After she finished eating she made herself comfortable and sat on the ground with all four legs. Her tail was moving in a frenzy as she watched me, she almost extinguished the fire by the force with which it moved it,

by the way, tail ?, until now I had paid little attention to her appearance, she looked like a human being but at the same time a beast, I tried to speak

"A… a… q..i.. p.. er… cos…."

Nothing, I could not pronounce a complete sentence, my jaw trembled disconnected as I stammered.

She looked at me curiously, like a parent watching her baby's first steps.

At this point, it was obvious that traditional dialogue was not a viable option.

Upset, I settled in front of her, raised my left hand, and aimed at her tail.

Rosephira froze confused, she didn't understand what I was trying to tell her, she took her tail in her hands, and began to observe it as if she were looking for wounds or something else.

Realized the misunderstanding, I nodded no,

"huh?"

I tried again, put a hand on the ground behind my back, mimicked what she had just done, and then shrugged.

It took her time, she looked at me with a half-open mouth and half-closed eyes, completely confused,

I was about to give up again, this time I had no more options, I could only wait for her to ask me questions and I should have limited myself to just nodding and grumbling, until.

"Ah, yes I understand! You want to know why I have a tail!"

I rejoiced, with a smile on my face I nodded as I energetically shook my head up and down.

She looked astonished, it was as if she didn't expect such a question,

She composed herself, settled on the ground cross-legged, took a deep sigh, and cleared her throat;

"Well, the answer is quite simple, I am a Dragon."

...

...

Following those words there was a long silence, I lowered my head breaking the eye contact, and leaned against the wall behind me.

I was quite confused, up until this moment I had always been able to recognize the beings I saw, but a Dragon? What the hell is that supposed to be?

Rosephira, surprised by my reaction, paused to contemplate for a few moments, then resumed speaking

"You don't remember? Last night, when we first met"

When we meet for the first time? But it's not possible, I've never seen this woman before this morning ... wait, unless! ??

I jumped up from the wall,

The beast. But it is impossible, they are extremely similar, yes, but that does not change the fact that what I saw yesterday was a gigantic monster, while she, is much more similar to a human being.

"You seriously don't know what I'm talking about heh?"

Staggering Rose got to her feet, the sun was now up, and the light was entering straight into the cave, now I could see her for good.

Despite her frightening height, her build was decidedly slender, especially on the abdominal area, however, her musculature was extremely developed, mainly on the arms, legs, and shoulders.

On the abdominal area, there were various scars, some healed while others still fresh and bleeding, her chest instead was completely covered with bandages, soaked in blood and a familiar bright green substance.

Rose tried to get closer to me, but after just one step she lost her balance and fell, suddenly I threw myself against her and managed to stop her before she could touch the ground, she was very heavy, for a moment I was afraid of being crushed,

She managed to regain her balance and settled on the ground in front of me.

"Haha, Maybe I went a little further this time"

she said with a pleased and proud face, her smile however was abruptly interrupted by a cough, a mixture of blood, and what seemed to be spit wetted her lips and the ground.

I got up in a panic, THE BANDAGES !, WHERE WERE THEY!?, I had to hurry, the wounds had certainly reopened for the efforts made !!.

not even the time to turn around that I felt a strong weight on my shoulder that brought me back on the ground, it was Rose's hand,

"Oi, don't you worry, you wouldn't seriously think wounds like this could kill me, right?"

I nodded.

"HEH!?"

Rose sighed,

"Well, I think at this point you are finally able to recognize me. However, I don't want to leave you in doubt"

She put a hand on her left shoulder, took a firm grip on the flap of a bandage, and pulled hard, ripping the bandage completely off.

Her naked body was completely torn from side to side, on her chest there were at least twenty wounds as big as my hand, as if she had been pierced with swords, I could not believe my eyes.

"Oh, I almost forgot!"

Rose turned to show me her back, her long hair completely covered her shoulders, with one hand she picked them up and moved them, revealing a pair of black wings, they were completely bandaged and also covered with blood,

Rose took one in her hands and tore off the bandages in which it was locked, then she did the same for the other one.

Her wings were of a semi-transparent material similar to the skin, they were completely pierced and you could see the bones of the skeleton that supported them, they were fractured, however, no blood, the wounds on the wings, and even on her body were mostly healed.

Suddenly rose turned with a leap.

"See !, Do you remember now?"

She raised her head up while with her hands she tidied her hair behind her shoulders,

"I have to admit that it's been a while since I last used this form, not that I have ever needed it anyway, I have no friends to talk to after all"

she giggled aloud to herself as copious tears wet her face, evaporating before they could reach her chin.

Rose stopped, she painfully tried to retract her wings, but nothing, she couldn't move them an inch without suffering from the pain.

"It's useless, I don't think I'll need them anyway"

for a few seconds, her wings lit up with a strong purple color and then caught fire and disappeared completely after a few moments.

I fell to the ground, I was amazed, I put my hand on my face, I looked like a madman, wide eyes, head turned upwards, while my body was shaking completely.

So she. The creature. Rosephira ....

It has always been the same being. so all this night, ever since I collapsed from exhaustion, she has been taking care of me, lighting the fire, settling and warming me up, even hunting for something to eat and something to help me get back on my feet, even at the cost of reopening the deadly wounds she had on her body.

This creatu…. d .. Dragon ...

Rosephira. And to think that I was saving her just to be able to exploit her ... What a bastard I was ...

But in the end, it wasn't my fault, I couldn't know, this world is still new to me, all the fault of my damn memory, but what the hell happened to me?!?

I had to calm down, but I couldn't, at one point I felt something cold touching my cheek, I opened my eyes again, it was Rose.

"Tell me, is something the matter?" she reassured me. I relaxed, took a deep breath, and nodded.

Rose smiled, "You know It didn't take long for me to realize that you weren't a completely 'normal' kid, your difficulty speaking, the face you made when I named you my kind. You should have seen it !, it was hilarious !!, hehe "

she broke away from me and sat down in her strange way, on all fours,

"You know it's strange enough that you don't know what a dragon is, my race is quite important among magical beings, what's more, you should be a human being, it's even stranger."

I settled down. Magical creatures ?, magic? what the hell was she talking about now?

Rosephira looked at me worriedly,

"is something wrong?"

I nodded,

"Oh. Tell me. do you know exactly what the problem is? "

I looked at her bewildered, tell me? are you serious !?

A few seconds passed, Rose still unconscious of what she had said, remained impaled with her eyes closed waiting for my answer, until having "evidently" understood her mistake, she jumped panicked, gesticulating as she tried in a very disjointed and awkward way to apologize,

"Bhhfipa, he…. s… well, I mean, I meant…. no, you know, I meant not…. I ... .. yes in short, I wanted to mean ... huh .... .. "

I sighed loudly, Rose stopped abruptly

and turned to me.

I raised my hand, and with my thumb, I pointed to my forehead.

"Your head?"

hot

"Is there something wrong with your head?"

warm

"HA, I UNDERSTAND!"

Come on, we're getting there….

"YOU DIRTY YOUR FACE WITH THE FALL !!"

COLD COLD COLD, NO NO NO,

I lowered my head covering my face with the palm of my hand, then i snorted irritably,

I don't believe it, we are point and again, now how can I make her understand my situation, I can't just mimic it, also because how could I imitate something like memory loss?

I looked up, Rose was looking at me confused,

I stopped to think, now what could I do, how could I make her understand what I meant? what are my options now? Mhmmm ...…

"I have an idea"

Rose interrupted my flow of thoughts.

In the blink of an eye, I found her a few inches from me,

she raised her right hand, brought it close to my face, and placed her index finger on my forehead,

I didn't understand what she was doing, but I could see a white glow coming from where she had placed her finger.

I felt a strange sensation, shivering all over my body mixed with a cold sensation.

This continued for a few seconds, until...

*BOOM*

in an instant, I felt a strong pain, as if I had been struck by lightning, at the same time, Rosephira was thrown across the room of violence, as if something had hit her,

"Cough, Cough….."

Rose slowly recovered, she tried to get back on her feet, very slowly.

"A curse!?, But why ?!"

She leaned back against the wall, still incredulous and shaking,

"How is it possible? Why?"

Curse? Heh? what had she done? What was going on? I was stunned, I didn't understand what was happening,

after several moments she composed herself, hastily got up, and approached me, crouched in front of me, and began to look intently at me with wide eyes,

the atmosphere was starting to heat up, her pupils were completely narrowed, almost invisible, the purple symbols on her face and hands began to light up.

She gave a tail to the fire, extinguishing it abruptly, in the room now all that was audible was the sound of our breaths, mine, heavy and slow, and her, rapid and labored.

I was terrified, my heart was racing, my eyes and lids were trembling, I was sweating,

we looked into each other's eyes for seconds. Rose closed her eyes, her face rapidly changing from a grimace of pure anger and doubt to a smile of relief.

"Hehe, But what's wrong with me?"

she giggled in a low voice, while turning her gaze to the other

"You're just a kid, even if you wanted to, I doubt you could have done something so bad as to deserve a curse of such a high level. However..."

she let herself fall backward, sitting cross-legged and with her arms placed behind her back, to keep herself in balance,

I kept looking at her confused, curses? level? what had happened before?

evidently she realized it too, she bent down approaching me

"I think you know nothing, it's natural"

she took a little pause, sighed, and then started looking me straight in the eye,

"You've been cursed, with a high-level curse to boot"

a curse…. what does it mean? and then, of a high level? given her reaction does not seem something positive, and also "deserve"? in what way? does this mean that it is something dedicated only to certain people? and why?

Rose spoke again

"Let me guess, you can't remember anything, can you?"

huh? yes, that was true, but how ...

I waited for a couple of seconds, caught my breath, and nodded.

Rose turned, she looked visibly upset, she put her hand on her chin resting her elbow on her leg

"However, it is strange. Only beings of high caliber can cast curses, I doubt that someone that strong would waste their time cursing random kids"

she muttered under her breath, then turned to me.

The situation was serious, however, I remained hopeful, maybe she could cure me, maybe there was hope, after all, I saved her life, So!

"I am sorry. I can't do anything, it goes above my every ability, it would take a high-level witch or sorcerer to remove it"

she exclaimed dryly and bitterly.

I let myself fall on the rocky wall, now we were point and again, at least now I knew the cause of my lack of memory, steps forward in sum.

However, I was lucky, for now, I have not met any type of "particular" creature, indeed, apart from the squirrel I have not met anyone, but now? I have to get by on my own, and I have no idea what I might encounter, with her I was lucky, but I cannot expect to keep this luck, the time will come when I will have to fight, but I am weak, I cannot hope to do anything.

"Tuttavia….." Rose riprese a parlare ad alta voce. Facendomi saltare dalla paura,

"To let you travel alone, without memories or fighting skills, completely vulnerable would be dishonorable of me, especially after you have saved me from certain death"

Rose began to wag her tail, albeit in a more restrained way than before,

she held out her right hand,

"I have a debt to pay with you, let me be your guide"

I thought about it for a moment, then firmly took her hand and lifted myself off the wall

"Oh, by the way, what should I call you, chances are you don't remember your name, but ..."

"Huh"

I exclaimed with conviction as I looked her straight in the eye,

Rose looked at me confused at first, but then she cheered,

"V huh, it's catchy!"

Quickly she got up, dragging me by her strong handshake,

"Well then, V, I will help you to recover your memory, whatever it takes, fortunately, I know someone who could help you, even if, she is not an overly reliable person, and besides she is very far from here"

Rose let go of my hand and started walking towards the exit, her chest and pelvis caught fire for a few moments, similar to what happened to her wings, but this time "clothes" materialized, also black as coal.

Rose turned to me, and beckoned me to follow her, with a bright smile,

"Come on! There is no time to waste".