“That went surprisingly well,” Marcus said as he lowered his bow. Both Thalmor had less than half their HP, and they had yet to heal as they had run out of MP during the fight. Coupled with the fact that they were no longer moving, they were easy pickings.

“I’m proud of my son but disappointed I didn’t get to do anything.” Mother mumbled as she and Father lowered their bows.

“You can take a shot to make sure-”

*Twang... Thud*

Marcus’s sentence was cut short as his mother struck the still unmoving Thalmor’s body with such speed and accuracy it even startled him.

“Yep, he’s dead.” Mother said as he put away her bow, a smile clear on her face.

Though Marcus didn’t know, as he was well behaved, he kept a mental check not to get on his mother’s bad side.

“Marcus, shouldn’t you go help their captive?” Mother said, her smile not abating.

“Yes,” Marcus said as he reflexively obeyed.

“Why do you think they captured… This child?”

“Perhaps this child, or their parents, were worshipers of Talos?” Father hypothesized. “After all, that’s the reason they claim to be in Skyr*m.”

“Their excuse, you mean.” Mother replied with a curled lip.

Marcus paid little heed to his parents’ banter as he approached the captive child.

“It’s all right. I’m just going to take off the bag now, okay?” Marcus said in a reassuring tone when he noticed the child was shaking. Perhaps because of his tone or how youthful his voice sounded, the child’s shaking abated, though it did not disappear completely. 

Marcus gently took off the bag, and his smile froze on his face. He had come to expect that the child would be a Nord. Given that Thalmor were escorting them, he also believed his father’s analysis to be correct. However, he did not expect the child to have a pair of cat ears. However, those ears were only half of his surprise. 

In Skyr*m, there was a race of humanoid cats called Khajiit, one of the beast races. However, the face that the cat ears belonged to was completely human. Marcus took several seconds before he understood that it indeed was a Khajiit in front of him. The Khajiit were a unique race because they would take many different forms. However, they would be born in human appearance and grow into a specific form corresponding to the Lunar Cycle when they were born. The over 20 variations could vary between a house cat, a sabercat, a humanoid can, or the appearance of a wood elf. 

The Khajiit, as depicted by the game, were of the Cathay variety. The Khajiit in front of him was likely of the Ohmes-raht variety. However, some minor differences implied a variety not previously documented. The only other thing of note was that this Khajiit was female, though not obviously. She was still young, probably only slightly older than Marcus.

The Khajiit’s white-furred ears twitched as she put on a pitiful expression and raised her bound hands.

Marcus snapped out of his surprise and gave a genuine smile. “Give me a moment and cut the rope,” Marcus said as he slowly reached for the iron dagger at his waist. “Are you all right?”

The Khajiit subconsciously nodded, though she did not speak. Her blue catlike eyes had only glanced at Marcus and his parents but firmly locked onto the bodies of the Thalmor.

The moment Marcus severed her bonds, her expression turned fierce as her young and innocent face became warped with anger and grief, though it was not directed at him.

With surprising ferocity, she leaped upon the corpses of the Thalmor. She clawed at both of their faces, disfiguring them horribly.

Both Marcus and his parents were concerned by the sudden outburst but didn’t say anything. They had no idea the story behind how she became their captive, and she was clearly venting.

Eventually, the Khajiit settled down, taking deep breaths. The exhaustion from the mental strain of her capture, and continuous travel on foot, had taken its toll. Her sudden burst of energy had nearly depleted the rest.

“Are you okay?” Marcus said as gently. He approached her, a clean rag in his hand. He reached out and took her trembling hand as he noted her fingernails, which were more like claws. They were longer and sharper than normal fingernails and seemed a strange hybrid between a fingernail at a claw. They seemed rather dangerous as they had no means to retract, which meant they could easily cause damage, which Marcus learned firsthand.

In her tiredness from the adrenaline wearing down, she instinctively struck out at the hand that approached her.

Marcus took a step back with a stinging pain from the claw marks that leaked blood down his hand. Luckily, his arms were protected by armor. Marcus waved down his parents, who had reflexively reached for his weapons as he cast a basic healing spell which quickly closed the wound. He pushed a smile through his pain as he noticed that the Khajiit’s expression had immediately turned into panic and regret as she slowly backed off.

After she made several attempts, she finally spoke. “Shiro thanks you for your help.” She said as her voice trembled.

“I’m happy to help, especially when it comes to taking care of Thalmor,” Marcus said as he pointed towards the corpse, though there was a look of doubt in his eyes. Shiro was not a name he would expect from a Khajiit, and he believed he had heard it before, but it would’ve had to have been in his past life.

“Bad guys.” Show reflexively said as she glared at their corpses in hatred, sitting ready to tear them up even more.

“Shiro, can you tell me why they captured you?” Mother suddenly asked gently.

Perhaps feeling more comfortable speaking to a woman, Shiro blinked cutely and nodded. “Shiro doesn’t know. Shiro was living with her family, father and mother, in Riften. Then… then…” She said before she began to stutter, tears welling up in her eyes.

Noticing her reaction, mother quickly stepped down and offered a hug. Shiro, desperately fighting back the tears, shrunk back as her eyes darted around the ground as if thinking before she eventually jumped into Mother’s embrace and began crying.

As Mother began to console her, Father looted the Thalmor. It didn’t take long for him to pull out a piece of paper which he quickly read before handing it to Marcus.

The paper read as:

‘your orders are to investigate the appearance of a Khajiit who was born in the form of man. Should such a Khajiit exist, you are to capture them by any means necessary and bring them back for processing.’

Marcus lit up the orders with a flash of fire before turning to his father with a frown. “Why would the Thalmor be interested in the Khajiit?”

“Well, I’ve heard rumors. The Khajiit are known for their inherent stealth ability and capability of fighting barehanded. As such, they make excellent spies. Most likely, a Khajiit of her ethnicity would be highly valued for such a task. She could blend in with the Khajiit and other races fairly easily. One of the most important things the Thalmor uses as a weapon of war is information. They focused on obtaining their own and severing their enemies. Most likely, they would take her, brainwash her with torture and magic, and turn her into a loyal spy.”

Marcus slightly frowned. He found this entire encounter to be somewhat strange in retrospect. As he pondered, he opened up the System and checked the wiki. However, he found no reference to the name of Shiro either through the normal wiki or the mods. Of course, there was the possibility that Shiro was just a normal inhabitant. Perhaps there were other mods with named characters who had similarly unique names. Those types of names could have been incorporated into this world as a result. Of course, there was also the possibility of another factor that he was not aware of. However, none of that truly mattered at the moment.

The most pressing matter at the moment was to dispose of the corpses. Much less the bandits, the Thalmor would have to be disposed of properly. If the Thalmor traced it back to them by some odd chance, it would be disastrous. Marcus was sure that the shameless Thalmor would go to any lengths to obtain justice for the killing of their soldiers. Luckily, wood was abundant. It took several hours, but they eventually made a pyre and cremated the bodies after they were looted.

Marcus had already made a quick run of the towers for loot and was surprised at what he found, given how small the area was and the low levels of the bandits that occupied it. He found a hunting bow and a dwarven battleaxe, both enchanted. While these weapons were useless, their enchantments were not. 

The bow had enchantment that dealt fire damage while the dwarven battleaxe damaged a target’s SP. Additionally, the elvish light armor the Thalmor had would also be of use. While it was not wise to wear them in the short term, that would not be the case in the future. Their elvish armor was mass-produced, not unique to the Thalmor, and, while relatively rare, did exist throughout Skyr*m. As such, the only work that needed to be done would be to remove any identifying features, which he could easily do. No one would wonder why an elf was wearing elvish armor.

The final notable piece of loot that Marcus obtained was a book that would increase his skill with archery. Even though his experience from his past life made his max level for archery very high, it was limited. Luckily, this book was of the expert level, which meant that he could use it to potentially reach a maximum of 79. Of course, that was only potentially.

Skill books could only increase the max level by so much it was the individual’s overall knowledge. If a person only obtained high-level skill books, their max skill level would be limited. Likely the knowledge of the book would be too advanced for them. It was important to have multiple sources of information as very few skill books were comprehensive. Luckily, Marcus’s previous archery experience meant that he could utilize this book to the fullest, likely getting close to a max level of 79. Unfortunately, this process would take far longer than Marcus took to learn the Bound Bow spell. However, that was for the future. The immediate concern was dinner.