Mr Ashliford carried his daughter into the living room and over to the couch. She mumbled in her sleep as he set her down, her eyes sliding open for a moment before closing again as she fully relaxed into sleep. Easing her onto the side, he placed a pillow under her head, pulled the throw blanket over her and knelt beside her, regarding his daughter for a moment.

Finger combing her hair out of her face he sighed, before stopping and grabbing the cordless phone, heading into the kitchen and ordering Mimi to watch Etsu until he got back. He was worried that she was going to have nightmares.

Entering the kitchen and too restless to sit, he leaned against the counter and dialled the number his wife had given him, then crossed 1 arm across his chest and held the phone to his ear. After 3 rings she picked up halfway through the fourth.

“Hello, Moriko Ashliford speaking. Who's calling?”

He sighed and said, “Hi, it's me.”

“You don't sound okay. Is everything alright?” She asked, worried.

He told her everything that he knew so far.

She listened silently, then took a moment to process what he had told her.

“Oh my God..." She finally said "Is she alright?” She asked, voice shaky.

“I think so; she's sleeping it off.”

“That might not be a good thing.”

“I know.”

There was a silence as both parents tried to figure out what to do, how to navigate this and came up blank. Finally, Mr Ashliford spoke again.

“I miss my homeland.” He said quietly.

“Somehow, I always manage to forget how old you are until you say something like that..." She sighed, then, "Until we can find a place to move to what do you want to do? You're the one there most of the time right now.”

He was silent a moment before answering.

“I'm going to train her myself. I should have followed Lesnama tradition on this one.”

"Mm, yeah; I agree. The aggression needs managing."

"We were made for war." He sighed.

"I know." She said, then reminded him, refering to her own people, "So were we."

"I know... How do you find peace?"

"Well..." She said, "The martial arts training helps. For some, sports are better. Just... Emotions are energy that needs to be directed somewhere. Once you figure out what that outlet is, it helps a lot. For you, it was raising a child and fixing things. For me... It's proactively dealing with things that are a danger. What is it that gets her to calm down?"

"Nothing!" He responded frustratedly, still keeping his voice down, "Absolutely nothing gets her to calm down. I... I didn't even notice that the aggression was going up. I should have- Sorry. I mean..." He blew a sigh out of his nose and forced himself to centre and calm down, "She focuses better when she has something to fix, but..."

"Mm... It's not enough?" She asked.

"No, unfortunately not."

"Alright then. Lets see what we can brainstorm."

"Please." He begged.

"Alright, just let me find a pen and paper..."