Travellers

All right so, this book was my baby for the longest time. It's not even close to finished, it needs editing and a few more drafts. This is, sort of, the first draft for most of it.

I would love feedback on this, either through PM or if you catch me in the chat room.

TRAVELLERS. The worst things you will ever hear of. The wanderers between worlds. Dimensions. Times. The bane of most races. They feel no guilt. They cannot die. They have no visible weaknesses. The perfect warrior, born to kill. Soldiers that will go to the highest bidder and sway entire wars. Looking perfectly human.
I'm different. I was created instead of born. I must admit, I enjoy the thrill of the fight, of the blood. In the end, I'm a monster, and I know it. But I'm a monster with a conscience. My name is ANARA.
"Hey, Nara!"came a voice from behind.
I turned, smiling half-heartedly at the speaker. Nicole Blackburn was my best friend. A dark blonde, brown-eyed girl. She smiled back at me, comfortingly.
"I heard," she said quietly, "I'm so sorry."
I rolled my eyes. The whispers had already begun. I knew it. All through the hall, people pointed at me, trying to act subtle about it. Their whispers loud enough to hear. "Anara Hasalan got dumped on the last day of school!"
"Please, don't start it," I told her, a wave in the distance catching my eye.
The waver was my brother, Doug. I waved back as he came towards us.
"So, I heard I have to beat someone up," he said sternly.
His eye trailed to Nicole and he cleared his throat. She blushed slightly.
"Trying to act all tough for Nicole again, huh?" I said raising an eye brow.
Horror painted his face, a blush quickly replacing it.
I gave a mocking half-smile and turned away.
My eyes locked onto David. He was at the end of the hall with a new girl already hanging on him. He saw me and moved away from the girl, walking over to me.
"Hey," he said, "Sorry about how that went. I had planned for it to go a little smoother... Friends?" he held out his hand.
"Fuck you," I told him, flatly.
He faltered, startled by the response, and withdrew his hand, briskly walking away.
I huffed, angeredly. A head rested on my shoulder. Doug's. "It'll all turn out fine," came Nicole's voice.
I turned and Doug hugged me.
"I've gotta go, some friends wanted me to come see something before we get on the bus," he told me, turning to leave.
Nicole smiled at me, "Way to stick up for yourself there, Nara."
I laughed, darkly, and closed my locker.
"C'mon, let's go," I said.

It had been two weeks. I had been sitting there for two weeks. Two weeks since I had last seen David... that asshole. Doug was around rarely, always popping in and out of the house as 15 year olds do.
I stared at my computer, hoping words would form themselves on a blank Word document. I had thought ranting would help what I was feeling. I let loose a long, drawn out sigh as I heard the door bell ring, destroying my less than creative flow.
I opened the door to find Nicole standing on the porch.
"Heya, Nara," she said.
"Something up?" I could hear the emotion in her voice. She had something to say to me.
"Well, I'm sure you aren't in a secret sharing mood..... but I have one for you. Could we go up to your room?" Nicole said quietly.
"Sure," I motioned her in.
As we headed up the stairs she continued, "Is anyone else in the house?"
I shot her a puzzled look, "No, why?"
"Because it's best if no one else has the POTENTIAL of knowing this."
I will admit, Nicole was beginning to scare me as we reached my room. She shut the door tightly behind her.
"First of all, you doing alright?" she said suddenly.
"I'm, uh, I'm fine, I guess. Not exactly loving my life but, I can deal," I mumbled, avoiding eye contact.
Nicole nodded, "I think I can help." I looked at her and she smiled, "Yes, yes you're ready."
This sent me into a further state of confusion, "Ready?"
She came to sit next to me on the bed, "I want to tell you something. I'm not who you think I am..." She pause for a reaction.
"What then? Are you, like, a spy or something?" I joked.
"No," stated Nicole. "Nothing like that. Well... maybe a little. Parts of the job are. I'm not human."
"Alien?" I laughed.
"Nara! I'm serious. I'm a thing called a Traveller. We can move between worlds and time, Even dimensions. Need proof?" she grabbed my shoulder and I suddenly felt sick.
I opened my eyes. We were standing in a field but not like any I'd ever seen before. The sky was striped with auroras and the trees were a shade of purple.
"Welcome to Rest," stated Nicole.
"The hell..." I began.
She looked at me, "Beautiful, isn't it?"
All I could do was nod.
"Follow me," she instructed.
I hesitated, but followed. She led me past houses from all eras. We stopped before a great white Victorian mansion. I looked at her and she ushered me towards the porch.
The door opened and a man appeared.
"Hello, Nicole," he said in a hissing voice.
" 'lo, Ivan," she replied.
I looked at him critically. Nothing good ever came from someone named Ivan, to my knowledge, especially not when they look like he did. He was tall and thin, his bones were prominent and his eyebrows pointed. He had slick raven-black hair and nearly snow-white skin. All in all, he was a rather daunting character.
Ivan looked at me with hungry eyes, "The quarry?"
Was I something to be hunted to them? Fear danced in my mind but I didn't let it show.
"Good emotion control, I'll give her that," he said, raising an eyebrow in amusement.
"You asked me to bring her, so I brought her," stated Nicole.
Ivan nodded, never taking his black eyes off of me. "It's Anara, right? Hasalan?"
I nodded and spoke, trying to put on an indifferent tone, "Yeah, it's Anara. What do you want with me?" My voice cracked on the last word.
"We think you'd make a good one of us. You would be immortal, you'd never be betrayed, and you'd be able to go anywhere and do anything. Want to give it a shot?" he asked, holding out his hand to me.
The offer sounded solid, it sounded good. I took his hand, all of my will diminishing.
Ivan smiled, "Good to know you're with us."
Nicole's expression turned to one of sadness very briefly, but I caught it.
He led me into the mansion telling me that this would be my home. I looked around, taking in the spiraling staircase, the library with walls made of full bookshelves. It was all too much to take in. It reminded me of a fashion called 'Steam punk' inside the house: Victorian meets gadgets. We ascended the staircase to the second floor. Everything was silent but one thing had been nagging at the back of my mind.
"Nicole said you all weren't human," I began. Ivan stopped and turned to look at me so I continued, "So how can a human be a Traveller?"
He smiled and pushed open the door behind him, "Like this..."
Inside the room was a podium. A woman with fiery hair stood at it, flipping through an ancient book.
"Sorsha, we have a guest," Ivan said coolly. The woman looked up.
"So, ritual time, I assume," she said, returning to the book.
I looked at Nicole, "Ritual? What?"
She gave me what was supposed to be an encouraging smile as Sorsha walked around to grab me. She set me in the middle of the room, "Stay!" she huffed. She grabbed a charcoal-tipped stick and began drawing shapes around me on the floor. Under her breath, she was singing.
I looked around, warily, at the shapes then at Sorsha, who was heading back to the podium.
"Elak na thum ka rut ku nak," she began to chant, swaying back and forth.
A shooting pain went through my spine and I collapsed onto my knees, slowly rolling onto my side as the pain spread, becoming blinding... or was that light? I let out a scream. Blood began to pool in my mouth, from where, I don't know. I coughed, choking on it as I continued to scream in agony.
Suddenly, everything went black. The pain faded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I jumped awake, in my own bed. It had been a dream, I was sure of it. Then I looked at the foot of the bed.
Nicole was there, "Finally awake, then."
I looked at her, "H-how long was I asleep?"
"You want earth time or Traveller time?" she asked.
"Damn," I thought, "So it wasn't a dream..."
She sighed, "You've been 'asleep' for a couple of minutes earth time. As for the Traveller side, you've been dead for a month."
"Dead?" I asked, startled.
Nicole nodded, "Gotta die one way to live another."
"What?"
"You are immortal now," she said slowly, one word at a time.
"I can't be. Immortality is impossible," I said, unbelieving, still clutching to the thought that it was a dream or a hallucination.
"If you say so," she said, rolling her eyes.
"So, short ritual for such a big thing," I mused.
"Wasn't that short, you were dead but the ritual lasted days. Nice images of your lifeless body jerking and twitching as Sorsha chanted and sang. Well, I've got to get home, later, Nara!"
Nicole left the room and I heard the front door open and shut.
I lay in my bed and tried to find a rational reason for all that had happened.
The clock beside me on the wall ticked, it sounded louder than normal. On and on... tick tock... tick tock... tick tock...
I grabbed my ears and yelled at it, throwing a little porcelain doll from beside my bed at it with an accuracy I had never had before. Both smashed as they collided. Had I really thrown it that hard? I have a weak arm and am never a good shot so how did I manage it this time?
My door opened and Doug poked his head in, "You all right? Came in right as I heard a crash."
I looked at him, holding my head with one hand and the other on my waist, "Yeah I'm fine..."
He looked at the smashed clock, "Not going to ask..."
"Probably best," I muttered.
He nodded, "Mom's not gonna like that. She'll be home in a few minutes. Need help cleaning it up?"
For some reason, he was beginning to get a bit on my nerves, though he was offering to help me stay out of trouble.
"No, no, it's all good, I can get it." I told him.
"All right," said Doug. "You feeling okay? You look like death."
Looked at him. 'Look like death'. Interesting expression to use after Nicole had told me that I'd been dead for a month.
"Do I? I didn't know death looked a particular way," I responded.
"Yeah, it looks like you," he laughed. "You look like you're hiding something."
"Would it matter if I was? Please leave while I clean this up," I snapped.
Doug raised his eyebrows in a concerned manner, "All right, all right. I'm going."
He closed the door and I held my head in my hands, a headache developing. I felt like punching something.
I sighed, turning on a bit of music. A soundtrack, nice calming music, and set to work, cleaning up the porcelain figure and clock.
My hand slipped, cutting a finger on a shard of the porcelain.
"Ow." I whispered, looking at it. The dripping blood making me strangely happy.
I shook my head, throwing away the last of the debris and bandaged my finger.
I put my shoes on and shouted, "I'm going to go over to Nicole's," Then I added, jokingly, "Think you'll be fine here alone 'til mom gets back?"
I heard a challenging laugh from the other room, "I think I can manage, have fun."
I left the house and realized, as long as Nicole has lived in our neighborhood, I've never been over to her house. I've known where it was since we became friends, but I'd never actually been in there, never even seen her family.
I headed up to the door and knocked on it.
I heard a noise from within and a male voice saying, "Just a minute!"
The door opened and a dark haired boy about my age peered around at me, "Hello."
"Hello," I began. "Is Nicole here?"
"That depends on who's asking," he said.
"Anara," I said.
"Ah, yeah, she's here, come on in. I'm Matt. Matt Sugo Blackburn," he said, holding out a hand. "I hear you've joined our ranks."
"I guess I have..." I replied, shaking the hand and stepping into the house.
The first thing I noticed was that there was no furniture. The entire house was empty.
"Nicole!" he shouted up the stairs, "Anara is here."
She appeared next to me, "Hey, Nara."
I fell to the side and Matt caught me, "Careful, Nicole, you'll give her a heart attack."
"I think she already did," I muttered under my breath, gasping at my chest.
"You alright?" He asked, helping me up. I nodded and he turned to Nicole, "Oddly easy to startle for a Traveller..."
Nicole looked at him, "She's new, can't adjust in a day. Remember, Matt, we don't know what's going to happen."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"We've never had a human become a Traveller before," she responded.
"You mean I'm an experiment? A lab rat? A guinea pig? There could be side effects but they don't know?" I felt my face warming with an amount of anger I wasn't used to.
Matt raised his eyebrows, "Side effects like a worse than normal temper. Well, worse than normal for a Traveller."
I clenched my fists, trying to let the anger out, "Travellers have anger issues, then?" I said through gritting teeth.
Nicole nodded, "A bit, yeah. We learned to control them, so will you. They help us."
"Help you? Nevermind. Anything else I should know?" I asked, calming a bit.
"A bit of a lust problem... and a greed problem, too," she said absently.
"Wrath, lust, greed. Any other deadly sins I should know about? Sloth perhaps? Or Gluttony?" I spat.
"Sloth and Gluttony would work against us. Wrath, lust and greed help us," Matt said haltingly.
"...Help?" I questioned.
Nicole glanced at me, "They need you. Time for you to learn."

The next thing I knew, I was in armor and weapons were being strewn about me. A quiver on the back, complete with a light brown bow and gold feathered arrows. A sword in my hand, double edged, gold hilt with brown leather around it and a red jewel in the pommel. My brain took the weapons in within a matter of seconds. Good weight to the sword, good bend to the bow.
A young man stood before me, "The weapons are you, remember that. They are you and you are them. They will do whatever you ask of them if you have the strength to ask it."
I nodded, still not knowing why I had them.
"Happy hunting," he said with a smirk, his image disappearing, the whole scene disappearing.
Nicole and Matt were next to me, in armor of their own. They had intent looks on their faces. Ivan was before us. He addressed the crowd.
"MEN! And of course, women," he smirked, "The rebellion is causing a bit of trouble here. They call themselves the Guard. Their leader, Isaac, is a problem for us. He's very... charismatic. Our victory here depends on ridding this planet of the Guard. Good luck, all."
The crowd cheered, as did I. My mindset was shifting; I felt power surging through my veins and muscles.
"C'mon, Nara," Nicole whispered in my ear.
I followed her and watched as the battle began. People began charging out from under bushes... and being cut down, immediately. Where-ever I looked, death was there. Not death on our side, death on the Guard's.
A man charged at me, axe held high. I dipped down, spinning on a foot, and slashed his side. He let out a gasp of pain and I put an arrow into his neck.
Nicole raised her eyebrows, "Very good. The arrow was a bit much, though... Could've just stabbed him."
I shrugged and pulled the arrow from his throat, sending it flying into a woman heading towards Matt. He turned around, sword raised as she collapsed.
"Show off," laughed Nicole.
I grinned and fired a few more arrows, retrieving them as I went and taking more from fallen Guard and continuing to walk away from the main battle to pick off those coming to join the fray.
A town was up ahead, so a wandered into it, putting up my bow and unsheathing my sword.
The town seemed deserted. I figured, everyone must either have been evacuated or were currently fighting. Something in my brain told me it was quite empty, though. There had to be someone guarding it.
A noise sounded to my left and I turned to find nothing there. A hand wrapped around my arm forcing me backwards, knocking my weapons away with precision. I was thrown to the ground.
I aimed a kick upwards, not seeing what was there. My foot made contact. I heard a female cry out in pain. Something hit me over the head, a rock. Everything went black as death set in a second time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I came to my arm and legs were bound. I was propped up against a wall, the girl standing over me.
She laughed, "Normally it's harder to take down a Traveller..."
I glared at her.
"Not very well trained, are you?" she asked.
"Not trained," I responded, keeping my glare.
"Really now, then you're pretty good in that case," she said. "No, not really."
I stayed silent.
"Look at me," she mumbled, "Talking to the enemy! To one who kills without cause. Or do they even tell you why you're fighting? Or do you beasts even care?" she hissed at me.
This was something I hadn't questioned. Why. Why were they rebelling? Why were we to stop them?
"Then tell me why we fight," I said.
She seemed curious as to my command. Wondering why I'd care, no doubt.
"Because you're invading. You claim that our lands belong to you," she stated.
"I didn't do any of this," I snapped.
"Your kind did, which is just as good as you doing it to me," she spat.
She stepped into the light and I saw her clearly. She was young, maybe a year younger than I was. She was pretty, long brown hair with streaks of an ice blonde, golden eyes and a scar along the right side of her jaw bone.
"If you hate me so much, why not just kill me now? I mean, it'd save you a whole hell of a lot of trouble, I'm sure," I spat.
"Are you new to this or something? One can't simply kill a Traveller. Travellers don't die! I DID kill you but you came back to life," she hissed.
The room quieted for a second.
"So we 'invaded' right?" I asked in a none-too-happy tone.
She nodded.
"Tell me what happened," I told her.
She raised an eyebrow and began on the history of the Highbourne showing up trying to take over. A couple of hours must have passed as she spoke; the village began to grow loud again with the activity of survivors. All the while, it dawned on me what I had been too blind to see. The Travellers were only on this planet because they were paid to do so. Paid to wipe out the population of the planet for someone else's use. I also came to realize that this wasn't the first time they'd done something like this. This is what the Travellers' purpose was.
"Damn," I muttered.
She looked at me, "They didn't tell you any of this?"
"They might've told the others, I haven't been around long enough to be told."
I explained what had happened to me, the transition from human to Traveller and all they had told me.
"Well then..." she muttered.
The door opened and a man stepped in, "Callian."
The girl looked at him, nodding her head in greeting, "Isaac."
He looked at me, "Who's this..."
To my surprise, this girl, Callian, took up for me. She told him I was a Traveller and he looked ready to torture me. Then she explained everything.
Isaac raised an eyebrow at me, "Untie her."
She nodded and began undoing the bindings.
He grabbed my arm, firmly, and pulled me to my feet, looking me over in an evaluating manner, "Well, can't let her go... not for awhile at least."
"She can stay with me," Callian offered.
He nodded, "Show her around. Only the basics."
It's clear he was trying to give me the benefit of the doubt. Hell, I wouldn't trust me if I had been through what they had.
"C'mon," Callian said, motioning her head towards the doorway.
Isaac went ahead of us, making it clear I was a guest and not a prisoner. He led the way past huts and falling apart houses to a small wooden shack with a tin roof that leaked in places. Callian pushed open the rotting wood door and motioned for me to enter. Inside, it was a small, two room house, though it could only really be considered a one room house, seeing as the other room was a bathroom.
It surprised me, seeing the house, the amount of technology they had. It wasn't like on Earth, how history progresses there; here it was a mismatch of the ages. They had indoor plumbing, gas stove, and a rack of elaborate weapons the likes of which I'd never seen.
Isaac shot a glare to Callian upon noticing the weapons. She caught this and quickly hit a button that hid the rack behind the wall.
"Too late now. She's seen it," he huffed.
"See what?" I replied, inferring I wouldn't let this discovery slip to anyone. Not without cause, at least.
He raised an eyebrow, his eyes showing the slightest sense of amusement.
"Keep her here," he said to Callian. "We need to makes sure she isn't a threat."
She nodded and he walked out the door.