"So, wha'd you think, Albs?" Mera asked conversationally.
The young Yoshi's eyes were wide and white -- a lot whiter than usual, at any rate. "It was… wicked!" Alber cried finally, resorting to a word that we've heard loads of times in the first Harry Potter movie. "It was so absolutely awesome!"
"Slow down there, Alber," laughed a young green Yoshi named Roberta as she came near. She placed one hand on the young Yoshi's back, but he didn't cease jumping. It was only when Roberta delicately rubbed one her ridged red scales on his shoulder that he ceased his joyful bounding, though he was still wriggling nonstop.
"That's Alber for you," Violet grinned as she stared down at the young Yoshi. "Always excited and bountifully happy, especially now that he's seen the Mythical Yoshi of Legend."
That calmed him down. Instantly, Alber's scales stopped their writhing and he looked up at them with wide eyes. "I get to watch him every month from now on?" His voice was quivering slightly, Mereda noted as she took her time answering him.
"Yes, every single time that he comes," she replied kindly, a gentle – yet uncharacteristic -- smile on her lips. "Including when us Yoshis are in some sort of trouble."
"Lucky us, eh, Alber?" Roberta smiled and patted the young one on the head, who nodded excitedly back. "We get helped by the Great One himself in times of danger."
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Later, the colourful Yoshis converged with the travellers near the shell-specked shoreline.
"So, what's your opinion, Louie?" Yoshi deviously asked his rider's green-clad brother, who moaned and held his face in his hands.
"Please-a don't call-a me that, okay, Yoshi?" he explained politely to the dinosaur. "I don't-a really-a appreciate that-a nickname."
"Fair enough," came his answer with a passive shrug, "Even I have some goodness in me, after all."
"All right, then." Luigi amended matters. "So, as for what I thought…" He trailed off as he brought his eyes up to the sky. "It was…" He scrutinised a cloud as he murmured about the Mythical Yoshi of Legend's coming to himself. "There's-a one-a word to describe a-what happened before. Magical. That's-a it. One-a word. Magical. And-a wondrous, of course."
"Yep." Yoshi's reply of agreement was monosyllabic. "And he comes, eighteen times a year."
"I thought-a you guys a-said he only comes-a once every month," came a voice; Luigi and Yoshi both turned round to see Mario walking to them with Peach, Daisy, and Parakarry. "That only makes twelve times a year, not eighteen."
"Yeah, but then again, we have floods and droughts at least five or six times a year," he shrugged, then made a face. "Spring and summer are the worst."
"It sounds weird to me that you guys can have a drought here," Daisy puzzled. "I mean, most of the island is covered with plant life, right? It seems to me that there's always good weather here."
"Well, there is usually," Roberta replied after some thought. "But look up," she ordered, indicating the mountains that soared at the other end of the island with a jerk of the head.
The glare from the sun was blindingly bright; Daisy shielded her eyes with one hand. That made it kind of hard to see, but nevertheless she looked up and saw that the chocolate-dark peaks were….swirling? How could it be? As she strained her eyes for a closer look, though, she saw that it was not the mountain swirling, but rather sand whirling in a wild typhoon around it. The flying particles had nigh-completely filled the air, turning the bright blue cloud-dotted expanse to a swirling golden haze.
"See, it's like a sand-covered mountain," Alber explained matter-of-factly. He had finally come around from his bout of MYL-induced craziness and was now running one red hand through the ridged blue scales behind his head. "The sand's always there – about two or three times a year, usually during winter, the sand comes floating down because of the different weather.
"But floods are more common," he added as an afterthought.
"Hey, where's your uncle, Par?" Peach asked suddenly as she turned to Parakarry.
The Paratroopa's wingtips quavered slightly as he shrugged his amber shoulders. "He went off. Said something about 'exploring this wonderful island.' "
"See, I told you this place is a tourist attraction," Lila grinned at Violet and Mera as the threesome came up behind the little group. "(Almost) perfect weather, all year round."
"Well, I have to agree with that much, if Great-Uncle Porgal likes it," Parakarry said with a nod. With a slight jolt, the Yoshi chieftainess realised that the pad was still in his clenched paw; presently he riffled through the pages, sifting through the contents, until he neared a blank one. Decidedly the mail Paratroopa of Dry Dry Outpost perched upon a nearby rock that was about as big as his body from one wingtip to the other before scribbling the title (which, though only Mario could read it from his vantage point, read "JI Geography") and looked up at Lila.
"Lila…" he began, his expectant goggled eyes big in a puppy-dog kind of way. "Info?"
She took the pad from a very shocked Parakarry as she laughed in reply: "Of course, mail Troopa dearest. As a matter of fact, I'll do it for you."
Parakarry's eyes were wide as the Yoshi finished off the work – which would require three times what he'd already written – that didn't only include the island's geography, but also a full-colour map, the different kinds of Yoshis on the island, the myths and legends, the food, the wildlife and nature, and everything else he would need to know about Junglestream Island.