Kayci POV (Hunting as the two of them)
"You know, Resh, you really need to get laid," Kayci announced, dragging back the carcass of a deer as she did.
Resh snorted at her unprovoked question, "What makes you say that?"
"I just think you need to be with someone. It would make you a lot happier," Kayci remarked.
"I see… Unlike you I don't need to orgasm every 20 minutes to be satisfied with my life. Besides, it's not like there are any other Tsaesci around… unless of course one of your eggs did actually hatch." Resh laughed at his own joke, earning a glare from the woman.
"Why do you insist on it being one of our kind?" Kayci asked. "I'm sure if you wanted to you could be with L-"
"Don't you dare finish that word!" Resh snapped. "Why do you insist on believing something could happen between us? I have not once shown any interest in her, or any other member of another race."
"I just think you would make a nice couple," Kayci replied innocently, obviously having more crude thoughts by the way that she was smiling.
"You're idea of a cute couple is very, very different from everyone else's Kayce. No offense, but I would never ever take relationship advice from you. Maybe sex advice for a one night thing, but not relationships," he explained, stressing the word 'never'.
"Suit yourself. But mark my words, when you come running to me complaining about how you haven't been with someone for months, I am going to laugh." she told him sternly.
"Please. You laugh all the time. I doubt I'll even notice it over your usual personality. Honestly though, I don't think I've ever seen you sad for more than 10 minutes," Resh reminded her.
"You say that like it's a bad thing. There's nothing wrong with being upbeat," Kayci said, laughing as she tossed him a hunk of the now dead prey's flesh, only for it to catch him in the face. Little did Resh know that was her plan all along.
Resh wiped the blood off his face with a grimace, "You had better be sad for longer than 10 minutes when I die."
"Of course I will be. You're the closest person to me there is. Also, who's to say you're going to die first? Chances are I'll be killed first by hired assassins condemning me as a harlot because of my exploits with people's wives and husbands," Kayci laughed, recalling the time that had actually happened. They had only been in Tamriel for three days!
"Good point. Just so you know, when I'm at your funeral, I'm not taking one bite out of your body. I'd probably get some horrible list of sex diseases," Resh joked, earning a playful slap from his friend.
Tsaesci funerals were different from what other races did. All the friends and family would remember who you were by making sure a part of you was always inside them. Being eaten alive for being Dragonborn, however, was not such an honour.
"And if I were to have part of you, I would probably regrow my virginity, you prude!" Kayci countered earning a snort from the other serpent, causing her to chuckle at her own joke as well.
A comfortable silence grew between the two of them for the next few minutes as they swallowed down every last bit of the newest catch. In their Tsaesci form they could eat considerably more than when Nordic. They had already been through four creatures and they had only been hunting for two hours. And they could also dislocate their jaws like other snakes the swallow the whole creature down without needing to bother to remove bones.
Resh only spoke again when he watched Kayci start to remove the antlers off their hunt, "What are you doing?"
"I'm collecting these small antlers for alchemy," she replied, almost as soon as she mentioned 'alchemy' Resh rushed over to snatched them out of her hands.
"Do you remember what happened last time you tried to become an alchemist?" Resh asked condescendingly, not wanting a repeat of her first tries.
Kayci sighed and let him throw the antlers away, loathing to admit that Resh was probably right about stopping her start trying again. "Yeah… I remember. It exploded in my face and almost blinded me."
"No… I'm referring to the time you did actually blind me," Resh growled. He'd had to have one of the others lead him around for weeks because of that.
"Sorry about th-"
"Or the time where you said you made a health potion, but instead made a 'Close Resh's throat until he can't breathe' potion," he continued.
"In my defence, if it wasn't for me you would have died!"
"What are you talking about? You were shrieking in the background thinking you had killed your best friend. It was one of the others that saved me," Resh retorted. She had nothing to do with his survival.
"I was group leader, therefore I'm immediately allowed to take credit of the other member's work," she stated, smirking at the look of confusion that appeared on Resh's face.
"I'm pretty sure that's not how it works…"
"It was also my choice to recruit him into our scouting group in the first place. You should be thankful I picked someone capable of knowing how to save you. What are the chances of that happening?" Kayci asked rhetorically, still proud that she managed to choose someone able to save her friend.
"He was a medic! That was his job! And the chances of you picking him were 100% because you had to take a medic with us!" Resh shouted. There was no way she was getting credit for something that had nothing to do with her.
"He was a medic? I just brought him along because I didn't want to be the smallest in a group I was in charge of and he was the only other Tsaesci I could find shorter than me."
"You are literally the worst leader. Ever," Resh sighed, burying his face in his palms and wondering how she, of all people, could possibly have climbed the ranks the quicker than he had.
Lydia POV
The night went by very quickly for the two women at the tavern. Lydia greatly preferred sleeping in a proper bed than a bedroll. It was no surprise that Resh had left as soon as she and Brelyna had went to their rooms. But she had been with him for long enough to know that she shouldn't worry about his lack of sleep.
Loathe though she was to admit it, Resh was definitely right about her needing some rest. And she felt it had truly done her some good. Climbing a mountain covered in Frost Trolls was a fairly tiring feat and it was good to get some sleep beforehand.
Hopefully this time the journey should be a lot better than the last one. With the four of them, it would be unlikely a Troll could sneak up on them. And ever since Resh bought that ring in the College he'd stop shivering whenever he gets a small amount of snow on him.
Lydia yawned and dragged herself from the rented bed to get dressed. She wondered if Brelyna had woken yet as well, or if the other two Nords had arrived back.
It turned out that all three of her aforementioned companions were already awake and seemingly waiting for her. They were all gathered around the table they had sat on the day before, all of their supplies and equipment packed and ready to go when they were all prepared.
Upon seeing her, Brelyna sighed and tossed a few coins to the other woman who was eagerly pocketing it. Seeing Lydia's confusion the Elf filled her in, "We had a bet to see if you would wake up or if Resh would finally snap and do it for you."
"Finally snap?" Lydia enquired tiredly.
Kayci answered this, "Resh always hated being slowed down when trying to get things done. He used to be much worse about it than he is now. At least now he can be patient."
"How was he worse?" Lydia asked, remembering the time he had walked into where she was sleeping and ripped off her bed sheet without warning.
"When we were sailing from Ak-" Kayci stopped when she received a glare from Resh and corrected herself, "Our home, he almost sailed off without me, his superior, because I was five minutes late when it came to arriving at the boat."
"I wasn't that hasty to leave without you," Resh pointed out.
"I had to swim after the ship!"
"You should have arrived earlier then," he stated smugly, regretting nothing as it had been funny to see the look on her face as he was sailing her boat a few hundred metres in the distance.
"You are aware that when we next sail somewhere I'm throwing you overboard for revenge?"
Resh laughed at that, "You tried that when we were on the boat the first time and we were there for three months because of your poor navigating. If it didn't work then it won't work next time."
Kayci huffed in annoyance at him and how often he managed to beat her in exchanges like that, but smiled when remembering their journey across the ocean. Her attempts to toss him into the sea became so extreme she managed to rally the whole group into a search party to find him. Perhaps that's why it took so long to reach Tamriel.
"Where could you have possibly been sailing for that long?" Brelyna asked incredulously. "The longest journey most people sail is from Imperial City to Solitude and that only takes about three weeks."
"Well, as I said, the trip shouldn't have taken as long as it did," Resh replied, missing out the truth but making sure not to lie.
The Dunmer didn't seem satisfied with the answer but let it drop, for now. Unfortunately for Resh, she had different questions as well, "Did you once say you were in a scouting group? What were you scouting for?"
"I think we should set off now," Resh announced, dodging the question and abruptly standing up, much to the amusement of Kayci, who didn't care in the slightest if the other two were to find out about them.
"But I haven't eaten yet," Lydia protested, still wanting the food she should be provided for buying a room at the inn.
"Kayce, do we still have meat left from last night's hunting?" Resh asked, not just wanting to keep the subject changed from the previous topic, but also wanting to make sure Lydia was alright.
"Nope. We went through it all," she relied.
"You ate all the meat from an animal you hunted?!" Brelyna gasped in surprise, despite there being two of them and Resh being absolutely massive. Surely an entire creature regardless of what they hunted, would be too much for them alone.
"No, no," Kayci explained. Resh sighed in relief that she was doing the talking. He wasn't sure if he could handle not being truthful to his friends, especially about something they would find so horrific, such as swallowing down entire animals including bones. In some ways he was glad about Kayci's carelessness, "It was four deer."
"Four!" Brelyna echoed in disbelief.
"In fairness, Resh ate most of them," Kayci said, gesturing to the man who had clearly been expecting her to lead the topic away from this kind of thing. All eyes were on him now, all expecting a reply.
He looked at Kayci and her growing smirk at the position she put him in and mouthed one word: 'Why?'
"You ate four deer?" Lydia echoed, mouth practically hanging open in the shock of what she had heard. Surely it couldn't have been true, it must've been at least an exaggeration.
"Well… I don't eat very often, do I? So I decided I was hungry," Resh replied, proud of himself for thinking quickly.
"You're a big guy, but that would probably be more meat than you actually weigh."
"I was very hungry," Resh ground out as his poor excuse. He then looked towards Kayci, *You're going to regret that.*
Before the other Tsaesci could reply, Lydia spoke up again, "And what is that hissing language you keep talking in? I don't appreciate you talking to each other when I don't understand."
"It is none of your concern. Now can we please accept that some things as mysteries and just climb up this stupid mountain?" he pleaded, desperately wishing for this conversation to come to an end. Although he did like the attention from her, he would be so happy if Lydia would stop trying to pry into his life so often.
"Fine, but one day you're going to have to tell me more about yourself," Lydia vowed, causing him to grimace at the idea of revealing himself.
"'Have' is a strong word. I think 'not' is a better way of putting it," Resh explained in hopes it would put an end to her probing.
But alas, it did not. "Why can't you tell me anything more than that? Are you afraid of your past? Are you too scared to say anything? Why do you always do this kind of thing? It's really annoying!"
Resh struggled for something to say but quickly remembered the reason he hired Brelyna in the first place, "Brelyna! You remember why I hired you right? Do your job dammit!"
"You didn't hire me. I don't get paid," Brelyna pointed out, smirking at how the situation was turning out.
"I will send you back to that College with the really annoying cat if you don't deal with her," Resh threatened, pointing at a now annoyed Lydia. "I cannot handle what happened last time again."
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here! And I'm not even having that… situation," Lydia stated, outraged at the misconception of her actions.
"I don't care," Resh replied hastily and then glanced over to the elf, "Brelyna, just do whatever it is I should be doing in this situation."
"But there is no situation!" Lydia shouted, but Resh was having none of it. Clearly not wanting a repeat of Winterhold, he was already in denial towards everything she was saying and currently not listening to her or Brelyna's reasoning. Eventually the two women, after getting tired of his refusal to listen them, just slid away from the table grumbling various curses and insults about him.
*You're not going to become very popular with her if you keep acting like that,* Kayci smirked at him, causing him to groan.
*First of all: shut up with your ridiculous obsession with things that will never happen. And second: did you know that human women have some monthly cycle thing?*
*Resh, I've been with more female humans than you have female Tsaesci. Of course I know about it. Usually a period is not a difficult thing to miss. Also, you are aware that Lydia isn't actually having one, aren't you?* Kayci asked, not sure if Resh quite understood how the other race's smells worked.
*I'm not taking any chances after Winterhold. She kept making me buy her sugary foods and alcohol, and then take everything to her. And if I didn't, she would either start crying or get really angry and throw things at me.*
*That's all? Last time I was in a relationship with a human long enough to go through that time of the month I was set on fire!*
*You get set on fire a lot,* Resh pointed out. Not only had it happened in her newest story, but also with her flame atronach, and several cases before it had happened as well.
*And? You don't have sex a lot,* Kayci countered. When all else failed she could always mock him for not getting as many girls as her.
*I think I'm agreeing with the last woman. You definitely have a quality that makes people just want to light you on fire,* he smirked, summoning a small ball of flames in his hands as a joke.
*I know you wouldn't dare. And the only reason she did is because she was one of those stuck up High Elves.*
*Wait… Are you talking about that ambassador Altmer we met in the Summerset Isles? Why her of all people? We took the forms of Altmer and she was still condescending," Resh asked. He remembered the woman in question. The Elf may have only been a mortal, but he got the feeling that it wouldn't be a very good idea to get on the bad side of her. And after going through several dossiers his feelings were deemed correct.
*Yep, Thalmor torture chambers have far more than just one use,* Kayci smirked, leaving him with a mental image that would haunt him for life after having seen the cells she spoke of. He just hoped location was as far as it went and none of the equipment in said cells was used.
*That's… delightful…* Resh said awkwardly. *You really should stop making enemies with people in high up places. No good can come of it.*
*We may have a problem then. Not just Elenwen. But also some Jarl person. Balgruuf, I think. There was also this Imperial general person I may have punched in the face as well. Maven Black-Briar hates me too. The list goes on, but it's not really a big deal. They can only really exact their revenge one at a time, so I'll be fine,* Kayci theorised, laughing about how lucky she was.
*Wouldn't it be hilarious if for some ridiculous reason you were made to go to a party with all of them in the same room,* Resh laughed, thinking of the most outlandish scenario he could.
*I wouldn't last five minutes,* Kayci laughed. *Although what are the chances of that happening?*