Leaning against the wall of the building in the alley, Qrow watched the sky. The sun was beginning to set and the unmistakable shades of orange and teal that signaled the start of the evening were beginning to emerge across the sky and stain the clouds, casting a bright yet subdued ambiance on the cobbles on the ground and the dirty brick of the walls. People were starting to make their way home from the town square on the street beside him. Kids smaller than the boy who had passed him ran rings around their parents as they walked, still energetic despite it being the end of the day. Qrow looked at the floor.
Hearing the faint bang of footsteps on the stairs from behind the main door, he turned to look at the door. Jonas emerged, wearing an outfit similar to Qrow's except without a shirt. He had combed his hair, and he looked less tired around the eyes.
'Now, about finding you those answers. Follow me.' He walked out of the alley, and Qrow followed behind him silently. Back on the main street, most of the crowd Qrow had seen walking were either gone or far in front of them. Qrow could see where the sun was now, sitting between the two looming peaks, and coloring the whole sky around itself as he had seen from the alley.
They began walking back down the street they had come from the square. Qrow hadn't seen any of the soldiers walking away from the square.
'Your buddies, where'd they all go?' Qrow asked Jonas. 'Sounds like they'd be tired after coming all the way up here.'
'Eh, they got fed, and they got a nice welcome. You spend weeks on the front with just your rations and a normal meal becomes all the more appealing.' Qrow nodded in acknowledgment. As they walked, the street gradually inclined further and further. Jonas seemed fine, but Qrow was beginning to feel the slightest hint of burn in his calves. After a few more minutes, his breath began to get shorter. Jonas heard this and turned back around to talk to him.
'Hope you're not feeling too weak back there.'
'You realize I walked down that mountain earlier, not up it, right?'
'I do. Don't worry, this place takes some getting used to. Not many people own cars, so they're used to the hills and valleys.' Qrow looked up at Jonas and shook his head wearily. Jonas laughed. 'You'll be alright, Mauber can check you over if you think you might collapse.' They seemed to be reaching the top of the hill, and Qrow paused for a moment. At this level on the street, there were iron rails on either side, a little bit away from the buildings. Qrow leaned on one of these and caught his breath. Jonas leaned on them as well and talked back down to Qrow as they stood there.
'Who's Mauber?' Qrow asked.
'He's our doctor, used to be the only one years ago. I first went to him when I was three. He's ancient now but still kicking. Still doing his job.' Jonas smiled. Qrow was a little doubtful.
'You sure he can help me?'
'He can give us a good indicator that you're not insane.' Jonas laughed again. 'I believe you Qrow, but you've only spoken to me about your situation. Others might not be so gracious. It'd be best to get it in writing.' Qrow didn't want to be pouring over paperwork as Jonas had been doing with his pay before, but he saw the usefulness of it. He was still in a country where he didn't speak the language, and he didn't want to have to explain himself fully to anyone else who might need to know. 'He might also be able to give you a diagnosis.'
'I think we already know what that'll be.' Qrow said, a look of grimace coming over his face.
'Amnesia isn't all that common around here Qrow. I'm sure you'll give Mauber a nice surprise. As I said, I've never heard of someone forgetting all the things you have. I doubt he has either. And listen, I know that sounds pedestrian, not much like the answers you really want. But once we have that, we can get a better understanding of what you've lost and how you might get it back.' Jonas bit his lip. 'How long that'll take I don't know.'
Qrow sighed lightly as Jonas turned around and continued walking, As they reached the top of the street, things leveled out again as he had expected. On either side, the buildings were no longer made up of shopfronts with apartments above or smaller houses, but instead larger houses that occupied more space along the street. Here, there were actually cars parked. In front of them was a small black two-door parked outside a house. With chromed wheel plates and badges, its edges cut it out distinctly from the surrounding buildings.
'Just down here.' Jonas said. Qrow followed him past the car, they began to make a left where he could now make out the end of the street. There were two or three more cars parked further along, and beyond them was the faint sight of greenery. This street seemed to open up into the woods, and Qrow could now make out the distinct shape of the trees peering over the rooves. Much like where he had entered the town that morning. As they approached the end of the street, Jonas pointed off to the left.
'Here we are.' Qrow walked around the car, the last one parked on the street, and made out what Jonas was pointing at. It was a shopfront, the first one on the street. A blue curtain was draped across the window, and above it was a red sign with gold lettering. It read, in German: 'Praxis Mauber'. Qrow cocked his head.
'Why's he all shut in like that?' He asked.
'Must have gotten to like his privacy since the war started.' Jonas stepped forward and pushed the door open, with Qrow following close behind him. As they walked in and the door swung open, the bell above it dinged. Jonas went inside and looked the room up and down. As Qrow also did so, he was surprised at how dark it was with the curtains shut. The whole room was wood-paneled, and there was a counter on the back wall with an array of shelves behind it. Dotting it were glass bottles in shades of orange, brown, and green. But more prominent were the countless smaller jars; filled with pills, some were plastic and others were glass. Jonas swung his arms upwards, and in the same motion cupped his hands to his mouth:
'Herr Mauber! Herauskommen! Sie haben einen Geduldig!' His voice bounced around the room, sounding perhaps more muffled than Jonas was trying to make it. 'Herr Mauber!'
Qrow listened out for anyone entering from deeper in the building, especially from the door next to the counter. But he hadn't listened long before he jumped, the same as when he had heard the soldier coming to attention. The bell behind them on the front door dinged, but quicker than when they had entered. Qrow turned around first and made out a man entering. The light from the front door bathed the room in a wide arc as he did. Shorter than Qrow, the man's figure was dominated by stubby legs and a pot belly stretching the front of his shirt slightly. Despite these aged features, he sported a white goatee. He wore an olive suit, the jacket of which he held on his arm. As he had entered, he had taken off his hat, which he now held in one hand.
Mauber's eyes widened in confusion as he saw Qrow. But as he saw Jonas, who turned after Qrow had, they gleamed and he burst into a smile. Jonas did the same.
'Jonas!' Mauber shouted. 'Heldenhafter, siegreicher Jonas!' He laughed, and he and Jonas embraced, slapping each other's backs. As they separated, Jonas spoke.
'Sie schmeicheln mir zu sehr, Doktor. Wie geht es Ihnen?'
'Besser denn je, jetzt, wo sich die Dinge wieder zu normalisieren scheinen. Nein, dank dir.' Mauber smiled again and narrowed his eyes while pointing at Jonas for emphasis. Jonas who smiled in response, turned and could notice Qrow stood off to the side.
'Doktor, ich schlage für meinen Freund hier vor, dass wir uns auf Englisch unterhalten.' Jonas said. Mauber nodded slowly before turning to Qrow as well, a studious look on his face.
'Why are you here, then?' Mauber said, a welcoming smile creeping across his face.
...
Sitting around a table in the back of the practice, Qrow and Jonas waited for Mauber's thoughts. The room they were in was on the first floor of the practice facing the street, reached after traversing a flight of stairs past Mauber's personal office. It was surprisingly cozy. All of the seats were cushioned leather, and the furniture was appropriately rustic. Everything was spotless. Even the dust that lingered in the windows' light couldn't seem to settle.
In the third and only other room downstairs, Mauber had given Qrow a cursory examination, the results of which they were waiting for. Qrow had one leg crossed across the other and quietly scratched the arm of the couch he was on. Jonas sat opposite him in an armchair. In his other hand sat an open book, plucked from the shelf along the wall next to them. Qrow peered at the pages in front of him, a clear look of confusion and compulsion in his eyes.
It was an atlas, that as promised, Jonas had encouraged him to take a look at. The opened page showed a wide view of one larger continent and the top of another continent at the bottom of the two-page spread. These, as Qrow had read and Jonas had advised him, were Europe and the top of Africa. Qrow had familiarised himself with the look of the entire globe first, before moving on to Germany. The landmasses and oceans were now solidified in his mind. But the novelty of the discovery was tertiary.
It had made him concerned. No matter how hard he studied the maps, trying to pluck the shapes from his memory, trying to trigger some kind of relapse; he could find nothing. Under any normal circumstance, he assumed he would have been able to recall most of this stuff, and that if he prompted himself his memory might come rushing back. But no such recollection had happened. It frustrated him.
Trying to distract himself, he turned back to the page. This map was geological, with mountain ranges and valleys highlighted in solid black contours, stark and blocky against the yellowing paper. He read back over the labels to the Atlas' and the Alps'. These ranges seemed to cut up the land even further than the borders of the Mediterranean did. There were no countries' boundaries shown. Jonas had shown him what Germany used to look like on another map, and where all the other major nations were on the continent. That was another sixty years old though, Jonas had said. Qrow glanced at him. He too had his legs crossed and twirled his foot as he gazed out the window.
Then, the increasing sounds of footsteps pounding up the stairs towards them made Jonas jerk his gaze to the door. Qrow closed the atlas and placed it on a table beside the couch. The door at the end of the room, opposite the windows and the front of the building, opened and Mauber stepped in smiling. His shirtsleeves were rolled up and he had put his suit jacket away. In his left hand, he held a paper file.
'Apologies for the wait, my boys.' His accent was just as strong as Jonas's, but where he cut through every word, Mauber's seemed to puff them up. 'But you were right, Jonas, this is the first instance of memory loss like this I've ever seen.' Qrow pursed his lips. 'But that doesn't mean it has no explanation, I'm sure.' Sitting down on the couch next to Qrow, Mauber opened the file. 'The closest I remember to this was someone who came to me almost, what...thirty years ago now.' Mauber laughed. 'It was just a few years after I had finished at Munich, mind you, so I was in a bit of a strange mind about it. A man had come to me one night, not at my practice but to my home, which surprised me.' He licked the edge of one of the file's pages and turned it. 'He said he couldn't remember where he lived, and he had been knocking on random doors with the hope that one of them might be his. Annoyed a lot of people mind you. So I brought him in and started asking questions, and as it turned out he didn't know which city he was in. And he even had trouble recalling where on the map Germany was. But that was the extent of his affliction.' He took a page out of the file and set it down on his lap. 'He knew I was a doctor and had rightfully come to find help. Soon after that, I helped him get taken into specialist care, and from what they told me after that he recovered fully.' Qrow looked at the page on Mauber's lap, unable to make out any of the text. He sighed.
'I think I might be farther gone than that, doc.' He picked the atlas back up from the table. 'I didn't remember any of this. Not one bit. I can memorize it, but it was all new to me. Jonas can attest to that, he was showing me.' Mauber looked over to Jonas, who nodded.
'But there is the difference, Qrow.' Mauber smiled. 'This man who came to me, he was in hysterics.' He stood up suddenly and opened his arms for emphasis. 'I didn't know what to do with him at first, he slumped down on my doorstep in tears, begging for help. He couldn't tell right from left in his state, and he took some considerable calming down. But you...' Mauber turned to Jonas again. 'You are not of emotions, my friend. I could tell that the moment I saw you. Jonas tells me you sauntered down from the side of the mount without hesitation, looking for help. You accepted the nature of your situation and did the next logical thing. There are very few people I know who could do that if they were in your place.' Mauber smiled. Qrow caught a glimpse of Jonas, who looked at him with assurance. 'My, you were even excited for a drink.' Mauber walked up to Qrow, getting close to his chest. 'Whoever you are Qrow, there is part of you in there, I am sure of it. We just need to do some prying, and a good start would be to figure out how you got here.' Mauber picked up the paper from his lap. 'As you say, you are in perfect physical health from what I can see. No evidence of a wound to the head, so a concussion at the start of all this is out of the question.' He looked through the file again. 'And as to how long you were lying there in the woods, I'd wager to say that played an important part.' He turned the file flat and placed it on the couch behind him, before handing Qorw the separate piece of paper. 'You'd better keep this, a discharge letter can go a long way, especially for someone who might be a foreigner.' Mauber laughed heartily. Qrow folded the paper and put it in his back pocket. Jonas, who was still sitting down, stood up suddenly and rapped his fingers on the side of the chair as he did.
'You wouldn't want to go to a Umfassendes Krankenhaus without a passport, that's for sure. Thank you, Mauber.' Jonas smiled and shook the doctor's hand.
'Immer Jonas.' Mauber said, clasping Jonas' hand in both of his
'Yeah, thanks a lot.' Qrow said, also shaking the doctor's hand. 'So what's the plan from here then? Now that I'm not insane.' Qrow looked to Jonas as he said that.
'I would hope Jonas has already given you a place to sleep. I doubt he would have brought you this far if he hadn't. You can meet me on Waffenstraße at nine-o-clock.' Mauber said.
'Oh no, it's too loud down there.' Jonas said, waving his hand. 'We don't Qrow getting caught in a bribe or something.'
'It's been a lot quiet since you boys left, Jonas. Fewer markets, less...unregistered business, shall we say.' Jonas cocked his head.
'Alright, we'll get out of your hair then. See you tomorrow.' Jonas quickly stepped off and made his way downstairs. Qrow followed, saying a final rushed 'thanks' to Mauber, before they both left into the evening light.