Tarathiel smiled and led on through the winding mountain trail, with tall pines all about, the wind swirling around them. They came to the diamond-shaped grove of trees and piled stone walls soon after, the place still looking as if the ranger Montolio was still alive and tending it. There was strong magic about the grove.
Tarathiel only hoped that the last inhabitant of the area he had known was still around. He had taken Drizzt Do'Urden there a few years before, as a measure of the unusual dark elf, and he and Innovindil had decided that a similar test might suit Pikel Bouldershoulder well.
The two went into the grove and walked around, admiring the elevated walkways and the simple, beautiful design of the huts.
"So, you and your brother were heading to the coronation of King Bruenor Battlehammer?" the elf asked to pass the time, knowing that Innovindil was similarly questioning the other brother back in the Moon-wood.
"Yup yup," Pikel said, but he was obviously distracted, hopping about, scratching his head and nodding happily.
"You know King Bruenor well, then?"
"Yup yup," Pikel answered.
He stopped suddenly, looked at the elf, and blinked a few times.
"Uh uh," he corrected, and gave a shrug.
"You do not know Bruenor well?"
"Nope."
"But well enough to represent. . . what was his name? Cadderly?"
"Yup yup."
"I see. And tell me, Pikel," Tarathiel asked, "how is it that you have come by such druidic . .. ?"
His voice trailed off, for he noticed that Pikel was suddenly distracted, looking away, his eyes widening. Following the dwarf's gaze, Tarathiel soon enough understood that his question had fallen on deaf ears, for there, just outside the grove, stood the most magnificent of equine creatures in all the world. Large and strong, with legs that could shatter a giant's skull, and a single, straight horn that could skewer two men standing back to back, the unicorn pawed the ground anxiously, watching Pikel every bit as intently as the dwarf was regarding it.
Pikel put his arm above his head, finger pointing up, like his own unicorn horn, and began hopping all about.
"Be easy, dwarf," Tarathiel warned, unsure of how the magnificent, and ultimately dangerous, creature would respond.
Pikel, though, hardly seemed nervous, and with a shriek of delight, the dwarf went hopping across the way, tumbling over the stone wall that lined that edge of the grove, and rushed out toward the beast.
The unicorn pawed the ground and gave a great whinny, but Pikel hardly seemed to notice and charged on.
Tarathiel grimaced, thinking himself foolish for bringing the dwarf to the grove. He took up the chase, calling for Pikel to stop.
But it was Tarathiel who stopped, just as he was going over the stone wall. Across the small field, Pikel stood beside the unicorn, stroking its muscled neck, his face a mask of awe. The unicorn seemed a bit unsure and continued pawing the ground, but it did not ward Pikel away, nor did it make any move to rush off.
Tarathiel sat down on the wall, smiling and nodding, and very glad of that.
Pikel stayed with the magnificent unicorn for some time before the creature finally turned and galloped away. The enchanted dwarf floated back across the field, skipping so lightly that his feet didn't even seem to touch the ground.
"Are you pleased?"
"Yup yup!"
"I think it liked you."
"Yup yup!"
"You know of Mielikki?"
Pikel's smile nearly took in his big ears. He reached under the front of his tunic and pulled forth a pendant of a carved unicorn head, the symbol of the nature goddess.
Tarathiel had seen another wearing a similar pendant, though Pikel's was carved of wood while the other had been made of scrimshaw using the bones of the knucklehead trout of Icewind Dale.
"Will King Bruenor be pleased that one who worships the goddess is in his court?" Tarathiel asked, leading the conversation to a place he thought might prove revealing.
Pikel looked at him curiously.
"He is a dwarf, after all, and most dwarves are not favorably disposed toward the goddess Mielikki."
"Pffft" Pikel scoffed, waving a hand at the elf. "You believe T am wrong?"
"Yup yup."
"I have heard that there is another in his court so favorably disposed to Mielikki," Tarathiel remarked. "One who trained right here with Montolio the Ranger. A very unusual creature, not so much unlike Pikel Bouldershoulder."
"Drizzit Dudden!" Pikel cried, and though it took Tarathiel a moment to recognize the badly-pronounced name, when he did, he nodded his approval.
If the unicorn hadn't been proof enough, then Pikel's