"Oh," Sabine's face showed apprehension all of a sudden, "Well, you can meet them if you want to, but...they might act differently. You're the Champion. It's different with their parents-"

"Hey Sabine! Over here!" An overexcited Altmer girl jumped up in the water and waved in Sabine and Meesei's direction. The entire group that Sabine had pointed out had their eyes on them now.

Sabine frowned and looked to the pool, then back to Meesei, and then to the pool again. Finally, she took Meesei's hand and lead her to the steps. "Meet them, then go and relax," Sabine dictated.

The water was pleasant and refreshing, as expected. Sabine's eyes seemed to be locked wide open, as if she was hoping the meeting would go well. The laughing and chatting from Sabine's friends died down as they approached. It went to silence once everyone realised who was alongside Sabine.

"Hello. This is Meesei," Sabine managed a smile, "She's my alpha, and my m-...my teacher."

There was a pause. An awkward one.

The one boy in the group, the younger black-haired Imperial named Primus, had his jaw hanging open. "Your alpha is the Champion of Hircine? Why didn't you tell us?" He said, breaking the silence.

The similar looking, yet older girl next to Primus in the water, the one named Angela, put on an annoyed face and looked to Primus. "We [i]all[/i] knew, brother!" Angela splashed some water at Primus' head, "You never pay attention to anything!"

Everyone chuckled at the exchange. The apparently bravest one in the group, the Nord girl named Freida, paddled forward. "Hi, I'm Freida! My uncle says that you saved his life in the battle a couple of weeks ago. Thank you."

The entire atmosphere relaxed, and with it so did Sabine's involuntarily tensed shoulders. She had wanted to introduce Meesei as her mother, but she knew that wasn't true. With the mothers of the friends she had met, Meesei was the closest equivalent that Sabine had. She was just glad that she had caught herself before making the situation embarrassing. Hopefully Meesei wouldn't do that for her.

[hr]
"I see, I see," Najirra closed his eyes solemnly, "This one has not heard of such drawn-out of cruelty in some time. Now, this one shall instruct you to do something simple, but its purpose will become apparent." Najirra turned his body and reached out for a large scroll of parchment and two sticks of charcoal. He lifted the tea set on its tray, put it aside, then laid the parchment out on the small table and handed the charcoal each to Fendros and Ahnasha. He weighted the parchment flat with empty teacups.

Fendros took the charcoal and looked at it, still confused by the old Khajiit's methods.

"With one hand, you will find your heartbeat. An easy place to find it is between one of the two cords of your neck, your jaw, and the apple of your throat." Najirra demonstrated by placing a finger high on the side of his neck, "Your other hand will hold the charcoal."

Without much trouble, Fendros found his pulse with his left hand. His heart was beating fast due to the previous topic.

"When I tell you to start, you will both put a mark on the parchment for every heartbeat you have. Mark every one of them until I tell you to stop." Najirra pulled a small hourglass out from under the table, "Ready? Start." There was a clack as the top end of the hourglass was set on the table.

Fendros began to scratch the parchment for every throb he felt on his neck. It was difficult enough to keep up that he closed his eyes partway through. He had suspicions as to what this was for, but he didn't say. He just did as Najirra asked.

"That will do, stop now."

The hourglass had all of its sand in the lower globe when Fendros opened his eyes. He wasn't keeping track of the seconds, but his heartbeat made the time seem longer than the hourglass suggested. It couldn't have enough sand for more than half a minute.

Najirra carefully pulled the parchment off the table and laid it to one side. It curled up on its own when he set it on the floor. "We will go back to that later. Now we shall do as monks do, without lurking into spirits and gods. We need only be at peace. You may both seat yourselves comfortably, keep your backs straight, close your eyes if you wish. Breathe as this one instructs..."

This was a simple trick to Fendros. Deep breaths? It's what everyone did to calm themselves. Whenever Fendros tried, it was because he was angry about something, and it often didn't work. He would lose patience. The only thing that had Fendros humour the old man further was the assumption that he would perform some kind of magic with this exercise.

"Fill your belly with air, slowly in now." Najirra breathed along with them, "Now fill your chest with air, but not fully...now fill your neck with air."

Fendros wondered how he was supposed to store breath above his lungs, but upon filling the remainder of his chest, he did feel a pressure on the base of this throat. Perhaps that's what the old man meant.

"Now, we go back, empty your neck of air..." Najirra exhaled much slower than he inhaled, "...now empty your chest..." Fendros could feel his heart thudding still, but he just focussed on following Najirra's instructions, "...and empty your belly. In order for this to work, we must repeat this cycle for a short time."

Somehow, Fendros had not given up yet, but he wondered how Ahnasha's patience was faring in comparison.

[hr]
A cheer went up from the children as tiny splinters from the shield flew. Janius gave a smile; Kaleeth was doing well.

"Alright, and that is a werecrocodile, children!" Janius announced to the audience, "The biggest lycan you'll ever see if you're lucky!" Janius looked to Kaleeth again, now more confident that she was in control. "Kaleeth, I don't know for sure if you can talk in that form, but if you can understand me, nod your head. Do you want to go and hunt, or would you like to transform back now?"