I hope you enjoy this chapter, I like it anyway.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

Chapter 6: Mushroom Forest

The road to Mushroom Forest was fairly quiet. There were no other people on the road, and the monsters seemed too lazy to even bother with a bunch of caravanners who would probably kick their butts anyway. After a month of boring quiet, they were finally about to reach Mushroom Forest.

'Only a few hours away…' Kris thought as she lay on the roof. 'I'm so glad it's warm out, Mushroom Forest will be great. It's so fun to kick monsters butts.'

They hit a bump in the road, causing Kris to wake up from her sleepy daze.

Rob was in the wagon finishing a striped apple since he was still hungry even though they had just had lunch.

Mike was sitting next to Tyran, talking about Mushroom Forest.

"STOP! And surrender all of your valuables!" A reddish-pink haired selkie, a striped moogle, and a very old selkie man said from in front of the caravan. Everyone looked at them except for Kris, who was still lying on the roof.

"And just WHO might you be?" She called from the roof.

"What? Boss, they don't know who we are!" the moogle said.

"Humph! We're the famous Striped Brigands! Now give us all of your goods!" the boy said.

Kris jumped off the roof, landing right in front of him, causing him to flinch slightly.

"Never heard of 'em." She said in a slightly mocking voice, making the boy mad.

He pulled out a knife and grabbed Kris, putting his knife a good ways away from Kris's throat.

"Now give us all of your valuables!" He said threateningly.

Before anyone in the caravan could budge, Kris calmly elbowed him in the stomach, causing him to let go of her with a little cry of pain. He sat in the dirt, holding his stomach.

Kris calmly went inside the wagon, returning with her racket.

"Arrrgggg!!" She yelled, beating him to a pulp. "That'll-teach-you-to-mess-with-me!!" She yelled between beatings. Soon they limped off, leaving the caravan alone again.

The boys just stared in amazement as she returned her racket.

"What?" she said as she climbed back onto the roof.

Tyran just shook his head in amazement as he snapped the reigns. 'Note to self- DON'T GET KRIS MAD!'

'Awwwww man! She is SO hot when she's mad!' Rob thought, returning to his bunk.

'Man, she was so… calm, or at least until she got her racket, THEN she went a little ballistic. It was pretty funny to watch though.' Mike thought, totally unaware that Tyran was nudging him.

"Mike. Mike!" Tyran said, annoyed.

"Hunh, what?"

"What do you think?"

"About what?"

"Ugh! How tall do you think the mushrooms are in Mushroom Forest?"

"Oh. I've heard they're over ten feet tall, but otherwise I'm not sure. I'll check when we get there, OK?"

"You don't have to! I was just asking! Anyways…" They then started off on a conversation about everyone back at Tipa. Kris continued to work on her tan, and Rob took a nap. In an hour they saw the shape of mushrooms off in the distance.

-:-

"Over ten feet tall, you're telling me!" Tyran said when they got to Mushroom Forest.

The mushrooms were not only ten feet tall, but they were about TWENTY feet tall.

"They stink!" Rob said with his nose plugged.

"Well you better get used to it, 'cause we're gonna be here awhile." Tyran said.

"Can we hurry up and go? After beating up those Striped retards, I'm pumped!" Kris said in full gear.

"We can't go without a plan though." Mike commented.

"Why not do what we did before? I'll hold the chalice until we find some magicite; Tyran leads and you two protect me. Simple." Kris said with her racket on her back and the chalice in hand.

"Alright then, we'll go with that. Now let's find that Myrrh Tree!" Tyran said, leading the way.

After only a couple minutes in the forest they were attacked by monsters. A few Mu's popped up out of the ground and a goblin jumped out from behind a giant mushroom.

Mike and Rob stood guard by Kris while Tyran easily took the monsters out with his sword.

From the monsters they found a design for some armor, gil, and a chunk of metal.

They continued on, surprised by the quietness of the trail. They wondered onto a large mushroom at ground level and, to the group's surprise, were launched over to the other trail.

"Well, that was DEFFIDENTLY unexpected." Rob said.

"Let's just go," Kris said, making sure she still had her magicite.

"Yeah." Mike then loosened his grip on his blizzard.

­

They walked a little further and soon the only thing they could see were mushrooms. The road had been so quiet that the caravanners dropped their guard. Suddenly they were surrounded by monsters.

"Awwww, crap!" Kris whined.

There was an Ochiro in front of them. There was also a weird one-eyed thing flying (Ahriman) behind them that they had yet to notice. Tons of Mu's and goblins surrounded them.

Kris took out her fire while Mike grabbed his blizzard. Tyran watched the Ochiro while Rob kept the two magic users in the middle.

The monsters stood still for a moment, then suddenly attacked.

Tyran killed all who came his way, Mike and Kris prepared their spells as fast as they could while Rob protected them as they cast.

The Ahriman had still gone on unnoticed and seized the opportunity as the caravanners were occupied.

It swooped down and grabbed Tyran by the shoulders with its clawed feet. It screeched with delight as Tyran yelled in surprise, distracting his caravan, causing them to be wounded by the on slot of monsters.

The Ahriman flew a little ways away as Tyran regained his composure.

'What the?' Tyran could breathe perfectly fine. He looked down to see Hannah's pendent glowing. "H-Hannah?"

They were flying over a large group of mushrooms, and Tyran seizing the opportunity as an extremely tall mushroom came into view, sliced at the Ahriman's legs.

One… two… Three! He cut one of the legs, causing the Ahriman to screech.

'Lower… lower… now!' He sliced off the other leg, and tumbled onto the top of the mushroom. He rolled down and stabbed at the surface, his sword sliding through the mushroom as the Ahriman flew off. He reached the end of the pad, his sword finally sticking.

He struggled at the hold, grimacing as he tried to support his weight with his arms. Finally he fell from the 25-foot mushroom, landing on his back. He quickly rolled over as his sword fell after him. It fell a few feet to the left of him, standing in the ground.

"Phew, that was close." He tugged at his sword and stumbled back a little as it finally came out. He looked behind him through the clearing at a small little plant thing that was staring at him.

The tiny little pant thing suddenly wasn't so tiny anymore. It sucked in the nutrients from the surrounding mushrooms and it grew into a huge, full-grown Malboro.

"Dang it." He faced the creature with sword in hand. Suddenly, he heard a cry and the rest of his caravan came into view. They had bruises and cuts everywhere, especially Kris who didn't really wear much of anything being a selkie.

The Malboro's tentacles shot out of the ground as soon as the caravan rejoined. Tyran sliced at the tentacles while Mike healed the caravan. Tyran then charged the creature along with Rob. As they approached the Malboro let out a horrendous bad breath, stopping the two who were shielding their faces.

As soon as the stench was gone Mike cleared them, while Kris shot out a fire. The Malboro squealed and shot a tentacle at Mike, who battled it the best he could. It wrapped around him and attempted to bring him closer to its mouth but Tyran sliced it off before he got anywhere close to the opening.

Mike then continued to heal the members of the caravan while the rest of them pounded on the beast. Finally, all at once the whole caravan aimed focus attacks at the Malboro. They collided into it in unity and with one last squeal the Malboro collapsed and disappeared into thin air.

They all cheered and after another good healing headed toward the myrrh tree. This time Kris placed the chalice at the pedestal and they watched.

Once again the Myrrh tree shivered up to its branches, casting a light on the turquoise surface. A drop of myrrh formed at the tips and fell into the crystal chalice. Kris walked up and picked up the chalice, showing the 2/3 full to the rest of the group, smiling. One more drop until they could see their family again.

"Mail Moogle!" The little creature then proceeded in calling out their names. "Kristine Lophrine? Tyran Nygien? Michael Phyrein? Robert Jinell?"

Kris,

How's it going? Hope it's going well, otherwise leaving was a waste. Anyway, the town doesn't want any of you to die, so we made a pledge that if any of us found a phoenix down that they would go straight to you guys. But as you know, they're extremely rare and expensive and we still have yet to find one. Anyway, good-luck!

Joshua

Tyran,

We're so glad you took the pendent. We hope it helps you in anyway possible. Good-luck, here's a little gil. The farmer's girl just asked for some new equipment.

Mom

Mike,

You better be getting up early sleepyhead! I should hope that they don't have to wake you up like at home! Oh! Karen's teaching me some alchemy, and I'm getting pretty good. Bye!

Diane

Rob,

Hey son. Good-luck out there, don't die. I hope you're keeping up with your fishing.

Dad

"Back to Marr's Pass?" Rob asked after they had given their responses to the moogle and he had flown off.

"Yes, then we go to get our last drop of myrrh." Tyran said.

They then walked back to their wagon, ready to relax after such a long day.

-:-

After a big dinner they went to bed with Mike standing guard. Tyran climbed up into his bed and pondered on the day. 'Could this pendent really hold so much power? And if so, why didn't it work in the same way with Hannah? She and I had once gone out too far from the crystal, and it didn't work this way then. How, and why?' With these thoughts in his mind he drifted off to sleep.

A little twist and turn here and there. Hannah's pendant saved his life, why not her's?