* 102 * 4/1/13
The party was no stranger to walking over several different types of terrain, but each time they made their way into the woods, there was usually a scout of some sort with them, performing any tasks that involved more intimate knowledge of their surroundings. Bishop. Elanee.
Now, when they grew hungry, they had to pick their own berries, and the two scouts would refuse to tell anyone precisely which berries were edible; instead, they gave a handful of helpful hints to figure out whether or not they were by their look and texture alone and made them work off of that. Only when Neeshka was about to bite into a poisonous berry did Elanee start actually naming the most common species of berry bushes in the area and whether they were dangerous. Bishop, on the other hand, would have preferred to see the tiefling's face go purple.
The only upside to having Grobnar as a partner is that the ranger didn't have to teach the gnome how to use a bow. Ammon and Sand wouldn't deign to use "such an unnecessary tool", feeling haughtily superior with their command of magical energies. This attitude made Bishop roll his eyes and purposefully ignore teaching them anything useful...that is until Lily noticed and made it a point to put the ranger in charge of the two casters until everyone separated, earning her a vicious scowl.
"Can't always get what'cha want," she replied to him coolly with a sly grin.
"Hmph. That's the last time you're getting any vanilla. You can't find it without me, after all," he retorted.
Lily's jaw positively dropped. "B-but–!"
"Nope," he said simply. The elf folded her arms and frowned, stomping back off to Elanee's gathering after picking a few strawberries out of his hands and eating them instead of vanilla out of spite.
The group had begun to separate twenty or so meters out from Bishop's pack and became even more distanced as the minutes wore on. The druid had more of an audience, seven to four, given the ranger's rather backward way of "helping" his underlings by throwing them headfirst into the most perilous parts of the forest and seeing if they could figure out how to escape the baby wood demons and incredibly vicious, lively vines by themselves. Elanee preferred to give her large band words of advice just before approaching such things so everyone had at least an inkling of what to do next. In return, however, she was adamant that no one use any weapons besides bows and daggers, so all staves, warhammers, axes, and swords were in one of the weight-reducing magic bags the druid carried in her backpack.
Her upfront advice hardly meant they were free from peril, however. As she was searching for more berries, Lily cried out in panic as she felt a disturbingly familiar sensation: a vine from a hostile, nocturnal tree she had failed to avoid wended its way around her arms and tightened until both of them were locked together low behind her. Before even Elanee moved, Casavir approached quickly and grabbed hold of the vine with both of his gloved hands, pulling hard until it ripped apart at the center. It released the elf with a muffled shriek, one end cowering back to the tree from whence it originated.
Elanee observed everything. "With your strength, you don't seem like you'll have a problem with that kind of thing, Casavir," she commented, "But as a spellcaster, Lily really needs to practice how to rid herself of such enemies by herself, too." Casavir met the druid's eyes and nodded his understanding.
The druid then thought for a moment on the paladin's aforementioned sheer power. "Actually, you could help her to practice. Would you mind being the vine, Casavir?"
Lily and Casavir both blinked cluelessly in their confusion.
"Restrain her," Elanee clarified.
Casavir's brows raised, but he understood the importance of the exercise. He got behind where Lily – who still wore an uncomprehending expression – now stood. With a "Pardon me, my lady", the paladin grabbed hold of her arms and held them behind her in the same position, just below the small of her back.
Lily did a test struggle and was surprised to find that she could actually move fairly well. She smirked. Give me a few seconds, she thought, and I can rip right out of here. This would be easier than she originally imagined. Is that really all Casavir had?
"Don't go easy on her, Casavir," Elanee ordered curtly. The paladin nodded again, conceding that his politeness had no place in this demonstration. This time, he held her in place with his normal grip.
Lily struggled again...and now couldn't move at all, even in the tiny spaces in his grip that had before had quite a lot of leeway. "H-holy..." she let out in astonishment, her confidence definitely faltering now as she felt the strength of Casavir's hold on her increase by only about three hundred percent.
"Now, Lily, try to break free, using any method you wish."
Lily gave the druid an impatient, disbelieving look of That's-easy-for-you-to-say. She wondered if even Elanee herself would really be able to escape the grip of a paladin who had spent several decades comfortably carrying around an entire other person's worth of weight in armor every day. She twisted her wrists – or, at least, tried to – but this was of no use: his fingers around her wrists were unyielding. Then she tugged away from him, pulled her body forward with the strength of her legs placed strategically beneath her, but it was to no avail: her erratic movement was nothing more than a small nuisance to the paladin, and his grip remained firm. Oddly enough, Lily found herself blushing as she struggled against him.
The elf grew frantic, tugging her upper body forward and down again and again. Both Neeshka and Qara's eyes shot wide as they observed the position this put her in in relation to the paladin as she bounced back against him. Qara kept her mouth shut, choosing only to bite back an amused laugh, but Neeshka let out a girlish small squeak, not even blinking in her fascination with the "lesson" now.
Lily frowned at herself as she began losing strength without getting any closer to escaping. Being frantic hardly helped her think. She stopped moving for a moment and pulled her lips to one side of her mouth, making a "tsk" sound as she thought. Everyone watched her in silence, though Neeshka's mouth was still hanging open at the idea of this entire exercise.
As soon as Lily was able to ignore the pressure from the others' eyes on her, she got an idea. She positioned her legs as she had before, bluffing that she was going to try and pull straight out from him again. Then, as fast as she could, she pulled her right leg up and then thrust it straight backward into the paladin's right, cloth-armored knee. Casavir let out a small growl. His grip faltered for only a split second, but that was all the time it took Lily to disentangle herself from him and leap toward the others.
"Yes!" she shouted, twirling around and pumping her fist into the air. Then she covered her mouth just as fast. "Sorry, Casavir," she said sheepishly between her fingers.
Despite his minor discomfort, Casavir grinned. "Well done, my lady." Khelgar and Qara exchanged amused glances and Lily and Neeshka both outright doubled over in laughter. If they had heart right, he sounded as if he was complimenting her on hurting him, which was entirely preposterous and hilarious to both girls. Even Zhjaeve looked almost happy for her.
Elanee gave a single clap. "Well done, Lily," she echoed. "If that were a vine, though, it could have either broken or tightened if you'd kicked it so hard in one place like that. Let's hope it's the former. You can never really know for sure until you try," she added unhelpfully.
Lily didn't let Elanee's realism spoil her sense of achievement. "Now what?" she inquired eagerly. She was starting to enjoy this game.
"Now get into position again," Elanee instructed. Lily made a confused face but obeyed, turning her back toward Casavir as he took her wrists in his hands again. "This time, Casavir, I want you to bring her arms up right behind her back and lock them there completely horizontally. As Lily found out, the key here is to look for weaknesses you can exploit, so you must protect your knees somehow this time."
The paladin held her arms fast just behind her back now. He thought for a moment on how he could protect himself, but came up with nothing. Then, he smirked when he realized the innate brilliance of the new position: he didn't have to do anything to cover his knees. With his new hold on her, Lily's upper body was no longer able to launch forward and add strength to her kick. She could certainly still kick him from a straightened position, but the power behind it would be several times weaker, and definitely would not be enough to make his grip loosen now. Elanee returned his smirk of understanding with an amused expression of her own.
Lily found out the hard way what the two of them already understood. She tried to move forward again, but now the paladin had control of her upper body, making that next to impossible. The elf hmphed and gave Elanee an insolent glare. The druid's expression remained adamant.
Lily tried twisting her torso from side to side and hitting him with her shoulders, but this also didn't work; even if she was able to move more, the blow would be so light as to have little effect. She paused for a full minute and closed her eyes, feeling out her position slowly and thinking. An idea hit her, but it had more than one part to it. If he didn't fall for the first part, she still wouldn't be able to get out.
The elf began swaying left and right now, having a little more freedom to do this than her former attempts at escape because of Casavir's strength being focused at the lower part of her torso. The paladin kept her from being able to sway far enough to unbalance him, but braced himself and separated his feet a bit more anyway to keep a surer center of gravity.
Lily smirked and quickly drew her foot to the front and away from him, swinging it back around his leg in an out-to-in arc and looping around his ankle. With both of his legs now supporting his left, but not right, side, Casavir focused on regaining his balance on his right side rather than holding her as powerfully. Thus, the elf ripped herself away from him again, this time triumphantly twirling twice toward the team. She curtsied gracefully, and Neeshka clapped excitedly.
"Great goin', Lily!" the tiefling enthused.
"Very nice!" Elanee called glowingly. Casavir grinned in awe at Lily's cleverness. She had lured the seasoned battle veteran into a trap, and he had fallen for it. Even Khelgar was impressed.
"Now what, now what?" Lily asked with pungent elation.
"Positions again." The two of them resumed their stances. "This time, put your hands right above her elbows on each of her arms. Push them up and back toward you and keep them there, with the thumb of each hand pressing down on her forearm to hold it locked to her upper arm." He did.
"Good. Now try again, Lily."
This position was an enigma to Lily. Now she could go down none of the paths she previously had open to her. Casavir had the top of her torso under his control and she couldn't sway, and even if she could, the intelligent paladin would hardly fall for the same trick twice. She also couldn't lean forward and take out his knee again. The first thing that came to her mind after that was to pull his hair, but she couldn't reach anything of use with her upper and lower arms locked together as they were. To make sure she couldn't even reach her fingers to his face, he tucked his head in the gap between hers and her left arm.
She was finally truly trapped. The most she could do now is try to squeeze his head with her arm, but she hardly had the strength to do it with enough force to harm him. Plus, she could smell the sweet scent of freshly-picked berries on his breath with his face so close, and it distracted her, making her stir.
The other group members stared on as the two of them held their faces close against one another. Lily kept looking from the paladin's eyes back to his lips. Qara grinned at the dramatic entertainment, and Neeshka was no less appreciative. Khelgar's mouth hung open.
The two of them barely even seemed to register they were in front of everyone else now. Elanee noticed, but didn't tell them to abort the exercise despite Lily not actively trying to get away anymore. Instead, the druid was looking on with much piqued curiosity just like the rest of them.
Lily touched her nose to the few strands of the paladin's dark, black hair that tickled her face and breathed in deeply, taking in his scent. Casavir came close several times to nuzzling her, or kissing her cheek, but unlike her, he was still aware of the many pairs of eyes on them and thus did not act his temptations out. After a few more moments of lingering in his grasp, however, Lily modified her aim and bit Casavir's earlobe playfully, and the paladin let go of her immediately in shock.
With a satisfied smile, the elf looked expectantly at Elanee. The druid was speechless, however, as was most everyone else.
Qara was the first to speak. "Wow, Lily, you really know how to knock 'em dead," she said with a teasing wink. Lily's smile widened mischievously. She cast a glance back at Casavir and was pleased to find a crimson tone scattered across his cheeks. When he caught her eye, he cleared his throat uncomfortably.
Khelgar still couldn't say anything. The dwarf was just glad Bishop was now at least fifty meters to their left and probably still distracted with his own group. He didn't even want to think what would have happened otherwise after such an overt display as that.
Elanee finally regained her voice. "Well. So. I hope that demonstration…taught you all something," she said lamely. No other words were coming to her mind, really.
"Oh, we learned something all right," Qara replied, winking at Lily again. The elf smiled all over again at Qara's encouragement. Neeshka looked like she was about to approach Lily and say something about the "exercise", but before she could, the wizard had begun walking behind Elanee, back toward Casavir.
Elanee's voice rang out again, trying to get everyone back on track. "Zhjaeve, are you fairly comfortable in the woods?"
"Know that I have faced worse threats than..."
But all other voices now faded out in Lily's head. She stopped in front of Casavir.
"Thank you for helping me practice," she said sweetly.
"Of course, my lady. You did well," he added.
Lily was surprised at the compliment. "Thank you," she replied with a genuine smile. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
Casavir almost looked amused, and there was a rare, playful glint in his eye. "My lady, I trust we have traveled long enough together for you to know that it takes far more to wound me."
His straight response made Lily laugh. "You're right, I'm sorry for underestimating you," she giggled. "Or for overestimating myself."
"No, my lady; the blow struck true and was…quite powerful..." But he trailed off, a hint of uncertainty then lining his features. He attempted to hide this from Lily, but it was too late: she had already noticed.
"It was quite powerfullll...?" she encouraged, craning her neck to keep looking into his face as his gaze fell to the ground.
"...For what I imagined it would be, my lady," the paladin finished sheepishly at her prompting.
"Oh-ho-ho!" Lily opened her mouth in shock and feigned offense, then playfully hit him on the arm. "Thanks, Cas. I appreciate it!"
Her wide smile told Casavir not to worry about having hurt her feelings. He sighed in relief, but he still wanted to clarify what he had meant by it. "My lady, you are a wizard... I simply meant..." He was cut off by a finger put to his lips, and his eyes widened.
Lily gazed up at him, only to receive a now-relaxed, mesmerizing icy stare in return. The two of them were now in a different realm, one with only each other; the others were nowhere to be found in this plane. They stared into one another's eyes, icy blues matched with lime greens.
Whenever I feel alone...he makes me feel so much better, she marveled. How does he do that? A marveled expression crossed her face. And he treats me like...like no one else...
Lily leaned up on her toes, took his face in her hands, and kissed him. Casavir immediately wrapped his arms around her waist and returned the pressure on her lips.
And the group behind Elanee craned their necks around her to absolutely gawk at them.