Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, Qrow awoke. The night before had passed quickly. They had walked back to Jonas' from Mauber's practice and he had fallen asleep almost instantly in his clothes. He hadn't even put any bedclothes on the couch. Perhaps doing all that walking and feeling all that he did the other day was more tiring than it had seemed at first. He had fallen asleep on one of his hands as well, which didn't feel pleasant. Holding it up to his face, he slowly riggled his fingers, his knuckles cracking and the blood running back into them.

The light of the late morning bathed the room; Jonas must've opened the curtains. But Qrow was unbothered, and he felt fully rested. As in Mauber's upstairs room the other day, dust lingered in the light. For such an isolated town, Bergwand seemed as busy as any other large town, Qrow thought. Yet it was still quiet, and he imagined it was easy to find somewhere away from the noise. Even this, a street-facing apartment on quite a large street, seemed to provide room for quiet. Despite this, there was some noise coming from the kitchen.

Sitting up, Qrow began to hope that Jonas was making breakfast. Feeling his cheek, his stubble was already starting to grow back a little bit. Realizing this, he started to miss being clean-shaven a little, and thought for a second about going to shave, but dashed that quickly. He did feel he looked better with at least a smattering of facial hair just by looking in the mirror. Walking to the kitchen, he could see Jonas busy with his back to the door. Noticing him, Jonas turned.

'Yes, don't worry, you stay here you're getting the works.' Jonas said, before turning back. Qrow grinned and went to sit at the table, his hopes of breakfast granted. 'I say, you were more tired than you must have felt.'

'Yeah, tends to happen when you don't know who the hell you are.' Qrow chuckled to himself, then paused. 'Say, Jonas.'

'What is it?' Jonas said, opening a cupboard and staying focused on the counter in front of him.

'Just a question I've got. I know, another one, but this one is a little different.'

'Don't worry, ask away.'

'Why are you doing all this? Just for me. You could have easily left me in that crowd to keep wondering, trying to talk to people. But you invited me in here, took me to Mauber. Sorted all this out for me. Why?' Jonas turned around and leaned back on the counter to face Qrow.

'Remember what I told you yesterday, about being on leave from this war?' Qrow nodded. 'Well, it gives me something to do. Not that I think you are in desperate need of help. I agree with Mauber, you have...an indomitable determination, Qrow. Even just from what I've seen. If I had left you there, I'm sure you would have found your way. With some struggle, probably' Qrow smiled in agreement. 'But I'm glad to make it easier for you, you know.' Jonas looked over to the kitchen window to the side of them. 'You spend enough time sleeping out with the mud, rot, and noise eating through you, you want a change of pace.' He turned back to Qrow. 'To be honest, traveling back here I had little idea what I was going to do until we get called back. But, here we are. You've given me plenty to do.' He chuckled and slowly turned back to the counter.

Qrow understood and nodded again. All of Jonas' kit he had had lying around the kitchen the day before was gone. With that rifle stowed away safely, Qrow hoped. He wondered about it.

'That rifle you had with you. Your government lets you keep that?'

'They need us ready. It's a risk that they'll take in that regard. I can be charged if I were found to be using it improperly or committing a crime.' He said that in an elevated tone, almost mockingly. 'Not that I plan to, of course. But that's wartime regulations for you. Anything not to let the side down.' Jonas seemed to have finished his work at the counter and walked over with two plates. There were four hefty rashes of bacon on each plate, droplets of grease adorning them, along with a small serving of eggs. To Qrow, whose appetite was still working its way up, the sight of it was delightful. After placing some cutlery down Jonas asked how he took his coffee.

'Strong.' Qrow said bluntly, picking up a fork. Jonas looked confused.

'Very laconic of you. That'll just be black then I assume.' Jonas turned around and started making the drinks.

As he began chewing, Qrow took the coffee as it was being handed to him and had a sip. Both of them ate rapidly, and both plates were empty before either of them said another word.

'I needed that, thanks.' Qrow said.

'My pleasure. It's nice to put the effort in. Having others cook for you in the field can have variable results, you see. Sometimes a Gefreiter would call us to eat when we were away from the front and close to the mess. If there was a good cook on that day people would often say it. If there wasn't, well...' He laughed. 'We were left to find that out.' He took a sip of his coffee. Qrow smiled. He imagined there was going to be a lot of this talk of the war as long as he was around Jonas. He didn't mind, but he had a thought.

'Don't you need to like, find another job? If you've been sent away from the army.' Jonas looked surprised.

'Another job? No.' He waved his hand. 'They've sent us home, yes. But under the terms of transfer to the reserve army.' He refined his tone. 'Only a portion of troops will be required to undergo further training, drills, or be called to the registry in the period until a general recall. That's how they worded it.'

'Sounds good for you guys.' Qrow said.

'It is. We still get paid and can sit at home doing whatever we like. But here's what I think.' Jonas sat forward. 'They've used a loophole, by transferring us all the to reserve army, they don't have to do anything with most of us. As long as some troops are kept in close readiness, then they can have the rest of us go home to be called in at longer notice.'

'I see.' Qrow said. 'But why would they do that? I thought you guys were at war. Was there a ceasefire or something?' Jonas chortled in response.

'Far from it. There was no evidence the Nazis were moving their troops back in large numbers, but we just decide to anyway. Sure, there wasn't much progress being made, but that's been the case for almost a year.' Jonas took a sip of his coffee. 'To me, there doesn't seem any logical reason that we know of. But I think they're hiding something, our government. They've done this before, like in 55' when they were diverting efforts more to the north without telling the public. But this seems different, it's such an obvious move, yet they haven't given us a good reason. All they did say was that "Events have dictated that a more effective campaign can be waged with a stronger reserve army." It's all bullshit, but it'd be nice to get a proper explanation sooner rather than later.'

Qrow took it all in slowly. Frankly, it made no sense to him either. He knew Jonas understood the situation better, having just been there. But even to him, it was illogical, and it made sense that Jonas pegged it as secrets being kept. But in the face of it all, Qrow wondered who these Nazis he spoke of were. He knew they were the enemy, but who they were Jonas hadn't told him.

'These guys you're fighting, these Nazis. What's their deal?' Jonas chuckled in response.

'What's their deal? He said. 'They don't want us to exist.'

'Who to exist?' Qrow couldn't help but rattle off question after question. All of this was still new to him.

'A Free Germany.' He looked across the table at Qrow intently, a serious look in his eye. 'I don't mean to...worry you Qrow. But these people are nasty, very nasty. And I think if you're staying here indefinitely, you'll find out why. And it's probably for the best you do that yourself.' Qrow cocked his head. He registered that Jonas had a history with these Nazis, and whatever had happened during this war wasn't pleasant.

'Sure thing.' He said back, a meek response considering the subject matter. But he felt one last question could do. He thought of what Jonas had said about taking the city called Munich, and about a border. 'Are they Germans?'

Jonas curled his lip and looked at the table.

'No, no they're not.' Qrow looked at Jonas and nodded slowly.

...

After they had eaten and as Jonas washed up, Qrow returned to the couch. He hadn't expected to be introduced further to Jonas' experience of the war. It was almost paradoxical; he was finding out so much about the life of this country, yet seemed so distant from it all in this isolated town. Finding his identity was the primary concern, but Jonas's vague ruminations about the war seemed to stick in his mind even more.

He curled his arm around the back of the couch. Maybe there was a reason this was sticking out to him so much, he thought. Perhaps he was more used to war than he currently knew. It was then that he considered something; the true scope of the possibility of who he was. Right now, to him, the outcomes were practically endless. He could have lived any possible life, and been brought to this point on any number of possible paths. Yet right now, to him, it was entirely conjecture. Endless circumstance diluted into the tiniest possible outcome, and he had none of it. He just had the drive to figure it out, to keep asking questions. But even then progress to him felt slow. For the first time since he had been awake after the previous day, he was getting angry over it. He felt grateful to Jonas for bringing him this far, he did, but the true nature of the situation was only just reaching him.

He felt his brow beginning to furrow, and he gritted his teeth. The frustration didn't come from thinking about what he could have lost, but rather from anger at what he didn't have. The life he wasn't living. And for some damn reason, he had been put there, or he had put himself there. It was considering this that eventually brought him back from the red; the mystery surrounding how he had appeared there in that spot, naked and alone in the woods, was arguably the most perplexing part of all this. And he hoped that they could start to figure out the answer to that today. Relaxing, he got up and went to find Jonas.

In the hallway, he saw the bedroom door ajar. A moment later Jonas walked out, a pair of boots in his hand. They were larger and looked more robust than the ones he had offered Qrow the previous day. He extended his hand and Qrow took them, turning them over and getting a good look at them.

'What for?' Qrow asked.

'I spoke to Mauber earlier. He suggested we go to where you first woke up. If that's up in schräges Holz like you say, then you'll need them.'

Qrow remembered the cuts he had got on his feet on the journey down, but then also how they had healed up so quickly during his bath. He pondered the thought for a moment. Part of him wanted to tell Jonas there and then, but he stopped himself. Bringing in another peculiarity, by comparison much duller than how he had woken up where he had in such a strange way seemed inappropriate right then. They'd figure out that mystery first, and then he would bring that up. Both Jonas and Mauber didn't seem to think he was crazy, and it was the other part of him that didn't give them the first reason to think he was.

Qrow pulled the boots on and got comfortable in them as Jonas passed him into the kitchen. A moment later he came out with his pack from the day before slung over his shoulder, and his rifle in his hand. Jonas could see Qrow eyeing it.

'Don't worry, this won't bring us any trouble, as I said. Plenty of people around here are armed.'

'Seem's too safe for that around here, from what I've seen.'

'That's true. But you haven't seen the bears yet though, have you?'

Qrow winced, but it quickly made sense to him. Even in his absence of memory and knowledge, it wasn't too far-fetched to him that there would be bears in an area like this. And just as quickly as it had come the anxiety of going out into the, as he now knew, bear-filled woods disappeared. He shook his head at Jonas and chuckled as he did so, finishing the laces on the boots and standing back up. The sun was out so he didn't ask for a jacket.

In the alley leading to the apartment's front door, they lingered for a moment as Jonas figured out their route. People were walking past intermittently on the street in front of them. Jonas had told him it was Sunday, and the people were dressed accordingly. But strangely, there weren't any church bells ringing. Jonas had mentioned on the offhand that one of the several chapels in the town had become a wine merchant in years past. And that even in the past few years, for reasons he hadn't given Qrow, congregations had shrunk slightly.

Jonas folded away the map and turned to Qrow, telling him that they would meet Mauber on the same street that the parade had come down yesterday. As they began walking further into the center of town, back down the hill with iron railings, the life of the place seemed to spring forward. Some people now went past on bikes, there was shouting, and more shops filtered in to replace the houses and apartments set across either side of the street. At the bottom of the hill, their surroundings splayed out into several different streets of several sizes. A feature Qrow hadn't seen as they walked around the previous day. But down the road which continued to follow the path of the hill, straight down in front of them, the trappings of a market came into view. Covered stalls and colorful awnings. It was no sooner that they started down this street, Qrow following Jonas, that the noise became almost deafening.

As they continued, the larger stalls began to become fewer and the volume of the street became apparent again. These stalls gradually became replaced by a different sight. In front of the various shops sat small wooden fold-out tables. Behind them sat several, or often just one seat with a prospector eagerly awaiting customers. The shop doors behind them were open, and whatever the specialty of the place was, an example could be seen on the table. At a number of them, customers were sitting on other seats. And it was at the sight of one of these customers that Jonas suddenly made a double-take.

'Mauber! Beenden Sie Ihre Verhandlungen! Waren hier!'

Qrow tried to follow where Jonas was shouting, and eventually saw Mauber sitting to the side of one of the tables. He looked up aghast, with what looked like a loupe for inspecting diamonds over his left eye. Lowering it, he seemed to notice both of them approaching, and laughed heartily.

'Excuse me both of you! I was a little caught up.'

'It wouldn't take a genius to figure that out. What are these?' Jonas sidled over to the table and looked down at what was being sold. He saw a dozen or so watches of different types lined up along it. 'I never really took you for a lover of timekeeping, Mauber. Especially if you're prone to get caught up, as you say.' Mauber scowled. 'You keep that kind of time and you end up with some Verräterjunge putting a bullet in your back.'

Qrow hadn't the slightest what that meant specifically, but after their talk back at the apartment, he had his suspicions. Quickly he glanced at the name of the shop that Mauber was dealing with, then behind the table where a thin-looking, middle-aged man stood. Looking slightly shocked at the fact that two strangers had suddenly arrived and started speaking English with his prospective customer.

'I'm sure he'll still be here when you get back Mauber, won't you...Herr?' Jonas said, looking up at the watch dealer.

'Osterheim.' The man said.

'Herr Osterheim. You can fork over your marks to him after we get out of those woods unscathed.' Jonas looked over to Qrow reassuringly. 'So instead of that, we'll get going shall we.' Osterheim himself, Qrow noticed, seemed almost shaken by Jonas' sudden appearance. As disappointing as it must be to lose a customer, Jonas' speech and the way he held his rifle stiffly by its nose as he spoke to Mauber, seemed to disturb the man somehow. Despite this, they quickly started walking once again with Mauber now in tow. The doctor himself carried a large walking staff made of dark wood with him and had a shoulder bag slung across his chest.

'I apologize, Jonas, I often get distracted around here. It is the weekend and all. It's from my days in Munich, any quarter of the city you went markets sprung up like flowers, endless things to look at.' Mauber fanned his hands out as he said that. Qrow, having been following Jonas for most of their time out thus far, decided to interject.

'Now that we're all together, maybe we should get down to the road. I can take us to where I woke up from there.' Jonas heard and nodded, taking them off of the market street in between two stalls and down a smaller side street. After a minute or so they came back out of the path, shaded between the buildings, and came to the street where Qrow had met Jonas the day before. Looking around, Qrow directed them to where he remembered coming out and they headed down there.

Once they reached the spot, Qrow made a double take around him. Checking the place out and eyeing the details. Most everything was the same, including the buildings on the opposite side of the cobbled street he had seen coming out. With that in mind, he pointed Mauber and Jonas to the alley he had walked down. As they began to make their way up it, the strength of their incline was made more obvious to Qrow now that he was traveling it from the bottom. The face of the peak looming over the buildings, now much more imposing in the sunlight, didn't help much. But soon enough they'd been in the woods, and such a sight would be trivial.

After some minutes of walking through the shaded backstreets, Qrow saw a telltale sign; the wine crates.

'Here it is.' He said aloud.

'No point wasting time.' Mauber said. 'Lead the way, Qrow.' With that, they mounted the crates, which creaked beneath them, and climbed through into the tree line.

...

About half an hour of walking later, they had come to where rocks began jutting out among the trees and the ground grew more rugged. Qrow was amazed he had managed to make it through much of it barefoot. All of them had little sweat patches coming through onto their shirts.

'I guess this must be like a sixth sense to you now Jonas. All that marching around the low countries with such vigor.' Mauber said, catching his breath slightly and making a fist with the hand not gripping his staff. Jonas himself was at the back of the line the three of them had formed.

'The low countries? Jonas laughed. 'You're kidding yourself if you think we're that far in.'

'Not the actual low countries, my boy. I mean those German states still under traitor's rule.' Mauber smiled. 'When do you think they'll be ours again?'

'With all honesty, doctor, I can't say. And I hate to say it but that hope of yours might be a little misplaced.' Jonas put a hand on his hip and turned around, sweat glistening on his forehead. 'All I can say is it's far slower out there than they might make it seem in some of the papers with government money in them.'

'Oh, I don't read those.' Mauber waved his hand dismissively. 'I listen to Herr Brüner on the wireless.'

'Didn't think you were that way inclined.' Jonas said shaking his head.

'He speaks with some positivity, doesn't he?'

'What he speaks with is a gilded edge, and that's not what everyone likes to hear.'

'More people than you might think like to hear it.' Mauber said, lowering his brow.

'Things are different when you've come from where we have, doctor.' Jonas turned to Qrow. 'Herr Brüner is a former politician, Qrow. One of these greasy types used to be part of the SPD when they went underground after the Nazis came about. He mostly just speaks about the war now, encouraging people to hope for victory and all that.'

'Why don't you like him?' Qrow asked.

'Many reasons. I'll let you know later.' Qrow found that odd. 'Are we close?' Jonas gestured up at him. Qrow eyed what was around them; mossy boulders and more jagged rocks. Not much resembling the small dirt patch he had woken up on.

'Let's keep up a little further, I'll know when we're there.'

Barely had they taken another step and Qrow had turned back around to start walking again that he noticed Jonas' face shift, his eyes darting off to the side of their line. An instant later he had a finger up to his lips. Qrow and Mauber both looked alarmed. Jonas looked to both of them and waved his hand downward, a signal to crouch. All of them did, slowly and quietly. Mauber flattened out his staff and Qrow tried his best to make himself look small. He was already beginning to suspect what was happening. Jonas' comments from earlier flashed through his head.

Jonas turned to the left, with Mauber and Qrow following. Through the trees, a few hundred meters from them, a shape moved slowly forward. Accompanying it was haphazard, almost clumsy footfalls. On looking closer it was a bear. Its fur was almost the same matted brown as the trees, and its snout was a light color that stuck out. Not quite as monstrously large as Qrow had imagined, it appeared stubby and medium in size. All three of them were deathly quiet, not moving an inch. It didn't stop, but simply ambled forward, step by step. Despite letting out a low growl among other breathy noises, it hadn't seemed to have noticed them. And in the course of continuing to look at it, all three of them had instinctually laid down even further. Jonas, however, retained some of his leverage. Lifting the rifle into his shoulder, he leveled it and followed the bear through the trees.

After a few moments, the quiet confidence among them said they were safe as if the let is pass. Jonas continued to keep it in his sight, though. Qrow, who was pressed tight against the roots of a tree towering over him, kept an eye on it too. Breaking his gaze on the bear, he took a moment to look up at the tree. It was then he noticed something else. The tree itself grew at an angle despite its size, in keeping with the incline of the hill. And a good way up the trunk he could clearly see a large branch with signs of damage running across it; breaks in the damp, old bark to the fresh wood underneath. This branch was on the verge of breaking, he thought. He packed away that thought quickly and turned back to the bear. But he hadn't one second of reprieve when he heard a sound above him. His eyes darted right back up. As if from nothing, the damage in the branch opened up and it snapped downward, smashing into the trunk. An instant later it detached and came careening down toward him. Qrow shoved himself to the side with a grunt as the limb crashed into where had concealed himself. The noise was deafening among the silence that they had held between them.

Mauber and Jonas' eyes darted his way, horror in their faces. Qrow had flung himself some way out into the open and made even more noise as he tried to steady himself. He glanced between the trees in the direction of the bear. It wasn't a moment before he made out the shape thundering through the trees, this time in their direction. A horrific, guttural growling pierced the silence.

'QROW!' Jonas bellowed. Qrow saw him bolt upright. He tried to shift himself but fumbled. He snapped his gaze forward. A thunderous crack echoed out around them, and a second later it was on top of him. Qrow felt the weight of it slam into him. He shoved himself to the ground, covering his face tightly with his forearms, wincing, preparing tearing pain of claws and teeth against his skin. He felt the impact of something thrashing and gnawing at him for a split second, but the pain didn't come.

His vision blackened as he tightened his eyes shut. He heard a crashing around him, the breaking of wood, and the tearing of earth. The weight of it continued against his body for a moment, pushing the breath out of his lungs. But then a moment later it was gone. Letting out a deep breath as the pressure was lifted, Qrow rolled over, breathless. Another deafening crack burst through the space around them. Opening his eyes, he turned his tail and began scrambling violently away in the opposite direction that the bear had come. The guttural growls and breaking of wood continued before a loud crash burst out from behind him. Two more cracks came, accompanied this time by successive moans and growls. Qrow was still panicked, trying to find his bearings and gain his breath back.

'Qrow! Qrow!' He turned back to his front to see Mauber, sweat dripping down his face, grabbing at him. 'Are you alright? Let me see your wounds!'

'I...what?' Qrow eeked out as a dozen more cracks pierced the air around them, followed by more horrific groans and growls. Mauber winced and shot his hands up to his ears as the cracks rang out, before turning back to Qrow.

'Let me see...' Mauber stopped. He looked Qrow up and down, expecting to find something. 'You're unhurt, not...bleeding...' Qrow was panicked. 'How are you unhurt?!' Mauber exclaimed louder, between his breaths. Another growl rang out from behind them, this time cut off by a final unbearable crack.

Qrow, as softly as he could, shifted away from Mauber and clumsily stood up. Mauber, however bewildered, quickly followed. In front of them, Jonas stood atop a rock sticking out of the earth. His legs were apart and he was leaning forward. The breaking sounds had stopped. Qrow clambered around the rock to see what Jonas was poised above. Splayed over itself in a thrashed-out pit of mud and broken branches was the bear. Blood was pressed into the earth around it and matted gruesomely into its fur, turning the dirty brown to a thick and ugly red. Its mouth lulled open and its eyes glazed over, half a dozen holes opened into its skull. More blood streamed off of points on its back and belly.

Jonas began controlling his breaths. Qrow watched him slowly bring the rifle off of his shoulder, a look of fright pressed into his eyes. Taking a step out of his stance, he turned to the both of them. He saw Qrow first, and the look of fright turned to one of amazement. Qrow himself still breathed heavily and kept his eyes on the bear's corpse. Fear in his face.