Seaside Moors People ought to stick together, that's the way to make a crowd.

Things were fine until Raleska saw Aningan.

Her composure had been fine - excited, maybe a bit nervous -- but fine. And then Aningan was here, and it was like someone pulled out the glass door bottom from all the marbles. They just came tumbling down in clattering disarray.

Raleska bit back her lip and looked away quickly: to Stryx who stood protectively between them, to Sugar who was affectionately licking the head of one of the nameless children -- then back to Aningan, her eyes welted with misty tears.

It had been such an exhausting journey -- suddenly seeing the boy she grew up with, Raleska felt terribly old and out of place. And then Rosalyn came, Erzulie supporting her -- and the coldness in her mentor's gaze was enough to shatter Raleska's confidence like dropped glass. Had she deserved that? She wanted to bolt into either of their embrace - she wanted, needed that loving hold of family -- and instead, she felt only an iciness radiating from the matriarch.

Caught between her desire to very much feel loved, and her desire to remain strong in the face of her new friends, and perhaps ever so slightly barbed by her pride, Raleska kept her neck stiff and the tears that threatened to spill across her cheeks did so diminutive and quietly. "I'm home," She whispered in coarse disbelief, stepping back so that the group might see her entourage. "These two saved me. Stryx --" She motioned towards the healer, a gratitude filming her gaze -- "and Sugar Glider." Here she smiled sadly, for they had shared more than a journey together. They were orphans, and she felt a kinship between them. "I owe them everything."