you covet them."
"I can't believe you are running off on this fool's errand," Enariel protested as he appeared just beyond Ver'rumeth, flanking the doe between himself and Chandrelle. "With dark elves no less. Have you gone mad?"
"I will let Lord Sundomar know you think of his errands as foolish," Chandrelle responded as she glanced up to meet his eyes. His brilliant green eyes narrowed as he fixed her with a look of judgment.
Chandrelle sighed as she paused in her preparations to give him more attention. She and the younger elf had had a rocky relationship ever since she had arrived in the High Forest. He was young and ambitious and resented an outsider being promoted as captain of the guard over him. And yet, Chandrelle was no fool, she knew that Enariel desired her.
Such desire could never be. Chandrelle once entertained indulging in the lust that this warrior promised, but she held her heart in check. After all, she was never meant to stay despite her initial reluctance when Sundomar first proposed she join Legolas's quest.
She was a wanderer. She was as flighty as a bird, never staying in one place for long. She had accepted her duty as captain with dignity, but she knew it would be a temporary position. It was only the job she held while she lived in this place.
But the open road called to her. And as she glanced at the lute that she had strapped to her pack, she remembered that she was, in truth, no warrior. Not in the traditional sense anyway. She could use a bow and a sword well enough, but her true heart lay in music and the magic that she could weave with her song. She was a bard.
"Why did you even come here in the first place?" Enariel asked. Chandrelle couldn't help but feel guilty when she heard the hurt in his voice. "To raise false hope in all that meet you?"
"I came because my road led me here," Chandrelle said simply. She finished packing, securing her pack and her precious lute to her mount and walked around to stand before Enariel. He turned to regard her. "I never intended to create false hope. You can't understand. You've lived in this place all your life. Maybe one day you will choose the road too."
"I have all I need here," Enariel scoffed, crossing his arms across his chest. "Lord Sundomar should have chosen wiser in appointing one so flighty as his captain."
"He understood my position was temporary," Chandrelle said with a shrug. Sensing the feelings of betrayal and the pain of unrequited feelings, she reached out and gripped his shoulder. "Perhaps our paths will meet again."
"Unlikely," Enariel replied, bitterness etched into his voice as he stepped away. "Go on your quest then."
Enariel turned and stormed out of the stable, as he did so, he nearly collided with Legolas as the elf stepped inside, along with Ky'lor. Enrariel paused long enough to fix Legolas with the most contemptuous scowl he could muster.
"You should have never come here," he growled before shoving past him. "You had no right to come here and disrupt our lives."
Chandrelle shrugged as Legolas watched the elf storm off before he and Ky'lor approached her. "I apologize for that," she offered. "Youth often causes foolishness."
"It was not my intention to disrupt your lives here," Legolas replied. He glanced at the white doe admirably. "What a magnificent beast."
Chandrelle smiled and patted the deer on the side of the neck. "She and I have been companions for countless years," she explained. "I call her Ver'rumeth."
"Peaceful Meadow," Legolas translated as he reached up to pat the deer on the head. He glanced at Ky'lor who stood a few paces away. "My companion here is still getting used to the surface. He requires a mount if you have any extras."
Chandrelle regarded the young drow. He was shorter than the others, standing slightly under five feet, with a stockier build than the typical slender elves. His skin was a gray complexion and he wore his thick white hair in thick braids which were pulled back from his face. She raised a brow at him curiously.
"I am half dwarf," Ky'lor explained, noting the look he got. "My mother was a dwarf, so I am told."
"Then you never met her?" Chandrelle asked as the two of them followed her down the center aisle of the stable, as she led Ver'rumeth along. There were a number of animals inside the stalls, deer, horses, elk, and other creatures who had come to the elves over the years, looking for care.
All of the animals that had come here, including Ver'rumeth, had a measure of sentience and had chosen to live with the elves of their own volition. They were free to depart as they wished as well. In that way, they had something in common with Chandrelle.
"She died when I was an infant," Ky'lor explained. Chandrelle came to a stall and opened it. Inside, there was a mountain goat. He eyed them all and grunted as he came forth.
"This is Bael'ik," Chandrelle introduced as Ky'lor regarded the beast. "I believe he was once a wizard turned beast by foul play." Chandrelle smirked as she noted the wizard robes Ky'lor wore. "I trust you understand the certain dangers of magic."
Ky'lor smirked in amusement at that tale as he led Bael'ik out of his stall. "Perhaps one of these days I will change you back," he told the goat who grunted at him.
"His name means mighty guardian," Legolas translated for Ky'lor. "Perhaps he was a powerful mage long ago."
"He will bear you willingly for now, but be warned, he can be irritable," Chandrelle explained. Turning to Legolas, she regarded him. "I believe I am ready," she proclaimed. She thought of Enariel one last time. She silently wished him well.
"Drizzt and Dinin are already outside the gates," Legolas explained. They waited for Ky'lor to saddle and mount his goat before leaving the stable. Legolas mounted his white horse and Chandrelle eagerly climbed upon her doe. Giving the beauty of Amandir one final silent farewell, they departed for the gates.
They found Drizzt, Dinin, and Catti-brie mounted up and awaiting them. Dinin was hunched over on his horse. The druids had done a remarkable job healing him, but his wounds still lingered. The somewhat slouched posture he wore gave away the soreness he felt.
"We are grateful you will be joining us," Catti-brie offered when she saw Chandrelle. Chandrelle smiled politely as she joined her new traveling companions.
"We will reach Waterdeep in a few days," Drizzt explained. "From there, our road turns south. If we are fortunate, we may be able to book passage on a ship sailing south. If we are even more fortunate, that vessel will be the Sea Sprite." He glanced between Dinin and Drizzt. "The drow are not easily accepted in Waterdeep, but those who know me will allow us within the gates. Getting anyone to bear three drow on their vessels will be another challenge."
Chandrelle thought about that. She had never been denied entry to Waterdeep before. She had only been there once as she passed through it when she had first come to the mainland from Evermeet. But she recalled the large sprawling City of Splendors with fondness.
"Why is he not secured?" Legolas demanded as he trotted his horse passed Dinin, shooting a glare at him.
"He will not try to harm us," Drizzt responded calmly as he met eyes with his brother and Dinin only nodded silently. The weariness in his eyes told them all he was still trying to process all that had happened to him. Chandrelle realized she didn't understand her traveling companions all that well.
"If he tries anything, I will cut him down myself," Legolas warned as he brushed past Drizzt. "And there will be no druids or no clerics to save him then."
Chandrelle exchanged curious glances at Ky'lor as they all passed through the gates and trotted through the forest.
"There have been some tensions between them," Ky'lor explained quietly as he and Chandrelle took the rear of the procession. He then proceeded to fill Chandrelle in on the events that led up to the present. From his, Legolas and Drizzt's departure from Menzoberranzan and the torture it represented, to the impending war with the drow, to the time in Mithral Hall where they had discovered Dinin returned from being a drider, to the decision to go south in search of Thranduil and Zaknafein. Zaknafein being the long lost father that Ky'lor had never met.
Ky'lor continued with the explanation of Dinin's hostility toward all them, his alleged evil deeds of his past, particularly the elf massacre he had admitted to participating in. Chandrelle frowned, feeling fury settle in her own gut as she glanced up to see the drow in question trotting up ahead, his back to them as his horse trotted beside Drizzt's.
"I understand Legolas's anger," she said with a sneer. "I find I share it."
"Drizzt believes Dinin can be redeemed," Ky'lor explained. "They were both brought up in the same household, after all. They were subjected to the same cruelty, except Dinin endured it for much longer, as he is the older."
"I'm afraid I know nothing of drow society," Chandrelle confessed. "Only that their reputation on the surface is one of fear."
Ky'lor shrugged. "I know drow society," he replied. "But not as intimately as my brothers. I went to the academy but I did not grow up in a noble house as they did. I was sheltered in the clawdrift and raised by Jarlaxle and the Bregan D'aerthe. Until recently, I believed Jarlaxle to be my father." he paused. "Perhaps I still do, this Zaknafein has never seen me yet he dwelled in Menzoberranzan for all my life. I don't know if I can call him father as Drizzt does."
"That is your choice," Chandrelle assured him with a smile. "We cannot help who we are born to, and sometimes those who are not connected by blood are more family than those that are."
Chandrelle understood that all too well as she thought of her own family back in Evermeet. It made her realize that she had been wandering all her life. Because the family who raised her was not her blood. She had been an orphan when she was discovered on the beach in Evermeet with no mother and no father. Perhaps that is why she felt it so easy to leave Evermeet decades later. She never truly belonged there. She wasn't sure she belonged anywhere.
"I still have questions for him," Ky'lor spoke. "I hope I will have a chance to ask them."
Chandrelle nodded. She had questions too. Her wanderlust was propelled by her desire to pursue those questions. Perhaps someday, she would know the answers.