Ouroboros Spine hey there, it's all gonna be fine

Valiant was sorry to have startled the woman, but he couldn't beat himself up about it too much. It occurred to him only then that Raindrop had never once been anything but happy to see him — and it wasn't that that was rare or anything, but... Well, he just appreciated her. Was glad to have her in his life at a time when he seemed to be hemorrhaging... people in his life.

His kids, mainly.

"Aw, well," he said, trying to remove some of the weight from his voice but still sounding heavy as he went on: "They've all hit the road. Itchy paws run in their blood — they got that from my side, mostly."

Not, he thought, that moonwoman's children tended to stick all in one place. The Nuiruks at least still had a place, and that was more than could be said for the Morningsiders.

Vairë was still dog sick. Valiant didn't feel like talking about that. He neatly dodged the question, saying, "We're doin' as best as we're able to without 'em. Without everyone, seems like. Life goes on."

Now there was sympathy in his eyes. It felt underhanded, turning things back on Raindrop, but it wasn't as though they weren't going through some of the same things. So he figured fair was fair when he asked her, "How you holdin' up?"

Sumac was gone, too, after all. One of those pretty little girls had gone with him. Valiant knew another had recently returned, but shoot — he hadn't seen all four in one place since they were tiny. It had to be hard on a woman like Raindrop, who was a homebody if Valiant had ever saw one.