"Of course I don't!" Nani snapped back, growing frustrated herself. In all the time she had been searching, she hadn't ever really let herself feel this part of it. How--how unfair it seemed. She hadn't asked for this! She'd just been picked by some sort of cosmic force, and now apparently so had he.
Or, rather, he had been picked before her? Stars and seas, this was confusing.
She struggled to calm herself, taking a few deep breaths as her mentor had taught her: in for three, hold for five, out for seven...
"I am not a fighter," she said, voice soft and even again. "But...there are other ways to offer protection. Other kinds of strength. Perhaps that is what it means?" She gestured a little helplessly at the book he still held. "Does it say the--the Paladin has to serve as...well, as a glorified bodyguard, I suppose?"