"Daddy, daddy!" the little girl cried as she ran toward her father who was coming back from work at the mine. She tripped a couple of times on the end of her dress and stray rocks in the dirt path, but stood back up and continued running toward her exhausted father, frantically waving a stick around. "I saw members of the Companions today! They were amazing!" Her dad chuckled and put his hand on top of her head, ruffling her hair as she giggled and poked him with her stick.
"I'm glad they came, Keela. This means one less problem for this damned village." He looked around and noticed that the bandits who had been rampaging their small farming village were gone. "The only problem left is the weird murders going around. No sign of any wounds apart from neck wounds. Vampires," her father mumbled. Keela was about to say something, starting to point at the house across from them, but her father gave her a hard look, a look to tell her not to say anything. She pouted, dropping her hand and looking over at the house, before brightening up again and pulling on her father's hand.
"One day, I'll fix all the problems. One day, I'm going to be a Companion myself!" She then let go of her father's hand, emitted a small roar and swung the stick around, pretending it was a sword. Her mother slapped the stick out of her hands and it fell to the ground with a 'thump'.
"Don't be stupid. You could never become a warrior. Not with our status. Not with your body. Not with your weird visions and invisible friends." The little girl pouted, before picking up her stick and looking at her father. She couldn't tell at such a young age, but her father looked almost guilty.
"Maybe one day," he said gently. "If you start ignoring your strange friends." The little girl looked to the side, at her neighbor's house, the one across from them. She nodded, looking down at the floor. Her father smiled and walked inside their house, hugging his wife with a hearty laugh as she complained. The usual.
The little girl looked back at her neighbor's house. Her neighbor, Mevine, was behind the window, cleaning a pot. When Mevine noticed that Keela was staring at her, they made eye contact. Suddenly, the woman turned into a pale creature, its eyes blazing red and its long teeth sharp as razors. It black hair glistened in the sunlight, as did its almost see through skin. Keela waved at it shyly, her heart pounding, and it waved back, just as softly, suddenly changing back to what her neighbor really looked like: a Redguard woman in her 30s.
"But it's all true," Keela mumbled slightly. "That woman is the cause of the deaths."
