Chapter 1 – Do I know you?
I walked up to the gates, which were open currently. As I approached it, I was stopped by two guards, who came from seemingly know-where. They stood in front of me, creating a scaly wall between me and the city.
"State your business," one said, his piercing stare burying itself within my mind.
"I'm here to visit," I said, not knowing fully what I was going to do here. I had no money on me, and if I had any money in a bank, I didn't have any way to access it.
"Move along," the other said, as the parted letting me into the city. I wandered in through the main plaza that sat at in front of the gate. My stomach growled as I walked through, I continued to wander through the city, quickly getting lost in the many winding streets.
I was walking for a while before I finally found an inn. When I entered I saw the check in counter and walked over to it. A middle aged dragon sat in the chair behind it, the dragon looked up and smiled as I approached.
"Zion, what can I do ye- fer?" he asked, striking me off guard. 'Least I know my name now,' I thought, as I shook myself out of my little trance. I looked the innkeeper in the eyes.
"I need a room," I said, as he gave me a confused look. He shifted in his seat slightly.
"You have to pay," he stated, giving me a stern look. My hopes had fallen slightly at that.
"I have no money, and no place to stay right now" I said in desperation, the innkeeper gave me a look of pity, and stood up, grabbing a key from the rack behind him.
"If ye- would have just said ye- were having trouble the Mrs. I would have given ye a room," he said as he handed me the key, his comment caught me off guard. 'Mrs.' I thought as he pointed down a corridor, "Room 15," he said as I began walking that way, I turned around to see him whisper something. "Ye- owe me big time," he said, returning to his counter.
I found room 15 and put the key into the lock, turning it and walking in. There was a chair, a table and a bed, all I needed was the bed. I set my stuff down and laid on the bed. 'Mrs.' I thought to myself again, as I drifted to sleep, 'I'll find out later.'
I didn't dream that night.
The next morning I woke up to a lot of noise. It was two people arguing. It was the innkeeper, and someone else, I tried to make out some of it but it was all inaudible mumbling. I heard someone knock on the door very quickly.
"Zion," she said, as I got up and opened the door. She was a dark green, her eyes were I violent shade of purple, and her horns were a shade of the nicest brown. She stared me in the eyes for a solid minute before finally speaking again. "Where have you been?" she asked in a loud tone as she hugged me.
"I don't know," I stated, as she gave me a look of disappointment.
"You told Roto that you were having problems with me?" she then poked, questioning me on everything. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts.
"I had no place to go, I needed a room" I said, as another question pulled at my mind, I turned around and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Who are you?" I asked, as she huffed in annoyance.
"You're kidding right?" she said, as I cocked my head to the side, as I truly had no idea of who she was. Her eyes then went wide, as her eyes drifted upwards, from my eyes to my horns. "Oh my god, please be joking," She said, as they Innkeeper, or Roto, rather, peeked in through the door.
"Who are you?" I asked again, becoming worried, and scared. I saw the same frightened look on her face, as she opened her mouth.
"I'm Xepher," she said, "your mate." she said, as I felt a flood of memories come back into my mind at the sight of her. One memory stood out to me.
I sat on a bench, waiting, flowers in my hand. It was the 14th day of the month, It was valentine's day. A dragoness approached the bench, a smile on her face. She sat down beside me as I turned towards her as I pulled the flowers from behind my back and extended them in front of her.
"Xepher, would you be my mate?" I asked, as she smiled and kissed me nodding her head rapidly once she pulled herself away from the kiss.
"Xepher," I managed to say before I collapsed. One thing resonated through my mind while I was out, and it was her name.
When I next awoke I was extremely sore, and had a raging headache. I looked around and saw myself in a bed inside of a house. I heard the door creak open and saw Xepher pop her head in.
"Are you ok?" she asked, walking in. I rubbed my head, trying to think clearly.
"No," I said plainly as her expression went from compassionate to frightened. She sat down next to the bed and stared me in the eyes.
"Why aren't you ok?" she asked, as she put her paw on me, it was shaking slightly. I stuttered the first few times I tried answering, each time she leaned closer.
"I can't remember," I said, as I saw a tear come from her eye. She buried her face in her wing for at least 5 minutes. When she finally looked back up, her face was covered in tears.
"What do you remember?" asked, as she snuffled the rest of her fit out. I thought long and hard before answering.
"Asking you to be my mate," I said as she smiled and hugged me, I returned it as I continued, "that's the only thing I remember," I started, "but I didn't remember that until I heard your name." She was showing mixed emotions with each and every word that exited my mouth.
"Y- y- you have a-a-amne-ne-sia," she said as she looked me over head-to-toe. "Your horns," she said as she put a claw over her mouth, "they didn't look like that when you left," she said, as my mind began to buzz, I had to know what caused me to lose my memory.
"Left for what?" I asked, the new information intriguing me.
"You never told me specifically," she said looking disappointed, "you just 'had to take care of something.'" I sat thinking. Most of the memories I that had returned were of Xepher. I got up out of the bed and started walking around. Xepher fallowed close behind me.
I wandered through the house and noted all the different rooms and where they were. I opened one and noticed one was all banged up and torn apart, I turned around to ask.
"We were working on remodeling this room," she said knowing I would ask. She led through the house to the master bedroom, carefully lifting up a blanket, "for them," she said, as I stared at the two eggs. More memories came flooding back… the room… the house… the two eggs.
"When did I leave?" I asked as she placed the blanket carefully back over the eggs.
"Three weeks ago," she replied tearing up again, "You said you would be gone for five days at most." I sat shocked at how long I've been gone, I was going to ask what day it was when I saw a calendar on the nightstand next to the bed. It was the 14th of June. I had been gone since the 24th, why did I leave.
"I'm glad you're back," she said, wrapping her wings around me, I returned the gesture. She began to walk towards the door as she turns around. "Follow," she said, as she exited the house, I did as she said. We walked through the city, passing the shopping district and the plaza by the front gate. She reintroduced me to everyone, each and every dragon gasping at my state of mind and the state of my horns.
Once we had gone through most of the city, we headed home. I had met new, or old friends rather, that I had once known so well, and spent so much time with. I sat down at the table for lunch as Xepher walked into the kitchen. I heard her rustling around with things before she finally came back carrying two meals. She placed one in front of me and sat down at the other end of the table with her's.
I took a bite as my taste buds were filled with, well, deliciousness. I shoved the rest into my mouth, starving. I heard Xepher giggle, as I slowed down my eating. My face felt red.
"I see that through this amnesia this still remains your favorite meal," she said laughing. I finished the meal, feeling infinitely better than I had at the beginning of the day. Considering I hadn't known who she was at the beginning of the day, it was a significant improvement.
"What do you want to do?" she asked, as I sat and thought. I looked her in the eyes and smiled.
"Get to know you better," I said as she giggled girlishly.
"You're still inside there," she said as we began to talk, we spent the rest of the day conversing, she did most of the talking, but the more she told me, the more I remembered, and the more I told her what I remembered, the more and more what I said matched up with what I told her when I first met her. When dinner time came, I watched as she gracefully prepared another mouthwatering meal. I scarfed it down once again, as she stated it another one of my favorites. Whether or not it was my favorite before, didn't matter, because it was good now.
Night approached quickly, as Xepher got up from the table and began to get ready for bed. I followed and got ready myself, she showed me where all my stuff was, and I did what I could for my horns before we laid down in bed.
"Goodnight Zion," she said, as she curled herself into a ball. I laid down next her, and she scooted closer to me, pulling my wing over using it was a blanket.
"Goodnight Xepher," I replied slowly drifting off to sleep.
Holy chit, it's finally done. Writing this chapter was a lot of fun, I look forward to writing chapter 2, in the meantime though, I'm going to be re-reading all my stories, discontinuing the ones I deem unsalvageable and periodically updating the ones that seem fine. Thanks for reading and have a good night. (It's 1:01am for me right now)
