The bronze creature scours the earth, exploring and poking its nose into pockets he has not experienced or seen. He is born anew, a mighty beast once more, emotional burdens lifted from his soul. He remembers that he blocked his memories, can guess as to which with how some faces flash briefly in his memories where the gaps lie. Kahlua he knows only by name and face, for how he has so intently destroyed any recollection he has of her. But after leading the Edge with her for so long, he cannot remove her completely, nor can he destroy all the memories he has of Evangeline, though her name still escapes him even now. It does not bother him, the blank spots that he drags his palms across, the static ache he can feel when he presses against them quizzically. He had removed them for a reason, and if Miykael had been telling the truth regarding the state he'd been in when he'd sought out the painted healer, well...he did not want them back. That he had apparently fallen so far, become so weak, still made his lips flutter with the desire to curl with distaste. He had failed not only himself, but those around him. His herd, which had always been stone number one for him. 

One thing he had to get used to was his injured shoulder. He had perfect clarity regarding that memory, but he was handling it far differently than...Other Kaj. He had no other term for the soft-bodied babe, for he felt they were two entirely different beings. It was easier to kill the idea of him, embrace his own newness - which felt less like newness and more like solidification, with how he did not feel as though he had lost anything, since he could not remember the memories at all - and simply disassociate completely from the fool Other Kaj had been. His shoulder was a badge of pride, not of weakness, and he would wear it proudly. He would fix the stupid mistakes Other Kaj had made, and quickly. He would not have such weakness tied to his name, the one that had prompted the initial title of Storm Bringer. With age he had become wise, accepted that he had changed enough to become the Aurelight, but not in the way Other Kaj had been. 

Everything about him was new, but achingly old and familiar. He liked it. 

Flight, at least, was something he had not forgotten. Something Other Kaj had not tainted, in the remaining memories the Aurelight had. He'd simply picked up and taken off, letting the winds carried him where they desired, where Fate and the Gods - ah, and he was learning to be a man of faith now, how strange - dictated he end up. He hadn't seen the Endless Blue in literal years, but the cold breezes and salt against his face and in his nares was unmistakable. So similar to the Throat shores, where he'd lingered in his youth, but unique in its own way. He floats above the cliffs, bobbing with the curls of wind that rush and play beneath the boughs of his wings. Until he spots her, a familiar pale form against the sandy backdrop, standing at the cliffside. 

For a moment he stares, puzzled by the gaps in his memory. Why had he chosen her to erase? But then his heart stops in his chest as she foolishly leaps, flightless and delicate as she is. No matter why he had removed her from his mind, she is his friend, and she is part of his flock. Even if she were not, he could not let someone commit such a suicidal act without trying to intervene. 

His mass is drawn down fast and hot from the air, wings tucked so tight they whistle as he dives past the sheer edges of the cliffs, trying not to remember white-washed stone and thick curling mist. She isn't surfacing, and though he'd known something was wrong the moment she'd thrown herself forward, his fear ramps up immediately when he does not find her thrashing in the water against the throes of her own fate. Uncaring of his wings he slams into the water so hard it makes him dizzy, but she is a pale beacon beneath the waves and froth, and his wings are wet and useless but still capable of acting as rudders and powerful arms that push him forward towards her. Blows air out through his nostrils as he dips beneath the waves, draws her neck over his withers and begins kicking mightily, eyes like electric gems and nares blown wide and blood filled. His wing is low, supporting just below her belly as he pulls and drags her through the water, huffing like a great beast through his wet muzzle. 

The stone and sand is familiar, but it slips away from him as he tries to kick and plunder his way to shore, the sand shifting with the waves. He is stubborn and furious with fear and worry though, kicks through until he finds purchase, and lugs Brisa's form up onto the shore to deposit her shakily, his left shoulder burning so fiercely he almost follows her down to the earth as well. Grips her mane in his teeth and jerks, trying to get her to awaken if she has not already. Ignores the shaking and trembling of his leg as he grits his teeth and stares down at her, something wild and untamed in his face. "BRISA!" And he needs to see those pale lashes flutter, see those crystal eyes, reassure himself that he wasn't too late, that she's still here. One of his only friends left, one of the few things Other Kaj hadn't fucked up irreparably.