Matoya the Witch Appears: A missing Crystal and PIRATES?!

[Zenthor]

Zack watched the giant's shadow slowly loom over the horse-mounted heroes.  Panicking, he looked around for anything to help them.  Some landmark, some path the giant couldn't follow.  Finding none of these things, he panicked even more.

"Giant.  Giant kill, Giant kill us.  Kill us.  Kill us bad.  Bad?  Bad?  Fire.  Fire bad.  No, fire good!  Burn, burn, burn!  Smoke suffocate, smoke blind!  Fire good!  Burn forest!"

Is what he tried to say aloud to himself, but it came out as:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He screamed and started lobbing fire and lightning spells to his left and right, hoping to ignite the forest to help them get away.

And somewhere off in another world, a member of Greenpeace began to shed a tear.

[Olvelsper]

"He doesn't take high stress situations well, does he?!" Craig shouted over the explosions and cracks of lightning as he had his horse duck and jive through the magical impliments of death.

[Nephrite]

"No, no he apparently doesn't! Augh... I'm not very good in situations like this either! ZACK! ZACK! Try and just hit it in the face! Then maybe it'll be blinded and we can hide!" Quatre yelled, trying to not get squashed by the large man who was approaching.

[Dracos]

The forest quickly lit on fire, it being a dry season, the crackling of ancient trees slowly beginning to smoulder and burn, cutting off an escape path filling their ears even as the giant continued to gain!

But what was this, the end of the forest was in sight!

Dracos

[Olvelsper]

"Geez, talk about overkill. Gettiup!" Craig pressed his horse onwards towards the exit before it was blocked by a furious blaze and he like ...died. Dying was never good.

[Zenthor]

Zack continued galloping toward the exit of the forest, trying to hurry the escape along.  He was no longer lobbing spells, and too panicked to know if it was because he was out of mana or if he realized no more fire was necessary. All the long hoping that they don't die in this forest (or at the very least, if they do die he dies with them), since that would be really bad for his resume.

He could just imagine it now.

"And why did you leave your former party?"
"Uh... I killed them in a forest fire."
"...Next."

Yes, everyone escaping seemed to be in his best interest now.  Not that it wasn't before.

[Nephrite]

Quatre just followed suit, bringing up the rear of the party. "If we make it out of this alive, we'll have some exciting stories to tell, at the least."

[Olvelsper]

"I hope we *can* have kids to tell this to afterwards."

[Zenthor]

"At this point, I hope we have mouths so we can tell anyone about this afterwards."

[Nephrite]

"Now now, we've gotten out of worse before, right? ...Okay, so we haven't, but there's a first time for everything."

[Olvelsper]

The quartet (sp) of adventurers burst out of the forest just as a blazing tree tumbled over onto the ground as they erupted out of the forest, their trail kicking up dust as their horses were furiously put to the test as they escaped from the burning clutches of the deathtrap the woods had been turned into.

[Dracos]

The giant though was unhindered as he smashed his way out of the flaming forest, roaring and following them, their horses beginning to tire at the breakneck pace they'd been setting.  They had to lose him somehow soon, or face him.

Dracos

[Nephrite]

"Guys, I don't know about you, but I don't think running is helping. Does anyone have any ideas? We could try and split up, but... I'm not sure that would work, either!"

[Zenthor]

"We could try fighting, but I think I've used up all my mana.  If we split up, only one of us will be killed... better than us all dying."

[Nephrite]

"You guys keep going forward, I'll break off. I still have energy, so I should be able to fend for myself. Okay?"