Hakuno awoke the next morning very confused. Where in the world was she? The room was large, bigger than the caravan which she spent most of her life but about the same size as the room she had shared with the other slaves. Only, it was just her. The bed was plush with pelts of who knows what. There was a chest for clothes but she had nothing but her one dress.

She stretched her legs and savored with how much she could move them now. The area around her ankles was slightly raw but that would heal in time. She gently touched the spots and sighed. If only Ekur did not see the injury. Then she would not have to worry about this.

Getting to her feet, she padded over to the window and peered out. The sun was beginning to rise and it cast a warm glow over the city of Uruk. A part of her wondered if Gilgamesh had given her this room on purpose. The view was beautiful.

"Hello?"

Hakuno turned in surprise at the voice. "Shub? What are you doing here?"

Her friend was holding a tray of food in her hand and she had a wide smile on her face. "Oh! It's you Hakuno. Oh Sin! Your shackles are gone! It is true then! I would hug you but…hang on!" Shub dropped the tray on a small table near the door before she ran over and swept Hakuno up in a huge hug. "I am so happy for you!"

Hakuno took a few steps back in surprise by the addition of her friend's weight. "What are you doing here Shub?"

"I got reassigned." Shub released her and took a few steps back. "Apparently the King himself went to Paubi and requested it himself. My job is to now take care of you! Can I just call you Hakuno or should I go with 'master' or something else?"

This was weird to say in the least. She shook her head. "Just go with Hakuno please Shub." She grasped her friend's hand in her own. "We are friends. I cannot picture you serving me and whatnot. Plus I was a slave a day before just like you." She wished she could do something more for Shub but unlike her, Shub had the brand on her skin.

"Anyway, it is time for you to eat." Shub gestured to the bowl of food she had left by the door. "You are meeting baru Ekur in one of the old back rooms right? To look at the library? Will you be needing me there as well in case you need anything?"

Hakuno shook her head as she sat on her bed and accepted the bowl of grain porridge. A simple breakfast, not something someone of her current status level should be eating. However, she remembered from certain texts that going to a richer diet suddenly can make one sick. "I will be fine for my work Shub. However…what happened yesterday? With…him."

She shivered. She could still picture his disgusting hands on her. That was something that was not going away any time soon. After she had been taken to the blacksmith and had the shackles removed she was moved into to her new room. After exploring it, she had fallen asleep.

Shub sat cross-legged on Hakuno's bed. "Wow. This is comfy!" She pushed her hair behind her ear. "Well, last night, under the light of the moon, under the light of Sin, himself, the King had Nanam killed. I do not know if he did it himself but he was there."

"This is going to cause so many problems with Nippur," sighed Hakuno. Gilgamesh could be so rash sometimes. Although she agreed that he deserved it from what he had done to the various female slaves of this household.

But I am happy the King took care of him," sighed Shub. She grinned at Hakuno. "He really cares for you. It is a surprise really. Usually he takes a woman he has an interest to his chambers for a night but that is it. He has not taken anyone since you came here so it has to mean…" She trailed off when she noticed the wide-eyed, blushing look on Hakuno's face. "Oh…sorry."

Hakuno shook her head. "No…no. That is the truth. You do not need to hide the truth from me." She heard of the stories from the other slaves of what Gilgamesh was like. She even thought that was the reason she was forced to live in the palace in the first place. Besides that one hug she had gotten yesterday, he had done nothing vulgar to her. He had fought for her as well and had a man killed for her as a result. On that note, he had even raised her standing in this kingdom as well. What was she to him?

The logic behind this was unreasonable. She shook her head. There was no point in thinking about it now. "I need to get going." She handed the bowl to Shub. "I am sorry but I need to head for the back rooms. Ekur gets cranky when he is unable to start right away."

"What do you want me to do Hakuno?"

Hakuno shrugged. "I am sorry but I do not have anything else for you to do really."

"That is alright." Shub got up. "I can go work in the gardens. I do enjoy working there. I will find you for your lunch, alright?"

Hakuno nodded and got up herself. She was going to have to get going if she was going to get there before Ekur threw a fit.

Gilgamesh walked out of the audience chamber with a headache forming in his temples. The final negotiations were over and all of the ambassadors would be heading home. Everything went well, well, except for the negotiations with Nippur of course. Where that problem was going to end up, Gilgamesh had no idea but he knew it would result in many, many headaches for him. He could already hear the comments of the nobles in relation to this.

Oh well. It was not like Uruk was a weak kingdom. If it came down to war, he would be on the front lines fighting along his men. However, for now all he wanted to do was take a horse and ride out into the sunset. He smirked at the thought. Oh, how romantic would that be if anyone but him did it.

"Bring my horse out front," he ordered to a slave passing by him.

The slave bowed low to the King before he scurried off to do as he was told. Gilgamesh headed back to his room and got changed into a simpler outfit but he left the amulet necklace on that branded him as the King. As he walked down the hall towards the front gate, he noticed Hakuno coming out of her room with a tablet clutched tightly in her hands.

"Oh hello," she said when she noticed him standing there. She tilted her head to the side slightly. "What are you doing here Gil?"

A grin formed on his lips as a thought crossed his mind. Why should he have to travel out alone when he could have company? "You are coming with me Hakuno."

"Uh…what?" She blinked slowly and stared at him.

"I am heading down to the river and you will be joining me." He walked over to her side and plucked the tablets out of her hand. It was a tablet about a princess praying to Ishtar or something like that.

"Give that back!" She stood on her tiptoes as she tried to reach the tablet that Gilgamesh now held over his head. "Gil, Ekur is waiting for me. He wants me to give him that text so can you please give it back?"

"No," huffed Gilgamesh. Really now. She should be delighted with the chance that she would get to spend some alone time with him!

She plopped down to her usual height and let out a deep sigh. "You can be such a child sometimes."

Him!? A child!? He put a hand under her chin and forced her to look up at him. Those brown eyes of her were gazing back at him in defiance, like always. He leaned in close to her face. "I am not a child," he growled. Being this close to her, he was aware of her slow steady breathes as she continued to stare up at him. He was also aware of the curve of the dress as it went down to-

"Oh."

Hearing a new voice, Gilgamesh jerked his head back and noticed a slave girl standing in the doorway of Hakuno's room with a few tablets in her hands. Well, this was perfect. "Here," said the King as he dropped the tablet into the girl's hands. "Take them to Ekur. And tell him I will be borrowing Hakuno for a while."

"Really now?" Hakuno crossed her arms. "Do I really need to go stave off your boredom with you right now? We were in the middle of translating-"

"Please stop. This bores me." He put an arm around her shoulders and began leading her to the entrance. "Come. Let us go."

"Alright, alright. I can see nothing I say will deter you." She leaned her head back to make eye contact with her personal slave. "Take those to Ekur and tell him where I have gone. I will be back as soon as possible."

"Yes Hakuno," replied the girl before she scurried off.

"She is allowed to refer to you by name?"

"Of course," she replied like it was the silliest question in the world. "We were slaves together. We were friends then so it is silly to have her refer to me as her "master" or whatnot."

What a unique girl she was. Gilgamesh had seen people go up in rank and then cast away the people they had known below them. Not her. She was unique in that regard.

"My horse should be waiting for me at the front gate."

"Wait…we are going to ride a horse together!?"

Hakuno had never ridden a horse before. She had ridden an ox and a buffalo when she was younger and she had ridden in the back of a cart but that was the extent of her riding. A horse was something else entirely. Only the noble class could afford to buy one of the beautiful Arabian horses.

She would say that was an experience she did not want to go through again.

She sat in front of Gilgamesh and had her eyes shut the whole time, her hands gripping the mane of the horse tightly. They could not have gotten there faster. The best moment was when Gilgamesh helped her down from the horse.

"I never thought you would be scared of a horse!" he laughed as he gave the horse a pat on the neck. "I thought you would want to examine it or relate to how a deity rides one."

"I would in theory." She stood up and ran her fingers through her hair. Her stomach was finally starting to settle. For now she did not want to think of the ride back to Uruk. To avoid thinking of that, she focused her attention on the Euphrates. The river was beautiful. The setting sun was playing colors on the water. She had seen it from far away and she had traveled on it on boats but it was something else to see it on the shoreline.

"What do you think?" He came up behind her.

"It is beautiful," she replied. "I have read poems that describe the Euphrates in a beautiful sense, with Enki being the provider and whatnot but actually seeing it in person in that one is something completely different."

He walked past her and kicked off his shoes before he stepped into the river. Hakuno checked the ground around her for stray bugs before she sat down. He turned around to look at her.

"Are you not coming in?"

Hakuno shook her head. "It is alright. I am fine here."

Gilgamesh frowned and walked out of the water and over to her. "What do you mean? One does not get to swim in the Euphrates very often."

She shook her head. "No…it is alright."

Frowning, Gilgamesh bent down and scooped her up in his arms.

A wave of panic rose up within her. "What are you doing?!" she screamed.

"Letting you have some fun!" he laughed.

He had waded into the water by this point. "Come on Hakuno. Time for you to have some fun."

Hakuno did not care about having fun. She wanted to struggle out of his grip but she was afraid of the water that went up to his waist. So, instead she threw her arms around his neck and kept her grip tight. "Do you not dare drop me!" she whispered into his shoulder.

She felt Gilgamesh stiffen under her and she felt him walk, the sound of the water moving roaring in her ears.

"I am out of the water now. I am going to put you down."

She released him as he put her down on the bank of the river. "I am sorry," She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them and tried to steady her panicked breath.

"Is something wrong?" He settled down next to her. "Why are you afraid of water?"

She shook her head. "No…it is not like I am afraid of water per say. I can cross it and what not…" She began running her finger through the dirt. "It is just that I…I…"

"Come on and spit it out already!" he snapped.

"I cannot swim!"

"Oh," he said in surprise. "Well that makes sense. You were traveling and you did not have the time to learn how to swim. That is nothing to be ashamed of." He laughed. "But still. Your reaction was still pretty extreme I would say."

She turned to look at him. Of course he would not understand how bad this was for her. She smiled sadly at him. "It…it was not like that…"

Gilgamesh's laughter turned into a frown. "What?"

"It…it is nothing. Forget about it."

"You cannot start and then not continue!" he snapped. "What was the reason!?"

She winced at the sound of his voice. Of course. She should have not brought it up. He would react in this way and she knew he would. There was no point in hiding it now though, not like it was much to hide. "It is not a huge deal. It was back when I was a child. A bunch of children, myself included were playing by a river, I cannot remember which one. One of the children was an older boy. He was very mean, always bullying us younger children.

"He ended up pushing me into the river. It was not very deep, with my height now but as a child I was scared out of my mind. The adults were not around and he was the oldest boy there and he just watched on the shore." She shrugged. "To make matters short, I almost drowned until one of the adults noticed and saved me."

Gilgamesh was silent. She glanced over and saw that his hands were curled into fists and his eyes were flashing in anger. Typical Gilgamesh. "Do not get angry over it," she sighed. "It was long ago. I do not remember the boy's face. Plus I am not afraid of water because of it. Just afraid of swimming. I can handle shallow water but the Euphrates, I know, gets deeper further in…"

"If I could get my hands on that boy…" he growled.

"Please calm down Gil," she sighed. She ran her fingers through her hair. Why did he have to be such a child most of the time? It had happened long ago! She never had to worry about rivers usually at all. "It is not something that is hampering me in any way."

"But you cannot enjoy the Euphrates with me!" he protested.

She let out another long sigh. And of course he would relate it back to himself. He never stopped thinking of himself, did he? But maybe that was what she needed right now to stop thinking these sad thoughts. "You can go into the water Gil. I will stay here on the shore and watch. This is more enjoyable for me." She pointed to the tall reeds growing on the bank of the river. "Do you see those plants there? They were used in a text about-"

"Do not say another word." He put a hand over her mouth. "I did not bring you out here in order to babble nonsense."

"Then why did you bring me out here? Obviously I am pretty boring when it is not directly related to my knowledge and ability to translate texts from multiple languages."

"You are an infuriating woman." He ran his fingers through his hair and stood up. "However, that is what makes you very interesting at the same time."

The light of the setting sun seemed to cast a halo around him. It gave Gilgamesh a very unearthly quality to him. Like he was some sort of god.

She blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes. Nonsense. She scoffed at the thought. Gilgamesh was a man like everyone else.

"Let us return." He walked over to his horse and patted it on the neck a few times. "I know Ishne is going to throw a fit when we get back. He is always telling me to take guards with me when I leave the city."

She tightened her hands into fists. She knew the only reason why he was suggesting this was through his knowledge of her inability to swim. "Really Gil, if you would like to swim, that is alright with me. You wanted to come here to escape the palace and to relax correct?" She shrugged. "I do not mind. There is still some time before the sun sets." Plus she wanted a little more time to settle her stomach before she needed to ride that underworld beast again.

At first she thought he was going to deny it but Gilgamesh dropped the reins and walked back over to her. "As you wish, we may stay here a little longer."