Putting her arms behind her head, Rayla seems annoyed when we leave the market, “Sigh, To think you wouldn't even have enough money on you for a bit of bread and a water skin. What are you? A beggar?”

  “Sorry about that. Usually Rhaast handles everything so I rarely ever have any money on me.”

  “Who’s Rhaast?”

  “He’s my guardian. He took me in after I lost my memories.”

  “So is he like your dad?”

  “No…We aren’t nearly that close. I do think he cares about me, but not like that. Do you have any parents, Rayla?”

  Suddenly getting a smile on her face, Rayla's ears perk up a little as she answers, “Yeah, they’re both good people. My mom is a butcher and my dad’s a hunter.”

  “Did you grow up in this city?”

  “Me? Nah, I’m not from Rostock. I’m from Sovar, it’s a village about two weeks north east from here, at the foot of the Twin Emperor nestled between the Northern Gentleman and the Southern Temptress.”

  “There sure are a lot of famous people living there.”

  “What?”

  “Huh?”

  Giving me a confused stare for a few second, a look of annoyed realization washes over her face, “Sigh, They’re not people, they’re landmarks. The Twin Emperor are two mountains right next to each other and the Northern Gentleman and Southern Temptress are rivers.”

  “I see. That sounds like a nice place, why did you come here then?”

  “Because it’s the closest place with an adventurers guild.”

  “So you came to become an adventurer? Why?”

  Getting a smug grin on her face, Rayla places one leg on top of a box full of trash on the side of the road and proudly declares, “Because I want to be rich and famous. I want to travel the world, marry lots of cute and handsome men and have people look up to me.”

  “That sounds like a nice dream to have. I’ll support you as much as I can.”

  Giving me a disgusted glare, she bluntly answers, “I’m not marrying you.”

  “I didn’t say I wanted to marry you?”

  “Good, because I won’t marry you.”

  “Uhm, okay?”

  Getting off the trash box again, she leans against a wall and crosses her arms, “So, how about you? Why did you decide to become an adventurer?”

  “Because Rhaast told me to earn some money.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yeah, pretty much.”

  “What a shit reason. You won’t last long if you don’t have a dream. Isn’t there anything you want to achieve?”

  “Hmm…I guess…I want to go home.”

  Visibly annoyed, Rayla holds her hand out to me, “Fine, if you don’t want to go on this quest I’ll do it alone. I want my water flask and bread back though.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Huh? That’s not what I meant. I don’t want to go back to the docks. I want to go to a place I’m not sure exists. I…" Sitting down on the ground next to her, I look at the clouds, "Sometimes I get these glimpses. They’re like a warm breeze that reminds me of something pleasant but then they instantly disappear and take the memory with them again. I do not remember anything about what happened before the last two years, so really this place should be my home. It’s just…I get this feeling that I shouldn’t be here, that I don’t belong here, that someone is waiting for me. And the worst thing about it is that I…I don’t even know if what I’m feeling is real. Maybe I’ve always been a street urchin living in Rostock and my life never really changed. It just…It all feels so wrong…I feel wrong…”

  “Woah, woah, woah, are you crying? I…Uh…There, there. I probably have…Yeah, here you go, a handkerchief.”

  Taking the white handkerchief, I clear my nose into it, “Sniff, Thank you. Can-Can I hug you?”

  Seemingly both apprehensive and conflicted she answers, “I…Uhm…Fine, but if you touch anywhere inappropriate I’ll bite your hand off. Also all snot goes into the handkerchief!”

  I then give her a hug while she awkwardly pats my back and holds her nose closed.

  Once I’m done she looks at me with pity “You…You weren’t playing a role were you?”

  “Huh?”

  “Like what the guildmaster said…It wasn’t actually a cover story, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I was trying to tell you.”

  “Then why does the guildmaster sponsor you?”

  “Because I guessed her age correctly.”

  She seems flabbergasted, “That’s it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And what about that nickname? Umi or something?”

  “Uli? It means autie. I accidentally called her that yesterday and she liked it so I call her that now.”

  “The guildmaster…Likes being called auntie?”

  “Apparently, yeah.”

  “Okay…So, how much Elvish do you speak?”

  “I don’t speak any.”

  Confused, she asks, “But…You called her Uli, right? Also your name is Elvish, right?”

  “Uli was just an accident and as for my name, the guildmaster gave it to me.”

  “What? Why did the guildmaster give you a name?”

  Letting out a chuckle as I look at the ground, I answer, “Because my old name was not a real name. It’s just something I used to say when the people at the docks found me. Before I could speak Uni that’s apparently all I used to say.”

  “What was your old name?”

  “Jara Shahom, apparently it means ‘I want to go home’ in Elvish.”

  Confused by what I'm saying she asks, “Wait, so the only thing you could speak when you were found was an elvish sentence?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So you do know Elvish.”

  “No I don’t.”

  She seems a little annoyed now, “Huh? Okay, if you find someone on the street that lost their memories and they only speak a sentence in one language that probably means that’s their native language right?”

  “Right.”

  “So…?”

  “So?”

  “That means you speak Elvish.”

  “But I don’t speak any Elvish.”

  Pulling at her hair, she quips, “Gaaaah, are you stupid or something?”

  “Maybe a little. People say I’m not very smart.”

  “Gaaah, why is this so frustrating? Okay one last try. You said you accidentally called her Uli, right? That means you must have heard that word before somewhere. Try to remember where you heard that word before.”

  “Okay.”

  Trying to remember, I think back and suddenly an image pops up in my mind, together with a big headache.

  “I…I remember a flower field, I am a lot smaller than I am now.”

  Intrigued and excited, Rayla says, “That’s good, can you remember more?”

  “I can try but my head hurts.”

  “That’s probably a good sign, try to ignore it and go on.”

  “I am holding someone's hand but they’re so tall I can’t see their face. I can hear someone call me, I think they’re calling my name.”

  “Your name!? What is your name?”

  “My…My name is…AAAAAAAAAAAGH.”

  Suddenly finding myself on the ground, Rayla looks at me worried, “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  “Huh? Oh I must have tripped. I think I spaced out a little there.We seem to have walked past the market, didn’t we want to buy some bread and water skins?”

  Cogging her head, Rayla looks at me both suspicious and confused, “We already did that a while ago…Don’t you remember that we talked about your memory loss?”

  “You mean back at the guild?”

  “No, just recently.”

  “Sorry, I don’t remember that. That’s kinda funny in a way. Forgetting talking about memory loss haha.”

  She sounds serious when she answers, “No, that’s not funny. Also you stink, worse than you did before.”

  “I do? Sorry about that, it’s a warm day out and I’m not used to wearing armor.”

  Now looking really concerned on top of being confused, she asks, “You aren’t making fun of me, right? Because I swear if you confess now I’m not going to do anything to you but if I find out later that this was an elaborate prank I’ll rip your ear off.”

  “What? No, I'm not making fun of you.”

  “Good, you’d better not be. We’re about to leave the city, the ruby gnome was sighted about two hours that way. Are you feeling up to the task? I’m not gonna be mad if you decide to go back to the docks and get some rest, you can take the bread with you if you want.”

  “I’m not just going to abandon you on our first quest! We can do this!”