* 101 * 3/30/13

Half an hour later, Bishop joined the massive party, and all of them were now gathered in the Keep's main hall. He once again spotted the unbearable silver of the paladin's attire in the corner of his eye. This time, however, he was surprised to note the other had chosen to wear just a chain shirt instead of his usual, bulky plate mail. Not a bad choice considering their destination.

"All right, is everyone ready?" Lily called. Amidst nods and words of agreement from the group, the sun elf marched outside the large fortress doors. Everyone the huge party passed stopped whatever they were doing to stare in awe at their number, to marvel at their collective power. They witnessed each warrior who had been gossiped about across the land march across their line of vision in the direction of the fields. Even the guards at the front said nothing, nodding nervously as the powerful band made their way out toward the fields.

"Hold the fort down for us while we're gone," Lily said with a wink to Bevil as she walked past. He smiled and nodded vehemently.

The party continued with no clear leader, first making their way out of the walls of the Keep before assigning anything more. Once they were located in a large, comfortable spot for them all to spread out, they did, and Lily stood on top of a rock in the center of the semicircle to make herself heard.

Or to make herself taller, Bishop sniggered.

"All right, everyone, here's the idea: we're going to go trekking in the woods and spend the night outside. I made a really stupid decision recently, but it was a good opportunity to show us that we need to know how to do this." A paladin still plagued by haunting worries about her condition nodded. "We have communication mirrors, but these ones will run out of juice after a day or so, so be sure to come back before that," Lily explained as Grobnar passed out the lesser-quality equivalents of Lily's mirror, each crafted from elemental essences. "Be sure not to use those unless you run into real trouble; the point in all of this is to try to do everything on your own."

"Elanee will be at the helm of this little operation," the elf continued as the druid walked forth. "As well as...well, you guessed it: Bishop!" When the moody ranger only folded his arms, she waved him forward and he came to the front with a scowl.

"We will separate into groups of two, except for a single group of three because of our odd number. No, you can't choose your partner, else you'd be biased," the elf added as soon as she saw Neeshka getting too excited. "Your partner will actually be decided by...um..." Just then, she saw a man strolling by. "By this guy!" she proclaimed. "What's your name, sir?" Lily asked while pulling him aside.

"Me?" the man asked, pointing to himself like a moron.

"Yes, you!"

"Uh, sure!" he said, excited despite his complete lack of understanding what was going on. He didn't even answer her question.

"Your name?" Lily tried again with her brow raised. Neeshka snorted at the guy's cluelessness.

"Oh." He blushed, happy she'd even asked. "I'm...I'm Seevy!" he managed.

"Okay, Seevy," the elf replied, glad the guy was playing along. "Match these people up," she said, gesturing to the large party, "with each other. Randomly. It doesn't matter at all who gets whom."

"Er, well, okay, m'lady," Seevy replied. Casavir almost looked displeased, and Lily lifted both eyebrows at the familiar title, this time coming from an unfamiliar man.

"That guy," he said, pointing to Sand, "should be with that guy with the freaky, glowy tattoos," he finished, gesturing at Ammon Jerro. Ammon positively facepalmed. Sand crossed his arms.

"She's with him," he said of Neeshka and Khelgar. Immediately, the two of them faced each other and stuck their tongues out. Lily let out a breath in uncertainty. Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea.

"And he," Seevy continued, motioning at Bishop, "is with him," he finished on Casavir.

Both men's jaws fell.

Now it definitely wasn't a good idea.

"Uhh... I'm really going to have to suggest you don't do that, actually..." Lily said in a rush. She probably should have mentioned that, but she had been hoping he didn't pair them.

"Hm. Okay. Well, then he can go with this little dude," he said, correcting his choice to Grobnar.

Bishop scowled fiercely. "Like that's any better!" he shouted, but he was ignored. The bard only smiled blissfully in no particular direction.

"And she should be with you," he said, motioning at Qara. Qara pumped her fist and let out a "Yes!" Seevy's last three pairings had been nothing short of a disaster, and the sorceress was grateful the same fate had not befallen her, too.

The guy looked once more at Casavir and said, "Then that dude's with that green lady over there." He pointed at Zhjaeve. Her expression could not be known behind her veil, but if her narrowed eyes were any indication, she wasn't pleased at being "that green lady". Casavir himself had flinched at being called "that dude".

"Okay," Lily breathed nervously. "Well, that was...not entirely painful. Thank you, Seevy."

"What about her?" Seevy asked, pointing to the leftover druid.

"We'll choose a spot for her. I already see a problem area that she'll have to fix in one of the groups," the elf admitted.

"Oh, okay. Bye now!" Seevy replied, totally unaffected by her insinuation as he waved goodbye to them and continued his path to the fields.

"'Problem area'?" Bishop abruptly sneered.

"For once, this isn't about you, Bishop; can you believe that?" Lily returned just as quickly, not missing a beat. Her tone was playful, though, so the ranger chose to wear a piquant expression but not reply. Casavir raised his brows at their exchange.

Lily focused her attention on the dwarf and tiefling. The two of them were still making faces at each other. "I mean those two. Elanee, would you mind being with them? I really don't think they'll be able to concentrate on anything but fighting if they go alone together. I have a feeling we'd have to find them after they got lost."

"All right," Elanee replied, though she was clearly not thrilled at the idea of babysitting two asinine clowns, many, many years her juniors.

"So," Lily started again, raising her voice to the group once more, "we'll start off all together, and stay that way for about an hour or so. After that, we'll split up into our groups." This earned yet another scowl from the brooding ranger, and two times that from "the problem group".

"Let's go, then!" she waved simply. Now they all stayed relatively clustered behind Bishop and Elanee...though the paladin in tow chose to stay closer to Elanee.

Good riddance, the ranger thought irritably. He couldn't stay that way for long, though. As he marched off into his all-too-familiar home of the woods, a welcoming smirk crossed his face.