Shaking, they both grinned. 'Nice to meet you, Qrow.' Jonas said.

'You too, Jonas.' Qrow's grin was more subdued. Behind them, Jonas' soldier friends began noticing their preoccupation with the conversation. Seeing this, Jonas turned to them.

'Los Jungs, ich hole euch in.' Nodding in acknowledgment, both of them walked past him and Qrow in the direction of the soldiers down the street. 'It's alright, I'll see them later.' Turning back to Qrow, he looked him up and down again. 'So, you wanted to know where we were.' Jonas took his eyes off Qrow and looked around and the buildings didn't the street. The sun had now come out entirely, and many of the clouds had parted. 'Welcome to Bergwand, with the best views in all of Ost-Bayern. That's something everyone here will agree on.'

Qrow nodded in acknowledgment and took a similar look around the buildings and the still vibrant celebration, before glancing back up at one of the peaks. At the edge of its summit, he could now make out the smallest amount of snow, distinct from the clouds. He guessed they must already be pretty high up, and that this valley must only be part of a larger mountain range. The noise around them from the crowd was still electric.

'Ost-Bayern?' He asked, cocking his head. Jonas chuckled in response and put a hand on his hip, before taking a draw from his cigarette.

'Eastern Bavaria.' He said as he blew the smoke out. Qrow still looked confused.

'What's going on here?' Qrow looked to the crowds and the column of men still passing them on the road.

'How haven't you heard?' Jonas took another draw. 'We've finally got Goering on the backfoot. It took a while, sure, but it happened. Things are finally turning around here.' He looked at the crowds and watched as a father held his young daughter down to high-five a passing soldier. 'Why else would everyone be so happy?'

That did nothing to ease Qrow's confusion. But he said nothing.

'I'm not sure how you got all the way up here without knowing that. Say, how did you get up here?' Jonas looked at the dirt on Qrow's shirt and trousers again. He stood in thought for a moment, Qrow waited for him to say something. Hold the cigarette close to his lips, he suddenly looked like he came to a realization. 'Ah.' He lowered the cigarette. 'I see.' Slowly, he leaned in to whisper something to Qrow. 'You discovered the local poison didn't you?' He grinned. 'Came down here on a bachelor's holiday, had a wonderful night, wandered off through the woods in a daze. No?' He leaned away and laughed, before slapping Qrow playfully on the shoulder a few times. 'Welcome to Free Germany, American, no better time to come and feel the magic. You are a daring one, I'll give you that. All those warnings they put out, I'd thought you lot would rather stay at home.'

Qrow looked dumbfounded and pursed his lips.

'Buddy, listen. I don't know what American means. I don't know what Ost-Bayern or Free Germany is. I'm gonna put it the way it is; I don't have any memories. I don't know who I am, I don't know where I am. I know nothing. That's the long and short of it.' He had put his hand causally on Jonas's shoulder as he said that, an extra measure of sincerity. Whether it worked or not he didn't know.

'You're serious, aren't you?' Jonas said.

'Look at me. What reason would I have to lie.'

'None that I can see.'

'Ask me any question you want. I guarantee you, I won't be able to answer it.' Qrow stepped back. 'I need just need to ask some questions of my own is all.' Jonas took another draw of his cigarette.

'Soon. But what do you remember? Of how you just got here, I mean.'

'I woke up, what, one and half hours ago? Naked, on the side of a hill up in those woods.' Qrow pointed down the street he had come from. 'These clothes were on the ground right next to me. The name Qrow, it was right here.' He pulled the label on the back of the shirt out so Jonas could see it. 'And this here. He rubbed his face, and then pressed his cheek forward slightly for emphasis. 'This is a few days old. Whether that means I was out for that long or not, I dunno.' Around them, the noise of the crowd had died down slightly, and the parade seemed to be reaching its end as the men continued down the road. Some of the crowd was now following them down the road as well.

'Now.' Qrow said, remembering what Jonas had said about poison. 'Where can we get a drink? Jonas grinned in response.

'Right this way.' He dropped his cigarette and stomped it out before walking past Qrow in the direction of the other soldiers. Qrow grinned wryly too and followed him.

...

They sat on a terrace covered by a row of identical parasols, outside one of the many bars which dotted Bergwand's town square. Around them mostly sat other soldiers and townspeople, all cheerily drinking and chatting. The sun had now completely broken through the previously overcast sky. Qrow drank a tall glass of dark stout, the stench of which lingered under his nose. Rubbing his eyes, he eyed Jonas' glass of red wine, which he had barely gotten into yet. On the square next to them, dozens of the soldiers from before lingered and talked. Before they were a stage, with what looked like municipal workers finishing work on it. Qrow watched a couple of guys wheeling a set of stairs up to the side of it before he turned back to Jonas who started.

'I need to get you an atlas to look at or a globe, or something. It's another thing seeing this stuff drawn out, you see.' He ran his finger around the rim of his glass before taking a sip.

'So Germany is the country?' He said, taking a sip of his own drink.

'Mhmm.' Jonas said as he drank. 'Deutschland to me.'

'And East Bavaria is a state in Germany?'

'That's it.' Jonas said, smiling. 'Baby steps, Qrow, baby steps.'

'And Bergwand is where we are now.' He glanced over to one of the peaks, which seemed to linger at all times over the buildings wherever they went. 'Little valley town, eh?'

'Since 1456.' Jonas nodded.

'Oh, and, it's 1959, right?' Qrow added.

'1959 AD, the year of our lord. That's right.' Qrow wouldn't admit it, but everything Jonas said turned into become a new question he had to resist the temptation to ask. But there was one thing he thought would be fitting since Jonas had called him it directly.

'What's "American"? You called me that earlier and one of those girls, said something similar, I'm sure of it.' Jonas grinned. Despite the roundabout way Qrow would need a new answer for every little thing, he seemed happy to inform him correctly every one.

'American is a nationality. I thought it's what you might be.' He took a sip. 'You sound like them, have their accent. It's what that blonde said, she thought you were American.' Qrow remained silent, and Jonas chuckled. 'It's another country, a big one, across the ocean from here.' He paused, looking intently at Qrow, almost like he was scrutinizing him for an interview. 'This is what I don't understand Qrow. All that I've heard of people losing their memories, all my life, was that they never forgot the world around them. They could still remember where they were from, and most of the things they'd learned. Sometimes they even had fragments of their life still in their memory. Yet here you are, and I've had to tell you all this.' He looked briefly to his comrades on the square, who had begun to form themselves up. 'I suppose the bigger mystery is how you get here in the first place, appeared in the woods like that.'

Qrow himself still remained silent. In a way, he was glad he had found someone willing to come to terms with his situation so quickly. He imagined most others would have left by this point if they had had to explain to him what were to them basic facts of life.

'I have no idea, Jonas. But if there's a chance I can get any more answers, find out who I am complete, I'll take it. The way I see it this is a good start.'

'I don't think you're wrong.' Jonas replied, looking wide-eyed at the table. 'Because obviously, you haven't forgotten what a good drink is.' Qrow had finished his stout, despite their tedious conversation of back and forth. Qrow laughed.

'Yeah, obviously not.' He lifted the glass and eyed it. 'That was nice.'

'Another?' Jonas asked.

'How could I say no to that?' He laughed again, and Jonas flagged down a server, an old man with a blocky white mustache and apron.

'Andere...' He looked at Qrow. 'Of those?' He pointed at the empty glass.

'Ah...' Qrow looked at Jonas' drink, which he was about halfway through. 'No, I'll have whatever you're drinking.'

'Good taste.' He turned back to the server. 'Lokal, Bitte.' The server nodded and walked through the tables back into the bar. Qrow hadn't caught its name as they had been sitting down. Jonas held up his glass, encouraging Qrow to take a look.

'This is the local poison.' He took a sip. 'Bergwand Fassweine.' Qrow immediately remembered the crates he had seen on his way down into the town. 'In 1818 this local wine merchant gets tired of chasing all these rich bitters from across the kingdom and starts growing his own cheap stuff in his yard and fermenting it in his cellar. A few years later, people are lapping the stuff up and he expands. Still here to this day, still beautifully toxic.' He chuckled. 'They're building is at the edge of town, they grow the grapes on the side of the mount and ferment it inside the rock.'

Qrow wondered how he knew all this, seeming to have just been coming through with the column of soldiers, most of whom now stood next to them on the square with a crowd of onlookers.

'You come from this town, don't you?'

'How inquisitive. Yes, of course, I do. Home since I was a little kid running around that there square with my peers from the local elementary. My apartment is just up the street.' Just as he took another sip, he saw the server approaching with Qrow's, and nodded Qrow towards the man.

'Say, Danke Schon, it means thanks.' Qrow side-eyed him, looking slightly unsure. 'Just do it.' The server placed his drink on the table.

'Da bist du ja.' The man said, his voice harsh and aged.

'Danke schon.' Qrow said, nodding to him. Jonas snickered. 'What?' Qrow asked.

'Nothing. You're a natural.' The sound of German in Qrow's voice was something new to Jonas.

'Thanks.' Qrow said. He picked up the glass and gave it his first taste. It was strong, very strong. Wincing slightly, he swallowed it quickly. He guessed Jonas must be used to the stuff if he lived here, but he could see what he meant when he said it was cheap. 'It's good.' He said, and Jonas grinned in appreciation. He was about to take another sip but stopped as he heard a sudden noise. Jumping slightly in his seat as he heard it, he put the glass down. Jonas noticed his surprise and grinned. Turning to the square, where the noise had come from, Qrow saw it had been the soldiers coming to attention. Snapping their ankles together in unison. He then heard a man he couldn't see bark another order in German, and the men presented their arms. Jonas turned back to him.

'Come on, let's go watch, bring your drink.' Qrow hesitated for a moment, taken aback at the request considering he thought they were still trying to figure out who he was. But he then complied and followed Jonas out of the terrace with his glass in hand. Despite most of the soldiers they had seen coming down the road now being in formation on the square, Qrow wondered why Jonas and some of the others were exempt from milling around with the crowd which had gathered around the rim of the square. Jonas had even left his rifle and kit sitting by the table.

'Why aren't you up there?' Qrow asked.

'Hauptmann, that's our captain, said it was optional. Those who wanted to march up could, but not all of us had to. The mayor just wanted to give everyone thanks, he told us. Speaking of which.' Jonas followed a group of men walking through the middle of the formation and towards the stage and nodded towards them. Qrow watched as they walked around the edge of the formation and towards the stairs. There was a man he thought was the mayor, wearing a dark suit and bowler hat, with a large ornate chain hung across his chest. Following him was an older man dressed in a green uniform similar to that of the soldier's, but with a peaked cap rather than one of the clunky-looking helmets. In front of them was a man in a tailcoat suit and grey trousers, carrying a heavy golden mace over his shoulder. And behind them was one of the soldiers, but wearing taller black boots and with a thin, curved sword on his belt.

'He was different when I was last here, an older guy.' Jonas said. The man now in front of them was firmly middle-aged, which they could see as he reached the dais in the middle of the stage and placed his hat down on it. The men behind him sat down on some empty wooden chairs which lined the rear of the stage, among other people dressed in suits and formal dresses. Important people of the town, Qrow guessed. There was a back to the stage which rose up and provided a solid foundation for the mayor's presence. It, like the street the parade had come down was decorated with flags. In three sets of poles with two poles each, there sat the same flag Qrow had seen on the street, next to a new one. Divided into a white band on top and a sky-blue band underneath, it had a crest in the center; a red lion on a white background on one side, and a gold lion on a black background on the other. Beneath them was a section showing two lengths of gray chain crossed in an x-shape.

The dais where the mayor stood also had a crest, showing two black peaks on a blue background with a valley in the center. In the valley was an image of a castle in gray. The mayor himself stood poised, before coughing and beginning his address. The soldiers remained silent, and the crowd at the edges of the square listened intently. Jonas took a sip of his wine.

'Deutsche Soldaten, in den vergangenen Monaten haben Sie mutig für eine Nation gedacht, die frei von den Lastern der Regierung jenseits der Grenze ist. Dafür danken wir Ihnen, den Männern der Heeresgruppe Bayern, herzlich.' He had a deep yet spry voice, and his words, amplified by no speakers, echoed around the square. Qrow understood none of it, but to him, it sounded somewhat solemn. And slowly, he was starting to put together what had been going on that day ever since he entered Bergwand. The parade, the celebrating crowd, and now the soldiers being honored by the town. What Jonas had said to him about the celebration. It was a realization that he came to almost naturally despite his cluelessness about the world around him. In the face of everything he knew, this he somehow did. The mayor continued his address, speaking in lengthy verses. Qrow looked at the floor, and goosebumps rippled across his skin. It didn't feel right. He looked up and turned back to Jonas, who noticed and raised his eyebrows, encouraging Qrow to speak.

'There's a war here, isn't there?' He said, slowly. In hindsight, it seemed obvious. Why else would dozens of soldiers be out like this, but that didn't make it any less sobering. Jonas looked at him, before nodding slowly as he took another sip of his drink. As the glass left his lips, Jonas turned back to the mayor. Who in the time that Qrow had stood with his realization, had made it to the end of his speech?

'Und so biete ich euch, tapfere Männer des Freien Deutschlands, von denen einige Söhne Bergwands sind, die Freiheit unserer edlen und alten Stadt an! Nimm es mit Ehre! Es ist das Mindeste, was du verdienst.' With that, the crowd cheered and clapped. The mayor raised his hat, and waved it at the soldiers jubilantly, and Qrow looked on.