The next morning, Kala woke up to the sounds and smells of food cooking. She sat up excitedly, her stomach rumbling. Zaden was hard at work over the fire, his thick golden hair tied up in a bun behind his head. He had a look of intense concentration on his face, and she couldn’t help but find it cute. He was arrogant, sure, but when he was focused on something, he put his all into it. That was admirable.
“Good morning,” she said softly, unable to handle the voyeuristic feeling that watching him was giving her.
“Oh, good, you’re awake now.”
“Yeah, I am. What are you cooking? It smells amazing.”
“Oh, this is something that my mother used to make. I’ve always loved it, but a lot of people find it strange. My mother wasn’t from around here. But I wanted to give you something that would give you some strength. You seem to be really exhausted.”
“That’s true. Thank you.”
“You don’t have to tell me what you’ve gone through, but if you feel like talking about it you can.”
She was surprised by the offer. Most men, as far as she knew, wouldn’t have bothered to say something like that. He fixed his sea green eyes on her, and she felt a flutter in her chest. He was being serious. It wasn’t what she expected from him, but then, nothing was what it seemed anymore.
“Thanks,” she said uncomfortably. She still wasn’t sure whether or not she could trust him with the fact that she didn’t have any memories. She thought it might be better to keep that a secret. However, he had kept her safe and warm, and now was even making her something to eat. Maybe she could trust him. She sighed heavily, but he didn’t seem to notice. He was very focused on stirring whatever was in the pot that he had over the fire.
“Where did you get that pot?” she asked.
“Oh, I keep it in my bag. It’s retractable. I can fold it kind of and make it small. I’ll show you later.”
“What kind of magic is that?” she asked, legitimately stupefied.
He laughed heartily until he realized that she was being serious. The smile fell from his face and he shook his head, squinting at her as if she were a foreign species.
“You’re not serious?” he asked. “Are you Amish or something?”
“Amish?” she asked. Nothing that he was saying was making any sense to her.
“You know, the people who don’t believe in technology and fancy gadgets beyond buttons?”
She shook her head, genuinely clueless.
“What? Where are you from anyway?”
“I…” Her eyes filled with tears. She didn’t know.
“Look, I’m sorry that I made fun of you,” he said awkwardly, scratching himself on the chin. “You don’t have to cry about it, though. It was just a bad joke.”
“I don’t understand any of your jokes,” she said, her purple eyes dark with sadness and pain. “I don’t even know who I am. All I know is my name but I can’t remember anything else. I don’t know who you are, I don’t know who the men who were after me are, and I don’t know why these trees smell and look so funny. Nothing makes sense. And I’m sorry, but I don’t know what Amishes are either.”
He watched her seriously, and then chuckled.
“You mean you lost your memory then?” he asked.
She nodded. That was what was going on, whether she liked it or not. Maybe if he was still going to help her, it would be better if he knew the truth.
“That’s rough,” he said. “I’ve heard of things like that happening before, and it’s usually because of the Guardians. They really mess with your head. If they tortured you, sometimes you come out and don’t remember anything. We have a couple of people back home who have dealt with it before. Maybe you should talk to them. I bet they could help you figure out what’s going on.”
“Why would they tortured me?” she asked, furrowing her eyebrows. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
A sad look darkened Zaden’s face, and he looked down at the ground. The Guardians had been after the dragon shifters for centuries, and their only refuge had become the underground settlement led by the Kersh clan.
“No, nobody they tortured has ever done anything wrong. They’re just terrible people. They don’t always treat people who are different with a lot of respect. In fact, they usually try to kill us or dissect us like science experiments to see what they can learn.”
“That sounds awful, why would they do that?”
But here, Zaden stopped talking. She couldn’t remember anything, and he didn’t see any point in putting false memories into her head. What if she wasn’t a dragon shifter? It would be the biggest breach of trust that he could think of to the clan to unveil their secrets about shapeshifting to somebody who wouldn’t know or understand what he was talking about. Clayton would see him as a traitor, and that was something that he could not tolerate. The man had practically raised him and allowed him special treatment after the death of his parents. He would not betray their secrets, even to this beautiful woman.
“We traveled far last night, and I’m not exactly sure where we are,” Zaden admitted, avoiding the topic. “I have never been here before. And we are going to have to get back to my clan before the Guardians find you. I don’t know what they want with you or why they have chosen you. Their reasons are theirs alone. All that you need to know is that they are evil and they will hurt you if they find you unprotected. So we’re going to have to find our way back as soon as we can.”
She nodded, and he served breakfast. They ate in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts and worries about the future.