My eyes were trained on the mysterious object coming down the mountain. As it got closer, I saw that it wasn’t one object at all… To my surprise, it was actually multiple objects! When it finally came into my clear field of vision, I shouted excitedly, “Figaro, they’re all Pole Bean Ibexes!” A dozen majestic ibexes were in line as they trotted down the mountain, leaving a huge cloud of orange dust in their wake. Running past me, the first ibex greeted me with a “choo” sound. The second ibex in the line did the same thing and so did the third, fourth, fifth, all the way to the 12th one. It was such a strange and funny sight to behold and hear! The ibex train, I shall call them, greeted Figaro in the same fashion with their “choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo” sound. Figaro stared blankly into each of the ibex faces while making mental note that their tails seems to be colored differently, as if someone had brushed color paint on them.
The ibex train stopped by where the little ibex was. The first ibex in line, who had a half broken horn, stood out and started to converse with the young ibex. She piped out a “mee” and then the others in line said “choo,” as if in dialogue about something of great importance. Suddenly, all the ibex turned around to look directly at me and wagged their tails fiercely as if to show off their beautiful colors. At this point, I’m sure they were trying to tell me something, but I was way too amused by their outrageously cute tails to even think straight! I looked back at the baby ibex and saw that it looked sad. Then, I realized that she didn’t come to us because it was hungry or lost, but because it needed help with its tail. Compared to the others, the tail of the young ibex was just a plain off-white color.
I quickly reached into my pocket, remembering that Manabu gave me a small bottle of ready-made Autumnsugar Kale paint and told me to hang onto to it in case I needed to get artistic. I didn’t at all understand what he meant at the time, but now I’m starting to think we need to paint the tail of this young ibex. Figaro opened his satchel to pull out a paintbrush which was also given to us by Manabu. Dipping the paintbrush into the paint, I was now ready to get to work.
Unfortunately, the task was easier said than done. Strangely, the young ibex didn’t seem to want its tail painted. It kept hopping around and flicking its tail around, refusing to stay still for even a second. I even smudged the precious pigment on my own face by accident! “Hey!” I exclaimed. The ibex turned its head away with a sassy huff as Fig laughed at my two red glittering eyebrows. I stood there feeling quite confused, and a little embarrassed seeing as how all the adult Pole Bean Ibexes were gazing perplexedly at us. After trying to bribe the baby to stay still with some tasty kale for several minutes (with no success), I had to take a break and sit down on the rock, which was warming up because the sun was starting to come out already.
It was Figaro that finally came up with a brilliant solution to our little problem after observing the tails of the other ibexes. He said, “Hmm, maybe we should use more than one color…? After all, the adults have many hues on their tails.” He took out an extra set of colorful paints, all created from different natural materials around Punny Garden. None of them were nearly as sparkly as the Autumnsugar paint, but together they made a beautiful arrangement. Looking at the bright rainbow palette that Fig presented, the little ibex’s eyes glowed as it made a gleeful “meee” sound. Finally, she was willing to stay still as Figaro and I started to paint her so cute fluffy tail. We used all the shades in the palette, from a bright pink from the magical trees of Grassy Windbet Hills to a muted blue from the Northern Dew Peaks. Just then, before even a quarter of the tail was painted, its fibers started to absorb the essence of its bright colors, kind of like how dry dirt absorbs water. “Whoa!” Figaro and I whispered, our eyes popping wide open. Soon, the baby’s entire tail was colored with a rainbow of beautiful hues, and didn’t look too different from a part of one of Manabu’s brilliant paintings!
All the ibexes on the scene saw this and let out one celebratory CHOOOOOOO noise, which echoed loudly throughout the mountain valley. The small ibex pranced around and gleefully thanked us with a similar “choo” noise. For a few seconds, we did a silly little prancing dance together while Figaro laughed at my clumsy feet. I dance my heart out just then knowing that I was able to solve the problem for the young ibex.
In the midst of all this going on, Fig and I had almost forgotten about our main mission, which was to collect some Autumnsugar kale! “Come on, we’d better pick some before the sun rises all the way,” he reminded me. That day, Manabu had promised to serve us a delicious breakfast if we had returned with our promise fulfilled. Just then, I noticed a peculiar leaf on one of the ibex fur and pointed it out to Figaro. He quickly snatched it off the ibex and examined it closely. He raised the leaf to the sunny skies and exclaimed unabashedly, “Oh, mother nature, You indeed are so beautiful!” Figaro turned to me and announced that we had found an actual dried up Autumnsugar kale leaf. He continued, “It must be up at that peak where the ibex came from Eden. Let’s hurry because my stomach is growling, and I’m feeling myself waste away to nothing.”
Our new ibex friends saw us pointing to the peak and decided to return to the direction they came from. They formed their line and started to gallop towards the top of Napolean’s Mountain. We quickly followed right behind the ibex train, hoping to follow their pace. However, it was no use. Figaro and I just couldn’t muster any more energy to climb further. The ibex were just too fast and were starting to leave us behind!