PSHEWWWWWOOOOOOOOOO… From inside our peach cabin you could hear the wild whistling blizzard thrashing about outside like an angry Hippotatomus. From the window, you could see nothing but the white, blinding snow. Figaro, Bandelle (a Banana Punny that took shelter with us at the time), and I were inside. Luckily, we had quickly set up a sturdy Peach Cabin before the ferocious storm hit.
I slumped into a beanbag chair and yawned loudly. I was so bored beyond belief… we had been hunkering down in this cabin for over three hours already, and there was nothing to do.
Fig was looking through his immense collection of tea bags inside his scarf. He’s a huge fan of collecting exotic and obscure teas from all around Punny garden (he says he has over 1000 different kinds!). I also bring him any teabags I can find in the human world. If you can name a tea, Figaro most likely has it in his collection. By the way, this very day would be the first time I drank tea from Punny garden.
“Which tea do you want?” Figaro asked Bandelle, who was putting more wood into the fire.
“Nahhhhh, I’m good,” Bandelle yawned. “I’ve got a nice hot drink already.” She swirled around the warm drink inside her cup.
“What’s that?” I asked, lazily peering over to look at what she was drinking.
“It’s boiled energy drink,” Bandelle yawned again and took a big gulp. “It keeps me awake in the winter.” (I couldn’t help but grimace a little LOL. I’ve only had cold energy drinks.)
“Do you want some tea, Eden?” Figaro asked me, offering me his box of teas. He had already picked out his favorite, Sunset and Raindrops, a teabag made with fragrant palm leaves from Pink Beach.
I pulled out a kettle and started to boil some water on the table. “Yeah, sure.”
“I think you’ll like this one,” Figaro pulled out a smaller, bluish teabag from his collection and handed it to me to put in my cup.
I read it. “Undersea Blues. Made from 100% fresh blue pine needles from Pinetoe Brooks. It looks interesting. Does it taste like fruit?”
After the tea finished steeping (about 10 minutes), Figaro invited me to take a sip first. He and Bandelle intently watched as I drank the entire cup.
“Well, how is it?” Figaro asked me, leaning forward slightly.
“It tastes like Earl Grey,” I remarked. “It’s not my kind of tea honestly but – HUH?!?!?”
I heard a little fizzing on my tongue, and then, suddenly – bubbles started to come out of my ears! I jumped up and down in confusion, like a Rambutan monkey. Figaro and Bandelle, meanwhile, started to giggle.
Figaro started laughing so hard, tears started coming out of his eyes. “You have SO MUCH EARWAX! Bandelle bet that you cleaned your earwax a lot, but I know you totally don’t.”
“Huh???” I was even more confused as bubbles continued to fly out of my ears and fill the cabin’s ceiling. That’s when I learned that some Punny Garden teas have special effects – the one tea brew I drank causes earwax to turn into colorful bubbles (the more earwax you have, the more bubbles come out of your ears).
Fig then drank his own tea, and soon, his leaf started to turn some brilliant sunset shades. Beautiful clear dewdrops started to form in the air surrounding him, and hovered for a few seconds before disappearing. After a few seconds, Figaro’s leaf turned back to its normal shade of green. I stared in wonder and amazement and awe. I had no idea there was such a thing in Punny garden, but it was pretty awesome! Now, whenever we go to a new place, Figaro and I would drink the tea there together.
This is one of my favorite story so far! I want to see more of Figaro’s tea collection inside his scarf 🙂