The Lawn Outside the Dorms, Tuesday Afternoon

[raspberryturk]

There was a very large black bird outside of the dorms today, looking a little bit proud and a little bit cranky as he stomped his way back and forth across the lawn, looking for all the world as though he wanted to go inside the building

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[future_sandworm]

On his way to the town, Leto noticed a big, black bird on the lawn. He stopped, curious. It looked very much like the Chocobos that Reno had told him about, and he approached cautiously.

[raspberryturk]

Oh, hey! Familiar face!

Reno stood, watching Leto almost warily as he approached. The guy had wanted to learn about the birds. And this seemed a little easier than a trip to Gaia at the moment.

And so he gave his head a bit of a nod in greeting. Learning experiences all around couldn't hurt, right?

[future_sandworm]

The bird nodded at him. Leto was uncertain how to communicate with this animal, but he hoped that was a friendly gesture.

Slowly, he nodded back.

[raspberryturk]

Okay. There was talking happening. Kind of. Reno would view this as some sort of good sign, then. And then he'd take a seat on the ground. It was hard for a seven-foot tall chicken to look anything but imposing while standing up, after all.

And then, while he was sitting there, he warbled out a noise that was intended to sound like friendly conversation. But a parrot, he was not. So it was mostly just variants on the typical Chocobo phrases, "Wark, kweh," and "Roo-kii-roo."

Good job, Reno.

[future_sandworm]

Leto decided that was a friendly response, and he smile a little. Approaching to stand next to it, he said: "You do look like one of those Chocobos."

Not that he expected the bird to answer.

[raspberryturk]

Why yes, yes he did! Reno was actually kind of proud of his Chocobo impression. And he was a black one, which was pretty awesome. Not like those wimpy sunshine yellow ones, oh no. Not this Reno. He could cross mountains and rivers. He was kind of like a multi-purpose riding chicken, really.

And so he nodded. And uttered a low "Kweh!" of agreement.

[future_sandworm]

Was that supposed to be a yes?

"Aren't you supposed to be a riding animal?" Leto continued. Strangely enough it didn't feel odd talking to the Chocobo.

[raspberryturk]

Sigh. Yes, he was a riding animal. Beast of burden. He'd turned into the horse of his own world. Wasn't he lucky?

He nodded again, though he didn't look terribly pleased with the notion, what with the ruffle of feathers that went along with it.

Reno of the... Turkeys. Born to serve.

[future_sandworm]

That reaction was a little harder to interpret, but then again, Leto wasn't even sure he was really talking to the bird. "And you can run fast?"

[raspberryturk]

Reno gave another bob of his head, hopping up to his feet to give a short demonstration by way of running a couple of laps around Leto.

They weren't as fast as he could go, of course. He'd need a clear stretch of land to work up a bit of speed. But it was the clearest sort of yes he could think of at the moment.

[future_sandworm]

Now, the bird had clearly understood that. Leto eyed it carefully. "So, would you like to go... running... somewhere?"

[raspberryturk]

Oh, this was humiliating.

He considered for a moment, and then stretched out his neck and tried to rearrange a few cereal bits on the ground.

That almost looked like an R. And that one there might be an E if you were to squint at it sideways. Arranging things to spell words with your face was not an easy task. An N, and an O, and there we go. It kind of looked like it was trying to say his name. If you stared at it long enough.

That done, he stood up, trotted over to Leto anyhow, and hunkered down so he could climb on. Why the hell not, right? It was like a test drive on a car lot. Only fluffier.

[future_sandworm]

Was the bird trying to communicate something? Reno hadn't mentioned that they were intelligent.

While climbing up on its back something struck Leto. "Are you a human transformed into an animal, by any chance?"

[raspberryturk]

Yes! Oh, yes! Reno gave another nod of his head and an agreeable warble, pleased that they were making a little headway as he waited for Leto to get settled on his back.

[future_sandworm]

"Reno?"

After all, he was the one who knew about chocobos, and he had this class assignment.

[raspberryturk]

Winner! We have a winner!

It was all Reno could do to resist from strutting at the acknowledgement of his true identity, really. And even then, his next nod had a bit of extra triumphant bounce to it.