Alena Charm

Medieval

• It started the eve to her twenty-fourth summer, in an unnamed settlement, near the current city of Riften. The night was warm, the windows to the home were open, hoping for a breeze to cool off the inside. There was no moon that night, so no guard laid witness to the strange man that entered through one of the open windows. Nothing was amiss until sunrise, when a nearby neighbor came to the home. Hoping that the herbalist woman had finished with the potion to help his cough. What he found was an open door, items thrown about, drops of blood lead out the door. The source of the blood lay in the back of the home, across the bed with a look of horror frozen on her aged face. The herbalist woman had been killed, the weapon that had been used was no where to be found. And neither was the herbalist's daughter, a young half Elf-Nord.
  
  No one was able to find what had killed the old mother, or took the daughter. Soon, the house fell into decay and the local people burnt it down. No grass seemed to grow over the area for many years to follow, and everyone seemed to stay away from that place too. Whispers spoke of a haunting, a ghostly figure sobbing for her child to be returned to her.
  
  Years faded away, and still the burnt area remained untouched by growth, and untouched by any of the local people, until one late evening. With the sun hanging low in the sky, a figure appeared from the forest, wrapped in a cloak with a hood pulled low over the face. A bow and quiver of arrows could be seen as the figure strode past the guards at the gate and walked until it came to the burnt out area and sat down. For a few hours the figure sat there, until the moon was high in the air and the ghostly figure appeared. For once, the ghost did not sob, hands outstretched to the figure seated before her.
  
  "I killed him, Momma... he won't hurt anyone else.. nor take anyone else from their families." The figure spoke as it stood up, and pushed the hood back. "It took me so many years.. training.. and to get the courage to do, Momma." She spoke to the ghost as she placed her hands into the ghostly pair.
  
  "You paid a heavy price, Alena... But you returned.. safe." Ghostly tears fell down the cheek of the mother's ghost before she faded away, finally able to rest, knowing her daughter was alive.
  
  "Good bye, Momma." The half Elf-Nord woman whispered as she knelt down and used a hidden dagger to dig a hole in the center of the burnt area and planted a few lavender seeds. "Rest now, Momma." She whispered as she patted the soil back over and stood, looking over the area that was once her home. Now it was all foreign and strange.
  
  Every few years or so, she returns to see the now wild patch of lavender growing over the area her home had once been. None of the guards knew who she was, nor did any of the locals, though she could look at them and see the faces of her friends from years ago. It has been at least hundred years, maybe a little more or a little less since she had been turned.
  
  She was there, the day that Helgen burned, though she wasn't close enough to offer help. She did see the dragon disappear into the clouds. The town was left burned and ruined, the air was thick with the smoke of burnt wood, burnt flesh and the dying screams. Just what was the world coming too, now? Dragons had returned. What did that mean for her, a vampire trying to live?