The Traveler

by Xander Jade

I sighed, not sure that I wanted to get involved, but said, “It’s up to you, young lady. Your mom isn’t in any shape to make a rational decision. What do you want me to do?”

  Abby sat down in the chair beside me and laid her head on my shoulder. The teen was distraught over her mom, so I stayed still. She whispered, “Can you take her with you?”

  I put my arm around her shoulder and hugged her. “I can, but will this cause trouble for you and her in the long run?”

  For some reason, the young woman snuggled into my side as close as possible and put her arms around me. She even smelled me, which was weird.

  “It doesn’t matter at this point, Mom already told them no numerous times and quit her job to get away from Felicia.”

  “Are you comfortable?” I asked with a smile.

  She didn’t hesitate. “Yes, I am. It feels safe being this close to you. Julia will be super jealous when I tell her about it.”

  I chuckled and shook my head but didn’t move my arm away.

  “I’ll take Bella to my place, it’s far enough from town that hopefully no one will come looking. If they come to ask you for her whereabouts, tell them she went to Strongfair or another town.”

  She grunted her agreement. We sat in silence for ten minutes or so before Bella called out, “Ab, can you help me?”

  The teen moved out of my arms, but kissed me on the cheek before getting up, “Thank you for being you, Dom.”

  “I’ll be back in town in a week or so, I’ll stop by and let you know what’s going on.”

  “Sounds good,” Abby said as she walked inside the door to the baths with the sack of clothes.

  It wasn’t five minutes later that they both walked out. Bella looked a hundred times better.

  “Feel better?”

  Bella didn’t look up for a few moments. “I do, thank you.”

  “Okay, here’s the deal. I’m sure that Abby has told you what the plan is, so go get packed. I’ll be back in an hour to get you. I have others with me, so I need to check on them and explain what’s going on.”

  Bella took a breath and released it. “I understand. I’ll be ready.”

  I turned my attention to the teen. “Do you need to go with her and watch?”

  That set the older woman off, she hissed, “I do not need my daughter to watch my every move, Dominic.”

  “Good. Get going.”

  The blonde walked off as Abby kissed my cheek again. I jokingly asked, “Taking advantage of me?”

  “If that is on the table, we can go upstairs.”

  “Damn, you’ve changed young lady.”

  Abby nodded.

  “Julia and I have learned that life is hard. Some ladies we see are alone or have trouble finding a family to join. We spoke to some of them and came out of those conversations disheartened. We didn’t want to join any family after hearing the things some have to do every day. The bitches in charge of the families take advantage of the others. But the ones that are by themselves have issues as well, such as no mental or physical support. Yes, Julia and I can take care of each other, but it may not be enough in the long run.”

  “Both of you are strong, young ladies.”

  She smiled sadly. “Thank you for that compliment. What if we want to move or buy some land? We won’t be able to afford it. The two of us will be stuck in a boarding house forever. Even if we move to a different city, we’ll still have to live in a boarding house. Jul’s and I want to get away from the city.”

  I nodded but said nothing, just listened.

  “I’m sorry to vent.”

  “It’s fine. Life is hard, sometimes brutal, but lift your head up. You’re young, so take the good days with the bad. It’ll work out.”

  Abby nodded, and we said our goodbyes. I watched her walk towards the wainwright building, deep in thought. Shaking my head, I went to check on the ladies and William.

  ~~~~~~

  Walking inside the clothier, I could hear yelling from the back of the store. I made my way through the maze of clothing racks to find two women, one a tall elf with pale skin and platinum hair and the other human looking. I guessed she must be a mage. She was a brunette with brown eyes and was as tall as the elf. Their male companion was short, not even five and a half feet tall with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was scrawny, not really any muscle on him at all. They were berating the two employees, one of whom was Talia.

  Lily and my group were off to the side, looking annoyed and angry. Hmm, I wondered if it had something to do with them.

  “They don’t belong here, Brenda!”

  “Anna is right, those people need to leave. They have their own shop on the west side of town.”

  Brenda tried to calm them down. “We don’t discriminate here, Sheila. They’re paying customers. Please, keep your voice down.”

  Anna hissed, “This is unacceptable. At least have the filth leave while we are here.”

  That did it for me. As I walked over, the little male mouthed off, “They’ll need to disinfect this place afterwards.”

  I activated the nullify rune on my ring and weapons, just in case these idiots took drastic measures.

  “What did you say, pipsqueak?”

  Everyone gasped, surprised to see me there. The trio looked over at me with disdain, until they saw the sword attached to my back.

  Anna scoffed after getting over being interrupted, “This is none of your business.”

  I nodded and responded calmly, “It is my business when people are slandering others that I care about.”

  That set off another set of gasps. Brenda and the offenders had their mouths agape, Talia smiled.

  The blonde male sneered. “This filth? They are with you? If that is true, you need to go as well!”

  I walked over to the guy and stopped when I was in his personal space, towering over him. I was almost a foot taller than the twerp, so I bent down and was about to have a friendly conversation with the prick but decided on something different. I grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground. He wheezed out incoherent sounds while his women squawked and yelled at me.

  I ignored them and spoke in almost a whisper to the little bastard, “Speak like that again and we’ll go outside to handle this. If you know what’s good for you, then your mouth will not open or speak in my presence. Do you understand?”

  He tried to talk, but I didn’t let up on my grip.

  “Blink twice if you comply.”

  He did, and I was going to let him down, but his little group pissed me off, so I started walking towards the door still holding him. Not even halfway I felt something hit my aura and dissipate. I chuckled; the bitches were using magic. Good thing my runes were active. The skanks tried many times before actually running towards me, but they didn’t make it in time.

  I opened the door and threw the little bastard out of the store. He landed face first on the ground and slid about three feet. His women were outraged as they came up to me, cursing my presence, but I saw something else in their eyes. Fear. They didn’t know why their spells didn’t work on me.

  Being the gentlemen that I am, I held the door open for them. “You know, it isn’t nice for ladies like yourself to backstab others. Or throw spells at them.”

  “How did you do that?” Anna stammered. “No shield was activated, our spells just evaporated.”

  “Something isn’t right. I can’t use magic right now,” Sheila advised with a trembling voice. “Anna, we need to leave.”

  Warily, they hurried away from me. The blonde male was whining and whimpering. Pussy. I let go of the door and made my way back to the girls who were whispering to the two saleswomen. William had a big grin on his face. When I walked up, the conversation stopped cold.

  “Everyone done?”

  Brenda cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, sir. Not yet. They interrupted us. William and Celina have a few more items to pick out.”

  I grunted and glanced over at Lily, who was staring at me with hunger in her gaze. All t
he women were. “You want me to stay?”

  She giggled. “I think you made your point.”

  I shrugged and turned my attention to Brenda and Talia. “I apologize for making a scene, ladies.”

  Brenda smiled. “It’s okay. They were the ones causing a scene, demanding things. Thanks for the help.”

  I nodded and said, “Not a problem,” then looked over at my crew. “I’ll be at the hardware store. Lily, Tianna, I need to speak to you for a moment.”

  They nodded, and we went to another part of the store to whisper.

  “Alright, I went to visit Isabella. She’s had a hard time and kept herself locked up in her room for the past two weeks. Isabella’s involvement in the situation was bad, and I will explain later, but her daughter has asked me to take her away from here.”

  Both nodded, Lily spoke first. “Knowing you, I’m assuming you told her yes.”

  I nodded and Tianna broke in, “Sounds like she needs help. Our home is nearly finished, we will have extra room.”

  Lily nodded. “I agree. She’s coming home with us today?”

  “Yep.”

  Tianna smiled. “Rescuing another damsel in distress?”

  I grunted but didn’t respond.

  “Is this the woman that you caught having relations with Helen?” Lily asked with a smirk.

  I rolled my eyes. She snickered and hugged me.

  “We’ll tell the others.”

  “Okay, I’m going to get her, and we’ll head to the diner. You ladies want to meet up there?”

  “No, we still have to meet with the booth representative to pick out our spot and get a permit. After we get done here, then we’ll take care of that and get something to eat,” Tianna replied.

  “Yeah, we will have plenty of extra money left over. They are preparing for the lunch rush on Chow Row, where the food booths are, we’ll just pick up something,” Lily agreed.

  Both kissed me and walked back to help Celina and William. I walked out and made my way towards the hardware store. It took me some time to find the parts and connections I needed for the shower, bath, and stoves. I spoke to the clerk to order the potbelly stoves; she advised to only order a few since they were heavy. I ordered two to start. She said they wouldn’t be ready until next week, but they would have my other order ready within the hour.

  As I was walking to the general goods store someone yelled, “Hey, you!”

  I ignored them and kept walking. The voice yelled out again, “Beastkin lover!”

  That got my attention and everyone else around. I stopped and turned to see a male elf with brown hair, around six feet tall. He was staring at me with disgust. The little blonde fucker that I threw out was beside him, wiping his bloody face off with a towel. His women were off to the side with three others I didn’t know.

  Turning my attention back to the idiot in the middle of the road, I waited for him to mouth off something else. It didn’t take him long.

  “Don’t have anything to say, now?”

  “Well, I’m trying to decide if you’re worth my time.”

  People around us laughed. The male elf went red and yelled, “You better watch yourself, pal.”

  “I’m not your pal. You done yelling?”

  He laughed bitterly. “No, I’m not. You see, Alex, my friend here, told me that you threw him out of the clothier.”

  “Yeah, and?”

  There was a crowd around now, and they started whispering. The male elf replied, “You’re going to go down on all fours and apologize to him. Then you will kiss his boots before begging for mercy.”

  I laughed hard, bent over at the belly and everything. After a minute, I calmed down and spoke, “That will never happen.”

  “Then prepare to die.”

  The elf began the hand motions for his spells. I didn’t give two shits what he was doing, it wouldn’t harm me at all, but there were shouts from our left. I turned to see guards coming our way. The crowd parted and let three female guards through.

  A redhead shouted, “Break it up, now!”

  The crowd scattered. A blonde came my way and a brunette went towards the elf and little man. They had us stay where we were. When the street was less full, the redhead had us both come to her.

  “Why are you disturbing my peaceful town?”

  The elf started spouting off, telling the pretty ladies his side of the story. I waited and she turned in my direction.

  “Is this true? You threw Alex out of the clothing shop?”

  “Yeah. He and his bitches were making derogatory remarks about the people I was with. So, I choked the shit out of him and threw his ass out of the shop.”

  The blonde and brunette snickered, but the redhead glared in their direction, which shut them up.

  “I want you three to go separate ways and leave each other alone. If you disturb the peace again today, then I will throw your asses in jail for the next couple of days. Capiche?”

  Huh, they say that here too.

  We all assented and the other males walked off. I watched them for a few moments, knowing it wouldn’t be the last I saw of them. I was about to walk away but the redhead stopped me.

  “You’re new in town, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Dominic.”

  “A word of advice, Dominic. Stay clear of Lamar, he’s bad news.”

  “The elf?”

  She nodded.

  “As long as he and his pussy of a friend stay away from me, then we won’t have a problem.”

  The trio glanced at each other, another of those silent conversations using facial expressions. It definitely must be a woman thing.

  The blonde gestured to my back. “You know how to use that?”

  I nodded, and the redhead chuckled. “Where are your women, Dominic?”

  “Why does that matter?”

  The brunette chimed in, “I’m sure that they’re worried about you. You shouldn’t be out and about by yourself.”

  I scoffed, “I can take care of myself. Anything else, ladies?”

  The redhead shook her head. “No, but you’re an interesting male, Dominic.”

  “Thanks, I’ll be on my way now.”

  They nodded, and I continued on my way to the general goods store.

  Chapter 16

  Still ticked off, I released my anger with curse words from the English language. People stared in confusion and whispered to each other as I passed them. Taking a few breaths to calm down, I entered the store where a few patrons were browsing the shelves.

  While making my way to the first aisle, I bumped into a rack of newspapers. Huh… I was really missing my tablet and phone. Damn, what I wouldn’t give for the internet right now so that I could Google some things. I would definitely be on YouTube. I grabbed a newspaper to check inside, but the front page caught my eye. The headline read ‘MYSTERIOUS DEATHS IN FOREST.’

  I stepped over to the side and read the article. Someone had found dead bodies when they were traversing the woods looking for herbs and plants. There had been an investigation to see if the incident involved foul play. I skimmed over the article when they went into detail about shit I didn’t care about. The scene baffled the investigators when they figured out the cause of death. They declared that arrows killed the five people, but they wondered why the magic users didn’t activate their shields. I stopped at that and figured someone found the bitches we left in the forest. Huh… At the end of the article it said that the magistrate set a reward for anyone with any information on the killers.

  What the actual fuck?

  A reward to catch the ones who killed those bitches. I wondered if the authorities were in on it, involved with the gang. Maybe getting a cut from the sales? Hmm… something to think about later.

  I put the newspaper back into the rack and went to gather the items that we needed. After picking up some new cutlery, cups, and plates, I placed my items on the counter and went to get sugar, coffee, and o
ther necessities. Paying the clerk, I headed to the boarding house to get Bella, but made a detour to the livery to put away my purchases in the wagon. I also placed the documents into the secret compartment. When that was done, I made my way to get the blonde bombshell.

  I opened the front door and climbed the steps to Bella’s room. As I was about to knock to let her know that I was there, she stepped out with a bag on her shoulder. She looked refreshed and ready for the day, a hundred times better than earlier. She was even wearing makeup. Good, maybe she would try and get out of the rut she was in.

  “Hello again, Isabella.”

  “Dominic.”

  I chuckled. “Feeling better?”

  The mage gave me a look that said, ‘back off buster.’

  “Don’t push your luck, mister.”

  I put my hands up, “No problem. Let me carry your bag.”

  “No thanks.”

  “Alright, we’ll put it in my wagon and go grab some lunch. Is that okay?”

  She nodded and we walked over to place her bags with the others on my wagon. We walked away from the livery, but instead of heading towards the diner, I made my way to the wainwright building.

  “Why are you going there?” Bella demanded with wide eyes.

  “To be friendly.”

  I walked on and she reluctantly followed me, but stopped just inside, by the door. The teens were at the counter, talking with three other young people. Two females and a male. I leaned on the opposite end of the counter, waiting.

  Julia saw me and smiled. “Dom!”

  The other four looked over. Abby turned to see her mom by the door, and she had a broad smile as she watched Julia walk over.

  “Come here, I want to introduce you to some friends of ours.”

  Not interested at all in meeting them, I went over anyway and stopped by the group.

  “Christy, Faith, Roger, this is Dominic.”

  We greeted each other, then Roger asked, “Aren’t you the fella that was about to battle Lamar?”

  That caused the group to gasp and go wide-eyed. Abby asked hesitantly, “Dom, tell me that’s not true?”

  “Nah, it was someone else,” I replied, trying hard not to get into a conversation over that idiot.