#amarisa

A fiery red head with hair pulled up into a high pony tail, grins as she comes over to hug her. Amarisa is just a tiny bit taller than Pandora but is lean just like her older brother Reno, who is in the back exclaiming how happy he is to be out of the hot car. lastly coming out of the car is Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth who all make their way over to take turns greeting Pandora.

“It’s nice out here, reminds me a little bit of Banora huh Gen?”

Grinning at his best friend and lover, Angeal crosses his arms across his thick chest; the small town they passed and drove through on the way to the Ranch hit both Angeal and Genesis with nostalgia. Perhaps they should take Amarisa back to Banora some time to meet their parents.

Smiling softly, Sephiroth pulls Pandora into a gentle hug and kisses her gently.

“Thankyou for the invite, I must admit I’ve never been on a ranch before,”

“Want a tour of the place and meet daddy?”

Nodding eagerly, the group follows her around the side of the ranch house. A two story building that looks like a typical farm house with a wrap around porch that goes along the front of the house and down one side. Behind the building is a massive red painted stable, next to the stable is a large pasture that goes far back and around behind the stables. At one end of the large field is what looks like a race track of some kind.

Leading a group of Chocobo’s; of varying colours, into the large open field is an elderly man with salt and pepper hair and a small beard.

“Ah Pandy, these your friends you mentioned? Morning Ama, Reno” Blaise tips his head in greeting as they approach.

“Yo ol’ man? How’s DJ?”

Chuckling, Blaise points to the stables, “In there still, the lil guy just had his breakfast”

With a jaunty salute, Reno hurries off into the stables to see his lil chocochick.

“Daddy, this is Sephiroth, Angeal and Genesis” Grinning, Pandora pulls Sephiroth closer to meet her grandfather.

“Nice to meet you sir,”

Nodding his head and taking Sephiroth’s offered hand, Blaise smiles back warmly. “It’s good to meet you boys at long last”

Letting go of Sephiroth’s hand, Blaise shakes the other guys hands before hugging Amarisa.

Behind Blaise, Sephiroth spots a black Chocobo by the fence watching the group, pacing a bit impatient.

“Hello there,” smiling a bit, Sephiroth reaches out to stroke the Chocobo. “Pandora, what’s this one’s name?”

Standing by him, Pandora affectionately pats the Chocobo on the side of its beak, “This big guy here is Velveteen, I raised him myself actually. We do many races together and work together here.”

Blinking his eyes at that curiously, Sephiroth tilts his head. “Racing? Where do you go to do that? The golden saucer?”

Laughing a bit Pandora shakes her head, “No no, at the back of this field there’s a race course I practice on and occasionally host events. We mainly do small local events”

Humming thoughtfully, Sephiroth looks at Velveteen as he strokes the soft black feathers, “how hard is it to race?”

“Pretty easy really once you get the rhythm to it-“Pausing, Pandora slowly grins and slyly looks at him. “What do you say we all have a race?”

Perking up at that, Angeal wanders over at that, “you’ve never ridden a Chocobo before Seph?”

“I haven’t”

Humming as he leans against a fence, Genesis muses quietly. “It’s been a while since I’ve ridden one, but it would be fun,”

“Winner get’s a prize and the rest help clean the stable’s?”

Narrowing his eyes at her, Sephiroth mules over this proposal.

“What’s the prize?”

“How about a bottle of my homemade brew?” Blaise, who had been sitting to the side watching and listening to this with amusement, makes his offer.

“I’d race for that!” Amarisa pipes up from her seat on the fence, running a hand through Genesis’s hair softly.

Chuckling quietly at the encouraging looks from the others, Sephiroth agrees to race, though requests 5 minutes practice as he hasn’t ridden a Chocobo before. Agreeing to that, Pandora lets him pick which bird he wishes to use, though she tells him from the get-go that Velveteen is her’s only.

Picking a yellow one, Sephiroth and Pandora set the bird up and she teaches him how to safely mount and sit on the bird that’s named Gon. Deciding to join him in warming yup, Angeal and Genesis choose their birds and get sorted. Amarisa picks a green one that’s an older sibling to her brothers’ chick. Blaise as their ref.

Once sure he has a decent handle on riding his Chocobo (once he stopped trying to jump off every time the bird made a strange sound or flapped its wings excitedly), Sephiroth managed to wrangle Gon to the race track.

“Y’all ready?” Grinning in excitement, Velveteen shifting anxiously, wanting to run already as he knows this track is for racing; Pandora makes sure that they are all present. Reno has joined them at the starting line, though not racing with a green tiny chick in his arms.

“Ready…Set….Go!!” Blaise shouts from his chair that Pandora had brought out for him, the Chocobo’s off sprinting down the track.

Urging his bird as fast as possible, Sephiroth quickly gains second place, the only one faster than him is Pandora and her Chocobo; Velveteen.

Looking over her shoulder at him with a smirk, Pandora gives him a cheeky wave.

“Hope you like cleaning poop!”

“I don’t give up that easily…” Grumbling to himself, Sephiroth moves as inside as possible, trying to gain any advantages as he can to get first place. “Come on Gon, lets beat her. I’ll buy you the best feed out there”

Behind, Sephiroth can hear the other three perhaps playing a little dirty to gain the upper hand, but he ignores them as he draws closer to Pandora. Surprising her when she looks over her shoulder to see him right on her tail.

Grinning in delight at actually having a challenge somewhat, Pandora clicks her tongue urging Velveteen on more and much to Sephiroth’s dismay, putting further distance between them. The finish line quickly approaching and Pandora flies over it, a clear winner despite the other’s efforts.

Turning Velveteen around, Pandora pets Velveteen gently as she gives them a look that’s very similar to that of a cat getting the cream.