"From what I recall, they caught Sabine off guard and held her at knife point," Janius explained, facing Leaps with a smile. "We were all naked with arrows pointing at us, the children included. We couldn't do anything without risking lives. They were going to take our belongings and Divines know what else, but then..." Janius looked past Jo'rashaad and held his hand out facing downwards as if gesturing to the scene as it was. "Up on the ridge where our camp was, we saw a creeping shadow, then a faint light, and then an arc of lightning shot down. It struck Sabine's captor and the bandits all flinched. Sabine shot out some fire and escaped, terrified as she was. The bandits quickly found out that they got more than they bargained for and we came out of it relatively unscathed."

Fendros added, "I seem to remember Leaps getting a nasty wound after he joined the fight. We were lucky that he had good healers."

"Valiant." Janius nodded, "He was valiant that night."

[hr]
Inwardly, Tzirret's entire mind breathed a sigh of relief as he returned Ma'tanza's hug. When Ma'tanza worked out something of a flaw in his idea, he owned up immediately, running his hand over his head. "Yes, Tzirret will admit that he found it difficult to think of something small you could wear, S'nishi," Tzirret said, looking up at her large face, "He figured that you might have someone tie it to your armour or baggage like Ma'tanza said."

When M'ibasa remembered to thank him, Tzirret gave a smile. "You are welcome. Now," Tzirret raised a finger, sounding more confident after his success, "Tzirret promised he would not waste the time you will have with your sisters, so he will distract you all no longer. He thinks he may have seen some sweetcakes with the rations when he retrieved his breakfast. There maybe some left if you hurry."