Chapter 3
Sector Three's train station was always swarming with activity, morning, noon, or night. Businessman or beggar, flower girl or dancing girl, all paths converged at the railway platform. For Joe and Teioh, working their way through all these intertwining threads of fate, it looked like less like a busy hub of transportation and more an overcrowded ant hill freshly poked with a stick. The mushroom of Midgar was in actuality a huge, bustling hive.
A representative of President Shinra had been sent to meet them at the station and lead them to their final destination. Train tickets were to be paid for by the President himself, but the wagons would have to be left in storage until the party returned from the upper plate - if there was anything left at all to reclaim once they returned, that is. There was a fair amount of grumbling at this announcement as everything the gypsies owned resided in those vehicles, but they grudgingly agreed and boarded the passenger cars, preparing for the long ride ahead in baggage class.
Joe was a bit confused. He stood by holding Teioh's reins, watching as all the others in his tribe boarded the train car, wondering what was expected of him. Obviously he couldn't take the chocobo on-board, but he didn't want to hand his companion over to the gruff men who were handling the wagon chocobos either ...
One of the railway workers, a grizzled-looking older fellow outfitted in red, approached the pair authoratively.
"Here kid, lemme take that bird off yer hands," he grunted, reaching for the reins. Before either Joe or the worker could react, Teioh had reared angrily and delivered a mighty peck to the man's shoulder-blade, furious at the presumptuousness of this stranger daring to lay hands on him. The livestock-handler fell back and clutched at the injured body part in pain and anger, dropping the reins to the ground.
"You stupid son of a--"
Joe swiftly stepped between Teioh and the enraged worker, soothing the distraught cob with a variety of clucks and whistles. After several minutes of these ministrations the angry bird began to settle down. The whites of his eyes stopped showing, the enraged warking faded into quiet clucks, and ruffled, raised feathers once again lay flat against the black body. Where there had previously stood a very angry chocobo, there was now nothing more than a docile kitten.
Joe turned to the injured employee, still holding onto Teioh's reins tightly.
"I'm sorry if my brother hurt you, but he is not used to anyone handling him but me. If you'll direct me to his lodgings we will soon be out of your way."
The railroad worker glowered at the chocobo for a moment, then nodded and motioned for them to follow. Joseph heaved a sigh of relief, shaking his finger at the now-docile Teioh once the other man's back was turned.
"Another stunt like that and we'll be in trouble for sure," he grumbled under his breath to the unrepentant avian, who seemed not in the slightest way disturbed by his adventure moments before.
The boy and his bird were led to a row of boxcars towards the back of the train. One of these great wooden hulls was open, and from inside quiet clucks and warks could be heard, a strong smell of hay and warm bodies wafting from within. The railroad man, still rubbing his bruised shoulder-blade and eyeing them warily, motioned to the interior.
"There should be an empty stall in there. Make yerself at home, if ye plan on staying with 'em."
Joe nodded his thanks and led the black chocobo up the ramp into the darkness of the boxcar. As soon as he and Teioh were safely inside, the great sliding door was slammed shut behind them, leaving only the dim lamps that hung along the stalls to light their path. Rows of chocobo heads watched them silently, all colours and temperaments represented. A few warked welcomes to the newcomers, but for the most part the creatures were eerily quiet.
Just as the railman had said, there was an empty stall right at the end of the row of stalls, conveniently located by the door. Joe ushered Teioh in, tied his headstall loosely to a beam so the bird could move about, and shut the stall door with a click. There didn't seem to be any feed around to give the bird, but that was for the best: chocobos were notoriously colicky on long trips, and all the gypsy boy needed now was to be trapped inside a stall with a sick Teioh.
A tremor ran through the car, and there was a grating sound from underneath the train. With a great lurch they were off, bound for what fate no-one on board could possibly tell.
Joe settled down at the chocobo's feet, making himself a nest in the dirty straw that lined the car's floor. He wished it was cleaner, for Teioh's sake, but there was nothing to be done about it now. The boxcar rocked back and forth like a cradle, the wheels rattling and shaking gently underneath Joe's head. The long events of the day combined with the lullaby of the railroad soon had the youth fast asleep, snoring away softly in the hay.
Teioh, seeing that his master was napping, very carefully stepped around the inert form. Cooing softly, the black bird settled down beside the young boy, snuggling close and fluffing his feathers up to keep them both warm. With a tired little grunt of resignation the chocobo tucked his head under one wing and soon followed his brother into the dream world.
---
The pair were awakened the next morning by a great jarring motion that shook the entire train down to its tracks. The brakes squealed, cars rattled, and most of the other chocobos clucked nervously, pacing back and forth in the straw like agitated tigers. Teioh had been good the entire journey, but now he too was warking agitatedly. Stumbling to his feet, the dark-haired boy made an attempt to comfort his troubled friend.
"Awww, nothing bad's happening, featherhead! You're just angered because of your lack of supper last night, aren't you?"
The bird glared at him for a moment, then continued to pace around the box. Joe knew when Teioh had had enough, and he settled himself into a corner of the box stall to wait things out.
Soon enough the train ground to a halt. With one final mighty clang and a jolt that threw most of the other birds off their feet, the journey was ended. A worker came and threw open the doors, whistling a popular tune as he went about his morning work. Sunlight poured into the dark interior, illuminating every nook and cranny with a cheerful golden glow.
Joe sensed something strange in all this, but he couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. The railwayman, the song, the sunlight that flooded the boxcar ...
"That's what it is," he murmured to himself. "Sunlight. We must be on the top plate; otherwise there wouldn't be any."
The gypsy boy thought he had never seen anything quite as beautiful as those thick bars of sunshine streaming through the double doors of the train. With an excited whoop the boy jumped up, pushed his hat down onto his head, and whistled for Teioh, who promptly dropped his sulk and followed the boy out of the stall once untethered. The two were exiting the boxcar and had almost made their way onto the platform when another railwayman rushed up, almost as agitated as Teioh's 'friend' of the previous day had been.
"Hey kid! You can't take that bird out on the streets!"
Joe stared back at him uncomprehendingly.
The railroad worker sighed and repeated his message, slower this time. "Look kiddo, you can't take a chocobo out on the streets up here unless you have the direct permission of the Shinra Corporation. I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave your bird in his stall."
The words finally sank in: He would have to leave Teioh on the boxcar as long as he was up here or until he had permission to move the chocobo around. With a disgusted sigh, the boy whistled for the bird and led him back into the dusty box stall, making sure to tie the reins securely several times before he finished.
"I'm sorry Teioh, but you've gotta stay here until I'm done with this fat cat, alright? Then we can go back outside and run wherever we want, I promise. I don't know why it's like this ... won't be able to do any tricks without my brother, am I right?" He patted Teioh on the neck one final time, heaved another heavy sigh, and left the car, not daring to look back. It was a hard, hard road they were travelling, and Joe was not at all sure the pay-off would be worth the toll, in the end.
---
Joe joined the other gypsies and their guide on the platform by the train cars. They all looked confused and out of place in this strange new area, bereft of birds or wagons. The boy wondered vaguely if he looked as bewildered as they did, and decided he most probably did. His separation from Teioh had shaken the gypsy boy more than he would have ever admitted or expected.
As they left the platform and followed Shinra's guide down the maze of streets that bordered railway station, Joe felt a pang of guilt at leaving the black chocobo behind in this strange place (not the last he would feel that day). Still, he could at least enjoy his walk, even if he wasn't viewing the sights and sounds of Upper Midgar from the back of a sturdy chocobo. It wasn't often one of his social status got to see this sector of the city; most of the lesser castes were strictly kept off the top plates, living the whole of their lives without ever seeing the sun or a un-graffitied surface. Their entire lives, from cradle to grave, were spent in the dark and the grime.
At this early hour of the day the streets were quiet, the clean cobblestones shining cheerfully in the morning sunlight. Rows of houses stood intact and whole on either side of the road, each complete with a large, green yard gleaming lushly in front of it. The little boy felt an overwhelming urge to throw himself onto them and roll luxuriantly - they looked and smelled so fresh! - but severely doubted that was on the "allowed" list. So he continued walking, occasionally shooting a hungry glance at the emerald squares over his shoulder.
It was early summer, so most of the lawns were being tended by automatic sprinkler systems that whirred quietly as they threw water over the grass. A light breeze was blowing, and the mist coming out of the sprinklers covered both the grass and the gypsies, refreshing and reinvigorating the travellers as they passed by. Small droplets frosted Joe's face, vaguely reminding him of the spray off a waterfall he and Teioh had once discovered high in the Nibelheim Mountains. That had been a good day. The boy felt another pang of guilt at leaving Teioh behind and picked up the pace slightly. He'd have to tell the bird everything once he got back, otherwise the black chocobo would most certainly go into a sulk.
The farther the group walked, the larger and more ornate the houses became. Smooth concrete sidewalks bordered the byways, great iron-wrought lamp-posts rising out of them like strange metal trees. Most of these houses were surrounded by huge sculpted fences with even larger gates; some of them even sported marble beasts, who guarded the gateways like silent sentinels. All kinds of animals were represented -- lions, dogs, dragons, and one set of mythical beasts that looked like a cross between a great wolf and a puma, sculpted out of red marble. Joe had to laugh at that one; what imaginations these rich people had!
The little group soon reached a mansion that made all the others surrounding it look like the previous day's slum dwellings - less of a mansion and more of a palace, if one was being perfectly honest. Great columns lined its front, sculpted out of white marble that clashed mightily with the rest of the house's bright red brick exterior. The lawn looked less like a front yard and more like a polo field, greenery stretching unbroken from fence to front porch. A black iron fence surrounded it all, sharp gold points projecting from the top like the protective stockade of some ancient battlement.
Joe noticed none of this. His wide eyes were locked on the twin animal sentinels that stood guard beside the gigantic gate, frozen in attack positions.
They were black marble chocobos, stone wings stretched in flight.
---
The guide led them through the gates and down the tree-lined driveway, shadow and sunlight dappling through the tree branches so much they nearly blinded Joe until he remembered to pull his hat down. There was a little courtyard behind the monstrous facade of the house, and this was where the gypsies were led and left to wait while President Shinra was fetched from the mansion's interior.
The courtyard was as beautiful as any part of the mansion the child had seen thus far. The usual green slice of lawn was there, but directly in the middle of it stood a white fountain, a slim angel perched on a pillar in the middle. The water bubbled out of its mouth and down into the pool below, the tinkling sound of it adding to the general air of richness that seemed to infect everything up here. Joe watched it, fascinated.
"How does the water keep coming out of its mouth like that?" he asked one of his fellow gypsies, intrigued and delighted by this novelty. "Is there an endless supply of water in this place?"
His inspection of the fountain, however, was pulled to a halt when two new figures entered the courtyard -- President Aluicious Shinra himself, accompanied by his ten-year old son, Rufus.
The first thing Joseph thought of when he saw the president was the Fat Chocobo God, and he had to stifle his laughter at the uncanny resemblance between the two. The flabby, hanging jowls, the tiny slitted eyes, the ponderous way he carried himself -- it was almost too much for the boy to handle. Excepting the fact that President Shinra was wearing an obnoxious red suit and had a bad toupee, the two were dead ringers for each other.
He quickly looked away from the mustachioed face of the elder Shinra and contented himself with studying the son. Here was something more sinister to look at, something much less laughable.
Rufus Shinra must have taken after his mother, for he looked almost nothing like his bloated sire. Tall for his age, slim, wearing a haughty expression on his face and an immaculate white suit that looked like it had just came out of the box, there was something vaguely unhealthy in the youth's clear blue eyes. Joe didn't know quite what it was, but he knew he feared it, and unconsciously shied away from the blond-haired heir. Here were the first stirrings of ruthless power.
As if sensing the gypsy boy's dismay, Rufus eyed the crowd warily and approached the assembled peoples, glancing over each of them disdainfully before moving his gaze to the next. His eyes finally rested on Joe, and the two boys eyed each other for a moment, the hazel against the blue. Rufus narrowed his eyes and approached the other boy until he was but a scant foot away. He scowled at the chocobo-raised child, wrinkling up his pale face in disdain.
"Daddy, why do these people stink so much? This one smells like a-a-chocobo!"
Joe blushed through his tanned skin and pulled his hat down over his eyes. He had always loved the smell of the chocobos, but the way this boy spoke of it made the scent seem almost shameful.
President Shinra hastily moved between the gypsy boy and Rufus, trying to prevent any direct confrontation. "Now now Rufus, we can't all take regular baths, you know." He laughed too loudly, nervously puffing at the cigar dangling from his mouth like a dead Tantal Green. The smoke choked Joe almost as much as the dust at Sector 3 Gate had. He wished this fat man and his spawn would finish with them; the walls of the courtyard suddenly seemed to be squeezing in on him.
The bloated president turned to address the crowd of gypsies, a fake smile plastered on his face.
"I've called you here for a purpose, my roving friends, so let me not waste any more of your time with petty chatter. You see, I've heard from several of my sources that you have in possession a most remarkable chocobo. It's said that this bird can outrun the fastest of its rivals without even breaking a sweat. If these rumours are true, then I would like to see this fine creature in action - if, of course, you don't mind racing him against one of my own chocobos. Do you accept?"
The leader of the caravan looked at Teioh's master, as did the rest of the gypsies. If he accepted, a great deal of money would be made. If he didn't ...
They needn't have worried. Joe had great confidence in Teioh; there was no bird on earth he had ever seen who could outrun his fleet- footed brother, and if there was one, it certainly wouldn't be here in the stables of this overfed walrus and his pale son. The gypsy nodded.
"I'll do it."
President Shinra nodded and beamed, his flabby jowls pulled back into a grin. "Excellent! The race will be held tomorrow morning at my private racetrack. For tonight you can all stay in my stables; there are plenty of empty stalls for all. Aluicious Shinra's heart is as big as his pockets, you see. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my business - no rest for the hard worker, eh? Good day." This said, the president turned and exited the courtyard, Rufus trailing along behind him.
In front of his opponent the strawberry-blond boy paused, looking down his nose at the gypsy. The look on his face said he was not impressed nor concerned about the possibilities of being beaten by someone of such inferior breeding and class. With a final sneer at Joe's appearance, Rufus followed his father out of the yard. Joe heaved a sigh of relief as the boy disappeared from view; it had only been a few minutes but he had already become embroiled in a hate/hate relationship with the snobbish Shinra heir.