Okay I know I should be working on my Warriors fic, and I'm still going to finish it, but I started this because I got writer's block, and when I get that I just start writing something else :/
Judah isn't an Imperial name, but he was originally only going to be used for role-play. And by role-play I mean the random, crack-induced, kind of role-play that my friend and I do. But don't worry, this fic will be pretty serious for the most part.
A young Imperial, about the age of nineteen, walked along the dirt road that lead towards a small farmhouse, carrying a leather bag over his shoulder. On either side of the path were rows of corn, strawberries, tobacco, and many other plants. The distinct scent of sheep told him that there was still livestock behind the house as well. Fireflies were just starting to appear as the sun began to set, casting long shadows across the field of crops.
Suddenly the door to the farmhouse swung open. A little brown haired girl ran towards him at full speed, squealing with delight. Her dark brown curls bounced with each step as she nearly toppled him over with a hug to his legs.
She looked up at him and grinned, "You got so much bigger, Judie!"
Judah bent down to his knees to look at her eye to eye and kissed her forehead. "I should say the same about you." He said, returning her smile.
Then a middle aged woman appeared at the door, looking fondly at the two younger Imperials. "Come on in, boy! I just cooked supper!" She called.
The girl lead him by the hand towards the farm house, nearly skipping with excitement as they passed through the front door. The scent of cooked vegetables and beef told him that his favorite meal was being prepared for his homecoming. He sat down at the table next to the girl.
"So Estelle, how old are you now? Six?" He asked.
Estelle crossed her arms and frowned, "I'm eight!"
His eyes widened, "You still look so little though!"
Bowls of beef stew were set down in front of them on the table. They looked up at the woman and muttered their thanks before picking up their forks and digging in.
"So where's your husband?" Judah asked after swallowing the first bite of his supper.
The woman sighed as she sat down across from them with her own bowl. Her hair was light brown with streaks of gray, put up in a bun so it wouldn't get in the way of her cooking. She had the same eyes as Judah, light brown with specks of green. They narrowed as she answered. "He's gone off to the Imperial City to sell some of our produce. He said he'd be back by tomorrow morning."
Judah looked back down at his stew, furrowing his brow. It was irresponsible to leave a woman and her daughter alone in the middle of nowhere. Everyone knew that bandits had no quarrel with robbing women and children as well as men. The quaint little farm was a perfect target for outlaws.
"Father wouldn't have left you two alone like this." He muttered.
"Now listen here, Judah." The woman said firmly, "I know you disapprove of my husband, but I knew you would leave someday and I needed a man around here to look out for me. I didn't have much of a choice."
Estelle looked back and forth between her mother and her brother, her dark eyes took on a worried expression that no girl her age should have.
He sighed and let it go. For the girl's sake. "I'm sorry Mother. You're right, it's none of my business I just worry about you."
"I know you do. Now tell me about where you've been! Have you found a place to live yet? Have you found a woman?" His mother asked, her mouth curving into a cheeky smile.
He had been traveling for a few months now, going from town to town. There were a lot of places that he liked, but there was still the matter of saving up the money. Borrowing money from his mother was out of the question, as they had just enough money to be able to eat fairly well, but just barely. It was so hard to choose which city to live in. Imperial City was had many shops and lots of different people, Cheydinhal was beautiful, in Bruma it was always snowing, which he liked, the list went on. The only places he had ruled out were Bravil and Leyawin.
As for the woman part, he hadn't found any that he really liked much. Plus, he wanted to wait until he found a house and a job to worry about that.
Blushing slightly, Judah shook his head. "No and no. I don't know where I want to live, so I've just been wandering. And I haven't met any interesting women."
"I always knew that no woman would be good enough for my son!" She chuckled.
Judah shook his head again, this time more vigorously. "I don't mean that! I just mean I haven't met anyone that I really like. I've seen a lot of girls that would probably make wonderful wives, but none of them are for me."
His mother nodded with understanding, "I know, son. You don't even have to find a wife if you don't want to. Lots of people lead happy lives without getting married."
"Nice to know I have your permission." Judah said sarcastically, smirking at the warning look his mother gave him afterwards.
Once they had finished dinner, night had fallen. Judah's mother looked at Estelle, "Dearie I think it's time you went to bed." she said, "It's getting a bit late."
"Aww! But Judie just got here!" The girl complained, poking out her lower lip and begging with her puppy eyes for her mother to let her stay up a bit longer.
But the Imperial woman was adamant. "It makes no difference. Your bedtime is still your bed time." She said firmly.
Judah smiled, "We can go for a walk in the morning if you go to bed now. Just you and me."
The girl's eyes widened, "Really? You promise?"
He nodded, "Promise."
His sister dashed to the door that led to her room. There were only three rooms in the entire house. The largest one was a kitchen/dining room/living room, while the two smaller ones were bedrooms. Judah remembered having to share a room with his younger sister while he still lived there as a child.
"I should get to bed too. I'm a bit tired from all the walking I did today." Judah said, starting to walk to his former room when his mother pulled him back.
"Hold on one second! You haven't hugged me since you got here!"
He allowed her to hold him for a few moments before pulling away. "Goodnight." He murmured, then turned and walked into the bedroom to go to sleep.
A scream woke him from his sleep. His eyes shot open as a feeling of dread washed over him. He sat up and saw that Estelle wasn't in her bed. The sounds of heavy footsteps and crashing was coming from the living room as he grabbed his dagger out of his bag and hurried out of the bedroom.
Blood. It was everywhere. All over the walls, the floor, and the furniture. A sickly looking man with deathly pale skin was crouched over a body. A body that Judah quickly identified as his mother.
"Get away from her!" He yelled, running towards the man with his dagger. The intruder looked up at him and growled like some sort of animal. With superhuman strength, the man slugged him in the face, then grabbed him by the neck before he could fall to the ground. Judah panicked as he felt the blood dripping from his nose. He remembered his dagger, then noticed it was no longer in his hand. It was now on the ground next to…
His mother's neck had been savagely mangled. Blood poured out of it, gathering in a pool around her head. The sight of the person who had given him life, violently murdered, it made him feel like part of him soul had died with her. To think that only hours ago they had been casually chatting in the kitchen over a bowl of stew.
A sudden increase of pressure on his throat brought his attention back into the present. Now he got a good look at his attacker for the first time. His cheeks were sunken, his skin was pale and sickly, and his eyes were a reddish pink color.
This man was a vampire.
That was the last thing Judah remembered thinking before a flash of white fangs turned his world into darkness.
Judah awoke to the bright morning sunlight shining in his eyes. Quickly he sat up and looked around, bringing back the hazy memories of the night before. His mother was still lying dead on the floor near the fireplace. With tears in his eyes, he fell to his knees before her cold corpse. Her terror-filled eyes were still open, as if frozen in the moment of her death. He sobbed, gently closing them to give her the appearance of sleeping. Sleeping with her neck barely keeping her head and body attached, but still sleeping.
Despite the author's awe-inspiring sense of humor, Judah held his mother and cried for several minutes. He sent a prayer to The Nine, the Daedric Princes, Tribunal, anyone who would listen, to wake him up from the nightmare. He had to be dreaming. Surely the Nine hadn't allowed such a thing to happen to his family after taking his father away ten years ago. Surely.
But no matter how long he waited, he would never wake up. Then he heard a weak cry coming from the kitchen half of the room.
Estelle!
He got up, and with one last sorrowful look at his mother, he raced over to the sound of distress. What he saw lying under the table broke his heart even more.
The young girl was lying on her side in a pool of blood with a bite mark on her neck and several other wounds. He reached under the table and picked her up.
"Estelle." He said quietly, touching the mark on her neck tenderly.
She sniffed, tears rolling down her pale cheeks. "Am I going to become a vampire?" She coughed between sobs.
"No. I promise I'll get you to a city, then we can get it cured before you change." Judah weakly assured her, his own voice shaking as he held his own tears back.
Then Estelle pointed at his neck, "You got bit, too." she rasped, her eyelids drooping.
He touched the bite mark on his neck, biting his lip.
"Where's Mama?" Estelle coughed, lifting her head to look around for their mother.
Judah gently pushed her head back down with his palm. "You don't need to see her."
Tears formed in her eyes as she struggled for another breath. He could see how hard it was for her. Sticky blood from her wounds covered his hands as he held her close. "Just hold on. I'll get you to the Imperial City and find a healer-"
She shook her head, sniffing. "I don't think I can make it that far." she said hoarsely, breaking into another bout of coughs and sobs.
No! She had to make it! She was all Judah had left!
But something inside of him knew he had to let her go. She wouldn't make it all the way to the city. It was about a day and a half away from their farm in the upper half of the Nibenay Valley. He watched helplessly as Estelle heaved one last breath, then closed her eyes for the last time.
It had been twenty years since his family died. By the time he had buried his mother and sister next to his father not far from the house, it was late and he needed rest. So he had spent another night in that lonely, bloodstained house. His step-father didn't show up during that time. By the next morning, he had only two days to get the disease healed.
Too make a long story short, he didn't make it in time.
Now he was lying in the bed he had rented in a tavern, looking not much older than he had back then. He had spent the last twenty years wandering from place to place, feeding on people whilst they were asleep so he could go out into the sunlight. It was the only way for vampires to have a semi normal life. The blood of humans made them look normal, keep their sanity, stay healthy, and it had a sort of sunscreen effect, too. Otherwise, he would look and act like the guy who had put him in this situation in the first place. The very memory made him shudder.
Then a creaking noise caught his attention. With his Hunter's Sight he saw a person sneaking down the hallway and into the room next to his, where a traveling merchant was sleeping.
It must be a thief. Judah had to stop this little pickpocket before he got away!
He quietly stood up and creaked the door open to walk into the hallway. Reaching for his dagger, the same one he had dropped that bloody night twenty years before, he opened the door to the merchant's room.
Inside was not a thief. He realized that right away. His second observation was that she was a female of his own race, Imperial. But something about her was off. The shape of her face was a bit off, he had never seen an Imperial like her.
The woman froze with a dagger held just over the merchant's chest. He could see her strange eyes widen with surprise underneath the hood of her tan traveling robes. They seemed almost… feline. This surprise turned to anger as she bared her sharp teeth and let out a low growl.
Something about this lady wasn't right.
Even though it wasn't every day that you saw an assassin about to stab someone in their sleep, it was even more surprising when the old merchant continued snoring throughout their entire confrontation.
The assassin's eyes narrowed, "Who are you?" she asked. A bit too calmly for someone who had just been caught about to murder someone.
Judah tightened his grip on his own knife, "None of your concern." he answered coolly.
Her reply came in the form of a dagger whizzing past his ear, and wedging itself into the door behind him.
He blinked slowly, then sighed. "Listen lady, I won't tell anyone that you were here as long as-"
She pulled out another knife and promptly stabbed the merchant in the chest with a psychotic smile. She giggled as the man's eyes opened. When she removed the blade from his torso, his blood began to stain the sheets crimson. He grasped for air, looking around wildly as he tried to call for help, but all that came out of his mouth was a river of sticky, scarlet blood.
Horrified, Judah watched her clean the blade. Not with a rag, like normal people. She licked the blade clean. Then she looked back over at Judah, smiling with mock innocence.
"Gotta go!" With a toothy smile she opened up the window.
"Oh no you don't!" He yelled, leaping over the blood-soaked bed just as she leaped out of the window. He saw her wave at him, as though in conclusion to a casual visit, and disappeared into the shadows.
Cursing, he turned around just in time to see a woman standing in the doorway. Her mouth hung open, looking from him to the dead merchant, who was now marinating in his own blood, and back again.
"Now I know how this looks…" Judah started, but the woman ran back down the hall, her screams echoing through the inn to alert the others.
Judah face palmed, groaning at the thought of being arrested and taken to prison, or worse, simply being attacked. He heard heavy footsteps climbing the stairs to investigate, meaning it was time for him to make an escape as well.