Lydia POV

It had all happened so quickly Lydia had no time to react. The only thing she remembered were his bloodshot eyes flashing open in shock, and then the gargantuan man leaping up as if he'd been set on fire.

Now she was pinned to the ground under his weight with the other women laughing at her position. The largely hung-over Resh seemed to be confused at the current situation and started to regain his senses.

"What the fuck was that for!?" Resh panted while rolling off Lydia, clutching his head in agony.

Brelyna answered that, "Well, we n-"

"'We'? Never mind, I got it. Kayce's fault." The woman in question shifted uncomfortably at the fact that it was so obvious it was her idea. "Now can you please just leave me to sleep? My headache is too painful. I'm never going to drink again…" Resh muttered, not believing himself.

Kayci grinned evilly, having already come up with an idea. "Sure, you can sleep a bit longer… In the meantime, I'll just tell my good friends over here about the time you-"

"On second thought, leaving now is the way to go," Resh groaned. If they were to know any more stories about his past than Kayci had already told them things could be devastating. When you live for more than 400 years that gives you a lot of time to make a lot of dumb decisions.

"Are you sure you don't want to lie in?"

"Very," he muttered, pulling himself up from his uncomfortable heap and straightening out his armour.

"Okay then, let's go. Remind me again why we're going," Kayci said, still having no idea what Resh's reasons for adventuring were. Technically they should be returning to Akavir now to report what they learned. Kayci didn't mind waiting, though, Akavir wasn't exactly the paradise it had been when she was younger, and adventuring wasn't something she often got to do.

Resh shifted uncomfortably and had to resist sweating. "For my reasons…" he trailed off, not wanting Kayci to learn he was the Dragonborn.

Annoyingly, Lydia thought it a good time to speak up, "Isn't it because the Greybeards called you up for being Dra-"

"It doesn't matter!" Resh shouted, surprising the entire group with his outburst. It was a small price to pay for deterring his best friend from eating him alive.

"Be cryptic then. I'll find out eventually," Kayci laughed. Resh laughed along too, but much more uncomfortably as he feared for his life.

"I'm sure you will… We're going to stop off in Ivarstead first. It's at the foot of the mountain we're going up. Mostly so we can buy food for those two and let them have a comfortable place to sleep and drink," Resh changed the subject by gesturing to Lydia and Brelyna who, unlike the Tsaesci, needed to eat and sleep regularly.

The two mammals just stared in confusion that it was only them having been mentioned to need food and rest. But they decided, after having spent enough time around the two slightly strange people, that it was best not to bring it up. Instead they continued to walk in the direction of the town. If they had any luck it should only take an hour or two.

"In the meantime we can go hunting like we used to, arguing about what's better, magic or blades, as the animals run away," Kayci said, reminiscing about the good old days they had when they were younger and not scouting.

"Okay. But remember what I said about the promise I made," Resh reminded her, still wanting to stay true to the promise he'd made to Ralof about not eating people.

Kayci smiled, noticing the other two listening intently, "Which promise would that be Resh? I can't seem to remember."

Resh growled, realising what she was doing. He wondered how the others would react if he were to tell them about his eating habit. "I'll be sure to tell you later when you're chasing after a deer like a lunatic."

"Just because I'm fast enough to catch them and you aren't," she retorted.

"I don't need to be fast. I've got my magic, remember? Besides, your speed doesn't count for much. I can't even number the times I've seen you outrun by prey," Resh stated, seemingly starting the magic gloating early.

"You're magic isn't so special either," she muttered.

"What makes you say that?" he asked, genuinely wanting to know what possible way she could doubt his skills. He saw no flaws in himself.

Kayci held up her hand, four fingers explaining all, "For one, you're a shit teacher."

"That was your own fault. You can't blame the teacher if the student isn't intelligent enough to understand how to use magic without breaking off a finger," he explained, trying to shift any blame off himself.

He was expecting a retort from Kayci, but what happened next was not something he had seen coming. "Bullshit!" All eyes turned to Lydia after she had shouted out. He didn't even have time to ask her what she was talking about before she started angrily speaking again, "You are a shit teacher! I'm going to have scarring on my sword hand for life because of you!"

Kayci strode over and took a look at her hand, examining the rather substantial scarring and burns. "What happened? If this is your fault Resh you're going to regret it," she said, pointing in his direction. The man in question had now shrunk back, fearing what would inevitably happen to him.

"He set fire to the inside of my hand!" Lydia complained. "And then he ran away, with all our money I might add, leaving me bed-less and hungry after saying it was my fault and that he couldn't heal it. Then he arrived as I was enjoying myself and scared away any potential lovers!"

"You set fire to your own hand," Resh stated in his defence.

"Resh, you're an idiot. You are so lucky we need to be going somewhere, otherwise I would have knocked you unconscious. Honestly though, how could you do that to her? You're meant to be friends," Kayci berated, making him flinch with guilt at her words.

"We already made amends about that, so it's all fine now," Resh whispered, trying to worm his way out of any form of punishment. Unfortunately failing as Kayci spoke again.

"Here's something I'm sure you two will find amusing," Kayci started, already causing the other Tsaesci to dread what was coming next. "Do you want to know why Resh grows his hair so long?"

"Don't tell them!" Resh pleaded. Unfortunately, it met deaf ears as the other two women shouted out their 'yes's'.

"He grows it like that, not just because it's sexy, but because it hides a horrific birthmark that stretches from the back of his head all the way down his neck." Resh groaned at her but that didn't stop her, "Imagine someone has torn the back of his head, neck and a bit of back off, and it had just scarred over really visibly. He uses his hair to cover it."

The response she got from her small story was definitely the one she wanted because she was practically basking in the laughter it brought forth from the others and the moan it had torn from her old friend.

The conversation stopped quickly after that. Resh was walking with his head buried in his palms in anguish while he was being trailed by his Housecarl and Brelyna who kept trying to look behind his hair. It was to no avail though, as it was hid too well. Kayci merely smirked at the scene ahead of her, satisfied with her revenge for Lydia.

After a few minutes, Brelyna finally broke the silence but not in a way Resh would have liked, "Can I see it?"

"No!"

Also, reiterating what I have previously said before, Resh's hair is long and black, see the picture for this FanFiction for what I think of it as. You may be wondering why I chose a peculiar hair-style like that, and if you are, I have my reasons…

Resh POV

To say the least, the next hour of walking had not been the most enjoyable for Resh. He had counted in his head and so far Lydia and the Elf had asked to see his birthmark 32 times. Each time he replied 'no', but could feel himself getting closer and closer to snapping.

At least Kayci was kind enough not to ask him to, because then he would have no choice. Luckily she could show mercy when needed. And Resh guessed he did deserve the punishment after his and Lydia's incident with magic.

Resh was thankful most humans, Lydia being no exception, weren't as adept at magic as his kind were. Otherwise the injury Lydi- no, he had done, could have been serious. Thankfully she seemed to have fully recovered by now, bar the scarring on her hands, so he wasn't feeling as guilty.

He decided that perhaps he shouldn't try teaching people magic. It clearly didn't work and, although the first time he had written off his failure as Kayci's fault because of her stupidity, the fact the same thing happened twice could suggest it was his fault.

"Are you sure we can't see it?" Brelyna complained, cutting off his thought process.

"Yes! I'm sure," Resh hissed.

"But why?" Brelyna moaned, still wanting to see whatever hideous mark he was cursed with and why he hated it so much.

"Because it looks like someone's torn away my skin. If it were you would you want people to see that?" Resh questioned, turning the pressure on her. She struggled to come up with a reply. Luckily for the Elf, Kayci stepped in with her usual grin.

"Are you getting self-conscious about your body Resh?" Kayci teased with a sickeningly sweet put-on voice. "Remember you have all your friends here to support you through this diffi-"

"Ughh," Resh moaned, trying to block out her voice. Finally, after more pestering from the two women and more mocking from Kayci Resh gave up, "If I show you will you stop asking about it?"

"Yes!" Lydia and Brelyna shouted in unison, drawing a sigh from the man.

"Fine," Resh bit out, pulling his long hair to the side and exposing his back. He had to resist growling again when his least favourite feature was met with the gasps of the two women and Kayci's stifled giggling.

He turned back to see Brelyna and Lydia both gaping at him. Under his gaze they quickly regained composure and started speaking again.

"Does it hurt?" Brelyna asked, much to his annoyance.

"Can I feel it? Is it bumpy?" Lydia also chimed in, mostly just wanting an opportunity to touch him.

"You're like children!" he shouted in frustration. "I thought you were going to stop asking questions."

"You should still let us feel it," Lydia and Brelyna countered, ignoring him.

Resh smirked, thinking he had come up with a way to get them to stop, "How about this? You two can try to touch it, but you have to get past me first."

The two women glanced at each other uncomfortably. Lydia had seen Resh's strength first hand and knew that she and Brelyna would never be able to hold him down, even together. The Housecarl let out a defeated sigh and replied, "Fine, we'll st-"

"You know what?" Kayci grinned, cutting the defeated woman off, "I want to touch his birthmark as well."

The horror only dawned him when he saw all three of the look at him deviously at once. He could take the two mammals by himself, but not Kayci as well. Without a second thought he bolted into the forest away from slowly advancing women. It was his only hope of escape from this situation.

10 Minutes Later

"It's not as bumpy as I would have thought," Lydia remarked prodding at the downed man's neck.

"I know. It feels just like normal skin, just red and mangled looking. I can see why he grows his hair long," Brelyna replied.

"Thank you." Resh ground out, furious with the situation. "Now can you all get off me!"

Having found out what they wanted to know, his friends quickly climbed off him, allowing him to rise again. "For someone twice my size I'm surprised you weren't able to outrun us."

"There were three of you," he hissed, pushing his hair back into the right place.

"You've been able to carry us all at the same time. Surely you should be able to at least fight us off for longer than 10 minutes."

"I can beat you and Lydia on my own, but her," Resh said, pointing at Kayci, "No."

"Oh please. I set fire to your face the other day. I'm not that easy to fight surprisingly," Brelyna said in exasperation.

"And I beat you in a close combat fight!" Lydia joined in.

He was about to rebuff both their comments, but didn't get the chance because of Kayci's 'delightful' insight on what she had heard, "Really Resh? So you've been beaten by women half your size and probably a lot weaker than you in both magic and close combat? I thought those were your prize skills."

"First of all I was not beaten. Brelyna merely struck me when I surprised after having walked in on her and her 'lady-friend'. And with Lydia, I was teaching her to fight someone my size. She and a sword, and I was only using my hands. Like you would have done much better," Resh explained. If he were fighting them both normally they wouldn't stand a chance.

That raised an eyebrow from the woman who rarely used weapons when fighting and relied almost entirely on fists. "Somehow I think I know a bit more about using my hands than you do," Kayci boasted, turning to give a quick wink to Lydia to turn her bright red and then turning back to Resh.

Resh huffed and realised it was probably true. Kayci was a far better fighter than he was. "And also those aren't my 'prized skills'. I was a scholar and a scribe in our group."

"You became a scholar so that technically we weren't in the same field of combat, just so you could say I wasn't militarily better than you," Kayci laughed. It had been Resh's way of ignoring the shame of his friend, who was considerably smaller than himself, being a better fighter than him.

"I became a thinker because while you're punching something until it dies, I search for more intelligent routes as some people aren't able to."

"In what way are you possible more intelligent than I am?" Kayci regretted the words as soon as they came out. Resh was going to make her regret this question…

Resh POV.

"-I can also speak more languages, I can read maps, I know how to write far better than you do, I can use magic, I have more than the two thinking patterns of fucking and punching, I know how astronomy works, I know how to craft things when you don't, and last but not least I've never had to ask my best friend and his amazing magic skills to cure me of numerous STD's," Resh stated smugly, finishing the end of his several minute rant.

"It wasn't numerous…" Kayci mumbled in embarrassment.

"Kayce, I've seen your genitals more times when curing them than I did when we were together. How you managed to contract Sanguinare Vampiris without any bite marks or evidence of life drainage is beyond me," Resh shuddered, not wanting to remember the day he found out Vampirism could be contracted sexually. It had not been a pretty sight.

"Okay fine, maybe some decisions I have made were quite the best anyone has made," Kayci admitted, greatly regretting the fact everything he said was true.

"Wait a second! You've been with a vampire?! They're dead!" Brelyna all but shouted at her. It seemed Kayci had no lows.

"Yes. Unlike Resh, and seemingly you for that matter, I am open minded. Just because someone is a vampire doesn't make them a bad person. This one was quite charming. Vince- Vicente- Vincent- Vinnie… something like that," Kayci went on reminiscing, causing a surprising pang of guilt to go through the Elf.

"Regardless, I still had to clean up the bloody mess from afterwards," Resh complained.

The next few minutes of the journey revolved around Kayci and Resh bickering about her exploits. Brelyna and Lydia occasionally spoke up to say something. Usually it was just them voicing their disbelief at one of the things Kayci had apparently done.

For example, neither of the women believed for a second that Kayci had found a handheld vibrating Dwemer machine designed for pleasure. Pretty much all Dwemer constructs were built to kill people. Their doubts were quickly silenced when Kayci reached into her pack and brandished a large golden phallus that whirred when she turned it on.

The rest of the walk to Ivarstead was complete silence as Lydia and Brelyna hung their mouths open in shock at what they had just seen and were trying to piece it together in their heads.

In Ivarstead

The four quickly settled down when they got to the inn, all slumping onto the chairs around the table in the corner. Other than Kayci, who had her Lava Whisky, they all ordered mead and continued on their conversation.

So far Lydia hadn't said very much. But a question had been nagging at her for a while now, so she decided to speak up, "Forgive me for asking this, but since you've had a lot of sex, do you have any children?" Lydia asked.

It was unlikely someone like Kayci would be a mother, but having lots of partners definitely made it a possibility. Lydia herself had probably been born for that reason, and then subsequently abandoned.

Kayci spluttered on her drink mid-swig and had to take a few seconds to compose herself. "I bloody well hope not!" she replied loudly whilst regaining her posture. She shot a worried look towards Resh, who shot the same one back.

She had laid many eggs over the years. But as far as she knew they were slugs, unfertilised eggs, so it didn't really matter. What she had only recently found out during her time with Resh was that it took a few weeks for the egg to start growing something inside it. So for all she knew, half of what she had laid could have hatched without her knowing. And to have lots of Tsaesci going around Tamriel un-taught would definitely not be good.

That earned a confused look from the two non-Tsaesci, as to them it seemed impossible a mother could not know they had given birth. Thankfully, neither of them brought it up so Kayci relaxed at the knowledge she didn't have to make a crude joke to cover up what she'd almost said.

Resh sighed with relief as well. It would rather not have Lydia find out about him being a Tsaesci from his friend being stupid enough to leave eggs lying around Tamriel. Resh blinked with surprise at his thoughts. When had he started considering telling Lydia about himself?

The day quickly passed by with their conversation and, however crude it had gotten at points, it was actually very pleasant. Kayci was made up to date with everything she had missed when separated from Resh, minus Dragonborn stuff of course, and Resh had been told about all of the fights and battles Kayci had gotten into and all the adventuring she had done.

It probably would have gone on longer had it not started to already get later and he knew how Lydia and the Elf would need their sleep before climbing the mountain. It would be a lot harder on them than it would to him and the other Tsaesci.

"I think it's time you two went to sleep. We're climbing a mountain tomorrow so you might want to prepare," Resh told them.

The two women, despite wanting to carry on talking, knew that he was right and started to get up. They also knew him and Kayci well enough now that they didn't even bother to ask if they needed a room as well and just went to their own immediately.

Kayci and Resh looked at each other and smiled. They were finally going to get to go hunting like when they used to.

That was interesting wasn't it? Vampire STD's, Dwemer vibrators and Tsaesci babies. That could be very interesting…