Ritskin's reptillian eyes took a faraway look as he saw the past in his mind's eye. If Tama had ever listened to his grandparents tell a long story he probably knew what was about to happen.
"Well you see Tama, where I come from, people have a different set of values than they do here. I won't explain in derail, suffice to say they put too much emphasis on things that don't really matter. I never realized just how petty that world was until I visited Yoreiq for the first time. The free spirits, the feeling of love from everyone I met, it was something completely new to me. From that very first time here, I started wondering if I was truly happy in my current life. You see boy, I was a merchant, like the one's you see on the docks over there." the Kobold pointed out towards the docks and the sea.
"I was really successful, let me tell you," he told Tama, pride swelling in him for a moment, before suddenly he deflated. "But it didn't mean anything boy. The money I earned, my power as the captain of a ship, it didn't make me happy. And every time I made a trip here, every time I saw the joy on the faces of the natives, it made it just a little harder to return to the continent."
The Kobold sighed, before continuing again. "I guess the crate that broke the ship's deck came when I got in an argument with my first mate. He was upset because I he thought I could be trading more advantageously with the natives even though we were making a tidy profit. He was probably right, we could have been charging more, making more, but what would be the point? It just all seemed so stupid to me. So, when we next arrived on the isles, I turned over command to my first mate and split most of my money among the crew. I left the ship and asked the village elder's if I could stay. Been here ever since."