"Surprise!" The Altmer girl erupted from the water behind Sabine and placed her hands on Sabine's shoulders. Sabine shrieked with fright. The Altmer girl's upward momentum turned down while she was above Sabine, effectively dunking Sabine under the water. The Altmer began laughing with good nature as Sabine surfaced again with flattened wet hair. Sabine began to giggle along with the Altmer and threw a splash of water in revenge.

"Good one, Rikki," Primus said over his own laughter.

Now that Sabine was in the centre of the group, she realised with Meesei's face that she should perhaps introduce everyone else properly, rather than vaguely pointing. Not everyone was as up front as Freida. "Meesei, this is Rikki, Primus, Angela, and Thyme."

"You are a magic user, right?" The Bosmer girl, Thyme, was perhaps the one with the clearest voice, but she was the smallest of them all, "What kind of magic are you good at?"

Off to one side, Sabine approached Rikki and murmured. "Where's Caleb?"

"I think he's helping the woodworkers to build extra things for the front gate, why?" Rikki gained a mischeivious grin, "Finally brought up the courage to confess?"

"No!" Sabine reacted immediately, beginning to cringe again, "I told you, I don't..."

"Sabine, we can all tell. You ask after him too much." Angela matter-of-factly noted.

Primus looked sideways at Angela, "By that logic, sis, you would have feelings for Roland over there."

Angela instinctively looked around, "What? He's here!? Uh-" she stopped herself and looked angrily back at Roland, "I don't [i]like[/i] like Roland, okay? He's just..." Angela trailed off.

"He runs off and hides at the weirdest times," Rikki finished Angela's sentence.

[hr]
The breathing exercise went on for as long as Fendros expected, and then five more. By about the middle of the exercise, he had to admit that he didn't realise how tense his neck and shoulders were until it all seemed to drain off him like warm water. Eventually, his heart became less noticeable in his chest. He had all but forgotten about it by the time Najirra asked them to open their eyes again. What Fendros found in front of him was another blank sheet of parchment on the table.

"Now that we have finished the breathing, we shall count our heartbeats again." Najirra lifted the hourglass and turned it once they were both ready, "Begin."

The counting was easier this time, much easier. Fendros' heart was beating far slower, not to mention he was much more relaxed. The time passed more quickly. Soon enough Najirra signalled them to stop and put the hourglass aside. He retrieved the previous scroll of parchment and laid it out such that Fendros and Ahnasha could compare the heartbeats they counted. In both cases, both of them had marked fewer heartbeats.

"Describe to this one now, how do you feel compared to before the breathing? In body and mind?" Najirra asked.

Fendros' patience hadn't improved, but it wasn't any thinner than before either. "Er...relaxed, loose. Calmer, I think? Before, I was tense, of course, but...how is this meant to help exactly?"

Najirra raised the fingers of one hand, "I shall explain after you answer as well, Ahnasha."

[hr]
Janius' smile widened as Kaleeth answered. At first he was concerned when she took a closer look at the children, but that quickly diminished as she transformed back. Janius quickly stepped forward to catch her properly. "If it didn't hurt, you wouldn't know that it was happening," Janius offered, he kissed her on the cheek, "Good show."

After a moment, Janius attempted to prop Kaleeth back onto her feet and addressed the gathered children. "That's all there is to see, children! Any questions?" Janius' eyes glanced over to the discarded pieces of shield, "Whoever touches a piece of shield first gets to keep it."

Immediately, a number of the children charged for the splintered pieces of wood, still with the tell tale tooth marks that Kaleeth had inflicted. It wasn't as if the shield was useful to anyone now.