"Yer hope," Catti-brie echoed. "But is it your expectation?"
Drizzt continued to stare out the exit. He could only shrug.
The four were out of the ravine and back on the trail shortly after, and Bruenor's grumbling about Drizzt turned into complaining about Regis. "Where in the Nine Hells is Rumblebelly?" the dwarf bellowed. "And how in the Nine Hells did he ever get a giant to throw rocks for him?"
Even as he spoke, they felt the vibrations of heavy, heavy footfalls beneath their feet and heard a silly song sung in unison. There was a happy halfling voice, Regis, and a second voice that rumbled like the thunder of a rockslide. A moment later, Regis came around a bend in the northern trail, riding on the giant's shoulder, the two of them singing and laughing with every step.
"Hello," Regis said happily when he steered the giant to join his friends. He noted that Drizzt had his hands on his scimitars, though they were sheathed (and that meant little for the lightning-fast drow), Bruenor clutched tightly to his axe, Catti-brie to her bow, and Wulfgar, holding Aegis-fang, seemed as if he was about to explode into murderous action.
"This is Junger," Regis explained. "He was not with the other band-he says he doesn't even know them. And he is a smart one."
Junger put a hand up to secure Regis's seat, then bowed low before the stunned group.
"In fact, Junger does not even go down to the road, does not go out of the mountains at all," Regis explained. "Says he has no interest in the affairs of dwarves or men."
"He telled ye that, did he?" Bruenor asked doubtfully.
Regis nodded, his smile wide. "And I believe him," he said, waggling the ruby pendant, whose magical hypnotizing properties were well known to the friends.
"That don't change a thing," Bruenor said with a growl, looking to Drizzt as if expecting the ranger to start the fight. A giant was a giant, after all, to the dwarf's way of thinking, and any giant looked much better lying down with an axe firmly embedded in its skull.
"Junger is no killer," Regis said firmly.
"Only goblins," the huge giant said with a smile. "And hill giants. And orcs, of course, for who could abide the ugly things?"
His sophisticated dialect and his choice of enemies had the dwarf staring at him wide-eyed. "And yeti," Bruenor said. "Don't ye be forgettin' yeti."
"Oh, not yeti," Junger replied. "I do not kill yeti."
The scowl returned to Bruenor's face.
"Why, one cannot even eat the smelly things," Junger explained. "I do not kill them, I domesticate them."
"Ye what?" Bruenor demanded.
"Domesticate them," Junger explained. "Like a dog or a horse. Oh, but I've quite a selection of yeti workers at my cave back in the mountains."
Bruenor turned an incredulous expression on Drizzt, but the ranger, as much at a loss as the dwarf, only shrugged.
"We've lost too much time already," Catti-brie remarked. "Camlaine and the others'll be halfway out o' the dale afore we catch them. Be rid o' yer friend, Regis, and let us get to the trail."
Regis was shaking his head before she ever finished. "Junger does not usually leave the mountains," he explained. "But he will for me."
"Then I'll not have to carry you anymore," Wulfgar grumbled, walking away. "Good enough for that."
"Ye're not having to carry him anyway," Bruenor replied, then looked back to Regis. "I'm thinking ye can do yer own walking. Ye don't need a giant to act as a horse."
"More than that," Regis said, beaming. "A bodyguard."
The dwarf and Catti-brie both groaned; Drizzt only chuckled and shook his head.
"In every fight, I spend more time trying to keep out of the way," Regis explained. "Never am I any real help. But with Junger-"
"Ye'll still be trying to keep outta the way," Bruenor interrupted.
"If Junger is to fight for you, then he is no more than any of the rest of us," Drizzt added. "Are we, then, merely bodyguards of Regis?"
"No, of course not," the halfling replied. "But-"
"Be rid of him," Catti-brie said. "Wouldn't we look the fine band of friendly travelers walking into Luskan beside a mountain giant?"
"We'll walk in with a drow," Regis answered before he could think about it, then blushed a deep shade of red.
Again, Drizzt only chuckled and shook his head.
"Put him down," Bruenor said to Junger. "I think he's needin' a talk."
"You mustn't hurt my friend Regis," Junger replied. "That I simply cannot allow."