* 33 * 7/15/12

Mount Galardrym was teeming with giants, as Bishop quickly found out. The only one in the group experienced with moving quietly, he had gone and scouted out the area, finding more than a few giants, some guarding prisoners, some guarding the higher paths. One of those paths had to lead them to the Belt of Ironfist.

As he descended the steep terrain and made his way back to Lily and the others, he kept Karnwyr unsummoned. He felt his wolf companion would draw unnecessary attention, being light-colored and not camouflaged.

Lily caught sight of him. "Welcome back," she said as he rejoined the group. He nodded.

"There are a handful of giants along this path who appear to have some lunch. Lunch being humans, of course. On the way to those guys, there are even more of them." He tilted his head in their direction. "But the paths we need to reach are at the top. Two of them. I'm not sure which goes where, but there's only one way to find out." He looked to the spellcasters. "Ready for some easy target practice?"

"Definitely," Qara affirmed.

After summoning Karnwyr, Bishop aimed his attention at Lily. "When we kill these giant bull's-eyes, perhaps I should get to feast on you instead." He raised his eyebrow suggestively.

"That's enough, Bishop," stated Casavir grimly.

Choosing not to respond to this, Lily began ascending the mountain, party in tow.

Within minutes of scouring the first fifty or so vertical meters, they spotted their first encounter: two giants facing right toward them. Qara was instantly hit with Confusion, but had a high enough will save to prevent her from turning on her teammates. Instead, she stood motionless.

Khelgar ran and engaged the larger of the two, with Casavir focusing on the other. The dwarf attempted to strike as near its heart as he could with each blow. He quickly found out that there was a lot of tough skin and bone to get through first.

The other began lifting his axe over its head to land a deadly blow on Casavir, but the holy warrior whirled his warhammer once hard against the giant's midsection - taking a good amount of sinew with it - and the axe fell out of its hand and to the side as it crumbled, the top half of its body weight crushing its own organs. Karnwyr jumped on the giant's face as soon as it crashed closer to the ground, tearing out its eyes with a vicious snarl.

Lily cast Fire Arrow on the remaining giant, and with it, took out its left arm, the limb falling cleanly from its shoulder.

The giant howled and grimaced, eyes aflame. It used its remaining arm to pick up a nearby stone, lunging completely forward to launch it at Lily's chest in revenge.

It hit her dead-center.

Casavir witnessed this, but couldn't get to her in time. "Lily!" he shouted, horrified. From this distance, he could only watch as Lily's limp form instinctively dropped her dagger and began falling over the edge.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he witnessed Bishop emerge in a flash and grab Lily around the waist, dropping his falchion and digging his boots deep into the earth while locking his other arm around a nearby tree. After a moment, Lily stopped falling and she frantically threw her arms around Bishop's neck, quickly bringing herself back to her feet and working to regain her balance.

Khelgar had taken that pause to slash the giant's lowered head open right down the center. "They're focusin' on our spellcasters," he observed angrily. "More than just this one will pay for that."

Lily's frightened eyes were locked on Bishop's. "Bishop, I..." She searched for words, but was floored by pumping adrenaline. "Thank you," she mustered, tightening her arms around him ever so slightly as she began to calm down. He didn't seem to mind. The ranger's eyes were much more inviting in that moment than she'd ever seen them before, and she perceived a grin starting to tug at the corners of his mouth. She felt herself get lost for a brief crack, wanting to hug him closer in gratitude, but deciding against it. He was already still holding onto her back with both of his arms.

Casavir just looked away. Bishop had definitely deserved thanks, not just from Lily, but also from the paladin himself.

Lily slowly disengaged herself from the ranger, but was able to catch a slight flicker of disappointment in his amber chasms as she did so. He straightened and dropped his arms to aid her escape, however, and immediately, all traces of affection and kindness in his demeanor disappeared.

"Well, well, seems these guys like to play dirty," Bishop said, but now, actual anger could be detected beneath his words. He picked up Lorne's falchion. "If that's the case, then I'm going to go back to using my bow so this doesn't happen again." With that, he placed the falchion in his bag and retrieved his weapon of choice, the longbow. Now if he spotted these bastards grabbing a weapon, he could immediately shoot them down where they stood, no longer having any need for proximity.

"It won't happen again," Casavir stated firmly, walking toward Lily and stopping in front of her. "Are you all right, my lady?" He cast Lay on Hands and began healing her chest wound...well, without the laying-on-hands part.

"I'm fine, Casavir, thank you."

"Forgive me. I left your side just the moment before. I could not make it to you in time."

"I understand." Not wanting to play the two against each other, Lily refrained from mentioning how glad she was that Bishop had been close enough to save her. But she didn't begrudge Casavir. He really had left her side for only a moment. It had been her fault for not staying back any farther.

...On second thought, that could've possibly been a worse situation, since if the stone had still hit her, not even Bishop's agility would've been able to save her. She was just happy to be alive and not minced meat at the bottom of the crag.

"Do we have any Dispel scrolls?" Lily asked. No one responded. "Then let's just rest for a moment. Qara will hate us if we keep her the way she is now."

After a minute or so, with Qara being returned to her senses (albeit scowling for feeling useless), Casavir gently asked, "Are you fine to go on, my lady?"

More giant-bashing action would replace her languorously-subsiding fear with determination.

"Yes, let's go."