Chapter 4
***
"You ready to go, boy? Ready to kick some rich tailfeathers?"
"Waaaark!!"
It was the morning of the big race, and the air was charged with electricity. While Joe wasn't especially chipper (sleeping in chocobo stalls two nights straight will do that for a person's attitude,) Teioh was in seemingly inexhaustible spirits. The black chocobo had been up since the break of dawn, squawking and pecking at the door of his stall, activities not appreciated by the other inhabitants of the barn.
Teioh's bad behavior had gone on through the morning. When Joe tried to feed him, he had playfully knocked the greens out of the boy's hand and into the water trough. When Joe rolled his sleeves up and tried to fish them out, Teioh had decided his brother needed a bath too.
It had certainly woken Joe up, that much was for certain.
After drying himself off with a dusty towel left out for wiping down the race chocobos, Joe had decided that Teioh must be asking for some much-needed exercise. Teioh was the picture of a genteel, well- mannered cob the entire time Joe was saddling and bridling him, but when they got to the exercise track, whatever demon was sitting on the black bird's wing came back in full force. Teioh had turned into a speeding, bucking bronco.
Joe had tried his best to slow the galloping chocobo down, but the only thing that happened when he yanked on the reins was a quite spectacular display of kicking and head-ducking, courtesy of Teioh.
When the gypsy boy had finally gone flying into the soft dirt of the race-field, the first thing he'd felt nudging him back into consciousness was a fluffy, feathered head.
Even in his wildest moods the bird would not abandon his brother.
The ride back to the stables had been uneventful, but Joe could sense the underlying tension in the chocobo's psyche. It couldn't be helped though; everyone on the racecourse was hyped about the afternoon competition between Joe and young Rufus Shinra. The bird sensed the tense nerves in the air, and it was just making him hyper. By racetime he'd be back to his normal, docile self.......Or at least that's what Joe hoped.
When Teioh managed to scrape Joe off underneath the low ceiling of the stable door, the boy began to worry.
***
Eventually Teioh did calm down, although he was still jumpier than usual. Joe fed him an extra- large portion of Tantal Greens and prayed that the chocobo hadn't worn himself out prematurely.
"Brother," he chided the bird "you need to rest yourself!! If you keep this silly behavior up, where will your energy be when you run this afternoon? Plus you got mud all over yourself when you unseated me this morning. Stand still, and I shall make you shine like the eyes of Bahamut!"
The gypsy boy had just begun to groom the black cob's feathers with a metal pick when a voice from outside the stall startled both him and Teioh.
"Hmmmmph. This is your bird? Doesn't look like much...."
The voice was high and nasal, and had a snobbish air to it. Joe knew it right off, and mentally cringed.
Oh Shiva, not him again. Not right now...
Unfortunately though, it was. The flaming strawberry-blond hair was covered by a silken blue riding cap, but the face was the same. No-one else had those icy blue eyes, the tight-lipped, pale face.......the vague sense of menace that surrounded the boy like a cloud. No, this could only be Rufus Shinra, Joe's opponent.
The rich Shinra heir was dressed to kill. His riding silks were absolutely spotless, flaming orange on blue, and in his pale hands he carried a black leather riding crop, which he switched nervously from hand to hand as he spoke.
"Is that what you're wearing to the race? Where are your silks? Where's your crop? Have you ever raced professionally at all?"
Joe shook his head in confusion. These were the only clothes he had ever worn to perform, and he had never, ever used any kind of whip on Teioh. To do that would be like whipping a family member, and it would've broken the unspoken bond between boy and bird.
Rufus snorted, breaking Joe's reverie.
"Hmmpph, I should have known. That.......creature you're riding has probably never even had a crop used on him, has he? Allow me to demonstrate."
Before Joe could react, Rufus had reached over the half-open door and gave Teioh a hard smack across the neck with his leather riding whip.
All hell broke loose.
Teioh did not take kindly to being hit by anyone, never mind some stranger in gaudy clothing. With an enraged wark the black cob slammed his beak into the wooden door, shaking the thin panel to it's hinges. In the same move the chocobo had given Rufus's hand a smart peck and snatched the crop from his weak grasp, shaking it in his beak like a dog with a rat.
The black chocobo was still trying his best to get to the Shinra youth when Joe got between the two. The door was already splintered from the flying beak and claws of the chocobo, and the gypsy didn't want to see what they might do to the soft body of Rufus if they were given half a chance. As he had at the train station when the railway worker had upset the bird, Joe intervened and calmed his brother down.
"Shhhh......shhhh......settle down, brother, settle down! Is he worth all this? Is that brightly-dressed clown worth blunting your beak on?.........."
The soft murmuring calmed Teioh, but only slowly. A welt was rising under the black feathers from the sharp slap Rufus had given him, and the bird did not easily forget an injury given. The chocobo's bright eyes never left Rufus as he rose from the ground outside the stall, and they were filled with absolute murder.
Rufus dusted himself off and glared furiously at the chocobo glowering at him from inside the stall. If there was one thing Rufus Shinra hated, it was to be made a fool of. And this bird had frightened him off his feet AND taken his crop. Smoke was practically coming out of his ears by the time he got to his feet again.
"You.............you stupid feather-duster!!" he shrieked in a voice raised several octaves by anger "When I get done racing with you, you won't be worth DOG food!!"
Joe quietly handed the other boy his leather crop, carefully keeping his own body between Rufus and Teioh.
"I think you'd better go now. I need to get ready for the race, you see, and my bird is a little excited."
Rufus glared bloody daggers at both the boy and his bird for a few seconds, then snatched the crop out of the gypsy's outstretched hand and stormed off in a rage, black boots clanking down the hallway. Joe watched him go with relief and a slight sense of dread.
This isn't good......he'll be playing for keeps now. I've GOT to keep Teioh calm between now and the race.
Easier said than done.
***
So you didn't see a race, sue me. The pre-race events caught me up and.....well, there you have it. A bit short, but the real meat will be along soon. Yay.
