asked. "It's as plain as the white line o' yer own eyebrows."
Drizzt laughed again, but not so much at what the woman was saying, but rather, at how she was saying it. She was living with Bruenor's clan again in the dwarven mines just outside of Ten-Towns, and the mannerisms and accent of the rough-and-tumble dwarves were obviously again wearing off on her.
Drizzt turned his head a bit toward the woman, as well, his right eye barely a couple of inches from Catti-brie's. He saw the sparkle there - it was unmistakable - a look of contentment and happiness only now returning in the months since Wulfgar had left them, a look that seemed, in fact, even more intense than ever before.
Drizzt laughed and looked back up at the sky. "Your fish got away," he announced, for the wind had blown the thin line away from the larger shape,
"It is a fish," Catti-brie insisted petulantly - or at least, the woman made it sound as if she was being petulant.
Smiling, Drizzt didn't pursue the argument.
* * * * * * * * * * *
"Ye durn fool little one!" Bruenor Battlehammer grumbled and growled, spittle flying as his frustration increased. The dwarf stopped and stamped his hard boot ferociously on the ground, then smacked his one-horned helmet onto his head, his thick orange hair flying wildly from beneath the brim of the battered helm. "I'm here thinkin' I got a friend on the council, and there ye go, letting Kemp o' Targos go and spout the price without even a fight!"
Regis the halfling, thinner than he had been in years and favoring one arm from a ghastly wound he'd received on his last adventure with his friends, just shrugged and replied, "Kemp of Targos speaks only of the price of the ore for the fishermen."
"And the fishermen buy a considerable portion of the ore!" Bruenor roared. "Why'd I put ye back on the council, Rumble-belly, if ye ain't to be making me life any easier?"
Regis gave a little smile at the tirade. He thought to remind Bruenor that the dwarf hadn't put him back on the council, that the folk of Lonelywood, needing a new representative since the last one had wound up in the belly of a yeti, had begged him to go, but he wisely kept the notion to himself.
"Fishermen," the dwarf said, and he spat on the ground in front of Regis's hairy, unshod feet.
Again, the halfling merely smiled and sidestepped the mark. He knew Bruenor was more bellow than bite, and knew, too, that the dwarf would let this matter drop soon enough - as soon as the next crisis rolled down the road. Ever had Bruenor Battle-hammer been an excitable one.
The dwarf was still grumbling when the pair rounded a bend in the path to come in full view of Drizzt and Catti-brie, still sitting on the mossy bank, lost in their cloud-dreams and just enjoying each other's company. Regis sucked in his breath, thinking Bruenor might explode at the sight of his beloved adopted daughter in so intimate a position with Drizzt - or with anyone, for that matter - but Bruenor just shook his hairy head and stormed off the other way.
"Durned fool elf," he was saying when Regis caught up to him. "Will ye just kiss the girl and be done with it?"
Regis's smile nearly took in his ears. "How do you know that he has not?" he remarked, for no better reason than to see the dwarfs cheeks turn as fiery red as his hair and beard.
And of course, Regis was quick to skitter far out of Bruenor's deadly grasp.
The dwarf just put his head down, muttering curses and stomping along. Regis could hardly believe that boots could make such thunder on a soft, mossy dirt path.
* * * * * * * *
The clamor in Brynn Shander's Council Hall was less of a surprise to Regis. He tried - he really did - to stay attentive to the proceedings, as Elderman Cassius, the highest-ranking leader in all of Ten-Towns, led the discussion through mostly procedural matters. Always before had the ten towns been ruled independently, or through a council comprised of one representative of each town, but so great had Cassius's service been to the region that he was no longer the representative of any single community, even that of Brynn Shander, the largest town by far and Cassius's home. Of course, that didn't sit well with Kemp of Targos,