The group tightened up its formation as it followed the western path. While previously Armondo was out of sight as he scouted, the stout half orc was now only twenty feet ahead. Even little Tig ,which was happy to jog to keep pace, had climbed into the strange wicker basket on Ceto's back, using him as a bizarre kind of mount as she scanned the flanks from her new vantage point like some kind of leather clad gnome turret.

Though Gerald was initially amused at the strange sight of the gnome on the half orc's back, he soon became jealous of her position. She at least had some cover and a big guardian, while he was pretty much out in the open with no one to protect him. There was no turning back now however, all he could do was quicken his stride slightly placing himself between Armondo and Ceto, and hoped that would be enough to save him if things turned rough.

As the group ventured further, Armondo suddenly raised a close fist. Gerald wasn't sure what it meant and kept walking, but was quickly hauled back by Ceto.

"Stop," grunted the big half orc.

Gerald nodded nervously and watched Armondo first walk to the left, and then walk backwards retracing his steps before walking to the right. He the sniffed the air, walked backwards a bit, before resuming his original trail to the left. Waving the group forward after twenty paces.

"What was that all about?"

"I'm not sure," replied Tig from her basket. "I'm assuming that whoever was fleeing laid several false trails to throw off their pursuers. Hopefully we'll find the right one and meet up with them before the goblins do."

"Hmm, Sir Markham is supposed to be a master woodsman, maybe he survived."

"Well, let's hope so," grunted Armondo before resuming his search.

Gerald wasn't sure what to hope for right now. A part of him wanted them to get lost, give up their pursuit, and return to town and warn the guard. But another part of him thought of poor Mina. While she had insisted him to lead her here, he still felt partially responsible for the predicament that she was in. Sorceress or not, he knew she was in trouble. His initial plans of following the Prince and writing a tale of how he slew the dragon seemed like a memory now. A very distant memory.

As they pressed forward on the left path, Armondo raised the fist again followed by a flat hand that slowly dropped itself. Gerald stopped and glanced back at Ceto for information on the second sign. The big half orc slowly lowered himself dropping out of sight, while Tig on her back raised a finger to her lips.

Gerald nodded and also fell and remained silent. He wondered how long he would have to remain in such a state, but was soon answered as a pair of towering humanoids strode, over ten feet tall, through the forest before them. They didn't seem to be on any paths, and talked in a slow rough tongue that Gerald could not understand. Despite this, he could still understand the gist of their conversation, it didn't take a linguist to know that they were irritated and angry from the tone of their voices.

The pair walked within thirty feet of Armondo but did not seem to notice him. Gerald however noticed something on them. Attached to one of their belts was the body of Sir Markham hanging upside down. His great bow Reaver, was still slung over his shoulder and his long blond hair dangled to the giants knees. He looked like he was having a long sleep except he was missing both his arms. Gerald winced as he imagined the giants tugging on each limb as brave Sir Markham struggled before they yanked them off as if they were playing some child's game.

Gerald wanted to scream in terror but forced himself to remain silent as the giants continued. Screaming would probably not be good for either his repuation or his health. The giants stopped briefly and sniffed the air around them when they directly before them. Gerald thought for sure that they had been detected and he was soon to have his arms pulled off, but they simply continued on their way, bickering or swearing in their own tongue before they walked out of sight. Even after they left their vicinity, Armondo remained still for a good five minutes before signaling the group to advance again.

"Was that their…master Woodsman?" asked Armondo.

Gerald gulped and nodded.

Armondo said nothing, as he waved them to stay low as they continued. "Their tracker is gone, but the path continues. Be on your guard incase the giants return."

"Eyes, balls, knees, ankles," grunted Ceto in a low growl, something that Gerald assumed was his version of whispering.

"Eh? What does he mean?" asked Gerald.

"Ceto is trying to be helpful. He means that if you have to fight a giant, go for their weak spots. Their eyes, their knee caps , their ankles, and of course their reproductive organs," explained Tig. Afterwards, Ceto swung his hammer in a low rising arc, and pretended to strike someone in the groin with his big hammer.

Gerald winced at the graphic imagery, but still smiled at Ceto for attempting to be helpful.

The group continued onwards for a few minutes before Armondo stopped at the side of a hill, at the bottom of a cliff. "Hrmm…the path ends here. It just stops."

"Do you think the dragon swooped down and plucked the last of them away?" asked Tig.

"Possibly, but unlikely. There a lot of cover overhead foliage, and some of the branches should have snapped if any thirty foot dragon attacked from above. I'm looking at this cliff, but see no signs of rocks moved, or any shifting about it. Unless of course they used magic to traverse it."

Tig considered this. "Can you circle around and scale this hill, get a better look? Or at least find signs of a struggle. The path continued so I would guess that some of the knights survived. I'm not giving up this lead until all hope is exhausted."

Armondo grunted and slung his bow ominously in the fashion Sir Markham did, before fishing out some sort of strange metal claws. The half orc scout then walked around fifty feet along the cliff face almost out of sight. Gerald watched curiously as Armondo then slipped on the claws on his hands and feet and began climbing the walls slowly like a great cat.

"We'll wait it out here till he returns. If there's no sign of the knights we'll call off the search and return to town. I want that dragon, but I'm not going to attack it blindly when it has an army at his beck and call."

Gerald couldn't complain. That sounded like a wise and good idea. He liked the idea that someone else took his dilemma of his safety versus Mina's safety out of his unsure hands.

As Armondo scaled the walls Ceto took the time to sit down and rest. As the big orc rested, Tig climbed out of her basket and wrapped her arms around the big half orc's head and appeared to smile as she rested as well. Gerald thought it looked like Ceto was snuggling up to a child's stuffed doll or something and thought it looked weird, though when he thought about it, Gerald wouldn't mind snuggling up to Ceto if he could. For safety reasons of course. Knowing it was awkward to muscle into Tig's action, Gerald saw an alcove set in the cliff for him to rest. Without a half orc of his own, he thought it looked comfortable enough as it was overgrown with moss and shrubs. Gerald noticed a strange lilac smell but thought nothing of it before he sat down and suddenly tumbled through the foliage down a previously unseen chasm.

Gerald fell backwards, striking his head once, flipping over and sliding down on his hip, before free falling briefly. He couldn't believe his luck. Instead of being roasted by a dragon, torn apart by wolves, hacked by goblins or squished by giants, he would meet his end by falling down a pit.

Instead of breaking his neck on the way down though, he landed on something hard but with a significant amount of give.

"Oooff…" gasped a femine voice in the dark.

Gerald shot up and fumbled for his rapier. That wasn't him. He looked down and saw a woman sprawled beneath him, kicking back rocks as she attempted to stab some invisible foe.

"Stay back, I won't go down without a fight," she warned in a scared voice as she stabbed blindly in the air. Though she missed badly, she didn't miss by much. All Gerald could do was scramble back out of her range before she sliced a piece of his leg off.

As he put some distance between the prone woman with the dagger, he suddenly realized who it was. Somehow he had fallen atop Lady Tessa, first paladin of the Silver Guard. Even, on her haunches, beaten, and covered with rock and dirt, she struck a dashing and alluring figure. Under her silver armor, he could still make out her ample curves and long limbs. Even her matted and bloodied long creamy hair still had a fresh lilac scent to it.

"You..fell down the chasm in the alcove!" exclaimed Gerald, stating the obvious.

Tess clutched her dagger closer, though her frantic attacks had stopped. "Who…who is this? " she asked tentatively.

Though Gerald had only seen Lady Tessa from afar, he had to admit he had a 'thing' for the beautiful paladin. With her seductive blue eyes, pouting lips, and rosy cheeks it wasn't that hard to believe. Actually, he wouldn't be surprised if all the single men and half the married men had a thing for her. She was the epitome of grace, power, and beauty, and occupied an important rank in the Kingdom of Westholding's hierarchy. Meeting her was one of his fantasies, along with eating the world's biggest gromberry crepe and catching the leprechaun king and shaking him down for all his gold. However this wasn't the way he expected it. Even if he met her at the bottom of a deep chasm, he expected her to be a bit more….determined, brave, even defiant. The woman before him seemed more like a scared little girl, even more scared than himself which was saying a lot. She was supposed to be the leader of the Silver Order, a paladin for Koryis' sake.

Despite this disconnect between reality and fantasy, Gerald's instincts kicked in. "Fear not Lady Tessa, or can I call you Tess? It is I , Gerald the Magnificent, bard extraordinaire, my companions and I have come to rescue you." He conveniently left out the part about recruiting her to fight the dragon and rescue Mina, since he wasn't really sure if his heart was really into that. Rescuing one maiden seemed like a good day's work already.

"You can call me Tessa or Tess or whatever you want," she replied still unsure who she was talking to. Gerald then realized he was still under the effects of Tig's extract while she being a normal human like himself could not see in the darkness. "You have to get me out of here so I can warn the kingdom. We were ambushed by a dragon and his horde of minions. Frederick sacrificed himself to give Harvey and I a chance to escape, but they were relentless and were soon on our trail again. Markham attempted to confuse them, but the darkness slowed our retreat. The last time I saw him he…he… attempted to lead them away so I can make it out of this damn forest….but I fear the worse… I heard him scream as the giants...as the giants laughed. I tried to escape, but the darkness obscures everything. I grew tired, found shelter in an alcove, and the next thing I knew I fell down this pit."

With that she dropped her dagger, and threw both hands over her eyes and cried. Gerald was moved by this display but warning bells triggered in even his thick skull. Was this really the Champion of the realm? The heroine that charmed the heart of brave Prince Aaron? If so, he was sorely disappointed. To him, she looked like some teenage girl crying in armor, a really pretty and sexy girl, but a crying one nonetheless.

"There, there," he said as he hefted her up and gave her a hug. He half expected this was all a ruse, and he was going to get an armored knee to his crotch, or she was going to change into one of those monsters that look like a girl, but was actually only interested in ripping one's guts out, but instead she hugged him back and sobbed softly on his shoulder.

This is nice he thought. This is really nice. I can get use to this.

Gerald wouldn't mind having her embrace him tightly for a few more minutes, but the seriousness of their situation brought him back to reality. He scanned the cavern he was in and saw it was a small chamber with more smaller cracks to either side. As a boy Gerald and his friends played in similar caverns near Daggerhall. The druids said they were naturally occurring caves formed by water erosion or something like that, and it didn't surprise him that a similar cave would be in these woods.

"TIG! CETO! HELP!" shouted Gerald. He waited a bit, almost certain the pair would rescue him, but no aid arrived.

"Are your companions coming?" asked Tess fearfully, holding him tight, refusing to release him.

"They should be, but I'm not sure," complained Gerald. "Maybe we're too deep for them to hear me."

After a few minutes Gerald decided to extradite them out of the cave himself. Given that Lady Tess had no light source, he could understand how she could remain trapped here. While the cavern was small, it was incongruous and would be hard to find the exact dimensions of the room if you had to grope around blind. Not to mention the very real hazard of hitting one's head onto the overhanging rocks, something that Gerald experienced plenty of times when he was a child. Gerald tore a bit of his shirt off and wrapped it on both his and Tess' head for protection before attempting to scale up the small cave to the crack above him.

While the crack was a good ten feet over his head, the cavern provided enough foot and hand holds to climb up. He reached the crack above him after a bit of scrambling and experimenting with the ledges and was able to lift and heft Tess up as well. She was tall, but not that heavy even with her gear. He feared he wouldn't be able to heft Tess up and almost salivated at the idea of ordering her take off her armor, but she was surprisingly light. He had examined Frederick's armor earlier and noted how heavy it was, Tess' armor however seemed as encumbering as a heavy coat, and he noted it was incredibly flexible as well. Magic perhaps?

Regardless of the physics, Gerald managed to tug her up to the crack, and after that it was incredibly easy. Though he tumbled down the crack earlier, it was only at forty five degree angle. Also, while he cursed the rocks that bruised and bashed him as he fell down, he was thankful for them as it made climbing out easier. So with Tess tightly wrapped around him, Gerald made his way to the entrance of the chasm.

"Thank you….Gerald. I thought I was doomed. I did not think a hero like you would find and rescue me."

Gerald grew red. He had never been called a hero before, though he always fancied himself as one. While he had his brush with death with the two headed ogre and the wolf ridden by pixies, he had never done anything like rescue a damsel. For some reason he felt embarssed to play this up as he reached the surface. As soon as she saw him and his motley companions he knew she would be disappointed. There was no reason for her expectations to fall lower from an even more inflated height.

As he neared the top, he saw that brush had covered the hole, and guessed that's how he fell in. He probably just leaned back, thinking it was something soft to rest on before he tumbled unexpectedly down. He guessed that was how Tess fell as well, and resolved to hack up the plants above to prevent future accidents. Before he reached the surface however, Gerald stopped as a monstrous roar echoed down his hole, followed by the distinct sounds of Goblins yelling.

"Bree Yark!"

"They're here! They followed me!" gasped Tess frantically. "We have to get back down and hide."

Gerald agreed. That was a fine idea, but …..something tugged at him to reach the surface. Tig, Ceto, and even Armondo might need his help however unlikely. He wasn't sure what number of foes they were facing, but if he could reach the surface, the presence of Lady Tess might swing the battle in their favor. Sure, she hadn't exactly been the Paladin lord he was expecting, but she was still the leader of the Silver Guard. She was probably shaken from the death of her friends, and this was the carthisis to launch her back into heroic form. If not, well…he could always jump down the hole and pray and wait it out.

Instead of retreating, Gerald found himself pulling the both of them forward, until they reached the top of the chasm.

"What…what are you doing?" pleaded Tess frantically.

"Time to be a hero," said Gerald, though he was referring to her and definitely not himself.