“So what do we do now, o fearless leader…,” Andomiel retorted.
“We fight…and the outcome is for fate to decide.”
“Oh great, done in by a little thing called fate…--,”
“Just shut up and draw your sword already!!!” Urd snapped.
The five despite having outnumbered the beast, the crushing weight upon them and its massive claws tore into them heavily. If it weren’t for the armor they were given, they would have been goners.
“So I guess the head on approach doesn’t work huh?” Fenris said.
“Maybe for you guys…but not for me!!!” Tempest surprised the large thing with a tremendous drop slash that cleaved it in two.
“Eh?” The group was speechless that Tempest could single handedly defeated a behemoth, that is until a whole pack of them surrounded the clearing.
“I…ulp…think we killed their leader…,” Tempest said rather uneasily.
“We? You!” Andomiel shouted above the roars of the pack of behemoths.
“Now’s not a good time to argue guys…,” Urd said, “If one was hard to deal with, this ain’t no walk in the park.”
“Pssst…hey!! Down here!!”
“Huh?” Pharda was surprised by the little squeaky voice that whispered in his ear. He looked down and saw the strangest creature squinting up at him.
“Hey…um…,”
“No time for that!! Come on down this hole!!” The creature pointed, and taking his cue, Pharda ushered and pushed his whole group down the hole, not quite understanding where they were going, but it would be a lot better than where they were.
“Close the hole!!! Kupo!” The little thing shouted, and an army of white powderpuff creatures used some sort of magic and the hole was gone, all they could see now was a vast well lit cavern filled with nothing but furry little creatures with red noses and dilly-bobs on their heads.
“Er…thanks for the help…whatever you are…,”
“You don’t know what we are?” The little creature stared up at him in squinting disbelief. “We’re moogles, descendants of the great Mog…we help those in need and anyone in a bind, kupo.”
Urd elbowed Fenris for a piece of info, “What’s a moogle?”
“From what I recall from my old teacher, they were faeries that guarded the forests of the world, they help lost people out of the forest…,”
“So, kupo, what exactly where you guys doing wandering around up there, you know how many times we’ve had to bury dead bodies of idiots who tried to cross the Snowfly Forest?”
“Well, our reason was legitimate…, see we’re looking for these stones…,” Pharda held up his and it softly glowed an colorful hue.
“Could that be….? Is that….no way!!!” The little moogle stammered, he beat his little wings and flew in for a closer look at the stone.
“What?”
“That’s a chunk of the Crystal!!!”
“But it’s two Zodiac Stones fused together…this is adamantite?”
“Humans are so weird…they name one thing something and than another something completely different.”
“I can vouch for that!! Ooof!!” Fenris said as he got elbowed in the ribs by Urd.
“You humans call it adamantite and claim it’s from the moon right?”
The whole group nodded.
“You think the power of these stones resides in the symbols on the stones and in your hearts?”
The whole group nodded.
“You’re only half right…,”
“Gaia told us…,”
“Eh? Gaia? Kupo, don’t you know these stones are older than Gaia herself?! The fact that two of them are in your hands says something big is gonna happen with the Crystal…,”
“What do you mean by the crystal…?” Pharda asked.
“The crystal is the source of all life everywhere, Gaia, even Terra!!”
“Terra!?” The whole group asked.
The little moogle slapped his forehead in exasperation and groaned, “Are you so dense? Why do you think those weapons you carry are so powerful, they didn’t come from Gaia, they came from Terra, a world solely based on magic, it is only partially linked to this world. We moogles are the only creatures that can stay in tune with Terra’s life pulse. The source of souls on either planet, when a soul dies it returns to the planet either as magic, energy, Eidolon, Aeon, or whatever you want to call them and gets reused.”
“Okay, you just said a lot in a short amount of time, could we talk about this over dinner?” Andomiel said.
“As long as you have kupo nuts, y’know we’re kupo for kupo nuts!!”
“Good thing I brought a bag along!!--,” Tempest said, but as soon as she brought it out, she was smothered in white fuzzies.
“KUUUPOOOOO!!!!” A moogle feeding frenzy ensued.
“Err…you could lose a hand in there….,” Andomiel murmered wide-eyed.
