Meesei hardly budged, though she did let out an amused breath. "That reaction could not be any more typical of one your age, Rhazii. You are about in your sixteenth year, yes? A bit older than Sabine was when she first joined my pack, but much younger than all of the others. Do you truly expect to match the ability of those with decades more experience than you? But yes, the other members of our pack, Julan excepted, have had far more opportunities to grow their skills. Lorag received legion training, fought in a war, then had to survive on his own for nearly a decade before I found him. Janius had years of Fighter's Guild experience; enough to survive a harrowing encounter in a spiders' den. I was raised with the singular purpose of becoming my father's successor as a Treeminder, then forged my own path in service of Hircine with the knowledge I had. In this war, we have all fought battle after battle, survived certain death on multiple occasions, and honed our judgement in situations where to choose wrongly would mean the deaths of ourselves, or those we care about. It was those trials that made us what we are...and you should be glad you do not have to face them."

Taking another step forward, Meesei placed a single finger on Rhazii's head to push it back and force him to make eye contact with her. "Our trials nearly killed us, nearly broke our minds, out bodies, our willpower. Our strength is build on the pain of our scars, and it was an unenviable path to take. You...you are young and inexperienced, but you have one advantage we never had. You have good teachers. We can pass the lessons we learned onto you, without you having to suffer for them. You have always received training from us, of course. I know you have taken well to lessons in magic and steel alike, but your training can extend so much beyond mere fighting. You can learn from us all, but [i]only[/i] if you open yourself up to listen. If you go off on that typical adolescent rebellion and start believing that you know more than your mentors, then you will never reach that potential."