Lydia POV

Lydia wondered why a few Khajiit merchants prompted Resh to think about Riverwood, but decided it was probably best to wait until they got there to find out. It would only be a few hours walk. What she found even weirder about Resh's reaction to the Khajiit was that he seemed scared to see them. Perhaps shocked was a better word. But even so, he still jumped out of his skin.

"I'm assuming that's going to be the last time you try to get involved with the Companions. Things don't seem to end well when you meet them." She didn't think that Resh's reaction to the Companions was very unexpected. After seeing some of the moods he could get into, she could see it coming when Vilkas tried to give him his sword.

Resh scowled. "They're like a Daedra infested mockery of the Syffim," he said, remembering the honourable group set up by a fellow Tsaesci on this continent.

"What's the Syffim?" Lydia asked. Resh was dumbfounded that she didn't know about them. He would have thought the first ever guild in Tamriel would be known by everyone, especially since they helped bring peace in a lawless world ruined by the war, and crime that followed.

"After a devastating war a Cyrodilic group of mercenaries called the Syffim-" Resh only got so far before Lydia interrupted.

"Cyrodilic mercenaries? That sounds a lot like the fighters guild," she pointed out. Resh's smile was pained, he was pleased that the Tsaescian guild was still around but slightly disappointed that the name had changed to something so generic.

"Regardless of the name, it was set up by the Tsaesci Potentate Versidue-Shaie to help maintain law when there was a lack of imperial force." Resh paused upon seeing the confusion on Lydia's face.

Resh realised that Lydia probably didn't know what a Potentate was, as Tamriel at the moment had a different form of governance.

"A Potentate is a type of monarchy," he told her.

"And a Tsaesci is…?"

Resh would have laughed if he hadn't been so insulted, he was in complete disbelief that people didn't know what his kind were even though they had influenced the entire continent so much.

"How can you not know?" Resh asked with a strained voice. "Do you know nothing about your history?"

Lydia shrugged, "Not really, I didn't think it was important. For instance, does it really matter what a Tsaesci is? They don't sound very important."

Resh's eye twitched in suppressed rage. "Oh so I guess giant, golden, immortal, shape-shifting, snake-like warriors aren't very important then?" he replied sarcastically, doing his best to hide his hurt expression at her lack of knowledge.

"No, not really, it's not like they matter to us."

Resh could almost feel the blood vessel snap behind his eye, it was like this woman was being insufferable just to spite him. 'How could someone be so ignorant?'

"Of course they matter," Resh spoke in a pained voice. "Without the Tsaesci there would be no Syf- Fighters guild. And then because of that, no other guilds. There would also be no Blades either." Resh sighed in exasperation after seeing Lydia face go blank again, and he added, "A group of highly trained Dragon slayers."

"If these Tsaesci are so special why haven't I heard of them?"

"Because they live all the way over in Akavir and rarely come over here." Resh decided to leave out the part he was thinking about her being an uneducated savage.

"…Akavir?"

At that Resh buried his face in his palms. "You honestly don't know anything but how to swing a sword, do you? How in Oblivion could you not know that there is more than one continent?" Resh wondered if she knew that there was more to the world than just Skyrim. It wouldn't surprise him if she had never ventured from her town and its surrounding areas.

"Okay so there are two. It I'm sure lots of people don't know that," Lydia said in her defence. It wasn't a very good one.

"There are seven continents," he corrected.

Lydia stammered for words, trying to find something clever to throw back. "Shut up," she snapped after coming up with nothing and started to stride down the road in a huff.

Resh merely smirked at her anger. It was quite endearing coming from someone so much smaller than himself. He jogged to catch up but she didn't pay him any attention and just walked on.

After a while of walking in silence he actually started to worry about how much he had pissed Lydia off. He wondered if she was actually annoyed or just stopped speaking as there was nothing left to say. He hoped it was the latter, despite the fact she knew nothing of her history and had unknowingly insulted him multiple over the past few minutes. She had seemed like a relatively nice person, so he didn't really want to have upset her.

Resh had never really had to deal with trying to comfort upset humans, so he didn't really know where to begin. He barely even knew how to comfort upset Tsaesci. But that's more because they didn't often get upset nearly as often as these overly emotional uncivil-

He shook the last of that sentence out of his head after he realised that ridding himself of those kinds of thoughts was probably the first step.

"Lydia. Are you okay?" Resh figured that the second step would most likely be finding out if she was actually annoyed in the first place.

"I'm fine." She still sounded angry, but Resh didn't notice and he sighed with relief, glad that he didn't have to bother with any human drama. He had sighed too soon though, because she spoke up again. "It's nothing much, it's just… do you really think I know nothing but how to fight?"

'Yes.'

"No, I was exaggerating. I'm sure that's not your only skill. Is there anything else you can do?" After that, Lydia went quiet again, trying to think about it. The wait lasted so long Resh decided to drop in some suggestions.

"Smithing?" Surely a swordswoman would know something about her weaponry.

"No." Evidently not.

"How about alchemy?"

"I tried it once, but everything I make is un-drinkable."

"Know anything about magic?" he asked in a last ditch attempt. She must know something. In Akavir, magic was taught to everyone because of its practical reasons not just combat abilities. Surely even these Nord's must have some level of respect for it.

"Nothing at all," she replied grimly, voice laden with sorrow after realising she was almost completely useless.

Resh pinched the bridge of his nose. This was harder than he had thought. How could he possibly make someone feel better about themself when they had no skills? Especially if that were the reason they were upset.

"How about," Resh didn't really want to do this, but it was the only easy option he could think of, "I teach you magic. It's relatively easy to learn, and it can be useful even if you don't want it for combat."

"You really want to teach me how to use magic?" Lydia asked incredulously, a smile breaking out across her face.

"'Want' is a strong word. But it's always good to have a second skill set, so I might as well teach you something. When we get to Riverwood I'll show you something easy, like starting a fire or making a mage light." Lydia seemed to cheer up at that so Resh considered his job done for now. Although he regretted the decision of having to waste his time just to teach her. But after all, how hard could it be?

Everything in this chapter is all lore friendly, the Syffim were the original Fighters Guild, Tsaesci Potentate Versidue-Shaie set up the guild act which allows guilds to be made, and there are seven continents, despite the fact we're only ever on one, Tamriel.

All the Continents are:

- Tamriel (Where all the games are set)

- Akavir (Where the Tsaesci come from)

- Atmora

- Thras

- Yokuda (Or at least what's left of it after it was destroyed)

- Aldmeris

- Pyandonea

Lydia's POV

"No! Try again. You're not doing it right!" Resh scolded for the thousandth time that evening.

It was becoming unbearable. They had been sitting in this tavern for hours and she still couldn't create one tiny flame and Resh was getting more and more infuriated. Lydia was close to just calling it quits and deciding she didn't want another skill.

"What do I have to do again?" Lydia sighed holding out her palm willing for a flame to appear.

"We just went over this. Will the flame to be in your hand and imagine that it's not you creating the fire, but the fire was already there. You're just a means for it to appear." she could see that Resh was holding back his anger when he spoke. The give-away was that he said it all through gritted teeth.

As if to demonstrate, her held his hand out and snapped his finger causing a large fire to start burning above his hand.

"Magical fire isn't just used for combat. I use it primarily for lighting torches and campfires. I also use it to keep warm when needed. Although it is quite satisfying to roast someone alive with your bare hands." Lydia could have sworn she saw a look of hunger flash across his eyes.

The flame in his hand shone brighter until it formed a bright white flame that made Lydia start to sweat despite the distance between them. It must have needed a lot of magic to be conjured.

"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long," Resh said holding the bright light out in front of him as demonstration, before it flickered out. "The more powerful the flame I make, the quicker I run out of magicka. You probably won't ever have to create a flame that hot, and you probably won't be able to. It's taken me years of mastering the craft to make a flame that can melt steel."

It was Lydia's turn now. She calmed herself and tried to focus her mind by closing her eyes. Following all of Resh's steps she could feel something flowing through her. Not something physical, but it felt like it was there all along.

'Is this what using magic feels like?' Lydia thought excitedly.

It felt peaceful, like she was free of all constraints and pains. She felt the flow of magicka run down to her hand where she was willing the fire to be, although this time it didn't feel pleasant like before. Instead it felt warm. In fact it was getting hotter.

Lydia shrieked in pain and snapped her eyes open when her hand flared in agony. The skin had blackened and there were a few wisps of smoke rising from it. The magic was gone, but the searing pain was still there and was almost unbearable. And there was no way of stopping it. She looked to Resh for help, thinking he would know what to do.

"Try forming it above your hand. Perhaps saying 'in your hands' was misleading." He spoke as if it was just a minor nuisance getting in the way of the task, not the crippling injury to her sword hand it was.

"You don't say! You're a terrible teacher. I'm not trying that again! That really hurt!" she yelled at him cradling her burnt hand in pain.

'Is that all you have?! Nothing to help me?!'

"Hey, don't blame me. I'm not the one who can't cast a simple spell without ruining their hand," he replied with a smug look on his face. Lydia went to hit him but yelped when her ruined hand came into contact with his arm.

Resh looked over at his Housecarl's hand again and grimaced. "That looks painful. It's too bad healing isn't my strong suit."

Lydia glared at him. "Of course it's painful, you idiot! You've rendered my hand useless!" she shouted. Thane or not, she was going to kill him when her hand healed.

"I believe it was you who burnt your hand to a crisp. Anyway, I'm going to go talk to an old… friend. Just wait here and I'll be back soon."

"Aren't you going to do something?!" she pleaded, unable to lower her voice because of the pain coursing through her.

"As I said, there's nothing I can do. I can't heal people. You really should have planned this ahead," he muttered in the most condescending sounding voice she had ever heard before darting out of the tavern leaving her stranded there.

"You're an asshole!" she called out after him when he left. Lydia sighed. Calling her Thane names though wouldn't dull the pain. She needed alcohol, and lots of it.

Resh's POV

He wouldn't usually have left in such a hurry, but it was out of fear for his health. A similar thing happened when he first tried to teach Kayci magic. The only difference was that it was with ice magic instead of fire, and it resulted in minor frostbite and her snapping off a finger. That time he didn't think to escape and was knocked unconscious for a few hours by an angry nine fingered Tsaesci who didn't find his laughter as funny as he did. It was doubtful that his new human companion would even be able do the same thing, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

It didn't take long before he found Ralof in the small town. It was bright outside so he was still working at the mill he owned. When Ralof saw him, he looked shocked but got up quickly to meet him. The Nord had heard lots of rumours about the man. If any of them were true, it would be an honour to have him, the Dragonborn, in the town, let alone talk to him.

"Resh. What are you doing here?" Resh noted that he said these words with a small amount of apprehension. It was understandable though. People fear what is different to them.

"I have things to ask you, although we'll talk more of that later. I'll probably be here a while because of the injury Lydia acquired." He decided to leave out the part about how she acquired said injury.

"Lydia?" He smirked when he said her name. "Oh! Your Housecarl, I almost forgot." He hadn't forgotten, or even come close to. He had heard the rumours, as had everyone. Even in the secluded town in which he lived.

"I've been told she has to follow me everywhere because of my title in the city. Supposedly she has her uses, but as you can see I'm the one carrying everything." Resh waved the large pack full of food and other provisions he was holding and displayed the bedroll to prove his point.

"I've only known you to be in Skyrim for a couple of weeks and yet there's been so many rumours about you," Ralof exclaimed in surprise that someone could become so famous so quickly. "For example, the Companions in Whiterun aren't overly fond of you."

"I shouldn't think so. I threatened to kill someone called Aela and then kill the rest of her pack. And I threw the sword of someone called Vilkas over the walls of Whiterun because he was being a sore loser."

"Ooh, so that's how it happened. Vilkas has some new recruit running round the outside of Whiterun in circles looking for it. Apparently he joined right after you left." It all made sense now. Ralof was wondering how he lost it when it was one of his most prized possessions.

"I'm just wondering, but how do you know all this? It only happened this morning," Resh asked, confused that he could know so much in such a small amount of time.

"Skyrim has a very efficient courier. He sprints everywhere just to tell people these things." Ralof shook his head. Although the courier was helpful, he ran everywhere wearing very little clothing. And he didn't want that particular image to stay in his head.

Resh picked up on this and was confused, "Something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing. Anyway, what else has happened in your time around here?" Ralof asked, He wanted to know the whole story. It wasn't often a 'Dragonborn' passed through town.

1 Hour Later

"So you actually did kill a dragon?! That's amazing, what happened next? Is it true you're the Dragonborn?" Ralof was amazed at his story and felt like a child with all the questions he was asking.

He didn't know what he had done, but apparently Ralof had killed the mood completely as Resh had gone deadly silent.

"Don't call me that," Resh said quietly. "I've come close to killing people who have." Ralof was going to ask 'why' but held his tongue when he realised that he probably shouldn't piss off the man who had killed the first dragon seen in eras.

Resh turned to leave, but Ralof stopped him. "You said you had something to ask me."

Resh mentally slapped himself for almost forgetting the reason he came in the first place. "You know the promise I made to you about not eating any people?" Resh asked.

"Yes…" Ralof said grimly, not liking where the conversation was going.

"Does it count for all races or just Nords?" Resh felt silly asking about something trivial but he felt he needed to ask, just in case he was restraining himself for no reason.

Ralof paled. "Why…?"

"I saw some Khajiit earlier today, and I thought to myself, 'Would Ralof care if I were to feast on them?' so I-"

"You didn't did you?" he asked, fear at what his friend had done creeping into his voice.

"No, I came over straight away to check with you first." Relief spread over Ralof's face. "Do you not know how long it would take me to skin and cook two fully grown Khajit?" he laughed. Then seeing the look on Ralof's face at what he had said, he realised that he did not.

"No, I don't. And I don't want to! No eating anyone! If it can it talk, don't eat it!" Ralof shouted. He didn't know much about Resh's people, but surely that was common knowledge. If not, it should be.

"Fine, but when I leave Skyrim, I'm doing what I want. Anyway, it's honestly been nice talking to someone who I don't have to hide what I am around, but I'm going to go make sure Lydia hasn't injured herself again. I'll be sure to talk to you again one day," Resh promise before turning to leave.

"Be sure not to eat her," Ralof muttered in response.

Lydia's POV

By the time Resh got back the tavern was buzzing with life and Lydia had somehow accumulated a small band of men that were fawning over her and trying to out-boast each other in order to win her attention.

With the alcohol flowing like a river, the last hour had been especially entertaining. Especially now that there were men pushing each other out of the way just to sit at the same table as her. When she noticed Resh walk through the door she motioned to him and announced.

"That's *hic*, that's the idiot who messed up my hand!" All the men looked over at the giant of a man who was slowly walking over. Lydia laughed as they all look at her hand and then shifted in their seats into a more defensive position. Then she remembered what she had just said and laughed even harder.

'Divines! The way that sounded they probably think he did it on purpose.'

When the men noticed her laughing most of them relaxed again, realising it was just a false alarm and that he wasn't really a danger. That was only most of them. She was about to greet Resh and introduce him to her new friends. But before she had a chance, one of the more drunk men of the lot had gotten up and marched up to him. Obviously he hadn't realised that Lydia wasn't angry at the man who had accidentally hurt her, and still thought him a threat.

"So you're, *hic* you're the one who hurt Lydia *hic*," he slurred, looking up menacingly at the man who was a good foot and a half, maybe even two feet taller than the drunk Breton.

"It was her own fault. She did it to herself," he explained. Lydia buried her face in her hands, because that didn't make him sound like a woman beater at all.

She was going to intervene and straighten the whole situation out, but before she had a chance to the Bretons hand caught the side of Resh's face with a crack. The whole tavern went completely silent, and Resh looked more shocked than anyone at what had happened, as if he didn't believe it had. A punch like that, even from someone as average as the Breton, should have at least broken his nose, considering how vicious and unexpected it had been. But Resh seemed completely unharmed. Not even a red mark appearing where his hand had connected.

Suddenly, before she had a chance to blink, the shorter man was wrenched into the air and shoved with a loud 'crack' into the tavern wall. His howl in pain was cut short by Resh's hand closing around his neck and lifting him up to eye level. Resh glared into his eyes as he held him up, the man started to thrash around, trying to escape.

But that was a farfetched dream. It didn't take long before he went bright red in the face and started to stop trying to fight back. She was certain Resh was going to kill him if she didn't do something quickly. Everyone else in the tavern seemed too scared to do anything but watch. Even her group of admirers stood silently. Some had even left the scene when no one was looking.

"Resh!" Lydia shouted. Trying to snap him out of whatever battle rage was clouding his judgment.

"Yeah? What?" he replied casually as if he weren't doing anything wrong.

"Put him down!" her anger had immediately sobered her up.

"Why should I?" he asked, confused that she was getting upset over a simple engagement such as a fight to the death.

"Because you'll kill him!" She was horrified when she realised that there was no angry haze making him do something he would regret. This was all him. He knew what he was doing, and was purposefully trying to kill him. It wasn't just some run of the mill bar fight.

"And…? He started this fight. Its common practice that I should finish when one of us is dead," he looked around the tavern and saw the fearful look in all its inhabitants' eyes. Evidently standard duelling was different in Tamriel than Akavir. Resh dropped the man to the floor where he fell ungracefully into unconsciousness. He took a few steps back and allowed a few of the other locals pick him up and drag him away.

"I'm sorry, people. Where I'm from, fights like this are settled differently than here," he announced before sitting over at the now vacant table Lydia was standing by and trying to avoid the awkward stares directed at him.

"What the fuck was that!" she snapped at him, striking him in the arm with her good hand as she did.

"I was unaware of local customs when it came to single combat," he muttered in response, ignoring her violent reaction. Because he most likely deserved it.

"That wasn't single combat. That was a drunken man being an idiot for my attention. You didn't have to try to kill him!"

"Fair enough, sorry for ruining the evening," he said quietly. It wasn't often Resh apologised. "Anyway, it's late now. So get some sleep and we'll leave in the morning. I'm going to go on a walk for the night. I won't be back until morning. If I stay here I'll probably be attacked by more villagers." He left quickly, probably in shame at her scolding.

It was only then Lydia realised she had no money to buy a room. The men she'd attracted had paid for her drinks, but Lydia herself was completely broke and now bed-less. She really was going to kill him now. If he hadn't scared the group off she would have had several beds to pick from, and a warm body to share it with. Now she would probably have to sleep outside.