Weeks passed. The townspeople came to believe what Siegfried had said about his memory loss - what with the simple questions he asked and his general lack of common sense - though not that he was formidable enough to have slain the mighty Fafnir. They treated him with the empathy one shows for a lost child who did not know better.

The sun was about to touch the horizon. Susannah rested her arms over a wood fence, behind her was a large alder tree, and in front of her was Siegfried, swinging at an invisible enemy and glistening with sweat.

The once dragon recalled the real Siegfried's movements, how he shifted his weight throughout his body, using its momentum added onto his own force to deliver as much impact as possible. But beyond those movements, there was more, an impossible strength that allowed the knight to actually hurt the dragon. Siegfried would leap forward, and instead of going the normal distance, he would go much farther, as if propelled by some unseen force.

The once dragon was certain that it was magic, but what kind, or how the knight had employed it, he did not know.

Celladon would know.

He had asked around about magic, but the most people could do was create a spark with the snap of their fingers. He had learned it relatively quickly. Now he could make a fire easily. To think, without this simple knowledge, he may have died.

“Why do you practice so much?” asked Susannah.

“Why don’t you? The human body is weak. Compared to creatures like ogres, orcs, and trolls, they could crush you in one fell swoop.”

“That’s why we have soldiers. No monsters or malicious races live anywhere near here anyway.”

“Have you forgotten? I have to go to the blue dragon of the north, Celladon, so I can get my memories back.”

“Riiight.” She hadn’t forgotten, so much as she didn't, nor did anyone else, believe him.

Siegfried tried to shift the lance from one arm to the other by using its momentum to swing behind his back, a more complicated maneuver that he had no way of knowing if it would work, but something he eventually thought to try as he became bored with the simple exercises.

The spear left his body and was thrown to his left side. With a frown, Siegfried walked up to it, picked it up, and began swinging again.

“You know, you should watch where you’re swinging that thing. You could have hit me with it.”

He said, “It’s not as if you have to be here.” but thought, of course I knew where you were before I tried the move.

Susannah's forehead scrunched at that comment, it sounded as if he didn’t appreciate her company. But it was true, it wasn’t as if she was being asked to accompany him now like she was when she showed him around town when he first arrived. In all honesty, she wasn’t sure why she was here with him. As the days passed by, it simply became a habit she didn’t think about. She said,“hmph, fine, then I’ll leave.” and walked away, thinking, ha, now you’ll see how much you'll miss me when I’m gone.

Siegfried didn’t respond, continuing his practice, though that day, for some reason, he simply could not focus and kept on fumbling maneuvers he had practiced perfectly before.

On the next day, when the once dragon came to the same practice area at the outskirts of the town, Susannah was not there.

Where could she be? Why isn’t she here, were thoughts that went through his head, completely forgetting about the end of yesterday’s conversation. He went to an open area and lifted his lance into a ready stance. Why should I care, it’s none of my business.

But on that day, Siegfried would not practice, no, he lowered his weapon and went into town.

There weren’t many places she could be, or, there weren’t many places other than one where he knew she could be.

“Thank you so much for helping out, dear,” said Susannah’s mother as she was stocking the back of their family’s general goods store.

“It’s no trouble at all, Mom.” said Susannah as she bent down under a shelf to do the same.

“Really? It just seems that you’ve been so busy lately, no time at all for your old mother,” she said with faux sorrow. “Could it be my little Annah has found some nice boy?”

“What!?” she bumped her head as her body instinctively straightened in response. “It’s not like that!” Then what is it like? “We’re just friends! Yeah, just friends,” she said, more to convince herself than her mother.

“Oh, so you have met someone, yet not once have you brought them over.”

“Gods, it’s no big deal. You’re so embarrassing.”

“How can you say that. You’ll hurt your poor old mother’s heart,” she said again with faux sorrow. Susannah could only roll her eyes at how dramatic her mother was being. Introducing Siegfried to her parents, she could only imagine how big of a disaster it would be; he wasn’t exactly the most personable fellow. And in the first place, it’s not as if he was her betrothed, gods, they’ve only known each other for a few weeks.

Just then, Siegfried walked up to the doorway of the storage room. When Susannah turned and saw him, she could only drop her jaw and what she was holding, which luckily, wasn’t fragile.

“Ohhh, and who’s this?” asked her mother admiringly.

He stepped forward, gave a light bow, and introduced himself as Siegfried, the newcomer of the town.

“So you’re Siegfried, my Annah’s always going on about you.” He raised an eyebrow in surprise and Susannah turned her dropped jaw to her mother, feeling betrayed by the obvious lie. “I was just about to head out. Ah, but look at how many crates are still left unpacked.” There was only one. Her hands were together in a pleading gesture, “If you could help Annah, that would be great.” And like that, she was out the door. The once dragon didn’t even have enough time to respond.

Siegfried walked up to Susannah. She wanted to explain what her mother just said, but instead, as if suddenly remembering something very important, she turned away from him and continued stocking the shelves, not even giving a word of greeting.

“I don’t suppose you would tell me what I did wrong if I were to ask.”

How could you not know? “No, I wouldn’t.”

He sighed, “What if I were to apologize?”

“How can you apologize for something if you don’t even know what it is?”

“I guess you’re right. I can’t.”

For a moment, they were both silent, stewing in the awkwardness of the situation.

She turned to him. They were eye to eye. And said, in a near whisper, “promise me you’ll never do it again.”

“How can I if I don’t know what it is I did?” he replied in a similar whisper.

She gave a mischievous smile, “then I guess you’ll have to promise to never upset me again.” She inched closer to him.

He did the same, “that’s a tall order, you know.”

She inched closer again. “I know.” And so did he.

Just as their lips were about to touch, the call of, “Annah!” resounded throughout the room and the two broke apart from their embrace as if what they had just done, or were about to do was some sort of crime.

“Annah,” came the call again. It was a man’s. Red-faced, head down, and stumbling over nothing in particular, she backed out of the room and ran toward the voice.

Moments later she returned, and came up to Siegfried. Not looking directly at him and with a repressed smile, she said, “Hey, would you like to hang out later today?”

Siegfried simply smiled at that, silently watching her jittering.

“Well? Would you spit it out already?”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that I’ve never seen you like this before. It’s cute. Of course I’d like to.”

“Well alright then.” Her smile grew.

They had agreed to meet at a tavern called The Birds’ Branch. It had a sign hanging outside of it with two blue jays on a branch.

Siegfried made his way with a light step and heart; he felt as if he was arrested with a calm serenity he had never felt before; everything would be alright, and even if it wasn't, he didn't care.

After he entered the tavern, he looked around for and found her, and others. A group of 5 men wearing chainmail, swords on their sides, and kingdom colors - blue and yellow - surrounded her where she sat.

“C’mon, Lass, ‘ave a drink with us?”

“We’ll even pay, ya don’t have to worry about a thing - not a thing!

The men were all smiles while Susannah protested, “I’m not interested in getting drunk with a bunch of lowlifes like you!” She pretended to be strong, to not care, as if such men were beyond her concern, but in truth, it took much of her courage to respond at all. She certainly didn’t want to insult them, but the words simply slipped out as they did.

“Fine then, don’t drink, just watch us drink, we only want the company of a pretty girl like you.”

One of the men motioned a hand toward her shoulder. Susannah sat stock-still, not wanting to show her fear by recoiling away, but also not wanting to go on the offense by slapping the hand away - she didn’t want things to escalate.

But before the hand could reach, Siegfried grabbed hold of it and told the man, “She’s not interested. Leave her alone.”

Aware of the sudden appearance of the newcomer, the soldiers stopped the amiable chatter, and for a moment, simply identified him.

“‘Ey! What business is it of yours what the lass does?” asked one of the men with an eyepatch and protruding jaw.

“She’s my friend.” Siegfried glared at the man.

“Well good! You’re her friend. We want to be her friends! Why don’t we all be friends together?” chimed in the shortest among them.

Siegfried replied. “Not interested. Leave.”

“Now there’s no need to be rude here. We’re just some chaps looking for a good time.”

“Fuck off.”

The commander’s eyes widened at that. As did Susannah's. In fact, everyone’s within earshot did.

A low chuckle escaped the older man's mouth. “You see these colors?” The man pointed to his tabard. “Now being a lowly foot soldier, I don’t expect much respect. But seeing as I’m fighting for king and country, I expect a little.” His men made noises of agreement. “How about an apology for using such language in front of a man of the king?” He stepped closer to the young man, until there was only an inch separating them.

Siegfried’s glare remained unchanged. In his mind, words like king and county meant nothing. “Fuck o - “ Before he could finish, the leader of the men slammed his fist into the side of his head.

Siegfried was sent reeling, not seeing the side swing because of the closeness of the other man.

His head was in haze. He heard the sound of a woman screaming and men cheering, but he couldn’t articulate what they were saying. His vision was blurry as well.

He tried to get up, right hand atop a stool, pulling himself up, and left arm pushing himself up off the ground. But before he could, he was pulled up by the collar of his shirt, and in the next instant, another fist met his face, flinging him against the bar.

Another round of cheers and a scream resounded.

Blow after blow assaulted him. Just as he would regain his footing, another fist met him. It was in this moment that Siegfried realized just how weak he was without the real Siegfried blade and armor. By himself, he was nothing. Even after training all those long hours every day. What was it all for?

Then he heard Susannah, shout, “Stop, please stop!” She was crying, he saw. One of the men held her arm behind her back and pulled on it roughly when she would try to get to Siegfried. She yelped in pain.

Don’t touch her. And suddenly, all the pain he felt vanished. All that was in his mind was her. His mind was clear and intent obvious.

Siegfried’s body launched forward, as if propelled by some unseen force, throwing itself at the man who was holding Susannah. In the next moment, the man’s back was to a wall, his feet not touching the ground, and Siegfried’s hand was holding him up by the neck.

Siegfried noticed something strange and looked down from the man's face. His hand wasn’t his normal hand, but at the same time, it was. Scales covered it, black scales, exactly like the ones of his original form.