The mere thought of the woman stopped him cold and left him empty and in that void, images of Errtu and the demon's minions inevitably filtered in. Once, one of those minions, the horrid succubus, had assumed the form of Catti-brie, a perfect image, and Errtu had convinced Wulfgar that he had managed to snare the woman, that she had been taken to suffer the same eternal torment as Wulfgar, because of Wulfgar.
Errtu had taken the succubus, Catti-brie, right before Wulfgar's horrified eyes and had torn the woman apart limb from limb, devouring her in an orgy of blood and gore.
Gasping for his breath, Wulfgar fought back to his thoughts of Catti-brie, of the real Catti-brie. He had loved her. She was, perhaps, the only woman he had ever loved, but she was lost to him now forever, he believed. Though he might travel to Ten-Towns in Icewind Dale and find her again, the bond between them had been severed, cut by the sharp scars of Errtu and by Wulfgar's own reactions to those scars.
The long shadows coming in through the window told him that the day neared its end and that his work as Arumn Gardpeck's bouncer would soon begin. The weary man hadn't lied to Delly when he had declared that he needed more rest, though, and so he collapsed back onto his bed and fell into a deep sleep.
Night had settled thickly about Luskan by the time Wulfgar staggered into the crowded common room of the Cutlass.
"Late again, as if we're to be surprised by that," a thin, beady-eyed man named Josi Puddles, a regular at the tavern and a good friend of Arumn Gardpeck, remarked to the barkeep when they both noticed Wulfgar's entrance. "That one's workin' less and drinkin' ye dry."
Arumn Gardpeck, a kind but stern and always practical man, wanted to give his typical response, that Josi should just shut his mouth, but he couldn't refute Josi's claim. It pained Arumn to watch Wulfgar's descent. He had befriended the barbarian those months before, when Wulfgar had first come to Luskan. Initially, Arumn had shown interest in the man only because of Wulfgar's obvious physical prowess-a mighty warrior like Wulfgar could indeed be a boon to business for a tavern in the tough dock section of the feisty city. After his very first conversation with the man, Arumn had understood that his feelings for Wulfgar went deeper than any business opportunity. He truly liked the man.
Always, Josi was there to remind Arumn of the potential pitfalls, to remind Arumn that, sooner or later, mighty bouncers made meals for rats in gutters.
"Ye thinkin' the sun just dropped in the water?" Josi asked Wulfgar as the big man shuffled by, yawning.
Wulfgar stopped, and turned slowly and deliberately to glare at the little man.
"Half the night's gone," Josi said, his tone changing abruptly from accusational to conversational, "but I was watchin' the place for ye. Thought I might have to break up a couple o' fights, too."
Wulfgar eyed the little man skeptically. "You couldn't break up a pane of thin glass with a heavy cudgel," he remarked, ending with another profound yawn.
Josi, ever the coward, took the insult with a bobbing head and a self-deprecating grin.
"We do have an agreement about yer time o' work," Arumn said seriously.
"And an understanding of your true needs," Wulfgar reminded the man. "By your own words, my real responsibility comes later in the night, for trouble rarely begins early. You named sundown as my time of duty but explained that I'd not truly be needed until much later."
"Fair enough," Arumn replied with a nod that brought a groan from Josi. He was anxious to see the big man-the big man whom he believed had replaced him as Arumn's closest friend-severely disciplined.
"The situation's changed," Arumn went on. "Ye've made a reputation and more than a few enemies. Every night, ye wander in late, and yer. . our enemies take note. I fear that one night soon ye'll stagger in here past the crest o' night to find us all murdered."
Wulfgar put an incredulous expression on his face and turned away with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Wulfgar," Arumn called after him forcefully.
The barbarian turned about, scowling.
"Three bottles missing last night," Arumn said calmly, quietly, a note of concern evident in his tone.
"You promised me all the drink I desired," Wulfgar answered.
"For yerself," Arumn insisted. "Not for yer sculking little friend."
All about widened their eyes at that remark, for not many of Luskan's tavernkeepers would speak so boldly concerning the dangerous Morik the Rogue.
Wulfgar lowered his gaze and chuckled, shaking his head. "Good Arumn," he began, "would you prefer to be the one to tell Morik he is not welcome to your drink?"
Arumn narrowed his eyes, and Wulfgar returned the glare for just a moment.
Delly Curtie entered the room just then, her eyes red and still lined with tears. Wulfgar looked at her and felt a pang of guilt, but it was not something he would admit publicly. He turned and went about his duties, moving to threaten a drunk who was getting a bit too loud.
"He's playing her like he'd pick a lute," Josi Puddles remarked to Arumn.
Arumn blew a frustrated sigh. He had become quite fond of Wulfgar, but the big man's increasingly offensive behavior was beginning to wear that fondness thin. Delly had been as a daughter to Arumn for a couple of years. If Wulfgar was playing her without regard for her emotions, he and Arumn were surely heading for a confrontation.
Arumn turned his attention from Delly to Wulfgar just in time to see the big man lift the loudmouth by the throat, carry him to the door, and none too gently heave him out into the street.
"Man didn't do nothing," Josi Puddles complained. "He keeps with that act, and you'll not have single customer."
Arumn merely sighed.
*****
A trio of men in the opposite corner of the bar also studied the huge barbarian's movements with more than a passing interest. "Cannot be," one of them, a skinny, bearded fellow, muttered. "The world's a wider place than that."
"I'm telling ye it is," the middle one replied. "Ye wasn't aboard Sea Sprite back in them days. I'd not forget that one, not Wulfgar. Sailed with him all the way from Waterdeep to Memnon, I did, then back again, and we fought our share o' pirates along the way."
"Looks like a good one to have along for a pirate fight," remarked Waillan Micanty, the third of the group.
"So 'tis true!" said the second. "Not as good as his companion, though. Ye're knowin' that one. A dark-skinned fellow, small and pretty lookin', but fiercer than a wounded sahuagin, and quicker with a blade-or a pair o' the things-than any I ever seen."
"Drizzt Do'Urden?" asked the skinny one. "That big one traveled with the drow elf?"
"Yep," said the second, now commanding their fullest attention. He was smiling widely, both at being the center of it all and in remembering the exciting voyage he had taken with Wulfgar, Drizzt, and the drow's panther companion.
"What about Catti-brie?" asked Waillan, who, like all of Deudermont's crew, had developed a huge crush on the beautiful and capable woman soon after she and Drizzt had joined their crew a couple of years before. Drizzt, Catti-brie, and Guenhywvar had sailed aboard Sea Sprite for many months, and how much easier scuttling pirates had been with that trio along!
"Catti-brie joined us south o' Baldur's Gate," the storyteller explained. "She came in with a dwarf, King Bruenor of Mithral Hall, on a flying chariot that was all aflame. Never seen anything like it, I tell ye, for that wild dwarf put the thing right across the sails o' one o' the pirate ships we was fighting. Took the whole danged ship down, he did, and was still full o' spit and battle spirit when we pulled him from the water!"
"Bah, but ye're lyin'," the skinny sailor started to protest.