Two days later, he hadn't gone out at all. The water from the broken bucket had run out a day ago. He was hungry and thirsty. So he went out with the bucket, on his way to get more water.
As soon as people noticed him, they turned away, except a few who spat on the ground or even at him.
He got to the well. While lowering the bucket, a kid threw a stone. It landed on his neck, bruising him and bouncing off. Then a man threw a stone, this time on his shoulder. It cut him. Blood came out, red blood with a tint of violet. Dragaba didn't react. He just took it until he finished filling his water bucket. Then he left. The people still looked at him with disgust.
He passed through the plaza and saw a woman who was saying, "I'm forgetting something... something important. I can't recall." Dragaba noticed a dark spot where a memory was meant to be. It wasn't the size of something you'd forget; it was something important. But he moved on. "Maybe her mind is just failing," he thought.
He went back to the hut. A rotten apple lay on the floor. Someone had put it there. Dragaba picked it up, inspected it, and ate it whole, even the badly rotten parts. He sat down, thought. He was tired. He reminisced about the past, about his power, his energy.
Dragaba noticed a change in the atmosphere. He went out again. He noticed a dark hole in many more people. He noticed a kid missing and a mother crying.
"My son... my son hasn't come back," said the mother.
"Which son? You don't have any," said a man.
"I... I don't have any? ... Oh, right," said the mother.
Dragaba noticed the kid missing. Something wasn't right. He suspected someone had disappeared and everyone forgot him.
While walking around hidden, Dragaba listened to a conversation in a bar.
"Have you seen... what was his name? Cata's companion," said a man.
"Which one, Adrian or Flox? How could you forget their names?" answered the bartender.
"No, no, I know them both. I mean the other... the other one...?" The man doubted. "Never mind, I'm tripping."
So Dragaba thought: indeed, something's wrong. People are disappearing and being forgotten. The kid and then... and so he doubted: "Wait, who else? Other than Adrian and Flox... who else? Am I being affected too?" Dragaba didn't remember that third man. And so he doubted: "Do the seals also affect my perceptions? But that can't be. I can feel the magic emanating from the people and from the forest. I can feel the light from Flox and Cata. Or is there someone so strong that they can hide their energy from me? That's not possible. I can notice even the strongest."
He went back to his hut, wet from the rain, his scales shining slightly — a dim glow that matched the unease in his chest. He couldn't perceive whether his being affected or not. Something is wrong.