”Try high school freshman,” Saiph replied, smiling slightly. Whatever else he might do or be, Maus clearly did not have a lot of kids in his life. And, since he was admitting to being out of shape, she decided to graciously back off of scolding. “I haven’t bothered with trying out for any teams. I’m not really big on Sport. But I’m in the Animation Club and that’s pretty cool.”
It was, she thought, a little odd to be sharing such a normal thing with someone else in weird clothes after having just killed a monster. Like complaining about the weather as Godzilla rained down nuclear hellfire kind of weird.
“Please,” she snorted softly at his forlorn tone. “Chess Club didn’t teach you how to swing rebar like that, so don’t sell yourself short. Besides, if you were in Chess, that means you’re smart. Smart is a pretty great thing to be.”
Nodding as if to give emphasis to her words, Saiph straightened up out of her crouch and stretched out her arms. He didn’t sound so winded now, that was good. That meant she didn’t have to feel guilty leaving him to his own devices. Studying him, she came to a few rapid decisions. “You sound better. If you’re that out of shape, I can help train with you if you want or see if I can find someone more grown up to work out with you. I’ve heard it's harder for knights to access the databases, is that true? If it is, you should really find one of the cats to help get you hooked up. I mean, if you haven’t yet. Then,” she grinned, expression impish, “you wouldn’t have to rely on random teens in trouble to get your daily steps in.”
