The next day, Zora woke up very early, just as the first light of dawn began to touch the edges of her window.
The house was quiet and still, but she was already moving. She had a long day ahead of her at the market, and she liked to take her time getting ready.
She walked over to her tall wooden closet and opened the doors. Inside were the many dresses her mother had made for her over the years. Zora reached out and ran her fingers over the different fabrics. She finally picked out a green dress that she liked very much.
The dress had puffy sleeves that felt light on her arms. It was a simple dress, made of a good, sturdy material that was meant to last. It was not a fancy dress that a noble would wear, but it was decent and looked very nice on her.
As she pulled it on, she thought about her mother. Her mother had spent many hours sitting by the fire, sewing these dresses by hand. Every stitch was neat and strong.
Since her parents had passed away four years ago, Zora had hardly ever bought any new clothes. She didn't feel the need to. These dresses were comfortable, and they felt like a warm hug from the past. Wearing them made her feel like a piece of her family was still with her as she went about her day.
Once she had her dress on and her long silver blonde hair brushed out, she went into the kitchen. The floor was cold under her feet, but she didn't mind. She prepared a simple meal of bread and a bit of fruit.
As she sat at the wooden table to eat, she felt the familiar pull of hunger in her stomach. Zora was a vampire, but she was very used to eating normal food. She had grown up eating the same things her human parents ate, and she still enjoyed the taste of a fresh apple or a warm crust of bread.
Sometimes, she even found herself craving these simple flavors. Eating normal meals was important to her. It made her feel human, and it kept her body used to the life she had to live in the village.
But Zora knew that normal food could only do so much. She had a different kind of hunger that was much deeper. She could go for about two or three days before she needed to have blood.
If she went any longer than that, she would start to feel the change. Her senses would get too sharp, and her body would feel like it was running out of power.
She had to be very careful to stay balanced. Even though she was a vampire, she had never tasted human blood in her entire life.
The very idea of it made her feel sick. She never wanted to hurt another person, no matter how hungry she became.
When her father was still alive, he was the one who took care of her. He was a very skilled hunter who knew every path and hiding spot in the woods. He knew exactly what Zora needed to stay healthy.
Whenever he went out to hunt for meat to sell, he would always bring back the blood from his kills for her. He would save it in bags and give it to her so she never had to worry.
He had been her shield, making sure she could live a quiet life without ever having to hunt for herself.
But since her parents were killed, Zora had to learn how to do everything on her own. She had to become her own provider. Now, every weekend at night, when the moon was high and the village was deep in sleep, she would slip out of her back door.
She would walk far into the woods, going much further than any of the local hunters would ever go. She went to the parts of the forest where the trees were so thick that the starlight could barely reach the ground.
In the middle of the dark forest, Zora finally let her vampire traits come out. She didn't have to hide her power when she was all alone.
She used her super speed to race between the trees. She moved so fast that she felt like the wind itself. She also used her night vision, which turned the dark woods into a clear world.
Because she was so fast and could see so well, she could catch small and medium sized animals very easily. She could see the rabbit hiding in the tall grass or the deer standing perfectly still in the shadows.
She had even set up a small camp for herself in a very hidden part of the woods. It was a place she had found where the bushes were thick and no human ever walked. She felt safe there.
Whenever she made a kill, she would go to this camp to do her work. She would drain the blood from the animal and put it into small bags that were easy to carry.
This made it much easier to bring back to her house without anyone seeing. Once the bags were ready, she would walk home through the shadows and hide them in her secret stash under the kitchen floor
.
This was a very risky way to live. She knew that if anyone ever saw her moving that fast or found her secret camp, her life would be over. But it was a risk she had to take to survive.
For four years now, she had been very careful. She never left a trail, and she never went to the same spot twice in a row. So far, no one had ever suspected that the quiet girl from the fabric shop was actually hunting in the woods at night.
Once her breakfast was finished and her kitchen was clean, Zora got her bag ready. It was a medium-sized bag made of dark leather.
She checked to make sure her shop keys were inside, along with her account book and a small bottle of ink. She also packed a few other small things she might need during the long day.
She took a deep breath, looked around her quiet home, and then stepped out into the morning air. She made sure to lock the door tightly behind her.
Zora's shop was a small building in the town where she sold fabric materials. This business was very important to her because it had belonged to her mother.
She got her cloth from a key supplier that her mother had known for a very long time. The fabric was always good and strong, with many different colors like deep blues, bright reds, and soft creams.
Her father had also owned a business where he sold the meat from his hunts, but his stall was a little way down the street from the fabric shop.
After her parents died, Zora had thought about trying to keep both shops open. She had learned a little bit about hunting from her father, and she knew how to handle the animals.
But she soon found out that running two businesses was far too much work for one person. It was an impossible task to manage the fabrics and the meat while also trying to keep her own secret life safe.
She didn't want to do a poor job at either one. So, she made the hard choice to shut down the meat business.
It made her sad to close down her father's stall, but she knew it was the right thing to do. She decided to put all of her energy into the fabric shop.
To make her shop more special, Zora also sold little trinkets and accessories. She made these items herself by hand when she had extra time.
She would sit for hours and string shiny beads together to make necklaces or headbands. She would also twist thin pieces of wire to make pretty clips for people to wear in their hair.
She sold these on a small table next to her rolls of cloth. People who came in to buy fabric for a new dress often liked to pick out a matching accessory to go with it.
To get to her shop in the town of Lardin, Zora had to travel a long way from her village. She usually started her journey by hailing a merchant cart that was passing by.
The cart would take her as far as the border of the town. From there, she had to walk the rest of the way. It was a very long walk that took almost an hour every single day.
Most people in the village did not like to walk that much. They would rather spend their money on a carriage or a cart to take them all the way to the market.
But Zora was not like most people. she preferred to save her money. Carriages were very expensive, and she wanted to keep her money for things she really needed.
Also, the long walk was not hard for her. Because she was a vampire, she had much more stamina than any human. She could walk for miles and miles without feeling tired or having her legs ache.
She actually enjoyed the walk; it gave her time to think and watch the world wake up.
When she finally arrived at her shop, she took out her heavy iron keys and opened the door.
The shop smelled like clean wool and old wood. She spent some time setting everything up. She moved the heavy rolls of fabric so the best colors were near the front where people could see them.
She also carefully laid out her handmade trinkets on their small table. The morning was very quiet at first. There were no customers on the street yet, so Zora had nothing to do but wait.
To keep herself busy, she sat down behind her wooden counter. She took out a small box of beads and some wire and started to make a new hair accessory.
She picked out clear beads that looked like tiny drops of water and began to thread them one by one. She liked the way the beads clicked against each other. It was a peaceful way to spend the morning.
Suddenly, the quiet of the market was broken. Zora heard a lot of shouting and the sound of many horses. She looked up from her work and walked to the door of her shop.
There was a lot of chaos in the street as people began to pull their carts to the side. Several luxurious carriages were moving slowly down the market road. They were very large and were made of dark, polished wood that shone in the sun. They had gold decorations and fine silk curtains in the windows.
The people in the market were all standing still, watching the carriages go by. It was a very rare thing to see such fancy carriages in a place like Lardin.
Lardin was just a small town in the Kingdom of Eanvyne, and high nobles almost never came there. The townspeople were very surprised and excited to see such a grand display.
The other shop owners started to yell even louder than they usually did. They were trying to advertise their fabrics, their bread, and their tools.
They hoped that the rich people inside the carriages might hear them and decide to stop. Everyone was trying to look their best and make their shops look busy. The whole market was full of a new, frantic energy.
Zora felt very curious as she watched the long line of carriages pass her shop. She leaned against her doorframe and looked out at the crowd.
She wanted to know who had come to their small, out of the way town. She looked at the strong, powerful horses and the slightly expensive clothes of the men who were riding beside the carriages.
She stood there for a long time, watching the shiny wheels turn in the dirt. The town of Lardin felt very different today.
It felt like something important was happening. Zora stayed in her doorway, her eyes following the carriages until they were further down the street.
She wondered why such powerful people had come to Lardin and what it would mean for the people who lived there.
The market was buzzing with talk, and she knew that this was a day everyone would be talking about for a very long time.