Thanks for all the reviews again! Here is a nice lengthy chapter for you all!!!

I sadly don't own final fantasy crystal chronicles

Caravan Tale

*

It seemed any sign of hope or happiness had been sucked away long ago as the Cedon caravan looked down upon Tida. All Lora could see was what could have been Cedon's future a few months ago. She promised herself that this would never happen to Cedon as long as she was a caravanner.

Tobias unsheathed his sword, "You ready?"

Lora nodded. Her whole body was pulsing. She seemed to thrive off of fighting monsters. Her father had told her it was a good trait to have when out in the world. Lora looked back at Mog holding the chalice, "Remember Mog stay extra close. We don't want to lose you."

"Yes, I understand kupo."

Everyone was dead silent as they began to walk through the abandoned streets of Tida. Each was focused on any sign of movement or sound.

"There's something moving to the right of us." Tobias looked past Lora. It was a skeleton soldier. Lora looked at Tobias, how could he have noticed that!? She hadn't even sensed the skeleton. She quickly pulled out her magicite, "It hasn't noticed us, but I'm ready when you are."

Keeping their element of surprise, Tobias charged at the skeleton, slicing off an arm. He turned around quickly and sliced off the other before it had time to swipe at him. Lora joined him and slammed its skull from behind. The skeleton quickly fell apart on to the ground. Lora looked around, "I thought there would be more monsters out than this."

"Oh don't worry about that. We're still on the outskirts of the town." Tobias led the way down another road. He remembered coming here a few years ago with a desperate caravan. They almost didn't make it out alive. They never even got near the myrrh tree. Tobias had a feeling this time it would be a different story.

"Fira!" Lora said as a ball of fire shot out of her racket and blasted away the cobwebs blocking their path. This place gave her such an eerie feeling. The lack of monsters didn't help the situation. It was oddly suspicious.

Suddenly a giant grub-like monster emerged from the fog and rammed into Tobias. Tobias hit the ground and his sword slid across the bumpy road. Lora stayed her distance and powered up her magicite, "Gravity!" The monster tried to ram Tobias again, but it found itself unable to move. It screeched angrily and began to cast its own spell on Lora. Lora quickly ran out of its casting distance as Tobias rolled away from the monster and grabbed his sword. He ran up to the distracted grub and sliced its front end off. Lora ran up to Tobias, "You alright?"

Tobias shook the arm he had landed on, "Yes. Save the cure magicite when we're closer to the tree." As they turned to walk away a hissing sound was heard. They both turned around to see the monster on its many legs ready to charge. Tobias tightened his grip on his sword and rushed to the grub hacking at it as much as possible. Lora joined in helping Tobias cut it in half. The monster continued to move and began to excrete acid from its innards. Lora was avoiding the droplets, "When is this thing going to die!?"

Tobias was cautiously walking around the grub monster ready to pounce at them, "We need to go for its heart!"

Lora understood and leapt on top of the monster, almost losing her balance due to it being so mushy. It began to jump and flail trying to shake Lora off. Lora hung on with all her might and reached down into one of the cuts Tobias had made. She felt chills as she reached the heart and pulled it out, while trying not to puke. The monster immediately stopped thrashing and fell into its pool of guts. Lora jumped off, hoping to miss any of the acid.

"You all right Lora?" Tobias asked as she was wiping off the slime on her arm.

"Yes, let's continue now."

All three continued down the road silently. Lora looked at Tobias; he was completely focused and dead serious. He seemed the exact opposite of his usual personality. She felt reassured by it though, she probably wouldn't have entered Tida if he was still joking around.

A couple hours later even Tobias was becoming suspicious of the lack of monsters, "I have a really bad feeling about this."

Lora nodded solemnly, "I agree. We've only killed about twenty monsters. That's not a lot for the size of this area."

Tobias looked at an old faded street sign, "This is the road leading to the myrrh tree, let's hope it's a quick trip."

They began to speed up until all three stopped dead in their tracks. "I hope you have enough magicite Lora. Get behind me!"

Lora immediately got behind Tobias. As they stood back to back they found themselves surrounded by skeleton soldiers.

"They planned this the entire time!" Lora was in complete shock. She had never seen monsters work together like this before. They were all slightly bouncing, ready to attack any moment.

"Stick with the plan. We'll get out of this." Tobias said right before he charged the skeletons in front of him. The whole crowd began to go after Tobias. Lora quickly powered up her magicite. She was losing sight of Tobias as the skeletons crowded him.

"Gravity!" she yelled casting the spell as it fell on the majority of skeletons. The remaining ones that could move immediately ran towards her. She leapt out of their grasp and sent two power attacks. Tobias cut through the stuck skeletons two by two. Their bodies instantly crumpled to the ground. He had to hurry before the spell wore off. Mog tried to stay between the two as best as possible. Lora was still being mobbed when she felt a cold grip on her ankle. Mog yelled to her, "Lora get back here, kupo! You are almost out of the crystal's reach!"

Lora looked down at her ankle. The invisible cold grasp was pulling at her. She quickly did a back flip over the skeletons, turned around and whacked a skeleton's head off. There were still too many! Lora continued using power attacks and pushing them off as they began to grab her arms and hair. This was getting to be too much; she would drown in all these bones. Lora prepared her magicite while kicking off the grabby skeletons. Without hesitation she yelled, "Blizzard!" A great wind swept around the mob of skeletons, freezing them in place. Lora began knocking them down as fast as possible, causing their bones to crack and crumble. Without wasting a minute she ran to Mog and Tobias. The skeletons were beginning to break Lora's gravity spell. She quickly joined Tobias's side and they attacked the remaining monsters with their remaining strength.

Lora and Tobias dropped down to the ground out of exhaustion. The road was littered with bones. Lora winced in pain and looked at her ankle, it was throbbing. She cursed under her breath for getting too close to the miasma. Tobias heard her and walked over, "What's wrong?"

"My foot got too far away from the crystal."

Tobias knelt down and held up her ankle, "I've seen this before. It should be alright."

He put both his hands around her ankle gently and they began to glow blue from the cure magicite. Lora began to feel the pain dissipate, "Thank goodness it's nothing serious."

Tobias nodded and helped Lora up, "You were lucky the Cedon's crystal chalice is so strong. Come on, we just need to get to the tree now!"

They continued up the road to an old rickety gate. Tobias pulled out the key he had found on one of the skeletons and opened the gate immediately. As they entered the field, Tobias glared at what stood before them, "Armstrong."

Lora looked up at a monster she had never seen before. It towered over both of them with the look of a village house and was that a cannon!?

Lora didn't have time to decide as it charged at them. They both jumped in opposite directions. Now all Lora had to do was stick to the plan they had worked on the other day. She would focus all her energy on distance attacks since she was faster at casting than Tobias. Tobias would attack head on distracting the monster. All Mog had to do was keep the two within the crystal's protection, which was easier said than done.

Tobias slashed at the base of Armstrong as it tried to grab him. Lora quickly powered up her magicite. She noticed she was almost out thanks to the skeletons from earlier. 'I sure hope this lasts!' Lora thought as she pointed her racket at Armstrong and yelled, "Blizzard!" The spell hit Armstrong's arm and froze it immediately. Tobias began slashing at the monster even more with the arm out of the way. Armstrong became furious and aimed the cannon and fired right at Lora. She quickly leapt out of the way and powered up more magicite, "Thunder!"

An electrical shock ran through Armstrong's entire body. It immediately turned to Lora and began to charge her ignoring Tobias's attacks. Lora quickly ran around Armstrong. She was much more nimble than this bulky monster. Armstrong kept following Lora, shooting its cannon at her as fast as possible. With the monster busy chasing Lora, Tobias decided to make a new move. He climbed up the backside of Armstrong until he was near the top.

As Lora was running she pulled out the last bit of her offensive magicite. Once she had enough distance from Armstrong's cannon, she turned and pointed her racket straight at the monster, "Thunder!" Another shock went through Armstrong and it was paralyzed. At that moment Tobias jumped on top of Armstrong's head and struck down with his sword. Armstrong began to shake violently while Tobias jumped to the ground and ran towards Lora. A few seconds later and it had crumpled to the ground.

Lora let out a sigh of relief. As they climbed over the rubble of Armstrong, the myrrh tree came into view. Without a word Mog handed the chalice to Lora and they all ran towards the tree, hoping nothing else would jump out at them. Lora placed the chalice in front of the tree and all three watched as the tree gave up its drop of myrrh. Lora picked up the chalice and turned back to Mog and Tobias. Tobias was smiling and she laughed seeing his hair and clothes disheveled with dirt smudges on his face. He then looked at her puzzled, "What's so funny?"

"You're a mess!" Lora said while still chuckling.

"Well I could say the same about you!" Tobias began to laugh at the sight of Lora's surprised face and immediately trying to fix her hair.

"Come on we can clean up once we're out of this place."

Lora stopped fixing her hair and followed Tobias out of Tida.

What was it about myrrh trees that made people so light hearted even when danger is right around the corner, Lora thought to herself as they walked through the desolate town of Tida. The farther they were from the tree though, she felt reality slip back in and wanted be out of Tida as soon as possible. The Cedon caravan quickened their pace, protecting their treasured myrrh.