"It was fine," Sabine said, grinning, "We just had a quick talk. Meesei is a great mother." Receptive to Peiter's touch, Sabine gave a quick kiss to Peiter's lips and slowly repositioned to wrap her legs around his waist, pressing close again. "I will tell you what she said later. For now, just...keep doing that..."

Soon enough they were resuming where they had left off, but it was the last time that Sabine felt she could do any physical activity that day. She was exhausted.

[hr]
Tzirret was relieved to see that he had not injured M'ibasa, but he still felt bad for not going easy on him. At the challenge from both siblings, Tzirret glanced down and up again, before looking more nervous and raising his hands. [i]"Oh, this one is n-not so sure,"[/i] he stammered, more nervous about physical contact with the lovely Ma'tanza than the challenge itself. The last thing he needed to do in front of these people was humiliate himself. [i]"He, uh, he might injure someone! Yes, he does not want to...um, hurt Ma'tanza."[/i]

It never occurred to Tzirret until afterwards that his excuses might have been construed as overconfidence, but even he knew that he was probably about to get tackled again regardless. He braced himself on the soft, silty river bed for just that eventuality.