Captive?

" Me," Nora stated, "I'm the problem…" Her voice seemed defeated.

Once again, I was in a state of complete confusion.

"Oh dear…' Zara placed her hand on Nora's cheek, "If you want to talk about it I'm here."

"Aoooo." Athena did the same and placed her tiny palm on her other cheek.

The gesture made her cheer up and she placed both her hands on their's and smiled.

"Thank you!"

"Well then," Zara stepped back, "I have to feed Athena and put her to sleep, so do excuse me."

She waved Nora a goodbye and got one in return.

Athena copied the gesture but instead of waving her hand she rotated it.

It was cute but it became even cuter when Nora replied to her with the same hand rotating gesture.

She would make a good mother.

I wonder why she said that?

For a woman to say something like that… Could it be?

Nora turned to me, "Hey! Weren't you waiting for an email?"

"Yea…" I started walking, "Let's go." She followed behind.

Worry had started taking over me.

There could be many reasons why she said she was the problem but one just kept bugging me.

I kept thinking about the worst possible scenario.

That she couldn't have kids…

I sighed and entered the study. Nora followed right behind me and I sat on the chair to check the mail.

I turned on the laptop and while it booted I turned and looked at Nora who sat on the chair's arm.

"Say," I started and she looked at me.

"Hmm?"

"What you said back there…"

"What? Where?"

Should I really just ask about it? I don't know why I feel a bit anxious.

I cleared my throat, "That-" I scratched the back of my head, "Just a while back you said that you were the problem, in the lobby…"

"Ah~ That." She suddenly went quiet, "What about that?" She rubbed her eye.

"I just- I wanted to ask why you said that."

"Hmmm," She interlaced her fingers and began thinking, "Answer me a question first."

"Hm?"

"You know for a woman's body to be healthy and to be fertile she needs to have her periods right?" I nodded, "And if she doesn't get them or gets them very irregularly like barely once in four- five months it's bad news."

"... Is that so…"

Infertility?

"Oh! You got an email." She caught the notification on the laptop screen.

I wanted to continue the conversation but felt like she purposely told me about the mail.

Maybe she wants some time to tell me the details clearly, so I turned my head to look at it as well.

It wasn't the email I was expecting, but the title made me frown.

What is this?

The tribal territory dispute?

It was something I didn't expect.

I immediately opened up the email and looked at the content.

My heart dropped.

The email was about something I thought I had left behind a long time ago. About two decades have passed since I left my birth place and I had completely forgotten about it, but today it came to me unexpectedly.

The content of the email stated that the tribal had been in a dispute and the tribes fought among themselves which caused a lot of damage.

The house of power, The House of Hounds, was falling.

As soon as I read that name my heart dropped.

Hound…

It was never used. For decades, it was as if it was never there.

"Hey," Nora placed her hand on my shoulder, "You okay? You suddenly got pale?"

I looked at her softly, "I need to confront Arius."