Forgotten Realms 1. Part 1

**Siren's Cry**

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are the property of R.A. Salvatore/Wizards of the Coast ©. I don't own them; I'm just examining all their possibilities.

Author's Note: This story is not connected in any way with "The Lesser Evil," "Midsummer," and their respectively related stories. Instead this is yet another experiment that shall be a bit shorter and less complex than the previous.

"Siren's Cry" is rated M for graphic violence, some strong language, and subject matter that some may find disturbing, including brief references to sexual assault. This is story that leans to the Horror genre and is not going to be pretty in many places.

**Part 1: **

"I am going to need to get up sometime, you fool elf," Catti-brie said in the most annoyed tone she could muster, though a mass of giggles threatened to break forth.

She threw her nose in the air and eyed the rough hewn ceiling in her quarters, her wavy auburn hair bouncing off her shoulders as she managed a weak groan. It was hard to ignore the strong grip around her waist only becoming tighter the more she huffed.

At last she looked down at the pair of bare, ebony arms encircling her lower torso, their hue sticking out against her cream linen night shirt. She started to rise again, only to be pulled back down on the cot by the arms around her waist.

"What if I had to take a piss, then how happy would you be?" she huffed, looking behind her and only seeing a playful smile and a pair of twinkling, mischievous lavender eyes.

Drizzt's white mane was crushed against the green pillow as he looked up at Catti-brie, his only response an innocent gaze and an infectious, widening grin. Catti-brie flashed him an annoyed glare before being sucked into his mirth like a moth to a shiny flame.

Her scowl broke and she chuckled, though tried to keep it behind her clenched jaw as she strained her leg muscles again and started to rise. She managed to get an inch off the cot before being pulled back. By this time her laughter was threatening co completely burst forth. She looked back at the handsome, black skinned figure lying on the small cot and gave another mock glare. It only took one batting of white eyelashes for her to lose her composure in one burst of laughter.

Drizzt grabbed her tighter and pulled her onto him. She flailed her arms for a second in a last minute protest before being willingly pulled into the drow's arms; her blue eyes locked with those sparkling lavender orbs as he planted a wet kiss on the side of her mouth.

"Ye're a bastard, ye know that?" Catti-brie said between giggles.

"Absolutely," Drizzt said, pulling her into a light yet passionate kiss.

He ran a hand through those soft waves, savoring the smell of perspiration and seaweed that mingled with her usual scent. It was perfume to him; the perfume of his Catti-brie.

Moments like this were a treasure to both of them over the past month.

The now faded winter at Mithril Hall had seen both of them separated by an orc army after decades of separation at the cold hands of their own reluctance. Then they came together; two souls who had grown up together, knew everything about each other, and finally stopped denying the obvious.

Though two tendays of passionate, youthful romance they were separated again by their own adventures; Drizzt with his moon elf friend Innovindil to bring the body of Ellifain back home to Moonwood and Catti-brie with Wulfgar to look for his daughter Colson, who was fortunately found with an elderly woman just outside of Silverymoon. Despite their respective missions, they were still longing for each other and the moment of their reunion after three months of separation was bliss.

Even then, they were still distracted. Bruenor rallied all five Companions of the Hall plus the Bouldershoulder brothers and Guenwhyvar to find the long lost dwarven citadel of the Gauntlgrym. Drizzt and Catti-brie hoped the excursion would be the time they needed to savor each other's company at last, though such moments and the privacy they required were few and fleeting.

Every moment they got in the beginning of the journey to steal away to a secluded corner and make love, the alarm was raised for some threat or another. Then there was that one time when Drizzt and Catti had just unstrung each other's trousers only to hear a mass of giggles, looking back to see Regis running off though peering back for a quick second. The last, harrowing moments spent in the Underdark at the end of the journey allowed no room for distractions.

The party returned safely to Mithril Hall to a hero's welcome. After the celebration and the high from the adventure had waned, Drizzt and Catti-brie were desperate for their own vacation. Fortunately, their old friend Captain Deudermont had an open invitation for a couple of extra pirate hunters aboard the _Sea Sprite_. This was how they spent the past month; in the blissful embrace of adventure and each other.

They had their own small cabin; though in a previous life it had been a mid-sized closet for odds and ends that was rendered useless by a new set of wider cabinets that had been built in the ship a year ago. Deudermont set up a cot in that small space and offered it to the couple as their "honeymoon suite." It was a small token of appreciation for their help and his understanding that, with their relationship infinitely closer than the last time they were aboard his ship, they would want their own time together.

Drizzt and Catti-brie couldn't resist, though they often spent more of their respective rest times in the sailor's regular berth or any other appropriate place given the hunting. Occasionally they would steal away to rest together in this space; no other sailor questioned it or even seemed to care.

Regardless of what space they kept apart or together, everything aboard the _Sea Sprite_ was perfect; the right amount of relaxation and adventure for what Drizzt and Catti-brie called their "honeymoon."

The word floated through Drizzt's brain as he opened his eyes and gently pulled back from the kiss; leaving him touching noses with the women he called his wife. There was never a formal ceremony nor was there any exchanged vows save for their unspoken love.

The concept of a formal marriage was still alien to Drizzt despite his decades on the Surface and away from the matriarchy if Menzoberranzan where the word "husband" and "bed slave" were the same. He needed no formalities, rituals, or legal arrangements (whatever those were) to declare he and Catti-brie united for as long as they could foresee. Many druids believed in the concept that love is the only vow that marries a couple and Drizzt could not agree more.

Besides, Catti-brie told him she would rather drink down a lake full of orc manure than be subjected to another round of formalities and preparations like those that accompanied her ill-fated engagement to Wulfgar.

Drizzt Do'Urden and Catti-brie Battlehammer were husband and wife: period, and they couldn't have been happier lying in each other's arms in this playful moment of bliss.

A short rapping at the rough hewn door froze them mid kiss. They gradually parted lips and waited for a word.

"Sorry to disturb you, but the captain wishes to see you both on deck," called the nervous voice of Renny, a 15-year-old deckhand who had been aboard the _Sea Sprite_ for barely a year after his parents were executed in Luskan's Prisoner's Carnival for a series of burglaries. "He says bring your weapons."

"Many thanks for the message," Drizzt called back, "tell the captain we shall be on deck shortly."

"Yes, sir," Renny practically squeaked, followed by a set of hasty footsteps away from the door.

Drizzt smiled and gave a light chuckle.

"Poor boy," he said.

"He needs a lady," Catti-brie chuckled. "So skittish, that one."

---------------------------------

The calm seas of the Sword Coast were blood red as the sun made its nightly descent under the waves. The sky itself took brilliant hues of red, pink, and blue; a sight that Captain Deudermont smiled on.

The slender, yet strong man stood at the rail of his ship and allowed himself one small moment to enjoy the palette of colors that was the sky and clouds at that moment. A red sky at night was a sailor's delight, as the old saying went and Deudermont knew there would be smooth sailing that night.

The cool sea breeze of mid spring plus the beautiful sky gave the captain another reason to be happy. His other reason was floating in the water: a red flag marked with a laughing, fanged skull conformed to the surface of the sea and rippled with the waves. Deudermont had seen that flag draped across the smoldering bow of trade ships attacked by the_ Bloody Tess_, the most violent crew of pirates to curse the Sword Coast in decades.

There were 300 sailors aboard that ship, Deudermont had heard; 300 hardened killers all of them, though he would learn that for sure when the fight came at last. All of them were lead, threatened, and enslaved by Captain Jonas Woodbury, or Captain Mangler as the legends told. Deudermont had seen his work first hand; about 30 burned out trade ships had been pulled into the ports of Luskan and Waterdeep with the charred remains of their men trapped below the shell of their decks.

Captain Deudermont had waited for this moment for months; the moment he and his crew would finally bring down _The Bloody Tess_. He had the manpower, the weapons, the magical prowess of his longtime wizard Robillard. The skilled bow of Catti-brie Battlehammer and the whirring blades of Drizzt Do'Urden were a perfectly welcome addition.

His welcome was not only for this reason of course. When Drizzt and Catti-brie first wrote to him asking if there was any more room aboard his ship, he welcomed them aboard with open arms. They were two old friends who had shown great prowess an honor when they first came aboard after the Battle of Mithril Hall nearly 20 years ago. It had been too long since he had seen them during their last run aboard the _Sea Sprite_ and they were more than eager to join the hunt for the Sword Coast's most vile pirates, especially the _Bloody Tess_, a challenge and potential for danger that put smiles on both their faces the second Deudermont spoke of it.

Judging by this new sign, the _Bloody Tess_ had been through here, perhaps ahead of them. He had been chasing this ghost for months and now it would be real. He took the spy glass out of his coat pocket and extended it, peering through it out at the horizon looking for any sign of the hulking ship. The horizon was clear; no shapes or silhouettes which were a bad sign for the moment.

Deudermont looked back down at the flag. The standard was still a shade of bright crimson as the corners and sides of the fabric were crisp and bore nary a stray thread. It couldn't have been dropped that long ago, which told Deudermont he was traveling in the right direction.

The captain yelled to the crew to raise the sails and steer in the direction of the flag floating in the water. They would make an immediate northern route and the clear sky and high, waxing moon, already peaking from the sky in the gloaming, would give them a view of the horizon for miles; just enough to make a huge pirate ship visible even only a speck.

He closed his glass and looked across deck to see Drizzt and Catti-brie walking in his direction. Both were casually dressed, Catti-brie in a flowing white shirt with a simple brown vest. Her new longsword was in her belt and the quiver bearing Taulmaril, her fantastic bow, was strapped to her back.

Drizzt was clad in his gray shirt that had armor properties. His scimitars were strapped to his waist, yet his feet were bare; a new habit he had taken in the past few years. Deudermont recalled hearing the drow had battled an army of orcs in ice and snow while his boots were in a snowbank somewhere. It was still an amusing sight; the captain didn't doubt his friend's judgment in the least, though the fact he could fight in bare feet just increased his stature as a confident, able, and perhaps crazy fighter. Deudermont smiled at the sight; he couldn't have asked for better.

"I hear our weapons are needed," Drizzt said to the captain with a smile. "I can only assume that means we're in for some peril?"

"Complete peril," Deudermont replied with his own smirk, motioning for them to come closer to the rail.

Catti-brie looked in the water; the red flag with the grinning skull was plain to see on the water as she looked up and saw the massive ship on the horizon.

"The _Bloody Tess_?" she said.

The smile that spread over Deudermont's face was one of pure joy that spread to Drizzt then Catti-brie.

"She's out here," Deudermont said. "I don't know how far away, but she's been in this direction. That flag is intact and not a color faded, so it could have only been dropped within the day if that. With the way this wind is blowing, we'll have our answer soon."

Drizzt peered out over the horizon, his keen elven eyes seeing nothing but a few seagulls, though he had no reason to doubt the captain. This was the first sign any of them had seen of the elusive _Bloody Tess_, a clear indication they were making some progress if only a little.

The drow pointed at Deudermont's glass and put his hand out with a nod. The captain extended it and handed it to him and Drizzt put it up to his eye and peered out at the northern horizon.

It was emptiness all around, though he saw a piece of darkened, weathered wood bobbing along the surface with the waves; likely a slat fallen off a passing ship. It was a promising sign, though could have it could have come from anywhere.

He examined the piece of planking, looking for any others in the vicinity. A few feet away was another piece, though the green sparkle of light underneath stole his attention. Drizzt blinked for a second; clearing his vision in case his eyes were straining too much. He put his eye to the glass again and looked back down to the planking.

"Seeing anything?" Catti-brie asked.

"A piece of wood planking down current from the flag," he said, looking away for a second before looking back down to the water and seeing the flash of green again; a dull, emerald light that twinkled like a small star was underneath the water.

It could have been a fish, he thought, or even a variety of coral. Maybe a group of mer-people or sea elves were lighting their version of a torch. He thought that until his keen ears heard a high cry that was a cross between the gibbers of a porpoise and the giggles of a young woman.

Drizzt lowered the glass and looked back at the deck. Catti-brie gave him a curious look and Deudermont looked at him in calm anticipation.

"Did anyone hear that?" Drizzt asked.

"Hear what?" Catti-brie replied. "Yer the elf, ye got longer ears than all of us."

"There's a lot of strange sounds in these waters," Deudermont said. "What did it sound like?"

"Like a…" Drizzt began before the sound rang through his ears again, this time louder.

He looked through the glass again and saw the green shine under the waves, though it slowly faded. Drizzt shrugged it off and scanned the rest of the horizon only to see nothing else.

He closed the glass and sighed, looking back at Deudermont.

"Just a gull. I see a ship's planks and that is all," he said, handing the glass back to the captain. "Weathered gray planks about a mile north by northeast from the flag."

"It's grabbing at straws, but it is something," the captain said before turning back to his crew. "Keep your course, we sail north by northeast."

Deudermont nodded at the two and walked to the wheel. Drizzt looked idly back at the water in the direction of the plank.

"Ye saw something else, didn't you," Catti-brie said.

Drizzt shrugged and looked at his wife. "Lights under the waves," he said, "could have been from anything."

For some reason he doubted that; his natural elven sense for magic was at the slightest alert. It was just a feeling he had in the pit of his stomach, not the strong dread of an obvious trap but the tingles that perhaps trouble was afoot. It was enough of a sense that made him walk swiftly in the direction of the wheel to at least tell the captain what he saw and sensed.

He idly looked at the deck hands raising the masts and tying them down. Occasionally his eyes did veer off to the water, though he saw nothing out of the ordinary. His gazed turned once again to the deck, then to the dockhands, then to one portly dockhand who vanished over the deck with a splash.

Drizzt's attention was caught in a second. He looked down to see the man, a surly dockhand named Smitty who always gave him an evil eye, floating on the surface before being clearly pulled deep down.

In a second, his instincts caught him. Smitty had never been a kind man to him, regularly giving him light taunts for his race. He was a member of the crew who had fallen overboard and the least the drow could do was try to bring him back to surface; Drizzt's personal principles would not let him hesitate if there was something he could do. He heard one cry of "Man overboard" before leaping on the railing, taking a deep breath, and diving into the cold water.

The initial chill shocked his senses for a second, though he shook it off quickly as he continued plunging under the sea following Smitty's red capped head all the way down. He continued down for a few hundred feet, though the water turned black and the red cap was lost in the gloom.

Drizzt slowed his momentum, though continued downward. If there was no hope, he would float back, though he had to at least try. The gloom was then broken by a slow burning green glow that settled into the water around him; the same, emerald green hue that caught his attention on the surface.

A mass of bubbles erupted from the source of the glow deep down and washed over Drizzt before he had a moment to comprehend what was happening. A thick burst of air crashed against him like a strong gust of wind. On reflex, he inhaled though before he could curse his mistake his lungs took in pure air. He gave one more gasping breath, his lungs thanking him yet his senses were kicking him.

Drizzt still floated as if in the water, yet his lungs were taking in air; a perfect time to either find Smitty and solve this mystery or float back up to safety. Safety was a relative term in a situation like this, he though with a smile. He floated down a little further, enough to gain a better view through the green light though far enough to keep a distance.

He peered through the thick growth of sea weed along a mass of rocks and finally saw Smitty's grizzled face; his lips were locked with what looked to be a woman with green skin and flowing sea weed hair. His curiosity piqued, Drizzt floated closer to the rocks and blended in with the branch-like blue weeds as he took a better look and gasped.

Smitty's portly form was entangled in the long tails of two creatures covered in blue-green scales with the lower body of an eel and the upper body of a busty female humanoid. Sharp spikes protruded from their backs and the sides of their tails as their stringy green hair floated in the water.

Both creatures were caressing the deck hand's clothed body, both taking turns kissing him as he smiled and said a few crude words to both of them who only giggled back. One of the creatures kissing Smitty turned only a bit to allow Drizzt a view of her face; a face with bulging yellow eyes like a fish with sunken, green scaled cheeks. Their claws were running over his shirt and tearing off the buttons while one ripped off his hat and rubbed claws over his bald head before caressing his thick, brown beard. The tip of one of the creatures' tails was far under the waist of his already ripped trousers and the motion underneath explained his blissful look.

The sight made Drizzt's stomach turn, though he reserved any judgments. He could not deny the aura of dread that came from these creatures. He thought they may have been a breed of mermaid with which he was unfamiliar, though his magical senses were far too active around them than they usually were in the presence of the largely friendly and benign mer-people.

His sense of dread strengthened just in time to feel the brush of a muscular tail against his leg. He stayed still, hearing a laugh that was akin to a porpoise call and a young woman's giggle; the laugh he had heard just a few minutes ago. Drizzt carefully looked to the side and saw one of the sea creatures next to him, her slimy lips in a playful smile as her tail continued wrapping around his leg. He returned the smile before swiftly kicking upward and slipping out of the grasp.

He reached for his scimitars, though was unable to get them from their scabbards as a tail pressed hard against his torso and started wrapping his legs. He flailed, elbowing the creature on one side and meeting the scaly flesh of another one to his other side. One tail wrapped around his hips while the other wrapped firmly around his legs.

He struggled violently, though every time he managed to push one inch of scales away, another two would take their place.

"Get the Hells off me!" he screamed mutely into the water, kicking away.

One of the creatures blew a bubble into his face and for a second the sunken scales became smooth, ebony flesh as her seaweed hair turned white and her yellow eyes took a lavender hue. A second later, the image faded back to the hideous creature. Internally, he applauded her trick; obviously employing a hypnotic spell or substance to make herself look desirable to him. The trick may have worked on Smitty, an average human who thought he was becoming intimate with a beautiful human woman, though Drizzt had a natural immunity to many of these tactics.

It did little to help his cause as he continued to flail. He looked down to see the spiked tip of the illusionist's tail caress his stomach before diving under his waistline. He flailed more, kicking his legs and trying to free his arms from his sides, though the second creature kept him pinned.

A set of rough scales rubbed down his lower abdomen and, to his horror, reached his most intimate being. Something snapped inside him as he growled and let the Hunter take charge. With a sudden burst of strength, he pulled his arms free with a searing ache, kicking his legs hard enough to free them from the tail around his waist. The scaly, sickening scratch over his being lasted for less than a second as the creature withdrew her tail from his trousers.

His scimitars appeared in his hands and thrust into the hard body of the second creature, black and green blood like sea slime bursting out as he hacked into her body and lopped off her head in a cross cut.

A searing pain erupted in his stomach strong enough to throw off his senses, though he regained them in time to feel himself shooting up through the water like a seal. He looked down to see his seducer's tail whipped up as if she had hit him like a ball, a pleasant smile was still across her green lips.

A sudden burst of wind hit him, drawing his attention and signaling that drawing breath would be a bad idea.

His momentum stalled as he regained his senses enough to see stars above. Drizzt kicked his legs hard to stop his movement and slow him down a bit more. Coming up too fast could cause his blood vessels to burst from the sudden pressure change, so he purposely slowed himself, but knew he had to take a breath soon.

Drizzt sheathed his scimitars and paddled his arms and hands in a flying motion. Gradually, the sky became clearer as did the cork life preserver and the rope attached to the rail of the _Sea Sprite._ At last, he broke the surface and took a long, gasping breath. On instinct, he grabbed the rope attached to the life preserver and grabbed hard, allowing himself to be pulled up by the mass of deckhands on the boat.

He could hear Catti-brie screaming his name as he walked himself up the side of the boat, weakly straddled the rail, and fell into a thick wool blanket in the skinny arms of one deckhand. Drizzt sat on the deck, grabbing the corners of the warm blanket as he gave a series of relieved gasps. He closed his eyes for a second, only to look up and meet the blue orbs and frightened face of his wife. Catti-brie threw her arms around him and Drizzt returned the favor with a laugh.

"You godsdamned fool," she shouted with a sob, smacking him on the back of the head. "You could've been drowned!"

"I could have," Drizzt said weakly, still trying to catch his breath. "But Smitty…"

"Came up 'afore you, Master Drizzt," said Langely, another dockhand. "Just floated to the surface."

"Is he alive?" Drizzt said, whipping his head back. His question was answered with the sight of the portly man standing up and throwing his own blanket and a mass of water at Deudermont. "Thank gods."

The captain rolled his eyes and walked swiftly to Drizzt with a look of grave concern.

"Drizzt, are you all right," he said, coming beside the drow.

Drizzt found a small burst of strength and came to his feet; he had to lest the deep feeling of dread took him over.

"I'm fine," he said. "A little wet that's all."

"By the gods, what happened," Catti-brie practically shouted. "You were under for five minutes, we thought that was it for you."

"We found some type of air pocket created by these…creatures," he said with an involuntary shudder. "They look like a breed of mermaid though favoring their more fish-like features."

"Were these creatures friendly?" Deudrmont asked.

"Fine ladies, they are," Smitty piped up, walking closer to the group. His plump hands wrung a mass of water from his beige tunic. "Saved me life when I went under. Though this inky bastard liked 'em more than he's sayin', ain't that right dog."

"Shut the Hells up," Drizzt said under his breath, praying he would say nothing further.

"That's enough, Smitty," Deudermont barked.

"Ye throwin yeself all over blacky here, but ye ain't givin a snuff 'bout me?" Smitty shouted back. "I's the one who fell in."

"And Drizzt is the one who jumped in after you," Deudermont responded.

"Bah, I ain't needin' some shit-skinned drow puttin' his hands all over me," the deckhand said. "Bastard would've probably drowned me and left me for the sharks if it weren't for those ladies."

"That's enough!" Deudermont shouted. Smitty responded with a growl as he walked back to the sailor's berth.

Drizzt watched him leave while rolling his eyes, seeing a young man with shaggy black hair clad in a ragged set of blue robes. It was Mikus Norey, a cleric of Shaundaukul who had been traveling aboard the _Sea Sprite_ for the past year. Drizzt sighed in relief; Mikus was a trained healer who tended the medical needs of the crew. The drow knew he would need at least some clerical attention after this ordeal.

By this time a chill was setting into his small form as was the sinking feeling of violation that gradually crept in; the memory of that scaly tail rubbing against his being now making itself known. He wrapped his blanket tightly around himself, shielding himself from…the cold. That had to be it.

Catti-brie put an arm tight around his waist and gave a small gasp when Drizzt jerked from her grasp with a wince. His lavender eyes met hers and she gave him a concerned glare. He closed his eyes, a look of regret on his face though he pulled the blanket even tighter and shivered more.

Drizzt never reacted this way to her touch before. Something had happened down there and she was determined to find out what.

--------------

Catti-brie lay her head back down on the pillow, trying to let her body be absorbed by the soft, feather mattress. For the tenth time that hour, she closed her eyes and relaxed hoping sleep would take her at last.

All it took was one creak of the ship to send her blue eyes open and focusing idly at the ceiling. She gave another frustrated sigh and sat up, knowing the effort was futile under the circumstances.

It had been an hour since Drizzt went into Mikus Norey's small workspace after being pulled from the water.

He had been underwater for five minutes, long enough time for her to start to lose hope of him coming up; one of the most frightening sensations she had ever known. She remembered hearing two splashes as she watched for the appearance of the _Bloody Tess_ that never came, only to be told that Drizzt had jumped in after a sailor who had fallen overboard. Five minutes tense, bordering on agonizing minutes later, he was at last pulled up. He was a bit chilled, though he seemed fine.

Though something had happened to him down there. Drizzt mentioned something about an encounter with mer-creatures. Smitty, the dumb bastard, called them "ladies." Then Drizzt flinched from her touch, as if it was a horrible thing to him.

Maybe he had been accosted by one of these creatures, though he usually walked away from the grimmest fight with a smile, unless it involved the injury or death of a friend or an innocent.

Catti-brie's speculations were ended by the creak of a door and a pair of ebony feet lightly stepping across thee floor. She put her feet on the floor and looked directly at Drizzt, though she did not stand up lest he was spooked by that too.

Save for his thick, white hair a wet mess against his head and neck, he was dry; his gray tunic had been replaced by a green cable sweater Deudermont usually wore during casual periods. His trousers were also a pair of loose cotton leggings that could have come from anywhere and his feet remained bare.

Drizzt looked down at Catti-brie, giving a weak smile before grabbing the back of her head and leaning down for a rough kiss. Catti was taken aback at first, though the suddenness melted into the blissful now. Her lips eagerly pressed against his as she savored his scent, her own hand reaching up and smoothing out his wet mane.

A few beautiful seconds later, he gently pulled back, ran his slender fingers through her wavy, windblown hair and plopped on the cot beside her with a heavy sigh.

"What are ye about?" Catti-brie said in a soft, yet firm tone.

Drizzt stared at the floor, closing his eyes before rubbing them with the back of his hand.

"I'm not sure myself," he replied.

Drizzt put his head in his hands, the pervading feeling of wrong still active in every way. Having Catti-brie beside him was comfort, yet the feeling of wanting to swim across the ocean itself or run a thousand miles still refused to leave. He just wanted to be alone, yet the thought of it scared him for whatever reason.

He should have been completely at ease with Catti, he told her everything and shared himself with her in every way, though he almost felt she was the last person who could make him feel any better…or was she?

"What happened to you Drizzt?" she asked, shifting an inch away from him. "I know it involves those creatures you and that jackass were talking about."

Drizzt gave a stiff chuckle. He wanted to open up to her, tell her every horrible feeling he had, though a wall was slowly forming between his brain and his mouth. He had to let it out, he had to tell her, though how would she react? Supportively was the most likely answer.

"They attacked you?" Catti said.

Drizzt nodded, mustering the comfort to say something at last.

"They were a little…amorous," he said, his gaze never leaving the floor. "I saw two of them with Smitty wrapped in their tails. One was…pleasuring him. Two more came after me, wrapped me in their tails, tried to make me think they were two beautiful drow women."

He stole a glance at Catti-brie's face. Her blue eyes were wide as her jaw was slightly open.

"They tried to lay you?" she said. Drizzt nodded. "How close did they get to you?"

Drizzt gradually stood up with a groan and stretched his muscles before leaning against the wall. Grave concern was still plastered over his wife's face. He sighed flexing his wrist before sweeping his hand down his trousers and bringing it back up to give her the general idea.

Catti-brie sighed, looking almost relieved for a second; the second before Drizzt shot her an angry glare. Her face abruptly straightened.

"That really did bother you," she said.

"I invite you to have a scaly tail rubbing your downward areas as a creature tied you up and tell me how you like it," he said with a stiff, unamused smile.

Catti-brie nodded. If the same had happened to her, she would be terrified and just as jumpy as him.

"What happened to the creature?" she asked.

"I managed to break free and killed one of them," he said. "The one who…accosted me smacked me in the stomach and shot me back to the surface."

"That tramp," Catti said idly, regretting her words, though Drizzt's smirk made her feel better about it. "Is that why you were in with Mikus so long? Clearin' the barnacle rot off your bits."

"Essentially," he said. "Mikus gave me a few potions to stave off anything that might have clung to me, but everything seems fine for the moment. One can never be too careful."

If this moment with Catti was awkward, bringing it to the attention of a relative stranger was even harder. He did need to at least be certain that he had not contracted some kind of disease or poison. One uneasy examination and a few potions later, he was sent away with a clean bill of health. Even the spot on his stomach where the mer-creature had snapped him with her tail merely left a bruise where he thought she tried to impale him.

"What about us?" Catti-brie asked. "I assume you want to…take it easy for a little while?"

Drizzt gave a clearing laugh. It wasn't a bad idea to play it safe for a while, though that didn't mean they had to be entirely apart.

He walked over and gave her another hard kiss, savoring her warmth and feeling a measure of comfort at last. She joined in with gusto, her hands coming to his shoulders and caressing his back. He gently guided her down to her back, caressing her body and savoring every sigh and laugh.

This was comfort for now. How long it would last was something Drizzt didn't care to think on now.


	2. Part 2

**Siren's Cry**

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are the property of R.A. Salvatore/Wizards of the Coast ©. I don't own them; I'm just examining all their possibilities.

**Part Two**

**Five months later…**

"If you are crying dragon, boy, you will regret it," Robillard huffed, his gray robes sweeping behind him as he stomped across the deck to the main mast.

"It is a schooner, sir," Renny shouted from the crow's nest, "I swear by Ilmater's tears; a long, black hull running far over the horizon."

Robillard swore under his breath about having his spell study time rudely interrupted by this child's screaming. He reached in his belt and produced a smooth quartz cylinder he put to his eye and looked out.

There was nothing at first, only the long, flat expanse of sea. The impatient wizard was about to pocket the glass and send a swarm of mosquitoes at the little brat keeping watch. That was until the fog broke over the water enough to reveal the hulking, black form of a massive schooner. The hull was made of weathered wood and every point of cabin all colored a deathly black.

He pulled the enchanted stone from his eye for a second, saying a command word and focusing further on the ship on the horizon. He could not make any fine details even at this distance, but he did see a set of red letters scrawled across the back hull likely in blood; _Bloody Tess._

Robillard's scowl softened. The boy had been right after all, but this was almost too good to be true. This was the _Bloody Tess_, that much was obvious. The wizard had seen the _Tess_ in passing, enough to gain a glimpse of the horrid pirate vessel though after seeing the carnage her crew left behind. Most of the time only the tattered remains of her prey was left while she would be a ghost. Now here she was now, close enough so the letters of her name spelled doom.

Five months ago, that ghost made herself known even for a while; Deudermont found her flag floating in the water and Drizzt Do'Urden saw planks floating close behind bearing the same rot and wear. Those were the only pieces of evidence that she existed and she never made another appearance.

Shortly after those discoveries, a useless deckhand named Smitty fell into the water and Drizzt, the noble soul he was, jumped in after him. Five minutes later, both returned to the surface with tales of encountering a mysterious sea creature; beautiful according to Smitty and repulsive according to Drizzt. Robillard knew little about every creature in the ocean and made no assumptions though by default counted the drow's word as the most reliable.

As soon as that incident had passed, however, the _Tess_ never showed herself again, though all had heard stories as to why that was; something about a few botched missions resulting in a third of their crew being wiped out in a five month period. Captain Woodbury may have been a calculating butcher, but he was a human capable of his ego and vices getting the better of him.

If this appearance now was indeed the _Tess_, chances were good their fight would not be as trying.

Robillard pulled the crystal from his eye, looked up to the lad in the crow's nest, gave him a curt nod, then walked away to find the captain.

---------------------

It was a feeling akin to being kicked hard in the gut with a pointed, steel-toed boot.

Within the second, Drizzt was on his feet though not completely awake from his peaceful Reverie. He leaned against the wall in his and Catti-brie's private "cabin" trying to regain his bearings, but all he gained was a wave of nausea ripping through his insides.

He gently came to his knees and reached for the brown clay chamber pot in the corner of the room. He was afraid he would miss; though he managed to position the pot in time for the beige and brown mess that was his barely digested sausage dinner to hail itself inside. Drizzt leaned on one arm and took a few breaths, using his other hand to pull back his long white hair; the ends of which were not completely unscathed by the sudden fit.

He savored the momentary, hazy calm for a second before his stomach churned again and round two painfully exited into the bowl with the rest of its kin.

Drizzt wiped his mouth with the brown sleeve of his tunic, collapsing into a sit against the cot and staring at the door ahead of him to finally come to his senses. At last his muscles calmed, though a small tightness still resonated through his midsection to remind him of the earlier pain.

It was probably a cramp, he thought, savoring the softness of the blanket behind him; likely the result of his steadily increased appetite of late. For the past few months he had been eating larger meals than he typically did; most of them including large amounts of sausages, boar, mutton, and other meats.

It could have been his appetite reacting to the cold sea from which he had been away for years. Maybe this was a new craving he had due to the "complacent husbandhood" he had heard so much about, though he suspected something else.

Five months ago, he had jumped into the sea to rescue a deckhand who had fallen overboard. It was there were he met with two creatures; two females with the tails of merfolk, yet the upper bodies more like hideous fish. Both pinned Drizzt in their grasp as one reached a tail under his waistline and stole a stroke of his most intimate being.

After coming back to deck, Drizzt felt fine at first, yet the horrible feeling of violation, no matter how minor, still lingered. As a result he hardly ate anything for a tenday, feeling so disgusted by the incident he hardly had the appetite. He also felt nauseous almost all the time, making awakenings like this a common occurrence.

Then he started sorting himself out, the trauma of being violated like he was slowly waning. It was then when his appetite came back with a vengeance, or he was trying to find comfort in something new. It was, however, starting to affect his system. He had awoken like this after his previous Reverie as well. Either he was coming down with something, or he needed to find a healthier diet.

The door flew open and Catti-brie ran in; sword strapped across her waist and Taulmaril on her back.

"The captain's calling for us, lover," she said. "The _Tess…_"

Catti-brie stopped in mid sentence when she saw the grayish hue of Drizzt's skin before looking at the chamber pot next to him filled with mess.

"Drizzt are you…" she said, rushing over to him and putting a hand to his forehead.

Drizzt moved the hand and kissed it, before finding the minute amount of strength to stand up. The blood rush to his head nearly sent him collapsing into the cot, though he managed to fight back the dizziness and the phantom wave of nausea that threatened him again.

All through his ordeal after the incident five months ago, Catti-brie had been his best source of support. She was there for warmth when he needed it, yet knew when to back away when another touch was too unsettling. She made no protest, understanding everything he was going through and always being there for him, his sometimes doting caretaker.

"That's the second evenin' you've been sick," she said, giving Drizzt a concerned gaze as he slowly leaned down and scooped up his weapon belt.

"I know," he said, putting the belt around his waist, "Something I ate probably."

He put the end through the buckle at the usual notch and cinched the strap, only to have the cramp return as the skin from his abdomen folded over the belt. Drizzt mentally swore before loosening the belt and putting it at the next lower notch. He had to take it out a notch two months ago, now it had to be even looser. A small wave of shame made the matter obvious; he had been gaining weight, likely due to the whole plates of meat he had been eating twice a day.

It wasn't as if he had not been exercising these past five months, quite the opposite actually; the amount of pirates that needed to be fought and brought to justice had steadily increased. He would spend hours at least every other day engaged in battle, jumping down masts, hopping from one ship's deck to the next (sometimes 30 feet apart), and other physically taxing activities. He must not have had as good a metabolism as he previous thought. Now he had clearly become larger in the midsection, was waking with digestive disturbances, and got the occasional back ache or sore feet.

Drizzt swore to himself he would go on a fast of white mushrooms; a diet commonly used as a method of detoxification used by his fellow Melee-Magthere students. Fortunately, the ship's kitchen had a surface equivalent of that same fungus by the bagful. A few days of having this and clarified water for meals and he should at least regulate his stomach a little.

"Sure you don't have that bug that elves get," Catti-brie asked. "What's it called, wood flu?"

"Sylvan flu?" he asked, cocking his head slightly and considering the idea. Sylvan flu was a common, minor illness among elves of all kinds. It was easily cured in one second by a special potion or three days of fluids and bed rest if the potion wasn't available. "I remember one of the dock masters in Baldur's Gate said it was going around so I wouldn't be surprised if it reached me."

It was an explanation that made him feel better about his indigestion than if it was due to his overeating. He put a hand to his own forehead and noticed his flesh was slightly warm. The flu, however, meant he would be laid up and miserable for a few days since there was no cure available on the ship; not a very good proposition at all.

"You said they spotted the _Tess?_" he asked, wanting to get off this subject and into some danger.

"Coming over the horizon," Catti-brie said, "Renny spotted it, Robillard saw its name; she's the _Tess_ all right."

Drizzt grinned, tearing off his tunic and scooping up his armored shirt from the small clothesline in the corner. With the warm, summer weather it was all the protection he needed since his green cloak and mail shirt would be too hot to move in.

"You sure yer feeling up to fightin'" she asked.

"My, what an odd question that is," Drizzt replied with a wide, devilish grin, pulling the shirt over his head.

-------------

The deck of the _Sea Sprite_ was a wave of activity. Sailors pulled the masts into position to catch the brisk, late afternoon wind as men began positioning themselves for battle. Some drew their swords and practiced light sparring with each other on deck.

Deudermont turned the wheel harder, his eyes staying glued to the horizon and the hulking black ship ahead of them.

The _Bloody Tess_ is right out there, he thought with a smile. Nearly a year of chases, games, and near misses were over; now their fight would come at last, a fight he was certain they would win.

Unless that pathetic drunk Woodbury had trained his men better than thought, his fleet was a rag tag bunch of undisciplined goons who would sooner give up their tyrant of a captain or jump off ship. They were, however, a rag tag bunch of 300 goons at the most and Deudermont wasn't taking any chances.

"By the gods, that is her," a melodious voice came from across the deck.

Deudermont smiled wider and looked up to see Drizzt Do'Urden's lavender eyes scanning the form ahead. He looked impressed, though the way he shifted his weight on his feet and kept his hands close to his scimitars clearly indicated he was itching to meet that ship personally.

Catti-brie came from behind him and gave a low whistle, looking just as intrigued by the vessel as her husband.

"So we view the beast at last," Deudermont said, turning the wheel and shouting a direction to one of the mast hands. "With this wind, we should be a stone's throw from her deck in 20 minutes."

"Fantastic," Drizzt said, coming closer to the stern, as Catti-brie fell back into a rear position and started planning out some of her best shots.

Within a few minutes, the strategy phase had begun as did the long waiting game to see if it would all work out.

Drizzt talked with several of the fighting crew members and Catti-brie about positions, attacks, and possible expectations.

Their opponent was a crew of about 300 strong; a challenge that could be easily met Within the next few minutes, Catti-brie was already in position with the mass of archers as sailors came to the ballistas and lined the deck with swords ready.

Drizzt paced a small section of deck, looking back to see Catti-brie at her perch, Robillard in the crow's nest ready to hail whatever magic he had prepared this time, and Mikus Norey peaking from the other side of the deck getting ready to dispense healing magics if needed.

On the other side of Mikus, he could see the gray overcoat and weathered scowl of Mikus' uncle Seamus; an old sailor who joined the Shaundaukul's clergy after his leg was badly broken in a fight with five locathahs twenty years ago. Seamus and Deudermont were old friends and the captain welcomed him on board two months ago after Mikus first visited his uncle in Luskan. He was a welcome addition to the crew; another skilled healer who possessed a great knowledge of the sea. His perpetually caustic attitude, however, did not make him popular.

Drizzt took another look ahead and saw the black figure growing larger on the horizon. It was only now when he understood the enormity of this ship; a true monster indeed. It had been too long since he had met a beast like this in his travels, Drizzt thought with a smile. His hands were close to his scimitars as the _Sea Sprite _drew closer, Catti-brie calling out the closing distance as Drizzt patted the pouch on his belt that held Guenwhyvar's figurine.

By now, a hushed sense of awe had come over the crew. The _Bloody Tess_ got bigger and Drizzt could see the name of the ship scrawled in thick red on the back. More sailors came into position on deck and at the ship's massive ballistas. His sensitive ears caught the slight click many arrows being; all knowing the battle was coming soon.

He stole a glance upward at Robillard, who was looking intensely at the ship through his quartz rod. Even from his vantage point, Drizzt could see the lines on the wizard's hard face deepen as his white brows furrowed. Robillard then took the rod away from his eye and looked out; a clear look of confusion and concern plastered over his features. Drizzt cocked an eyebrow; the wizard had seen something that perplexed him, which could be an ill sign. Robillard put the rod back to his eye and looked out again.

Drizzt looked back out at the approaching ship, knowing their banner, a grinning, fanged skull against a red background, would be raised soon. Another minute passed and the ship came closer; though Drizzt could see no swaying of flag strings other than in the breeze and no flag was coming at all.

His concentration was broken by a movement to his side. He looked over and saw Robillard sliding down his enchanted rope from the crow's nest and swiftly touching his feet to the deck. He made eye contact with Drizzt and motioned him to follow as he walked to the wheel. Drizzt shrugged and followed him, stepping lightly to the wheel which Deudermont put in position for a second before coming a bit forward to meet his wizard.

"Captain we're either walking into a trap or preparing for battle with ghosts," Robillard said.

"What do you mean?" Deudermont asked, positioning the wheel as he was handed the rod.

The captain put it up to his eye and looked out, Robillard saying a command word for the image to focus. Drizzt looked back out at the _Tess_ for a second before looking back and seeing Deudermont looking through the rod with his face locked in incredulity.

"Umberlee's scales, how could that be?" Deudermont said, moving away from the rod and pulling out his own glass.

Robillard came to Drizzt and handed him the rod while looking out at the approaching ship. Drizzt put it to his eye and _Bloody Tess_, now getting a view of its deck and seeing…nothing.

Drizzt furrowed his eyebrows and looked more intently, his keen elven vision concentrating on what was obviously an empty deck. He could see no sailors, movement, nothing; just an empty expanse of weathered gray deck…and the opaque, dark red pools scattered around that were clearly drying blood.

"By the gods," he gasped, examining every long inch of empty, blood soaked deck.

At last he caught the sight of a mass of gray hair and part of a scaly face lying behind one of the holds. It was a half-orc lying on deck, its yellow eyes wide open and cloudy. The half-orc then disappeared behind the hold in a rapid slide, leaving a mass of fresh blood streaking the deck behind it.

"Captain I think we have a situation here," Drizzt said, pulling the rod away and handing it back to Robillard.

"Five hundred yards," Catti-brie shouted, the strain in her voice obvious as the ship came closer and the lack of sailors on board became obvious.

Drizzt looked back and saw confused looks on all the faces of the crew; no one seeing any flag being raised let alone weapons readied or ballistas mounted. There simply was no activity aboard the _Bloody Tess_ at all.

"They're deck is washed in blood," Deudermont said grimly. "No sailors, not even a dog, just a mass of blood."

"I saw what looked to be a half-orc covered in blood and dragged behind the hold," Drizzt said.

"What do you make of this, drow?" Deudermont asked.

"The tactic is common for an ambush," Drizzt replied, "though the carnage is pointing to something else. Either someone got to them first or they got to each other. They could be lying in wait for us still, I would not rule out that possibility just yet."

"I say we fire and knock them from their holes," Robillard said.

"Be my guest," Deudermont said before looking back to thee crew and keeping the ship at a slower speed. "Hold your fire for my signal."

Robillard came closer to the bow, his head bowed in concentration. He put his hands together and arcs of energy sizzled from between his palms. After much concentration, the ball of power became steadily larger to the point where his hands seemed a ball of electricity.

At last he put his arms out, said a command word, and a massive ball of blue flame shot out and landed squarely on the base of the main mast. An explosion rocked both ships for a second, sending a smoking hole through the deck of the _Tess_ and putting the mast at an odd angle.

The breeze cleared the smoke, yet nothing was underneath; no sailors appeared and there were no flashes of any magic.

"What in the Hells," Deudermont said, pointing to the mass of archers in the back and signaling for them to raise their weapons. A second later, he pointed out and a mass of arrows hailed toward the _Bloody Tess_, embedding in its hull, hold, masts and stern.

Once again, there was no reaction and no sailors or casters made themselves known.

"What do you make of this now," Deudermont asked Drizzt.

Drizzt said nothing, only scanning the deck of the ship, which was now just twenty feet away from them. Something was greatly amiss here; if this was an ambush, the pirates would have reacted by now. A massive magic fireball and a hail of arrows should have killed men let alone provoke defensive actions. Even drow typically would not wait this long into an ambush before shooting a few crossbows.

"Twenty yards," Catti-brie shouted.

Deudermont called at the mast hands to put the sails down and prepare for a slow down as he turned the wheel and put the _Sea Sprite _into a steady hold, coming ten yards away from the _Bloody Tess_.

By now, the mass of blood spilt on the deck was clear to all. Drizzt scanned the deck and saw a few scraps of flesh and hair scattered around. This was indeed the site of a massacre, though there were no bodies and no evidence of any activity other than the mess in front of them now.

"Stand down, though be at the ready," Deudermont shouted at the crew, coming from behind the wheel and meeting with Drizzt and the mass of other sailors who moved from their post crept closer to get a better look at the pirate ship.

The captain looked at Drizzt and Robillard, signaling them to follow. Soon Catti-brie was coming forward as well as were several members of the crew. Deudermont shouted for one of his mates to take the wheel and shout if anything happened as he came into the main study followed by Drizzt, Catti-brie, and Robillard, who closed the door behind them.

"From what we've seen, we are now in a stand off with an abandoned ship," the captain said, plopping down in a wooden chair with a blue tapestry cushion and rubbing his eyes in tired frustration.

"Though I doubt it's completely abandoned," Drizzt said. "I saw a body being dragged behind the main hold and I doubt it could do that itself. Something or someone is aboard that ship; whether a few remaining crew members, another hunter of some nature who go here before us, or perhaps something entirely different."

Deudermont put his elbows on the small table where he typically looked over maps and plans; his face a mass of confusion though with a hint of intrigue.

"The question is what in the Hells do we do now," Robillard said, leaning against the wall. "I personally think we should put oil to the ship, shoot a flaming ball of pitch at it, and let the seas be rid of that nightmare once and for all."

"I agree, but think it may be a little early for that," Drizzt said. "Something happened to the _Tess_ that could be happening to other ships or maybe it was commandeered by another pirate we need to find and take down."

"How about any prisoners?" Catti-brie added. "There could be innocents on that ship we shouldn't be settin' on fire."

"Those innocents, if they be existin', could already be feed for whatever's hauntin' that ship," a voice called from behind. The four of them looked to the back of the room and saw old Seamus Norey limping forward. "There's creatures on these seas that will eat a man like a young'un eats sugared snow."

"And said creatures may need killin'," Drizzt added in the same tone as the old man.

"Some o'these creatures would rip out yer throat afore you even felt 'em slitherin'," Seamus added, his clouded blue eyes widening in emphasis. "You ain't suggestin' boardin' that shit hauler, are ya?"

"Interesting question," Deudermont said. "What are we proposing?"

"I don't like this wizard much, but he's a wise man," Seamus continued. "Light that ship ablaze and send it to Umberlee's teat with the rest of the devils on board."

"As tempting as that sounds, I am agreeing with Drizzt and Catti-brie right now," Deudermont said. "If there are any innocents on board, I will not rest until they are off that ship and safe. We also owe the other honest ships that travel these lanes any warning if there is another threat, whether pirate, monster, magic, or perhaps all."

"With all due respect, captain, I have to agree with the priest," Robillard said in a disgusted tone. "Boarding that ship now could be tantamount to suicide. We don't know who or what is there and we certainly don't know if whatever is there will not pull the whole ship and everyone on board down to the depths. If there are any prisoners, knowing Woodbury and his crew, they were all last night's dinner."

"There is only one way to be absolutely sure," Drizzt said. "If you wish to air on the side of caution, Guenwhyvar and I could be the only one's boarding."

"Ye takin' all the fun for yerself again, Drizzt Do'Urden?" Catti-brie asked, giving him a pointed look. "Ye sure as the Hells ain't goin' on alone even with yer cat."

"Point taken," Deudermont said. "And I'm not allowing even the three of you to go on alone. I'll gather a small group of sailors to join you with enough flares and rope to get you all out of there should anything go wrong."

"Fair enough," Drizzt said with a smirk.


	3. Part 3

**Siren's Cry**

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are the property of R.A. Salvatore/Wizards of the Coast ©. I don't own them; I'm just examining all their possibilities.

**Part Three**

"Ya sure you feelin' up to this?" Catti-brie whispered to her husband in a tone bordering on a bark.

Drizzt slowly lifted himself from the rail of the _Bloody Tess_, his muscles still shaking and his unstable stomach still raw. He took a few deep breaths and made himself look back down at the severed hand that brought about his dry-heaves a second ago. It used to belong to a male human who rarely cut his nails; that was all that was obvious about its former owner. The rest of it was bloody bones with a few sinews and some patches of skin still left on it.

"I'm fine," he said weakly, sneering at the hand as if it were a challenger. "It's a bit sad the flu is the only thing that can make my stomach turn at such a sight."

Catti-brie nodded in understanding, feeling less than perfect after an hour of scouring the ship's deck and seeing similar scenes all around. She and Drizzt boarded the _Tess _an hour ago with ten other sailors from the _Sea Sprite_, all of them able fighters who were the perfect choice to investigate the horror they had come by.

Deudermont had cautiously dropped anchor; keeping the _Sea Sprite_ five feet apart from the bow of the ill fated ship. The captain and Robillard gave Drizzt and Catti-brie a small bag of holding containing flares that sent out multicolored lights when shot off, a small bit of rope with a grappling hook, and an array of healing potions with a few small containers of weapon acid to coat arrows if they got into an especially difficult situation.

Drizzt looked behind him to see Guenwhyvar still sniffing out corners with great intent and batting aside the bits of bloody flesh that covered the deck. Seamus Norey was a ways behind the panther, examining every tear of skin and bone on a severed finger he held in his hand while puffing on his whalebone pipe.

Drizzt was still surprised Seamus agreed to be part of this expedition. His presence was suggested by Deudermont due to his vast experience with sea creatures as well as his healing abilities. Seamus barked and groaned at the suggestion, since his solution was to burn the damn ship though he eventually went. Drizzt knew Seamus was a decent man and did not suspect any ulterior motives. Maybe he wanted to return to his glory days as a bodyguard for the most powerful captains in Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate; a career cut short by his leg injury. Maybe the old man was just curious.

A few of the other sailors looked around, some with green complexions and some with neutrality; some of the men and women in this expedition had likely seen worse. One of the sailors met his gaze, looked back at the deck and shrugged; an indicator that no one had found any other evidence beside the mess in front of them now.

"We've looked all over the deck for an hour and found nothing else," Drizzt said, feeling his bearings slowly return though not by much. He looked back at Catti-brie who still bore a look of concern. "I say we move the party below deck and see if our nemesis is down there."

"Drizzt, to be frank, you look like the Hells," Catti-brie said with a sigh. "Yer not moving as fast as you usually do and now yer getting' ready to toss yer lunch at shite like this. I don't want you going against some nasty beast in close quarters if yer under the weather."

"Catti, I'm fine," Drizzt replied in an annoyed tone. "I've gone against far nastier things while in far worse condition."

"We don't know what the Hells we're dealing with here," she said, leaning in closer yet keeping a constant eye on her surroundings. "By the looks o' things, something came through here and wiped out this crew leavin' behind a few leftovers and that's it. For all we know, there would be a wyrm or something napping below. I don't want you playing the hero just 'cause ye fell ye have to."

Drizzt rolled his eyes and clenched his teeth, almost offended by the insinuation that he was too ill to complete this mission. His stomach was barely settled and his energy was not at its peak, though he knew this situation was nothing he couldn't handle.

"Fine, tell you what," he said, "I'll save my strength below deck and the first sign that I'm sicker than I think I am, I'll go back up. No matter what, the second we get off this boat, I will get into my cot and rest."

Catti-brie stared at him for a second before giving an uncomfortable smirk.

"It's yer hide," she said.

"Indeed," Drizzt replied before turning around, "now let's continue this."

"Yer worse than an orc, ye know?" she said, her tone lighter though still obviously unconvinced.

"Someone keeps telling me that," Drizzt replied, walking over to the rest of the sailors and motioning for them to come forward.

Guenwhyvar came back to his side and was rewarded with a light scratch behind the ears. The rest of the sailors ambled toward Drizzt, though Seamus kept his distant position and dropped the finger he was carrying.

"I take it no one's found anything beside blood and body parts," the drow said, receiving nods form every member of the crew. "Seamus, do you personally have any theories of whom or what may have done this?"

"There's thousand different things that could've done this, drow," Seamus replied, taking a drag from his pipe and blowing out a long stream. "All of them reasons to get the Hells out of here and sink this ship."

Drizzt rolled his eyes and looked back at the crew to see if anyone agreed, though he heard no voices and saw no nods of dissent.

"We've scoured every inch of this deck, the next step is to go below and see what we can find there," Drizzt continued. "Keep your swords ready at all times and look out for any more evidence or any survivors. If you find anyone alive, give a signal. I do want a few of you to stay in this area and keep watch."

Four of the sailors volunteered, whether out of duty or fear was something Drizzt wasn't questioning. He almost expected to see Seamus' hand go up, though he stayed casual; gently tapping his pipe over the railing. Maybe he would bail out the second they went down, or maybe he was more curious than disgusted.

Drizzt motioned for the rest of the crew to follow him across deck to what looked like the main hatch, a small doorframe embedded in the raised slant that was the rear deck. He looked into the hatch carefully, ducking slightly to allow enough of his long vision to see anything below. Immediately, he was greeted with the stench of rotted flesh steeped in seaweed. His weak stomach lurched, though he caught control of his gag reflex and faced the group.

"Spread out, yet don't split up," Drizzt said curtly, drawing his scimitars while approaching the open doorway. "Stay within sight of at least one other person. Keep any torches and conversations low. Report anything out of this ordinary to me or Catti-brie."

Without another word, he stepped through the door and down a slick set of stairs into the damp blackness within. The stench of rotting flesh and brine made him gag again for a brief moment before he gained control of his reflexes and continued.

The further he came down, the more he saw the dim glow of a few small oil lamps dimly burning on the wall. It was enough light so the entire party could see, though not enough to be blatant.

It took a second for them all to file in with special caution, all gradually seeing the weathered slats that made the compartments of the ship's ballistas and holds for crossbows. Drizzt caught the faintest, pungent whiff of alchemist's fire, a potent chemical that could flare into a burning mass with the minutest exposure to air. The smell was quickly lost in the wash of blood ad flesh that assaulted his sensitive elven nose.

Most of the sailors were now covering their noses as soon as they entered the weapon deck, while another mass of gasps and sighs met the dried blood that painted the floor and left splashes of dark red on the walls and even the low ceiling. Guenwhyvar stepped out in front and sniffed the floor with a low growl. Drizzt followed close behind. The scream of metal behind him indicated Catti-brie had drawn her sword though he paid little attention to the rest of the order. He did look back and saw the disgusted look on his wife's face and Seamus sneer close behind. The rest of the sailors looked around with various degrees of shock and irritation.

It was like the scene on the upper deck, except in a more cramped area. Drizzt carefully continued down the deck scanning every inch of blood-spattered floor, wall, and ceiling. He peeked inside a few of the weapon holds for possible bodies, though the ballistas and mounted crossbows were all he could find. He looked down and saw Guenwhyvar batting what looked like a torn goblin ear with her paw, sniffing it intently as if trying to piece together clues in her mind.

Drizzt looked ahead, noticing that more small pieces of bloody flesh littered the deck; some recognizable and some not. It was virtually she same scenario in the upper deck, almost as if a wave of destruction swept through every passage of this ship and left nothing behind but charnel.

He sorted through his memory banks for anything he knew could have done this, recalling several magical swarms of spiders or similar demons that powerful drow priestesses could unleash upon rival Houses. He only the after-results of such attacks one or two times as a Menzoberranzan guard, though such swarms were usually cleaner; only blood was left and few body parts would escape the hungry creatures.

If it was a wind of blades spell, the pirates' bodies would still be there in hundreds of pieces unless someone cleaned up afterwards; though even that clean-up job was sloppy. There were a thousand possibilities though none of them made any sense.

He took a quick look back at the rest of the party. Catti-brie stayed close behind him, regularly giving him concerned glances. Seamus was also close behind and examining the surrounding blood spatters with more curiosity. Langley was next, his tanned complexion looking a bit paler against his brown beard.

Drizzt's momentary inspection was interrupted by the loud patter of four paws hitting the floor and claws clacking against the deck. He looked forward and saw Guenwhyvar charging down the deck with a small growl and picked up his pace.

Following the panther at a slow run would have normally been an easy maneuver, though after two sprints the weight in his gut returned, the cramp making itself known again. He paused for half a second to catch his breath before continuing at a pace more suited to his current condition. He didn't even want to make eye contact with Catti-brie because he knew he would see only a scowl or wide eyes of concern. The tightness against his belt and his lack of energy told him he may have been more ill than previously thought; this was the wrong time to be realizing this.

Regardless, he kept a close watch of his bloody surroundings while hearing the quick bootsteps of his companions while continuing to the end of the deck. At last Guenwhyvar came to an abrupt stop before a poorly constructed door at the very end of the corridor, pushing her paw underneath and sniffing at it. Drizzt came to the door and looked down for any indication of what the panther may have found. It was again the usual sight of dried blood, only the dim torches revealed a small shimmer in one of the splashes.

Drizzt crouched down to get a better look, seeing a steady flow of wet blood clotted underneath the door. He came to a stand, knowing there was likely a fresh body inside. Carefully, he stood with his back against the doorframe, shooed Guenwhyvar aside, and motioned for everyone around him to get back.

Catti-brie saw the fresh blood and came against the wall with her sword at the ready. Seamus casually stepped back while the other sailors surrounded the door, eyes looking down the hallway and back at Drizzt.

Drizzt carefully pushed the tip of his scimitar down against the simple door lever. The handle turned, causing the flimsy door to open slightly. Drizzt kicked it open and leapt inside, his scimitars out and ready to meet any threat that may have been behind as he heard many feet charging forward a few steps.

All that met them was darkness and heaving silence. The party paused for a moment, awaiting the threat that may have come, but it was nothing.

Drizzt gave a clearing sigh, letting his vision switch into the infrared spectrum. He saw the outlines of barrels and shelves bearing various weapons and other miscellaneous items. He also saw the cold outline of a small humanoid sprawled out on the floor; the figure's white hair was dyed red as his dark eyes gaped open and his once ebony skin was a shade of sickly gray. Drizzt bit his lip and cursed under his breath, though was far from surprised to see one of the pirates was clearly a drow.

He took a few cautious steps toward the body while keeping a constant eye on his surroundings, seeing nothing else around.

"Seamus, get out your lamp," Drizzt whispered behind him.

A whispered command later, the room came into a subtle, blue glow. Drizzt looked away for a moment to let his eyes shift into the normal spectrum and looked back hearing a few gasps and sighs behind him as the body became visible.

"It's a godsdamned drow," Langley whispered. Drizzt gave a stiff smirk and glance back at the sailor, receiving an embarrassed grimace in response. "No offense," Langley said sheepishly.

"None taken," Drizzt replied, looking back down at the body.

Drizzt noticed the drow's deep throat wound first, cleanly done a knife or piece of glass. As his eyes trailed further down the body, a new story was told. The pirate's abdominal cavity gaped open revealing a mess of tissues and blood that he recognized as the torn and sundered bits of his stomach, liver, spleen, and a variety of others all mashed together hanging out as if a cook made hash with his internal organs. His spinal column was clearly visible through the charnel as was the shadow of one kidney.

The ranger heard a few gags and gasps behind him, looking back and seeing Catti-brie's complexion go from sunny deck tan to seasick green. Seamus came forward with a calmer constitution, slowly coming to his good knee away from the blood pool and examining the body. Various other sailors came in and scouted the room while the majority stayed outside.

Catti-brie looked away from the torn corpse, never having the experience of seeing a body in this state and never wanting to. She carefully walked around the room, closely examining the mass of rags and barrels that covered the floor. This was supposed to be a weapons closet, judging by the shape of the shelves and the various weapons and ammunition that were carelessly tossed about. She also saw rotting apple cores, several bags leaking grain, and various other forms of garbage.

Catti-brie glanced back at Drizzt, who actually looked to be handling this sight a little better than she; maybe a sign his clear illness was under control, though she still kept careful watch on her husband. Her attention turned back to the many barrels that lined the room, examining their branded and painted labels. Several were clearly marked for wine or ale, though two had a simple, black stripe across them. She gently nudged one with her toe, feeling a solid mass that did not shift like a liquid. Her eye's scanned lower, seeing one with a small crack leaking a grayish black powder.

"Drizzt," she whispered back, gaining her husband's attention as she motioned to the barrel. He came forward, looking down at the black powder and gaining a pained expression.

"Shit," he growled under his breath.

"Don't light any flames, not even the smallest spark," Catti-brie whispered back to the crew. "There are two barrels of smokepowder right here."

"Bastards," Seamus replied. "Probably got it from another ship. At least we know how we're gonna sink this death trap."

Catti-brie continued her inspection of the various barrels and boxes that littered the sides of the room. She heard the small chittering of what sounded like a rat as it scratched the wood inside a barrel a few behind the powder keg. She curiously looked behind, seeing a brown canvas tarp covered in blood over the same barrel where she heard the noise.

Catti-brie then lifted her sword and gently pushed the tarp off the barrel. A sharp gasp escaped her throat that turned into a scream that was instantly contained by her hand. Drizzt leapt to her side, joined by two other sailors; all who looked inside the barrel and gave a collective gasp.

The creature inside oozed in its own green blood from the many slashes through its body, though the red humanoid blood covering it was more plentiful. It was small, about the size of a gnome, with a body shape that looked humanoid save for it's bulbous head covered in fins and green scales. A large, bloody maw filled with rows of sharp teeth hung open as its bulging, yellow eyes were wide with final surprise or madness. Its three-fingered hands bore nasty looking claws embedded with various strips of tissue as did the claws on the small feet that poked out of a long, green tail.

Drizzt sank both scimitars through its body, unleashing another mass of green goo though the creature never stirred. A small, brown rat crawled out from under the body and started nibbling at one arm.

"Seamus, you should see this," Drizzt called back.

The old man stepped beside Drizzt, having stretched himself back to his feet and limping in the direction of the commotion. Drizzt shifted aside, scanning the other barrels for any more creatures. He briefly glanced back at the cleric, who examined the creature with a perturbed glare.

The drow looked back to the mass of barrels, seeing one other open cask containing only a few containing a mass of baby rats. Something shifted beside one of the barrels, causing Drizzt to leap forward, kicking one cask aside, and aiming his scimitars as the shift of black fabric.

He was about to lunge his weapons down until he saw another other dark elf lying in a pile of rags against the wall. His black skin was also gray, though his mouth was slightly open and releasing gasping breaths; his white tunic covered in blood as Drizzt saw his right arm propped against the wall had a bloody stump in place of a hand.

"Dear gods, someone's alive," Catti-brie gasped, coming beside Drizzt and leaning down over the injured drow.

"Barely," he replied, sheathing his swords, crouching down, and shaking the drow's shoulders. "Hand me a healing potion."

"Yer gonna need those for yerselves," Seamus barked.

"Indeed, we need to know what in the hells happened," Drizzt replied, taking a small blue vial from Catti-brie's hand, ripping the cork off with his teeth, and tilting the drow's head back as he poured the liquid down his throat.

The light shifted enough to reveal the dark shadows around his eyes were in fact a ragged piece of velvet cloth cut into the shape of a half mask. Drizzt furrowed his brows for a moment, at first thinking it a bandit's disguise though the amount of ill magic that poured from the mask indicated something else.

The drow's red eyes slowly fluttered open as his breathing came easier and he slowly regained his senses. His blurry vision focused on Drizzt as his face twisted in confusion. Drizzt embedded his fingers in the other drow's short, white hair and pulled his head up further.

"_Vedui. Xun dos telanth rivvin_?" Drizzt barked to the drow in their native language, meaning "Greetings, do you speak Common?"

"Y-yes," the drow replied weakly in a thick accent, his eyes scanning Drizzt with more confusion, though Drizzt saw a hint of recognition.

"What is your name," Drizzt asked.

"Your's first," the drow replied.

"I asked you a question and want an answer now," Drizzt replied.

"Blast you damn drow," Seamus barked, coming beside the two. "Save the reunion for later, we got to get out of here now."

"You heard the man, tell me your name and I'll let you leave this place alive," Drizzt said to the drow.

"Akyth Jhaellin," the other drow replied. "Though we are all damned here."

"He's got that part right," Seamus said, lightly kicking Drizzt in the side.

The kick sent a wave of agony through his midsection. He gasped and grabbed his stomach, kicking the old man in the shin and regretting it a moment later. Seamus started to fall, his good leg thrown off balance, though Catti-brie caught him in time and flashed Drizzt an evil look.

"Get off yer arses and let's get the Hells out of here," Seamus said, straightening himself out. "These critters only mean a wave of death is headin' for us if it be knowin' we're here."

"The old one speaks right," Akyth said, his voice slightly stronger and taking a panicked tone. "We leave this place now."

Drizzt dragged Akyth to his feet, the other dark elf stumbling a little before finding his legs and making a poor attempt to run off before being easily dragged back by Drizzt's yank on his tunic. Drizzt pulled his arms good arm behind his back and turned him around, noticing Akyth's constant glances at the dead drow on the floor.

"Friend of yours?" Drizzt asked.

"He was my brother," Akyth replied, his voice strained and panicked as he still crept forward. "Thezz Jhaellin. We leave Menzoberranzan together. Find Night Above."

Drizzt nodded, slightly puzzled by the term "Night Above" but catching the general meaning.

"Godsdamnit let's get going," Seamus barked. "You wanna end up a meal in some itty creature's belly?"

"Seamus, care to tell us what the Nine Hells yer goin' on about," Catti-brie said.

"Sea devil spawn, for the love o' sweet shite," he responded in a muted yell while hobbling for the door.

"Fine, we'll pick this up later," Drizzt barked back, swinging Akyth around and pushing him forward while still keeping his hand behind his back.

Akyth stumbled forward before swinging his knee back and doing a rapid spin kick for Drizzt's midsection. Drizzt managed to sidestep the blow, but caught a boot to his side which aggravated his stomach enough he doubled over and started dry heaving. Akyth managed to free his remaining hand and did a belly flop back to the deck, reaching out to the location he was before.

"Guen," Drizzt called through a last gag.

A mass of black panther leapt through the doorway she had been guarding. Drizzt pointed to the drow, who managed to catch a grasp on the hilt of the short sword that had fallen behind the casks before having a 600 pound blanket of muscle and fur covering his back and legs.

"Call off your damned pet," Akyth groaned.

Catti-brie rushed forward while the three other sailors had their swords out and ready to pounce on the other drow. Drizzt took a few deep breaths and calmed his muscles, getting ready to say something to Akyth though the sudden moment of quiet was broken by what sounded like a series of mute cries.

Drizzt hear it first, though soon all action in the room paused. Everyone froze save for Guenwhyvar, who shifted her weight on Akyth and gave a low growl. The hollow silence was once again broken by the muffled cries, though Drizzt heard a shrill, gurgling shriek folded with the noise.

"_Vhaeraun tlu'og dosst avuna_," Akyth whispered, grasping his sword harder.

Twinkle and Icingdeath came into Drizzt's hands in a scream of steel. He ran for the door with Catti-brie and the other sailors on his heels.

"Guenwhyvar, come forth!" Drizzt yelled, charging down the hallway toward the sound. He slipped for a moment on a slick substance on deck, though kept his balance and glided, looking down and seeing a mass of fresh blood.

He looked down deck and caught a gag before it could some through as a litter of bloody, mangled corpses came into view. They were humans bearing the same clothing of the four other sailors who came below deck. Two were clearly dead, their bodies torn apart, though the other two continued screaming.

On top of them, tearing their bodies apart while they still struggled, were six small creatures; all of them resembling the slashed corpse in the barrel. Their spiny claws tore into all the bodies, alive or dead, as their maws devoured every scrap of fresh blood and flesh they could get; yellow, bulging eyes wide with malicious glee. Drizzt caught a view of the mass of corpses, seeing two other creatures among the slain. The sailors had likely managed to get a few of them before being overcome.

A growl escaped Drizzt's throat as he charged forward, scimitars blazing while hearing a mass of footsteps behind him. The creatures tore off a few more chunks of flesh and hissed. Drizzt skipped ahead and easily beheaded one of them, though the one next to it leapt forward.

Catti-brie slashed her sword at one creature to the side, though it ducked as if slithering down. It gnashed a maw packed with sharp teeth before clawing at her. The thing came within an inch of her foot though she managed to side step and clip it in the head with the tip of her sword before it dodged again. A searing pain met the back of her leg for a moment, though she stepped away before it could do more damage. She spun around and saw two more creatures lunging for her.

One of the creatures started spewing green blood as the tip of a shortsword came through its midsection thrust through by Akyth with a grunt. She had a moment to nod her head in thanks before feeling an arm aimed at her stomach. It only got as far as her tunic before she bat it back with her sword. She looked forward and saw the same creature who lunged at her originally. This time, however, the thing that one came up to her knees now reached her chest and she could see its muscles popping and becoming bigger.

Drizzt noticed this as a creature parried his scimitar with a claw that was once the size of a nail and now the length of a kitchen knife. He aimed down at the same thing, only to have it duck and go to the ground, its long tail swinging under his feet though it was cut off by Icingdeath as Twinkle lunged through its heart.

He turned around to see two creatures, both slowly growing to Catti-brie's shoulders as she fought them off. Akyth was holding one at bay with a nasty-looking shortsword. Langley managed to hack off the claw of one creature though another was behind him. Drizzt called in warning, though the one…no two more creatures leapt on his back; claws and teeth in a rapid motion as the flesh on his back started disappearing as he screamed.

In the fury, Guenwhyvar was in a tangle with two of the creatures; a battle of claws and teeth with blood and green slime flying everywhere and melding into each other. Drizzt managed to sink both scimitars into another creature, removing a leg, a section of tale, and a part of its head as it was in the process of elongating.

A flash of fire in the corner revealed Seamus position in one of the weapon holds. One creature came aflame and was on the ground with bad burns before it managed to come to its feet with its tail and come after Seamus.

Drizzt managed to slip back to the open door by which they all had entered the deck and screamed for assistance from the sailors keeping guard. He managed one cry before a drop of fresh blood landed on his forehead. He looked down for a second to see one creature, who was now shoulder-height, merely standing and hissing at him. Drizzt looked at the thing, his weapon hands loose at his side, though the creature made no moves. A second later, the thing's head was bouncing off the deck.

Drizzt looked up through the hatch and screamed again, palming the grip of his scimitars so his fingers met the lip of the hatch. He leapt up and held his weight to get a look above deck.

He was going to see the status of the other sailors from the _Sea Sprite_. Instead a mass of blood met his eyes, which trailed up deck and saw a mass of bodies tangled together. Three more creatures were on deck, their bodies covered in blood as they looked at Drizzt curiously. Drizzt took another look and saw the _Sea Sprite_ off in the distance growing farther and farther away. Something or someone must have tampered with the anchor on one of the ships for now thee two were floating apart.

Drizzt wanted to look over and get a better look to see any possible commotion on the deck of Deudermont's ship, though a strong pull on his legs sent him plummeting down to the lower deck. His knees met the deck as a set of arms pulled him away, though it was like the rest of his stomach managed to shoot through the ship and the whole ocean. Drizzt fell to his hands as the arms pulled him back.

He gagged again and started dry heaving. In the midst of his fit, a thick, slimy substance shot from his stomach and hailed on the deck; a mix of mucous and blood. His stomach twisted again, the cramp similar to the sensation of being kicked returning. He tried to relieve the pain by heaving again, only a thin stream of his own blood met the deck and blended with the rest of the spilled life from the other sailors.

The realization and pain numbed him, though he registered being dragged to his feet and made to limp where Catti-brie pulled him. His legs were weak, though the last bits of adrenaline in his body made him run behind his wife and Akyth.

Akyth stopped at the wall, knocked on the wood and carefully pronounced a command word. The wood became blurry for a moment as an ornate doorway came into view. Akyth said another command, and the door flew open as he ran inside while beckoning for all to follow.

Catti-brie stood still for a second, Drizzt leaning heavily on her as he braced his stomach.

"You live, you come," the drow pirate shouted.

"Get in, godsdamnit!" Drizzt shouted as the small wave of pain subsided. He reached into his belt and produced Guenwhyvar's figurine, looking and seeing his old friend had slain both creatures, though she was herself a mass of mangled fur.

"Go home, my shadow," he managed to whisper. Guenwhyvar gave him a weak look before turning to mist and going back to her astral home where she could heal.

Akyth went inside the room with Drizzt and Catti-brie limping inside. Drizzt looked in back and saw Seamus following them in, though Langely lay still on the deck. Drizzt pulled away from Catti-brie for a second and managed a short sprint in the deckhand's direction before Seamus grabbed him and pushed him forward. Drizzt struggled for a moment, though Catti-brie grabbed him again and pulled him back in.

Drizzt gave a frustrated yell before allowing himself to be dragged inside the other room and falling to a sit on a thick, lush carpet.

A series of lamps spontaneously lit on the wall, fully revealing a lavish space. The wall was adorned in gaudy red tapestries in patterns that Drizzt recalled seeing in a few Calishite guild houses. A gold leaf, four poster bed took up most of the room with various chests filled with gold, weapons, and other forms of treasure lined one side. It was probably the captain's quarters, judging by its lavishness versus the squalor of the rest of the ship.

Seamus pulled the door closed with a loud clicking of a magical latch. Soon after, a series of shrill screams and scratches were heard against the wall; the creatures trying to reach their prey though having no chance.

"What in the Nine flaming Hells was that?" Catti-brie yelled, her eyes meeting both Seamus and Akyth.

The mild burn in the back of her calf made her slowly sit on the floor next to Drizzt, who wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve; taking deep breaths to regain his bearings. She looked down and saw the back of her leather trousers only slashed while long scrapes in the shape of claw marks tore into the top layer of skin.

Akyth sat down heavily on the bed, taking his own breaths. He put a hand on the bloody stump where his hand used to be and said a series of words in drow. The gaping wound started to close, burying the bone in new flesh.

"You're a caster," Drizzt said, the ache subsiding as he became more alert.

"Priest," Akyth replied.

Drizzt nodded, remembering what Akyth said in the store room as many things started making sense.

"Priest of Vhaeraun," Drizzt groaned, remembering what little he had heard of the Masked Lord in his travels. He remembered from his time listening to Lolth's mandates in Arach-Tinilith that Vhaeraun was a rival deity. Occasionally he heard of drow thieves who worshipped Vhaeraun in major cities, though any word of them was more rumor. He did know that such drow were just as scheming and murderous as the rest. "Hence why you asked for his fury. Now getting back to the subject, what in the Nine flaming Hells were those things?"

"There ain't a proper name for the beasts in usual tongues, though Siren-spawn is the favored," Seamus growled, looking at the wall and sneering. "Every twenty years a ship goes missing and all that's left of the crew is a mass of blood and bone if that much."

"Siren-spawn?" Catti-brie asked. "Like Sirens, the voices…"

"That lead a wheel man to steer in their direction only to be lead to rocks at the story goes?" Seamus replied, leaning against the wall. "Aye, that be they, though it's worse than that. Or so I've heard at least, care to enlighten us on what happened, scoundrel."

All eyes turned to Akyth, whose head sank to his chest as he gave a harsh sigh.

"All I know is a mass of screams," he said, his voice strained. "I hear screams on deck, before more men where I was screamed more and their stomachs exploded in blood. What was left was shells of body and one of those things clawing out. Thezz and I fight, though thing latched on my hand. I slice it off, get it off. We go into store room, then he falls over. Then thing explodes from stomach."

Akyth's face twisted in anger, though Drizzt swore he saw a hint of sadness in hie visage as well. It was unliukely, though maybe he was witnessing the most emotion had ever seen from another drow when referring to a family member. It was clear he was in some amount of pain over his brother's death, though there was probably something more.

"You thought highly of your brother?" Drizzt asked. Akyth nodded, sighing once more. "Than why did you cut his throat, Akyth?"

"Give him to Vhaeraun quickly," Akyth responded, his strained tone becoming lower. "He was in great pain."

Drizzt nodded, the other drow's words sounding sincere with the small amount of water in his eye. Drow never used mercy as a reason for killing a family member let alone show the emotion over the deed Akyth was showing now. He may have cared about his brother dearly, probably escaped Menzoberranzan and its priestesses with him so they could find a life in the service of their god; another life of thievery and murder but a life nonetheless.

"How did he get the thing in his belly, Akyth?" Seamus barked.

"I not know," Akyth replied.

"I bet you do," Seamus said, stumbling forward. "I bet you know how all this happened. Did the _Tess_ come to port and have a wild night with a bunch o' women? Human women, you thought, or maybe a few other dark elves? Maybe they all boarded the ship, all you thinkin' they be whores who wanna warm a sailor?"

Akyth's eyes slowly widened as he gave a slight gasp.

"Naked women," he replied, "all human, or they look for second."

Drizzt looked to the floor, another ache coming into his stomach.

"For a second?" Seamus asked.

"I saw woman for a second, but it was an illusion," Akyth said. "Drow have better eye for magic than others. All of them were fish in women's bodies."

"Scaly dames, blue-green with big bulging eyes?" Seamus said.

Drizzt shivered, this was sounding a little too familiar. He didn't want to look up, but Catti-brie's auburn hair tumbled over his shoulder as he could feel her blue eyes boring into him.

"Wait, so yer sayin' these fish women bedded the pirates," Catti-brie started.

"They don't even need to bed them," Seamus said. "Just stroke 'em off, get their seed in their tails where there be an egg waitin, and stick it back in 'em. They ain't normal women, they be creatures and this is how they get their monster babies! Every twenty years this be happenin'! Tell me, drow, did yer brother have a little fun with the scaly woman?"

Akyth closed his eyes, his remaining hand gripping the red velvet quilt on the bed.

"Woodbury keep all the women for the high ranked crew, keeping the rest of us below," he said through gritted teeth. "A few get below deck and Thezz took one. He knew what she was, he see through illusion, but he wanted to spite Woodbury and his wizard and all his other slaves. _Vith'os Thezz_! _Waela!_" He punched the bed with a loud grunt.

"He couldn't have known," Drizzt said, not knowing if that was true or not, though it seemed likely.

Drizzt propped himself up, the tightness in his abdomen returning as his belt now felt like a torture device. Catti-brie tightened her grip on his shoulders, her gaze still fixed on him.

"Drizzt, were these the creatures that…" she whispered in his ear.

"You look a little peaked there, drow," Seamus said.

Drizzt looked up and saw the old man staring down at him.

"If you must know," Drizzt said evenly, "I'm finding myself with a small bug."

"Aye, I bet you are," he replied, slowly putting one knee down to the floor and reaching his hand to Drizzt's abdomen.

Drizzt flinched away for a second before the palm caught a firm grip on his stomach and remained there. The old cleric drummed his fingers on the ranger's stomach. A sharp shift came in response that sent Catti-brie gasping and Drizzt gritting his teeth in pain.

"Tell me, friend, does your lady know ya had a fun time with a beautiful sea creature?" Seamus said.


	4. Part 4

**Siren's Cry**

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are the property of R.A. Salvatore/Wizards of the Coast ©. I don't own them; I'm just examining all their possibilities.

**Part Four**

"Nice knowing you," Akyth muttered, looking down at his bloody stump with a heavy, irritated sigh.

"Shut the Hells up," Catti-brie screamed at him, rising slightly and managing to lift her leg high enough to plant a sharp kick in his kneecap.

Akyth braced the blow with a grunt as Drizzt grabbed Catti-brie's arm and pulled her back to the floor, all the while staring into Seamus' cloudy blue eyes.

"It ain't my place to judge on what you do in yer privacy," Seamus said darkly, "though the result's gonna be the same."

"He was attacked, you dumb son of a bitch," Catti-brie growled, rising slightly on her knees while clenching her fists. She then looked down at Drizzt, who was staring blankly ahead and immediately regretted saying anything.

"Indeed," Drizzt muttered, making every sound in the room go quiet while staring up at Seamus with a painful smirk. "Bitch didn't even finish the job, if ya get my meanin'."

"Bitch gets one drop o' your seed, it's all she be needin'," the old cleric replied in a tone Drizzt found neither mirthful nor grim. It was like he was merely reciting cold fact. "Five months ago fer you and the other drow's brother, if I reckin'? That's all the time the beastie needs to grow teeth so it can eat its way out of ya."

"Instead o' standin' there like a ghoul, Seamus, why don't ya make yerself useful and get this godsdamned thing out of him," Catti-brie said through gritted teeth while her last few words rose to a yell.

"Ya, I'll just cut him open and if the smell o' blood don't bring in the maggots, his screamin' will cause I ain't got nothin' to knock him out with that you'll like," Seamus barked. "I take one second to cut him open, I can't guarantee the devils won't tear down the wall 'afore I can close him back up. I sure as the Hells can't just throw magic at him."

"Shut the Hells up, both of you," Drizzt yelled, shoving Catti-brie back as he jumped to his feet and stumbled to the door.

He leaned against the wall, bracing himself against another wave of nausea while putting his hot face to the cool wood. He took a few deep breathes and savored the sudden, eerie silence that permeated the entire room save for the frantic scratches and gurgles of the fiends outside.

And one of those is inside me now, Drizzt though to himself with a wince. He slowly placed his shaking hand on his abdomen, feeling the shape was more distended than earlier as the skin further folded over his belt. He tapped against the bulge with his finger, receiving a sudden thrash in response that caused more discomfort than pain though made him tremble with the full reality. The thoughts assaulted him more than the actual creature; this…thing was created with his seed stolen by a fiend and used against him.

He took another long breath as the horrible reality made itself more apparent; that was his mot intimate essence stripped from him when it should have been freely given in an act of love with his wife. He suddenly imagined the beautiful, dark-skinned, half-elven children he wanted to have with Catti-brie. He wanted to see her abdomen bulging with the happy results of his own seed willingly given. Now his abdomen bulged with an unborn monster created from his own seed taken from him by a malevolent creature; a monster that would soon destroy his body as food to grow and kill more.

"We go back to the _Sea Sprite_ now, start running ahead of the things and get on deck…" Catti-brie began.

"That will be a little more difficult," Drizzt said, slightly picking his dizzy head off the wall, "last I looked, the _Sea Sprite _was at least two miles away and still floating. Likely an anchor was cut somewhere."

He looked back to see Catti-brie give a shuddering sigh that almost sounded like a sob as she put her head in her hand. Drizzt looked through her fingers and saw her blue eyes took a red rim of tears that threatened though were being held back.

"The devils get wise," Seamus groaned.

"It doesn't matter," Catti-brie said through clenched teeth, her voice in a subtle crack, "We go on deck, fight the things off, then send up a flare. Robillard will open a door to get us out, that's always been the drill. When we're back on board, Seamus, you get that godsdamned thing out of my husband."

"He's pukin' blood, lass," Seamus said in the same matter-of-fact tone, "the thing could be nibblin' away at his stomach and he not be knowin'. It may be too late."

"To the Hells with you," Catti-brie hissed.

"Catti please," Drizzt said in the calmest voice he could manage, his frenzied brain focusing on ways they all could get off the cursed ship and get back on the _Sea Sprite _with minimal involvement by the creatures.

Catti-brie's plan was the most feasible; the distance between the two ships might mean Robillard's gate would take a few extra seconds to prepare, though the wizard could easily teleport over and get all of them off the _Tess_.

Would that be the solution, though? Would the creature hold off on consuming his organs enough to get back onto the _Sea Sprite_? What if Seamus was right and his stomach was already a piece of pulp; would he even survive long if the creature was successfully removed? It was likely if the creature itself didn't kill him, the operation to get it out might. Even if he survived that, what about any permanent physical damage or any infections?

It was all a series of realities that settled on his shoulders like a heavy blanket. Mortality never scared Drizzt no matter how peaceful or agonizing it could come. He had been seconds from death before and only felt a profound disappointment each time. That disappointment was creeping in now, the reality this journey that had been his life was inevitably coming to an end and he would not be able to explore the possibilities of the living world any more. The fact this was all happening in front of his new wife, a woman he had just become close with after so many years of denial, saddened him more.

Another sudden wave of nausea came over him again, though the dizziness that followed put him against the wall. When the wave ceased, he looked over at Akyth, who was sitting on the bed staring at him with a blank expression. Drizzt could see a profound tiredness in his eyes and the way he sat indicated complete exhaustion. The drow's red eyes looked distant, like he was witnessing everything in front of him but seeing nothing; nothing but his brother's death, a mercy killing at his own hands. He wanted to sign something to the other drow, though the words escaped him as a milder bout of dizziness came followed by a sweet smell coming in the direction of the floor.

The creatures that had been scratching at the door then ceased. Drizzt's keen ears heard a few gurgles then a few claws scratching against the outside deck before fading entirely. The creature in his abdomen gave another thrash as the smell became sweeter. Drizzt merely put a hand to the bulge in his stomach to keep it still for a moment.

"Drizzt, what's wrong?" Catti-brie asked, quickly coming to her feet and wincing as the wound on her leg made itself known with the sudden movement.

Drizzt stepped out, sniffing the air as the smell of rank honey became stronger. He managed to come to his knees and put an ear to the floor. The sound of chittering, gurgling, and splashing was faint, yet noticeable to his sensitive ears. The unborn creature thrashed against the floor, making Drizzt cringe for a moment as he came back up to his knees and another realization set in.

"Akyth, how many individuals were aboard this ship before today?" Drizzt asked.

"I not know exactly," Akyth said. "We lose bodies daily. Less than two hundred, more than one hundred."

"And how many do you think carried the creatures?"

"I not know either. It seemed like everyone exploded, though some were just eaten."

Drizzt paused, letting his ranger's knowledge of animals and creatures start piecing together possibilities. He then closed his eyes and sighed; the conclusions were far from favorable.

"The sirens likely boarded, implanting most if not half the crew," Drizzt said, piecing every part in his mind. "The fact they came below deck likely means they needed more breeding stock than Woodbury was allowing. Five months later, the spawn bursts forth, consuming their host and going after the rest of the herd left for them. As they consume, their meal, likely the protein makes them grow larger. When they're done eating, the send out a signal of some sort, likely a sweet musk to make all of them mass in one location so they can return to the sea and further develop."

"Feeding off the merfolk and sea elves?" Catti-brie asked, her shaky voice becoming a little stronger.

"Aye," Seamus said. "Groups o' their people do get ripped apart on a regular basis when the swarm o' young'uns swims through. After twenty years, they do it all over again."

"Minus the few we killed, there could be about a hundred of them massing in the bilge of this ship," Drizzt said. "_Vith_." He came to his feet, managing to shrug off his own parasite's thrashing.

"Drow, what time o' day did the ladies come on the ship at first?" Seamus asked, turning to Akyth.

Akyth gave a long sigh and shook his head as if trying to refocus.

"An hour before high sun," he replied.

"And when did people start explodin'?" Seamus asked.

Akyth paused for a second, considering.

"Same time today," Akyth said.

"By my reckonin' it's almost evenin'," Seamus said. "If yer right, ranger, these things could be lingerin' around. Though when did you get acquainted with the beats?"

Drizzt said nothing, remembering the dark water of mid evening when the sirens accosted him. If it was early evening already, in a few more hours, even if that…

"We need to get below deck," Drizzt said, sprinting for the wall where the door had been. "Akyth open this godsdamned thing."

"There is easier door," Akyth said, shaking his head and slowly breaking of his own haze before coming to his feet.

Drizzt looked back at the other drow as he slowly rose from the bed, his eyes scanning the walls and the edge of the rug.

"You know an easier way below?" he asked, leaning down to the floor and picking up the scimitars he had left a moment ago.

"I can find one," Akyth replied, running his hand over the carpet.

"We shouldn't be goin' further into the belly of the beast, drow," Seamus barked at Drizzt. "We should be gettin' outta here."

"I'm not leaving until I know how big this menace is," Drizzt hissed. "I owe it as a personal favor to innocent creatures who reside in these waters and any other sailor who might meet these creatures twenty years from now."

He looked at Catti-brie, expecting a look of anger or even a stiff rebuttal about how they all should get back to the _Sea Sprite _try to get the abomination out of his body. Drizzt saw none of that, however. All he saw in his wife's face was blank exhaustion, though her sad, yet strong expression tore at his heart.

"What the Hells," Seamsus said with a smirk, "yer noble spirit already got ya killed, what more harm can it do now?"

Catti-brie shot him a poisonous glare, though Drizzt merely raised an eyebrow and put out a hand in peace.

"This little side trip is for me alone and the only one I'm not excusing from coming down is Akyth," Drizzt said pointedly, looking over at Akyth and seeing no response. "Seamus, we'll give you an escort back to the top deck and send for Robillard. Catti, if you wish to join him..."

"Yer not goin' alone, even with that dog," Catti-brie snapped, coming into his face. "We solve this, we solve this together just like we came on here to do."

Drizzt gave a weak smile, though the hollow look in her face spoke of so many emotions being held back. He nodded, looking at Seamus who merely shrugged.

"I ain't no coward," the old cleric said with a rough smirk. "'Sides, I had a good life."

Drizzt's words in response were cut off with a loud click. He looked in the direction of the noise, seeing Akyth pulling a small wooden box off the floor. Underneath was a small hole with a square dowel in the center and an open door in the floor at his feet. The ranger walked over and peered down the neatly carved and framed hole, seeing a small staircase leading down into a dimly lit room lined with various shelves, grain bags, and a strong odor of mold and grease.

"Fat bastard's special snack box," Akyth said, opening the box and showing the contents to the rest of the party. Inside was a few small, burlap bags overflowing with various nuts next to small piles of dried meat in various colors and smells. Tucked beside the bags were several small bottles of liquor, some labeled as rum and bourbon, though others were simply brown or green liquid in glass bottles. Seamus reached in and grabbed a long, whalebone pipe carved in the shape of a nude mermaid. He also found a small sack next to it and sniffed the fibers.

"Thayan red pipe weed," Seamus said, smiling and shaking his head. "Our brave captain was a doper, and why am I not surprised?"

"The sooner we get down here, the sooner we get this done," Drizzt said, putting the hilt of one scimitar under his arm, loosening his belt, and putting it to the next comfortable notch two down from the previous. He looked behind him, seeing Catti-brie coming close behind with her sword drawn and Seamus throwing the sack back in the box and joining the line.

Drizzt motioned to Akyth with one sword, ordering him to put the box on the bed, which he obliged, before being motioned to join the rest and stay at the front. Akyth fell in line, his shortsword in his remaining hand as Drizzt nodded to the group and slowly crept down the stairs.

The room below looked to be the ship's galley judging by the long, wooden counters with various pieces of rotting fruit and spilled bottles of rum. The galley was dimly lit with a few oil lamps hanging from the walls fully illuminating the disrepair and mess that comprised the kitchen area.

"What was the food like here," Drizzt said with a cocked eyebrow, eying the small gang of rats that snacked on a severed finger on the floor, which seemed washed in blood.

He stepped lightly, his keen vision catching the dark floor awash in drying, sticky blood. As expected, various pieces of flesh, fingers, hands, and less recognizable parts dotted the deck. Drizzt looked to his other companions, seeing only tired disgust from all three, though he swore Akyth profoundly gulped with a deep shiver; maybe with the full realization that he was the lone survivor of this massacre.

The creature lurched against Drizzt's stomach again, making him gag slightly with the rotting blood and brine, though he managed to control it; he was getting too used to this. He glanced at Catti-brie, who tried to keep her gait strong though the shudder showed this was becoming too much. The group continued forward, keeping an eye on everything around.

"Woodbury make us eat molded mush twice a day," Akyth whispered, a shake still evident in his voice. "Occasionally we have soggy apples and limes. Prevent scurvy."

"You didn't enjoy it here, did you," Drizzt whispered, his ears catching the same splashing and gurgling he heard above. He looked at Seamus and Catti-brie, who continued looking around and did not betray hearing anything any more out of the ordinary. "Then how did you and your brother come on."

There was a pause as Drizzt looked to Akyth and seeing his eyebrows slightly furrow as he looked toward the end of the room; maybe he heard the noises too.

"Thezz and I volunteer in Skullport," he replied cautiously, looking all around. "Want to see surface. What better way than serve Vhaeraun as we go."

"I can imagine," Drizzt said with a grimace, imagining what kinds of thievery and murder they gleefully partook in while living the lives of kings of the sea. He decided to focus on the task at hand, not allowing his own personal views cloud the situation unless Akyth acted in such a way to make him thing otherwise.

Akyth had been cooperative during this entire time, whether leading them all into a trap, willingly helping them, or maybe not caring otherwise while trying to sort out all the realities of today. His gait was sullen and his eyes vacant, not the typical indication of drow scheming, making Drizzt think the latter was the case.

Drizzt focused back on the smell of rank honey, which became slightly stronger as they progressed down the long galley and toward the door.

"Yer walkin' with a mission, drow," Seamus called. "Care to fill the rest of us in?"

"Keep your spells ready, Seamus, this could get ugly," Drizzt said, walking to the large, double doors that lead outside the galley.

He put his back to the door, getting ready to push it open with one hand before his arm was grabbed and jerked back. He looked back to see Catti-brie clutching hard on his arm, her blue eyes boring through him.

"Don't do anything stupid," she growled in his ear, her face showing fearful anger. "No one's signed your death warrant yet and I want to make damn sure yer not the one to do it. We take a peek, clean up where we can, and get the Hells out of here. Deudermont and Robillard will blast this ship, Seamus and Mikus can get that thing out of you, and that's how it will be."

Drizzt looked deep into her red eyes, seeing her upper lip tremble and knowing she could fall down crying or tear him to pieces on the very thought; and it tore at his heart more. He sighed, not wanting to think at all if she was right or not.

"Just a peek," he said, though knew he was probably lying. Judging by her unchanged expression, she probably knew that too.

"Fine," she said with an air of finality, her voice noticeably cracking.

Drizzt gave a harsh sigh in reaction, trying to keep his mind on the task ahead and not on the full scope of matters lest they all completely destroy him. He put one sword against the door, slowly pushing it open and keeping at the ready for anything that may have been behind. He peeked out, seeing nothing but a few hanging hammocks and more dim torches on the wall.

Drizzt kicked the door open, jumping out into the sailors sleeping quarters, and doubled over again as the stench of blood and rotting flesh assaulted him. He gagged, a splash of blood hailing from his stomach to join the rest of the blood that bathed the deck with more mucous. He gagged again, a thicker clot of blood landing on deck before he took deep breaths and a battle stance to calm himself.

He looked up and saw a pile of blood-soaked bones and flesh heaped like garbage against the back wall. Catti-brie audibly gagged as well before taking a few breaths, successfully shrugging off the rotting corpse stench before regaining her composure and stepping forward, squaring against the mass of bodies piled from the deck to the ceiling as if aiming for vengeance.

Seamus looked at the bodies with grim pity while Akyth seemed to have no reaction at all, though Drizzt saw his eyes narrow slightly. The ranger turned back to the pile, seeing various skeletal body parts strewn around; a leg bone here, an arm there, a few heads shoved further in.

He slowly approached, expecting anything to jump from the charnel any second. Instead a mass of silence only widened the gaping hole of anxiety that was forming by the second and ready to suck everyone one in. Drizzt lightly stepped around, letting his vision scan all sides in a second.

Catti-brie watched every wall, her sword at the ready and anticipating that the creatures could be anywhere. It was an unnerving sensation, yet a distracting one as well. In a bizarre way, she welcomed this tenseness, this feeling that an enemy was around every corner that she could readily jump to take down; it took her mind of the nagging reality her husband would likely die down here.

She tried to keep as positive about the situation as she could; convince herself they all would get out of this and the clerics aboard the _Sea Sprite _would get the creature out of Drizzt's body, though the though he was beyond any hope continuously crept in.

"How old are you, Akyth?" Drizzt asked in a whisper, trying to keep some sanity among the group.

"Forty-three," Akyth replied.

Drizzt shuttered, remembering his own life at forty-three, trying to survive alone in the unforgiving Underdark two years before he found the surface. He looked at the other drow, finding a small bit of himself in those features.

"When did you and your brother come to the Surface?"

"Five years ago," Akyth replied. "Thezz and me escape Menzoberranzan."

"What part of Menzoberranzan are you from?" Drizzt whispered, scanning every scrap of flesh and bone in the pile.

"Braeryn," he replied. "Me and two brothers birthed by gutter whore. We find own work, meet high priest of Masked Lord, show us how survive."

"What happened to your third brother?" Drizzt asked, the sweet smell becoming stronger all around, though he concentrated to pinpoint its exact location.

"Soral hung from cavern ceiling by barbed rope," Akyth replied in a tone that Drizzt thought sounded angry, though a bit mournful. "He was priest. Guards make example."

Drizzt nodded his head, ducking closer to the floor, where he pinpointed the sweet stench. He leaned down further, the creature thrashing again and sending a new wave of pain through his body. Drizzt focused his hearing and kept himself from gasping; the mass of chitters, gurgles, and splashes from below was like a wave of piranhas were rushing in the direction of a blood dropping.

"Drizzt, what is it?" Catti-brie said in a harsh whisper.

"The reason why we're probably not seeing the creatures now," he replied, slowly rising despite the sudden crick that formed in his back.

He moved to a closed hatch in the floor and pulled up the iron ring. Seamus and Catti-brie started rushing to him, though he slowly pulled up the small door before they could stop him.

Drizzt looked down, gently setting the door aside while not prying his numb gaze off the main hold below and feeling the thing in his abdomen shift a bit more. He could feel Seamus and Catti-brie next to him, though neither gave off any other reaction besides tense breathing.

Through the small, square section of open floor, the expansive main hold was visible below with an array of treasure chests bulging with coin piled next to various weapons, fur capes, and large jewels. All of them were floating with the water that had now reached a few feet below the ceiling.

In the water, swimming with webbed hands and massive tails was the creatures. By now, all of them were close to the height of a small elf, their tiny legs now tucked further inside the long, muscled tails. They swam around frantically, many still tearing apart bloated body parts while some swatted tails at each other in an intense form of play.

"They're massing," Drizzt said. "The signal went out by their parents that they will be returning to the water soon. Now they sit in wait to be claimed, probably tearing a hole in the bottom of the ship. We are likely now sinking, though only in small amounts."

Drizzt stared down into the hold in horror, looking to the edge and seeing a large hole in the side of the ship, created with a large rock though the flow of water was controlled with a series of seaweed strips put over the entrance and slowly dissolving.

"The ladies get on ship after we hit rock," Akyth said. "They said they had mermaids patch hole. I see they lie."

"Could that be all of them down there?" Catti-brie asked.

"Most likely," Drizzt said, coming to one knee and bracing his abdomen with his arms as the monster thrashed a bit more, producing a strong cramp. "Unless there are a few patrols around looking for more food."

Catti-brie stared down into the hold, seeing the horrible things thrashing in a mass, some tearing apart the bloated body of what looked to have been a half-orc.

"Barakoul get what he deserved," Akyth muttered in her ear. Catti-brie looked at the drow cleric and saw his vacant eyes staring into the hole before focusing on her. Whether they actually saw her around the carnage, however, was a different matter. "He Woodbury's overseer. Whip those who not fall in line."

Catti-brie shivered, grabbing Drizzt's arms and dragging him to his feet, which he only obliged.

"You had yer peek, let's get the Hells outta here before they find us tastier vittles," she said, dragging Drizzt a few steps, though seeing only a nod.

"Couldn't 'a said it better meself," Seamus said, limping in her direction.

Drizzt said nothing, feeling only the sickness creeping into his form. The stench of rotting flesh and the site of bones and mangled flesh everywhere only seemed to entice the malicious thing in his body. He, however, would not be able to see what it would grow up to be once it consumed his organs and tore from his flesh. He wouldn't see it grow into a monster that fed off flesh, growing larger before it destroyed everything in its path to return to the ocean where it would rend the goodly creatures that lived below. What if it lived twenty more years? Then it might take the form of a beautiful woman to the next sailor who came in its path.

"_Vith_!" Akyth suddenly cried before sprinting ahead.

Drizzt weakly looked back and saw one creature pulling itself from the hole with its muscled claws. Two more creatures stood beside the hole, propping themselves upright with their small legs and using their tails to move toward the group in a rapid combination of skittering and slithering. They aimed their claws at the humanoids while hissing a viscous mucous.

A drop of spittle hit Akyth's shoulder, causing him to wince as the spot on his shirt melted and his flesh sizzled underneath.

"Run godsdamnit!" Catti-brie screamed.

Seamus took one sideways look at the creatures and found enough strength in his legs to sprint ahead of the group. Catti-brie grasped Drizzt's arm and pulled him along. He ran along with her, though it was an instinctive reaction as he numbly looked back at three…no four creatures with one more jumping from the hole now close to all their heights and skittering toward them.

Akyth took the rear, sprinting along with them to the back of the berth and towards the door to the galley. He quickly caught up with Drizzt, grabbing his shoulder and hooking it with his bloody stump. Drizzt was jerked back a bit before feeling breath against his face.

"Die fighting or live to fight other day," Akyth whispered in drow. "Your choice, Drizzt Do'Urden, though I make mine." Drizzt merely looked at him, seeing a fire light in his hollow eyes as he turned around. "Push ceiling square in Woodbury's cabin."

"Akyth," Drizzt called, trying to reach back and grab the drow, who ran back

"For Thezz, you bastards!" Akyth screamed, charging into the skittering throng of siren-spawn, who gave a collective, gurgling hiss. His blank face twisted into animalistic rage as he grunted with tears coming down his face. He charged along, though Drizzt could see a tremble in his sneering upper lip.

Drizzt clutched his scimitars and broke Catti-brie's grasp for a second as he charged ahead. Catti-brie grabbed him with both arms, using every ounce of strength in her trembling body to drag him back. Drizzt struggled for a moment, watching Akyth become a flurry of sword and body, hacking into one creature and sticking another, though a third clawed a deep gash into his back.

Catti-brie clutched him harder, managing to swing his gaze over to her and catching one look of her own snarling visage, though the immense pleading in her blue eyes made his knees weak for a moment. She was what mattered, the realization sent shame through him as he allowed himself to be dragged into the galley while hearing Akyth's screams and curses mingled with the growls of the creatures. He could not just charge back in and leave her behind to deal with this mess.

Drizzt went numb, feeling the creature thrash again almost in rhythm with his running. He slipped on a small puddle of blood, sending him skidding for a few paces before Catti-brie grabbed him again and gave him back his balance as they made their way back to the stairs.

"Just push the ceiling square in the cabin," Drizzt said idly, barely paying any attention to his surroundings now.

Catti-brie ran up and pushed Seamus out of her way, jumping on the bed and punching a black square in the red ceiling with one hand. Her knuckle joints cracked as a cramp went through one finger indicating that she likely bruised a tendon. The ceiling then took a translucent appearance as she felt herself sucked upward. A second later, her feet were on the upper deck as her thick, auburn hair was tossed around in the wind.

Drizzt was sucked up next to her and Seamus came up, tripping for a second with the sudden landing on solid ground though soon regaining his footing.

Across the bow was the _Sea Sprite_ a thousand yards beside them with deckhands frantically shouting and raising sails. Catti-brie frantically reached into the pouch on her belt, producing one of the multi-colored flares. She pulled the string from the black tube and threw it in the air; a mass of magical, rainbow sparks shot out as the flare took to the darkening sky.

Deudermont rushed over to the side of the _Sea Sprite_'s deck, waving at the group. Catti-brie waved back with both arms while Seamus gave a low, loud whistle.

Drizzt idly waved, though his mind was back in the berth where Akyth fought the creatures in a noble effort to avenge his brother's death. Now he was likely torn apartand slowly being consumed. Now Drizzt would go back on the _Sea Sprite_. Maybe Seamus and Mikus would be able to get the thing out of his body. Maybe he would die in the process. Maybe the creature that came out would run around and kill more crew members.

Predictably, a blue doorway glowed on the deck of the _Bloody Tess_. Robillard was in the process of getting them all of this ship and back to…safety? At least for Seamus and Catti-brie, though Akyth had sacrificed caution for one final fight. As for Drizzt…

The slender man in blue robes materialized on the deck.

"Get in now all of you," Robillard barked, re-entering the doorway though his hazy outline was still visible.

Seamus hobbled over and tripped through the door. Catti-brie entered, pulling Drizzt behind her. Drizzt felt the cold tingle of magic as he stepped into the blue space. It was a magic port with Robillard standing to the side starting the incantation that would transport them all back to the _Sea Sprite_.

The magic rose around them and Drizzt knew Robillard had only a few more words of his incantation before they all were gone. The drow concentrated on every word, though one phrase still seared through his mind.

_Die fighting or live to fight another day_.

Drizzt knew the latter option would likely be closed to him. If the creature didn't kill him, likely he would be crippled by the amount of damage done; a fate worse in his mind than an eternity in the Nine Hells.

Robillard came to is last phrase, the magic rising to its highest before taking effect. Drizzt leaned towards Catti-brie, whispering in her ear while reaching into his belt.

"I have always loved you more than anything," he said, shoving Guenwhyvar's figurine into her hand and sprinting from the magical doorway back into the deck of the Tess and running just as he felt the doorway close and disappear.


	5. Part 5

**Siren's Cry**

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are the property of R.A. Salvatore/Wizards of the Coast ©. I don't own them; I'm just examining all their possibilities.

**Part Five:**

"Enjoying your feast, you wicked little bastard?" Drizzt snarled, feeling the creature inside him give another thrash, this one a little more aggressive than before.

The drow shrugged off the pain and continued sprinting down the deck as fast as his aching legs would carry him. The bulge in his abdomen from the siren-spawn was growing slightly heavier, though Drizzt pressed himself further, straining his legs to take him to the still-open hatch at the other end.

He easily dodged the mess of blood and viscera left of four sailors, two able men and two strong women who had all served Captain Deudermont loyally for years. They found it their best duty to wait on deck at watch as the rest of the party ventured below and were slain by the sea devils in return. Drizzt gave himself a moment of remembrance before taking a leap and plunging through the entryway, stepping lightly on one stair, and continuing his sprint down the bloody weapon deck.

He looked down at the deck and saw only a few severed hands, ears, and even the part of a half-shaven lower jaw was left of the remaining five sailors from the _Sea Sprite_ who boarded the ill-fated _Bloody Tess_. All of them were felled by the creatures; ripped apart and eaten even while still alive. The ooze-covered corpse of one creature, still the size of a dwarf and never given the opportunity to feast on more meat and grow, was still curled up against the wall with a sword through its throat; an indication that some progress, however slight, had been made this day.

The corpses only spurred Drizzt on, giving more power to his legs. The Hunter, however, was being uneasily kept at bay; Drizzt knew he would have to conserve his energy, save his fire until the last moment of this battle and possibly the last moment of his life.

He slid slightly on the blood beneath his feet, though caught his momentum to slide forward even faster before reaching some small patch of dry deck where he broke into a run for the back storage room. The door had swung closed again amidst the fighting and general swaying of the ship, though Drizzt took a leap and kicked it in.

Thezz Jhaellin's corpse was sprawled out on the deck and drained of blood making his ebony skin slate gray. He had escaped the hell of Menzoberranzan's Braeryn ghetto and the threat of Lolth's rule with his younger brother with the hope of living a free life on the Surface in worship of their god. Thezz's death was likely the most painless, though the creature in his stomach had rendered his organs a mass of pulp as it tore out of him; his pain was ended at the end of his brother's sword.

Drizzt allowed himself an extra second to look at the hardened, hollow face of Thezz Jhaellin, though pried his gaze away lest the other drow's gaping red eyes took on a shade of lavender in his mind as the face looked like his own. Drizzt grunted, kicking Thezz's corpse aside in defiance of his own fate and grabbing the lip of the first barrel he saw labeled with a black stripe. The cask of smokepowder was heavy, yet he used his trained muscles to focus energy and easily knocked it on its side with a thud.

The faint scratch of claws against wood coming louder in the hallway told Drizzt the siren-spawn had located him. He stood still, gently placing one foot on the barrel and holding his scimitars to his side at the ready. The scratching became louder and he could feel the sway of a tail and the skittering of claws against the wood as a mass of sputters and gurgles followed. Drizzt closed his eyes, analyzing the shuffles and gurgles and singling out two creatures racing across the deck and just a few inches away from the partially open door of the closet.

Drizzt kicked out, the barrel flying out the door at a high speed and connecting squarely with the tiny legs of the two slobbering creatures. The things were thrown off balance by the barrel and flew back a few paces to land on the tips of their muscled tails. Just as they regained their footing, a whir of blades was upon them; slashing and hacking into their torsos, shoulders, tails, and any other part the two scimitars could easily rend.

The creatures took the blows with high screams, caught off guard for a moment until they regained enough of their senses to slash back at the thin figure of flesh and bone hacking and slashing. Drizzt dodged a claw, aiming Twinkle to cut it off though the creature disengaged suddenly and sliced into the side of his leg. He grunted with the searing pain; though let it spur him on for another set of rapid slashes. The end of a tail tried to wrap around his leg, though he managed to kick out in time to land a pointed foot in the center of the creature's lower jaw.

His efforts were rewarded with the crack of bone and fly of green blood, though two sets of claws ripping into his shoulder and side took away his victory. Drizzt dodged his body enough to get it out of the grasp as the creature waved claws at him again. With the rapid flick of a wrist a claw went flying and Drizzt kicked the creature aside before lunging forward and kicking the next thing in the shoulder. A claw grabbed his leg, though he kicked out again, leaping onto the creature's shoulders and putting its neck in the middle of a crosscut.

Its head bounced to the ground, drenching the drow in a gush of green blood with a foul stench that brought on another hail of blood from his stomach before he could control himself. The creature inside him thrashed again, putting him enough off guard for the second sea devil to grab him by the leg and start pulling him down. Drizzt struggled, kicking furiously though the thing was digging claws into his calf.

He stabbed Icingdeath down into the creature's bulbous head, making it flail and dig harder into his leg. Twinkle swiped down and cut off the arm holding him, but sliced a tiny part of his trousers in the process. Drizzt kicked off the severed arm, leaping up with a growl and stabbing both blades into its head. He felt the skull cave as green brain matter oozed out, though the momentum on the blades was not as forceful as he expected.

The reason was obvious when he came back to the ground sooner than he anticipated; his leap was not high enough and the weight in his stomach was the obvious culprit. He knew he could only be able to move with this much energy for so long and much of that energy was being sapped by the thrashing mass in his abdomen.

A raking of claws down his back produced a wave more like regret than pain as he kicked himself for letting his guard down that much. He managed to jerk forward and spin around to face another creature. The creature hissed at him and he dodged the acid spittle before slicing Twinkle into the thing's shoulder. The creature leaned back and threw that momentum into its claw which lunged for Drizzt's head.

Drizzt took a deep scratch to the side of the face so he could slice into the thing's arm with Icingdeath. The creature dodged its claw away, though green blood spurted fm the wound. Its tail rose, though Drizzt caught a vision of it in time to leap up, slam the pommel of Twinkle into its shoulder and skip to the side in the direction of the barrel.

He was once again awash in green blood as the creature's head exploded with a blue spark. The creature fell onto the deck, a finely made elven arrow still embedded in its neck. Drizzt didn't want to turn around, not wanting confirmation of who was still aboard the boat. His instincts, however, got the best of him as he turned around to see a mass of auburn hair swing from the hole as Catti-brie kicked one other creature in the head while stabbing her sword into the second one surprised by her appearance.

She sheathed her sword and once again drew Taulmaril, her powerful bow, and shot an arrow into the creature she kicked before landing on her feet on the blood soaked deck. Drizzt caught a second momentum and leapt on the barrel, his nimble feet rolling himself over to the creature his wife stabbed who had continued its course toward him.

The creature came within a foot of him and swung its tail. Drizzt leapt, letting the tail come under his feet as he stabbed his blades into its neck. The creature lashed its head, still alive despite the blood bursting from the blades embedded in its throat. Catti-brie aimed her bow at the creature, taking a second to get an aim that would damage it without hitting her husband.

Drizzt stepped on the thing's shoulders, though another thrash of the unborn monster wrenched his stomach and threw his weight off balance. He tumbled off the creature, though pulled his blades out and landed on his feet with a trip. An arrow exploded into its eye, taking half its head and dropping its limp body to the deck.

Drizzt looked her square in the eyes with a glare, though the monster's thrash caused him to clutch his abdomen and brace against the motion and the wave of pain. Catti-brie grabbed his shoulders as Drizzt took deep breaths, keeping the pain down but feeling his energy sapping away with every second he stood still.

In an instinctual reaction, he shoved Catti-brie away and winced at the sad, yet venomous glare she shot him. Drizzt continued kicking the barrel down the deck to the entrance way to Captain Woodbury's quarters that had been ripped open by claws and tails.

"What the Nine flaming Hells are you doing here, Catti?" Drizzt screamed, kicking the barrel through the door and breaking apart the last splinters of the magical entrance.

"Keepin' you from bein' a fool!" she screamed back, aiming her bow at every corner and shadow as she stepped into the room behind her husband.

She knew her and Drizzt needed to be on the _Sea Sprite_, they needed to manage the situation from there, they needed to get the creature out of Drizzt before it killed him. Those were all fleeting thoughts now, made fleeting the second Drizzt broke from the teleport. With a jerk, Catti-brie also fell out as Robillard's portal closed behind her as she chased after her husband.

He made his decision to go down with the ship; she decided he would not go alone and she wouldn't be left alone for the rest of her life without him. It was a momentary instinct that made her break as Robillard and Seamus returned to the _Sea Sprite_; a foolish instinct perhaps but the only one she had at the time.

Drizzt stopped suddenly and turned around, facing her vicious, tear-rimmed eyes. He reached forward and grabbed her free forearm, forcing her hand on his abdomen. Catti-brie flinched at the feel of the thrashing thing inside Drizzt, who stared at her with burning fires in his lavender eyes.

"It's over for me, Catti," he growled, though a small sob took his throat.

"It ain't over for no one, Drizzt Do'Urden," she sobbed, her thick lips in a sneer.

Drizzt swung back around, though Catti-brie read the devastated expression on his face; his beautiful visage twisted into a look of rage mixed with sadness that cut her deeply. He had given up, it was obvious and it was a sight she could not bear to witness.

Drizzt leapt into the room, hearing Catti-brie's nimble footsteps behind him that were almost as painful as the creature's thrashing. His main emotion was rage, the desire to rip apart these things that ripped apart his life; though the guilt he felt for putting Catti-brie in harm's way due to his foolishness was overwhelming. She chased after him, he knew she would even if only in hindsight, and she could die because of his pride and rage.

The guilt only prodded his rage more as the impatient Hunter gently nudged the door in the back of his subconscious after being held at bay for too long.

He took another leap and kicked the barrel through the open hatch leading to the lower deck. The cask flew out the hatch, bouncing on one stair and dislodging it before coming to a gentle roll on the deck below.

An arrow streaked past his head, landing out of his vision and producing a splash of green slime. Drizzt leapt down the hatch, hacking into the creature looking up at it with a growl; his scimitars cutting into its throat where an arrow was already lodged and ending its miserable life. A claw was at his leg, though he dodged it as he landed on deck and swung at the second creature in the mess hall.

The creature fell into a sideways crouch as if to merely dodge, though Drizzt saw the tail coming up for a surprise attack just in time to hack into it with Icingdeath. Twinkle would have proceeded, though the tail parried the blade and aimed to snap Drizzt in the shoulder. Drizzt dodged, giving the creature only a small tap as he severed the end of its tail in a cross slice.

An arrow between its bulbous eyes resulted in another spray of slime as the creature fell limp. Another volley of arrows stuck into another creature next to it, taking off part of its head, one arm, and half its chest.

Drizzt used Catti-brie's sudden attack as the perfect opportunity to continue his plan. He leapt on top of the barrel again, getting in a few successful steps, though the ache in his abdomen returned with a vengeance. He doubled over in burning pain, watching the cask roll forward with the usual sway of the ship. Drizzt was about to shrug off the ache and lunge forward to gain control again, though he could barely move; feeling as if a flaming sword was being twisted through his midsection.

Catti-brie ran forward, gazing at him in horror as he gagged violently and choked up a small river of blood. The thing in his abdomen was thrashing and a part of Drizzt's mind pictured the siren-spawn clawing his stomach apart and chewing it open.

"_Nau!_" Drizzt screamed through the expanse of the ship, the universe.

He took a few breaths, undoing his weapon belt and letting it drop to the floor as he found the sudden strength to rush forward; the Hunter having his time at last.

The pain meant nothing and whatever ache he felt only fueled his rage. He ran across the galley, kicking the door to the sailors' berth with such a momentum that it splintered from its hinges.

The first creature that met his eye was a mess of green blood before it even knew what had just happened. Drizzt hacked and slashed as much as his energized muscles would allow him. After a few seconds, the first creature was dead in a hail of green and another one was meeting the flurry of blades with only a few claw slashes before going down.

Catti-brie tried to focus on shooting at the two other creatures who rushed at her, though the terrifying sight her husband had become was both beautiful and horrifying to watch. He was a mass of rage and trained muscles, in that moment less like a drow and more like an animal whose only purpose in existence was to kill. She used the sight to whet her own anger, fuel the fire of battle that would destroy all of these terrible creatures.

One volley of arrows managed to leave the two creatures hurting, but still moving. With her own growl, she shoved Taulmaril back in its quiver and drew her sword while charging in. One creature managed one successful parry, though she took it and allowed her momentum to put a deep gash in its throat. The thing started spraying green ooze as its breaths became hissing gurgles. She slashed off one of the other creature's arms to cover her bases before swinging at the throat of the first and lopping off its head.

She thrust into the second creature, though its tail snapped at her leg. The momentary shock against her already-injured calf caused her leg to go numb and fail for a moment; enough time for the thing to claw a deep gash into her side. Catti-brie screamed, hacking her sword wildly, parrying another claw and thrusting her sword into the top of its skull.

The creature dodged its neck enough so the blow merely put a gash on its head as its tail wrapped around her ankle.

A sudden movement came from the side of her vision as what looked to be the red-robed body of a human landed on the creature's head. The creature bit at it, distracted enough to let Catti-brie shove her sword through the bottom of its mouth and lodge through its spine, causing it to drop.

She looked down at the body of a middle-aged man with a thick brown beard covered in blood as his robes were torn. Catti-brie looked up to see Akyth Jhaellin standing in the doorway of another secret room across the deck. He was bare to the waist, though his ebony form was covered in blood and gashes that were quickly healing. He lunged forward to another creature on the side with his shortsword, giving Catti-brie a clear view of a pinkish hand darkening in color in the location where his stump was.

Catti-gave the cleric a momentary look of confusion as she saw Drizzt slice off one of the creature's heads while running for the barrel. Akyth thrust his sword through the thing's throat, though it struggled against the blade. At that time, his hand fully formed and took on a shade of deep ebony as he dislodged the blade, went to a crouch, and grabbed a dagger sticking out of the deck that likely once belonged to a sailor.

Drizzt gave Akyth a glance, though barely noticed his presence. All he knew was the creature coming out of the hatch as he immediately started hacking at it. He cut into its stomach with Twinkle as Icingdeath hacked off one of its legs. The creature in his own stomach was thrashing violently, though it was only more fuel. A tail then wrapped tight around his leg as more claws were coming. He tried to kick off the tail, but it held him as a claw raked across his back. Another tail tried to grab his leg, though he kicked it aside while doing a series of mad thrusts into the one, no two other creatures coming from the hatch.

Another set of claws embedded into his side, pinning him. He thrashed and screamed, seeing their scales and bulbous eyes looking almost as the same as the scales and bulbous eyes of…

He growled again, kicking off one tail and hacking at the second. The claw of a third creature aimed directly at his bulging abdomen. Drizzt hacked the claw off in a motion that sent an ache through his wrist that scared more than hurt him.

"You want your little sister out, bitch!" he growled, thrusting Icingdeath into the creature's stomach and severing its spine.

He looked up at Catti-brie slashing through the midsection of one creature that his her in her weak leg again with its tail. Akyth was on one of the creature's shoulders, slicing his shortsword and dagger across its throat before dropping to the side and repeatedly slicing into its midsection and tail, putting it off balance.

The creature in his stomach thrashed, making the pain return as a dull shadow. The sweet odor returned as well from the lower hold; this time strong to the point of being overwhelming. Drizzt looked and saw the muscle movements of the creatures Catti-brie and Akyth battled were slowing as they lightly stepped back. The siren-spawn grabbing his leg, however, became more aggressive as it jerked him downward.

Drizzt kept his footing, though two creatures were now on him, one slashing at his stomach again though Drizzt shoved his pelvis back, twisting his leg and breaking the creature's grip enough for him to leap up.

The signal was out, the creatures would start swimming out of the ship soon after they subdued the last remaining morsels still aboard. Drizzt managed a small sigh, knowing what had to happen next.

"You two get the fuck out of here now!" he screamed, reaching up for the small lantern on the wall.

"We all go together, godsdamnit!" Catti-brie screamed back, parrying a claw before slashing into the creature's neck before sprinting toward Drizzt with the creature close behind.

"I said get out of here!" Drizzt yelled, aiming Twinkle at Catti-brie and hoping she ran no further. Catti-brie continued sprinting, dodging Drizzt's blade while kicking the cask at the hatch and dodging the tail of the siren-spawn she was fighting.

Blue eyes then met lavender, both bloodshot and rimmed with tears though there was nothing but calm in both gazes. In that one moment, Drizzt understood that she would be willing to sacrifice her life for him; her own, full decision in which Drizzt had no say. In Drizzt, Catti-brie saw a man who knew his time was over.

Drizzt slashed Icingdeath through one creature's shoulder as he palmed Twinkle and reached for the lamp on the wall. The cask sunk though the creatures in the hatch, though a faintly glowing oil lamp followed.

Drizzt managed to step aside, seeing the glass shatter into the cask and catch the wood on fire. He felt a hand on his shoulder as a mass of shadows rose all around him like a thick wall of darkness that chilled through his being, though a bright orange fireball engulfed the universe with a sickening explosion. His hair was swept back by the force, though the rest of him was floating away from the conflagration shrinking below his feet.

He passed through two ceilings and was high in the air as the shadowy outline of the _Bloody Tess _was now a blob of fire in the middle of the ocean growing dimmer as he passed from view and floated toward what looked like a rocky island barely a few miles away.

Drizzt felt himself descending, looking to the side and feeling his heart leap at Catti-brie floated beside him with a similar perplexed expression as Akyth clutched their shoulders as he concentrated on the rocks and sea grass below.

His feet landed on the grass as the chill of shadows suddenly lifted. In the passing chill, the ocean wind assaulted his form as the burning was unbearable. He came to his knees, dropping his scimitars on the ground in front of him as he then he vomited another river of blood.

Every part of his body was wracked with agonizing pain as the creature thrashed as it trying to dislodge itself from his flesh. Drizzt fell to a fetal position on the grass, gritting his teeth as the wave intensified with his crashing adrenaline. He instinctively put a hand on his abdomen, feeling it swollen greater than before as the creature was attacking his body.

A set of hands gently turned him onto his back as he looked up at Akyth's red eyes and saw Catti-brie running toward him.

"The _Sea Sprite's_ not even two thousand feet from this island," she screamed through a sob.

"No time," Akyth said, taking a silver ring from his finger and shoving it onto Drizzt's. "Regeneration ring stolen by Amoragon, ship's wizard. Will help you."

Drizzt gritted his teeth as the pain ripped through his body with every movement fm the parasite. Akyth reached into a large pouch on his belt that had not been there when they first met the cleric, producing a leather pouch he opened to reveal a bottle filled with a cloudy blue mixture, a small sewing kit, and a finely made scalpel.

Catti-brie saw the kit and gasped, though she knew this was necessary; the last effort any of them had to get the creature out. She knelt down to Drizzt's side, clutching his hand as Akyth pulled the bottle from the pouch, ripped off the cork with his teeth, and shoved it between Drizzt's lips. Drizzt gagged up a small part of the liquid in response, though managed to choke down a few more drops as his head felt heavy.

Akyth's nimble fingers undid the buttons on Drizzt's bloody shirt, shoving the panels aside to fully expose his abdomen as a large, pulsating bulge. The pain slowly melted away, though Akyth wasted no time before picking up the blade and positioning it over the center of his abdomen near the bottom.

Drizzt felt a small, itching ache as the blade cut through his flesh though a hand in his hair pulled his head back to face Catti-brie's determined, yet scared face.

"Look at me, Drizzt," she said in a firm, yet quiet tone. "Just keep your eyes on me."

The numbness rapidly spread through his body, making the blade ache less as it scored down the middle of his abdomen, passing beside his navel, and stopping a few inches before his pelvis as Akyth pulled the waist of his trousers down to get better access.

Drizzt gazed into Catti-brie's face, seeing her gaze occasionally turn to the cleric's progress before focusing on Drizzt's eyes. He felt his lids slowly grow heavier, a sensation that scared him to the core as he tried to stay conscious. It was a fight he was losing as he felt his blood trickle steadily down his sides. His body was starting to give out.

"I love you more than anything, Catti-brie," he said, though his voice was weakening.

Catti-brie's thick lips tried to form words, though they were lost a shiver as he saw her reach for the dagger on her belt. Her blue eyes darted back to Drizzt's open abdominal cavity where his stomach was grossly bloated with the pulsating mass.

"I wanted to have many, beautiful children with you, Catti," Drizzt whispered, the fog in his brain growing.

"We will, Drizzt," she managed to say through a sob, her gaze fixed on Drizzt's pale face as she saw him struggling to keep his eyes open. "There is still time."

Akyth let his knees walk back a step as he put a cut into Drizzt's stomach, waiting for the creature to burst forth at any time. Catti-brie drew her dagger, though her other, shaking hand clutched her husbands as she eyed the mass in his stomach was battle-ready hate. Drizzt let his head rest on the rocky ground, knowing it was now time to face his fate.

Catti-brie remained in her battle ready state, watching Akyth peel aside Drizzt's stomach muscle and revealed a black mass inside.

Drizzt looked up and saw her drop the dagger into the ground as she doubled-over, sobbing uncontrollably though her eyes remained fixed in side his body. Akyth reached inside his stomach, his face blanching as his mouth gaped open in shock. Drizzt sighed, sadly knowing what this meant.

A cry sounded though the night that practically paralyzed Drizzt: the piercing wail of a newborn baby.

The ranger's heavy eyes turned up to see Akyth lift a squirming mass of black and blue flesh out of his body. Two chubby arms and two chubby legs flailed wildly, though there were only barely-formed fingernails at the ends of all ten tiny fingers. A small mouth revealed empty gums as the baby boy's strong lungs announced himself to the world.

There was no tail and no bulbous head. The webbing between his fingers, the skin around his pointed ears that resembled a small fin, and the stripes of scales glistening down the sides of his arms and legs and around his chest and forehead below his full head of green hair were the only indicators of aquatic heritage though the rest of his tiny form was clearly humanoid.

Drizzt's fading vision was fixed on the infant as Catti-brie came beside Akyth and took him from the drow's hands as he focused on the end of the umbilical cord still attached to Drizzt's stomach.

It was an image that burned in his mind as his lids became heavier and his consciousness faded.


	6. Part 6

**Siren's Cry**

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are the property of R.A. Salvatore/Wizards of the Coast ©. I don't own them; I'm just examining all their possibilities.

**Chapter 6**

"Oh gods, is he alive?" Robillard said in a tone resembling a gasp.

He stepped from the blue door as Seamus shoved him aside and rushed toward Drizzt's unconscious form. Akyth looked up at him, holding open the skin of his open abdominal cavity and exposing the drow ranger's bruised stomach.

Seamus stood still, his speech locked in a tangle of so many questions and curses, though the wailing of an infant made him finally give up the effort to say anything.

Seamus thought he knew what to expect from this night as if it had played out millions of times in his life. He knew there was only a horrible death awaiting those carrying siren-spawn and exploding ships only produce ashes and corpses.

After watching the _Bloody Tess_ explode in a fireball, Seamus knew what happened to Drizzt and Catti-brie, though steeled his emotions as the rest of the ship erupted in shouts while some crew members openly sobbed. He was at least glad Drizzt died in peace, not letting the creature in his abdomen finish the job of consuming his insides before bursting out of him.

It was a sight he had to witness a moment later as the deckhand Smitty suddenly dropped the mast line he was pulling and doubled over screaming. Seamus' nephew Mikus reached him just as the small siren-spawn burst from his body in a mass of blood and viscera. Mikus hit it with a lightening spell, paralyzing the thing before Captain Deudermont instantly decapitated it with his sword, ending the thing's wretched life instantly.

Through it all, Seamus remained stone-faced; not letting himself be moved by the circumstances that were, after all, only predictable.

Then a familiar purple flare went off in the dark sky, catching the unflappable old priest off guard. The shouts and celebration was deafening; Catti-brie was miraculously alive, somehow escaping the conflagration. Robillard set up the door to transport him and the cleric to the small island where they had seen the flare. In the meantime, Seamus steeled himself again; fully ready to deal with a woman who survived, though lost her husband after risking her own life to save him as he had consoled so many other widows.

Seamus did not allow himself the delusion that Drizzt had escaped only to have the creature burst from him; neither did he maintain hope that the creature had been cut out of him.

Reality, however, looked much different from anything Seamus could ever imagine in all his years.

Catti-brie sat in the grass, clutching a small mass of blue-black flesh, caressing the green hair and rocking the body of what looked to Seamus as nothing other than a newborn baby. The babe, clearly a male, was flailing its tiny arms and giving off strong cries, though cries steadily becoming softer as Catti-brie rocked him and whispered a lullaby in his ear.

Seamus stood for a moment, unable to move a muscle, and just stared at the baby feeling all his experience and reason betray him in the face of what was truly beyond description.

He took a few breaths and moved from his position, kneeling down to Catti-brie with a groan as his crippled leg ached with the movement and reaching for the infant. Catti-brie clutched the boy tighter and flinched away, though Seamus managed to put a hand on her trembling shoulder and guide her to face him again.

Her gaze was locked down on the baby, her face red and a mass of tears and sobs erupted through her singing. Seamus looked at the infant, seeing a tied-off stump where a greenish umbilical cord had been cleanly cut off.

The old cleric looked back at Drizzt, whose flesh was pale as death. He slowly walked his knees to the drow, feeling his icy forehead and putting a finger to the side of his neck to feel a weak, but steady pulse.

"That cannot be the monster," Robillard said, his eyes wide and normally even tone taking a gasp. Seamus looked up, seeing the wizard creeping toward Catti-brie and the baby with the same look of incredulity he must have worn. "That is not what tore through that deck hand."

Catti-brie started crying and trembling harder. Seamus closed his eyes, keeping his attention on both Drizzt and the little creature.

"No, that ain't the creatures we faced neither," Seamus said, finding his voice at last. "Somethin's happened here, wizard, somethin' beyond any of us."

"He still has placenta in stomach," Akyth said, holding the skin closed and watching as it started closing. "We need get him on ship, take out substance before lodges in bowel and kills him."

Seamus looked at what used to be Akyth's stump that now had a working hand. He then looked on Drizzt's hand, seeing a gold ring that glowed with magic.

"Regeneration ring," Robillard said.

"I don't know how you managed to get out that little creature knot, drow," Seamus said to Akyth, removing his brown overcoat and covering Drizzt's body, "or how you got off that ship 'afore it became a big fire ball, but that's stuff we'll be askin' you later."

Robillard reached into his robes and produced a long, blue scarf of fine silk he typically used for certain spells, reaching down and gently covering the infant's body. It was a scarf that had served its purpose and was easily replaced. The baby's cries ceased and he gave a little laugh as the silk tickled his skin and wrapped him in warmth.

Catti-brie loosened her grip on the babe long enough to allow Robillard to wrap his tiny body. The infant's face turned up to the wizard and his eyelids opened to reveal a pair of bright, lavender eyes. The pupils were slits like the sirens and a small tinge of yellow was visible at the center of the iris, though his eyes were the exact same shade as Drizzt's.

Catti-brie stared into those wandering purple eyes, trembling more as more tears poured down.

"Open the door, wizard," Seamus said, taking off his weathered, brown coat and wrapping it around Drizzt's chilled form. "We need to get outta here."

Robillard nodded, feeling a small chill as he managed to pry his eyes away from those tiny, lavender eyes. He walked a few paces away, drew a blue wand, and said a short incantation to make the crackling blue door appear.

Seamus put his arms under Drizzt, nodding for Akyth to do the same. The drow obliged, putting his arms under the body of his kinsman and helping Seamus lift his light form.

Catti-brie came to her feet, putting her head behind the infant's head on instinct. She sighed, looking up and seeing Drizzt's hollow face as Seamus and Akyth carried him into the doorway. She followed close behind, her mind exhausted and not fully registering all of the implications of that night and whether she had been handed a miracle or a curse.

-------------

"Mark well for the rest of yer days, boy, you've met the luckiest of bastards," Seamus said with a sigh, his tone one of quiet awe.

It was the only clear sentence that registered through Drizzt's hazy mind, the realization followed by the feeling of many sets of hands supporting his body. The rest of the voices were just familiar shouts, though the baby's wail pierced through all of that.

He knew he was alive, for how long was another question altogether as he tried desperately to open his eyes and move his body, but every muscle was too weak as if he had been drained of his life essence. He felt no pain, only a lingering sick throughout his entire immobile form. Drizzt was almost relieved when the burning in his stomach returned and his gag reflex responded.

Drizzt coughed, feeling a mass coming up through his throat as it did before.

"Godsdamnit, he is alive," one sailor said.

Drizzt felt himself lowered onto the deck as his body was turned to the side. His coughing became violent as he finally dislodged a mass of red phlegm in a spray of blood. He took a few gasping breaths, trying to hold off the creeping cold.

"Drizzt, you here me?" Seamus said in his ear.

Drizzt managed to open his eyes, looking up at the priest and seeing Mikus, Deudermont, and young Renny standing directly over him. Akyth was in the background, his wrists bound before him in manacles and Catti-brie rushing forward with a blanketed bundle in her arms.

A cough caught in his throat again as his consciousness started fading.

"We got to get him below now," Mikus barked, helping Seamus and the others lift Drizzt off the deck.

"Captain," Drizzt managed to choke out.

"I'm here, friend," Deudermont said, supporting his shoulders and guiding him through the door to the lower deck. "I've already called the Lords of Waterdeep; they are guaranteeing you will be in the hands of the best priests in the city when we land."

"Akyth," Drizzt gasped again, straining to get the words out before the blackness took him for the last time. "Release him. He…saved us."

Drizzt's body went cold, the fog sweeping in and his body went numb. He felt himself lowered onto a soft mattress as Seamus and Mikus closed in. Catti-brie came in from the side, letting Drizzt take a long, lingering view of his wife before his eyes closed.

"Damnit, he's going," Mikus shouted, his finger on the drow's neck as his pulse became steadily weaker.

"Shit," Seamus spat, mentally going through his list of spells to find the one that would stop what was probably the inevitable.

The inevitable happened a moment later; the weak thump of the elf's heart ceased entirely. Seamus shook his head, throwing the coat off and opening the panels of Drizzt's shirt and positioning his hands on his chest while pumping down hard.

Mikus shook his head, though knew some attempt at bringing him back was better than none. He tilted the drow's head back, pinching his nostrils closed and breathing into his mouth, seeing his chest rise and fall in response.

"C'mon, ya damn drow, don't do this now," Seamus muttered, continuing chest compressions though seeing no indication from Mikus they were working.

Seamus glanced at Deudermont, who stared at Drizzt in harried anticipation. Robillard had slipped out as did Akyth and his handlers. A small group of sailors who had also come down were looking at the scene, some clutching their respective holy symbols while some just stared in hollow awe.

"Move aside for a bit, boy," Seamus said, reaching on his middle finger for a sapphire ring that he normally used to hurl lightening bolts at enemies. He twisted the gem to his palm, hoping what he tried next would be another miracle.

He positioned the ring a few inches over Drizzt's heart and said the command word. A flash of light pulsed into his chest, causing it to thrust upwards in response before his body was thrown back on the bench.

Mikus immediately stepped back into place, placing a finger on the side of his neck.

"By the gods, yer a genius," Mikus said, tilting Drizzt's head back and feeling steady breaths. "His heart's beatin' and he's breathin'."

A mass of laughs and sighs of relief echoed through the room. Seamus closed his eyes for a moment and breathed deeply, looking over and seeing Drizzt's chest rise and fall. He took a glance back at Deudermont, seeing him nodding with a slow smile. Seamus' eyes fell to Catti-brie, who stared at Drizzt with her face a mass of tears. She clutched the baby hard to her bosom, kissing his green hair before burying her head in the brown blanket wrapped around his body.

Seamus looked back at his nephew, trying to get his reasoning back in order before proceeding.

"The other drow was right," he said. "He's got somethin' still in his belly and this is gonna happen again if we don't get it out."

"Is he stable enough?" Mikus asked

"He's as stable as he's gonna get," Seamus replied. "I need everyone outta here. We still got a bit more work to do."

The group of sailors gave various grunts and shouts of recognition before filing out of the room, many giving Seamus and Mikus pats on the back and words of encouragement on their way out.

Seamus looked back and saw Captain Deudermont coming beside Catti-brie and putting an arm around her. She sobbed harder, falling into his embrace. Another sailor came beside her, a large, red-haired woman named Annie Masey, who immediately looked at the baby. Seamus knew Annie had been a midwife in her younger years before she felt the pull to the sea.

"We shouldn't just leave that creature with her," Mikus whispered in Seamus' ear. "We don't know if that's a babe or the devil-spawn in a different form."

"I'm not too worried about that, lad," Seamus replied. "I've seen how the spawn acts when it's out of it's host and I've seen how newborns are out the womb. Trust me, this is a babe. How much he's like the drow or anyone else I don't know, but I'm not too concerned. Get the tools out, he's ready for us to get this over with."

Mikus looked back down at Drizzt Do'Urden's hollow, pale-as-a-drow-ghost face with a shiver, considering all he had witnessed. He opened a small cupboard in the corner of the room, collecting the surgeon's kit and a few bottles of various healing potions.

--------------

"We will be arriving at the port of Waterdeep in less than half an hour," Deudermont said, leaning in the doorway of Drizzt and Catti-brie's cabin.

Catti-brie sat on the cot cradling the baby in her arms and feeding him from a skin of goat milk. Seamus sat beside her, making faces at the boy and making him beam with a smile. Catti-brie managed to look up from the infant to see Seamus stick his tongue out and cross his eyes, prompting the first laugh she had given in too long.

Her nerves were still shot, though her senses were slowly returning. She had convinced herself a thousand times that night Drizzt was going to die. Every moment where the anticipated end was at hand, she tried her best not to fall apart; the moment he was almost dragged down by the siren-spawn, the explosion that took out the _Bloody Tess_, the thrashing of the creature inside him, all those many scenes. Every time the worst was imminent, Drizzt would pull out of it, only to be placed in greater peril than before.

She stopped anticipating anything when her husband fell unconscious that last time, the clerics shouting that his heart had stopped beating. It was the most horrible moment of her life, though she got through it without completely losing her mind.

The baby was her hope; a small, peaceful creature with Drizzt's dark skin and lavender eyes. This was the creature that was supposed to be born in a mass of destruction. Instead he was born in wails and little limbs exploring the world. Catti-brie had seen malice in many eyes; though saw only innocence in this tiny creature. It was an innocence she had to rely on for her own sanity; a hope that life had emerged from this pile of death.

It was that hope that convinced her Drizzt had to live; against every odd, he would survive and know the ultimate triumph over the siren's attack as it came in his own flesh.

So far, she had been right.

"How's your ward, priest?" Deudermont asked Seamus with a weak smirk.

"My ward's alive," he replied, slowly turning his head to the captain. "We got the green gook from his stomach with little issue. Had to cut out a chunk the size of a large sand dollar to remove the stump where the umbilical cord had attached to the intersection of his stomach and his intestine, but that was our worst hassle. I swear if Akyth had not put that regeneration ring on his finger, your old friend would have bled to death at the least. Instead he healed; growin' back the piece of his gut he lost and heal all his other wounds. His spleen was a mashed mess when we opened him up, but the damn thing healed itself, sparin' him of havin' an organ taken out."

Deudermont sighed, his smile widening.

"He ain't outta the shark pit yet," Seamus said. "His body got put through more than it could handle and that little episode involvin' his heart stoppin' only made it worse. To put it lightly, he's gonna be takin' a little nap for at least the next few days."

"A coma," Deudermont said with a sigh.

"Aye, though a shallow one," Seamus replied. "His eyes move like he's dreamin' and if you tap his knee, he'll kick ya. He'll come out of this, I'm sure. For an elf, he's a tough son of a bitch." Seamus turned to Catti-brie, who was actually paying attention to the conversation with a sad eye instead of putting all her focus on the baby. "Go to him lass. He's gonna need to hear yer voice after comin' through all this."

Catti-brie nodded, coming to her feet and walking from the room.

Deudermont's eyes followed her down the hall until she met Mikus at the door of the healer's cabin and he let her in. The captain them looked back at Seamus.

"I'm speechless," Deudermont said. "She's carried that little creature around since she came back aboard and thought nothing of it. What exactly is that babe?"

"Did you have yer wizard look at him?" Seamus asked.

"Robillard did a few detection spells on him," Deudermont said. "He found no poison, no hidden auras or forms, and determined that boy is about as magical as your average elf. That is the reason I'm not as worried, though more curious."

"If you want my opinion, I'd call him a water genasi," Seamus said, laying back. "Has all the qualities of one, looks like a human with the features of a fish. Though technically a genasi is spawned by a human and an elemental, and out friend in there's not a human. Though, mere details."

"How the hells could a siren egg form into a genasi, how could Drizzt have something in his stomach that could be easily cradled and burped," the captain said, his frustration and confusion almost overwhelming.

Seamus shook his head and threw up his hands.

"There's been a lot of miracles from this, captain," he said. "I'm just callin' it a blessin'; who gives a damn how it happened, who made it happen, or why this is goin' on at all. Before tonight I thought I'd seen it all. Now I know I know nothin' and it warms me heart."

Deudermont looked back down the hallway, peering through the open door of Mikus and Seamus cabin. Drizzt was lying still, bundled in many blankets as a loose, green tunic encased his form. Catti-brie sat beside him on a stool, clutching one of his limp hands and allowing her tears to fall onto his fingers. The baby in her arms reached over and grabbed one of his knuckles.

"There have been many blessings this evening," Deudermont said, prying his gaze away from the new family.

Seamus merely nodded.

--------------

"Daddy, daddy!" the little voice called through the field of white.

Drizzt squinted through the blinding snow and saw the dwarven caves ahead with the small figure scrambling in his direction. He stood confused for a moment, staring at the little girl with flowing white hair and dusky skin running toward him almost on slow motion.

Soon two tiny arms were wrapped around his legs. He reached down and scooped up his little girl, her white hair flowing about her chubby face like the snow itself. He looked into her blue eyes and saw them dance with a pure light that warmed his soul.

"Papa's home!" another small voice called. Drizzt looked down and saw another child; his young son, tugging at his green cloak.

"Where's your hat?" Drizzt lightly scolded, noticing the reddish tinge on the small points of his ears. "Stumpet knitted that for you herself."

"It's not that cold," the boy huffed.

Drizzt shook his head with a smile, reaching down and tousling his son's white mop of hair while his little daughter rubbed her chilly cheek against his; a feeling he savored.

"'Bout damn time ya got here," Catti-brie called coming out of the cave and pulling her brown cloak closer around the large, round bulge that was her torso.

Drizzt did a light sprint toward her, glad he managed to settle matters with the orcs before she gave birth. He threw an arm around her waist and pulled her in for a warm, welcome kiss. The little girl laughed and his son groaned as Catti-brie chuckled in response. Drizzt's hand brushed her backside before resting on her belly, feeling their child kick and bringing him to laugh with glee.

"Did you kill any orcs, papa?" the boy said a little too enthusiastically for Drizzt's liking.

"Now, now," he said. "Let's just say all of us are a lot safer. Now isn't that nicer."

The boy lowered his head a little and nodded.

"We eating bunnies, daddy," the girl said.

"Oh?" Drizzt said, turning to Catti-brie in curiosity.

"Bruenor went out with…oh here they are now," Catti-brie said, looking to the side.

A burly figure in furs and a long, red beard appeared through the snow holding three fine looking rabbits in his hand.

"Ah, elf!" the dwarf exclaimed. "Thought you'd be late for a fine feast."

Drizzt looked at Bruenor and the lithe figure coming to his side. His green hair was covered in snow and the cold wet made the scales on his forehead a bit more obvious against his blue-black skin. His first son, still a child but quickly becoming a man, held up four rabbits, two in each gloved hand as his handsome face beamed with a wide smile and a triumphant laugh.

"Impressive," Drizzt said.

"Let's just say I built a better rabbit trap," the boy said, his voice a bit deeper than when Drizzt last saw him.

Drizzt smiled, taking a good look at his boy and seeing a familiar glint in his bright lavender eyes as the snow fell harder and washed his vision in a haze of comforting, white.

The white gently faded to a gray as a tingle came through his body from his toes to his face. He took a few deep breaths, breathing in warm air and smelling light wood smoke and fresh cotton. The warm comfort of a blanket over his body registered as did the slow ache through every muscle as if he tumbled down a cliff.

The ache was soothed by the feel of fine fingers brushing through his thick hair and massaging his scalp. Another soft hand wrapped around one of his own hands as he smelled crisp leather and the general perfume of his Catti-brie.

"I got you something today," she said softly, removing her hand from his and replacing her grip with a tough, yet somewhat silky piece of leather that had been carved with various designs. She turned it over in his hand, letting him feel the leather scabbard at the end of the belt. "The tanner knew who I was and knew who it was for, so he made it perfectly. When ya get yer swords out, you can try it out, but he put a scimitar in each. All the pouches are here too, including one for Guen. Got you something else too." She turned the leather in his hand until he felt the handle of a finely carved wooden hunting knife. "Just like the one ya lost."

She clasped his hand again, closing his fingers around the belt and gently placed it on the mattress by his side. Drizzt put all the energy he could manage into closing his fingers further around the belt, though he merely felt his palm close in a little more. It was a good start.

"Bruenor's comin' tomorrow," Catti-brie continued. "Managed to pull himself away from the orcs to see ya. Regis and Wulfgar's comin' too, maybe Colson if her cold's passed. Lady Alustriel told them yesterday you were…a bit under the weather. The Lady's bringin' them all over so you'll have a bit more company. Captain Deudermont wants to stick around too, cancel his next voyage just to be here. I said he should do what he feels for himself."

Her voice became more strained with every word, the threat of tears becoming more and more real. Drizzt sighed in response, pulling his will further to her voice to do anything except lie there. He wanted to run his fingers through her hair and kiss her, a series of actions he was determined to do.

Drizzt put more energy into his fingers until a bit of the strength returned and he fully clasped the belt tight. A sound escaped his lips akin to a sighing chuckle as the fog lifted further.

"You finally going to join us, elf?" Catti-brie said with a small laugh, caressing the side of his face. "You been asleep for two damn days, I think ye want to join the fun."

His eyelids became lighter and managed to flutter before opening to see his wife's face, a visage he feared was lost to him forever save for from the beyond.

"Good morning, handsome dog," she said, leaning in and planting her lips on his.

Drizzt paused to savor the kiss before finding more strength to join in, wrapping her lips as he managed to lift one arm up and run his fingers through her hair. He could feel a tear drip from her cheek onto his, making his own eyes well with water as soft sobs escaped him.

He was alive. After preparing for death at the teeth of a monster, he was here now embracing his wife; his body a mass of aches and his senses numbed from prolonged unconsciousness, but still alive. It was one of the greatest feelings he had ever known.

Catti-brie pulled back, staring into his eyes and caressing his face as her face beamed in a smile which Drizzt returned. He moved his lips, finding the concentration to say something.

"I…love…you," he managed to whisper.

"I love you too, Drizzt," Catti-brie said in a cross between a laugh and a sob.

"Where…are we," he said, feeling his voice growing stronger.

"Waterdeep," she said. "Mielikki's temple. The second the _Sea Sprite_ came to port, there was a mass of city guards with Lady Laeral, Lady Alustriel's sister, waitin' to bring you here. The Captain told the Lords you were in a bad way and they flocked out. Yer a hero here, Drizzt."

Drizzt smiled, feeling both a bit embarrassed at the attention and infinitely appreciative. He was known here for his deeds and honored despite his heritage. The fact the grand Temple of Mielikki took him in and cared for his injured body was compliment enough.

"The crew?" he asked.

"All are fine," Catti-brie said. "Seamus and Robillard saw my flare on the island and took us all aboard. We got to Waterdeep around sun up…all but…"

"Smitty," he said with a sigh, not wanting to think on the circumstances. "What of Akyth?"

"He rode aboard in manacles," she said, "He was treated well, taken on shore and made to answer a few questions for the navy. After he gave all he knew, Deudermont plead for his freedom like you asked though he vanished from his cell before they could let him go."

Drizzt nodded slowly. Akyth likely escaped the prison as he saved them all from the Tess; a powerful transport that ignored walls, fire, and all physical obstacles.

"The watch said those walls had magic wards on them," Catti-brie said, almost reading his thoughts. "The gaoler said no one could use any transport magic through them, unless they used a special magic."

"No surprise," Drizzt said, managing to lift his head and adjust it on the feather pillow.

His eyes scanned his room, seeing plain wooden walls with a few tapestries of forest scenes and running unicorns. Catti-brie sat in a plush chair that looked like it had been hewn from pine branches with little finishing, a style also seen in the small table by his bed that held a clay pitcher.

The longer he kept his eyes open, the more his mind awakened; recalling a series of images that had been dormant for two days that were making themselves known now. He clutched Catti-brie's hand, recalling the wail of a small child; the last thing he heard before falling unconscious. Catti-brie gazed at him, as if wanting to continue the conversation in an uncomfortable direction.

"Catti…" he said, almost unable to say what he was thinking next, "the creature inside me. It looked like…I swore it was a child."

Catti-brie clutched his hand tighter, trying to move her lips but not able to say anything. She suddenly stood up, kissing Drizzt's hand and letting it go as she walked to the door and opened it a crack. Drizzt put his head back, his keen ears hearing Catti-brie exchanging words with what was likely a priestess in the hallway before she turned around and looked at him.

Drizzt looked at his wife curiously, knowing something was afoot and bracing himself for whatever was revealed to him next.

A silver-haired elven woman in green robes with a wooden pendant shaped like a unicorn head entered his room carrying a squirming bundle in her hands. Drizzt was frozen, hearing a few giggles coming from the green blanket. The woman walked forward, lowering her arms and fully revealing the mass of green hair, lightly scaled skin, and beaming lavender eyes of the baby Akyth pulled form his stomach two days ago.

Drizzt's lower lip trembled, staring at the infant in awe and marveling at his dark skin and those bright eyes that nearly matched his. He pictured this boy fourteen years from then bringing four rabbits home to his family for dinner, embracing his father after his long absence from home, and sharing with him stories of hunting and maybe of the young lass who caught his eye in the square.

Before he ever laid eyes on this creature, he was staring down hundreds of other hideous creatures; looking at their bulbous eyes and misshapen forms while feeling one of them thrash in his stomach. Now he was staring at the thing that was in his stomach and bore his own flesh. He allowed himself to think for a moment he had scored the ultimate victory; the sirens assailed him, stole his seed to create a monster that would kill him. Now that giggling little monster looked like him.

On instinct, Drizzt managed to put his arms up, beckoning the priestess to fill them with the child. The priestess gently lowered the infant down, allowing his small form to rest comfortably against Drizzt's chest while his weak arms supported him. Drizzt's hand found a supportive position behind the baby's head. The baby stuck his thumb in his mouth while staring at Drizzt in amused curiosity, examining every feature and gently flexing his muscles to get more comfortable.

Drizzt ran a finger through the baby's hair, gently feeling the soft scales on his forehead out of curiosity and finding they were no different from calloused skin. Drizzt smiled, staring at the child, who reached up and grabbed a lock of his long, white hair and tugged on it merrily.

A million thoughts went through his mind at once. Perhaps this boy was brought into the world with the capacity to do good instead of the savage evil of his kin; an obvious comparison to his own heritage that brought tears in his eyes. Now he had the chance to raise this child as a good man, give him all the love and caring he needed and guide him as he grew older. In these small eyes, Drizzt saw hope in his own flesh; he saw his son.

And his own son had also been born with a dagger over his chest.

A few more tears escaped Drizzt's eyes as he started sobbing with the realization of everything swept him over. Catti-brie sat down in the chair and put an arm around his shoulders, kissing the top of his head and allowing him to bury his face in her shoulder.

"I will return shortly to see how you are doing," the priestess said, bowing and walking across the room to the door where she exited.

Drizzt sobbed into Catti-brie's shoulder a bit more before his tears flowed slower and he gradually calmed. He gave out a series of heavy sighs as Catti-brie embraced him tighter and ran her other hand over the baby's head. Drizzt absorbed this moment, feeling the comfort of his wife's shoulder while cradling his son's small body in his arms.

Drizzt Do'Urden at last had a real family to call his own.

Author's Note: Next chapter, the conclusion of "Siren's Cry."


	7. Epilogue

**Siren's Cry**

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are the property of R.A. Salvatore/Wizards of the Coast ©. I don't own them; I'm just examining all their possibilities.

**Epilogue**

"_What am I going to do, elf," Bruenor said to me a few days ago, "I've got a girl and a boy who ain't mine. I've got a granddaughter from my son who ain't his. Now I got a grandson who was birthed by me son-in-law."_

"_At least he doesn't have a red beard," I replied, remembering the conversation I had with him over drinks in Luskan many years ago. _

_It was shortly after we learned that Wulfgar had adopted Colson, a subject that prompted him to mention my relationship with Catti-brie. After that conversation I learned he would bless our union, even if it was only talked about then._

_Several years later the circumstances were much different. Catti-brie and I were blissfully together and looking forward to our lives together when fate took a dramatic turn._

_We had talked about children for years even before we admitted our love for each other, though in those times the prospect of having half-drow children scorned by the world was more a concern in our minds than a happy prospect. After we put all our cares and shallow worries behind, it became a topic with "someday" always tacked on it. _

_Now it is a reality in a way that no one could have expected; a literal miracle given to us in place of what should have been a tragedy. I now look over to the wicker bassinette beside my bed and the little creature inside sucking on the snout of the plush toy in the shape of a merry silver dragon, his eyes watching the lamp on the other side of my bed flicker as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world._

_In those lavender eyes, the same shade as mine, everything is fascinating as he has only been in the world for six days. Sometimes I will look in those eyes and envy him, wishing I could see the world through a glass of pure innocence where everything is new and everything is wonderful. _

_That has not been such an impossible prospect as of late. Ever since waking from my coma two days after I gave up hope of having a future and two days after that promise of death was nearly fulfilled, I truly feel I have another chance at living to the absolute fullest. I have escaped death many times and have never felt this happy to be alive as I do now. Then again, my heart had never ceased its beat before. _

_Then again, I had never woken up to find I had indeed created a life. I have taken too many lives than I care to think on and always exist with the hope my deeds have saved many lives. The fact a life came from my seed in the form of a dark-skinned babe with my eyes still puts a grin on my face and a tear in my eye every time I think on it. _

_The fact that life was taken from my body is another reality I only now comprehend. When the sirens accosted me below the waters, I only knew a sense of violation; my most intimate being subject to a creature's whim. I had no idea that night I would, essentially, become with child. _

_I have come to regard pregnancy as a sacred state blessed to a female. In Menzoberranzan, females had the power to arbitrarily give and take life on their whim; motherhood was symbol of superiority over males. I have obviously not followed that same belief, though the idea of pregnancy as being sacred has always lingered though more in the promise of a new life and a happy future._

_It was an experience that was mine though I was unaware it was happening. A part of me wishes now that I had known I was with child for those five months, though it would have done more harm than good. If Mikus Norey had known that night Smitty and I had the creatures inside us, the result would have been administering powerful potions to both of us or outright removing the eggs by cutting us open. Mikus had no idea what we had encountered, though; a fact over which he has lamented and expressed great remorse. Seamus has repeatedly assured him that the sirens are so rare he had no way of knowing what we had encountered. Seamus and I have also made sure Mikus holds the infant for at least a minute to remind him that much good has come from this nightmare. _

_I can only now look at all the curses as actual blessings; waking with great nausea and having to regularly loosen my belt were indicators of something happy though they appeared to be the symptoms of worse things at the time. The thrashing in my stomach that I thought was the creature clawing through me was the kicking of a baby ready to come out, though this part did cause me much harm. With this in hindsight, when one of my attending priestesses noticed I was producing a small amount of milk I was more receptive than repulsed of her suggestion that I nurse the baby. It was an experience both incredibly awkward and gratifying at the same time. _

_The little one is indeed like any infant. Since he came to Mielikki's temple, he has been scanned, analyzed, examined, and scrutinized by a number of clerics, including priestesses of Deep Shashelas and Eilistraee to offer aquatic and drow perspectives respectively. _

_In their final analyses, Seamus' opinion that the child is a form of water genasi was ruled to be the most accurate. He is essentially the child of an elemental ancestor and a humanoid. His anatomy is like that of any child and, though he rapidly grew to full term in the span of a few hours, he was the normal size of a baby only a few days old. This remained the same after he had been regularly fed milk. I was told the lifespans of any planetouched creature favors the humanoid parent, meaning he could live for hundreds of years._

_They also said he exhibited a magical aura like any elf or genasi. A few more tests revealed he breathed normally underwater yet could stay in a dry area for any amount of time. He had no malicious aura and displayed the same reactions and senses of any healthy baby._

_As for how he became a genasi and not a full siren, there are a few theories. Mistress Althya, a priestess of the Dark Maiden and a drow of great kindness and generosity, said it is likely due to my birth into drow nobility. Drow nobility is not merely a matter of title as it is of "true breeding;" the highest houses have had centuries to strengthen their bloodline and eliminate any "impurities." In such a case, it would explain why my seed may produce an infant from a siren egg and the seed of one like Thezz Jhaellin, a native of the worst section of the Braeryn, would only create another siren. I am reminded of creatures called draegloths, the spawn of a powerful drow priestess and a demon that are said to maintain many drow features regardless of their father's appearance. _

_Regardless, this type of birth was only recorded once before. According to an old Waterdeep record, a tiefling noble named Mothanus, the son of a powerful devil in Bane's service, took a siren into his bed during a sea voyage and his cleric recognized the life inside him a tenday later. However, all knew he was carrying an infant, which Mothanus interpreted as a blessing from Bane; a force of supreme evil that would become a powerful tool. Like in my case, the baby was cut from him five months later and Mothanus raised him as a minion of wickedness. When the child, whose name has been lost to history, was ten-years-old he burned Moanthus alive and took all his lands and holdings. No record exists of what happened to Mothanus' son after that time. _

_I am allowing for the possibility that our story will have a much happier outcome. When Nalaith, a sea elf and priestess of Deep Shashelas, offered to take the infant to her city of T'Quession to be raised by a family of her kin, I politely yet immediately refused. Since the moment I saw him, I knew that babe was my son and wanted to raise him as such._

_Catti-brie has stood by that decision, even telling me she desperately wanted to take him home in his first moment out of my stomach. She said if I had died, she would have taken him back to Mithril Hall without question. She only waited until my recovery when I could form a solid opinion before making any plans. _

_The reactions of our other three companions was a point of concern in the day before their arrival to Waterdeep. I wanted them to know all the happened; they are the only other true family I have and I felt I should put my trust in them. _

_When Bruenor, Regis, and Wulfgar entered my room, it was an emotional moment for all. The three had only been told I had contracted a stomach parasite so aggressive that it had to be physically removed. I was half awake and still weak at the time but I managed to explain everything with the help of Catti-brie and Seamus, who came to provide more technical explanations. _

_As expected, Bruenor and Regis reacted with dropped jaws and disbelief, though they warmed almost immediately. Catti-brie putting the baby in her adopted father's arms and within a minute, the little one's giggles made Bruenor's rough exterior melt into a mass of coos. _

_Bruenor held him while Regis asked a string of questions, eyeing my son incomplete awe. I was more concerned about Wulfgar's reaction since he stood against the wall, crossed his arms, and shifted uncomfortably. I could only imagine the reasons for his discomfort, whether due to the manner the baby arrived in the world or just the fact he was here in general._

_After an hour, my strength was waning and my friends kindly filed out though promised they would stay around. Wulfgar lingered as the others exited and I prepared myself for a difficult conversation. Instead his features softened slightly and his voice cracked as he told me of his time in the Abyss when succubae would force themselves on him, show him the product of his stolen seed, and devour them before his eyes._

"_If I could have taken one of them home with me to raise as my own, I would have given anything for that opportunity," he said. "Decide what you will about this boy, though I see you have been given a great gift."_

_As he left I knew I had just heard words that I would carry for the rest of my life._

_In the past few days Wulfgar has considerably warmed to his nephew and all my companions have kept me regular and appreciated company. Catti-brie shows him off any chance she can get, beaming maybe like a proud father though we all call her Mama. Like the rest of Bruenor's family, Catti-brie may not be the baby's real mother though he will know her as such; the most caring and loving mother a boy can have._

_We are still deciding on his name, though the likely candidate is Sam. Catti-brie remembers Bruenor's cousin Samar Battlehammer, a gentle soul and a powerful warrior who was killed by a tundra yeti when Catti-brie was just a child. She said she swore her first child would be named after him, a promise she could fulfill with our son. I like the name, yet a part of me knows his full name will be revealed soon. Regardless, we will decide on his name officially when we return to the Hall._

_In the meantime, I have been receiving many visitors over the past few days including Lady Alustriel and Lady Laeral Silverhand, who teleported me to the temple when Lord Piergiron put the word out to the rest of Waterdeep's rulers about my situation. I have heard from many that our actions saved T'Quession and Tharqualnaar, the cities of the sea elves and merfolk respectively, from an onslaught of sirens that could have killed thousands. While a part of me would hope my actions are carrying me above my race in this instance, I only know that my mission was successful and innocent lives were saved._

_Captain Deudermont has given me much information over the past few days. The _Sea Sprite_ remains docked for a period of rest after the deaths of eleven crew members and my own injuries. The captain has been a regular visitor and Robillard has occasionally dropped by with a few words and gone on his business._

_The captain received a sizable reward from the Lords for the destruction of the _Bloody Tess_ and said Catti-brie and I are entitled to a lions share. Both of us took our usual modest purse; the captain needed that gold more than we. _

_However, Lady Laeral said she heard from her contacts in Skullport that a drow had claimed a sizable reward for bringing Captain Woodbury's hand bearing distinctive scars and tattoos to a trading company. It was obvious it was Akyth, given the large pouch he wore on his belt as we left the ship._

_While I would rather see that reward in more legitimate hands, I am pleased that Akyth is rebuilding his life and perhaps a little more bounty hunting may prove a more productive venture than piracy. I still owe him a life debt for not only getting us off that ship but also delivering my son. He may have had his own reasons for saving us, though he did so nonetheless and for that I will be forever grateful. Occasionally my thoughts will turn on him and sincerely hope he has found a productive life on the Surface that will steer him free from the treachery and murder of our kin._

_In the midst of all this concern, I have been doing my best to look after myself. Much of my strength has returned and my aches from everything that happened are slowly melting away. I found after I awoke that Akyth's regeneration ring had been removed from my finger to take pressure off my body and let it start healing naturally. Despite the ring, there is still a faint, raised line running down the length of my abdomen from both incisions; a scar I am truly proud of now. _

_Catti-brie and I have been taking walks around the temple's lush wooded surroundings. A few days ago I was walking with a cane, now I walk freely. I am told I will make a full recovery though I still need to rest. The priestesses have kept my son's bassinette in my room for the past two days as feeding, burping, and changing him have been simple tasks that have returned my much of my strength and focus._

_I should be leaving the temple for Mithril Hall in the next few days, our new family finally settling home and starting a new life. I indeed feel as if much of my life is starting anew at this point, a fresh start to bring up this little man in a good home with a loving family. I will try to be the best father I can be, trying my best to give my son the happy childhood I was denied. I cannot help but think of my own father in such a time, hoping that Zaknafein is watching over his grandson and smiling. _

Drizzt dunked his quill in the inkwell and stared down at the pages in his leather-bound journal. He closed his eyes for a moment before looking at the little form in the bassinette whose eyes were now closed as his chest rose and fell with peaceful breaths. Drizzt smiled before gently blowing on the ink in his book.

He was about to close the book and try to enter Reverie until his attention was taken by a loud whine from the bassinette. He looked over to see the baby fussing while looking around.

Drizzt leaned over and scooped his son into his arms when he felt what was agitating the baby; a faint chill resembling the sensation he felt while leaving the ship with…

He cradled the baby in one arm while putting his journal on the floor, casually reaching under the bed for one of his scimitars. The blackness at the front of the room took a humanoid shape as Drizzt took the hilt of the weapon.

"That will not be needed," a familiar voice said in the drow tongue.

"I thought not, but one can never be too careful," Drizzt replied in his native language.

Akyth Jhaellin stepped from the shadows and kept a casual stance. He now wore a simple black coat with a fine white shirt and black leggings with high black boots. His short, white hair was neatly combed as his black mask was likely in another location on his person.

Akyth gave a respectful bow, which Drizzt returned with a long nod of his head. Twinkle was still in one hand, though low to the floor and ready to be dropped at any time.

"I wanted to say my formal farewells," Akyth said. "I am going to Sshamath and take a priest position at the Temple of the Masked Mage."

"You're not making another attempt at the Surface?" Drizzt said, his tone both surprised and disappointed.

"Not now," Akyth replied. "I want to build my resources a bit more, find my talents on my own. I tagged after my brother for so long I did not know who I was. He's gone and all I have is myself; I have to live with that now."

Drizzt noted the heaviness of Akyths voice despite the calm exterior. He was indeed mourning his brother, though expressing a desire to move on.

"You have my best wishes," Drizzt said.

"For what it's worth, you have been a bit of an inspiration to me," Akyth said. "I was barely out of my childhood during the Battle of Mithril Hall, though I remember joining my fellows in singing for your victory."

"Is that why you helped me?" Drizzt asked, though wishing he had kept his mouth shut.

"It is," Akyth said with a smile. "One of Vhaeraun's tenets is to aid any rogue in need, though it was an extra honor helping such a powerful dissident to the Spider Queen."

Drizzt smiled and nodded. "Words cannot express my gratitude for all that you have done," Drizzt said with a sigh, his guard relaxing slightly. "Catti-brie, I, and this little one are all alive because of you."

"I was merely doing my duty," Akyth replied. "I spent seven years as a street surgeon in the Braeryn, and that was one of the cleanest operations I have ever performed; one of the few that did not involve a knife to my throat no less."

"You have a promising career," Drizzt said.

"Perhaps," Akyth replied, slowly creeping forward.

The cleric stretched his hand and gently patted the baby's green hair. Drizzt allowed the touch, though kept his guard up. The baby looked up at him and gave a few coos.

"Have you ever seen a _salmryn_?" Akyth asked.

"A rare gem that sometimes forms on the bottom of Lake Donigarten," Drizzt replied with a smile. "Green fungus that has been compressed for thousands of years, I believe I have seen one or two in my travels."

"A gem from the fungus, friend," Akyth said, tickling underneath the baby's chin. "Something beautiful forming out of something so disgusting; remind you of anything?"

Drizzt chuckled, looking down at his son and nodding.

"The same shade of green as well," Akyth said, lightly tousling the baby's hair and producing a little laugh.

Akyth pulled back his hand before extending it to Drizzt. Drizzt smiled wider, dropping his scimitar and clasping Akyth's forearm.

"You take care of yourself," Drizzt said. "I see a future on the Surface for you, do not rule that out."

"You watch out for yourself too," Akyth replied, "especially this one right here. I see a bright future for him, especially if his father is wise."

Akyth pulled his hand back and faded in the shadows with a wave. A moment later, the shadows dissipated into the regular darkness of the room.

Drizzt laid on the bed, gently placing the baby on the pillow beside him while coming to his side and facing his son. The baby stuck a thumb in his mouth and started back at his father. Drizzt ran a finger over his green hair with a smile.

"Salmryn," he said, the name coming to him at last. "Salmryn Do'Urden."

Salmryn laughed and playfully flailed his arms, hitting Drizzt in the nose and producing a laugh.

"I'm glad you approve," Drizzt said.

THE END

Author's Note: "Siren's Cry" began as a possibly terrible idea that refused to go away. The concept of male pregnancy (or mpreg) is one I experimented with on an original character many years ago, though it made me cringe soon after that plotline was said and done.

That was my typical reaction to the concept from then on. Recently, however, I came across an original story by Kaydee and sessiebabe called "The Mickel and Calix Story" that presented male pregnancy in a relatively believable way. For some reason the idea that this concept might work in a Drizzt storyline came up and refused to go away. It started as a brief concept that it could be Lolth's little prank to implant him with a spider egg, though I hate Lolth and I wasn't a fan of making that into a full scale fic.

The idea started evolving and the more it evolved, the more opportunities I saw for some great plot possibilities. Recently finding out a friend of mine on DeviantArt is expecting a baby further propelled this idea.

In the end, my vision was to present a situation of male pregnancy as something horrifying; all the usual things one associates with pregnancy can become terrifying if put in the right context (i.e. bulging abdomen, nausea, little creature thrashing inside, et cetera). The final result would be that cute, happy ending that one hopes to see with the end of any pregnancy. I also admit I'm not in any way a medical professional or student, so there was a lot of fudging details in this piece.

I drew much inspiration from the chest-bursting creature from "Alien," though I actually did not see that entire movie until before writing the last chapter. Another huge inspiration was the movie "Resident Evil," with a setting that is essentially a high-tech dungeon crawl matched with the fear that one member of the party will become, or in this case produce, the party's main enemy. I also listened to a lot of 30 Seconds to Mars while writing this, especially the big scene when we finally meet Salmryn.

As for Salmryn himself, he will become a reoccurring character as this storyline will continue. I have an idea for a sequel with him as an adult, so that might be coming soon.

Huge thanks to msfeistus who has known about the main plotline from the beginning and has let me bounce ideas off her. A huge thanks to all the readers who have braved this fic, especially knowing it was mpreg; all your comments and reviews have been a big help.


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