Tom's Curious Shop

Tom's Curious Shop is the eighth episode of the Deltora Quest anime.

Synopsis
Lief and his friends move on toward the next destination after defeating the Thaegan Sorceress, but Lief realises they are being followed when the belt signals danger and Jasmine gets a bad feeling.

Plot
Lief, Barda and Jasmine begin their journey to the west. There lies the third gem from the Belt of Deltora. After leaving Raladin the party is hungry, however continue to persevere despite this.

During their walk they encounter a sign which reads, TOM, EVERYTHING FOR THE TRAVELER. Barda concludes that it is just some type of shop. Jasmine, however, wonders what a shop was. Lief quickly realised, because she grew up in the Forests of Silence, she would have never seen or heard of one. Even though Lief explains the concept of “shops” to Jasmine, she is still confused. Not long after this, Jasmine states they are being followed. Jasmine leans her head to the ground to confirm if it is a squad of Grey Guards. This is not the case. Never the less, Lief lifts up his shirt to reveal that the Ruby has turned pale, meaning that there is a source of evil near by! To this, the party runs west. A time-lapse is then shown at the location of Tom's sign. A pack of wolves, were revealed to be following the three heroes…

When Jasmine suggests that it is a pack of wolves the three stop and face towards them. Lief and Barda wield their swords while Jasmine creates some torches to scare the predators off. Just after lief asked about, how would they light them, a floating ball of flicking blue fire arrives and sets the torch alight. Before they could properly comprehend what the flickering fire was the pack of wolves arrive and circle the three heroes. As they stride around, the wolves begin to sing the same song which the Giant (from the fourth episode, The Enigmatic Giant) had once sung. One wolf approached Lief, Barda and jasmine and calmly sat down. Once the song had finished the wolves revealed themselves to be Thaegan's children! Just as this happens a net is pulled up from right underneath the prey. This caught them by surprise and as a result the three dropped their weapons. The wolves all transform into their monstrous forms and gather sticks and logs so that they can light a fire underneath the net. One of the monsters even kicked the weapons into a nearby stream. Even though they were captured, Filli and Kree are able to chew open the net. However, for the three to escape they needed a distraction. Lief tricked the monsters into fighting each other so that only one of them could eat all three humans. Once a big enough hole was created, Lief, Jasmine, then Barda were able to run to the stream and collect their weapons.

As they ran away they were approaching a ravine like dent in the land. The only option was to jump. With Ichabod (The only monster still conscious) and the two flickering spirits trailing them, the three jumped to safety. Because they were beyond Thaegan's territory (indicated by growing flowers) the monsters couldn’t follow them any longer. To their left was a familiar looking sign, TOM. They three stood by the entrance to Tom's shop gazing at all the odd, interesting items. upon entering life notices a sign saying “FREE GIFT FOR EVERY TRAVELER”. When they entered Tom was nowhere to be seen. Barda questions this and tries to inspect on of the lanterns. By doing so his hand became stuck to the handle. Tom then appears behind the counter which he then presses a button which frees Barda. Lief asks Tom for a good length of rope which they end up buying for three silver coins because of the ropes “magic” properties (It could tie itself to any branch). From here Tom begins to gain Lief and Barda's attention by showing them many interesting items like, Fire Beads and No Bake Bread. Meanwhile Jasmine stands and watches this, looking bored. Lief and Barda end up buying, Rope, No Bake Bread and a bottle of Pure and Clear.

A mysterious man with dark green hair and an ugly looking scar, enters Tom's shop. He enters a few feet and tells Jasmine to move out of the way, instead of doing so himself. This immediately makes Jasmine dislike him. The man walks to the encounter and wishes to buy the same length of rope which Lief was so interested in. The only difference was that Tom sold it to him for one silver coin. This upsets Lief but Barda gestures to the sign the Man made on the dust of the counter, The resistance symbol. The mysterious man ignores Lief and Barda and asks Tom about any changes across the stream or if he could confirm Thaegan's demise. Tom responds by suggesting the wild thorns may have something to do with it. This was not the case, the man says the wild thorns was the result of poor rulers, the kings and queens of Deltora. The man walks towards the exit to Tom's shop and catches Lief steering him down.

Lief and Barda finish up their transaction with Tom by receiving two extra gifts, a pipe and firebeeds. Despite giving them two (free of charge) gifts, Lief asks about the “Free Gift” mentioned at the door of Tom’s Shop. Reminded, Tom gives them Water Eaters. Lief, Barda and jasmine begin to plan their next plan of action while they watch the mysterious man ride off on his horse. Barda suggests that they should get some horses and out of no where Tom arrives to try bargain them a ride. However, in order to purchase Tom's Muddlets, they needed 18 gold coins. It was not a problem however because Jasmine, over the years, had collected coins from any Grey Guards that met their end in the Forests of Silence. Before they left Tom suggests that they ride through the left path and to avoid the right at all costs.

The three companions rode their newly bought Muddlets to a fork in the rode. The paths led to the Broad River and to a place called Miller's Rise. From what Tom had told them they decided to ride to the right because they thought it would mean, heading to the City of the Rats. This was a mistake because the Muddlets suddenly became out of control, causing the three humans to fall off and become unconscious.

Character debuts

 * Hot
 * Tot
 * Fie
 * Fly
 * Zan
 * Zod
 * Pik
 * Snik
 * Lun
 * Lod
 * Ichabod
 * Tom
 * Doom
 * Muddlets

Characters

 * Lief
 * Barda
 * Jasmine
 * Filli
 * Kree
 * Tom
 * Doom
 * Muddlets

Villains

 * Hot
 * Tot
 * Jin (Spirit Form)
 * Jod(Spirit Form)
 * Fie
 * Fly
 * Zan
 * Zod
 * Pik
 * Snik
 * Lun
 * Lod
 * Ichabod

Trivia

 * This is the first episode that all of Thaegan's children appear in.
 * Muddlets first appear.
 * In this episode Thaegan's children fight over who will eat Lief and co and most manage to get injured except in the book all except Ichabod are killed.
 * The Japanese title translates to "Tom's Curious Shop" - the same as the translation used in the English dub.