Tomas:In the Eyes of a Child
The planet's sun sat high in the afternoon sky, shining down on the capitol and its inhabitants who were out and about in full force due to the beautiful weather. The main streets were filled with pedestrians, mostly humans though many other sentient beings could be spotted throughout the crowd. The commercially-oriented Bleaker Street, lined with shops of every shape, size and type imaginable was particularly busy as people used the nice weather to get out of their residences and get some shopping done. Constant commotion filled the street as the shoppers fought their way through crowds, bartered with various merchants over the price of an item, or simply greeted friends they happen to come across.
One such inhabitant wandering amongst the shops was a young teen, by the name of Tomas Dagoram. With short brown hair and a thin but slightly muscular frame, Tomas appeared to be just another 14 year-old boy out to enjoy such a fine day. Accompanied by his two friends, the trio slipped in and out of the traffic lining the streets before entering a nearby shop. Stepping into the shop, Tomas let out a small sigh of relief. As beautiful as it was outside, it was refreshingly cool within the shop. This was not the reason the reason they had entered the store, well not exactly anyways. Of all the shops littering the nearby streets, this was by far one of Tomas' favourite in the bunch. Although the room was small and crowded, at the same time some people, like Tomas were able to feel right at home amongst the artifacts, sculptures and other trinkets that lined the shelves.
At the back of the room a tall humanoid stood behind a counter, resting his elbows on the tabletop. The creature, a Muun as Tomas had found out during his many visits to the shop, seemed to tower over him by almost a foot. On a previous occasion, Tomas had discovered that that part of its massive height was just appearances. Its overall thin figure and long head portrayed the Muun as being of great height. Though as Tomas had noticed, when side by side with the taller humans on the planet the humanoid was normal, or as "normal" as one of his species could be.
Even though the Muun seemed lost in thought with a pensive gaze covering its face, Tomas knew that was in fact its normal expression and gave him a quick wave and greeting. "Hello Master Douris, how are you on such a wonderful day?"
"I am doing well Tomas, thank you. I have gotten my hands on a couple more artifacts that I thought you'd like to see." Kan Douris replied, waving Tomas over but not before adding in a more exasperated tone: "But first, could you please tell THEM not to touch anything. You I can stand, but your friends...they have no control of their desires...and grubby fingers too." At this, Tomas stopped walking in Kan's direction and turned to look back at his friends. It was true, like him his friends had a longing for adventure, though he had long ago realized that this was not the kind of place to be adventurous...at least not physically. That was not what made Kan's little shop on Bleaker Street one of Tomas' more frequent stops. Rather, this was a place for the mind and imagination. Tomas came in full of wonder, and had yet to be disappointed. Several years ago when he had first stumbled into the shop, Kan had shown him ancient maps, mysterious artwork, and fascinating objects from far off planets and systems. Tomas had turned his eyes to the stars right then and there, but had yet to find an opportunity to leave the planet.
"Of course, Master Douris." Tomas responded politely before turning back and approaching his friends, who had already begun to play around with various antiques clearly ignoring the sign reading 'Do Not Touch' hanging over that particular section. "Hey you guys think you could promise to keep your hands to yourself for a bit? I won't be long and then we can go out and have some fun." Tomas looked back and forth between the two of them.
"Yeah, sure buddy." Krinn Thelp replied enthusiastically. Where Tomas was the dreamer of the trio, Krinn was the strongman. Although a year older than Tomas, Krinn was still quite tall for his age thanks to a growth spurt at a young age he now stood at 6'1". Not only this, but at first glance Krinn had the appearance of the bouncers Tomas had seen outside clubs on the few occasions that he was out that late. It was for these reasons that Tomas didn't dare engage in a physical confrontation of any sorts with Krinn as he was certain he would end up with at least broken bone at best. To this date though, it had yet to be an issue. Appearing as a big, strong oaf to many who did not know him, Krinn was in fact quite smart and level headed. As Tomas had found out over the years, Krinn actually preferred to resolve issues through carefully thought out arguments and more importantly the ability to back up his trains of thought with facts and proof, rather than his superior physical prowess. Though his dominating size definitely didn't hurt.
"Alright, fine. Could you get back to it and hurry up then?" a voice to Tomas' right said, emerging from behind a shelf. Dalten Chool...if the trio of youngsters ever got in trouble it was common knowledge that Dalten was more almost always the one to blame. Recently, he had become a schemer, and a downright troublemaker at that. Outside observers often questioned Tomas and Krinn as to why they remained friends with someone like Dalten. Tomas' answer was always the same...the three of them had been through too much together...too many adventures as kids to just throw Dalten to the curb...no matter how tempting it had been lately. Even now, despite his promise Tomas watched as Dalten began to once again reach out for an object on the shelf. A smack in the back of the head by Krinn caused Dalten to quickly pull back his hand and retreat down an aisle, but not before he had managed to knock one of the artifacts. The stone sculpture wobbled, before falling from its ledge. In a move that shocked everyone, Tomas' arm shot out and caught the artwork in midflight.
"Ah, I see you've found the sculpture from the planet Maridun...albeit accidentally." Kan announced thoughtfully, having emerged from behind the counter the Muun made a point of pointing to the sign above the shelf. His sudden presence behind Tomas startled the young boy to the point that he nearly dropped the piece. Carefully examining the object that now sat in his hand, Tomas then placed it back where it belonged, before turning to once again face the shop owner.
"Er, yes...I'm sorry about that. It won't happen again..." Tomas took this opportunity to look at Dalten with the dirtiest look he could muster, "...right Dalten?"
"Y-yes," Dalten managed to stammer. The whole event had caused him to retreat back toward the door they had entered through. This reaction came as no surprise to Tomas or Krinn, who even chuckled slightly at their friend's lack of comfort. Sure, Dalten was always looking for trouble but more often than not when it found him he turned timid. Tomas secretly feared the day that Dalten lost all care for the consequences. Tomas felt that day was well off for, but when it came...and Tomas knew it would soon enough it would be a bad. For now though, it was obvious Dalten wanted to out of this small room and back in the fresh air of the outdoors. Glancing at Krinn, Tomas could tell he was feeling similar, though from experience Tomas knew Krinn would have at least some patience to wait until Tomas was done.
"Hey Krinn, if you'd rather not stay in here you're welcome to take Dalten there outside to wait...look around you know?" Tomas conceded. He watched his friends slowly exit the shop, before returning his focus to Kan. As he did on just about every other occasion that he had come to Kan's little store, Tomas made a point of asking about a planet Kan mentioned as well as making a note to look into on his data terminal when he returned home. "Maridun? I've never heard of it. Have you ever been there Master Douris?"
"Ahh, unfortunately I have not young Tomas. As you know, my people are not generally ones to travel. Except for the very brightest of minds that is. Even to be settled here is almost unheard of for a Muun of my...position." This was no surprise to Tomas, as he had heard more or less the same answer many times before. Thinking back, he actually questioned whether Kan had ever said yes. If it had happened at some point, there had been far too many planets mentioned since for Tomas to remember its name. As a result, Tomas usually got a brief description of the planet or race that had created the particular trinket, as well as the all important name that he could research at a later time. To make up for this though, Kan had taught him quite a bit about his home world, Muunilinst as well as its people. Like many others of his planet, Kan constantly had his thoughts in money. From what Tomas could tell, that was the reason for this shop in the first place...to buy and sell these various objects from all over the galaxy for personal monetary gain. How Kan managed to get his hands on so many foreign artifacts Tomas could never be sure, especially here in the Outer Rim. He supposed it was Kan's unique love for these objects as opposed to the focus solely on profit by the rest of his people.
With this Tomas took his leave from the Muun, bowing slightly in respect as he had done each time before. As Kan returned the bow, Tomas took this as his cue to leave. Slipping out the door, Tomas stopped midstride and shut his eyes tightly. The sun caused Tomas to blink several times before he was able to regain his vision. Part of the homely touch of Kan's shop was the dimmer lighting, something Tomas enjoyed thoroughly on the really bright days. Rubbing his eyes, he took the a quick glance around for his friends. There was no point in looking for Dalten. At 5'4 he'd never be found in this crowd, not to mention he was probably off causing mischief for some unlucky merchant. Instead Tomas looked above the crowd for Krinn, well he didn't tower over the crowd he was obviously much easier to spot. It didn't take long to spot him, and Tomas began to move through the crowd. About halfway across the walkway, Tomas collided with another pedestrian. The full force of the impact cause them both to stumble. The girl as Tomas had noticed had been unable to stop her fall and he was quick to help her up before she was trampled by other shoppers not watching where they were going.
By this time, Krinn had noticed the commotion and approached the two of them carefully. "I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going and you slipped out in front of me...are you okay?" was all the young woman managed to say before a noise caused Tomas to look up. Above the buildings a shuttle continued its descent to the planet's surface, on its way to the starport off in the distance. He was in the middle of telling her everything was okay when he noticed it. He could recognize that shuttle anywhere...Tomas' father had returned home once again. Turning to Krinn and making gestures to the sky, Tomas took off towards the starport without another word, leaving the woman at a loss for what had just happened.
