"We will not hurt one of our own for the words of a man who spake of killing La Senora Mariposa!!" said the young man, who approached forward with a shirt and dabbed the tea off of Annette's feet.
"She helped my family survive the Dark Plague! Taught us how to not end up like the rest of yous from the Capital! Who'd kept the information and even the water to yourselves!" yelled the villager.
Then the young man, the villager, put his face up against the Father. The man's disgust towards the Father his expression was malcontent.
Villagers then surrounded the Father and took him away from the Valescus' residency. The priest spoke in many protests, cursing the villagers and the accused woman.
"You will pay for this! Your family has now become condemned by the Men of God." yelled the priest, in rampant fashion.
"Tu Madre!!" Annette cackled in amusement, even the villagers laughed at the priest.
His face soured with disdain and admitted defeat this time. She went back into the house and enjoyed her night with her family on a peaceful winter night.
Several months after the incident, Samuel went on a journey to experience the life of humans again. Annette would hold her daughter close as she walked to the market.
Cloette never went away from the house or the family land. She was very nervous and excited, looking at all the different stalls and shops.
The town had various food stalls and different forms of entertainment as well as produce stalls and even a puppet show with a band of people playing the fiddle and the lyres. She heard the conversations of vendors, children, and ecclesiastics.
The sun shone, brightening the morning. The villagers saw the child and her mother.
They welcomed them, but they got too close to Cloette. She got scared and hid behind her mother.
When Cloette tripped from stepping on her cape, she tumbled, and her slightly exposed face burned from the solar rays in the sky. Her skin had transformed into slight blisters and redness in patches around her face. She winced from the pain and tugged her mother's robe in haste.
"Mama, me duele mi cara.
Annette knelt, holding her daughter's hands, and applied an ointment for her slight burns. The medicinal salve was a sealed cup with engravings that smelled like mint and honey.
She held Cloette's hand and strolled through the crowd with minor movements. A strategy that helped her mother ebb and weave a safer passage toward their destination on the other side of the market.
Both managed through the group and ended up at a food stall. Cured meats and various animal carcasses were among the items that contained various types of cured meats.
Cloette smelled the diverse scent of spices and herbs, including the scent of indulgence coming from the smoke of the fire and crisped-up fat that flavored the skins of well-butchered carcasses.
Her mother noticed that Cloette started drooling from the smell of food. The vendor, whose physique resembles a giant, had rosy cheeks and dreadlocks flowing against his caramel skin.
The man smiled at Cloette and continued to sweat over the grill, cooking the meats. He did not look like a Spaniard or any European in the matter.
But it intrigued Cloette's curiosity as someone unique and wonderful to see. The man's shirt was stained with sweat and meat juices that sprayed onto his shirt and arms.
Cloette noticed the man had burns on his arms, just like hers. So she thought he was a dhampir too and took out the ointment her mother gave her.
The man looked down at the child and saw her hand him the little sealed cup. It was strange to see children interact with him, based on their surroundings, when the villagers could not come near him or the stall.
Despite him looking scary to other children because of his appearance. Atmospheric-wise, it felt warm and homey that they recognized him as a human and not a monster.
"What do you have there, child?" the man asked as he knelt to examine the sealed cup.
Cloette grabbed the man's arm, and she pulled him towards her, the amount of power he felt from the child. He was afraid but also impressed and he noticed the girl open the cup.
The child dabbed on the man's wounds with the semi-solid ointment, and it slightly glowed yellow. Healing the burns with a faded scar was all that remained. Annette looked over and saw her daughter conduct such prowess of using an ointment that her mother had made for her.
She looked over at the man and put her finger to her mouth as a sign to be silent about the matter. The man agreed with a nod and went back to grilling the meat.
"What will you have, dear customer?" boasted the man, smiling at Annette.
"Dos carne kebabs para ir, por favor. Oh, and may I have a couple of sausage links and dried meat, please?
The vendor chuckled and said wholeheartedly, "Well, Ḍaiṇa, we will accept your coin, but you will have to help us as well to promote our business. And maybe some of that ointment for mah burns next time, yes?"
Annette nodded in agreement and said, "Only if you could give us a bit more dried meat then? Say four bronze pieces worth for the ointment?"
The vendor accepted the deal with a burst of jolly laughter in response and gave her the supplies she needed from his stall. Cloette was excited that she helped the person with the burns and hopped around giggling.
Annette sighed, somberly, about her daughter's growing abilities. Soon, her hope of living a peaceful life would have almost ended.
But Annette would only think about her husband and daughter for now. To prepare them for the worst, to live without her, and with the ability to thrive with all the love she can give them.
Once dusk arrived after the mother and daughter finished their shopping, the wind blew off Cloette's hood. What was once a peaceful market day would one day become the night of terror.