A sword from a dirty basement that was rusty and didn't seem to have anything but a very base enchantment. One wrecked room later and this girl is left there. It's a reasonable amount of caution. And the panther is low level cause of the -3 Ranger to Druid level for Animal COmpanions + if Calathes is there Ventriloquism to warn the others and then Panther to act as distracting element.  Just in case.