A/N: I swear it's like pilot season for fanfiction right now for me! Anyway, I couldn't help but write this because... I can... No, seriously, this plot bunnie won't the leave me the heck alone! Anyway, I was doing a bit of reading on the less explained but far more interesting characters such as Vladimir and Stefan, but saw that while they had mates, they were never named! How lazy is that?!

So I decided to make up some sort of back story for Vladimir's mate. This story borrows a few aspects of fairy tales without any written permission at all, but... fairy tales are for everybody, so who cares! In addition, I'll be adding a fairy tale I quite like to the bottom of each chapter. How relevant they are will depend.

Anyway, please proceed to review and read... or is it read and review? Whatever, just do both of those things if you please.

P.S. If you are Romanian and happen to know something about ancient Romania that my extensive research time on the internet failed to mention, please tell me, I don't want to insult anybody!

Chapter One: Forest of the Dead

or

A Quick Tale of Midnight Rides, Contemplation,

the Past, and the Future

Dacia, Romania, 1900 B.C

It was dark, the moon was shining high in the sky.

To be out at night was a death sentence in our time. Then again, to be out at all was a death sentence in our time. My papa and I, we were different, we were not stupid peasants who dared leave their homes after the sun had set. We were favor-seekers.

My horse, Raluca seemed sensed the danger that was all around us as we rode through the forest. I heard something in the trees beside us but I did not dare look for fear of turning around and heading towards home.

My papa gave the woods a fearful glance and then looked to me. I attempted to appear calm although truly I had never been more afraid in my life. I did not know what business my papa had with the Vampiri, but he had insisted I travel with him from our village to their castle. The path to it was ominous and the only light we had from the moon, which cast shadows on the dirt road from the tall trees.

Leaves rustled beside me as if someone was running fast enough to keep up with my horse. I winced when I heard the scream of some small animal to my left and I urge dear Raluca to quicken her pace.

"Is it much further, papa?" I asked him. My father, dressed in a black cloak and vest, shook his head.

"No more than half of an hour, my daughter." I nodded, taking a moment to release Raluca's reigns that had been clasped tightly in my hand to pull up the hood of my dark green traveling cloak over my red hair. It had flown off in the late autumn wind, the very same wind that made me shiver.

I wished my papa had allowed me to dress as he had. Instead of warmer clothes, he insisted that I choose my best dress. I did not know why he wished me to look beautiful for the the 'night terrors' as he called them. I am ashamed that I did not see it when I had the chance to escape.

My best dress was thin, made of white silk. It washed out my skin, however, but papa assured me I looked beautiful. I shivered once more, praying the wind would stop soon but it stubbornly blew on.

"Papa?" I whispered. He looked to me in annoyance.

"Why do you bother me?" He asked sharply.

"I wanted to know why I was invited to come with you." I replied. He smirked. I did not dare ask why we were going at all, that would have only resulted in a lash when we returned home. My papa believed a young lady should hold her tongue in the presence of a man and keep her curiosity at bay. After many years and many lessons he needed to teach, I conformed to his wishes.

It made me sad to know I would spend the rest of my life obeying his rules until he found me a husband, after which I would have to conform again to his wishes. I wanted to be free and to see the world, but I had accepted what was expected of me and learned to wear a smile despite it.

My papa saw right through my false smiles. He said that I smiled just like my mama did; with my teeth and not my eyes. I do not remember much of my mama, only stories that my papa would sometimes tell me. I was sure these stories held no amount of truth, for my papa painted my mother out to be a horrible wench who had run off with my father's gold as well as his heart.

I learned the truth from Estelle, a spinster who owned our village's tavern. She remembered my mama well, who would come in and order ale the same as any man. So strong spirited was she that she decided life with my papa was no life at all, and so she left. I wish I could do the same, but I knew I would never be free of my papa, not in that life.

I had lived in fear of when I would reach womanhood, for none of the men in my village were handsome or kind. I must sound wicked, thinking only of a beautiful face, but a young lady could not live by the contents of one's heart alone.

My papa began to bring suitors to our large house when I was but fourteen. I tore and my hair and scraped up my knees when they began to file into our abode. This kept them at bay, no one wanted to be reminded of the fact they were marrying a lady who was but a child who played in the streets as they once did.

It had been three years since then, and I was seventeen. Well on my way to becoming a spinster like the old woman I had spoken to about my mama, my papa had grown desperate in attempting to rid the house of me. I had mentioned within the last week of leaving on my own to see the world, and I was still sporting the bruise on my collar bone where my papa had struck me.

He had attempted to enroll me at the Abbey, but it seemed as though the Reverend Mother felt that a life as a nun would suit me ill, for she declined my papa's offer.

Perhaps he intends to leave you in the forest! I thought with a genuine smile. What I found to be amusing was unlike anyone I had ever met and was the only thing that bring forth a true smile from me. My papa would never see me smile genuinely, they would never be for him. I sobered quickly however, bottling my laughter as I became aware that the idea of abandoning me in the forest was likely a thought that had passed through my papa's mind. The woods were crawling with wolves, it would be all too easy to blame my disappearance on a sudden attack.

I shook my head. Deep down I knew my papa loved me, he would never and could never leave me to my own under-developed devices. Living as the daughter of the leader of our village had given me a privileged and sheltered life. Not once had I gone hungry while the children in the streets starved. Not once was I forced to wear anything but the finest garments while the townspeople had to wear rags. I was quite lucky to be born to such a high stature, but I could never turn a blind eye to the ruin like my papa could.

A war had raged on for as long as I could remember between the people of Romania and the invading Romans. They wished for us to believe in their Gods and Goddesses, we resisted, we were massacred. The death spread quickly, killing off most able-bodied men and leaving women to do the work to support their families. I was kept safe, away from all the pain and misery. Papa would scold me when I came back from the market with the shopping and my purse empty. No one had stolen from me, I had given it away to those in need. He did not approve.

I pulled myself out of the sadness that shrouded my homeland and instead focused on what the Vampiri would be like. I allowed my imagination to run as free and as wild as the horses in the mountains when I thought of them and the stories I had heard.

They were supposed to resemble Angels with flawless features. The only thing to shatter the illusion and warn their prey was their eyes that were said by survivors to be the color of blood because they drank so much. People would be collected every now and again and brought down the same path we rode, never to be seen again.

I wondered if they were as merciless as they were made out to be. I wondered if they would help my papa with what he wanted. I hoped that he would be asking them to help win the war, we needed help. Despite that, I knew my papa was proud, proud and foolish. He had waited for too long to seek out aide and now it was almost too late.

"Daughter." I heard my papa say. I looked up to him, letting the images of what I thought the vampires would look like fade. "We have arrive, my child." As soon as he said this, my eyes drifted from him to the structure in front of us.

It was a castle.

I thought my home was large, but it was a shack in comparison to the grand and refined building that lay before us. It was made from dark stone with steel gates locked in front of it. The windows were large and made of panes of glass, separated from each other with black curlicues. From inside, lamps gleamed. I could barely see through the frosted glass, but many people were walking up and down the steps.

My papa waved his hand, telling me to get down on my horse. This was normal, a woman was not equal to a man, she did not ride when meeting company if he did. I got down off of Raluca, giving her head a light pat.

"Hurry along." Papa commanded and I followed him, taking only the smallest steps due to the restriction of my skirt.

I took a deep breath, trying to swallow my fear. I found it wasn't to difficult for as soon as the dark gates opened on their own, I found that I was filled with an entirely different emotion all together.

Excitement.

Really small footnotes section:

Vampiri: Vampires.

Featured fairy tale:

The Bear

A king loved his daughter so much that he kept her in her rooms for fear harm would come to her. She complained to her nurse; unbeknownst to her, the nurse was a witch. She told her to get a wheelbarrow and a bearskin from the king. The king gave them, the nurse enchanted them, and when the princess put on the skin, it disguised her, and when she got into the wheelbarrow, it took her wherever she wanted to go. She had it take her to a forest.

A prince hunted her, but when she called to him to call off his dogs, he was so astounded that he asked her to come home with him. She agreed and went in the wheelbarrow. His mother was surprised, and more when the bear began to do housework as well as any servant. One day, the prince had to go to a ball given by a neighboring prince. The bear wanted to go, and he kicked it. When he left, she implored his mother for leave to just go and watch. With it, she went to her wheelbarrow and used the wand to turn her bearskin into a ballgown of moon-beams. At the ball, the prince fell in love with her, but she fled, so she would be back in time to hide herself. She was pleased when he told his mother of her, because she had fooled him, and laughed under the table. The second ball, she went in a gown of sunlight, and his attempts to follow her carriage did not succeed.

The third time, the prince succeeded in getting a ring on her finger. When he went home, he declared he would search for her. First, he wanted some soup, and for the bear to have nothing to do with it, because every time he mentioned his love, the bear muttered and laughed. The bear put the ring in the soup. The prince asked her to take off the skin, and she became a beautiful young woman. She told the prince and his mother how her father had kept her imprisoned, and the prince married her.