Lydia POV

As she had expected Resh and Kayci weren't gone for particularly long, and almost as soon as they got back they were ready to leave. Resh seemed in a considerably happier mood than he had earlier, but Lydia chalked it up to him being pleased about having a new sword.

Delphine, despite rubbing her jaw in discomfort seemed more than enthusiastic about leaving as soon as possible, which Lydia had to admit, was admirable for someone her age. Even Resh had offered to wait another day for her to recover, as Brelyna's magic could heal the injury but not all the pain, but she had refused.

The situation was rather tense to say the least, and for the first part of their walk no conversation passed at all. It wasn't until they passed the, somehow still burning, ruins of Helgen did anyone actually break the silence.

"I still can't believe you got to kill the first dragon in years before me," Kayci muttered sorrowfully, knowing that the glory of such a story would fall to Resh when they went back, and not to her. "And if that's what one can do, I'm surprised anyone could."

"The one I took down was nothing like the one in Helgen, that one was a lot bigger, and all spikey. And I don't know what it was, but there was something I recognised about it," Resh told her, he doubted the two of them together could kill that monster that destroyed the city.

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to kill that one to prove that regardless of what you do I can do it better," she grinned, never wanting to miss an opportunity to show Resh up. Kayci had always had that mindset, ever since she was beating Resh to a pulp when sparring in front of women he had a crush on, often winning them for herself.

"You still can't use magic so I'm always in the lead with that, plus it's quite clear I'm the intelligent one out of us two," Resh countered, still trying to keep hold of some of the few things he could beat her at. Kayci won when it came to almost everything else: womanising, sword fighting, sparring, better senses, running, hunting, the list goes on.

"Only cause you were a shit teacher, how many times are you going to make me bring this up? I lost a fucking finger because of you!" Kayci shouted, she wasn't angry, it was more a laugh of frustration than anything.

Brelyna was shocked, what had that idiot tried doing to her Kayci? "You can't just teach someone magic so easily, especially since she's not a child anymore or born with magical aptitude. There's a reason there's a College, even I'm not a master and still need teaching, hence the reason I go."

"Do you reckon if I go I could get better than him?" Kayci asked, eyes lighting up at the idea of beating Resh at his own game. "If so I might think about going."

Brelyna looked doubtful, "From what I've seen of Resh, even though it isn't his main attacking style he is very powerful, so probably not. You could still learn something, from someone who knows how to teach."

The Elf demeanor changed suddenly, she was almost sad now, calling Kayci away from the others in the group to talk to her in private. "I've been looking for a time to bring this up, and now seems as good a time as any. I'm probably going to have to go back to the College soon, I can't really learn anything if all I do is field research."

Kayci looked somewhat devastated, which even to someone like Resh would be an odd sight, she usually never differed from her two main emotions, sassy and angry. "When is it you have to leave?"

"Probably in at most a week. I just wanted to say that I know that we've had our ups and downs, and fought a lot, but despite all that this has been great what we've had together, I've only really been so bossy and irritable with you because this has been hanging over my head. And I would love it if you could come back with me," Brelyna said, growing more and more sorrowful the further she went on, hating the idea of having to leave Kayci after only just starting with her, especially as she had wrecked the relationship between them so much by being so controlling.

The Tsaesci didn't really know what to think, it wasn't often she got into relationships that lasted longer than a night, and Brelyna was practically asking her to live with her in the College. And however much she really liked the Elf she wasn't sure she wanted to stop adventuring just to be with her, fighting was part of who she was. Plus there was Resh as well, the two had practically been inseparable for centuries, Kayci would hate not being able to see her best friend regularly, he was the only thing resembling family she had.

"It's alright, you don't have to decide now, I just thought I should let you know. And I don't mind if you don't want to come either, I understand I haven't really been the best girlfriend," Brelyna sighed, knowing that Kayci's answer was probably going to be a firm 'no'.

"Have you ever sent hired thugs to kill me?" Kayci asked bluntly.

"No…"

"Have you ever slipped nightshade into my drinks?"

"What sort of people did you used to s-"

Kayci cut her off as she continued her point, "Have you ever set me on fire in my sleep? I'm going to take a guess and say 'no', you are not the worst girlfriend I've had by a long shot, and by far not the worst lover."

"Maybe so, but I doubt you would be willing to stop adventuring just so I can have a warm bed to come back to after my lectures," the mage laughed, slightly happier knowing that Kayci still liked her despite how she had treated her due to the stress of having little time together.

"I don't know, maybe I could learn something there as well as you. I reckon killing this dragon myself could satisfy my adventuring for at least a month, besides, if I get bored waiting around doing nothing at the College I could always go out hunting, or leave whenever I want if it's not my thing," Kayci pondered out loud, the idea was sounding more and more promising when she thought about it. She could always just write to Resh as well to keep in touch, it was a shame their scouting groups 'telepathist' died otherwise it would be so easy for them to communicate over long distances.

Brelyna's heart soared at her words, "So is that a 'yes' then? also, I can assure you that it won't be boring, there is more than enough field work that needs to be done you can do, and you can do pretty much whatever you want during the day as everyone is either teaching or learning."

"I guess it is, I've never been serious with someone enough to in a way 'move-in' with them. Although, I'm not sure how long I would be able to be cooped up in some College though, so I might leave a lot, but I won't be gone long, I promise," Kayci told her, smiling because she had managed to raise the Dunmers spirits.

"I don't have that much longer of my course anyway, at the very most we should be there for a year, then we can meet up with Resh and Lydia again, and carry on where we left off,"

"Sounds good to me, although there's probably some important stuff I should tell you when we get there," Kayci said somewhat mysteriously, "Who knows? it might be you unsure whether you want to have me around after you know."

Brelyna hugged her possessively and whispered, "I doubt that'll ever happen, I'll always want you around, no matter what."

"If you say so…" Kayci replied uneasily, she didn't want one of her only real relationships ruined because of her race. She didn't dwell on it though as she thought of even more important matters that would arise from the new twist of fate, "How am I going to break this to Resh?"

Resh POV

As every hour dragged on Resh was getting more and more sure that he hated Delphine, not only did she have very little personality, but they had been standing around this dragon mound for ages now and nothing had happened.

Supposedly, one of the ancient dragons was meant to rise from its grave here, but Resh had seen no proof of that in the crater of dirt they had been waiting around at, unfortunately every time he voiced his opinion Delphine insisted something would happen.

Ordinarily he wouldn't care and would leave anyway, but Kayci had become relatively obsessed with killing a dragon for herself and also was refusing to go. It seemed that she didn't want Resh to be proclaimed as the only dragon slayer when they went back home. Although Resh was finding it odd how impatient she was being, she would have loads of chances in the future when they carried on adventuring so he didn't see why today was such a big deal, it wasn't like she was going anywhere.

Even so, he had no doubts Kayci could kill this one, she was far more talented than he was at fighting, so it was unlikely she wouldn't be able to call herself dragonslayer by the end of the day. One thing Resh was worried about however was what would happen once it died, he was hoping that as it wouldn't be him killing it he wouldn't absorb its soul like last time. If he did, there would be a pretty big problem, Kayci would probably end up slaying two dragons in one day.

Resh hated himself for doing something so dishonourable, but he was already starting to formulate the lies in his head to stop her from attacking him. He reckoned that if he really tried he could probably convince her she was seeing things, the fact she was probably reaching the peak of her moon-sugar withdrawal, despite hiding it well; and that she wasn't the most observant of people meant he could probably get away with it.

He still didn't know if it was the right thing to do, on the one hand lying would save his life, and Lydia wouldn't be sad about his death, but on the other hand he still had his Tsaesci honour and tradition, which should be the most important thing to him, and bind him never to lie. The very fact he was putting Lydia, and his own feelings ahead of his tradition and honour was enough to make him hate himself, and it was likely if his kind found out about that he wouldn't live that much longer.

Kayci was never very fond of that rule though, which was understandable seeing as she was raised by those disgusting cat-people his kind was fighting, they always valued emotional attachments over honour, something he and his kind despised, but Kayci took to heart.

For the first time in his life Resh was happy Kayci played fast and loose with tradition, he knew it was a farfetched hope, but he started to wonder if her emotional attachments to him would spare his life. Resh quickly discarded the thought, Kayci was very fond of Tsaescian hunting, and despite any bonds between them, being the dragonborn put him top of the list for hunting prizes, and Kayci would never pass up an opportunity like that, no matter how close friends they were.

Had Resh dwelled on the thought any longer he might have missed the sounds of Kayci's shouting. "It's a dragon! Resh, it's actually a fucking dragon! I'm so going to fucking kill this thing!"

Unfortunately for her it was still flapping its wings, buffeting the group with air, and she couldn't reach it, much to her dismay.

Resh could've sworn he had seen this particular one before, it looked very similar to the one at Helgen, but then again there were probably tonnes that all looked the same, needless to say, they all needed to die.

He fired up his first burst of lightning more as a way to get its attention than harm it, but the great beast barely even noticed them, and didn't react at all to his magic, as if it hadn't even felt it. Instead the creature looked at the mound and it started to smoke with a strange aura and magical flames rose from the dirt.

Almost all of them flinched when the dragons unexpected voice boomed across the valley, somehow even more terrifying than if it had lit the place on fire with it breath alone. "Sahloknir, ziil gro dovah ulse!"

"Slen tiid vo!" almost as soon as the words were uttered the mound shifted, and the dirt started to rumble. He would've shot another burst of magic at the monster again to make it fight, had a bright light not shone in front of him, wrecking his view.

Resh almost gasped in shock when his eyes started to refocus, only a few feet from where he was standing was another dragon, at the moment it was only bones, but it was still very much alive. Its flesh was forming around it as if it were being burnt on, rather than torn away.

The Tsaesci would never openly admit something like this, but he was, to put it simply, scared. He had thought one of these things with the help of several, albeit inept, archers, and had broken his shins doing so, and been unable to leave the city for days.

Now there were two. The chances of all of them surviving this seemed very slim now, especially considering the condition they were all in. Lydia was pregnant, Kayci was in withdrawal, Brelyna seemed unnecessarily depressed, they had an old woman fighting with them, and to top it all off Resh wasn't going to be as focused as usual seeing as he had to look out for his potential offspring and make sure no harm came to his future clutch.

Resh had no time to dwell on his feeling of doom as the newly formed creature rumbled is harsh sounding speech as well, "Alduin, thuri! Boaan tiid vokri-" it didn't finish what it was saying however as an irritated Kayci stormed in front of it in the middle of its speech.

Kayci was never known to be one who was very patient, especially in times of fighting. So immediately interrupted the other dragon before it had a chance to speak. What was rather funny about it was the indignant way she did it cut it off, especially considering it was an immortal monster that had just risen from death.

"Shut the fuck up you stupid lizard thing!" she shouted before slapping it in the face as hard as she could. It seemed that the entire world had gone silent as everyone tried to piece together what had happened. Resh doubted the dragon had even felt her strike, but even they were too shocked at the audacity of what she had done to continue speaking.

After almost a minute of no one talking the larger, more intimidating of the dragons finally spoke, after what almost sounded like a dragon sighing, "Sahloknir, krii daar joorre."

The other dragon, supposedly called Sahloknir, didn't need to be told twice and took off from the ground, away from Kayci who was readying to actually punch it and do some damage rather than bitch-slap it like she did earlier.

Resh gave a sigh of relief when the larger, more dangerous dragon flew away, he would not have wanted to fight both at the same time. There was still one dragon to deal with, and he highly doubted it was going to be easy.

While in the air Kayci, Lydia and Delphine were almost useless, unable to do anything but hide and avoid any fire it might spew forth, but he and Brelyna had magic, and almost in perfect synchronisation launched their assault.

When he saw the Elf chucking shock spells Resh switched to his incendiary magic, so it would be attacked in two ways and not just one. The dragon shook of their attacks with relative ease and returned in a similar manner, scorching the entire area with flames.

Resh and Brelyna were only able to escape being roasted because the threw themselves behind the rocks the other two were hiding behind. They could feel the heat from the flames as they blistered over the edge of their defense, melting away parts of the rock with its extreme heat, and almost spraying molten stone onto them.

The two ranged fighters quickly jumped out of their cover when Sahloknir climbed higher into the air, readying to swoop back down. Even with the two of them tossing even more spells up at it the dragon still didn't falter in the slightest, its thick hide protecting it from the magical attacks and shielding its important parts. It was obviously far stronger than the one he had killed.

Behind them Resh spotted Lydia pull out her bow and notch one of their few arrows, foolishly he had never thought to stock up arrows so she only had about four shots to take. Nevertheless he was still pleased she was doing what she could to help, and was proud of her for trying.

After a few seconds her first arrow flew up, it struck true and hit the dragon in its wings, not really doing anything but cutting about an inch into it, but barely tearing the skin. It was all he and Brelyna needed though, as they changed their aim to its newly acquired weak spot, opening the wound slightly.

It wasn't enough to do any serious damage, but it did any it, as it gave out a massive roar and breathed flames again, fortunately it was still distracted and missed them all completely, burning a nearby tree to cinders.

Resh spotted Kayci snatch the next arrow off Lydia before she had a chance to use it. She frowned at the other Tsaesci, but was quickly calmed down when Kayci stuck the sharp edge in her mouth brought it out with a reddish tinge, Lydia had seen Resh do this before.

Kayci handed it back and Lydia brought it to her bow like the last arrow, careful to avoid the blade in case she got herself poisoned. Like the last this arrow drove into the monster as well, Resh noted with respect that Lydia was an excellent archer, causing it to stiffen slightly as it realised it had been poisoned.

As Resh had suspected however the dragon was able to fight off its effects, it had been hurt, but not enough to kill it, only bring it down, which was more than enough of what they needed. Resh made a note to thank them both for the help, he doubted he and Brelyna could have done it by themselves. Thinking of using a bow to open up its weaknesses was a stroke of genius, one that made him sure the Lydia would be a great mother to his clutch.

Once on the floor Kayci wasted no time and darted over to the creature, which was still shaking off the remaining effects of the venom. Had she been a real Nord her attacks wouldn't have been dangerous in the slightest, but seeing as she was really a fully grown, albeit below average sized, Tsaesci her punches could deal some considerable damage.

Still though, Resh couldn't help but think that her mind 'not being in the right place' due to the moon-sugar could have influenced her abrupt actions. Kayci shouldn't have run out like that, especially as she ran right to its face, she was lucky it didn't light her on fire as she went over.

He would have scolded her for her poor decision had she not just thrust her fist so hard into its forehead a sickening crunch could be heard. Sahloknir let out a huge roar and snapped at her with his jaws.

Even when in a bad condition Kayci was still a master at fighting as she deftly avoided its attack and swung again, custom designed metal gauntlets doing their job and cutting into its flesh.

Annoyingly even though Kayci was doing a fantastic job sparring with it she made it impossible for Brelyna, Lydia or Resh to get a clear shot in, he was definitely going to have to talk to her about this, that was not how a military superior was meant to act.

The beast was close to death now and Resh decided not to even try to get a shot in now, there was no point. Not only was Kayci in the way, but being a dragon slayer obviously meant a lot to her, so he figured it was best to let her finish the job.

And so she did, driving a volley of quick, sharp, but extremely powerful blows into its eyes, no doubt killing it as blood streamed out of its wounds. In its last throes of death the dragon let out one last fire breath, not nearly as strong as its earlier attacks, but still enough to burn flesh, or more precisely, Kayci's flesh.

Brelyna screamed and ran over to her as a smoking Kayci fell to the floor. Resh would've done the same too, Kayci had been his closest friend for years and he would be devastated to see her die, but the dragons skin, much like Kayci's started to crack and break apart. Although as Kayci seemed to only fall down, hopefully unconscious, the dragon exploded into a plume of golden magic.

"You are Dragonborn…"