Author's Note: Hola, I meant to get this chapter out on Monday, because that's when I normally update, but ended up having to put it off. Reason one being I got overwhelmed with work, the fact I'm starting my first semester next week, and my brother and his family are moving into my house from Japan. Reason two is because I realized that this chapter was going to be super short. Haa~ So anyway, here she is!

The sun was beginning to set, bathing the world below in orange and gold light. Marcurio wondered how much longer it would take to get to Windhelm. The lands of Skyrim still remained unfamiliar to him, even though he'd been living here for a few years now. He knew the cities well enough, but he hardly knew the vast spaces between them. Usually when someone hired him, it was to do jobs either in Riften, or in the wilds around it. Not that he really had any desire to explore the region on his own; he figured the adventures should be left to jobs. After all, he wouldn't want to explore Skyrim too much. Certainly he would lose interest and thus take the fun out of his career!

"It's going to get dark soon," He said, swatting a fly that'd been harassing him for the past couple minutes or so.

"I know."

"Would it be foolish to stop and light a fire?" After she didn't respond, he sighed. "...I suppose it would."

And we're back to silence. He felt himself growing just a bit hopeless. There was a rumbling in his stomach like no other he'd ever experienced. They'd been traveling all day, only stopping briefly every now and then so Taigra could gather a few plants. Not even one low-life showed up to keep things interesting. Not even one!

"If we keep it small, it shouldn't attract too much attention." She said after a while, catching him a bit off guard. He'd begun to think she'd completely ignored him.

Marcurio perked up instantly. Finally, they could rest. All day he'd been looking forward to some action, but now all he wanted was a place to sit.

Suddenly, his employer quickened her pace, charging through bushes and over rocks. The wizard found himself almost sprinting in order to keep up with her. "Hey! Wait up!" He yelled. When she didn't stop, he demanded. "Where are you going?!" Taigra tread onward, continuing to ignore him. Marcurio furrowed his brow, holding back a swear as he stubbed his toe into a rock. Is she trying to ditch me?

If that was the case, then she'd have to try harder, for he was a very hard person to leave behind! She may be fast, but certainly she couldn't outrun him in those heavy boots, not to mention, all that rubbish she carried.

Marcurio now ran at full speed, smiling to himself triumphantly as he began gaining on her. Her tail floated above the air only a few feet away. He began to reach out a hand as the temptation to yank it back grew stronger. His fingers barely brushed the soft fur. No matter how much sass his stubbed foot gave him, no matter how much his body already ached, he wouldn't be abandoned. There was no way a man like him would be left behind-

"Ahhhh!"

Before he even knew what was happening, his face nearly collided with the ground. Had it not been for some sort of force holding his body up by the collar of his robes, he probably would have ended up with a concussion. Still didn't do much for his ankle though, which must have hit a low hanging branch of a bush or something. He swiveled his neck around to see Taigra looking down at him, her eyes wide with confusion. She roughly pulled him back up to his feet.

Cheeks aflame with embarrassment, he could only pant out a simple, "Whoa!" before rolling his shoulders back and swinging his arms, trying to recompose himself.

"Are you alright?"

Is she seriously asking that?! "Yeah, I'm fine, you know, seeing as you just took off out of nowhere!" He replied sarcastically. "What the hell made you run off like that?!"

She merely pointed in front of her. His vision followed her finger in the direction it indicated, to see what looked like a fresh elk carcass.

"You ran as if a dragon were flying after you...for a dead elk?"

"Look."

"Yeah, it's dead."

"By the Gods..." She rolled her eyes, walking over to the elk's rather bloodied head, gesturing towards an arrow which pierced it's throat. "I mean, look at the arrow. They're traditional steel arrows, obviously it was killed by hunters...probably not any longer than an hour ago."

"How can you tell?"

She reached down, gently stroking the animal's shoulder. "The body is still warm."

"Hmm, well it's a decent sized kill. Why would they just leave it?" Marcurio asked.

"Because they only wanted the antlers. Nobles who hunt only for sport do this sort of thing all the time. They've got all the gold they'll ever need, so they become bored. They come out here, looking for new entertainment, and take to hunting down as much game they can find." Her voice then grew saddened. "They took this poor creature's life, just for the trophy-for fun. There was no purpose for its death." She tried to disguise it, but he could see the small tear forming at the edge of her eye. "They removed the antlers while the poor thing was still alive. I can only imagine his suffering...how could they...how could they do this to such a beautiful creature?"

Marcurio felt a small tug in his heart at how upset she was over the dead elk. It could have been her grief alone that had him softening up, but those big, sad eyes and the way her furry ears drooped had him melting. He'd began to have his doubts about her character when this day had first started out, but now he felt his previous assumptions still held their validity. Maybe. He hadn't been with her for very long. She would probably end up throwing him off again in a few minutes.

Feeling unsure of how to proceed in this...odd situation, he resorted to trying to comfort her. If they kept dawdling around this carcass, it would get dark, and setting up camp would be a rotten time. "There, there," he said, tentatively patting her on the shoulder. "It's in a better place now."

She wiped the tear from her eye. "I guess so...but it's still terrible." She stroked the elk's fur again. "And I'd feel wrong just leaving him here."

She's not going to want to bury it, is she? Marcurio thought irritably to himself. That would be a tragic waste of his talents. A waste I can't refuse, too. He thought he'd move things along, no matter what she wanted to do. "Well, it's getting dark...so..."

"Right," The Khajiit sighed, sliding her pack off her shoulder. She immediately went to digging through the various contents within the leather bag, at last pulling out a knife. "You can get some firewood, we'll make camp here."

"...What?"

"I said, gather firewood. We're going to make camp here."

Marcurio crossed his arms. "Alright, and what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to skin this."

And there it is. She certainly took no time in confusing him yet again. He had to blink a couple times before replying, just to make sure he was really witnessing this spontaneous change in behavior. Maybe it would be best if he hadn't said anything, for he should just be grateful that she wasn't asking to bury it, but he couldn't stop himself. "I thought you were upset about it...you know, it being dead and all."

"I am, very much so." She said simply.

"So," He continued, trying to wrap his mind around how someone could switch from grief to...whatever this was, as quickly as she had. "Mutilating the corpse is going to make you feel better?"

"Not mutilating. Making use of it. Giving it a purpose, that sort of thing."

Marcurio kept staring, disbelievingly, as she dug through her pack to find a few other tools.

"What are you gawking at?" Taigra snapped after a few seconds.

"You are very difficult to understand." The wizard stated.

Taigra sighed, clearly exhausted with the conversation. "Why do you even care? Just go get the firewood."

Marcurio really wanted to reply with an explanation about how she was wasting his talents on stupid, mediocre tasks, but once she'd stuck her knife into that corpse, he knew he should leave. He certainly didn't want to stick around to watch that. Perhaps it was best she sent him away. At least he'd be doing something constructive. "Yes, your highness." He grumbled before walking off.

Night time had fully arrived by the time Taigra came walking back over the hill. Since she'd been gone, her companion had only managed to bring a single log for him to sit on, and re-arrange the things she'd already moved there. A sigh escaped her. Well, at least he got a fire going. She took note of how Marcurio had carefully set up everything so he would always have his back turned away from where she had been working on the elk. For being a mercenary, he sure was a sissy when it came to blood. Maybe that was why he chose the life of a mage, because at least the kills were cleaner when it came to magic.

"There's my little butcher," he teased once she came walking past him. "Did you have fun cutting up the dead body?"

Taigra dried off her hands, which were still soaked from when she'd washed the blood off her hands in the river. She glared at him. "No, of course not. It's never something I enjoy."

"Relax, I was only joking." Marcurio replied lightheartedly. "Anyway, what do you plan on doing with the hide?"

While the wizard had taken an unusually long time gathering firewood, she'd set up a make-shift tanning rack at one corner of the camp using some fallen branches and leather strips she had in her pack. "It depends. I could use it to make armor or something, though the fur is quite fine, so I'll most likely keep it as is."

"You're going to carry that thing all the way to Windhelm?"

"It's not that heavy."

"Whatever you say. But if it gets to be too much, don't expect to just dump it on me."

The Khajiit shrugged. "Sure," was all she said, taking out her knife again, and heading over to the large, flat boulder she'd laid the elk meat on. She cut the slabs into smaller chunks, spearing them through sharpened sticks-of which she'd also happened to make in the time that it took Marcurio to complete the one, simple task she had given him. She really hoped his abilities in destruction magic made up for his lack of speed when it came to gathering firewood, especially in an area where sticks and kindling were found literally everywhere.

After sprinkling a bit of a special mixture of herbs, salt and other spices she'd put together herself on the meat, she picked the sticks up and handed one to Marcurio. The wizard took it, uttering a curt word of thanks before holding it up against the heat of the fire.

"So, what business do you have in Windhelm?" He asked.

Taigra took a seat next to him on the log. "I'm investigating an incident that happened to me back in Riverwood."

"Ooh, what kind of incident?"

"A group of cultists tracked me down and tried to kill me."

Marcurio rotated his stick. "Hmm, but why are you going to Windhelm for answers? How do you know they wanted you specifically?"

"I found this note on one of their bodies," She said, pulling out a small, folded up piece of parchment she'd kept tucked in her belt. He gingerly took it from her hand, and opened it.

After a good while of squinting, he finally opened his mouth to say, "...I can't read it."

"What do you mean you can't read it? Aren't you a college graduate?"

"I mean," he grumbled, "I can't see it. It's really dark out, and the fire is really small. In case if you didn't notice."

Taigra's ears drooped, embarrassed. "Oh...right." She took the note back from him. "Sorry. I forget that the eyes of men are not so keen in the darkness."

"I'll just be flattered that you believed in my eyesight so much." The mage replied with a wink.

"You wish. Anyway, it says, 'Board the vessel Northern Maiden docked at Raven. Take it to Windhelm, then begin your search. Kill the False...One known as Taigra before she reaches Solstheim'."

"The False One? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Taigra bit her bottom lip. "I don't know. All I know is they attacked a village of innocent people in order to see me dead. I intend to find out who these jokers are and end whatever nonsense has started."

"Sounds quite serious. Good."

"Good?"

Marcurio's mouth curled up into a playful smirk. "At least I know now that you didn't just hire me to keep you company."

If it were company I wanted, surely I would have hired someone far less annoying than you. Taigra wanted to repeat her thoughts aloud to him, but only let out a sigh.

Once she was sure the spiced venison she'd been roasting was done, she pulled it away from the fire. It was about time too; the growling in her stomach was beginning to become almost unbearable, especially with the scent of roasting meat only a few feet away. Though not as unbearable as her companion's endless amount of questions. Perhaps she was being too harsh on him, but damn, did he ever stop talking?

Even as they ate, he continued to blabber on about the most random things in between bites. All from stories about his days as a library aid while a student of the mage's college, to how he obtained the robes he wore. Taigra was just grateful that he at least had the decency to finish chewing before opening his mouth to talk. If she had to put up with his exaggerated nothing-stories and the annoying squishing of food within his cheeks, she most likely would have put him under some sort of calming spell, taken back the five hundred septims and high-tailed it to Windhelm by herself.

Though I can't...She furrowed her brow at the thought. Ever since she'd entered the wilderness, before even mistakenly arriving in Riften, her clairvoyance spell had been acting up. That was, until she entered the Bee and Barb. As soon as she'd plopped onto the bed in the room she'd rented, the azure light she used to find the next part of her destiny went shooting out the door, and stopping at the feet of the mercenary-mage who occupied the bench just a few paces from the bar. As soon as she'd hired him, the spell began to point towards Windhelm, where she had been first directed to ever since she found that note. Then, in any instance where he was not at her side, the spell would always, always point back to him. It would only start pointing towards Windhelm once he was with her. She was beginning to wonder if this was the work of a daedra, maybe one who sought to amuse himself with the misery this mercenary was already putting her through...

Marcurio finished off the last scrap of meat he had, then abruptly changed the subject from himself, to even more questions. "So, I do have to ask...and I don't mean this insensitively, but what exactly permits you within city walls?"

"I'm an ambassador."

"Yeah right," Marcurio teased. She didn't like the way he smirked at her with that pursed-lip smile, one eyebrow raised, and leaned towards her. "An ambassador doesn't travel alone, not when she's being pursued by bandits, assassins and cultists. And especially if she's a, well, she."

"Maybe my body guards were killed on the way here."

"That's not going to fool me."

"Believe what you want."

"My dear, you're talking to a wizard; a wizard who graduated from one of the finest colleges in all of Tamriel. I've seen and had dealings with plenty of ambassadors of many different factions, and I know for a fact, you aren't one." He said, that impish grin only growing even wider.

Taigra scoffed. "I would hardly say the mage's college of Cyrodil is in any comparison to that of Winterhold."

"Don't try to change the subject," Marcurio's amber gaze continued to stare her down. Obviously he wasn't going to shut up until she gave him an honest answer. "Come on, whatever it is, I won't tell anyone."

Eventually, no matter how much she didn't like it, he would find out who she really was. The Khajiit closed her eyes, deciding it was probably time to start telling the truth.

However, the sound of a piercing roar and the heavy beat of wings overhead prevented her answer. The earth almost seemed it was shaking as the beast roared again-a roar that said it had found it's target. Of course, she thought bitterly. A dragon.

"What the hell?!" Marcurio dropped the stick he'd been holding and jumped to his feet. In one hand he readied a fire spell, in the other, a lightning spell.

Taigra readied a firebolt in each hand, watching the skies as the dragon's shadowy wings circled above. This was certainly something she really didn't feel like dealing with today.

"So you want to know what I am?" She announced to Marcurio, her eyes following the beast's form as it descended upon them. "Well, you're about to find out."

Author's Note: Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up mid-week next week, then I can get back to updating on Mondays. If in the meantime y'all can leave me a review, that would be great. It would be really nice to hear how things are going so far, if there are any mistakes and all that good stuff I should know about. I hope I don't sound like a review whore, I'd just really like to know how y'all feel about it so far. XD

Thanks guys! :)

- Seargent Cupcake