A scene from TES: Skyrim, as if written in a book.

The moonlight shone through the large crack above the chamber, beaming down and across the ancient ruins below. The old, crumbling stones were covered in moss along the walkways. A moat of dirty, cold water crashed and churned at the deepest portion of the cavern. On a higher ledge overlooking the ruins, three people stood in the dark. One of them, was Lokil. A malevolent Vampire.

One of the people, an old man, fell to his knees as instructed.

“I’ll never tell you anything Vampire. My oath to Stendarr is stronger than any suffering you can inflict on me!”

The Vigilant pronounced proudly, not once breaking eye contact with his captors. His voice was gravelly though, as if it took extra effort to speak with the confidence he had. Lokil starts laughing at his captured Vigilant.

Lokil kneels down to the old mans eye level.

“Oh, I believe you Vigilant. However, I don’t think you’ve even grasped the slightest possibility of what you have found here.”

He whispers softly. The two stare at each other. The Vigilant couldn’t help but stare at the Vampires fangs in fear of what was about to happen. Lokil smirks and stands. He raises his left hand and clicks his fingers. The Vampire Fledgling pulls out an iron dagger and slits the Vigilant’s throat in the blink of an eye.

“Lord Harkon will reward us royally when we return what he has been searching for after all these long years!” He spoke loudly as if he wished the whole of Tamriel to hear his achievement. He looked across the small stone bridge to the ruins with a proud smile. “We are close now, nothing will stop us.” Upon finishing his sentence a large crash erupts behind him and the platform where the fledgling once stood was now cloaked in a thick layer of dust. His smile soon disappeared and was replaced by a frown of annoyance.

Two more fledglings ran to Lokil’s side from the stone arches within the center of the ruins. They stood behind Lokil as they await the dust to dispurse, to reveal the cause of the interuption. A small pain filled groaning is heard from within the dust and Lokil squints his eyes for better vision. A squelch and the ‘thwang’ of a blade are heard. The groaning stops.

As the dust vanishes a figured clad in Bone Armor is kneeling on the body of the once live fledgling and pulls a magnificent golden sword that glistened like the sun, from the back of its head. The blood ran down the platform and reached Lokil’s boot. He looks at his boot puzzled, when the sudden realization of his Vampire siblings death causes him to fixate on the intruder with a rageful stare. Frightened the other two fledglings hissed like feral cats at their intruder. The figure stood and raised his sword and shield. The Dragonborn had arrived.

The two fledglings hesitate cautiously, yet kept a deep eye contact with their intruder. A few seconds pass and the fledglings turn and look at their master for further instruction. Lokil stares at them aggressively. They both knew what that meant: attack. The one standing to the right lunged first and proclaimed “Never should of come here!” The Dragonborn chuckled and flung his sword straight into the air, they raised their Ebony shield and reflected the white light of the moon into the first fledglings eyes.

Blinded, the fledgling slashed wildly with their claws in the direction of the Dragonborn. Deciding to act upon this opportunity they held their shield outwards, clenched their right hand and with all the force they could muster punched the inner plating of the Ebony shield. The resulting impact of the bone gauntlet clashing with the shield created a powerful shock wave, overpowered by this, the fledgling lost all balance and with a swift kick the Dragonborn sent them plummeting into the chasm below.

Lokils rage was beginning to build. He instructed the other fledgling to attack, immediately the fledgling lunged toward the Dragonborn in an attempt to knock them off balance. Being the skilled warrior they were, the Dragonborn bashed away Vampire a small distance away with their shield. Their previously discarded sword was falling back to the ground as planned. With incredible speed they grabbed the sword and immediately slashed it horizontally. The swords long reach easily killed the Vampire. All Lokil could see was the back of his fellow Vampire as his head simply fell from his neck.

“You next?” The Dragonborn asked Lokil with incredible confidence, pointing their sword at him. Lokil began to breathe faster with rage, his black greasy fringe covering his blood red face. Suddenly a loud humming started resonating from Lokil and he quickly evaporated into a cloud of bats.

“Well, that’s new.” The Dragonborn exclaimed. Unable to track the bats in the darkness of the cavern, the Dragonborn looked around until finally turning a half circle to face the entrance to the room. Lokil had re-materialized in front of them, kicking them straight in chest, he hissed with excitement at dealing what he thought, was a mighty blow.

“You dare come here and interrupt our plans! Who do you think you even are?”

A question he would soon come to regret. The Dragonborn groaned and picked themselves up, smirking the entire time. They stood up and straightened their back. Believing this was a preparation for attack, Lokil pulled a Daedric dagger from waist and spun it so the blade end was pointing away from him. He gripped the hilt tight. In his left hand he begun to cast the Raise Dead spell and the Vigilants’ body begun to glow a fiery blue. The Dragonborn dropped his weapons.

Lokils’ anger and rage turned to that of puzzlement and confusion, nevertheless he persevered and shook off his emotions and got further into his incantation, hoping to even the battle. The Dragonborn took in a deep, deep breath, closed his eyes and uttered the word, “Fus.”

“What did you just say?” Lokil asked aggresively, believing the Dragonborn has insulted him in some way. Louder the Dragonborn spoke, “RO!” Lokils’ face dropped upon realizing what was about to happen. His spell stopped before completion and the body of the departed Vigilant disintegrated into a pile of ash. With blade in hand he ran with all his might to the Dragonborn at an attempt to halt his actions.

The ceiling began to rumble as the ancient magics surrounded the two, and the stones columns supporting the bridge began to crumble. At the top of their voice the Dragonborn let out their mighty Thu’um. “DAH!” The ancient Dragon tongue released a massive concussive blast that hurtled towards Lokil as the sound echo’d throughout the cavern, reaching every nook and cranny. The Master Vampire stopped running as he saw the very stone ground in front of him begin to tear and shatter. The blast took him and threw him at the cobblestone wall behind him. The massive bricks of stone collapsing on top of his body were irrelevant as he was already dead from the impact of the blast.

Picking up their Sword and Shield from the ground, the Dragonborn turned around and begun to examine the Stone Monolith at the center of the ruins.

“What an odd structure, why would a group of Vampires go through so much to protect this?” They asked themselves.

They stepped closer to the Monolith and looked at the ancient inscriptions that encompassed it. On the backside of the Monolith there was a diagram of a small pillar surrounded by four lit braziers. Leaning to the side, their vision focused and fixated on a small pillar off to one side of the ruin and the four braziers became visible too, yet they weren’t in their aligned place. The Dragonborn walked over to the pillar realizing that whatever threat may present itself, it was no match for them, so what harm could eliminating the threat do. Atop the pillar was a partially covered hole, the inside glowed with a red hue, it was faint but visible when in the dark. The Dragonborn knelt down and examined an inscription written down the side of the small pillar. It read the words “blood” and “sacrifice” over and over. It seemed almost too simple.

Plunging their Sword into the ground in an upright position, the Dragonborn took off their helm and placed it on the hilt of the Sword. They sat and contemplated. The curiosity was over whelming for them, yet their restraint and resolve told them not too do anything and to simply report this back to Isran, and yet. The curiosity.

They stood straight up and took off their right hand gauntlet, throwing it to the ground. Tentatively, the Dragonborn lowered their right hand above the opening. In a flash, a mighty blade shot straight up from deep within the pillar. The Dragonborn screamed in anguish. Their blood drained downwards and a purple flame began to rise from a crevice that followed along the floor to a Brazier. It suddenly clicked inside their head, noticing that the crevice allowed for the Braziers to be moved.

Ignoring the pain of their impaled hand, the Dragonborn moved each one into a new position, moving each Brazier as far they could be moved. As each one clicked into place they all became lit with the purple flame that originated from the sacrificial pillar. Suddenly, the central monolith began to rumble. The entire ruin began to shake and the bridge connecting the floating platform to the entrance the Dragonborn once used, collapsed. They ran to a stone archway for cover. When all of a sudden, the shaking stopped.

One face of the Monolith began to move and the clattering of stone against stone was almost deafening. The Dragonborn crept forward and prepared for a fight. As the face of the Monolith began to lower more and more what came out, was in fact not a monster, but a woman.

Falling out of the Monolith semi-conscious, the Dragonborn slid to the ground and caught her in their arms. Looking at this woman, their face was puzzled and confused, in complete disbelief that the Vampires were after a person trapped inside a stone Monolith. They began to question, how long was she in there? Why? What did the Vampires want with her? He looked down at the stranger. On her back a metal capsule in the shape of scroll was strapped to her, it was gold and white and glistened in the moonlight. The capsule was almost as long as her and it seemed heavy and sturdy. Whatever was in there was of great importance.

Curious, the Dragonborn let out their hand and gently brushed the capsule cleaning away the dust. Without warning the woman’s eyes shot open and she pounced away from their savior. No weapon drawn, no fist raised, simply clutching the bottom of the capsule for dear life.

“Who are you?” She questioned. “What do you want?”

Her voice was soft yet stern. She was demanding in the way she spoke and she knew it. The Dragonborn looked up at her, finally noticing her and not the capsule. Her face was gentle, her lips were a icy blue and her hair was a deep devouring black, this still did not answer the question as to who she was though.

“My apologies, I did not mean to startle you. I was simply curious. Allow me to introduce myself.” They re-equipped their right gauntlet and reached out their hand for a greeting. “My name is…” They stopped. After examining the woman and the capsule they finally noticed something important, her eyes. Her eyes were a bright orange, as if the sun was burning through her and in turn burning through them. They retracted their hand.

“You’re a Vampire.” He said cautiously.

“So?” She responded almost immediately. She was obviously used to this observation. “What of it? You are in a large suit of Bone armor and your sword hurts my skin to look at.”

She was referring to the Dragonborns sword, Dawnbreaker, a weapon commonly used to kill Vampires. As it had slayed her kin a mere ten minutes ago.

“It is still covered in blood and and you keep glancing at it as if your life depends on it, who in this situation, is more of a threat?” She said proudly but with a slight nervousness to her voice, as she was still weary of her rescuer.

The Dragonborn sensing that she is frightened and still a little dazed, or confused, slowly backs away from her but not in the direction of their sword. They stop and think, closely examining the situation and deciding the best course of action.

“My apologies. When a Vampire is this close it tends to be coupled by a screaming and then an attempt on my life. So please forgive my suddenness.“

The woman no longer reserves herself and lets down her guard. She releases her grip from her capsule.

“I understand, not all mortals are comfortable with my kind. I can assure you, I mean you no harm. Now, might I ask what it is you are doing here and why it is you who has woken me?“

The Dragonborn looks confused. “Where you expecting someone else?”

She averts her gaze from them.

Continuing themselves the Dragonborn explains. “I was sent here by a man named Isran, from the Dawnguard. Vampire Hunters.“

The womans breathing hastens.

“I was sent here because apparently the Vampires were after a long lost artifact of some kind. It was my job to put a stop to it. I didn’t expect another Vampire to be what I was searching for.“

She paces back and forth, wondering what to say or even if she should trust her savior with the reasoning as to her imprisonment. She stops and looks at the Dragonborn puzzled.

“Are you going to kill me?”

The Dragonborn shakes their head. “I do have some questions.“

“And I will answer them!” She interrupts. “But only if you take me home, to Castle Volkihar, on the northern shore of Solitude.”

“Very well then.” The Dragonborn exclaims excitedly.

They hurry back over to their sword and helm, the woman hurries along behind them. Turning around, the Dragonborn jumps at how close the woman has approached them. She extends a friendly hand to them.

“I am Serana.” She says softly.

The Dragonborn extends their hand and takes hers, shaking it firmly.

“And I’m..” Before finishing their sentence the Dragonborn is interrupted by a hellish scream and a crash of stone against the floor. To the other side of the cavern, up a flight of stairs leading to what looked like Ancient Nordic ruins, a large stone Gargoyle had reanimated and began charging towards the two. Quickly letting go of her hand, the Dragonborn re-equipped their helm and pulled their mighty sword from the ruins floor. Serana looked confused, puzzled as to why the Dragonborn was smiling at the situation they now find themselves in.

“Sorry.” They said proudly. “That’s my cue.”

(Thank you for reading this. For anyone reading this that knows this scene from the game you will noticed I changed a lot of it to make it more dramatic and make it fit more in book format rather than a video game. I realize there will be mistakes, but this is my first step into doing more writing creatively rather than giving my opinions all the time. I will do more of these if this one is well received.)