HALCYON

The other female got nosier and nosier by the minute. Laxago was half ready to snap and remember that fury that had once boiled so frequently below the surface, but she forced herself to grit her teeth and push a sigh through her flared nostrils. "I was ill," she repeated, as though it should have been obvious why they did not have more children. She had been unable to care for herself, let alone more hungry mouths to feed, and she doubted that in the recent years Deteste had seen her in any sort of sexual manner anyway. He had been her caretaker, her husband, her mate -- but not her lover. "That's a rather personal question, don't you think?" she responded warily, her eyes narrowing upon Medusa, her cool expression suggesting that the queen best back off or any attempt at friendship between them would be quickly vanquished.