The guard had been an adventurer. A hero. They'd seen many, many things in their journey, before an arrow to the knee had ended it all.

They'd spent many days afterwards wishing for adventure once more. Excitement, companionship, the chance to see more amazing things, to be a real hero...

But they'd take all that wishing back in an instant if it good undo what had happened this afternoon.

Despite all the stuff they'd seen, they knew that the image of what had happened would still remain permanently seared into their brain.

The aftermath of a dragon attack. A massacre.

Even as the guard did their best with their leg to move over, look for survivors, they already had a deep, foreboding feeling that they would find none. They had arrived too late. They hadn't been fast enough.

But then, just as they gave up any tiny bit of hope they had, they heard something. The littlest of squeaks coming from some wreckage.

"Something's alive in there!" They called, even as they moved over and started lifting and heaving up pieces of the singed wreckage themself, grunting in pain through gritted teeth as it burned their already rough and calloused hands. The guard was determined they would get this thing out!

And as one, final, precarious piece of wreckage was pulled away...there it was.

A...a kitten, by the looks of it. Mussed up and covered in soot, but undoubtedly alive. The guard sighed in relief at that and their heart gave out entirely as they moved to pick up the little thing, which promptly gave off a little mewl.

"Shh, shh..." they hushed, moving as gently as possible. "It's ok. You're safe now little one. I've got you now."

The guard hadn't faced much protest as they left the scene, a slowly rousing kitten huddled in their arms, with them having been utterly incapable of even thinking of leaving the poor thing there.

And so they arrived back at home relatively quickly, where they were left with the dawningrealisation that...they had no idea how to look after a cat.

They had meat but...was the thing too small for that yet? Well...they'd heard cats liked milk. They could give it that for now.

And so that's what they left to do, grabbing a jug and filling up the biggest bowl they could find for the little kitten, only to be disturbed by the most pain-filled yowls they'd ever been heard.

Panic gribbed the guard. Was it hurt worse than they thought?! Should they have taken the poor thing to see some sort of healer?!

But when they actually got there, the kitten, racing around the room clawing at everything as it was, didn't appear to be in any sort of physical pain.

And yet it still yowled.

So what was-? Oh. Ohhh.

"You want your owners, don't you?"

The poor little thing turned directly to face them and gave off it's loudest yowl yet.

It was like that for a while.

Tiber, which they had wound up naming the little thing, had been inconsolable. Yowling and screeching for owners that it would never get to see again.

The guard had made the mistake of trying to go over and pet the kitten, to see if that would help, only to get their hand mauled as a result.

And so they simply left the bowl- muttering apologies, assurances, condolences they knew Tiber couldn't possibly understand- and went to sit on their chair with ale and a book, until either bed, food or work demanded otherwise. A routine which had been and continued to be repeated again and again, with the only change being the addition of feeding Tiber before sitting down.

Alone. Alone as they'd always been ever since that accursed arrow injury!

But they tried take solace that at least they were helping the little thing. They were doing something good, and that was all that mattered.

And that made the ever present loneliness hurt just that little bit less.

But then, one day, just as they opened up their book once again, they had an idea. A nonsensical idea, but...an idea.

"This is about your namesake."

The guard turned to face the kitten, huddled away in the corner.

"Tiber Septim. A man with a great tale. Would you like to hear it?"

Little Tiber sat up at that, almost as if they could somehow understand what was being said to them.

And the guard realised, as a smile settled in their scarred face, that perhaps this stupid, nonsensical idea could work after all.

It did!

Tiber started moving closer and closer until eventually the little thing contendily started actually sitting beside the guard as soon as they sat themselves, seemingly enraptured by the sort in an odd baby-cat like way.

This allowed the guard to get a better look at their new family member, albeit only for so long. If they stopped reading too long the kitten would harrumph in seeming annoyance, something which would cause the guard to chuckle and give a quick pet to the little beast before returning to reading aloud.

But the guard still remained slightly curious.

Some of his fellow guards had asked him what he'd pulled from the wreckage the day of the dragon attack and they realised that they couldn't give a full answer. They honestly had no idea what kind of cat they'd brought into their home.

They didn't think they'd ever even seen the type before.

But then again, the guard was hardly an expert. They'd never even had a cat before so that was hardly a surprise.

All in all, the guard operated under the philosophy that a cat was a cat and Tiber was still their baby, so, so what if they didn't know the exact breed?

"Maybe you're a bear. That would be something." The guard joked at the kitten, shaking their head before turning back to the book. A mystery for another day.

"And so-"

The door slammed shut, as the guard returned from their latest shift.

The cat came over to him immediately, looking at them expectantly but the guard hobbled past, breathing heavily.

Everything had gone terribly today!

They'd done something, twisted it the wrong way or who knows what, that caused their knee too flare up so badly it had brought them crashing to the ground, allowing the criminal they were pursuing to get away!

And the looks their fellow guards gave them after...

No. No reading today.

They would grab some ale for the wretched knee pain and go to bed to try forget everything that had happened today.

The fact that they couldn't even do that quickly, that their knee still hurt too much to move with any sort of speed, very nearly caused them to lose what they had left of their composure.

So when they got to the bed, got to just lie down with their ale and take their weight of the treacherous, it was a mercy.

But what wasn't a mercy, was their thoughts. The thoughts about how...

Something was touching their hand.

With a start the guard realised the kitten had jumped up on the bed, and was now nudging at their hand.

"Worried about me, little fellow?"

Tiber gave a keening response that they swore almost sounded like a yes.

The guard sighed, before slowly returning the nudges with some pets, as the kitten settled down beside them, seemingly refusing to leave them without any company.

...It didn't help completely. What had happened today still remained so, the knee serving as a constant reminder in and of itself...but the guard found that they did feel just a little bit better. Because this at least kept those thoughts away.

"...Thank you." They spoke at last, gently scratching the baby cat's ears. "Thank you."

And then, what happened next changed everything.

Because the ensuing silence was broken by a sleepy little voice.

"You're welcome."

A quiet, sleepy little child's voice that of the two living creatures in the room most certainly did not come from the guard.

But the undignified scream that followed just as certainly did.