I had just arrived at Whiterun. In the town square, I noticed one of the street vendors being hassled by a seemingly intoxicated man. Not being one to resist helping out a pretty face, I stepped in to have a word with the fellow. Some persuasion (and intimidation) later, he decided to leave her alone and head home.
She thanked me profusely, telling me of how ever since her husband had left them, she and her daughter had fallen on hard times, and the constant stream of new suitors did nothing to alleviate her stress. She offered me a small gift from her shop, and I accepted her thanks graciously. We parted ways, and I scarcely gave the encounter a second thought.
Fast forward to a few days ago: I had fallen in with some unseemly people in Whiterun, people who had a dark secret. They had traded their humanity for power. They had offered this power to me as well, and I accepted, participating in a profane ritual that temporarily turned me into a deadly beast.
That night, the bloodlust had overtaken my senses, and though I don’t remember most of it, some things still haunt my nightmares: the smell of blood, the sound of claws tearing through flesh, the face of the woman from the market.
The next morning, I had awoken to find myself in my bed, naked and sore. After I had cleaned myself up, I went outside, and found the remnants of the night before. A few tattered bodies were in the street, a gruesome sight. I recognized one of them as the woman from my first visit to Whiterun.
My “friends” were there also, and sent me on a mission to clear out a fortress full of those who would hunt us and destroy us. It had the added benefit of getting me out of the city for a while until things calmed down. I had performed the task with precision and speed, and have just arrived back in Whiterun.
Just then, a courier came up to me, and gave me a letter, as well as a large coinpurse. Apparently, the woman had been so thankful, she wrote me into her will, and left me some money when she died.
I began to walk away, and I saw the woman’s now-orphaned daughter running through the street with some of the other town children.
I’m a monster.
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