“So where exactly do you come from? You don’t look like you’ve been born around here.”

  The question hit me like a slap to the face. How could I not have realized this earlier? No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t remember anything before I woke up falling.

  To be fair I have been pretty busy trying to survive until now…

  Helpless, I just stared in front of me thinking of a convincing answer as I felt a little tug on my sleeve.

  “You alright boy?”, the merchant asked and watched me curiously. “Perhaps you could just tell me your name if you don’t feel comfortable sharing your story with me?”

  All I could do was shrug and look as trustworthy as possible. What should I do if he suddenly decided I was too suspicious and threw me off the wagon? Then I would need to travel on foot again and from what he told me earlier the nearest town was more than one day on foot away!

  Just as I decided to tell him about my lack of memories and strange fall he murmured under his breath: “So you are a war orphan huh?”.

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  For the first time his friendly and cheerful demeanor gave way to something like pity and a deep sadness.

  War orphan? Wherever I was war was apparently a regular occurrence. Why did he look so concerned? Did he perhaps lose someone in this war?

  He patted my shoulder again. “Don’t worry boy. I won’t abandon you in this wilderness, but we will need to give you a name to call after all.”

  So, he wasn’t going to kick me off? Relieved I started to ponder. He was right. I did need a name. And since I could not remember my own…

  “Do you have a name in mind?”, I asked him. He lived in this land after all. If someone was able to give me name which didn’t immediately aroused suspicion, then it was him. It was as clear as day that he should name me!

  “Why should I decide that? It’s your name after all!”

  Dammit…

  He was right! But I didn’t know how people got named here and if I went with just a random name I could get into more trouble than I could handle.

  I couldn’t deal with much trouble to begin with…

  Seeing my hopeless face, he sighed and scratched his head.

  “If you insist then I will think of something. But don’t get angry if it doesn’t suit you!”

  Bravely I nodded. I was prepared for everything. Even the stupidest name could potentially save my life in this strange land. And perhaps I could earn trust more easily with an honest sounding name?

  I wanted every advantage I could get!

  “You’ll be Tristan!”, he decided and muttered to himself: “That was the name of my boy…” His face seemed to sink even further in as he recalled the memory of his now dead son.