Chapter 3
The young moogle and the young human stared at each other curiously for several moments. Yugi's first impression was the creature was a cross between a cat and a koala with a long stalk on top of its head that ended in a large, pom-pom like ball and tiny purple batwings.
Kiki too was quite curious about Yugi and thought his hairstyle was very odd. She'd met several humans but none who looked that strange. She also thought he seemed pretty small for a human and assumed he was a young child.
As Kiki stood in the doorway staring, a voice behind her scolded her "Kiki! Don't stand in front of the door, kupo! You are letting the cold air in!" Kiki jumped out of the way quickly. "Sorry mama!" Yugi noticed that the newcomer was carrying what appeared to be a large pot. The smaller creature was carrying a pail of water.
The larger creature smiled at Yugi. "Do you feel better kupo? You had quite a close shave". Yugi, wondering why she called him "kupo", answered "Um, yeah, I do feel better, although I don't really remember much of what happened,".
The creature nodded, as if she expected to hear that and moved toward the fireplace where she placed the pot before taking the pail of water and pouring it into the pot. "I'm not surprised since you were unconscious kupo. By the way, my name is Mogmi and that is my daughter, Kiki.
"Hello, my name is Yugi", Yugi replied awkwardly.
"Please sit down kupo, I am making some hot soup for you and your friends. They should be waking up soon," Mogmi said, nodding towards the table and the benches. Yugi sat down and looked around the room again. It was very cozy and homey, like it was something out of a fairytale. To break the silence, Yugi asked "Is this your home? It's very nice".
"Ah no, it's not my home. This is a visitor's house. Sometimes we get humans and other visitors here and since the beds of the other houses are too small, we made this house specifically for taller visitors, kupo." Mogmi replied.
"I see" Yugi said. But it encouraged him to know that there were other humans here besides he and his friends. He glanced at the other bunks and he saw Joey yawning and stretching. Yugi jumped up and ran over. "Joey! You're awake! How are you feeling?" Joey sat up in the bed and promptly hit his head on the roof of the bed niche. "OW! What da heck? Where are we Yug?" Rubbing his head, he carefully climbed out of the bed niche and then his eyes widened at the sight of the two moogles.
"Hey Yug, what is goin' on? What are dose creatures?"
Kiki stood up. "We are called moogles. I'm Kiki, pleased to meet you". She held out her hand and Joey cautiously shook it. "Hi, my name is Joey Wheeler". Kiki giggled. "What's so funny?" Joey asked, perplexed. Still giggling, Kiki answered "No offense but your voice is kinda funny". "Funny?" Joey looked clueless, which made Kiki giggle even more.
"Hey, what is with all the noise? I can't sleep!" a voice complained. "Tristan! You're awake too!".
"Ugh" groaned a female voice. "Why do I feel so stiff?" Hey Tea, welcome back to the world of reality" said Joey. "Now what about Moneybags there?" Joey went over to Kaiba's bunk and started calling him in a sing-song voice "Oh moneybags, rise and shine!" Kaiba groaned and opened his eyes, glaring at Joey blearily. "Go away mutt!" he growled and then winced as he sat up. As with the others, his eyes widened to find out where he was.
"What is this supposed to be, Goldilocks and the Three Bears?" he quipped sarcastically. Then he felt a feeling of panic. "Where's Mokuba?!" he looked around frantically until he saw his little brother in another bed. He knelt beside him and shook him "Mokuba! Wake up!" the boy woke up confused "B-big brother?". Kaiba hugged the boy in relief. "Hey bro, I'm okay! Really!" the Mokuba exclaimed. He managed to stand up and then his eyes landed on the moogles. "Hey, what are they supposed to be? Some kind of Duel Monsters?"
Kiki looked confused. "Duel Monsters? I've never heard of that."
Yugi answered "It's a card game where we come from, where you pit monsters against each other and use Spell and Trap cards to make your monsters stronger".
Kiki brightened "Oh, we have a card game too! It's called Tetra Master. Maybe I can show you how to play!"
Mogmi spoke "That will have to wait until later because now the soup is ready. Please every have a seat kupo. Kiki, please hand me some bowls off that shelf."
The six humans sat down at the long table as Mogmi ladled the hot soup into the bowls Kiki handed to her. Kiki then set a bowl of soup in front of everyone. Yugi slowly sipped the soup. It was made of some meat and vegetables he couldn't identify but it was quite tasty and warming.
After they had eaten and pushed their bowls away, Mogmi asked, "Do any of you remember how you got into the woods during a blizzard kupo?"
Yugi frowned, trying to recall. "Yeah, I kinda remember. We were in our home city called Domino City. We were going to see a movie when it started raining really hard and the next thing we know, a tornado forms and runs right over us."
"What is a movie?" Kiki interrupted but Mogmi continued "Do you remember anything after that kupo?" Yugi tried to remember and then shook his head. The others too shook their heads.
"That's too bad kupo" Mogmi shook her head sadly. "If we don't know what brought you here, we may not be able to get you back kupo".
Everyone looked rather stricken at this thought. "But I've got a company to run!" Kaiba exclaimed. " I can't just stay here and let some vermin take over my corporation!"
"Ya know, just where IS here anyway?" Joey asked.
"This world is called Gaia" said a voice from the doorway. They all looked over and saw another moogle, this one a light grayish-brown color wearing a bandanna.
"Stiltzkin!" Kiki squealed, blushing. The moogle called Stiltzkin grinned and sat down at the table, tweaking Kiki's pom-pom affectionately as he did.
"Gaia? So this is another planet or an alternate universe?" Yugi asked. "Probably both" answered Stiltzkin. "What is the name of your planet?" he asked. "Ours is called Earth. It's a pretty advanced planet" Yugi answered. "So you use steam power already?" Stiltzkin asked, interested. "Steam?" Kaiba scoffed. "We use electricity and nuclear power. The steam age ended 100 years ago!" Yugi felt a momentary irritation at Kaiba's rudeness but didn't say anything.
Stiltzkin didn't seem offended though. If anything, he looked impressed. "So you've figured out how to harness electricity as a power source? Impressive!".
"So, do you have any idea on how we can get back home?" Tristan asked.
Stiltzkin sat thoughtfully for a few moments. Presently he answered, "A powerful mage MIGHT be able to send you back although none of us moogles can do it. The only moogle who is fully trained as a mage is Kiki's grandfather and he is only a white mage and not a particularly powerful one at that. It would likely require a black mage or red mage to have a spell powerful enough to send you back."
"So where can we find these mages?" Yugi asked, intrigued. "The only place you'd likely find a mage powerful enough is in the city of Lindblum, which is far to the south from here on the Mist Continent."
"So we just have to go to this 'Lindblum' place and then we can get home? Then we should leave as soon as we can" Kaiba said.
"What? Leave in this weather? Are you insane?" Kiki exclaimed. "You'd freeze to death before you traveled a mile and even if you left on a sunny day, a blizzard could blow in at any time!"
"Well it's better to risk it than have my company taken over!" Kaiba snarled.
Stiltzkin spoke up calmly "You may be willing to risk your own life but are you willing to risk the boy's life?" He nodded toward Mokuba and Kaiba calmed down, realizing that Stiltzkin was right. He sat in moody silence.
Stiltzkin spoke again "In spring I have to take a trip to Lindblum. I have to stop by our mail center, Mognet Central to pick up the mail to deliver and I also agreed to escort young Kiki to the White Mage Academy in Lindblum so if you can wait until spring, you can accompany us. So if you can wait about another month and a half when the winter is over and the spring floods have run their course then we can leave then. But until then, it would be foolish to leave."
Everyone sat in silence, letting these words sink in. None of them liked the thought of waiting a month and a half in order to get home, especially Kaiba but they also knew they had little choice in the matter. Kaiba sighed angrily and walked back to his bed.
Kiki broke the ice first. "Come on!" she said, grabbing Yugi's hand. "Since you will be here for a while, I'll teach you how to play Tetra Master!"
End of Chapter 3