In Flagstaff, everything felt heavy. The sky, the air, the soil all harboured this feeling. Some residents were displeased by the foreigners who came to take what little resources they had. That was more than enough for them to be disliked, but the opinions of few could drown the voices of many.
"Hey Durin, you feel uncomfortable?" Teinova turned her head towards him. She had a plaid headscarf wrapped around her hair, leaving a space for her ponytail to flow freely at the back. The trio was walking to the guest house on the barren, dusty road. They were going to get rested, fed and bathed for dinner tonight with an important meeting.
"Somewhat." The hostile glares, especially those with their freaky firearms, could've made the most hardened person soften and melt.
"I don't like these lifeforms at all." A shot went off, zipping past Durin and bored into a flowerpot on a ledge. A wispy red tail came from the forced opening as the heat roasted its insides. The chance to live was no more.
"Are you crazy?!!!" Teinova became colourful with anger. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Nothing at all. My finger slipped." The being, whose home looked more worthless than a rusted tin and wore a frown, laughed. The others snickered at them.
"Let's move a bit faster." She suggested. The three moved quickly to leave the street. After more stares, they detoured to one that seemed to be vacant. This was an alternate route to Modue's guest house. To their surprise, more villagers swarmed them: those of younger stock.
A grey prepubescent being named Pogorie asked them before they can react. "You all from outer space?"
"Yes. We're from space." answered Teinova with some shock. She wondered where in the heck all these little beings come from.
"How space? It real pretty? What other planets be like? You get to meet plenty lifeforms?" The questions came rapid-fire. She seemed hyperactive, unable to contain her kiddie energy.
"Come nah, I wanna ask questions too." said Fesna, a young female lifeform. Her facial lines hadn't come in as yet and were still fairly small.
"Yeah Fesna, she have to stop stealing all the attention for herself." Gra was a perfect blue cylinder with arms, legs and eight eyeballs. The two eye stalks were like two young trees. There were branches for each eye.
Even more children came at them. All were excited to know that lifeforms from space were here.
"Everyone SHUT UP!" The wildness stopped. Her persistent apricot glow served to soften and accentuate her physical features but not her ferocity. This was her genetic predisposition - to glow, whether day or night, giving her an angelic aesthetic, and making her more attractive for those species that fancy those traits. Everyone was at attention to hear what Teinova had to say.
"Hey, what's going on out there?" An adult wondered who made that noise. He was going outside to check.
"Teinova, are you going to get us in trouble again?" said Zazavin.
"Looks like it." Durin added.
"Don't worry, Daddy. Everything good!" Gra answered.
"Oh okay." Gra's dad returned to sitting on his dusty couch.
We dance with danger a bit too often. thought Durin.
"Do you want me to tell you guys a story?" Teinova suggested to a unanimous 'YESSSSSSSS!' She knows kids aren't the worst thing ever.
She had to say something age-appropriate. These don't seem like the kind of kids that can handle mature subject matter. Teinova brought Zazavin and Durin to a team huddle.
"What we're going to say?" She took a quick look at the two.
"Can we just ignore them?" Zazavin wasn't in the mood to deal with children right now.
"No. I don't think they'll like that." Durin seemed uncomfortable.
"How do you know that?" Zazavin wondered how he could draw such a conclusion.
"I sense something from them."
"They have no Battle Potential. They're just impatient and eager to hear the story."
"Maybe."
"I got it." Teinova came with a good one. "We'll talk about the time we dealt with the bandit on Tudoe Centre-Right."
Zazavin believed her suggestion was questionable.
"Do you have any better suggestions?"
"Well ummmmmm.........We can talk about... No, too violent. We can.... No still too violent." He was flipping through all of their previous adventures. "I can't even use that one."
"I have a few, but all of them have too many fluids. TOO MANY." Durin had a look of disapproval at his fluid laden thoughts.
"So we're going with my suggestion?" Teinova knew they had nothing better to suggest.
Both agreed.
They broke the huddle to see many of the kids already bored. A few were play fighting while others were playing tag.
"Okay, kids. We're going to talk about our story now." Teinova clapped her hands loudly to grab their attention. They broke whatever they were doing as anticipation for the story swelled.
SOME TIME AGO
"Okay. I think we got all of the items we need." Teinova checked the pop-up hologram showing all the stuff they bought to resupply. Durin was treated like a pack mule, pushing the cart that held most of the items. It looked to be a burden to him but they did not want to take express carry due to the high cost.
The trio was on the tidally locked moon, Tudoe Centre-Right. They were in the Habitable Bowl, where ninety percent of the population lived. The inhabitants were very diverse in this large crater that occupied one-tenth of Tudoe.
"Hehehe." A bandit stared at Teinova and the others from the distance, unsuspecting of what was going to happen. He was of a reasonable stature with wavy, hard spikes with some blotches here and there.
He kept focus and waited for the most opportune moment. He needed to get it right. He was homeless, poor and hungry. The bandit couldn't recall the last time he ate or had shelter to protect him from a world that didn't care if he existed. This was for him. This was to live a little less terrible, though it may be short. He had to be selfish to be successful.
The bandit took sight of some of their medium-sized containers and decided they were prime victims, knowing he can more easily manage ones of that size. Once they got close, his fast hands grabbed one and ran.
A chase ensued. The Bowl was set in a grid format, where skyscrapers like that of ice cream cones stared at high flying hovercraft always passing by. Regular beings either got out the way or were shoved as the chase intensified.
He's getting away. Durin was ahead of his two counterparts, but the thief was widening the gap between them. Taking a guesstimate of the distance between him and the bandit, he lunged himself while extending his finger. Durin swiped him, knocking him against a hovercraft in motion, releasing the container, and landing on his legs. The bandit's ankle spikes broke at its weight.
Teinova and Zazavin caught up to Durin and helped him up, even though he didn't need it. He felt he could've run a hundred miles more if needed.
The trio stared down at him. They were pissed.
"You can take back your crate." The bandit said weakly as Durin picked up their crate while unintentionally displaying his entirety. "Please, please forgive me. No one on this blasted moon cares about me." The bandit then began sobbing. "You can do whatever you want. I deserve it."
"You idiot. Never steal from us again." Teinova was even more furious. Zazavin and Durin were just as angry.
Durin swiped with brutality. A spike or two snapped as the lash connected. The bandit landed in the distance unconscious.
"Let's get out of here before the security forces come." said Zazavin. They got out without making anymore trouble.
"And that's the end of the story." Durin was happy to see the faces of the children. They thoroughly enjoyed it... Except for one.
"I didn't like the story." Fesna shot up her arm.
"Why didn't you like it?" Teinova asked.
"Because I thought you were too mean to the bandit." Fesna had an adorable voice. It was like if you squeezed her, rainbows and unicorns would leak out.
"Why we should be nice to a bandit? All those that think you should be nice to a bandit, raise your hand." No one raised their hand. That didn't phase Fesna. Her hand remained up, defiant in a placated crowd.
"Well.........the way you described how he talked when you caught him, he seemed nice."
"Trust me, he wasn't nice," said Zazavin. "He was probably lying so that we let our guard down."
"How do you know if a lifeform who cries from the soul is a liar?"
"Liars lie. You can fake cry. You know that right?"
"You can't determine who's fake and who's real. Everyone has their life experience. He was most likely suffering even though he stole from others. At least we have nice adults who care for and protect us. You all have each other. He has nothing." She drove her point home, deep into everyone. The mood changed. The children were beginning to question their supposed 'heroes'. Their comments became more and more poignant.
Seeing the situation was grim, Teinova and the others had to make their exit. "Okay, kids. We have some adult stuff to do. See you later!" With haste, they soon made it to the guest house.
"Children are problematic, aren't they?" Durin commented.
"You don't have to say the obvious," Teinova replied with a pinch of aggression.
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