“That’s it, Bartholomew, I’m gonna climb the highest branch today,” Ellie proclaimed to the crow perched on her shoulder. 

The crow cawed loudly and flew up to the top of the old oak tree, waiting for her to follow. Ellie’s resolve strengthened as she grabbed the first branch. Her heart beat faster with excitement, she had never made it to the very top. She glanced back at the forest — it was covered by a blanket of leaves — light rarely ever peeked through the canopy except for near the big old oak tree. It was quite a lonely old tree in the depths of Everwood – nothing much grew near it – yet it was the tallest, most lush tree in the forest. Its branches stretched toward the sky as if reaching for something it could not have. 

Her long chestnut brown hair fluttered as she started climbing. One branch at a time. She was not scared, rather she was excited. So excited that her heart kept pounding in her chest. Ellie could see the dense forest from where she was. The trees that surrounded the oak tree. The crows cawed loudly as if cheering her on. 

She had easily skipped school to be in the forest, her father was rarely home, most of the time he wouldn’t know where she went. Ellie disliked school anyway, too many people, and she had to sit still the whole day. And Ellie was not the kind of child to sit still, nor the kind of child to simply do as she was told. In her mind she was an adventurer – an explorer. She knew the forest like the back of her own hand. Actually, she might have known the forest better than the back of her own hand. She spent every day out there in the wilderness, exploring ancient ruins and lost paths. Out there in the forest, she was in charge, she had friends in the crows that seemed to rule the woods. 

But this day —which was to be the best day of her life according to her – she had her sights set on the big old oak tree. If she climbed high enough, she could see Dawn from there – the biggest city in all of Lorelei. It always glittered brilliantly in the not too far distance from Everwood. It was so near, yet so far. Ellie dreamt of exploring the depths of the city, she had heard stories of underground paths, and the curiosity of Old Dawn drew her in. 

“Bartholomew… One day I’ll go there, to Dawn. And I’ll see it, the oldest buildings in the world, can you believe there are buildings there from before the Cataclysm happened,” she told the crow and grabbed another branch, and then another. “So close now, I’m starting to see Dawn from here.”

She squinted her eyes and looked back, the forest was too dense to see the ruins from there. The ruins of the old world – from before the cataclysm – lay scattered in the forest.

Ellie climbed higher, and the skyscrapers of Dawn started to appear in the distance, a perfect city skyline that seemed to grasp for the clouds. Ellie huffed as she grabbed the next branch, she kept her balance. Hands held tightly onto the wood of the oak tree. She was going to make it. The next branch was within her reach, the crows cawed louder and louder, cheering her on. Ellie grabbed a hold of that last branch, pulling herself up, before hearing a snap. 

“Oh shoot,” Ellie muttered before she suddenly felt herself falling backward. 

She hit one branch after another on her way down, grunting with each bump. Ellie might have had a high tolerance for pain, but she had never fallen from that high before. She hit the ground with a loud thud. Her yellow backpack braced some of her fall, though she was sure she heard her glass jars shatter in there. 

“Ow,” Ellie whimpered, her eyes fixed on that distant darkening sky. 

She groaned and she sat up, swiftly taking the backpack off. And as she scrambled to get onto her knees she saw something strange sticking out from the ground right next to the roots of the oak tree. 

“What is that?” She asked herself and crawled closer.

The ground was covered in moss, dead leaves, and mushrooms, yet she saw something in a dull shade of white peek out from the dirt. Her hands reached out to brush away the leaves. Ellie’s eyes grew larger when she saw more of what was sticking out from the ground. The crows cawed loudly from up in the tree, yet none of them seemed to want to come down.

“It can’t be? Can it?” Ellie whispered as she started digging her small fingers into the ground. 

She pulled out earth and moss, her hands full of dirt, though that was an quite a normal thing for her. Faster she tugged at the moss, and shuffled more earth aside. In front of her a soil covered, sallow skull started emerging from the ground, Ellie had never seen a human skull before in the forest. 

“A skull? Is someone buried here? Could this be some awesome grave with fancy artifacts?” Ellie squealed and placed her hands on either side of the skull. 

With a tug she tore it loose from the ground and the oak tree. Her eyes widened even further as she noticed two long, pointy fangs on the skull. Her heart beat started pounding again and she squealed loudly. She heard the crows cawing with increasing volume. She recognized the caws; the crows were sounding the alarm as if danger was near. Yet she ignored their noise, in her hands was something far more important.

“A vampire skull? Could it be? Wait, are vampires real?” Ellie leaped up and twirled around with the skull above her head. 

She suddenly stopped and examined the skull closer. Her hands turned it around and looked at it from every angle with wondered. Was it was real? 

A cacophony of crows cawed louder and louder from the tree top. Ellie was too enthralled to pay them any more attention. 

“The fangs look so sharp,” Ellie muttered before her finger poked one of the fangs, “Ow,” she groaned as blood started to drip from her index finger. 

Ellie suddenly heard a disgruntled male voice. “Keep your fudging hands off me, dirty child.”