She stood in the lecture hall as her students poured in and took their seats. It was a scene that she had seen many times in the past year.

This was her hall, her students.

It made her feel good to say that, say that she was influencing the next generation. The ironic thing in that however was that she was also from that generation. At twenty five she was the youngest professor at the college, and there were even some students that were older than she was.

It had been difficult at first, she had a lot of opposition from the students, the staff and generally everyone around. The students didn't want to come to college to get taught by some woman fresh out of school herself.  It had hurt when half of her students, whom had attended the day before, dropped her class on the second day.

There were three types of people that staid; those that thought her class would be easy because she was young and knowledgeable, those that wanted to see if she could succeed or not, and those who did not care who taught the class so long as they were competent and could pass on there knowledge to them.

Honestly the only ones that she really wanted in her class was the last bunch, but if they were the only ones in her class she doubted she would have any more than five or so students.

And so she taught on, ignoring all the distractions around her.

“Good morning students,” she said, and strangely enough there was no reply. It was not that she had expected them all to answer back, rather she had only expected one to answer back, his name was Daniel Rhodri, or Dan for short.

She liked Dan, he was an honest good working student that respected her for her teaching and knowledge. He also was possible the only male in the entire class that had not hit on her at one point in time or the other. He was a young man at the age of 19, handsome with short red hair and a matching short red beard, and oddly enough blue eyes.

And if she was being honest with herself she had a crush on him.

But that was doomed from the start, seeing as she was his teacher and he was younger than her by a good six years. She sighed as she reflected sadly on her lack of a love life, she had been to focused on her career, and had forgotten to live.

“Has anyone seen Dan?” it really was odd for him to not be here, he had attended every class.

“Mrs Kellin said she got an email this morning saying he had dropped out.” said a student in the middle row.

Dan? Dropped out? That can't be correct can it?

“Today in class we will be going over the next chapter of the Iliad, please read through it thoroughly there will be an exam on it later in the week.” she said, to the collective groans of her students, she had planned on going over the chapter with them in class but she had to check her emails.

Dear Ms Lawrence,

I would like to inform you that I will be dropping out of college. My father recently passed away from leukemia, and has left me in possession of his store. As my father's only living relative it has fallen to me to take care of the shop, if I do not the store will be reclaimed and the items within will be sold by the state. As this is the only thing of my fathers that I have I did not feel it was right for it to simply be sold.

I would like to thank you for the wonderful education you have given me, and sadly though I cannot finish it anymore I would like to let you know that I am a more knowledgeable person for taking your class, so once again thank you.

Serenely,

Daniel Rhodri

She leaned back in her chair and looked at the email again, the poor boy. Losing his only family member and having to drop out of college to take over the family business had to be rough. She slowly nodded to herself, latter when she got some time she would go to see him she decided.

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Dan sighed as he looked up at the sky.

It had been a rough day.

Worse than even yesterday, the day he had to bury his father.

Today he had to read through his father's will. Within his father had left everything to him, the house, the car, even the shop.

The very shop he was currently standing outside of in the pouring rain.

The Shoppe of Oddities.

Why did it always rain in times like this? Dan didn't know, all he knew was that he was now the owner of a small antique shop.

With slow movements he unlocked the door, it swung open on oiled hinges with a soft squeak and rung a small bell attached to a string. He stood there outside the store in the rain peering inside into the inky blackness.

It wasn't the first time he had been inside there, far from it, he had practically grown up in these walls. He could without a doubt traverse the shelves blindfolded. But the warmth the shop held was no longer there.

It was just like last time, when his mother had died, part of the warmth that this little store held had vanished with her, and now, with his father gone there was no more to be found.

It was simply a shop now, no more no less.

With a few soft tears hidden by the fallen rain he took a deep breath and stepped into the shop. With a hand that knew exactly where to go even in the dark he flipped on the switch for the store. Rows of fluorescent lights lit up the room.

It wasn't a big room, only around 1000 or so square feet, and most of that room was taken up by shelves that held ancient assortments from around the world. Some from here in America, others from Russia, Peru, even some from the middle east.

His father had not cared where something had came from, so long as it had a story it could stay in his shop. Dan smiled as he picked up one of the items near him. It was a small carved figure from Asia, it depicted a mother holding her child, serene happiness on both of there faces. He could still hear his father's voice as he repeated the lines he always had told Dan growing up.

“We don't sell antiques, we sell stories, stories told in objects, stories crafted by hands long gone, but whose work still can speak to us even after they cannot.”

there was no rain here to hide his tears this time. With a soft sound of sadness he wiped away the tears from his face and walked towards the back of the store, here he found his father's room.

He could not bring himself to move anything, this was as his father had left it, and it was how it would stay for now. He laid down in the bed, and shivered, it was not from being cold or wet, it was from the crushing feeling of loneliness that he was feeling at the moment.

Emotionally exhausted he fell asleep quickly without even bothering to change out of his wet clothes.

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Dan woke up to the sound of a loud banging on the door. Still groggy with sleep he sat up and yawned, looking around he blinked, it took a minute for his tired mind to remember the past few days but when he did it felt like someone had stabbed him in the heart.

It didn't always hurt, it only hurt when he remembered.

*Bang, bang* the sounds of someone beating on the door forced him back into reality, with a yawn he stood up and made his way to the door. On the other side of the shop's front doors was a UPS delivery man.

Dan opened the door and looked at the man. “Good Mor-” he started before he was interrupted by the man.

“Yeah, Yeah, you Mr. Rhodri?” he asked in an annoyed voice.

Dan started to say that was his father but he stopped before the words left his mouth. “Yeah that's me,” he said.

“Sign here,” the man said as he thrust an iPad into Dan's hands. Dan signed it as obliged and handed it back, only to have a large wooden box shoved into his arms.

“Have a nice da-” Dan started to say, before realizing the man was already in his van and about to pull out. “Some people have no patience,” he said shaking his head.

Whatever.

He took the box back into the shop and set it on the ground.

It was an awfully large crate, stamped with many different languages, including one that looked like something from the middle east. With a shrug Dan retrieved the crowbar and pried off the lid. Inside there was not a massive object like he had expected, but a note, and an ocean of packing peanuts. He picked up the note and read it.

This object has fallen in my possession, and after seeing the objects in your store I thought it would make a great addition to your collection, take it as a token of my thanks for the excellent stories you shared with me.

A thankful customer

it was a decidedly odd note, but then again it was a customer of his father's shop, most of them were characters to say the least. With a shrug he dug around in the packing peanuts and soon felt his hand come to rest on a smooth object, grabbing it he pulled it out of the box.

What came up with his hand was a small beautifully made glass bottle, adorn with brass and delicate patterns etched into the glass it really was a sight to behold. The strange thing about the bottle however was the leather thong that attached to the neck of the bottle, almost like it was supposed to be worn around the neck. Well that and the fact the bottle was tiny, barely half as wide as his palm, and not even as long. A small cork was in the top of the bottle, and with a shrug Dan pulled it out.

And like God was angry at him a sound rang out, shaking the very building and knocking items off of the shelves. An angry green cloud sprang into existence, with the bottle as the source.

Dan jumped back in surprise and shock, who would have guessed that uncorking the small bottle would do this? How was this even possible? Many questions rang out in his mind but before he could find the answer to them something even more baffling happened.

The smoke cleared quickly, revealing a person, or a woman rather. She had the dark skin of a middle eastern woman, and was dressed in a loose fitting set of clothes that emphasized her curves. Long black hair held in a pony tail trailed down almost to the floor, and as she blinked her green eyes he was able to see the painted blue of her eyelids. The lower half of her face was covered with a cloth, but it was not hard to see that she was a woman of ridiculous amounts of beauty.

“What is your wish master?” she asked, looking down at him, there was a hint of scorn in her eyes.

“What? Wai-” Dan's exhausted brain was having trouble processing everything going on...