Anjali blinked several times as she approached the comfy cottage. Her eyes felt very weird after travelling from England to Canada with her contact lenses in. She attempted to smooth down her long dark-blonde hair that right now probably looked like she'd been dragged through a bush. It didn't work. Nervously she hoped that Nick hadn't decided to pay a surprise visit *just* yet.

The Cousin of the Knight's home for the next two weeks looked just like any country cottage, except... well, bigger. She could hazard a guess that this was because of all the extra stuff that the cottage had that others didn't - like the en suite bathrooms, and the pantry/larder with enough food to fill an army. An army. Anjali grinned at the thought. Now they were at war, the phrase seemed to make more sense.

Anjali couldn't resist running round to see the creek and the pond she had been told her room looked out on. It was just as great as she'd imagined, but she didn't get too close, unable to remember if they'd eventually decided on goldfish or pirahnas for the natural pond's inhabitants. She wanted to have a sneak peek at her room, but besides being on the second floor the dark blue curtains were closed. She made a mental note to send a thank you card... no, a letter to Morgaine's auntie for enthusiastically offering to decorate the cottage before they arrived. Perhaps they'd asked for too much... nah. According to Morgaine her Auntie was a painting and decorating fanatic.

Satisfied, and deciding she'd better get inside before everyone else arrived first, Anjali traipsed back round to the front door. She hated always being late.

As she went inside, she thought she saw one person going down a hallway. She heard some voices, and going towards them, saw several more of whom she supposed would be her fellow Cousins of the Knight, sitting around the living room talking. They all looked up at the college-aged girl as she entered, and she grinned shyly. "Er, hi," She quickly ran her eyes over their heads and counted four. Including the person she'd seen going down the hallway, that was five altogether. Darn. That made her last after all. "Um, did I miss anything?"

"You're from England, aren't you?," Kyer gave her a small smile. "I like England--- Watership Down, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Who. I'm Kyer. Want some mat'e tea? Jalepeno anything?"

"Um.. no. No thank you."

"Ah." Kyer went silent, daydreaming of Dr. Who and SuperMarionation shows long past.

Next to Kyer's still daydreaming figure, a young red-head trembled nervously. "Watership Down? No! Keep it away!"

Margie joined in. "Problem, Morgaine?"

Morgaine nodded rapidly. "Cartoon movie. It was horrible, horrible! I saw it when I was little...for years I've been haunted by it! The bunnies were trapped underground! The fields were COVERED IN BLOOD!"

Margie was apparently used to this. "Anjali, Morgaine. Morgaine, Anjali. And I'm Margie."

The others waved. Anjali smiled nervously. "Hi everybody."

Morgaine quickly snapped out of it and, nearly tripping over Kyer, bounced up to Anjali. "You're from England! That is so kewl! I'm mostly English myself ya know. So what's England like? You wanna trade nationalities?"

"Ummm..."

Lisa smiled. "Don't worry. She's always like that...some sorta Britain obsession. By the way, I'm Lisa."

"Anjali." Anjali glanced in confusion at the strange puppet sitting on Kyer's lap. "What is that?"

At this, Kyer seemed to awaken. "Spitz!"

"Excuse me?"

Morgaine replied. "Mr. Spitz. He's Kyer's llama."

Kyer coughed. "Actually, Mr. Spitz is his own llama. He has free will...he just chooses to remain with me. That's because we understand each other, don't we Mr. Spitz?"

"Mutual insanity must be rather bonding," Margie mumbled.

Morgaine giggled. Kyer paused long enough to flash Margie an indignant look, and began speaking softly to Mr. Spitz.

Anjali slowly nodded. "Was that J.L. I saw going down the hallway?"

"Yep. She was headed for the basement," said Morgaine. "She's got stuff down there I've never even heard of! When she tries to explain it, I can feel my brain screaming 'NOOO!' Kyer seems to understand some of it, though. J.L.'s been showing her stuff and how it works. Right, Kyer?"

"We like the pretty winky-blinky lights, don't we Mr. Spitz?"

"Um...exactly what I meant. Maybe later we can monkey around with some of that technological stuff?" Being a Friend of the RatPack, Morgaine also liked shiny things and 'winky-blinkies'.

Anjali smiled. "Sure. And we can duel too...did you bring your lightsaber?"

"Yep! Never leave the country without it!"

Morgaine smiled. She had a feeling that she and Anjali were going to get along just wonderfully.