Piccolo waited. After a few minutes, he heard footsteps. The woman seemed unsteady on her feet. The steps were irregular, one foot dragged a little. He turned around when the footsteps stopped.

The woman was standing at the mouth of the cave. She was holding onto the rock with her right hand, her left arm hanging down. She had her left leg slightly raised, as if it pained her to put it up. She was wearing tight-fitting dark trousers and a long-sleeved shirt of the same colour. Due to the cuts and abrasions on her legs and arms, her clothes were torn and bloody in several places. Over her upper body she wore a kind of breastplate. Her hands were in white gloves. She looked at Piccolo with wide eyes. Not frightened, as he was used to from the earthlings, but questioning.

"Where am I?" Piccolo wondered why her voice sounded so calm.

He replied, "In a cave, by a waterfall, in a forest." The woman accepted this information with a nod and followed up with the next question. "How did I get here?"

Her memory was possibly damaged, Piccolo thought. "Your flight pod crashed here. It almost set the whole forest on fire." The woman now looked dismayed. As if she was sorry she had caused a fire. She let her eyes wander over the trees behind Piccolo, as if looking for the flight pod.

"Where did I come from?"

This line of questioning was annoying. "Am I the information?" the green one replied gruffly.

Startled, the woman now looked at Piccolo again. "E-E-Excuse me," she stammered and slid to the ground against the rocky wall. She could no longer keep herself on her feet. "Can I have some water, please?" Reluctantly, Piccolo stood up, materialised a cup of water in his hand on his way to her and handed it to her. Greedily, she drank the cup dry. Gratefully nodding to him, she drew her knees to her body, placed her arms on them and rested her head on them. Her long black hair was braided into a thick plait that hung forward over her left shoulder. A few strands had come loose from it.

Piccolo settled back on the ground some distance from her and regarded her. "Can't you remember where you came from?" His curiosity won out. He heard only a faint shake of the head. "Your flight pod crashed here in the forest last night and burst into flames. I pulled you out and brought you to the cave."

She raised her head after the explanation. She looked at him and smiled briefly. "Thank you." Piccolo shrugged his shoulders. Human conversation was foreign to him. A silence spread over the two of them.

After a while she spoke up again: "What is your name?" He told her his name. Since she showed no signs of recognition, she was probably not from this planet, otherwise his name would terrify her. Or had she just forgotten? "What is your name?" The question had left his lips before he could think about it further.

"I ..." She faltered. Her eyes darted around searchingly. The expression on her face changed to panic. "I can't remember!" Breathing heavily, tears welled up in her eyes, she reached into her hair and rocked her upper body back and forth. She muttered to herself. "Who am I? Why can't I remember? Where am I from?"

Piccolo was visibly irritated by this situation. "Hey," he shouted at her. She paused. "There's no point in getting into it now," he said. "Maybe you'll sleep a little more and then everything will be fine." She nodded slowly, then braced herself against the wall and walked carefully back into the cave. Piccolo followed her at some distance and watched her drop down onto the straw bed. He was about to turn around again and leave the cave when she addressed the word to him once more: "Can I have some more water, please?" He granted her this wish. After she had emptied the cup, he filled it again with water and placed it beside her. She was breathing calmly and had closed her eyes. Without thinking further, he took one of the blankets and laid it over her slender body.

He looked at her for a while, wondering why he had just done that, and then walked back to the cave entrance, shaking his head. Maybe he had to attack a human village again to spread fear and terror. A year without this had apparently made him effeminate. He paced up and down restlessly. Meditation was out of the question. Training on the plain, then. That would certainly get his thoughts back on track. What would his father say if he could see him? The thought filled him with anger, which he converted into energy for his training.

When the moon was already high in the sky, Piccolo noticed a change in his surroundings. It took a moment for him to comprehend what he had noticed. The woman was awake again. He covered the short distance to the end of the plain flying and then floated down near the waterfall. She was already standing on the rocky plateau next to the waterfall and looking around. Silently he landed behind her. She showed no reaction as to whether she had noticed him. He cleared his throat. She winced and turned around.

"Where did you come from all of a sudden?"

He pointed upwards, "Flew down."

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "You can fly?"

Piccolo nodded and shrugged his shoulders at the same time. To him, it was nothing special.

"Can I learn that?" Piccolo's mind drifted to Son-Goku, who was also human and could fly.

„Maybe. I don't know," he rebuffed.

"That would be great," she said softly. When Piccolo showed no further reaction, she turned back towards the forest.

The woman had put her head back. Her gaze was fixed on the stars and the moon, which were very visible on this clear night. Piccolo took a step closer, noticing that she was a good head and a half shorter than him. She had straightened her braid, for now there were no strands sticking out.

"Can you fly all the way to the stars?" He was puzzled by this question. He only made a vague sound that could have been interpreted as either an affirmation or a denial. "The sky looks beautiful, don't you think?" He repeated the sound from earlier.

She sighed and slowly lowered herself to the ground. "My leg still hurts pretty bad." She stretched out her left leg and massaged it, "And I'm hungry."

He had to admit he hadn't thought of that. He himself only needed water, humans needed food, of course. Without another word he jumped down from the rock, disappeared into the trees and was beside her again in a short time. Everything happened so quickly that she could only sit up to stare after him. He handed her an apple. She accepted it gratefully and took a hearty bite. She rolled her eyes with pleasure and moaned softly. She seemed to enjoy it.

"I will take you to a village after sunrise. They can take care of you there," Piccolo said after she had finished the apple. He definitely didn't want her to stay here any longer. She disturbed his training.

"Okay, thank you," she replied quietly. She put her head back on her knees and hid her face from him. So they sat next to each other for a while, in silence. Piccolo noticed that he was not uncomfortable.

'I wonder if even the devil needed company from time to time,' he thought. After all, he had been all alone for a year now. His father had had beings working for him. Maybe he needed some around him too. This woman would be a start, after all. If she had lost her memory anyway, she would certainly be easy to influence and win over for him.

A sigh from the woman pulled him out of his thoughts. "I hope the people in the village can help me. I still can't remember anything. Not even my name." Her voice was muffled because she still had her face to the ground between her knees

"How about the name Sitara?" Piccolo now asked her.

"Sitara..." she repeated the name several times. "I'm pretty sure that's not my name, but it has a nice ring to it." Smiling gratefully, she looked at him. "What does the name mean?"

Piccolo glanced over at her only briefly and then stared into space again. "It means star," he replied slowly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her smile widen.

"Thank you," she whispered.

With difficulty she rose and walked to the cave. "I'm going to lie down again. Good night." She paused for a moment, waiting for a reaction from Piccolo. When it failed to materialise, she turned to the cave and limped in. Piccolo sat on the rock for the rest of the night, staring into space.

Shortly after sunrise, Sitara limped onto the rock plateau. She didn't drag her leg as much as the day before, but she couldn't put any weight on it yet. Piccolo was already waiting for her. There was some fruit on the ground. He silently pointed to it and nodded to let her know that she could help herself. She accepted gratefully and consumed the delicacies at breakneck speed.

"Where is the next village?" now Sitara wanted to know.

"It is in that direction." Piccolo gestured with his arm across the forest away from the cliff face. "I'll fly you close to the village. It's too far to walk, especially injured." He stepped closer to her and spread his right arm. "Hold on to me," he ordered her. She nodded and put her arms around his torso. He put his arm around her waist. Wanting to be as comfortable as possible, she rested her head against his side. Sitara noticed the smell of trees on him. He smelled like the forest. Somewhat embarrassed by these thoughts, she lowered her gaze.

Without warning, Piccolo lifted off the ground and she clawed at him, terrified. Only after a while could she relax a little. They flew very fast. Trees, fields and meadows rushed by below them. The glittering ribbon of the river accompanied them all the time deep below them. They did not exchange a single word during the flight. After some time, the sun had already moved a good distance across the sky, Piccolo landed between some trees. Just beyond the trees, a path was visible.

"If you follow this path, you will come to a village. Say you had an accident and can't remember what happened. Don't mention my name." He rattled off his instructions, not looking at her.

"Okay. Thank you for everything," she replied, standing indecisively in front of him. Piccolo rose into the air without another word and disappeared from her sight. The black-haired woman looked for a moment at the empty spot where Piccolo had been standing a few seconds before, then shook her head in confusion and began her walk to the village with a slight limp.