Tzirret curled his fingers, let his hands fall to his sides, and bowed his head down, breaking eye contact with Ma'tanza. He tried starting to explain himself a few times, mostly not saying any words but taking and letting out swift frustrated breaths. After one last attempt, Tzirret's shoulders lowered and he began to speak in a small, quivering voice.

"It is because Tzirret does not want to be a coward any more." With his face turned down, Tzirret hid the strain on his features as he tried to hold back his own sadness. "His packmates always worry about him too much because he was scared of just about everything." Tzirret let in a shallow breath and sighed it out, "He got to learn how to be braver on this journey. When he met Ma'tanza and her friends, he knew he could be brave and strong if he tried. He liked that. He did not want to be treated like the runt any longer." He raised a palm slightly, but not his head. "He thought that...that if he went out to this battle, he could prove to everyone that he could cope." He lifted his hand up to his eyes, "But now he is not even fighting any more. Gallus says that he was just to be a message runner all along because he could not read the Ta'agra on his order letter properly. He feels stupid! So stupid!"

After another shallow sigh and a wet sniff, Tzirret addressed Ma'tanza's words more directly. "This one is sorry that he lied to you, Ma'tanza. He was being selfish. He did not want to look like a craven hen like he always does." A clear droplet fell from the middle of Tzirret's hand as it was pressed to his face. "Now he just feels stupid because he made everyone upset without even proving anything."

At this point, Sabine felt a little sorry for Tzirret. She had no idea that he couldn't read Ta'agra, and likely neither did Gallus until now. Everyone probably assumed that he could read it if he could speak it, but he probably didn't need to read anything that wasn't Cyrodilic for years now.