[Ana]

Emergence

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally made my way out of the dark, brooding caves. I noticed it first as a slight lightening of the stone walls around me. Lifting my gaze from the rough floor beneath me, I lifted one hand to my eyes, shielding them from the blinding ball of light ahead. My other hand instinctively went to the dagger at my side. As if the spider on the hilt could protect me from the ever increasing light. Realizing that I had a death grip on the cursed thing, I immediately let go with a guttural sound of disgust. Gods, I wish I could rid myself of the thing. But no matter how often I try to throw it from me, something, some...urge, stays my hand.

I forced myself to continue forward, despite the fear, despite the burning pain in eyes that had never seen a light stronger than a half used candle. I had been through Hell (quite literally) to escape the horror of my home and nothing could stop me.

Little did I know that the already blinding light was just the beginning. After two hours of painful, slow progress I finally could go no further. My world was an unending flare of white, soul crushing light. Turning away from the horror in the sky, I crawled back into the cave and found a medium sized boulder, just big enough to huddle behind, and tried to hide from the all consuming fire.

Eventually the light began to lessen, my world fading back into blessed darkness. This was my chance to go. My chance to complete my escape from my past. But I couldn't make myself move. The pain and fear were too much. With one last, exhausted sigh, I sank into an even deeper darkness. But even that was no escape, for in that darkness lurked another consuming fire. A dark fire with an evil, leering face at its center.

And so it has been for three cycles of darkness and light. Here I stay, too frightened to continue and unwilling to go back.

I have no idea how long I lay cowering behind the boulder, a cave rat trapped by a merciless predator. More than five cycles, less than fifty. My world had become an endlessly repeating cycle of pain and exhaustion.

To my shame I began to contemplate returning to the Underdark. Could the horror and cruelty of that perpetually dark place really be worse than this? Its not like I had to return to my mother's City. Perhaps I could scratch out a living in the caverns. It would be hard, but I would be free. Free from the chaos that is Drow society. Free from those that would see me dead. And most importantly, free from the blinding, burning monster in this alien sky.

It was during one of the all too brief cycles of darkness that I decided my battered body and soul had had enough. My supplies were quickly running out. I had to do something. So I gathered what little strength I had left and began to crawl back into the "safety" of the Underdark. I'm ashamed to admit that I don't know if I would really have gone through with it. But then everything changed. Drifting in from somewhere outside the cave I heard it. Music. Music unlike anything I had ever heard before. To be sure, my homeland was full of music. Battle chants and hymns to the evil goddess Lloth. Music as evil and cruel as the hearts that sang such blasphemies. But this. This music was full of life and beauty. I had never even imagined such a thing existed.

The music called to me, pulling me to its source. Slowly, carefully I made my way through the surrounding forest, so focused on the magical sound that my fear had fled and I was blind to all around me. As I drew nearer to the source of the music, I saw a flickering light ahead. Being careful to make no sound, I came upon a small campground. The brightness of the fire made it hard for me to see them clearly, but I was able to make out the shapes of three figures. There was a male elf, a huge, nearly giant human man....and him. The source of the heavenly music. Squinting through the glare of the fire, I tried to make out his features. Human, with black, tousled hair that came just to his shoulders. His eyes were....well I couldn't really say. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but one moment they seemed to be a clear bright blue, the next a soft gray and the next, a brown so deep it nearly matched his hair. He was wearing plain, well traveled clothing in shades of brown and green. He was playing some sort of stringed instrument that I had never seen before. The fire still obscured much of his features and I couldn't tell whether he was handsome or plain.

In frustration, I leaned forward straining against the glare of the fire. In my distraction, I snapped a small twig. The man suddenly stopped playing and turned to face my hiding place. I quickly ducked behind a nearby tree, cursing my stupidity. The man spoke in a language I didn't recognize, and then another. The elf said something to him and then, to my shock, the man spoke in perfectly understandable, if somewhat formal, Drow. "I know you're there Little Sister. You weren't nearly as silent as you thought. Come on out. We won't hurt you."

More than anything during my long, dangerous flight from the Underdark, I had dreamed of my first meeting with the surface dwellers. I had imagined a thousand different outcomes. Thought myself prepared for every scenario. And here I was at last....with no idea what to do. Fear, loneliness, curiosity, distrust and longing all warred within me, leaving me in a frenzy of indecision.

The elf and the musician conferred once more in their unfamiliar tongue. The man turned back to the forest and spoke again. "Are you still there Little Sister? The night is chilly and our fire is warm. Come, join us and share the tale of how you came to be so far from home."

In the end, it was my curiosity that won, a rather dangerous trait of mine, inherited from my poor father. I stepped out from behind the tree, being careful to stay well within the shadows, and spoke in a voice rough from disuse. "I am not your sister. My name is Aria. How does a human come to speak the Drow tongue?" The man gave a musical laugh and replied. "Ah. Straight and to the point. I like your style Little Sister. To answer your question, well, a Bard must learn many things and travel many places in the service of his craft."

"No sane human willingly travels to the Underdark."

"Ah, well," replied the man, "Julian de'Lucia has been accused of many things in his life. I don't believe sanity is one of them. Besides," he added with a wry twist to his voice, "Who said anything about going willingly?"

I thought I understood now. "You were a slave." A hundred years of learned contempt instinctively crept into my voice.

The man....Julian, shrugged his shoulders. "A slave? I suppose some would have called me that, although it’s not the term I would have chosen. Let's just say one of my adventures took an....unexpected turn."

Unsure of how to respond, I took the easy way and said nothing. As the silence stretched between us, Julian made a small sound of frustration and raked one hand through his already unruly hair. "It’s hard to carry on a conversation with a shadow, Little Sister. Come, join us so we can talk properly."

And so the moment of truth had arrived. Would I join them and take my first step to being a part of this frightening new world? Or would I slink back to my cave and forever remain a shadow? Perhaps thankfully, I'll never know the answer to that question, because at that moment I noticed an alarming lightening of the sky above us. I realized that, because of the near hypnotic state in which I'd followed the music to the camp, I had no idea how long it would take me to return to the safety of my cave. I was gripped by a rapidly mounting terror. Without a parting word to Julian and his companions, I turned and fled into the woods, all thought of stealth or silence wiped from my mind.

Staggering into my hiding place, I dove behind my blessed boulder mere minutes before the sky erupted into a murderous glare. Despite the slowly receding panic at the realization of how close I had been to being caught out in the light with no place to hide, I felt strangely euphoric. As I lay there, I finally slipped into the first natural, dreamless sleep I had experienced in weeks.

When I awoke to a soothing darkness, I found a strange bundle just inside the mouth of the cave. Wrapped into a somewhat large, but tidy, bundle was a heavy, deeply hooded cloak and a week's worth of water and food. There was also a large, thick hide, who's purpose I couldn't fathom at first until I noticed the stakes and rope that were wrapped in it and realized it was a small tent. Tucked into the bindings of the travel gear was a note, written in that same, strangely formal Drow. "We never got to finish our conversation last night Little Sister. To the North of your cave is a river. If you follow it against the current these supplies...and a little luck, should see us sharing tales of our adventures beside a lovely campfire. Don't take too long though. Julian de'Lucia will only slow down for so long."

It was a matter of minutes before I was heading for the river. New cloak around my shoulders, pack on my back and the memory of a pair of ever changing eyes calling me on.