A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Sometime after Sith, but before New Hope...
There was...
Space Trash!
It was a typically hot day on the typically hot and arid, backwoods, desert planet of Tatooine. Twice as hot as any day you can imagine, due to the fact that Tatooine had not one, but two suns.
Watto, an old, grizzled, bluish-green Toydarian was hovering behind his desk inside the main adobe building of the junkyard he owned and operated in the town of Mos Espa. Due to the heat, and his age, he kept dozing off as he hovered, which caused him to slowly descend downward while his tiny little wings instinctively kept flapping as fast as a hummingbird's. Each time he was about to touch the ground, though, he would let out a snort from his long snout, startle himself awake, and begin to float upwards again. This routine went on for about fifteen minutes when suddenly the communicator on his desk began beeping and he fumbled for it quickly with his three-fingered claws. It had been a good while since anyone had called the shop and he was hopeful this meant business.
"Whadda ya want?" he growled into the device. Toydarians were not known for their great social skills.
"Uh huh," he said, grabbing a pen and writing something down on a nearby piece of paper. "This is good news. Bye." He dropped the communicator and flitted over to a large piece of machinery on a far wall that looked like a large CB radio with red lights running back and forth all over it. He took a small handheld microphone attached to it by a cord and clicked a button on it.
"Shiner Starr, come in Shiner Starr," he squawked. There was no answer when he released the button. He pressed the button again. "Klyfffph, answer, damn you!" he shouted into the mic.
Thirteen parsecs away, on a small, even more backwoods desert planet than Tatooine, that was so crap that most people didn't even know if it had a name at all, in a ship that was about the size of a double wide trailer and covered on the outside with rust and on the inside with empty food and drink cans, a smaller, but similar, CB looking device in the cockpit console had Watto's voice coming out of it.
"Klyfffph, answer me you filth, or so help me I'll..." he went on.
Finally, from beneath one particularly thick pile of garbage on the cockpit floor, a thin humanoid emerged. He was a white male in his late twenties with light brown hair on his head and dark brown scruff on his jaw. He had a farmer's tan and could have passed for human if it weren't for the bluish-green tint to the skin around his hairline and the dark purple color of his eyes. He was dazed, hungover, and wearing nothing but some tattered and torn blue, denim, flight pants and a stupid expression on his face.
From the cockpits entrance behind him there suddenly came small metallic footsteps followed by a deep baritone voice that said, "Gonk."
Unsurprisingly, it was a GNK droid, which is a small metal box with legs that only says gonk for some reason.
"I got this, I got this," said the humanoid, who was the one named Klyfffph that Watto was still yelling for over the radio. He waved away the droid and it slowly turned and walked away with a quiet, "Gonk."
Klyfffph very slowly got to his bare feet, slipping in something gooey on the floor as he did so, and went to the ship's control panel and took the radio's microphone in his grease-stained hand.
"You've reached the Shiner Starr, Klyfffph speaking, can I help you?" he said as pleasantly as he could. He had a slight rural accent.
"Yes!" shouted Watto, "You can get you're ugly ass over to Dantooine and pick up a crashed light freighter on the western side of the planet. And do it fast before the other guys get there first."
"Dantooine. Got it," said Klyfffph. He sat down in the ship's one pilot seat and began to rub his temples.
"This is a hot tip," Watto went on, "And you need-"
"I said I got it!" Klyfffph shouted, angrily.
"Just don't fuck this up," ordered Watto. "I'll send you the exact coordinates as soon as my contact sends them to me, but start heading in that direction."
The line went dead.
Klyfffph hung up the mic hard.
"Asshole," he mumbled. "Put your face in the direction of your..."
He trailed off as he began flipping switches and pushing buttons to get the ship's engines started.
"Well, Gonk, looks like we're heading over to Dantooine. Just a hop, skip, and a jump from here," Klyfffph announced, loudly, then to himself he said, "At least it's not another damn desert planet. I'm really getting sick of those."
Gonk was in the main living quarters just outside the cockpit, repeatedly banging into a wall while saying, "Gonk." And didn't really seem to be listening to Klyfffph, or have a care in the world.
Eventually, the engine slowly came to life and blue energy shot out of the ship's exhaust ports in short, sudden bursts like a car backfiring. Once it was at a steady burn, the whole ship lifted off the ground and into outer space. The safety belt on the pilot's seat in the Shiner Starr had long ago been torn away, so Klyfffph just kind of braced himself as he took off into the wild, cold yonder of space. Gonk, for his part, tipped over and lay on the floor for the entire journey.
The Shiner didn't have a hyperdrive, so the trip to Dantooine took quite a while. Most other salvage ships like the Shiner didn't have hyperdrives either, though, so it wasn't really at much of a disadvantage.
By the time they had arrived on Dantooine, Watto had sent the coordinates and Klyfffph was easily able to find the downed ship among the trees and foliage of the forest planet. It turned out to be a model YT-1300 light freighter, which had apparently been there for some time, because most of it was gone; rotted and rusted away by age and weather. Klyfffph put his ship down as close to the front of the freighter as possible and let the engine idle while he got up and put a shirt on. It was dirty, off-white, and a style that someone from Earth might call a wife-beater, but in this galaxy it was known as a Snivvian-beater, because they popularized it. He also put on a green headband-like thing with a light attached to the side that would help him inspect the find. Finally, he grabbed his identification and salvage license, which were attached to a chain, and hung them around his neck. Then he set Gonk right side up and let down the ship's ramp so he could go checkout the wreck.
It was a total mess. No way could it be fixed and made to fly again, but some of the smaller parts could be re-purposed and the majority of the metal could be sold off and used by someone for... something. It could be melted down and used in construction maybe.
Under an overhang where the roof of the freighter had either fallen off or been smashed in there was a small pile of dark cloth bunched up in a corner. Klyfffph figured it was either the previous owner's dirty laundry or else maybe the previous owner's dead body, either way, he went over and kicked the pile with his bare foot to make sure there wasn't anything alive in there. He expected to feel just more cloth or maybe some bones, but was surprised to feel something warm and fleshy underneath. It began to stir.
"Aw crap, it's a nest or something," Klyfffph said out loud.
The movement stopped abruptly and to spite his better judgement curiosity got the better of Klyfffph and he cautiously bent down and pulled back the top layer of cloth. Underneath was not a nest, but rather a butt naked young man of about twenty with pale skin, blonde hair and freckles who was fast asleep, but woke up once exposed to the cold forest air and Klyfffph's head light.
"Well damn," said Klyfffph, re-covering the young man, quickly. Hearing the sound of Klyfffph's voice, the guy opened his green eyes and then hurriedly jumped to his feet, pulling what turned out to be a long, black, hooded robe around him.
"What the hell?" he shouted. "Who are you? What are you doing in my house?"
He had looked so peaceful and sweet while sleeping, like a space angel, but now Klyfffph noticed all the dirt on his freckled face and some gold teeth in his mouth when he talked and realized he wasn't no space angel just another space bum like you find all over the galaxy.
"Ain't no house," Klyfffph countered. "It's a shipwreck, and I'm here to haul it off, so why don't you get on outta here and go find some pants, bud." He began to walk away from the guy, but the stranger quickly followed.
"It's my ship then, point is, it's mine," he said.
Klyfffph turned to face him. "Where are your papers of ownership, then?" he asked, confidently.
"I don't need no stinkin' papers," said the guy.
"Well, without proof of ownership it's just junk, and I haul junk," said Klyfffph, casually lifting up his ID and license and then letting them fall again. "And speaking of stinkin'," he added, "You might want to find a shower to go with those pants."
He turned and began heading back towards his ship again and away from the stranger, but the guy continued to follow him.
"You're one to talk, ya barefoot nerf herder all covered in ship grease and reeking of Jawa beer," he said.
Klyfffph didn't lose his stride this time, just smiled to himself and said, "Look, man, get off my dick. I'm taking this scrap and ain't nobody, 'specially you, gonna stop me." With that he went up the ramp of his ship and the bum knew better than to follow him there.
Once he was back in the cockpit it was an easy task for Klyfffph to get the wreckage hooked up to his ship via a force field net that extended from the back. To spite it's small size, the Shiner was a ship built for towing and salvage and could carry scrap five times as big or heavy as it was using this force field net. Once Klyfffph had gotten it securely in place around what was left of the freighter and pulled it close up against his own ship, he headed down the ramp again to see what had become of the cute naked weirdo. He saw him sitting under a tree not too far away, all wrapped up in his robe.
"Hey, look, I'm hauling this thing back to Tatooine, no stops. If you want a ride to someplace with a little more going on than here... very little more going on, then you can hitch a ride with me," he said to him. "I can offer you some clothes and a shower."
Klyfffph wasn't in the habit of giving strangers rides, but he was, in spite of himself, a good person at heart and didn't like the thought of leaving someone so young and vulnerable alone in this wilderness, especially someone with an ass like that.
The young man looked around as if Klyfffph could have been talking to anyone else.
"Are you serious?" he asked.
"As long as you don't mind a bit of a mess," answered Klyfffph.
The young man got to his feet and walked over to the ship in a very slow, cautious manner.
"You're not some crazy killer, are you?" he asked.
"Naw," said Klyfffph, with a smile. He gave the stranger a pat on the shoulder and guided him up the ramp.
"Sorry about the nerf herder crack. My name is Bentoo. Bentoo Froclik," said the stranger.
"I won't hold that against you," Klyfffph said, with a small laugh. Bentoo frowned, he didn't know if Klyfffph had meant his comment or his name, but he headed up the ramp regardless. Klyfffph followed behind him with a smile on his face. The ramp closed and shortly afterwards the Shiner and it's new cargo lifted up off the ground vertically and flew away in the direction of Tatooine.
"There's a small shower in the refresher through that door in there," Klyfffph called back from the cockpit once they were in space and on a steady course. Bentoo sat in the living quarters on a bench that was also Klyfffph's bed with his robe wrapped tightly around him, eyeballing all the junk and garbage that littered the room. He looked over at a small door off to one side.
"Um, thanks," he called up to Klyfffph.
"No problem. There's also some clean... ish clothes in that one locker there. You're welcome to whatever," Klyfffph went on.
Bentoo got up and opened the locker. There was some green overalls hanging there, which he took and examined.
"Gonk," said Gonk all of a sudden and Bentoo looked over and gave him a bemused expression.
"Nice GNK droid," he said.
"Thanks," answered Klyfffph, "He's more or less useless, but he keeps me company. If I didn't have something to talk at on some of these long hauls I might go crazy."
"Yeah," Bentoo said to himself, still absently examining the overalls. "Hey, you said you wouldn't kill me, right, but aren't you afraid I might kill you," he called to Klyfffph. "How do you know I'm not a dangerous person?"
Klyfffph laughed. "I don't see where you could be hiding any weapons or nothin' on you, and I doubt you could take me in a barehanded fight," he said. "besides, I'm a pretty good judge of people. I don't give rides to just anyone."
Bentoo smiled in spite of himself and then took the clothes into the small refresher room.
Klyfffph sat at the controls for the next twenty minutes watching the stars go by while thinking about whatever it is space travelers think about when they're floating through the void. Eventually he heard the refresher door open and so he put the ship on autopilot and went back to greet his new passenger.
"Lookin' good," he said, upon seeing Bentoo in his overalls. He wore his hooded robe over them.
Bentoo went over to a small seat across from the bench and knocked some trash off of it onto the ground. Then he sat down. Klyfffph sat on the bench.
"Don't go messing my place up, now," he said, jokingly.
Bentoo looked around again at the mess.
"I'm kidding," said Klyfffph. "Look, if we're going to be traveling together you gotta lighten up."
"Sorry," said Bentoo. "I didn't mean to be rude with you back there on Dantooine, I just... I've had a rough couple of months recently and... I haven't seen another person in a while."
"No apologies necessary," said Klyfffph, waving it away with his hand. "So how did you end up living in a downed ship way out here on the outer rim anyway?"
Bentoo got a serious expression on his face and looked right at Klyfffph with his green eyes. His face was now clean and he looked less like a young, scared space bum and more like the mysterious stranger that he was.
"Have you ever heard of the Rebel Alliance?" he asked.
"Woah, woah, woah," said Klyfffph, quickly, gesturing emphatically with his hands. "First rule aboard the Shiner Starr: No politics."
"Um... okay," said Bentoo, looking a little put out. "The Jedi then..."
"Second rule: No religion," said Klyfffph.
"Then how am I supposed to tell you my story then?" asked Bentoo.
"How about you tell me where that ship came from first," suggested Klyfffph.
"I just found it there," said Bentoo, matter-of-factly. "It had obviously been there for a while, but was in better condition when I found it than when you saw it."
Klyfffph laughed. "Yeah, there wasn't much left," he said. "Course there's not much to those things to begin with," he went on. "I think whoever designed them must have just taken a bite out of a bantha burger, looked at it, and thought, yeah, that looks good."
Bentoo didn't react to that.
"Speaking of not much left," said Klyfffph, "Where are your clothes, man?"
"I had to ditch them in the woods a long time ago. They were covered in Xenoboric acid," said Bentoo. "I was lucky to grab this robe when I did. It's not mine. It's... a long story."
"Well, it sounds like you've had quite an adventurous life," said Klyfffph, "But you're with me now and I'll make sure you get somewhere safe. I'm Klyfffph by the way, Klyfffph Jetbetder, junkman."
He stood up and took a dramatic pose. Bentoo smiled and shook Klyfffph's hand. He didn't mind the ship grease anymore, it seemed. "Thanks for all your help, Klyfffph," he said. "I can't pay you for any of this, I hope you know that."
"I ain't in this for the money," said Klyfffph, gesturing around. "As you can clearly see. Now, if you'll excuse me I need to go check the controls."
Klyfffph tipped his head light to Bentoo and then went back to the cockpit to make sure everything was nominal. Bentoo went over and laid down on the bench where he quickly fell asleep. Klyfffph looked back to say something to him some time later, but saw he was resting and so turned his attention back to the controls. He smiled to himself as he looked out at the stars in front of him. It was nice having a passenger on board that wasn't a droid for once. Klyfffph also hadn't seen another person in quite a while, and was happy to have the company. He took his head light off and tossed it on the console in front of him, and then just reclined in his chair and let the stars pass.
Hours later, Klyfffph had fallen asleep at the controls and was startled awake by a hand sliding over his shoulder. He quickly grabbed it and pulled its owner forward and into a crude hold like a headlock. It was just Bentoo, though, who didn't make any attempt to fight back, but did look surprised.
"I was just... checking how much longer we had until we get to Tatooine," said Bentoo, calmly.
"Still quite a ways to go," Klyfffph whispered in his ear, which was right near his chest. He could smell Bentoo's hair and it smelled like some alien spice. Klyfffph hadn't had a warm male body so close to his in a long time and he didn't immediately let Bentoo go. Bentoo, for his part, didn't seem to be trying to get loose either.
"I was just wondering, 'cause I'm bored and was thinking if you want maybe you could take me into the back and bang me," Bentoo said, bluntly.
Klyfffph shook his head and did a double take. This seemed like the kind of scenario you'd only find in the cheapest of wookie porn vids, which, for some reason, mostly starred humans.
"I... can do that," said Klyfffph.
And so he did. He took Bentoo back and bent him over the bench, removed his robe and threw it over Gonk. He was too young and innocent to witness such things anyway. Gonk just waddled in a circle and said, "Gonk", five times in a row.
Klyfffph and his new friend went at it for quite a while on several pieces of furniture in several different positions until they both finally lay down on the bench together, satisfied. Bentoo laid in Klyfffph's arms.
"This was just a one time thing, right?" Bentoo said, quietly. "When we get to Tatooine, I'm going my way and you're going yours."
It seemed like a statement, so Klyfffph just said, "I guess", and then fell asleep. Bentoo furrowed his brow and thought for a few minutes and then he too fell asleep. Gonk stood nearby quietly Gonk-ing under the robe.
The next time they woke up it was to a sound from the cockpit alerting them that they were approaching the Tatoo system where Tatooine was located. Klyfffph quickly jumped up and pulled on his pants, then jumped into the pilot seat to bring the Shiner into the planets atmosphere without it being too bumpy. In no time at all he had landed the ship right behind Watto's shop in Mos Espa and Bentoo had gotten the green overalls and his robe back on.
Klyfffph got as dressed as he was planning to that day and then grabbed his slugthrower from under the control consol and headed to the ship's exit.
"Why do you carry that?" asked Bentoo, following behind him.
"Just in case," said Klyfffph. "It's old, but it still works against badmen and fellow scrappers. I just need to clean it while I'm here is all."
The ramp went down and both men walked down to meet an incredibly pissed off Watto hovering at the bottom. He was always pissed off, though, so Klyfffph paid him no nevermind.
"You take forever!" shouted Watto, as Klyfffph walked right past him.
"I got it, didn't I?" he said with attitude.
"Yeah, but you would have had it here a lot faster if you weren't picking up male prostitutes," said Watto, gesturing to Bentoo.
"Watch it," Klyfffph warned him, pointing his slugthrower at the Toydarian. It wasn't loaded, but Watto didn't know that.
"I'm Bentoo," said Bentoo to Watto. "And I'm just a simple passenger that Klyfffph was kind enough to give a ride to."
"A great ride," Klyfffph added, proudly.
Watto eyed both men and made a weird noise.
"And now I must be off," said Bentoo. "I need to see a trader about a Jerba. Of course... first I suppose I need new clothes, though. I'll return these overalls to you when I've got something else to wear."
"Naw, keep 'em," said Klyfffph, indifferently, as he walked into the back entrance of Watto's shop without looking back.
Bentoo took the straps of the overalls in his hands and looked down at the green fabric under his dark robes. It's a well known custom in a galaxy far, far away that when one person gives an article of their own clothing to another person, it is a sign of an intimate relationship. At least with humanoid beings, anyway. Bentoo couldn't help but think Klyfffph's small gesture meant more to him than it did to Klyfffph.
"Well, bye," Watto said, roughly, and waved Bentoo away like he was a fly.
Bentoo looked in the direction that Klyfffph had gone with a small, sad expression and then turned and headed in the direction of the greater Mos Espa area.
Inside the shop, Watto found Klyfffph sitting by the entrance cleaning his gun.
"I think you've broken another heart," he said to Klyfffph, in a teasing manner.
"Wasn't my intention. He seduced me," was all Klyfffph said.
Neither him nor Watto wanted to discuss it any further, so Watto instead brought up the haul.
"That frieghter will bring in a lot of money," he said. Klyfffph just mumbled something affirmative. He was concentrating on the slugthrower, or maybe thinking deeply about something else.
"You still planning on visiting your mother?" Watto said, changing the subject.
"Yep," said Klyfffph, matter-of-factly.
"I know you have some time off coming to you and all, but I was thinking-" Watto spoke cautiously, almost nicely, but Klyfffph wasn't having any of it. He put his gun down and looked Watto straight in his beady little eyes.
"You owe it to me and I'm taking it and that's that," he said with confidence.
Watto made an angry face and bared the few teeth he still had left.
"You haven't owned slaves in ages, old man, so don't treat me like one. Even though you pay me so little, I might as well be your slave," Klyfffph went on.
"Okay, okay, be nice to me," said Watto, feigning helplessness. "I might be your father, you know."
Klyfffph rolled his eyes as he picked up his gun again and began wiping it with a dirty rag.
"Get bent," he said under his breath.
The word bent made him suddenly think about Bentoo Froclik and he became weirdly pensive once again.
"Did you see where that guy I had with me went?" he suddenly asked Watto as the old man took his usual position behind his desk.
"He wandered off into the city," said Watto, sounding like he couldn't care less.
Klyfffph sat and thought for a minute and then stood up and tossed his gun aside.
"I'm gonna go get a drink at the cantina," he said, and left the shop.
Watto just shrugged and minded his own business.
Mos Espa was a settlement that revolved mostly around podracing, and so it had many, many cantinas scattered around, because race fans love to drink. Klyfffph was familiar with most of these watering holes. For starters he walked into the one closest too Watto's shop and before ordering a drink inquired of the bartender if a blonde man in a hooded robe and overalls had just been in. The bartender said he hadn't seen anyone like that, so Klyfffph left and went to the next nearest place. No luck there either. Finally, a few hours later, one particularly ugly bartender at a particularly ugly and dusty bar said he had seen someone matching that description come in earlier asking some odd questions and then shortly afterwards a few mysterious looking characters that looked like empire spooks had come up to him and quietly removed him from the establishment.
Klyfffph's face fell when he heard that news. But that was life under the empire. People just disappeared from existence sometimes and nobody really questioned it.
"Happens everyday. It's a rough galaxy," Said the bartender. "Can I get you a drink?"
Klyfffph nodded.
"Just gimme a Jawa beer," he said to the bartender.
"We don't carry that shit here," the bartender retorted with a snort.
"Just whatever then," said Klyfffph, roughly. He was in a bad mood now. The bartender handed him a glass of something that was dark red and he chugged it quickly. Then he ordered another. Then several more until the next thing he knew he was waking up on the roof of a nearby hotel with Tatooine's twin suns shining down on him, unforgivingly.
He moaned, and then slowly began to pull his sunburned ass together and stumble home to Watto's shop, where he lived, and drank an entire pitcher of water from the kitchen. Then he began packing up what few personal items he had into a kind of napsack.
"Where are you going?" Watto asked as soon as Klyfffph passed by his desk on his way to the exit.
"I'm going to Mos Eisley, you know this," said Klyfffph, annoyed.
"Who's going to scrap that freighter?" Watto demanded.
"I don't fuckin' know, get some of the neighborhood street kids to do it."
"Why I need them when I have you?" asked Watto.
Klyfffph ignored him and walked away with his bag and gun in tow.
"See you in, like, a week," he called over his shoulder.
"I miss having slaves," Watto said to himself, shaking his head.
Klyfffph boarded his small ship again, which still smelled like Bentoo, and threw his bag on the bench/bed. Gonk began gonk-ing as soon as he noticed Klyfffph's presence.
"We're going home," Klyfffph said to his small pet droid.
"Gonk!" said Gonk.
"Right on," said Klyfffph. He started the engines, lifted off a few hundred feet from the surface of the planet, leaving the wrecked freighter behind on the ground among the other junk, then took off at top speed in the direction of the next major settlement on the planet, Mos Eisley, which was only a short distance away by ship.
Once he landed there in an empty ship docking bay, which didn't cost very much to rent, he grabbed his bag and disembarked, taking Gonk with him.
"Why don't you stretch your legs a bit and walk around outside the ship for a little while," Klyfffph said to his droid once they reached the bottom of the ramp.
"Gonk," said Gonk, and he began to waddle away.
"Don't go outside this docking bay," Klyfffph called after him. Not that anyone would steal a busted old GNK droid anyway, but Klyfffph just didn't want to lose his traveling companion. Gonk ignored him and kept walking.
Klyfffph shook his head and then headed towards the hangar's main door. He stepped outside the hangar and right into the hustle and bustle of Mos Eisley foot traffic. The main difference between Mos Espa and Mos Eisley was the crowds. Mos Espa drew a lot of tourists and race fans, but Mos Eisley drew criminals, vagabonds, smugglers and just general space scum, so it definitely was more crowded. Still, these were the dusty streets where Klyfffph grew up and so he was able to step into the flow of pedestrians as they wondered in all directions like it was nothing.
The first place he went into, before heading to his childhood home was Chalmun's Cantina. It was approaching evening and he knew an old friend of his would just be starting her shift behind the bar.
Chalmun's was a smoky, dark hole in the wall on a good day, but at night it was so much worse. Klyfffph wasn't afraid, though, this had been his regular haunt as a youth.
"Klyfffph!" shouted almost the entire bar when he walked in.
He gave a small wave to everyone. The only person who didn't look happy to see him was the woman serving a drink to a small Chadra-Fan in the corner. She was about Klyfffph's age and had long, dark hair in a side braid and an olive complexion. Her eyes as she glanced over at Klyfffph were deep brown and as smoky as the room was. She only glanced for a few seconds, though, and then went back to paying attention to her customers. Klyfffph looked down in shame. He had expected her to be the happiest to see him, but now understood why she was not. He slowly walked over to the bar and sat down, waiting for her to return. Other customers had followed him in and taken seats next to him, so he knew she had to return there at some point.
"Klyfffph Jetbetder. I always knew some day you'd come walking back through my door. I never doubted that. Something made it inevitable. So, what are you doing here in old Mos Eisley?" She said when she finally took her place behind the bar.
"Just home visiting the people I miss," was all Klyfffph could say.
The woman chuckled, mirthlessly and turned her back on him to take other drink orders.
"I don't know what you're so steamed up about, Ackmena, it's not like you're the only one I haven't seen in a while. My mama-" Klyfffph tried to get out, but Ackmena whipped around and pointed her finger at him.
"Bingo, bucko!" she said. She had a deep, stern voice. "I'm not mad that you abandoned me, I'm mad that you left your poor old mother to fend for herself in this disgusting city, this hive of scum and villainy, so you could go galavanting around the galaxy like some kind of space knight."
"I pick up garbage for a living, it's not like I'm flying around having sexy parties all day," said Klyfffph in his defense. "And you know I couldn't take ma with me. Watto and her have all that... history."
"I don't see why you had to go work for that sleaze in the first place," said Ackmena, angrily.
"Hey, can I get my drink here?" asked a slimy looking man with antenna.
"Keep your loincloth on," Ackmena shouted at him, and he cowered.
"There aren't a lot of offers out there for honest work, Mena, you know that," said Klyfffph. "Plus, he might be my father."
"Not this again," Ackmena said, rolling her eyes. She walked away to go start pouring drinks and while she did Klyfffph happened to glance at the cantina's entrance and saw a figure in a dark hooded robe making their way quickly outside. Before stepping out, though, they glance back, right at Klyfffph. The hood made it too dark to see their face, but Klyfffph thought they were looking right at him.
"Mena, I'm... gonna head home and see ma," Klyfffph called over to his friend. "I'll come back later when you're in a better mood."
"Don't come back at all then," said Ackmena without even looking at him.
Klyfffph looked at the back of her head and frowned sadly. There was no more to say to her when she was like this, he knew that, so he got up and headed after the cloaked figure.
Ackmena just looked down at her hands as she poured someone a Blue Adarlon. "Seven years and not even so much as a call," she mumbled to herself.
There wasn't much electricity in Mos Eisley, not enough for too many outdoor lights anyway, so the streets of the city at night were very dark. Even so, Klyfffph could see the flowing robe as it darted down an alleyway between two adobe buildings. He quickly chased after it. When he turned down the alley, though, he almost ran into the person as they had come to a total stop just a few feet in. When they heard Klyfffph approach they turned and Klyfffph was surprised and disappointed to see that it was not who he thought it was, but instead a young female Candelior complete with smooth black and white skin like that of an Earth's killer wale, which was their most distinctive feature. She had short, black hair with a gold streak in it towards the front. Her eyes were big and gray with big black spot around them like a Panda. They also looked frightened.
"Are you him?" she asked in a small voice.
"Am I who?" Klyfffph asked, cluelessly.
"Just then another figure came up behind him. Before he could turn, the young woman pulled a blaster out from under her robe and pointed it at Klyfffph.
"Take us to your ship," she demanded.
"Son of a... mynock," said Klyfffph in exasperation. "Deliver me from mysterious people in hooded robes. I tell ya what."
To Be Continued...
*How to make a Blue Adarlon: Mix equal parts Spicebrew, Shesharilian vodka, and bantha milk. Serve chilled.*