I don't get it how a guy like you can live all alone in the jungle," Alber commented dubiously to the Mythical Yoshi of Legend. The four of them were walking through the jungle and back to the tribe settlement some time later. "You're so… friendly! And nice!"
"Yeah, but I'm shy around strangers, remember?" was the reply as the answerer shrugged modestly. "When I first met you guys, I was so scared!"
"But still, you saved us!" Midnight added to the mix by tossing in his own retort. "I mean, you didn't look like you were having any trouble there, right?"
"Well, Mid, he has lived in the jungle for most of his life, you know." Yoshi reprimanded his friend gently, cocking his head to the side with a roguish wink. "It only makes sense that he knows how to take care of evil Fuzzies."
"Well, yeah; that's actually it," the Mythical Yoshi of Legend put in before either Alber or Midnight could answer. The other three Yoshis stared at the tall, glowing rainbow figure, surprised. It didn't befit the shy Yoshi to cut in like that, even though he was just saying the truth, what was on his mind. "For my whole life, I remember living by the beach, or else in the forest or the jungle. I always wanted to talk to you Yoshis, but I was so shy. I just hung around between the tree trunks and everything."
"Yeah, we saw you some nights, when you went to suck the Tinkleberry juice." Alber brushed one hand past his sleek red scales. "Still, though," he added wistfully, looking up at the sky. "You always came when there was a flood or a drought. To save us Yoshis."
"I did," the Mythical Yoshi of Legend acknowledged calmly, ducking down his head as his tail slashed at an overhanging branch, though it may have just been because he was embarrassed. "You Yoshis always think I'm magical or omnipotent or whatever, but I'm not. I'm just… Rainbow."
"Rainbow?" queried Midnight, and he nodded:
"When I was a little Yoshi, barely hatched, I liked to think of myself as the rainbow that shined on the jungle's treetops. I knew I wasn't, of course, but I really liked playing make-believe back then." A pause for a mischievous, apologetic grin. "I still do, now that you mention it."
"There's one thing I don't understand, though." Midnight's voice rang, straight and true, past the babble of excited Yoshis that signified their arrival back to the Yoshis' village. "How did you know to save us from floods and things, back when you were a little kid?"
"Well, when I saw you guys in trouble, I knew something was up. I'd noticed from before that the sun wasn't shining and the rivers were swelling. When the flood's rain clouds came out, I put two and two together. I knew I had to do something." Rainbow grinned again at them all, leaning back and shaking his scales as he did so. Liquid, crystalline droplets of water went raining down on the soft, leaf-scattered ground under him, splashing the other three in the process.
Yoshi grinned as the flood of water washed over him, just cresting the top of his ridged red scales. "You may want to be careful there, bud."
"Oh, and we forgot to say, thanks for saving us," Alber chimed in, tipping his own head to one side so that the water dripped from his scales. "Or else we would have been Fuzzy supper."
Rainbow smiled happily.
"No problem," he said, and that was that.
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"I have to say, Rainbow, I'm really, really grateful that you came to help us."
He nodded at the Yoshi chieftainess's praise and thanks, though his cheeks were reddening slightly in shyness. "It was nothing, Lila," was Rainbow's causal reply. "I saw Yoshis in trouble. I helped them. They brought me here. In short, a piece of cake."
"Or so it would seem." Olivia was smiling slightly as she leaned her feet against the table and reached out one hand to grasp a large slab of Yoshi maple syrup-flavoured fruit cake, which she then proceeded to toss into her mouth. "And I mean that literally."
"And now I shall attempt to quote my mom," began Elsa, and everyone turned to look at her, sitting not-so-quietly with Violet, Meredith, Roberta, Tara, and Beran. "Ahem." With that, Elsa proceeded to launch into her one-of-a-kind adult Yoshi imitation. "Olivia, please don't put your feet on the table. Your boots leave prints on it, and everyone knows that isn't good for the woodwork."
"Very funny," commented Tara shrewdly, and Elsa paled in embarrassment. "Though you have got a point," she went on; the surprised but happy pink Yoshi puffed her chest out, eyes rapidly closing in relaxation.
"Why, thank you, Tara, for not criticising my wonderful imitation." Her right eye flicked open and shut for a brief wink. "Some people would." She threw a somewhat reproachful look to her mother, a sky-coloured Yoshi named Sheila, who groaned in joking annoyance.
"Elsa," Sheila began, thickly layering her voice with a scolding, reprimanding tone. "If you do one more imitation of me…" She broke off, shaking her head in mock fed up-ness.
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Meanwhile, Lila was clearing her throat loudly.
"To get back to it, I think Rainbow here deserves applause from all the Yoshis assembled here now, and everyone else when they get back. They might not even be staying here today if he hadn't saved us during the floods and droughts that there have been in recent history." She grinned and held up her silver chalice.
Sure enough, a smattering of loud applause and some wild, unrestrained cheering resonated throughout the room. Rainbow blushed, stood and quickly took a bow before dropping back down to his seat, all the while being slapped loudly on the back by a happy Canberra. Gabe, on his part, was whacking Rainbow's shoulder with an excited whoop.
"Thanks, guys," Rainbow whispered to them, the faint inklings of a smile curving his slightly reptilian features. "It's really kind of you to do all this for me."
"You saved us so many times!" cried an excited Gabe (Man, is this guy ever happy!) with the Yoshi world's hugest grin. "We had to help you somehow."
"I appreciate it, too," added Canberra with a small grin. She patted Rainbow softly on the shoulder; the latter blushed. "It was more than I could have done."
Rainbow's blushing was more of, so to say, a darkening than an actual reddening; owing to his glittery firework-popping scales, which could be hot pink one second and could metamorphise to olive-green the next. Even if he'd managed to hold his colour down for a few seconds (which – I tell you now – was impossible), it wouldn't have helped much, seeing as he was blushing so hard the darkening would have just switched to any colour befitting the situation. But why was he blushing? Easy. The reason was a weird infatuation that was stirring deep within him. Translation: Rainbow liked Canberra. A lot.
"Pursuit of love, as it always seems to me." Midnight grinned, sneakily, craftily, and hugely, as he tipped his stool back. The vine-ridden seat seemed on the verge of snapping on the pole that held it up for a moment, but then was righted into place as Midnight hopped down from his lofty perch. "Anyway," he continued, smoothly rubbing one blue scale back into place as his teeth shone with seemably all their worth, "I do declare, Rainbow likes Canberra."
"You know, that isn't the nicest thing to say about a person," Violet chastised reproachfully.
"Yeah, but 'tis true, is it not?" Midnight replied easily.
"Er -- dude, there, she's got a point." Elsa cocked her head to the side as she glanced severely at the purple Yoshi.
"Guys," Yoshi groaned, putting his head in his hands, "Can't we just leave Rain alone? I think he has enough on his plate already!"
"You mean in between his scales," Alber corrected, then giggled. He turned to Midnight. "But Yoshi's got a point – I think we should leave him alone."
"Yeah, Mid, you have to listen to us." Olivia twisted her head, rubbing one of her yellowy-orange scales. "So maybe Rain likes Canberra, but everyone knows you like Mera."
Instantly, all the colour drained out of Midnight's face. The young Yoshi pulled the skin of his neck nervously (as seen on the Simpsons) before proceeding to duck out of sight. Mera rolled her eyes as she poked her own head under the table.
"See, Midnight? I like you too. Now, if you don't want the parents to notice that, you'd be better off leavin' 'em alone."
It didn't take a genius to notice that Mera was blushing as she said that, but, then again, so was Yoshi as he exchanged eye rolls with Violet.