The Travellers

Nur hovered over the centre of her bed, eyes shut and legs crossed in a meditative pose. Her white and purple hair floated around her face. Her blue skin stood out amongst the caravan, especially with the white streaks that covered her from head to toe. Focusing all of her energy on the magic that lay inside her, she felt the world slip away, and it was only her and the warmness in her chest that was her magic.

After what could have been minutes or hours later, Nur opened her bright, colourless eyes just in time to see the door to the caravan slam open to reveal a young woman with pale skin, dark hair, and a scowl plastered on her face. Once she saw Nur - who was no longer floating in mid-air – the grimace was replaced with a look of slight anger. She moved silently to the bed that was beside Nur’s, and lay down with her arms crossed on her chest, her finger tips placed lightly on her shoulders.

“Lucretia,” Nur spoke at last, breaking the ever growing silence in the room. Not that she minded it of course. “Shut up,” the girl, Lucretia, muttered, loud enough so that Nur would hear her. As Lucretia lay there scowling at the roof, Nur looked around at Lucretia’s side of the caravan.

The blankets on Lucretia’s bed were black with hints of toxic green, and above her bed, skulls were hanging from the roof. Obviously they had been enchanted to glow the fluorescent green colour they were, and who knows what other spells had been cast on them. The only other possession Lucretia had was her scythe, which was something all necromancers had to help them with harvesting. Her scythe had the enchanted skulls hanging from it aswell.

Nur’s eyes then wondered back to her own bed. Her blankets were pale orange and gold in colour, and the bed itself was levitating off the ground. On the wall at the head of her bed, she had painted the Silver Star, placed under the Cross of Wisdom. And on the other wall besides Nur’s bed, was a shelf filled with books about the different kinds of magic and artefacts. On the top of the shelf, was a jewellery box, elaborately carved with intricate patterns of the Cross of Wisdom. Nur had cast protective spells on her jewellery box so that it would only open by her magic, and no one else’s.

Nur reached from her bed to grab a book to read, and just as she was about to open it, something tapped her shoulder. Turning around, Nur expected it to be Lucretia, but instead of meeting a pair of empty black eyes, she found herself facing a pair of reddish brown eyes. Nur looked in surprise at the girl crouching before her, the girl had ancient runes tattooed onto her pale skin, and she had very prominent cheek bones. The girl looked at Nur, her eyes smiling, but her mouth remaining that smooth straight line that it had always been.

"Shadya your back!" Nur yelled maybe a bit too loudly, as she put her hand to her mouth instantly after her exclamation. "Of course I'm back Nur," Shadya replied smoothly, not at all surprised by her friends sudden outburst. Lucretia opened her eyes from the other side of the small room, looking pointedly at Nur and Shadya embracing. "Just as I thought I was about to get some sleep," she moaned while sitting up on her bed. "You can't sleep Lucretia," Shadya retorted, "You're a vampire"

"Yeah and soon someone in this room is going to get drained" Lucretia smiled at Shadya, showing off her fangs. "In your dreams, oh wait, you don't have any do you?" Shadya looked almost bored, but if you knew her, you'd see that triumphant little gleam in her eyes. That wiped the smile off Lucretia's face. "Shadya," Nur warned, "That's enough."

"Oh you're gonna get it now," the vampire slowly stood and leaned menacingly towards Shadya, or her neck to be more specific. "And Lucretia, remember what the Conductor told you," Nur scolded, putting her book back on its shelf. Lucretia sat down with that scowl back on her face, and Shadya turned back towards Nur. "So has anything interesting happened while I was gone?" Shadya asked Nur, but before Nur had time to answer, there was a knock on the door.

"Oh what is it now?" Lucretia exclaimed, slamming a fist on her bed. Nur and Shadya turn towards the door, wondering who it could possibly be.

"Why in all of Sheogh do we have to knock! Get out of my way you midget!" And with that the door was slammed open once again, and a tall young woman with red skin and eyes and hair of fire strolled into the caravan and took a seat next to Lucretia like she owned the place. Following her with an angry frown was a short, slightly plump girl with long flowing brown hair.

"Go to hell Biara," she said to the one with eyes ablaze,  on the other side of the vampire. Biara looked at the midget, - who was named Ornella, - with a wicked gleam in her eyes. "I was born there bitch," And with that, Biara opened her hand and with the right flick or her wrist and twist of her fingers, had set Ornella's beautiful straight hair on fire. "You cow!" Ornella screamed, loosing all sense, and stood up waving frantically at her hair. "Put it out! Put it out!!!" she looked helplessly at Nur, who being able to act quickly, had already cast a water spell on Ornella to put out the fire.

Biara laughed maniacally, but before anything more could happen there was a polite knock on the door and an elf looked in at the chaos inside the now crowded caravan. The first thing she saw was Biara smiling as if she were home (or in other words in hell), who was seated next to Lucretia, who looked utterly amused. On the other side sitting opposite each other on Nur's bed were Nur and Shadya, which both looked utterly bored, and then standing in the middle of everyone, was Ornella, who looked soaking wet and red as a tomato.

"Can I come in?" The elf asked politely. Silence followed, so she let herself in, closing the door behind her. The elf decided to sit in between Nur and Shadya, for there was really nowhere else to go in the small space all six girls were in. "So... Anwen... What brings you here?" Nur asked awkwardly, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Well, I was out in the forest when I heard a whole lot of yelling and screaming." The elf, Anwen, began. "The words I picked up were 'Why? Sheogh, knock, midget. Then there was a loud bang. Then I heard 'You cow!' followed by 'Put it out! Put it out!' so I thought that I might come and see what all the comotion is about. And Shadya, I'm so glad you're back. You've been gone for longer than usual and I've missed you alot." And with that Anwen gave Shadya a big hug.

"Yeah that's why we came too. We heard Shadya was back so decided to say hi," Biara said, speaking for Ornella as well, who appeared to have calmed and sat back down again.

"Yeah hello Shadya," Ornella said with a smile, seeming to forget all about the incident with Biara, "Where did you go? You were away a lot longer than usual, almost two months!"

Everyone turned to Shadya, who yawned and said, "Maybe I'll tell you about it some other time, but right now I'm tired," So she left and headed back to her own caravan that she shared with Anwen. "Well that was interesting" Biara remarked sarcastically.

As Nur and Anwen began their own conversation about magic and spells and the new jewellery in the Silver Cities, Ornella noticed something. "Lucretia is everything all right?" she asked, "You seem awfully quiet," 

"Yeah, I just miss it, you know?" Lucretia whispered so only Ornella could here. Biara was busy making shapes out of the flames she produced in her hand. "Well no," Lucretia whispered again, "You don't know. I just wish I was mortal again. There's this forever empty feeling inside me, that is never satisfied. Not even blood will full it."

Ornella put a hand on Lucretia's shoulder, but said nothing. Only Ornella knew the weak and hurt side of Lucretia, and knew to say nothing because the one thing Lucretia can't handle is pity.

At that very moment, a raven, black as night, flew into the caravan and gave a single squark. 

"Oh great!" Biara moaned, "What does he want know!" She got up and stalked out of the room, ignoring the bird as she went.

"Well," Nur said looking around at the other three. "We better get going then, shall we? The conductor doesn't like us to be late,"

The four of them left, but Lucretia lingered just long enough for the raven to fly onto her shoulder, before closing the door to the now empty caravan.

[A/N: Yay first chapter is finished! This is just the introduction to the main characters so it might be a bit confusing. If anyone has any questions just ask in the comments and I will try to answer them. And yeah I guess that's all I have to say.]