[ No worries. I have a hard time posting on work days myself, so. :/ ]

Of course he hadn't forgotten—how could he, ever? Too many faces lingered in the dust of his mind, encounters and words drifting along the borders of just-remembered and half-forgotten, coming back to life whenever he touched them with a thought. And those, they were the ones who had come and gone, the ones he had but seen and met briefly; not the ones who had stood by him for ages. Mauja didn't forget his friends—or his enemies.

She looked like she had the last time he saw her, that smile always close at hand, so warm, small and elegant. His own smile grew a fraction wider as he felt her warm breath, black-rimmed ears flickering back suddenly. The pounding of his heart picked up, his sense of smell overwhelmed by the nearness of Kou, but it was Irma that saved him: you know this one, she said, in her own way. And true enough, it was Leyra's daughter that came to stand beside them, some strange kind of young deer with her. "Frost," he said by way of greeting, before Kou's admission of having missed him. And as ever, that bitter part of him reared its ugly head, wondered if he deserved it, what about him was it that they loved? Once, he had been something great, but then he'd fallen so low he wasn't sure he'd ever gotten off the ground again. He had let them down, simply by not succeeding, yet they still cared for him.. followed him.

He shoved it all aside. He couldn't let his own monsters taint what good there was left in his world.

"I've missed you too," he murmured, aware of Frost's bright, emerald eyes. Sarazheha shifted by his flank, maintaining a look of composure, but if Mauja had known his brother better he would've seen the small signs of anxiety, and discomfort. "And d'Artagnan. Do you know where he is?" Typically, in Mauja's experience, the Doctor was the one who cavorted around Helovia, always up to no good, and not Kou; was he somewhere nearby, with her? The Red's blunt sense of morbid humor never failed to cheer him up, and despite his promise to attempt Sarazheha's remedy, he wanted someone to bludgeon him and shove him back into the rhythm of things.

Finding yourself is never easy.
Being found, however, seemed particularly easy on that day.

Two familiar faces, and a stranger; tall, though not as tall as Mauja but maybe the height of Sara, dark and graceful, with a splatter like snow on his belly. Dual horns rose from his skull, a heavy crown to bear; it gave him a distinctly evil-looking appearance. Mauja's blue eyes narrowed a fraction. Friend or foe? Kou didn't seem alarmed, at least, and he smelled vaguely of the north—but Mauja had never been good at trusting, always assuming the worst. One ear moved to the sound of Frost's question, but his eyes remained on the stranger a moment longer. Close, but not close enough to be an immediate threat. If he moved, they'd have time to react. Irma, still perching on Sarazheha's withers, gave him a mental roll of her eyes before settling to watch the two young animals present. He felt a slight stir of her hunger.

"This is my brother, Sarazheha," he told Frost, before his eyes flickered to said brother. He looked vaguely suspicious, and Mauja laughed gently at him, trying to not let Torleik's foreboding presence eat him up. So far, he kept it under lock and key, somewhere deep down in his soul, but he wasn't sure how to juggle the situation when it seemed everyone was talking almost at once, barely giving him time to register one thing, and reply, before it moved on. "Just smile at him. He won't understand what you say." Kou had introduced herself to the other black stallion (or so he assumed), and Mauja gave him a nod, forcing himself to trust in Kou's lack of alarm. "I'm Mauja," he offered, before glancing back to Kou. The small smile he'd so often worn in the past returned, slightly lopsided, and with a hint of amused irony he answered her question: "Somewhere, certainly."

[ lol this became a mess. ]