Resh POV

Resh didn't understand why he made a promise to that incessant woman. A promise to him was like a binding contract. So why did he keep making them to humans? It was crazy.

"I was running. She would never have been able to catch me. I could have just left her for good." He spoke out loud, doing anything to distract him from the pain in his skin. Even switching to his real form didn't dull the pain as he had previously thought.

"I ruined the perfect opportunity. I could have left her for good." He wanted to mean the last bit, but he was shocked that he said it with no emotion. Almost as if he didn't actually want to part from the Nord. It was a horrifically disturbing thought for him to actually want to be around her. A thought he had to find a way to get rid of.

Taking his mind off the Nordic woman he tried to focus on his current annoyance and not the one he would have to face the next day. Unfortunately, this caused him to register his pain and let out a quick hiss of agony. Something wasn't right. It was normal for a shedding to irritate him. But if it was to the extent where he vocalised his agony, something was going wrong.

The only possible problem there could have been would be an anomaly in his skin, like a growth or piercing. The first thing that came to mind was the scar that savage had given him. 'Maybe that poorly crafted human sword splintered in me,' Resh wondered.

Resh ran his hands along the base of the scar trying to feel a bump, but no such problem was found. This only left the less desirable of the two options: part of the dragon he killed was lodged in him. After checking his healed shins, which had now become a magnificent golden tail, he cursed out loud upon discovering a shard of the dragon's skull had lodged in him. The worst part was the Jarl's mage had reformed his flesh around it.

"If I had just dismissed him beforehand I wouldn't be in this mess."

Resh was no medic, but he knew he was going to have to remove it himself. After what seemed like hours digging and hissing in torment, he finally managed to pull out that divine-forsaken bony lump. Smiling in triumph he foolishly tried to crush it with his hand like he had done before with previous things of annoyance. But unlike animal or human bones, this was not as brittle. And instead of the shard of bone splintering even smaller, it just tore into his hand drawing another outburst of pain from him.

Even though his latest foe was finally gone, the damage was still done and it left both his hand and his tail ragged. His skin would never peel properly in this state. He knew this was natural but this was the first time he had dealt with a painful shedding on his own. The majority of them had been when he was young and growing and only just starting to fight, so he had his family to help him. And after that he's had only two more during which his scouting partner had helped him.

Resh usually hated the idea of being coddled or even helped. But the shedding was completely different. It was normal, even expected, to have help if things didn't go well. Without it, the damage could be permanent and the time taken to recover from it fatal. He was positive that without his old partner he would have been killed from the head of a barbed arrow that had once gotten stuck in his side. And he was sure that his help in his partner's shedding had also saved her life a few times before. So, to go through this alone was going to be a challenge.

All these thought rushing through his head had almost made him forget his surroundings. 'I could have been anywhere. For all I knew I could have been surrounded and not notice it. All this time around humans is making me let my guard down,' he thought.

For a second Resh actually started to think about what it would be like for his human if he were to die and not return to her, especially after promising that he would. Then a sudden burst of pain jolted him out of that weak minded train of thought. He couldn't understand why he had even considered her emotions. It's not like they mattered, yet for a fraction of a second he thought they did.

Resh almost dropped to the floor when he felt a painful tightening in his skin where his wounds previously were, causing him to snap. He couldn't take it anymore. Ignoring basic safety Resh rammed his claws deep into the base of his neck, tearing outwards and ripping into his flesh. He let out a roar. A roar so loud, Lydia wasn't the only woman he knew who heard it.

Lydia POV

It had been only two hours but Lydia was starting to get worried. It was night-time and she had heard horrifying noises from the outside of the inn coming from miles away. It sounded like both a scream and a roar. It could have only been a dragon and her Thane was out there alone.

Lydia couldn't understand why she was so worried, there was no way it could be safe out there. Even so, from what she knew, her Thane was an extremely competent fighter having already killed a dragon. And also exceptionally strong, being able to lift her, fully armoured with only one hand. Above all this though Lydia was still scared. It was probably the mead thinking.

Time went by quite quickly now. Lydia wasn't so worried about her Thane that she would allow herself to become obsessed, and after finding another person in the inn to play drinking games with to pass the time she forgot all about him. Inevitably their game got to that point where her newfound friend was drunkenly trying to hit on her. Although she herself had also drunk her fair share of mead, she still had the sense to turn him down and retire to her room.

Why though? She didn't know. It's not like she had a current lover to be with, nor was she getting any form of non-business related attachment to Resh, much to her dismay. Would it have been so bad for her to have one night of inebriated passion with a stranger and have to worry about consequences later rather than wait for an emotionless man to notice her?

After a few minutes consideration she decided it wouldn't have been, and left her room to find him. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be seen and must have left, sadly. There was, however, another sight to behold. Almost falling through the inn's door, drenched from the rain outside, was Resh. More shocking than the fact that he was completely naked holding a bundle of his clothes and armour ripped to shreds, was that the large scar on his back and all the smaller scars her Thane had previously had up and down his body were gone. Almost as if someone had replaced his skin. Lydia would have laughed at the ridiculousness of her imagination if Resh hadn't fallen to the floor.

"Are you… are you okay? *Hic*," Lydia half laughed half asked, stumbling over to him.

"I'm fine, I just need rest. What wrong with your voice?" he asked.

After Lydia slipped whilst trying to help him up she fell onto him, draped over the top of him in an almost provocative position and then bursting out laughing. It was quite obvious to him that she was drunk.

"There's nothing *hic* wrong with my voice, I'm completely normal *hic*," Lydia replied, heavily breathing down onto his face "Do you like me like this?" Lydia whispered suggestively only half-joking. Suddenly Resh realised the position they were in and snapped upwards, causing him to throw her off him and rise unsteadily to his feet.

"We will set off to high Hrothgar in a few hours. I just need to sit down for a while," her Thane told her, moving over to the closest seat and slumping into it almost falling asleep. Every time Lydia tried to engage him in conversation he would either ignore her or wave her away. After a while, Lydia got the hint and decided to stop speaking.

About three hours passed and Lydia glanced at Resh who was now rising to his feet and gathering his pile of ragged armour.

"We're going now," he announced.

'Does he have no idea what time it was?'

"Are you *hic* crazy? We can't leave now. That would be stupid," Lydia blurted, regretting the words the moment they came tumbling out of her mouth.

"Why not?" Resh snarled raising his voice, anger blurring his vision. He was shocked that a human would answer back to him and insult him in such a way. He did however respect her courage to speak like that to her superior but not enough to alter his fury.

"Because… because I need sleep, I'm *hic* sorry," Lydia started to cry, she tried to stop herself but she was too late. It was obviously the alcohol making her cry, but even so she was meant to be a proud warrior. But all her dignity seemed to seep out of her in just a few seconds.

"Fine," he sighed, thinking he may have perhaps been too harsh. "We can stay until tomorrow because I need new armour. Just do whatever you want here." Lydia was going to tell him that because it was night-time. Few people would be awake and no one would want to sell things at this hour. But she was too busy trying to recover her lost pride by wiping her face to have time to tell him. And when she was ready he had already left, leaving her alone in the inn.

Lydia decided it would probably be best to try and get to sleep now, as she was the only person awake in the inn and it was getting quite dull. So she walked over to her new room, took off her clothes and crawled into her bed. She tried desperately to try to sleep but she was too turned on from her fantasies about being on top of her Thane to manage it. 'Has it really been so long since I've been with a man? So much so I can't sleep?'

Lydia couldn't take it any longer. She needed the sleep but more than that, she needed release. So she did the only thing she could think of and put her hand to good use, using it to rub the sensitive area she had down below that was now wet and throbbing with lust. She thought things would be as easy as when she used to do this kind of thing when she was younger. But at this age, she couldn't get there just by rubbing.

Conjuring up what little imagination she had she tried to believe it was Resh's hand strumming her sensitive clit and not her own. And that it was Resh's fingers inside her causing such feelings by pushing in and out and rubbing just the right parts. Lydia was building up to what would have been her first orgasm in months. Her breathing hitched and she arched her back at the feeling she was only a few seconds away.

"My Thane!" she moaned at her release, she would have shouted it out for all of Ivarstead to hear if she hadn't have stifled her mouth with her other hand. Almost immediately, Lydia fell asleep smiling satisfied, juices flowing onto her hand. Normally she would have gone to clean it up but she was too happy to care.

-Morning-

"Wake up, we're going now," Resh's ever-friendly welcome to the morning was accompanied by the loud clapping of his hands, setting off a blinding headache. Because of her hangover Lydia's reply was nothing more than a moan of pain at the sound. "We're going," he repeated and yanked the sheets off her bed revealing her naked body, to which he paid no attention, and then started to grab the bundle of her balled up clothes and throw it to her.

"What happened last night?" Lydia asked rubbing her head trying to relieve the pain and then quickly pulling her hand away after remembering that it was covered with sweat and other forms of moisture from yesterday.

"You were drunk and I was nice enough to wait here another night until you recovered." The words sounded like they should have been said in a kind way but his reply had a bite of malice to it, almost like she'd done something to offend him.

"Last night did I do something to insult you?" she asked her mind still fuzzy from the alcohol.

"It doesn't matter. But from now on, tearing up isn't going to get you what you want. I don't like weakness. And if you are weak, then I am too," he told her before leaving.

'Tearing up? I really shouldn't have drunk so much.'

It was too late though so she just had to hope she didn't do anything too stupid. Lydia knew that it would not be wise to try to reply to him, so she decided to just get changed and meet him outside.

It would appear that although Resh tried to salvage what he could from his torn bundle of clothes, all he could carry on wearing were his leather gloves and his plated greaves and lower chainmail, all his upper body armour was too destroyed to even wear and his helmet was nowhere to be seen. Lydia had spent so much time staring at Resh that she hadn't noticed that her Thane was staring at her with a look of confusion.

"All your scars are gone," Lydia remarked at Resh's oddly new body, trying to remove the awkward atmosphere, her gaze lingering a bit too long on some parts.

"Obviously," her Thane replied as if it was a completely normal occurrence.

"Why 'obviously'?" she asked. She wasn't really expecting a reply and she got what she usually got: only silence.

The walk from the tavern had been a very peaceful one. Resh liked the silence where he could take in the outdoors without interruption, and it was this very kind of silence reminded him why he loved the rest of the world. Or at least the parts untouched by civilisation, even by his own species' developments. Of course though, all things must come to an end, and the end to Resh's happiness was in the form of his always-present follower speaking up.

"Can we not stay a bit longer? My head still hurts," Lydia asked squinting and turning away from the very surroundings Resh was trying his best to take in.

"Stop complaining. I've waited long enough because of such trivial matters," Resh answered with a glare.

At that comment Lydia came from a different approach, "What about you? As long as I've know you I haven't seen you eat once. You must get hungry. You could stay back and eat."

"The next thing we kill, I'll eat." He wasn't hungry but he knew it would be easier to just claim to want something to eat to avoid suspicion.

"But I already have food supplies. Haven't you noticed me eating over the last few days? I even saved some for you to have. It won't be as good as eating in but if you want to keep moving you can have some of that."

Resh was shocked that the woman was actually offering him some of her own provisions. It had been a long time since he had known a human to be so considerate.

He had seen first-hand some of the other things humans offered round. Things that weren't theirs to offer. Just the thought made Resh's mind blur with anger. That wasn't kindness, that, was savagery. This, however, was different. This made him almost think twice about his judgment on her kind. Almost.

"Fine. I'll eat. But we're going to keep moving." Resh took the food that the woman held out to him and just before he was about to start eating, finished with "Thank you." Even though she was of a lesser kind the least, he could do was show some appreciation.

"Do you want something to drink? I think I have some Cyrodilic brandy in my pack somewhere,"

"No. Alcohol causes recklessness and error. I only drink around those who will stop me making decisions I will live to regret."

"Fair enough. By 'those' do you mean friends?" Lydia only really wanted to know if she would be counted as a friend.

Resh let out a saddened sigh, the first sign of emotion other than anger Lydia had seen. "Sadly, most of my friends are far from here and those that I had close are gone now," Resh said, clear depression running through his voice.

"Are they dead?" she asked.

'Does she ever stop asking me things?'

"Probably. And even if they were here now, they would hate me for what I am," Resh said, anger rolling back into his voice remembering that he was the Dragonborn.

Instead of asking about why he hated the fact that he was Dragonborn, knowing that it would only flare up his anger, like last time she brought it up, Lydia decided to try prying a bit more into his friends. "How do you know they're even dead?"

"I know for a fact one of them is dead. I saw watched him die in front of me," Resh replied, speaking with no more emotion than if he were describing the weather. "He managed to cut down five soldiers before he fell, and I slew his killer," he continued as if that made his death not matter.

"And as for Kayci, I don't know what happened to her, -" Lydia's face dropped at the word 'her'. No wonder he had no interest in herself. "-she probably died in the haze of combat. An unmarked grave is always a bad way to go." All of this however, unlike his male friend, Resh was sad about. And because of this, Lydia's assumptions about the two of them were cemented.

She had to stuff down her rivalling emotions though and continue on, "Do you want to try to find her? We could bury her." As selfish as it was, Lydia didn't really want to do this because it was the right thing to do. But because she thought that if he did this he would get over her and might be more open to the two of them together.

"No," he replied, keeping it short, closing himself off like he had done so in the past.

"But surely you must have some idea- Resh!" Lydia shouted in warning but she was too late, and the beast was upon him.

Resh saw nothing but a blinding light coursing over his vision and a searing pain in his head that felt as if there had been a fire lit inside. He staggered and life became a blur, the sound of the world around him gone in an instant.

Resh had to ignore the pain while he struggled to regain his senses otherwise he would have undoubtedly collapsed. That, however, was not an option. Considering how many times he'd already been injured, his ego couldn't take it again.

As Resh's vision was returning and he managed to control his movement, he was able to see glimpses of what seemed like a near impossible scene. Lydia was somehow managing to dance around the brute of a troll that had cracked his head. She took small stabs and swipes cutting it and weakening it bit by bit, whittling away at its legs, causing it to roar and lunge at her. A lunge she avoided with relative ease.

Resh was considering helping her take down the creature but after seeing how easily she was dispatching it, she didn't look like she needed the help. The only injury she actually sustained was minor to say the least and it was when she tried to drive the killing blow into its head to early. The troll had enough energy to keep going and it managed to put a small gash in her leg when fighting, flailing out from the pain in the throes of death. Throes which could have been avoided if the final strike had been better timed.

Although the injury was small it could have been a lot worse if the troll had been luckier. One day Resh was going to have to teach her about dealing the finishing blow, otherwise it could become a problem. Other than that, he had never seen a human fight that with that amount of skill.

'Not bad, for a human,' Resh thought after admiring the brutal scene of the panting blood-soaked woman that was now standing over the mangled corpse of a troll. Even more amazing than a human managing to kill one close range was that she left the fight with only a scratch.

As the adrenaline started to leave her body and she started to calm down, Lydia now turned her attention to the man who had managed to stay conscious after receiving a blow that would kill most men. Right now she wanted nothing more than to jump the man there and then, but she knew it was just her blood going wild after the fight.

Resh was holding the back of his now bleeding head in his hand and trying to cope with the pain before he noticed the woman who was now staring at him with a weird look in her eyes.

"And you thought your head hurt," he muttered before continuing to walk up the mountain path.