Chapter 5

The next morning, Yugi woke up to the sound of the door of the visitor house opening. He peeked blearily over his blanket to see Kiki standing next to him, smiling. She was holding some kind of plant with a root that looked like a gold colored carrot.

"Wake up sleepyhead! " She said cheerfully. "Today we start your riding lessons!"

Yugi yawned and stretched before sitting up, being mindful of the low ceiling of his bed niche. Yugi glanced at the plant Kiki was holding. "What is that?" he asked curiously. "A Gysahl Green," Kiki explained. "They are a chocobo's favorite food. It will be easier to get the chocobos to trust you if you feed them one of these first."

Kiki laid the green on the table and started to leave. "Mama will be here shortly with breakfast, so you need to go ahead and get washed up and dressed. Last night, Mama brought some new clothes for you and your friends since your other clothes are in pretty bad shape." She nodded to the piles of clothing on the table. With that, Kiki left.

Yugi stood up and grabbing the clothes that looked closest to his size, went to the wash basin hidden behind a curtain in one corner of the room. There was a pump in the wall, making Yugi wonder how they were able to get plumbing in this tree. He pumped some of the water into the basin and using a washcloth and some homemade soap, he quickly washed in the cold water and then let the water out of the tub by pulling the plug.

He grabbed a towel off a rack on the wall and dried himself quickly and then pulled the clothes on. They were quite old-fashioned, consisting of a wool, long-sleeved tunic and wool pants with a draw string. They were quite warm though, which was understandable due to the amount of snow still on the ground.

By the time he emerged from behind the curtain, he saw that Tea was awake and examining the clothes on the table and the others were just sitting up and yawning. "Good morning Yugi!" Tea smiled. "Morning," Yugi said. Tea grabbed the female clothes and went behind the curtain to wash as well. By this time, the others were also examining the clothes.

"WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?" Kaiba bellowed, appalled. He was holding up some odd clothes that looked different from the others. Yugi couldn't help snickering when he held up a filmy top with long, flaring sleeves and a laced up collar and ballooning pants, which Yugi thought were called "pantaloons". They looked like the type of thing a courtier from the Tudor court would wear. To top it off, there was a wide brimmed, pointed hat with a long, curled feather in it. It was clear these were meant for Kaiba since they were the largest set of clothes.

Kiki and her mother walked in carrying a small iron pot and a covered basket. "Is there a problem with your clothes?" Kiki asked innocently. As a measure of revenge for the way Kaiba kept being rude to them, she had found the most foppish, old-fashioned Treno nobleman outfit she could find. "You don't expect me to wear THIS do you?!" Kaiba asked, outraged. "Well, I thought since you seem like a nobleman yourself that this would be the most appropriate for you to wear" Kiki replied coolly.

Joey and Tristan burst out laughing. Kaiba glared at them. Kiki and her mother placed the pot and basket on the table as Tristan took some bowls down from a shelf. The pot contained hot oatmeal and the basket held warm slices of ham, freshly baked bread, and some butter. Tea came out of the wash area and the six humans sat down and ate their fill.

"Today we are going to start your riding lessons" Kiki announced. "We already have three chocobo waiting. We're probably going to use a double saddle so that two can ride the same chocobo, but I think it will be important for everyone to learn just in case of an accident." Kiki continued seriously. "It's a long way to Lindblum and although not as dangerous as before, there are still monsters that we may have to fight. Stiltzkin thinks that all of you should also learn how to use a weapon."

"A weapon?" Yugi asked, groaning. He didn't think he had the strength to use a weapon, especially if it was a sword. "Don't worry Yugi, I'm sure we can manage" Yami said in his head.

"We'll spend some time teaching you the basics of a weapon while we are here as well. It may seem daunting but those who don't have any combat skills don't tend to last very long," Kiki continued. "Lindblum is a good ten day journey by chocobo and unless we can find someone with an airship, we are pretty much going to be on our own, at least until we make it to the ship port to the south."

Kiki drew out a map from the basket and opened it. Yugi got up and leaned over to look, noticing the map was divided into four continents. "This," Kiki pointed to an area on the northern most continent that said 'Madain Sari' "is where we are now. This area used to be part of a village of summoners before it was destroyed a little over fifty years ago. What was left was destroyed by the Iifa tree's roots as it was dying and it unleashed the Eidolon Ceres from her slumber. When she was released, the whole area, which had been little more than a wasteland, started coming alive and as a gift to the moogles living here, she made this huge forest grow in this area and we've been living here ever since."

"Iifa tree? Eidolon? I'm not following what you are saying," Yugi said, confused. "Later, after your riding lessons, I'll have my grandfather explain about the Iifa tree and the Eidolons. It's a really long story. But going on, we will be headed here," and again Kiki pointed at the map, this time towards the bottom of the Southern Continent, "to Lindblum, on the continent formally known as the Mist Continent. Grandpa will explain that too," Kiki added when Yugi opened his mouth to ask.

Stiltzkin walked in at that time, holding a saddle. "Okay, your mounts are ready! We will be using Sky, Howl, and Yuffie since the other two chocobo have chicks." "Are those the names of your chocobos?" Tea asked. "Yup, Yuffie is my personal chocobo. She can be pretty feisty though so I hope you guys are really fast learners," Kiki answered with a smile.

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Okay, I promise that the riding lessons will be next chapter! I based the names of the chocobos on the ones I have from the Chocobo mod I installed for Minecraft, that was one of the default names.