Hello strangers! I got to chapter 20 and decided i really needed to put in some AN's, so here I am!

I hope you enjoy reading the fic as much as i enjoyed writing it

Chapter 1

"How did you and papa meet?" A voice pipes up.

The female laughs and gestures the barer over to seats. The pair settles comfortably before the female begins her story. Their movements speak of routine. The looks on their faces speak of eager anticipation.

"We actually met a year and half before 'The Legion's Mistake' as we call this particular story." The amber coloured Khajiit rumbles, "though he was near insensible with pain and I thought the furry lump was somebody else."

The youngling with silver-blue eyes scowls briefly in disbelief.

"Oh yes, mistaken identity." The Khajiit laughs. Black lips pull up over large pointed teeth, but the amusement dancing in her green eyes negates any fear in the child. Besides he is very familiar with this Khajiit.

A third person sighs with mock annoyance. "And here I thought I was the drama queen!" She cries with a flourish.

"Aunty!" The youngling yells in delighted greeting – one would think he hadn't seen her in weeks, not days – and normally he would have jumped from the Khajiit's lap to hug the half imperial around the knees, but she is currently decked out in spiky Deadric armour, a very effective deterrent.

"I'm just telling the truth." The Khajiit replies dismissively. "When you are involved I hardly need to add any more drama!" she adds with a wide toothy grin. It is obvious from their easy banter that the two have known each other for many years.

The child on her lap giggles as the childish half Imperial half Breton sticks out her tongue.

"Where was I?" the Khajiit muses with mock impatience. The Imperial begins unbuckling her armour as noisily as possible so the poor child doesn't know where to focus his attention. "Ahh yeees." The Khajiit rumbles low in her chest, causing the child to giggle happily and focus his attention on her. "It was the end of Second Seed, eight years ago maybe. I remember it was a Hunters night and the twin moons were smiling."

"Hunters night?" The child parrots curiously.

"Yes... A clear night. Clean crisp air and a 'kissing' breeze." She replies before gently skimming a whiskery kiss across the boy's plump cheek. He bats her face away with another giggle. He is an intelligent child with a quick mind, much like his mother. "It was dusk, and the Elk where just beginning to move-"

"And you where hungry." The Imperial boldly interrupts with humour lacing her tone.

"Of course!" The Khajiit cried smugly. "This great hunter knew the forests of Skyrim very well by then, having hunted and travelled through them with your aunty many times." She continues softly, trying to draw her audience in. "I tread as softly in them as I do the house."

The boy grins. One of his favourite games to play with the Khajiit is hide-and-seek; she actually presents a challenge unlike his giant of father. He much prefers to play Tag or Thane's with the noisier man. And unlike many of the other children he adores it when one or both of his parents join in with their games.

"So this hunter was hunting with her trusty bow, softly following the nervous Elk. Through the trees they bounded, over a hillock and leaped a clear stream-"

"Where exactly where you?" Kara asks as she finally sits down - after stacking all her armour neatly in a chest by the front door. She is much more fastidious about putting things away now there is a child in her life.

Senka shrugs. "On the road to Whiterun, from Markarth, I was coming back from a job I think."

"That's really far!" The boy exclaims in awe.

Senka chuckles at the excitable boy. "Yeees, hence this one hunting for dinner." She pauses to shift the seven year old onto her other leg. He's large for his age, no doubt exactly as his father was too. "I had the lovely fat female Elk in my sights. My arrow was knocked and I just took in a breath-"

Wide silver-blue eyes stare wonderingly up at her. Poor boy isn't bad with a bow, better than his father, or will be in a few years at least, but does not quite have his mother's intuition either. He just loves watching her practise her archery.

"- and I shit you not a howl like a dying dragon rent the air." Senka growls loudly.

The audience mock exclaims in horror.

"This one must have jumped a straight two foot in the air and the Elk disappeared like she was made of smoke." Senka huffs indignantly.

"The one that got away." Kara muses lustily.

Senka glares. "So I approach the noise." She states unabashed. "Kara and I had by that point dealt with near every enemy you could think of... Wolves, bears, drauger, bandits, dragons, spiders, vampires, Dwarven mechanics, marauders, falmer, forsworn and their oblivion sent Hagravens, ghosts, witches, skeletons, spriggans and Deadra-"

Kara laughs bitterly. "Don't forget the Dragon Priests."

"Near enough everything." Senka sighs in agreement. A poke on her nose brings her back to the present. Concerned eyes peer up at her. "Separately and together we have dealt with them all, sweetie."

"What did you find?" He asks in a whisper.

"A werewolf."

The child, and Kara, but she acts like a child a lot of the time anyway, gasp theatrically.

"Surrounded by three muscular men; one already had his guts hanging out, but the other two had sliver swords flashing and hate on their faces." Senka wildly flails an arm in an approximation of a sword slice. Kara winces. The Khajiit never got the hang of swords. "At their feet I spot a hulking furry mass. It was growling weakly even with its blood staining the grass around it."

The boy wrinkles his nose, totally enthralled.

"I thought it was Kara – I have seen her form once before – in Dawnstar when we were set upon by three frost trolls, but that is another story altogether." Senka groans. Some of the shit they went through is unbelievable. It is amazing they are still alive.

"All werewolves are dark in colour." Kara explains to the nonplussed boy. "I've never seen a blonde one. Aela has a reddish tint to her fur, like her hair, and Kodlak had a bit of silver around his muzzle, but that was just his age showing."

"I did not even think about my next action; I just finished off the silver hand members." Senka rumbles quietly. "Even if I had known that werewolf wasn't Kara I would have saved it. The Silver Hand is a terrible group of fanatics." She confides.

There is a pause of quiet before the Khajiit shakes herself.

"It was getting dark by then I remember but I could still see the murky pool of blood... I circled around the werewolf so it could see me..." She continues.

Kara reaches forwards to squeeze the Khajiit's hand in reassurance. "He's fine sister."

"He wasn't then." she chokes out hoarsely. "There were so many gashes! And a few stab wounds though they didn't pierce anything vital, thank Nocturnal. His face and left arm were smashed up and there was a stream of blood coming from his nose..."

Little arms wrap around her neck and squeeze lightly. Senka squeezes the little body back briefly.

"His breathing hitched too, so I knew he had at least one broken rib." She continues. She takes a moment to bury her nose in her son's hair. Their little miracle. "As soon as he opened his eyes I knew it wasn't Kara. There was still human intelligence there, but no recognition, and of course the ring of colour around the iris was wrong for Kara."

Mother and son both look over to see big twinkling brown eyes looking back.

"It is hard to believe but I just started to recite all the injuries I thought it had sustained and handed over every healing potion I had in my pack." Senka shivers. "I returned in the morning and it was gone."

She hands the child to his aunt, thankful for the reprieve; he is too big to have on her lap now, sadly. He will be taller than her by the time he hits his early teens. In fact she won't be surprised if he ends up as tall as his father and uncle. One of the few things her husband contributed to their son, aside from the icy blue of his eyes.

"I never forgot that night." Senka says after a long silence. "I did not really think about it much after realising it wasn't Kara; wondered if the werewolf was alive a couple of times, but real life intruded, and I mostly forgot about it."

Kara glowers. "Then the Civil War erupted."

Senka opens her mouth to reply but heavy familiar footsteps outside the house halt her words. The boy wriggles off of his aunt's lap in seconds and disappears into the adjoining hallway with nary a sound.

"Papa!"

"Hey titch!"

There is a pause of quiet, a heavy metallic thud, and then the child's father's huge bulk fills the doorway, their son giggling from behind him somewhere.

"Hello love, Harbinger." Farkas greets with a beaming smile.