Chapter 17

Morning had come. The sky was orange with the rising sun and the grass was damp with the newly-formed dew. Jeila had decided to spend such a time with the island’s pride and glory, the Super-Happy Tree. She stood atop the hill, bowed, and knelt down with her hands folded and her eyes closed in a prayer gesture. The meeting began.

Good morning, Jeila, the tree said to her.

Good morning, Mother, Jeila said back.

What can I do for you? it asked.

Mother, I just pray for world peace, good will towards men, and an end for world hunger, Jeila asked.

Let it be so, it responded. Will there be anything else, my child?

Yes, Mother, she said. I’m worried about Xoshi. He’s so funny, smart, and cute... I like him a lot. But I keep getting the feeling he’s probably hurt or something. Tell me, Mother: is he going to be all right?

You needn’t worry about a single thing, my child, the tree reassured. Your Xoshi is in a fascinating, new place with plenty of sunshine and palm trees. He’s even made some new friends...

Oh, really? Jeila said, relieved. That’s wonderful! I’m so happy for him.

Yes, the tree said. He has many adventures lying in wait for him.

Oh, he’s so lucky... A void was allowed to drift its way into the conversation at this point. Then Jeila broke the silence. Mother, she asked, were Xoshi and I... meant for each other?

Ah, Jeila, said the tree. Don’t you worry one bit, dear. Xoshi has you in his thoughts. As you live out your days, you will experience happiness, sorrow, and anger. Far away, Xoshi will feel the exact same things. You and Xoshi are two parts of a whole, my dear, and in the end, you will both be very happy...

Oh... Jeila thought, feeling a wave of joy wash over her. She felt everything was going to be all right after all. Thank you, Mother...

Xoshi leaned his form against a blazingly hot wall. He was in the middle of the entrance to where he had met White Rose. In front of him, the vast, palm tree-filled desert remained ready for his arrival. Behind him, the town of tiny, turbaned people was prepared for his departure. Until the time for both of these came, he was engaged in a game with his head-mate.

...When someone says, “Hi,” you say...

”... Hi.”

When someone says, “How are you?” you say...

”... Fine. You?”

When someone says, “Nice weather we’re having,” you say...

”... Xoshi hate it. It too hot.”

No... No, no. Xoshi, I know it’s proper in Yoshish to refer to yourself in the third person, but in-

“Are you ready, Sir Xoshi?” The game got interrupted just when Beel was in the middle of correcting Xoshi again. Their latest recruitment, the mysterious White Rose, had returned from his trip to the market. He had purchased a Thunder Bolt, a few Honey Syrups, some Dried Pasta, a number of Mushrooms, and even a Dried Shroom with some Dusty Hammers. Hopefully, they’d all come in handy on their trip.

When someone says, “Are you ready, Sir Xoshi?” you say...

“... ’Yes I am,’” Xoshi answered.

Good, said Beel.

“Good,” said White Rose. The enigmatic man walked up beside the brown Yo’ster. “Now I must warn you, Sir Xoshi,” he said, “the desert before us is infamous for its Pokeys. I’m quite certain one or two will not be too much trouble for us, but one of them is enormous and a confrontation with it would be most unfavorable. We may or may not bump into it. I trust you’ll be prepared?”

When someone says... Beel repeated White Rose’s words, then said, You say...

“... ’Yes I am,’” Xoshi responded.

Hm... Getting there... Beel said.

White Rose nodded. “All right, then. Let’s be off...”

The conversation was complete, and so was the wait. The Yoshi and his companion at last could leave the new place, Dry Dry Outpost, so they could go on finding themselves in even more fascinating, new places. Already they were in the wide, open land of sand, Dry Dry Desert. If they played their cards right, they’d be able to reach Shooting Star Summit in due time...

If only Jeila were here, thought Xoshi...

Back on Yo’ster Isle, a certain pair of Yoshis was leaning against the front two pillars of a certain hut. They kept waiting there, watching all the other Yoshis perform their daily morning routines. They were gathering fruit, target-practicing, and playing games. It was just another day.

“Man,” said Pinky, “who’d have thought guarding Xoshi’s house from burglars would be so boring?”

“The lucky dog,” muttered Oshi. “He’s probably living it up in some fancy hotel, or something, right about now, and we’re stuck here!”

“Why didn’t we get to go to Isle Delfino with him, Yazzee, Yoshi, and Boshi? We helped, too, didn’t we?” Pinky griped.

“Speaking of Boshi,” said Oshi, “what do you think his little substitute, Pish, is doing over there?”

”Hm?” Pinky grunted, observing the purple Yo’ster talking to some new person.

“So, uh,” Pish said, awkwardly, “you got... da cookies?” Pish nodded his head at this person with his arms folded and his eyes squinted.

“Yoooouu bet I do! I’ve got cookies, I’ve got rookies; I’ve got Sackles, I’ve got Crookies. I got what you want right here! All for the low, low price of a little racey-race. What do ya say, chum? Friends? Bends? Help me out here.” Pish was talking to a small, Raven-like creature with a curly, golden unibrow.

“All right then- I mean-“ Pish shook his head and folded his arms with his eyes squinting again. “-you got yaself a race, buddy,” he said just as awkwardly.

“Ka-fwee hee HEE! You is-a goin’ DOWN!” said the creature.

“What the-“ Pinky mumbled.

“Who is that?” Oshi mused.

Pish looked away from the black thing and held his arms out. He raised his voice. “ALL RIGHT, EVERYBODY, GATHER ‘ROUND!” he called out. Almost immediately, all the variously colored Yoshis of the vicinity stopped minding their fruits, their practicing, and their games so they could hurry on over to see what the buzz was about. “LISTEN UP!” Pish said as soon as they had all arrived. “I, the, uh, Powerful Pish, am about to engage this guy here,” he motioned towards the feathery one, “the Rambunctious Razule, in a race to the finish!”

“Ohhh, boy, this is gonna be GREAT!” Razule squealed in anticipation.

“The first to get from this spot, here,” Pish said, pointing to where he was standing, which was the beginning of four long, rectangular rows arranged into the grass, “all the way to the goal, over there,” he said, pointing to where this stretch of quadrilateral shapes ended, which was a few tufts of grass shaped like the word GOAL, “will be the winner!” he finished. The crowd surrounding this set of lines began to murmur excitedly as Pish and Razule began to stretch.

Oshi looked at Pinky. “My money’s on Pish. How about you?”

“Hmm, I dunno. The new guy’s looking pretty promising,” he said.

Razule was spinning around on one foot like some deranged ballerina.

“Eh. If you say so,” Oshi said.

“On your mark...” Pish said once he and his opponent were crouched down. “Get set...” The crowd watched the two contestants, waiting eagerly. “GO!!!” In a flash, the race was on. The crowd cheered obnoxiously as they kept their eyes on this competition.

“COME ON, PISH!”

”YOU CAN DO IT, PISH!”

”RUN, RAZULE, RUN!”

They all hopped up and down vigorously as they vocally encouraged the ones they had placed their bets on. The spectacle was quite rejuvenating for them to watch. Two of these spectators were Rachi and Azure, the red one and the light blue one.

“Azure,” said the red one, “what’s with that pink thing sticking out of the ground near the goal?”

Azure looked at what he was talking about. It was pink and round, but otherwise it was unclear what it could be. No one else seemed to notice it as the race dragged on. Azure looked at his friend and shrugged his shoulders.

“Hmm...” Rachi hummed.

Pish waved to the ones faithful to him as he kept his legs pumping like mad. I can’t let them down! he thought optimistically.

“One, two, wear a shoe, three, four, wild boar, five, six...”

What the?! Pish thought, disbelievingly. That black thing was surprisingly fast for something that moved by shuffling from point A to point B. It zoomed right past him and soon had the upper hand. Dang it. This guy isn’t slow at all! I’d better kick it up a notch... Pish whipped out a Yoshi Cookie, flipped it into the air, and snatched it with his long tongue in the blink of an eye. After swallowing, he soon found his legs moving way faster than usual. The crowd started yelling even crazier. All right! Time to win the race!

He zoomed his way forward a few feet, feeling a jolt of premature triumph squeeze him. Getting caught up in the moment, he started running even faster, not noticing that the cookie’s effects were beginning to wear off. He was getting closer to Razule. Closer, and closer. There! He passed him. Pish clenched his eyes shut with a grin smearing its way across his face. It vanished as soon as he started hearing some wicked shuffling sounds beside him. He jolted his head to the right as he saw that his opponent was catching up at an alarming rate.

“No, no, no, NO!” Razule babbled.

Pish’s jaw dropped as he saw this stranger zip right past him. He scrunched his eyebrows downward, frowning at not knowing how to overcome this. The crowd screamed in pure excitement as Razule neared the goal. It was music to his ears.

Family... Friends... Fans... he thought to himself, deliriously. It’s just what I’ve always wanted...

Pish was flustered. He tried forcing his burning legs into going faster, but then...

SPPRROOOINNGG!

“NOT AGGAAAAiiiiiinnnnn...!”

Just when Razule was within inches of the goal, that pink thing that Rachi and Azure were talking about had suddenly exploded out of the ground and sent the little weirdo flying way off into the distance. Everyone, including the crowd and Pish, shut up for a moment to alternate a little between looking at what had sprung out of the ground and what had been sent soaring.

What in... Pish wondered as he stood there, looking at it. Then he remembered something. Oh, right... He won everyone’s attention back as he suddenly turned back around, ran quickly, and heaved his way onto the goal. “FINISH!” he shouted. The crowd cheered. The race was over.

“Ah, man...” Pinky moped.

“See, I knew Pish had it in him,” Oshi boasted.

Parts of the crowd flocked to Pish, other parts walked away with their heads hung, and a few others meandered up to the obstacle that had ruined Razule’s big chance. Two of the ones interested in it included Rachi and Azure. Being closer to it, they could see that this thing was a flower. More specifically, it was a big, pink, rubber ball surrounded by very strange petals growing out of it. Although they each looked more like overgrown fly wings, complete with the fact that this ball was coming out of a stem of green with more normal-looking leaves attached to it, this thing still looked enough like a flower to be considered one.

“What is it?”

”Some type of flower?”

”It’s unlike any flower I’ve ever seen...”

Among these confused Yo’sters, only Rachi was the one that could do something besides stand around wondering about it. He got closer to it, knelt down, and placed his hands around its stem. As a result, he started getting some pretty befuddled remarks asking him what he was doing.

“I’m going to examine it,” he told them. “I just might be able to figure this one out...” He plucked the thing, roots and all, straight from the ground. Giving the audience something a little different to talk about, he turned around and began to walk away. “Come on, Azure...” he said to his light blue friend. Azure nodded and started following...

A group of fans was carrying Pish off, letting him use their upraised hands as a throne of victory. I did it! I did it! I won the cook- He stopped himself in mid-thought. Oh, wait; no, I didn’t... He sat on the Yoshi hands, being carried off to wherever with a dumb look on his face for a few seconds. Oh, well... He shrugged his shoulders and enjoyed the ride. At least he did until...

BONK! A coconut got him right in the nose. He rubbed where it was hit and looked around.

“SORRY!” he heard a voice call. He sighed and let the ride continue...

Rachi was gone, Azure was gone, and Pish was gone, as was the whole crowd. People started going back to their businesses. So did Pinky and Oshi.

“Wellp,” said Pinky, “I guess it’s back to guarding Xoshi’s house then!”

“I guess so...” agreed Oshi. With nothing else to do, the two went on with letting the day be just another one...

Jeila walked through the backdoor of that botanical hut again. Sitting Indian-style in the center of it was her father, the Yoshi Priest. With his eyes closed and his lips making a weird noise, he had himself once again meditating.

“O-woh. O-woh. O-woh. O-woh...” he chanted. Jeila took note of his eccentric activity, smiled, and wandered a little further into the room. With other things on her mind, she took a step, and- TRIP! Her foot caught against something, causing her to fall forward on her face.

“OOF!” she grunted. The noise awoke her father with a start.

“Hm, rr, humph? Oh, hello, Jeila, sweetie. You interrupted my meditating. Oh, why does this always happen? I’ll never learn to float at this rate,” he grumped. The two family members got up off the floor and dusted themselves off.

“Sorry, Papa,” she apologized.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, sweetheart,” her father said. “There was a race today. They say they discovered some new kind of flower once it was over.”

“Really,” Jeila said. She bent down and picked up what it was she just tripped over. It was a jar. Its inner space was taken up by some guts that were colored like a carrot, but came in a darker hue. “Papa,” she asked, “what were the dark orange guts doing on the floor?”

“I haven’t the foggiest, Jeila. All I know is that some of it was stolen when that burglar with the voodoo doll came by,” her father responded.

Jeila put it back on one of their shelves. “What would someone want a healing ailment for?” she wondered. “And why would they just up and leave that poppet behind?”

The parent held his arms out to represent that he had no answer to her questions. He tried satisfying her needs regardless. “Maybe they were going to use it in a potion, or something,” he suggested. “Maybe, like Xoshi, they had that doll on them for safekeeping, and they dropped it by accident once they saw you walk into the room, like you said.”

”Maybe,” she said. That part of the discussion was over, so Jeila changed the subject. “Guess what, Papa?”

“What, sweetie?” he played along.

“The Super-Happy Tree told me that me and Xoshi were meant for each other!” She jumped into the air happily.

“It did? Well, I’m not surprised! You two are so much alike! You’re both religious, you always plan ahead, and you both have a lot of potential!” he listed.

“Awww,” Jeila said modestly. She put one foot behind the other with her arms folded behind her to express her emotion. The elder walked towards the backdoor.

“Well, you take care, Jeila, darling. Right now, I have to pay my own respects to the Super-Happy Tree.”

“Okay. Bye, Papa,” she said, waving to him.

“Bye!” said the devoted man. With that, he was out the door, walking down the pathway to the island’s treasured tree. Jeila turned her gaze away from her old man and got her thoughts on other things.

Xoshi, she thought, once you get back from your vacation... She paused and let a dreamy smile flow over her face. I’m going to ask you out...

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