A/N: There's a character in a Redwall book called Mhera... On the other hand, she was supposed to be called Meredith originally... Well, whatever. On with the fanfic!

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"And we have two more friends who have visited us on this very eve of shining midsummer," Lila declared, her silver chalice thrust up high into the air. She really was a poetic and quick-thinking, good-natured Yoshi - which was exactly why she had been made island chieftainess.

"Let us-a talk and-a enjoy their entertainment…uh… Let us entertain a-them!" Mario cried, his own chalice up as he stumbled over the sentence… And his chair. Yoshi giggled at the plumber's clumsiness (How'd he ever land himself in all those video games? the green dino wondered) and offered a hand to help him up. Mario groaned and rolled his eyes in return, though not without playfully donking his leaf-coloured steed on the head.

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Meanwhile, the other Yoshis' chatter filled the room as the milling coloured dinosaurs talked among themselves.

"I love it when we have visitors here," Gabe, a young light blue Yoshi, said happily to everyone in particular.

"Yeah. It brings out the best in everyone," agreed a rusty-orange Yoshi named Canberra (And yes, I happen to know that's the capital of Australia).

"And it brings us closer together," Violet's father, a young periwinkle specimen named Cloudfluff, called out.

"We all rock! Ain't that right, Vi?" Mera said, her blue scales rippling as she turned to her purple-scaled friend.

Violet grinned happily and munched on a small green leaf, imported all the way over from Koopa Village. She was staring right at Yoshi, though she was a multitasker and answered anyway. "Yeah, we all rock," she smiled contentedly, snuggling down into the leaf-covered seat. "All twenty-plus of us."

That caused a roar of laughter from the Yoshi's and Porgal alike; Parakarry and the other travelllers were talking amongst themselves and hadn't been listening to the Yoshis' chatter. Violet knew perfectly well that there were definitely more than twenty beings grouped around the table that night.

Joro, a tall, vibrant green Yoshi, was talking so fast his face was flushed. "I wonder what would happen if we took Yoshis from other parts of the world and let them breed with some of us here?" His words were a rapid rush of sound before he took approximately point seven seconds to sip a kiwi-mango slushie lying on his plate. "I wonder what their babies would look like?"

"Or even let Paratroopas breed with us," Elsa, a pink Yoshi, sister of three, added, bubbling with mirth.

"Yes. Very funny." Parakarry replied, looking peeved - but he was faking, of course. "Try a Shy Guy and a Koopa. Now that can get ugly."

"Ugh," a red Yoshi named Nicky gagged into his hand. "I would hate to see that happen."

"Me, too," Midnight agreed, his red scales bobbing up and down as he nodded. "Yosh?"

"My name is Yoshi, not Yosh," the green one chastised lightly, in spite of the gigantic grin that was curling his features. "Nobody calls me that."

"Except your mom," teased a red blue-scaled Yoshi named Alber. He was young, about ten years old in the Yoshis' timeline. "Apparently, she calls you Yoshums!"

"Yoshums… I wonder where that came from," Porgal mused thoughtfully, joining in the conversation with a wink to his great-nephew. "The great Paratroopa mailman, perhaps?"

Daisy leaned back in her chair and heaved a sigh as she watched the crazy group of Yoshis and humans. These reconnaissance bashes always made everyone go crazy, though it wasn't unknown that Mario himself was on a normal basis. Still, Luigi conking Elsa on the head - playfully or not - was always a funny sight.

"Elsa, pink Yoshi." Even as she watched, Luigi teased the pink Yoshi by thwonking one of her bright red heart-shaped scales. "Only pink one on the whole island, or so it would seem." He accented his speech with an evil little laugh.

"Luigi Mario, he who likes Daisy of brown hair fair," Elsa sang back happily. Despite the fact that she was too old for this and no one was chasing her, she scurried under the greenery-draped table like a frightened hatchling.

Elsa seemed not to notice both Daisy's and Luigi's cheeks reddened in perfect unison. Their eyes met; the princess of the Chai Kingdom was the first to look away.

True love, or not?

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Doubtless, though, that Alber was happy when the crowd of them made their way back to the vine-ridden earthen dens of the tribe home. The young red Yoshi chattered happily to his two friends, who had split from the group and were deciding on yet another tour of the island's greenery some time later.

"There are more rumours about the Mystical Yoshi of Legend," Alber whispered, his voice hushed, as he cut a path through the winding jungle and wove his way down past the eventide shoreline. "We catch glimpses of him, in and out through the jungle, every few nights."

Both Yoshi and Midnight gasped soundlessly in revered awe. The Mythical Yoshi of Legend was the most elusive being of the whole island; it was said that he wasn't even a living, breathing thing. Though neither had met the evasive creature in person, the same question was circulating in both their minds.

"Where?" Yoshi and Midnight asked in perfect unison as the green one's long tongue snapped out at total random in his excitement. "Where is he?"

Alber's blue-booted feet came suddenly to a halt as the younger Yoshi reached for an intricately patterned leaf growing from a drooping Wonderful Willow. He snapped it off the stem and placed it in his mouth before picking out a few more to give the other two. They bobbed their heads, waiting while Alber enjoyed the taste of the turquoise-blue leaf on his tongue for a moment before ever so slowly turning around to face them.

"They don't know."

"What?" Midnight's mouth dropped open and his leaf fluttered to the ground, aided by a slight breeze in the night. "What are you saying?" The sight of his widened white eyes, rigid, stiff red scales standing upright on his head, mouth dropping open and red tongue - which, at that point, was uselessly cutting a swath through the underbrush – would have been hilarious had it not been so unnerving.

But it didn't faze Midnight's compatriots.

Yoshi rolled his eyes and turned back to face Albert. "They don't know, Albs?" he insisted, slightly anxious.

The other Yoshi shook his head, his scales clinking melodiously against each other with this small action. "No, I don't but I'm pretty sure he's around here somewhere," he filled them in before abruptly disappearing into the mist….uh, trees.

Midnight stared at Yoshi once Alber had gone. "Is it just me, or did he do that disappearing act on purpose?"