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Bruenor walked up the rocky slope withthe sah point of the southern end of the dwarven valley To the people of Ten-Toho often saw the dwarf standing h colue that lined the valley had come to be known as Bruenor’s Clihts of Termalaine, and beyond them the dark waters of Maer Dualdon, spotted occasionally by the running lights of a fishing boat whose resolute crew stubbornly refused to come ashore until they had landed a knucklehead

The dell above the tundra floor and the lowest of the countless stars that sparkled the night The celestial dome seemed polished by the chill breeze that had blown since sunset, and Bruenor felt as though he had escaped the bonds of earth

In this place he found his dreams, and ever they took him back to his ancient home Mithril Hall, home of his fathers and their’s before theout in praise to Moradin and Dumathoin Bruenor was merely an unbearded boy when his people had delved too deep into the bowels of the world and had been driven out by the dark things in dark holes He was now the eldest survivingthem who had witnessed the treasures of Mithril Hall

They had made their home in the rocky valley between the two northern before any humans, other than the barbarians, had come to Icewind Dale They were a poor re dwarven society, a band of refugees beaten and broken by the loss of their hoe They continued to dwindle in nuh the ood, the dwarves seemed destined to fade away into oblivion

When Ten-Towns had sprung up, though, the luck of the dwarves rose considerably Their valley was just north of Bryn Shander, as close to the principle city as any of the fishing villages, and the hu off invaders, were happy to trade for the ed

But even with the bettered to recover the ancient glory of his ancestors He viewed the arrival of Ten-Towns as a temporary stay from a problem that would not be resolved until Mithril Hall had been recovered and restored

"A cold night for so high a perch, good friend," came a call from behind

The dwarf turned around to face Drizzt Do’Urden, though he realized that the droould be invisible against the black backdrop of Kelvin’s Cairn Froe point, the mountain was the only silhouette that broke the featureless line of the northern horizon It had been so named because it reseend clairave Certainly the valley where the dwarves now made their home did not resemble any natural landmark In every direction the tundra rolled on, flat and earthen But the valley had only sparse patches of dirt sprinkled in a broken boulders and walls of solid stone It, and the mountain on its northern border, were the only features in all of Icewind Dale with any mentionable quantities of rock, as if they had been od in the earliest days of creation

Drizzt noted the glazed look of his friend’s eyes "You seek the sights that only your memory can see," he said, well aware of the dwarf’s obsession with his ancient hoain!" Bruenor insisted "We’ll get there, elf"

"We do not even know the way"

"Roads can be found," said Bruenor "But not until ye look for them"

"Someday, my friend," Drizzt humored In the few years that he and Bruenor had been friends, the dwarf had constantly badgered Drizzt about acco hiht the idea foolish, for no one that he had ever spoken with had even a clue as to the location of the ancient dwarven hoes of the silvery halls Still, the droas sensitive to his friend’s deepest desire, and he always answered Bruenor’s pleas with the proent business at the mo in the dwarven halls, the drow had detailed his findings to the dwarves

"Yer sure they’ll be coe will shake the stones of Kelvin’s Cairn," Drizzt replied as he left the darkness of the mountain’s silhouette and joined his friend "And if Ten-Towns does not stand united against them, the people are doomed"

Bruenor settled into a crouch and turned his eyes to the south, toward the distant lights of Bryn Shander "They’ll not, the stubborn fools," he ht, if your people went to theht beside theether, an’ pity then to the barbarians! Go to the o’ the dwarves Let us see what grit an’ guts the fisherfolk can muster"

Drizzt smiled at the irony of Bruenor’s refusal Both of them kneell that the droas not trusted, not even openly welcomed, in any of the towns other than Lonelywood, where their friend Regis was spokesman Bruenor marked the drow’s look, and it pained hih the elf stoically pretended otherwise

"They owe ye more than they’ll ever know," Bruenor stated flatly, turning a sy"

Bruenor shook his head "Why do ye care?" he growled "Ever yer watchin’ over the folk that show ye no good will What do ye owe to theed, hard-pressed to find an answer Bruenor was right When the drow had first come to this land, the only one who had shown hiis He often escorted and protected the halfling through the dangerous first legs of the journey from Lonelywood, around the open tundra north of Maer Dualdon and doard Bryn Shander, when Regis went to the principle city for business or council is tried to flee from Drizzt because he’d heard terrible ru as usually able to keep an opentheir character It wasn’t long before the tere fast friends

But to this day, Regis and the dwarves were the only ones in the area who considered the drow a friend "I do not knohy I care," Drizzt answered honestly His eyes turned back to his ancient hoe over a common foe "Perhaps I care because I strive to be different from my people," he said, as much to himself as to Bruenor "Perhaps I care because I am different from my people I may be more akin to the races of the surfacethat is my hope at least I care because I have to care about so You are not so different, Bruenor Battlehammer We care lest our own lives be empty"

Bruenor cocked a curious eye