This was the time when Professor Wave lent me a Bubble Cosmonaut Seed. It quickly grows into a Bubble Diving Helmet when submerged into water which allows the wearer to easily breathe underwater for as long as needed. Just like plants, the Bubble Diving Helmet converts your exhaled breath into pure life-saving oxygen. This was exactly what I needed because I was itching to visit the seabed off of Newtime Beach where I heard a special type of marine animal lived. It would seem that these particular shy creatures would only show themselves when they hear a certain type of music coming from a rare and unique flute : a Sapphire Blue Shimmeri Kale Stem Flute.
Obviously, a Shimmeri Kale Stem Flute is no ordinary musical instrument and is not in abundance in Punny Garden. You can’t just walk into any garden and pick one up. The Shimmeri Kale plant grows only once every blue moon, during an especially cold winter season. Now if you’re lucky enough and all the stars have aligned, one out of every ten thousand Shimmeri Kale will turn into a Shimmeri Kale Stem Flute. Even rarer still, one out of every ten thousand Shimmeri Kale Flute will turn sapphire blue. A Sapphire Blue Shimmeri Kale Stem creates the most exquisite sound that you’ve ever heard from a flute, as if the stars above started singing.
Lucky for me, I was able to borrow one from Peregrin, a super skilled musician that collects and crafts all sorts of exotic musical instruments. It took many days of helping her clean her music shop, but she finally lent it to me.
I immediately wanted to play it underwater, out of curiosity of what it would sound like. So after diving all the way down the ocean off of Newtime Beach, I settled down on a rock and began tooting out the only tune I knew at the time. Surprisingly, the sound that come from the flute was much, much louder than I initially anticipated. The crystal clear music echoed harmoniously through the water to the sea horizon.
After a few minutes, I saw a huge shadow cast over my head from above! Looking up, I saw a group of orange striped colored Carrot Squid swim past (there were at least 10!). As I continued to play, they circled around me slowly. At this point, I have to admit I was a little nervous as they slowly approached closer. I had heard from Professor Wave that Carrot Squids are mischievous and will try to steal stuff from unsuspecting divers, including their pants (I was wearing a brand-new pair of purple swimming jeans that day)! They’ll also squirt bright orange ink if confronted.
But, these squids seemed to totally enjoy the music I was playing as they floated around the rock I was sitting on. Some of them even started to sway side to side and spin around as if they were dancing! Another one settled on top of the rock I was sitting on and gazed lovingly at my flute as I played. Soon, the patch of ocean I was in felt like a classical ballroom dance. These creatures acted so differently compared to what I heard about them!
After the Carrot Squid melody was over, I waved goodbye to them and swam back up to the shore. Excited, I sped to Professor Wave’s lab to tell him all about the experience.
“Even with a Sapphire Blue Shimmeri Kale Stem Flute, Carrot Squids typically would not be as friendly as they were with you. That’s so fascinating, and I wish I saw it before my own eyes!” he told me. “May I see the instrument you used?”
“Yeah!” I said, reaching in to my pants pocket to get the flute. It wasn’t there… and that was when I suddenly realized what happened. “Oh snap peas!” I facepalmed.
If you go to the rock that I played on, it’s said that you can still hear little *toot* noises of Carrot Squids attempting to play on a kale flute. Ultimately, Peregrin let them keep the flute out of the goodness of her heart (and because Carrot Squid ink takes many hours to scrub off your face).