Talus, it was an odd place. How did I end up here? Why am I here? Why am I during personal introspection? That’s right I want to make a name for myself, a place in the universe that I can carve out on my own. I want to be Creeva Murkado.

I managed to get here with my friend Xie ‘Lanthia. We kind of ran away from home is the proper way to put it. I knew Xie from school and she was escaping a future that her parents had set forth for her. Now we were here and we were having the time of our lives.

We were exploring the seedier side of town, and visiting the local cantina was an experience. We had been used to the finer things in life. A cantina, especially on a planet like Talus was an unheard-of place for either of us to ever visit. The air smelled of burnt death sticks, that sickly sweet smell that just hangs in the air and begs for you to inhale. The smoke stung the eyes at first but after a couple of minutes, they adjusted and were fine with haze hanging in the air. It was wonderful, exciting, and invigorating to be here away from life and on my own.

As we were watching the band perform their piece (a number they said they picked up from a band on Tatooine), a wookiee slitherhorn player asked us to join them. I fumbled through the words the best I could in galactic common that I had no training, no knowledge, and I had 2 left lekkus. Unfortunately for us, the wookiee noticed that we each had a slitherhorn with us. We had “borrowed” these from some classmates, the idea was that we could have something to pawn if we got stuck somewhere. Slowly we took them out; we knew better than to make a wookiee angry (at least at this point in our lives).

I was tepid at first, squeaking and squawking away. After a couple of hours, it started to come naturally and I even learned a few dance steps from the local dancers. I could almost taste my life. This was one of the few times I had ever felt at complete peace within myself and I wanted more. The evening was growing late and the customers started drifting out.

The local entertainers told us that since there is less population on Talus that this is what happens, the patrons have a natural rhythm that makes them an organism all their own style. I couldn’t stop; I didn’t want the night to end. I wanted to do this forever and I wanted to capture and relive this moment for all of eternity I grabbed Xie by the arm as I rushed for the door and she slapped me. Thankfully she thought I was some weird Rodian that was trying to hit on her all night and slapped her before she saw who it was.

I explained my plan, my dream, and hopefully our destiny. We headed to the local starport and went to see what flights were available. The last ship for the night was leaving in 15 minutes. We didn’t care where it went, it was just a place to move onto and according to the tickets we bought as we were running for the shuttle. The place where we were headed was called Tyrena.