Finally this chapter includes light rape so if that bothers you I suggest skipping to my next chapter.
Resh POV
To Resh, Skyrim was like a whole new world. So different from anywhere else he'd been before, such as Akavir or Morrowind. And not just because of the snow, which he had previously shown his disdain towards, but because of the sheer amount of bandits everywhere. Of course there were some bandits in Morrowind but never this many. Every time Resh had tried to use the roads, there they were.
At least they had the common decency to let him revert to his full form before ripping them to shreds. As long as he'd basked in the sun long enough they would never really bother him that much. Except for that one bandit who had seemed insistent on using ice magic, much to Resh's annoyance.
Just that one use of ice magic had put him almost out of action for days. Every time Resh tried to move an arm or flex his tail he could hear the frozen folds of fat and layers of muscle stiffen and crack. Resh couldn't travel in this state. He needed a place to rest or at the very least slow down his pace. But after arriving at Riverwood, he had promised Ralof that he would warn Whiterun of the dragon attacks, so he had to keep moving.
Of course he had to spend a good hour trying to calm the man down, as he seemed scared to find out his newest ally was a giant snake. Also Ralof had seemed to know a fair bit about his kind and made Resh promise that he wouldn't go around eating humans. He wondered if humouring his newest friend was really worth it, but he had promised and a Tsaesci doesn't break a promise.
Resh wondered why he had even agreed to help the Nord. They weren't the same species and he hardly considered the man a friend. The only significance he had over anyone else was that Resh had decided not to consider him as food. And yet here he was, accepting tasks from people he barely knew. He hoped he wasn't softening up and that this wouldn't become a regular occurrence.
Resh cursed himself but he couldn't keep going at this rate. His muscles had tensed up and he could barely take another slither. His one chance would be to find a sheltered place to rest and take the form of a Nord so random passers-by didn't try to bludgeon him in his sleep.
A bandit camp suddenly came into view. It looked like two large towers connecting over a stream by a long bridge. He could see some of the residents taking watch from the bridge.
'I guess I can join the bandits until I recover. From what I've seen, they are not without honour most know how to draw a sword, some can even harness the elements,' Resh considered.
Resh approached the door of the tower in his Nordic form, not wanting to get in an unnecessary and, in his current state, dangerous fight. Hobbling like an old man because of his injuries obviously didn't make him seem very much of a threat to the camp because they sent only one young bandit to see what he wanted. Or to mug him. He didn't really think this plan through but he was too far in to turn back now.
"What do you want? I'd suggest you turn around now if you want to keep your head attached to your neck," the bandit called out from in front of the tower gates.
"I seek refuge. I seek to join your group," Resh called back at the man.
"Turn around, milk-drinker, if you want to keep your coin. You're too injured to join us, and you can barely stand as it is," the young bandit insulted. At that Resh sent a burst of lightning in the boy's direction leaving a blacked scorch mark on the wall next to him. If it had hit, it would have melted through him and his armour leaving a bloody hole, the boy caught his drift that he wasn't going anywhere and ran off to find his superior.
"Come in, come in. Ymsigr has never been known to turn a good man down. I'm sure you will be a great addition for our 'innocent' little band. After seeing what you can do with magic I'm sure anyone sane would fear you so it would be great to have you on our side, just don't go casting a flame with us around," The chief stated.
"Are you okay? You look in a bad way. Want a drink of mead? We took this great stuff from the last travellers coming down this road. We also managed to get a lot of food, most of it good quality meat. Do you want some? We have enough to go around," Ymsigr asked. This chief seemed like a nice man. Judging by the two handed great-sword on his back, Resh could tell he was a strong warrior too, making Resh like him even more.
"Thanks for the offer, but I'm going to decline for now. Maybe tomorrow," Resh replied. He'd eaten a few days ago. He wouldn't be hungry and wanting to eat for a good week or so. And as for mead, he doubted anyone in the camp would want to see a drunken Tsaesci. That would be very dangerous, especially seeing as he would probably revert to his normal form.
"Obviously I'm not going to take you on raids seeing as you're new. But as you seem fairly competent with magic you can be on guard duty. Mostly you will just be stopping other bandits and soldiers who will try and shut us down. You will also get a small share of the gold we make" Ymsigr explained.
"I'll go through with that, on one condition though. I want a bed on the roof; I like to get the morning sun." Not only did Resh like the morning sun but he needed it. Otherwise he'd die of cold, but the bandit chief didn't need to know that.
It didn't take long before Resh had healed from his injuries. It had been only two days after he'd joined these bandits. His frozen muscles had healed and now he would have to leave them to go to Whiterun. He was actually going to miss his newly found companions, despite the fact that some of them used shields. If you don't want to get hit, move out of the way. You don't need a shield for that.
Although he was stuck with guard duty whenever they all went off on a raid, he didn't mind much, as Resh was not in the right shape to fight properly. As well as this, he was new. So why should he be expected to go? If Resh could, he would stay, but now that he could fight properly he still had things he had promised to see to and couldn't waste his time.
During his time with the bandits, Resh, although having not left the towers, had fought enough to sate his blood-lust. On the first day, nothing actually happened. But on the second, a small group of bandits had stumbled past the towers and thought that a lone guard would be easy to slay and they could take the towers for themselves.
To make a long story short they were wrong. If it had not been for the vantage point of the tower he may have had a small amount of trouble fighting the group, but that was not the case. After he had struck the first two bandits with bursts of flame, killing the lightly armoured Nord instantly and severely injuring the more heavily dressed one, the rest of the group decided it wasn't worth going through the trouble of trying to climb the tower steps if they were only going to be burnt to death.
After ramming his foot down on the injured man's neck killing him, Resh wondered what to do with the two bodies on floor. He couldn't eat them as he had promised Ralof he wouldn't devour humans. He considered mounting their heads as trophies but none of the other tenants of the tower had done that with their kills so they might find it weird to find their home gilded with skulls and body parts. In the end Resh just decided to leave them by the tower door as a warning to other bandits and wait for someone else in his group to deal with them while he went off to Whiterun.
Packing up the few possessions he had, the clothes on his back and the sword the bandits had given him, Resh left the towers. When Ymsigr and the other bandits got back they would understand why he left. After all he had said he would be going once his leg healed up.
Resh was going to feel bad for leaving the bandits without a goodbye. He had shared a feasting hall with them. He had shared stories and had, unbelievably, laughed with them. He actually considered them as friends, unlike Ralof who he thought of more as an ally.
Walking down the road with his meagre possessions, Resh thought about humans. He couldn't believe it, but it seemed that everything he had been previously told about them was a lie. They always seemed to fight with honour and a reasonable amount of skill. He had learned from the bandits when feasting that even when not fighting humans could be entertaining to be around.
Ymsigr and the other bandits were on their way back from, an unsuccessful ambush on a group of people that happened to be adventurers. They also happened to be following the same road Resh was, just in the opposite direction.
"Resh, is that you? What are you doing down this road?" Ymsigr enquired when he saw the strange Nord wandering down the road, sword in hand.
"My leg healed up so I'm off to Whiterun. I told you I was going to leave when I next got the chance," Resh replied.
"What of the tower? Did you leave it unguarded?" the bandit chief asked with a hint of anger in his tone.
"Yes, but I left two corpses by the doors to ward off other bandits," Resh said, "On another note, why do you and the others look so battered up? It even seems that some of you are missing," Resh asked, only now noticing the state the band of cutthroats was in.
"We accidently attacked a group of adventurers. It's not that important, though. So anyway, if you're off to Whiterun we should tag along with you. We didn't get anything of value on our failed ambush and there are plenty of farms near Whiterun to raid. Consider your first raid as a goodbye present from me," Ymsigr laughed heartily.
And off the band went to Whiterun. Or to the farms at least, to loot and cause bloodshed. Resh smiled in anticipation at a good battle. The farm they attacked was very poorly guarded. It had only two abled bodied warriors trying to protect it and an unarmed woman who screamed at the sight of them and ran inside. The people guarding the farm were not very skilled fighters and were cut down before even having a chance to swing their swords. Resh thought that this raid was a huge let down compared to his expectations. He thought he would at least have used his magic as a second form of weapon, but that was not the case.
He was about to tell the others of his disappointment as they were picking through the pockets of the dead fighters, but he noticed that Ymsigr was missing from the group. Perhaps he was inside looting.
A muffled scream coming from the house was almost an answer to his question in his head. Ymsigr must have gone into the farm itself in search of valuables and scared the woman they met earlier whilst going in. Resh went in to join him but after walking through the door, things were very different than what he imagined was going on in here.
The woman that had run inside was being pinned to the wall by the bandit. It was clear what was about to happen because of all of the torn clothing scattered on the floor. But the thing that didn't make sense was that if she clearly didn't want it to happen, why was he continuing and forcing her against her will. From what he knew, that sort of thing never happened.
"What are you doing?" Resh asked with suspicion and anger growing in his voice.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I almost forgot you were leaving us. Did you want to go first? It's the least I can do," Ymsigr asked looking up as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening at all.
"What in Oblivion are you doing!? Can you not see she is unwilling and unarmed!?" Resh shouted at the man he had considered an equal, knowing now that this beast couldn't even be compared to someone like him.
"What did you think us bandits did? We don't go around helping everyone we see," the chief stated, almost in a condescending way as if talking to a newly hatched infant. "You're not going to cause me any trouble are you?" he asked as if not expecting an answer.
"Well I can't let you do this to a harmless innocent. So it's either you stop, or I cut you down," Resh spat, hissing more often than usual as he said those words.
Throwing the woman off him into the corner and pulling his sword off the back of his armour (which he was still wearing) the bandit lunged at him, swinging the great-sword with both his hands towards his challengers face.
Dodging the blade easily, leaving it wedged in the wall, Resh took this time to change into his Tsaesci form so he could take more pleasure from ripping this savage's skull from his spine after having burned him with the flame he had now conjured. Suddenly the world went silent for a few seconds as if in shock at what had just happened. And then the screaming started again, louder this time, as if the woman was in fear of being killed by the very man that saved her.
"I knew there was something off about you, no true Nord would use that heathen power you wield. Fight me with a sword like a man, or a monster or whatever you the hell are," Ymsigr challenged after recovering from his initial shock.
"I'm not a monster, I'm a Tsaesci but a lesser creature like you wouldn't under-" Resh was halfway through explaining when the blade of this dishonourable creature ran deeply through his chest with no warning.
The wound was deep and the blade stung but the injury was not as incapacitating as the bandit would have hoped. When he tried to push in, the huge snake used his one handed sword to push the strength of both the savages' arms behind that great-sword away. He used his bare hand to lift the large man up by the throat and hold him up. After a swift snapping sound when the Tsaesci squeezed his wrist, the bandit was dead.
After the large man, still quite short to him, fell to the ground heavily Resh went to over to the hysterical woman, offering a hand to help her up. But she just looked up at him and cried and screamed louder. This is the respect he gets for saving someone? This species was nothing more than animals that knew how to live a bit longer than the others. Animals that don't deserve a shred of mercy.
An outcast to those he helped and a monster to those he killed, Resh walked off back in his Nordic body again, bandit blood dripping off his blade and his own blood carved along his chest. His hatred in humanity renewed as he cut a path through the rest of the weaker bandits with ease.