Selmas has never been in a real fight before. Warriors aren't fully trained until after they've been accepted by the Bloodstone, so the play fights and basic sparring techniques children learn when they're young don't accurately reflect what it's like, facing someone who actually wants to kill them.
Selmas remembers Byrin's first real fight. It was an attack on one of their scouting parties by a larger clan. Selmas had still been upset about his rejection by the Bloodstone, but he had almost been okay with it when Byrin had returned to the village, pale and shaken. He had sat next to Selmas, wordlessly, long into the night, before finally confessing in a very small voice that being a Warrior didn't make war less scary. In fact, it might have made it worse.
Selmas hadn't known what he m
