Kayci POV

"Are you okay?!" Lydia shouted, immediately running to her Thane and completely bypassing Kayci, who had also had the same fall.

Kayci smirked as she watched the woman check to see if he had any wounds, which he didn't. It was entertaining to watch as she spent a little too much time running her hand over his arms to look for injuries, what more was funnier is that Brelyna had also ran over and was doing the exact same thing to her.

Resh, noticing this too, recoiled in shock and pushed Lydia away, quickly regaining his composure. Kayci started to wonder if Resh had finally figured out Lydia's attraction towards him, but it seemed she was mistaken.

"I'm not hurt," he quickly told her defiantly, not wanting to seem weak in front of people. Sometimes Kayci just hated Tsaesci culture and honour, it could be so pointless sometimes, and really annoying in this situation. If he had just let her fell him up a bit more he might have finally got the message.

Lydia seemed taken aback by the statement. Her shock turned into sullenness when she came to the conclusion that he didn't like her touching him. Kayci didn't know how he did it but somehow Resh seemed to have a way of messing up every opportunity he had with women. In fairness he didn't actually want her, but he didn't have to look like he was insulting her in his obliviousness.

She started to wonder if she actually should try locking them in a room to make them get together, it would probably work. If not she could just get them both completely hammered and then let nature take its course. The latter of the two options seemed the best because if things went perfectly she could probably join in too and they could spend the next day all dealing with the mess in the morning.

The only downside to that plan was Brelyna, somehow she doubted that the relatively educated woman would want to join in with a small orgy, it was unlikely she would like getting drunk, and subsequently sorting out the mistakes that follow from said inebriation.

Plus it was doubtful Lydia would want her joining in considering what she was like when she Kayci 'tested the waters'.

"How did you even survive that fall?" Brelyna asked in disbelief, also surprised at their complete lack of injuries.

Kayci answered that, "Well, Resh here is a pretty massive guy so it's understandable he might have been able to endure it. And me, he broke my fall."

The Dark Elf looked unconvinced, but let it go realising there was no reason to argue with someone who had narrowly avoided death.

"Are you in any shape to head to Ivarstead or will we have to try and carry you?" Lydia asked.

"No, were fine, hence the reason were standing right now," Kayci replied, only saying the last part to give an excuse to pose and display her body, causing the Elf's mouth to almost hang open, "And somehow I doubt that the two of you could carry us, definitely not the big guy over here," Kayci said while nudging Resh's enormous bulk.

"We could try," Lydia indignantly replied, not wanting to seem weak. Kayci smirked as it reminded her of someone they both knew quite well. Damn Resh! Why couldn't he just do what they all wanted and fuck her?

"It doesn't matter anyway, we can all walk, we don't need anyone to try and pretend to do things they can't," Resh added, not noticing the look of annoyance flashing across her features at his statement.

Brelyna spoke now, trying to dissolve any tension, "Were not that far now, we can probably reach the town soon."

It seemed to work because Lydia decided not to give Resh a retort and they all just started to walk.

10 Minutes Later Resh POV

The walk to Ivarstead had mostly been in silence, less so due to nothing to say but more to the point was Resh and Kayci getting tired. Although they didn't have to sleep often they still had too sometimes, and it was coming to the point where they would both soon be in need of Ivarstead's inn.

Unfortunately the Elf didn't seem to understand the point of comfortable silences, and appeared to go out of her way to ruin them for him. "Resh?" she asked, pulling him away from the others to speak to him in private.

He sighed in weariness before answering, "What?"

"Can I ask you something about Kayci?" Brelyna whispered trying to makes sure the woman in question didn't hear.

Resh realised what she was going for, and also saw that Kayci, with her superior Tsaesci hearing, had heard the other woman as well as just he had even though she was several metres away. "Yeah okay, do you speak Dunmeri though? I'm asking so you-know-who doesn't know what you want to say."

*Yeah that makes sense, I forgot you could speak the language too, that's quite rare in Nords, most are quite uneducated,* she replied in her native tongue, much to Kayci's annoyance, who could now no longer hear.

*Anyway, speaking of uneducated 'Nords', what did you want to ask about Kayci over there?*

The Dunmer looked over to Kayci and sighed, *Does she have any interest in me?*

Resh didn't know what to say, on the one hand he couldn't lie to her, but on the other he didn't want to ruin Kayci's game lest she want revenge, *Kayce has interests in many things, who am I to say what they are?*

*I'm going to take that as a 'yes, but I can't say it or she'll tell more secrets about me,'* Brelyna deduced.

*You're a clever one aren't you?* Resh muttered hoping her knowledge wouldn't somehow have repercussions for him, *Was that all you wanted?*

*No. I'm just wondering, but you were with Kayci once weren't you?*

*Yes, are you going somewhere with this?* Resh was still in some ways slightly annoyed things were over between them but pushed the feelings aside and tried not to be jealous.

*I am,* she replied, *If I were to go after Kayci what would you suggest I do?*

*Well for one she's just playing around with you so if you confront her that will probably be a good start,* he explained, he was pretty sure Kayci would prefer her to be blunt about it.

*Anything else?*

Resh thought about it for a few seconds, *Kayce has a very fiery personality when it comes to certain aspects of a relationship,* Brelyna nodded along knowingly, *I'd say that the best way to deal with that kind of thing is to fight fire with fire. It's what I did, and she seemed to enjoy it. I guess having so much power all the time means in private you might want to feel powerless, You'll probably have to fight for control though,* Resh explained, it was sound advice but he knew that she probably wouldn't manage it if she tried. Kayci was a Tsaesci like him, far stronger than any of the other races, so fighting over control would probably sway in her favour.

Brelyna nodded her thanks and was about to leave but Resh stopped her, *If you do start something feel free to ask me anything you want to know as you go along, I can help,* Resh told her with a friendly smile, happily helping her out.

*Thanks!* Brelyna said enthusiastically at his advice, happy that she now had a small plan on what to do, *Not sure if this means anything, but need any help with Lydia just ask!*

Resh didn't have time to shout at her in outrage and sheer irritation so had to settle for a glare as she ran back to Lydia and Kayci.

'Why does everyone assume I'm interested in a human!?'

Resh POV

The majority of the walk now consisted of Resh silently brooding angrily in his head about what Brelyna had said. He considered it an insult for everyone to think he had feeling for someone who was not a Tsaesci. He wasn't as shallow as Kayci.

True though it may be that there were certain 'aspects' about the woman he liked. For one, she was a nice enough person, definitely enough so to call a friend, and he enjoyed her company. She just wasn't enough like his own kind.

From the waist up she was completely fine, attractive even, it was just everything south of that which put him off. As well as not having a tail like other Tsaesci, she also wasn't gold or scaled which were both major cons when it came to women for him.

How Kayci couldn't see this was beyond him, perhaps the main reason she liked the other races was their diminutive size, to be honest he could see himself liking that too, but not enough for the other things not to matter.

It had been almost two moons since he had last been with someone, and been even longer since he had relieved his… urges himself. So he could definitely feel his libido returning, luckily from being over 400 years old he had enough self-control to keep it from getting in his way, hence the reason he hadn't throw all his dignity out of the window and tried to bed a mammal.

Truth be told though, when he honestly thought about it he wasn't sure how much longer he could go on unsatisfied. And if not Kayci it didn't leave that many other choices, as he also had to exclude the Elf there was only really one choice… Regardless he couldn't let it happen, not just for the species issue but because he couldn't let everyone else be right, especially Kayci, he would never allow her to gloat.

He had little time to dwell on it though because Kayci had walked over to him while he was thinking, *So, have fun talking about me?*

Resh had no time to reply before Lydia started instead, "I think we should make a rule where we all speak the same tongue, none of that 'Hissy language' you keep talking in, it's really annoying."

The Tsaesci woman thought about it for a moment before nodding, "Fine, I guess it is quite annoying to not understand people. Like when those two," she gestured to Resh and Brelyna. "Started speaking 'Elfy'."

Brelyna took offense to that, "It's called 'Dunmeri' Kayce, not 'Elfy'."

"That's not my name," Kayci snapped at the word Kayce.

Lydia was intrigued now, "Why do you hate that name so much? It's not that bad."

"Well, other than it not being my name and instead being a mockery of it, I hate the nickname because in our 'Hissy language' as you two like to like to put it, it sounds very similar to the word 'Kaiss' which means bladder," she growled the last part while glaring at Resh, who didn't seem to care, and kept in smirking.

"The best part is it caught on too. The look on her face when all her superiors started calling her 'bladder' was one of the best things I had ever seen. There are a lot of people back home who actually think that's her name," he laughed, not only did he remember her face at the time, but also the broken nose he received later that day, it was definitely worth it though.

Kayci looked around at the two women who seemed to be just as amused as Resh was at the story, "Just in case you're wondering I made sure he paid for it, not only did I punch him in the face, but let's just say we're not the only people who know about his birthmark," she assured them.

"Luckily for me our own people didn't seem to care that much about it, they thought it was funny but let it go eventually… What was humiliating however was being dragged round a village by a woman half my size," Resh muttered, that had been a very undignified day for him. Everyone may have known Kayci was a deadly fighter, but still for someone his size that knew magic to be bested by her was quite interesting to say the least.

"You got to keep some of your ego…" Kayci said, trying to cheer him up.

"How?"

"Well, you were quite heavy. And everyone got to see how hard it was for me to drag you from place to place."

"You're giving me weight?" Resh asked incredulously, "You get knocking out the largest man in the village, and I get weight? That makes up for everything!"

Kayci sighed in relief, not noting his sarcasm. "Good, I'm glad we got all that out of the way."

What she didn't note however were her three group members glance at each other in awe at her reply. None of them knew how someone could be so oblivious.

At Ivarstead

It was only midday yet Resh was exhausted, he really needed some sleep. At least three hours of sleep a fortnight was good enough but right now he felt like he could practically hibernate right here right now.

If it wasn't for the ring he had he probably would have already because of the cold forcing his instincts to make him. Luckily for Resh his magical band was restraining the urge to burrow in holes, for now.

He wondered if Kayci needed to rest as well, so far he hadn't seen her try sleeping and they had been travelling together for a while now, for all he knew she could have gone longer without it than he had.

Resh was so tired he couldn't even be bothered to listen to the rest of the conversation, instead his mind just turned it all into white noise in the back of his head. Instead, as if his mind was working on autopilot he immediately stumbled into the Inn and collapsed into the nearest bed he could find.

Being so tired Resh didn't even bother pay, he just assumed, or hoped to put it correctly, one of the others would instead.

A few moments after he had fallen asleep one of the other members sitting in the bar area looked over to Resh's new room, "Is he aware there's someone still in there?"

"I would presume not," Kayci smirked as she heard a man shouting come from Resh's direction.

No sooner than he had gotten to sleep Resh was woken by the sounds of shouting. Someone must have been attacking the town!

Snapping his eyes open Resh immediately spotted a furious looking man standing above him. Whoever it was must've been one of the people attacking judging by how angry he appeared, the 'attacker' didn't have time to finish whatever he was shouting before a half asleep Resh hand slugged him in the face, knocking him out cold.

Now stood up and fully awake Resh realised that it had only been the now unconscious man making any noise. When he started to think about the place currently seemed completely silent, perhaps this was the only person attacking.

Focusing on the doorway Resh started to piece together what had happened, the biggest clue was Lydia, Brelyna and every other patron of the tavern staring into the room in shock. The first person to break the aforementioned silence was the familiar sound of Kayci's laughter.

"Shit Resh! Any harder and you'd have knocked his fucking head off!" she gasped, trying to gather herself, but not managing.

Unfortunately, neither he, nor his other two friends found things quite so funny. He guessed it was safe to say that this was now the second tavern in Skyrim he wouldn't be stepping into again.

"Any harder and I might have, I'm honestly surprised he's only unconscious," Resh told her, it was true, he had thought the man was a criminal and was fully prepared to kill him, "I think it's best we leave." He continued, nodding to the angry looking tavern owner.

"I thought you were tired?"

"Yes, but I'm not going to sleep in a place where I'll probably have my throat slit," Resh explained, drunk people could get very vengeful, *Besides I haven't basked in the sun for ages so that would probably be better.*

Kayci didn't have time to reply before an irritated Lydia spoke up, "I thought we all agreed not to speak different languages!"

Resh looked down in defeat, "Sorry…"

*You're so whipped! It's like you're married already,* Kayci joked.

"You too," Brelyna snapped sternly, while glaring at Kayci, who now had a similar expression to her friend.

"Fine," she muttered in defeat before turning to Resh. "Women, huh? Guess we're in the same boat, aren't we?" earning a laugh from him, despite the joke still being at his expense as well as hers.

"Guess so… This is now the second Inn I can't go back to, if I keep it up I won't have anywhere to go if I ever want to drink," Resh wondered out loud, only then realising how horrible that would be were it true. He'd never be able to get any of that delicious Nordic alcohol again.

"You could always have some more of my Lava Whisky," Kayci offered, were the scenario ever to occur.

Resh answered immediately, "I don't think so. That stuffs strong enough to knock out a…" he would've finished the sentence but he couldn't think of the correct analogy seeing as Tsaesci had a higher alcohol tolerance than the other races.

"I know what you mean," Kayci said, mercifully ignoring his blunder, "When I first tried it I was drunk from one mouthful, the second immediately finished the job. Next thing you know I'm waking up in a pool of my own vomit."

"I remember, I vaguely recall you running around yelling something along the lines of 'It got everywhere! Even in my hair!' you still owe me for waking me up in the middle of the night just to help you shave your head," in truth Kayci owed him a thousand times over for the amount of times she had woken him about stuff in her hair, just usually it wasn't vomit.

"Not my finest moment I admit, but we won't be having that problem anymore," she assured.

"What makes you say that?" Resh inquired dubiously, Kayci was the last person he would ever expect to change for whatever reason.

"Well obviously it's because I have matured-"

"It was only six months ago!" that wasn't even very long in human time, let alone their own extended lives.

Kayci laughed, "I didn't expect you to believe that. Truth is I have short hair now anyway so it's unlikely I'll be waking you for that reason."

"You, matured? I don't think so. It's been centu- years I've known you and you still spend all your time acting like you've only just come of age," Resh laughed, he secretly hoped Kayci never would grow up. The situations she got in, although often disturbing, were rather enjoyable to watch.

"I agree, I don't think I'd ever want to walk around with a stick up my ass and an aversion to enjoying life like you," Kayci retorted, by now she would probably be expected by the rest of her kind to start a serious relationship instead of just jumping into bed with whatever doesn't shake her off.

"I don't know Kayce, I reckon you could probably manage it quite well, you already have half the criteria filled."

The other Tsaesci was curious now, "How do you mean?" Resh wasn't someone she would expect to say she could conform.

"Well you mentioned we all walk around with a stick up our ass right?" Resh started seriously, although unable to hide his smirk when Kayci nodded for him to continue. "Well that shouldn't be too hard for you should it? You've had more than enough practice in that area," he finished, laughing at his crude joke as Kayci glared at him.

"You're going to regret that," she growled at the giant man.

"I know I probably will but it was still worth it. Seriously though, don't change like the rest of us," Resh replied sincerely, if she started acting like everyone else it would be terrible.

"You know me well enough to know I won't."