Good Afternoon

In Tallas, sky to soil felt burdened with unease. The foreigners who came to take what little resources they had displeased some residents; that was more than enough for them to be disliked, but the opinions of few drowned the voices of many.

"Hey Durin, you feel uncomfortable?" Teinova turned her head towards him. She had a plaid headscarf wrapped around her hair except for 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 an important dinner meeting.

"Somewhat." The villagers’ hostile glares, especially those with freaky firearms, could've made the most hardened beings melt.

"I don't like these lifeforms at all." A shot zipped past Durin, bored into a flowerpot on a ledge, and roasted its insides. The chance for it 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 rusted tin, laughed. The others snickered at them.

"Let's move a bit faster." The three moved quickly to leave the street. After more stares on other streets, 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 the younger stock.

A grey prepubescent being named Pogorie came slow and clear with her words. Her question was: "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 came from.

"How space? It real pretty? What other planets be like? You get to meet plenty lifeforms?" The questions came rapid-fire. She seemed unable to contain her kiddie energy.

"Come nah, I wanna ask questions too," said Flezno, a young female lifeform. Her facial lines hadn't come in yet as they were still shallow.

"Yeah Flezno, she have to stop stealing all the attention for herself." Gra was a perfect blue cylinder with a pair of insect legs and eight eyeballs wrapped in a circle.

Even more children came at them. All were excited to know that lifeforms from space were here.

"Everyone SHUT UP!" She flattened their zeal. 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. Such genetics assisted in her supposed heavenly aesthetic and made her more attractive for species that fancy those traits. Everyone was attentive to what Teinova had to say.

An adult from the community 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 the adult being as he came outside. It was her dad, so he believed her and went back inside after he heard that everything was fine.

"Oh okay." Gra's dad returned to sitting on his dusty couch.

We dance with danger a bit too often. Durin thought.

Teinova wondered if they wanted her to tell them a story. A raucous choir call of yeses made it known that they were open to a tall tale.

She had to say something age-appropriate. These don't seem like the kind of kids that could handle mature subject matter. This pushed Teinova to bring Zazavin and Durin into 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.

"No. I don't think they'll like that." Durin was uncomfortable.

"How do you know?" 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 either of 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. None were appropriate. "I can't even use that one."

"I have a few, but all of them have too many fluids. TOO MANY." Durin disapproved his fluid laden thoughts.

"So we're going with my suggestion?" Teinova didn’t want to spend any more time thinking about what story they could tell. The kids were getting uneasy. She hated kids when they were uneasy. Well-behaved kids were the best type of kids.

They agreed on her idea. Tudoe Centre-Right was a tale of decency that could never corrupt the minds of the youth. They broke the huddle to see many of the kids already bored. Others were play fighting or 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 and got themselves quiet and orderly. Their anticipation swelled to levels unbound like the eager children they were.

SOME TIME AGO

"Okay. I think we got all of the items we need." Teinova checked the pop-up hologram that showed all the stuff they bought to resupply. Durin was made to push 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 a distance. 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 to live a little less terrible for a short while. 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 to steal from. He knew he could 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 starcraft that passed by. Regular beings either got out the way or were shoved out the way as the chase intensified.

He's getting away. Durin was ahead of his two counterparts, but the thief was widening the gap between them. He took a guesstimate of the distance between him and the bandit before lunging himself while his finger extended to swipe him. The bandit was struck and collided against a hovercar in motion. Said force got him to involuntarily let go of the container. Cracks formed among some of the spikes as a result of Durin’s hit.

Teinova and Zazavin caught up to Durin and helped him up, even though he didn't need it. He felt he could've ran a thousand more steps with no issue.

The trio stared down at him. They were pissed.

"You can take back your container." The bandit was weak in speech as Durin picked it up. "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 furious. Zazavin and Durin were just as angry.

Durin swiped at him with brutality. A spike or two snapped as the lash connected and sent the bandit in the distance unconscious.

"Let's get out of here before the security forces come," said Zazavin. They got out without making more trouble.

"And that's the end of the story." Teinova was happy to see the faces of the children. They thoroughly enjoyed it... Except for one.

Flezno shot up her arm. "I didn't like the story."

"Why not?" Teinova thought this was a great age-appropriate tale. What about it there was to dislike?

"Because I thought you were too mean to the bandit." Flezno had an adorable voice. 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 Flezno. Her hand remained up. This was defiance 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," Zazavin grimaced at the memory of his decrepit look. "He was probably lying for us to 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 us and protect us. You all have each other. He has nothing." She drove her point home with real depth. The mood changed. Their comments became more and more poignant as each child questioned their supposed 'heroes'.

Sensing the grim situation, Teinova and the others had to make their leave. "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 the obvious.

"You don't have to say the obvious," Teinova replied with a tint of sarcastic aggression.

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