Tales of the Chocobo Kind: FF13

Chapter 7: Feed a Chocobo Day Part 1

"SAZH I THOUGHT YOU SAID WE HAD ENOUGH SADDLES!" It was 6AM and Lightning had just got back from her morning hike to find that there were only two saddles.

"I could have sworn we had six!" Sazh tried to explain.

Serah took advantage of this situation, "Sazh, you swore on your boots we had enough saddles, I'm sorry but you need to take responsibility for your actions and hand over the boots."

Sazh had never been more embarrassed in his life than this moment. Not even the time he had to pick up his older brother from school because he peed his pants was as embarrassing as this. Sazh's boots were his pride. He looked back at little 2 year old Dahj, whose innocent face understood nothing of this situation. Sazh knew he had to do the right thing for his son, so he took off his boots and handed them to Serah.

Serah was surprised he actually did it! She happily took the boots and started putting them on Snow's feet. "I'm a big boy now!" Snow said happily.

Everyone started setting up the final touches. Vanille and Hope put up the price poster, Noctis finalized security details with Lightning, Snow touched up his chocobo knowledge with Fang, Serah brought out the baby chocobos from their dens to the petting zoo, and Sazh disinfected the two saddles.

As Hope was nailing the price poster, the cellphone in his pocket started ringing. "Oh nO! Vanille, what do I do!?"

"Pick it up silly! Remember what we practiced last night!" She answered him.

"Hel-l-lo, this is the Farron Sisters' Chocobo Farm, where our chocobos son tus chocobos, h-how can I help you?" Hope recited.

"Hope? Thank God you picked up and not Lightning! It's Tidus, I'm running late, the traffic here is CRAZY!" Tidus said.

"Oh Tidus! Sorry to hear that," Hope replied.

"Yo, did Lightning say anything about me being late? Did she mention anything about getting me neutered? Cuz that's what she told me last night," Tidus said.

"Oh Lightning? She didn't even mention you, she probably forgot you existed, you see Sazh screwed up big time. You want me to tell her you're still on your way?" Hope said.

"nO GOD NO, ok just don't mention me at all, hopefully she won't notice me arriving late. I can't believe this! I had Yuna call-in sick to her preschool so she could drive me here at 4AM and I'll probably still get fired!" Tidus complained.

"Why is there so much traffic?" Hope asked.

"I kid you not, I think all these people are going to the farm! I see families with kids holding chocobo plushes!"

"Are you serious? Oh man, ok catch you later," Hope said and hung up.

"What happened?" Vanille asked.

Hope hated lying, "O-o-oh, nothing-g, it was just my mom…making sure…I didn't forget to take… my testosterone pills."

Noctis came over to the ticket booth, "Ok, so I put this gate right here next to the booth so no one can sneak in, one of you needs to stay right at the gate to let people in one-by-one, they need a ticket to get through the gate, no exceptions. The only people that can get through without a ticket are employees, and employees must be wearing a Farron Sisters' Chocobo Farm hat, no exceptions. And re-entries are not allowed. Remember I set up a camera here so if anyone, I mean anyone, breaks the rules they will be identified, persecuted, and incarcerated in our chocobo jail."

"Got it!" Vanille answered, "Hope, I wanna be the one at the gate, can you handle the ticket sales yourself?"

"Uuuhhhh…"

"GREAT!"

It was getting close to opening time, 7AM, so everyone took their positions. At the stroke of 7, the masses started showing up and making a mess in the parking lot. To avoid lawsuit, Noctis was sure to put up a sign in the parking lot that said, "We will NOT be held responsible for vehicular damage or loss."

People started running to the ticket booth to be first in line. Vanille got too excited joined Hope at the booth, "WELCOME TO THE FARRON SISTERS'CHOCOBO FARM, WHERE OUR CHOCOBOS ARE YOUR CHOCOBOS, how many tickets?"

"Two adult and two children," The parent answered.

Hope knew that each adult ticket was $10, and children were $5, and free under age 1. He took a look at the school-age kids and tried to do the math in his head. "That will b-b-be $15."

"Wow what a deal!" the parent said and handed Hope a $20 bill. Hope put the $20 into the register and gave the parent back a $10 bill.

"T-t-thanks and h-have fun." Hope said. Vanille ran back to the gate to take the family's tickets and let them in. "Welcome to the Farron Sisters' Chocobo Farm, how many tickets?"

"Two tickets please!" The blacked hair man answered holding his brunette partner's hand.

"Ooooh my gOOssH! It's Zack Fair! I'm a huge fan!" Hope told him.

"Always nice to meet a fan!" Zack told him, "I'm here with my girlfriend Aeris for a sweet date!"

"It's an honor to have you visit! That will be $40." Hope told Zack. Zack gave the boy the $40 and Hope gave him back $20. 'This is going really well!' Hope thought to himself.

The next party in line were three teenage looking kids. Hope couldn't stop staring at them, they weren't gorgeous or anything, they just had extremely spikey hair and ENORMOUS feet.

"W-welcome, how many tickets?" Hope almost forgot to ask.

"Are you BLIND? Three you idiot!" The silver haired one answered.

"Uuh, ok, that will be $15"

The red haired girl started taking out her wallet until she was interrupted, "Yo Kairi, don't you even dare! I got this!" the brown haired one said and took out $15 from his shoe.

"Thanks and have fun," Hope told them and took out some hand sanitizer. At that moment the phone rang and Hope saw that he got a text message. 'Oh no, it's Lightning!'

"How are things going?" her text said.

"Gr8! Many ppl, rong line," Hope answered quickly to get back to the customers.

A few minutes later Lightning showed up at the ticket booth, "WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!?" She demanded.

"N-n-n-n-nothing! I'm just trying to get these customers through!" Hope tried to explain himself.

"You texted me saying there were many people in the wrong line!"

"N-n-no! Many people, long line!"

"You're switching with Vanille," she said and forced them to trade places.

It was almost 7:30, which meant that the first tour for the day was about to take off. Snow and Fang waited outside the long tour shuttle as the seats were filling up. Snow and Fang finally entered the shuttle and took the intercom piece, "Hello friends and family," Fang started, "welcome to the Farron-"

"YEAH YEAH we get it! Your chocobos are our chocobos!" The silver haired boy named Riku yelled.

"Hey hey!" Snow said as he took the intercom, "let's play nice, kids. How about this, let's go around and introduce ourselves! My name is Snow, I love chocobos and you should too! Who wants to go next?"

"I will!" Zack said and stood up from his seat near the front, "My name's Zack, I'm a First-Class Soldier, and I'm here with my gorgeous girlfriend Aeris!"

Snow got angry, "OK, I don't know who you are, or what you're trying to do, but how about you stop being a SHOW OFF?"

"I was just-!"

"No you were NOT, you and your gal to the BACK of the shuttle, NOW!" Snow demanded and handed back Fang the intercom as he revved up the engine and started driving the shuttle.

Fang started her monologue, "Let's get started folks, Chocobos are a breed of flightless birds, characterized by their yellow feathers, distinct odor, and the unforgettable chirp, "kweh!" Domesticated for their gentle nature and quick feet, they are often used as a mode of ground transportation. To your right you will see our chocobo barn, where we house our chocobos, and care for the ill."

"Hey, look Kairi!" Sora said as he activated his Heelys and grabbed the side rails and jumped over.

"Hey hey! Safety first! Get back into the shuttle!" Fang warned.

"Come on Fang! Kids will be kids!" Snow defended the boy.

"Excuse me! My girlfriend has a question!" Zack yelled from the back, waving his arms back and forth.

"Yes, what is your question?" Fang asked into the intercom.

"I was just wondering how many chocobos can fit in the barn," Aeris asked.

"Sorry, can you please repeat that?" Fang asked, not even sure where the sound of Aeris's voice was coming from.

"Don't worry babe, I gotcha," Zack told Aeris and stood up, "She said she wanted to know how many chocobos can fit in the barn!"

Snow got furious and slammed the shuttle to a sudden halt. He stood up and grabbed the intercom from Fang, "Listen here, I've already warned you, please keep your inappropriate comments to YOURSELF, there are CHILDREN aboard who are trying to LEARN and have a good time, so please control yourself or I will have to kick you off this shuttle!"

Zack looked at Snow so confused about the situation but didn't want to cause a bad scene for his girlfriend, so he just sat back down and apologized profusely to her.

Next time: Opening day continues! Will anyone notice Tidus is missing?

-end-

Too much craziness I had to split this into two chapters, so look forward to the next one! I'm sorry about the mix up last week, I said I had updated chapter 1 with character profiles but I didn't realize there's an extra step when updating an already uploaded chapter (you guys who are authors will know what I mean) but that's corrected now. And always thank you to Custom Eyes and Mr. Francis York Morgan for reviewing! It really helps me to know what other people think of the characters. See you all next time!