'House Dramaour... a nation? Surely it cannot be possible. Yet, why can I not find the common sense to believe that it isn't? Even after two years, Gil's words continue to persuade every fabric of me, but the fear remains.'
'I can no longer pray to the Twelve on his behalf, but I suspect that I do not need to. He is a marvel in every way. He amazes us without end. Yesterday he even asked his father to have Maximus start teaching him weaponry. Just before his first birthday, when the young talents arrived, it looked like he wanted to challenge them, so I wasn't surprised.'
'Logan insisted he was too young for that, but, well- you know how Gilgamesh can be. Him and his father bickered about it until it was decided that Gilgamesh could train with any weapon he could lift, and among them he decided to start his training with the bow and arrow. Maximus is in the yard with him right now, setting up practice dummies. Logan and I are putting things in place for the farming initiative, and have only just sent out a large group of people toward the mainland.'
'I do not know how he will do it, but Gilgamesh's plan cannot fail. I just know it. Perhaps it is the blind faith I have in him, as his mother, or maybe it is the manner in which he carries about himself. Such pride and confidence in himself- I wonder where it comes from. It is far too natural to be an act.'
'It makes me wonder about his past life. I should ask him about it sometime.'
Angelica Dramaour's Thoughts As She Sits On The Veranda|
"That's right. Use your back muscles- er, if you have any." Maximus stood tall in the sun, next to a young boy with strange two-colored hair; black and white. It grew in such a way that it did not fall down, but instead remained poised upward like miniature mountains made of hair. His silver eyes remained focused on the dummy in front of him, and his hands held his weapons expertly.
With a breath, he loosed an arrow that struck the dummy's chest, then started breathing heavily.
"Excellent," Maximus praised, but the boy was not pleased.
"I'm trying again," Gilgamesh said, not even acknowledging Maximus' praise. Maximus paused for a moment before nodding, then stood off to the side again.
The next arrow struck the dummy in the chest yet again, just left of where the first did. The third struck a bit more to the right, and the fourth struck the throat.
Gilgamesh was panting at this point, momentarily unsure of why he was so weak.
"You are superbly talented, Young Master." Maximus retrieved the arrows then took the bow from Gilgamesh's hands. He walked out of the yard and into the cool shade, then some spectating servants brought refreshments and a blanket to spread on the grass.
"Perhaps, but I'm very weak. I chose the bow and arrow because I thought it wouldn't require much of me, physically. It seems I was wrong to assume so."
Maximus laughed nervously. He had yet to grow used to the young child's incredible vocabulary and flawless pronunciation. It was almost as if he hadn't just started speaking after his third birthday.
"As time passes you'll get used to it. Also, you're a lot stronger than children your age. Once you're a bit older, you can do some simple training exercises to build some muscle in all the right places. I'll show you how when the time comes."
"Let's do it right now."
Instantly, Maximus regretted suggesting what he had.
So it was that they started Gilgamesh's strength training, despite him being three years old.
Maximus' regimen was actually just basic calisthenics, but with some adjustments for Gilgamesh's sake. Though Gilgamesh was adamant on doing it, Maximus did not want to injure the Master and Mistress' only child.
This would continue for quite some time- months actually- but to Gilgamesh it felt like a few hours had gone by.
It was the year of his fourth birthday when he was finally satisfied with his bow and arrow skills. Though he did use a much smaller version of them, it was still a lethal weapon in his hands now.
He was more or less happy with what he had accomplished, but something recently started bothering him.
During his training, he had glimpsed a fraction of a memory for a split second, then lost it just as fast. No matter how hard he tried to recall it, it would not return. He thought that more training would bring it back to him, but that did not help him at all.
Maximus could tell that something was bothering him, though it definitely wasn't bothering him enough to affect his focus. Seeing that, he did not bother inquiring. If Gilgamesh wanted to bring it up, he would.
As Gilgamesh was displaying his mastery of the bow and arrow for his parents, he brought it up to all three of them.
"Mother, Father, Maximus, I have a question."
They each looked at him, hiding all traces of shock from their faces. It was far too rare a thing: Gilgamesh asking questions. They almost couldn't believe what they were hearing.
"What is it, Gil?" Logan asked. Maximus and Angelica gave him a look, almost like they were saying, 'Good luck answering! We'll help you however we can.'
"If there's something you can't remember no matter how hard you try, but it's there lingering at the back of your head anyway, what's the best way to help yourself remember?" Gilgamesh was genuinely asking them a question he could not answer himself, and so his facial expression was a bit awkward.
He himself was not used to it.
Logan felt awash with relief and gave a surreptitious thumbs up to Angelica and Maximus, then cleared his throat.
"I've heard of Elders of the Church who would spend a certain amount of time in meditation, daily. They say that this helped reduce the effects of age on their minds, and also helped those that suffered memory loss. You could give that a try." Gilgamesh thought about it for a while with a blank expression, before he nodded and expressed his thanks.
He fell into thought and frowned, then walked away from them and went off on his own.
"He's simply brilliant," Maximus gave his assessment once Gilgamesh was out of earshot.
"Unbelievably."
Angelica smiled at their words, a sense of pride rising in her that she could not fight. After all, despite everything, Gilgamesh was still her son.
"I saw him in the library the other day, reading an old history book. Before the day was out, he had finished that book along with three others." Logan said this as he stared at the dummy that Gilgamesh had been shooting at.
There were three arrows buried deep in its head and chest, and one arrow around where the heart would be.
"He is a marvel. The Twelve must have big plans for your boy." Maximus gave Logan a heavy pat on the shoulder, smiled to Angelica and walked away. The couple shared a glance, then shook their heads.
Gilgamesh had retired to his room and was sitting on the floor, just in front of the window. A cool breeze blew into the room, and his curtains fluttered in the silence.
He shut his eyes and tried to slow his breathing as much as he could. The very moment that Logan brought up meditation, Gilgamesh got an instinctive feeling of affirmation.
He wasn't sure he had ever meditated before, but it seemed to come to him naturally. His mind calmed and he begun to relax, drifting off into his own spirit in search of something. That lingering feeling poking his brain was still there, and he wanted to know what it was. He wanted to know what more there was to his memory.
He knew his name was Gilgamesh. He knew that he might have been a king long ago, and that he had rich experience with weaponry. He thought that nothing else in his memory would hold much weight, but he was wrong.
There were important things that he was failing to recall.
As numb as he already was to the passage of time, he felt it even less thanks to his meditative state. It was already late into the night when he finally felt something, and he was given his first revelation...
He saw himself, alone, in a great forest of cedars. The area he stood in was razed to the grown, and a huge number of the massive cedars were utterly destroyed. Clearly, there had been a great battle here.
He looked nothing like himself- the way he was now- and was also a fully grown adult. His hair was a bright, almost golden blonde, and he was dressed in mighty armor that glowed with the matchlessness of starlight. With an axe in hand, he looked forward at something with his bright red eyes. At one point, those eyes were filled with rage and he shouted, then at other times his eyes narrowed and he seemed sympathetic.
Gilgamesh was at a loss, but the more he saw the more he remembered, until suddenly the image widened and showed him what lay before his past self in the forest.
It was a magnificent monster, larger than any beast that had ever walked the earth. A single layer of mystical light shimmered on the surface of its mighty body, but the light was slowly getting dimmer as time went by. Its face seemed to be a mess of numerous fleshy organs writhing nonstop, making the monster appear incredibly frightening.
Finally, Gilgamesh saw his past self step forward and swing his axe, ending the monster's life in an instant.
Gilgamesh opened his eyes and returned to the real world, ending this period of meditation. As he woke, he subconsciously uttered words without thinking.
"Humbaba... Servant of Enlil..."
As what he had said dawned on him, even more memories flooded his mind regarding the images he had seen. Soon enough, he understood everything and was able to completely recall that time in his past life, though anything unrelated remained foggy. A small smile crept onto his exasperated face and he spoke another word.
"Enkidu."
Seeing that meditation had indeed helped him, Gilgamesh wasted no time. He calmed himself and prepared to enter a meditative state yet again, determined to dredge up every last one of his repressed memories.
The next day, a maid came into his room and saw him on the floor. She took him up, admonishing his actions and telling him that he should go to bed if he was tired. She thought he was asleep, and put him in his crib.
In truth, Gilgamesh was experiencing one memory after the next, and steadily regaining all the knowledge he had lost. Angelica visited his room after hearing that he was still sound asleep, and was worried about him up until Logan told her that he was fine.
He did not know how, but Gilgamesh had managed to enter a true meditative state. Logan told the staff that he and Angelica would see to Gilgamesh, and that he was not to be disturbed until they said otherwise.
Like this, Gilgamesh could get as much time as he needed.
As for Logan and Angelica, they were busy putting things in place for the future. It would not be long before the first group of people they sent out returned. They needed to take stock of the items that came in, and also assign land and resources to the appropriate parties. Those with farming experience would share their knowledge, and help produce a large number of small-scale farms.
They did not know how much time they had before Prince Heka started setting his plan into motion, so they had to make every minute count.
A team of their most trusted aides left for a survey of the entire Eastern Province, noting anything that could be even remotely useful to them. Lakes, groves, waterfalls, orchards- everything. Even notably talented children attending the few minor educational facilities were noted.
Following Gilgamesh's plan, and improvising where he needed to, Logan felt like it was actually possible for things to take the next step. In his study with him, Angelica put a hand on his cheek and stared up at him warmly.
"Twelve years, Angelica. Gilgamesh said that to me the same day he told us about building a nation. He said that in twelve years we would become the mightiest power in the world. Can you even believe such a thing?"
Logan's wife giggled and he pulled her close. Angelica's smile was the brightest it had ever been, he thought.
"If Gilgamesh says so, then of course I believe him. I'm his mother, you know."
Logan laughed and looked down at her before planting a kiss on her forehead.