( <3333 Mauja will be keeping his shiny blaze, ok <3 )

"Do you know who you are?" It was, he reflected, a rather awful situation. Here was this massive lady of a snow-cat, looking at him with her intense, blue eyes, and asking him a question she obviously wanted an answer to – an answer he didn't have. He wanted to answer her, to be able to tell her something to keep her from eating him, but what could he possibly say? Yes? That was hardly the truth, but whatever he had been about to say to keep the distress at bay was lost when she spoke again. Was she roaring, or was it simply the intensity of her voice as it rumbled through her massive chest? Was it a gale her breath whipped up, tangling in his snowy locks? And what she said had him staring blankly at her, until, finally, he responded again: "Uh.. no." He wasn't sure she heard his rather mumble-blurted confession, but that hardly mattered. The unfortunately fellow who had been saved from the tree came into view, and Mauja felt something relax in his chest. It was Arah. Good thing, then, that the cat had enough sense to keep track of what her massive body.

And what came next had him freezing again. One moment the snow lady was smiling her cat's smile, then she was leaning forward, and Mauja watched in sick fascination as a massive maw met such a small head. His more macabre and pessimistic side insisted that he was about to watch Arah get eaten, while his more sane side argued that if she had wanted to eat them, all she had to do was open her mouth and inhale. She was a hurricane on many, many legs; she hardly needed to come to them to eat them.

In the end, Arah didn't get eaten. A soft spark of silver marked the point of contact between the giant cat's mouth and Arah's forehead, and he released a breath he hadn't been aware of holding. She seemed so much more powerful than the Gods – maybe because she was larger than life, so massive she could've been the mountains themselves.

And again, her blue-eyed attention returned to him. Mauja had never been one to cringe when under scrutiny, but when she looked at him, it was like her eyes blasted through his soul and laid every flaw bare, poked every way he could get killed by her to the forefront of his mind. Still, he knew there were worse things than death. The God of Time had taught him that. Mauja forced himself to calmness, listening to what she had to say. Her voice seemed kind, but the words held little meaning to him – destined for more than I aspire? It could apply to so many facets of his life, and it reeked of the portal that had given him Irma: his destined companion, or whatever the owl had told him. And then, she mentioned Irma, and guides, and requiring another, and before he had even the slightest chance to try and figure out which portion of his life to apply this "revelation" to she was leaning forward. Her icy breath forced snow crystals into his skin, the torrent of her life causing his eyes to squint and hair to whip; she was even larger this close, and when she touched him, a jolt went through him. Somewhere, Irma cried out, and Mauja stood blinking while the leopard retreated with a few words. Another companion? his mind repeated dumbly, and he blinked the cold wind-tears out of his eyes.

"Irma won't like that," he said quietly, the shadow of a grin ghosting across his face. There was something about Irma.. she had never tried to lay claim to him, never expressed jealousy towards Psyche or Ophelia or anyone, really, and most of the time she was as affectionate as a cold rock, but every once in a while a trickle of love would flow through their bond – and sometimes, a whole spring flood of it. Fact remained, she was always there, and he was always there, and his eyes went distant, thinking. Irma was rather silent on the matter, probably pondering it herself, and he surfaced from his brief thoughts to glance at Arah, before turning back to the snow leopard again. "But why?" he asked casually, though his mind added the silent thought, is it because I'm falling apart?.

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