Andrew had always admired Gil. The other boy played in the haunted forest, chose his own name, and was always sooo strong in the face of the strange looks he got for his different features, especially his yellow eyes. As he grew though, Andrew blended in with the other children his age, shunning the different one while secretly admiring him still.

Sometimes he would work up the nerve to try to talk to Gil, but then when he approached him his mouth would go dry and he couldn't manage much after "Hi."

Gil was always polite when he answered, but there was never anything to follow the greeting.

The only time he manages to say something other than "hi," is after the outsiders who had come to hurt Gil's little brother are found dead by the guardian's hand.

"You know the old stories; do you think they're real and the guardian got those people? Have you ever seen the guardian? You've been to the forest a lot." He shuts up abruptly, realizing he was babbling.

"I've never seen the guardian… but one winter night… I saw something… I think there really is one."

"Aren't you scared of the deep forest, after what happened to those men?"

Yellow eyes grow distant. "No."

Andrew gulps, watching Gil leave. That had been a strange conversation. And had he always been so tall?

He realizes he wished he could have been friends with Gil when Gil's home burns down, a year after that conversation. Everyone, except for the small children, had streamed to the fire to put it out before it spread, and as he stares at the glowing embers, he abruptly realizes that this means that Gil and his brother are probably dead, since no one had seen them. He wonders if anyone knows how to find their sister, and tell her about this so she won't come back to it.

He is in the apple orchard, picking fruit high in a tree before it can be blown off in the oncoming storm, when he hears voices from the forest. As he turns, he loses his grip on an apple in surprise. It thuds softly against the ground, and he continues to stare at the trees, and the moving thing in the treetops.

The first thing he sees is the ears, and it takes him a moment to realize what they are. Then it hits him like lighting. Rabbit ears. The tops of rabbit ears, and then the creature's head emerges from the edge of the trees, and it is with amazement and fear that he realizes that this is the forest guardian and just clings to the branches, staring at the giant rabbit he used to think was a story.

"Hey Andy, don't just sit there day…" Eustace's voice trails off and Andrew guesses he just spotted the giant rabbit. "That's… the guardian… isn't it?"

It's not really a question. He nods anyway.

"What's that next to it?"

Huh. Next to it? He looks again, and almost falls out of the apple tree. There is a figure walking by the rabbit's side, and it's a familiar one. "Gil?"

"Is that him, or his ghost?" Eustace asks next to him.

"…It's wearing a coat." Andrew realizes. "The stories never mentioned that." The figures pause. Gil reaches up as the rabbit crouches, then Gil carefully lifts something off its back. Was that his little brother? Was the guardian letting someone ride?

"They're alive!" Andrew doesn't know which of them said it.

Gil looks up, as if he heard the exclamation.

Muttering breaks out as Andrew climbs down, and he realizes that another five or six people have gathered by now.

"Our apologies for intrusions upon your forest, Great One." Patrick the Infuriating says. What's he doing in the apple orchard? "The lowlifes of this town simply don't listen to reasonable people about your privacy." He looks at Gil.

"I know. I dealt with them. They attacked my friend." The earth practically shakes when the creature speaks, and Andrew can feel his teeth rattle. And as the being said friend, it had looked at Gil.

Andrew is speaking before he realizes he is saying it aloud, "Gil! I thought you said you'd never seen the guardian! And you're friends?"

"I didn't know I knew him," he shifts the sleeping child uncomfortably.

How could Gil not know he knows the Guardian? It's a giant rabbit and they act like they've known each other forever, but how can he have known the guardian forever without noticing that it's a rabbit? That shouldn't be an easy thing to miss.

Patrick (the Infuriating) ignores them. Andrew is ashamed to be related to him. "Great One, will you honor our home with your presence? There are many more worthy people—"

The rabbit seems to grow. "You insult my servant?" the words are a deep growl. Patrick the Infuriating steps back. The guardian rears up, and Andrew cowers with the rest. "Gil is my chosen servant and friend, and— "

"Oz!" Gil interrupts, "you'll wake him!" What is he thinking? Interrupting and scolding the guardian? Even if it likes him—

The giant rabbit looks sheepish. "Sorry." With an audible thud, the forepaws land on the ground again.

Gil might not have known if the guardian was real, but that apparently hadn't kept them from becoming close friends, Andrew realizes. And what Gil had said— is the guardian's name Oz?

"Come on. We need to make arrangements for tonight," Having said that, Gil began to walk toward the cluster of buildings. The guardian— Oz?—pads after him. After a moment of staring, Andrew and the others follow, apple harvest done.

"Arrangements for tonight?" Andrew asks, before he can think.

"It's going to rain, so he needs a roof," the guardian answers. Andrew jumps. The creature laughs.

As they reach the edge of the orchard, Gil stops. "Um, Oz."

"Yeah?" the giant rabbit looks down at him fondly. Oz? So that was it's? his? name. And now that Andrew thought about it, there was a definite he-ness to the rabbit.

"You said you'd stay with us, but you're…" Gil trails off.

"Too big?" Oz finishes. "That's not a problem. Trust me." He crouches. "Gil. Get on."

Did he just get smaller? Andrew wonders.

The answer is yes. The guardian had shrunk. So when he had seemed to grow after Patrick the Infuriating angered him, he had probably actually grown.

"But I'm just—"

"My friend," the rabbit growls.

"No. It's not right, you are—"

"Get on or I'll pick you up."

Gil pales and scrambles on awkwardly, juggling his sleeping brother, and looking like he's remembering something terrible.

Andrew hears startled murmuring behind them. He's surprised himself. What is the guardian doing?

"You all," Oz is slowly growing again, "get out of the way. Gil, hang on."

"Why? What are you doiiiiiiiiing?!" the words trail off into a yell as Andrew and the rest scramble out of the way. Oz had abruptly grown. And grown. And grown. Wasn't the problem that he was too big? How in the guardian's name— oops— was this supposed to help?

He realizes he'd said some of that aloud when the guardian answered. "Watch." Above, Gil says something, but Andrew can't make it out.

"Is he?" an ear twitches. The guardian leans down again, eyeing him speculatively. There is another yelp from Gil as the rabbit lowers his head. Andrew glimpses frantic motion where Gil sits before the great head lifts, the motions stop and there is another sheepish, "Sorry Gil."

He's bigger than the four biggest houses in town together! Wait… is that it?

A paw lifts, and Andrew realizes that it looks kind of like a hand, as Oz simply steps over the buildings.

Then the other paw follows it. Then Andrew realizes where the guardian is carefully pacing, and takes off at a dead run for the main square. The rest follow.

As he arrives, panting, everyone who hadn't had orchard duty is either scrambling out or already standing around the edges of the square gawking, and Oz is shrinking once again, while apparently arguing with Gil.

"I was careful!" he protests. "I made sure not to step on anything and I didn't hurt anyone."

Gil says something loudly. Oz's ears flatten. "I did warn you!"

Gil's response is somewhat clearer, but Andrew still can't tell what he was saying. Oz is now only half as large as he had been, but still bigger than when Andrew had seen his ears above the trees.

"I'm not!"

Gil's answer is loud, almost clear, and something about growing up.

"Hey! I have so! And stop shouting in my ear. Weren't you the one worried about waking your brother?"

Silence. Andrew sees the ears cautiously lift. Gil is plainly visible now, and Andrew doesn't have to crane his head back as far to see him.

"—well if you'd behave in a reasonable fashion I wouldn't have to."

"I'm perfectly reasonable," the rabbit answers.

Andrew is once again stunned.

Oz crouches, and Gil carefully climbs down, then reaches up for his brother. Once again holding the child, he and Oz look at each other, and then the great rabbit says, "Go on. Arrange for that roof. Then come get me. I don't want to get smaller yet."

Gil nods. Andrew remembers to shut his mouth. Patrick the non-infuriating innkeeper, respected person, and unfortunate uncle to Patrick the Infuriating, and Andrew, speaks up. "I have room. There's deer on the spit, and I guarantee peace during the night," here he casts a warning glance over the crowd of onlookers, focusing on Patrick the Infuriating.

Gil nods again.

"Thank you."

The rain begins to fall.

A few minutes later, everyone has invaded the dining room at the inn, with the shrunken guardian and Gil occupying the place of honor closest to the fire. Andrew had barely made it near the front of the crowd, and everyone is bombarding them with questions. Andrew can only make out some of them:

"How'd you get away?"

"What happened?"

"How long have you known the guardian?"

"Why didn't you come back sooner?"

"What are you going to do now?"

"How'd you meet the guardian?"

Gil ignores these questions, eating in a way that suggests that, one: he is very glad for the food, and two: he expects someone to snatch it away at any moment.

"He almost fell in the stream and I helped him," the black rabbit the size of a cat answers, from where he is sprawled over Gil's shoulders, giving anyone who considered sitting next to Gil on the bench second thoughts. "And I've known him for thirty four years."

Silence falls, except for the storm outside. Puzzled looks abound, even on Gil himself. The only ones who don't seem puzzled are the rabbit and Gil's younger brother, (what was his name) who continues to eat as if he too were afraid someone would steal the food.

"But he's only seventeen," ventures Patrick the Infuriating, after a moment.

"I know. And he's known me for fifteen years. We met when he was nine."

More silence follows the guardian's words.

Andrew wonders if for all its power, the great rabbit counted time differently.

"Oz, what—"

At that point his brother's face falls to the table with a thunk.

"It looks like someone needs to go to bed," the guardian says cheerfully.

He wonders if there were ever a time it wasn't cheerful. It seems nice. Then he remembers the feel of the forest, and shudders. Between that and the death of those who trespass there, is this kindness a mask? It doesn't feel like one. Still… he speaks up. "We believed that you would kill any who trespassed in your woods. Were we mistaken?"

The great rabbit leaps down from Gil's shoulders, growing as it does, and it's a rabbit the size of a medium sized dog that lands on the bench.

"It takes more than trespassing to make me kill. I kill those who would harm what is mine."

Gil had stood during the guardian's answer, scooped up his brother, and now stood leaning awkwardly against the wall.

Thunder cracks outside.

The rabbit moves to Gil's side. Then it focuses glowing red eyes back at Patrick the innkeeper. "Beds? My servant needs sleep, too."

"Beds, right. Uh, this way." Patrick complies.

Gil relaxes once they are alone, and his memories stop conflicting on how he should react. Alone with Oz and Vincent, (and how had that happened that they were still brothers?) he was simply Gil, Oz's servant and friend. Upon their return he'd found his fresher memories conflicting with his new-old memories, and the awkwardness of it had made him freeze in a way he hadn't since he met Oz the first time. And then there was what Oz had said. He pulls the blanket over the sleeping Vincent and turns back to Oz, who had stretched back into human shape once the door was shut. "Oz?"

"Yeah?"

"What did you mean, thirty four years? Even with this cycle and the last, it would only come to fourteen years."

And Oz smiles at him, but there is an undercurrent of sorrow in his green eyes, belying the light tone as he answers, "Silly Gil. Do you really think this is the first time you've come back and I found you? The cycle has turned four times since then."

Gil feels so many questions well up at that, questions like 'why don't I remember those lives', and 'why do I remember being me now' and most importantly, 'did I remember then, or were you alone?' but he doesn't ask any of them. He can't, not when Oz is looking at him like that, and there is a gleam in his eyes that Gil knows from Before, from when Xai took him away after saying those awful things, and Oscar brought them back together, but something in Oz had broken. Gil remembers ten years without light. Ten long years of searching, waiting, and hoping, living a half-life only sustained by the slim chance that Oz (sun, light of the world) could be saved. (Oz is everything). He remembers how long and empty those years were, and thinks about how long those four hundred years must have been, and shudders.

Andrew wakes to the smell of cooking. For a moment he wonders why he's waking to the smell of Uncle Patrick's cooking, and then yesterday comes flooding back to him.

As he grabs some of yesterday's bread, Patrick the innkeeper looks at him. "Are you going back to the orchard?"

Andrew shakes his head. "Can I stay and help?"

"All right. Just make yourself useful." Patrick says, giving him this look.

"I could go ask what they want for breakfast?" he means to offer but it comes out as a question, and Uncle Patrick the Innkeeper sighs.

"I said be useful. Pestering the guests is not useful, and the boy at least looked tired. Help me chop things for the lunch stew."

When uncle says something in that tone Andrew knows better than to argue.

An hour later everyone in the village who doesn't have to be elsewhere, like the baker and the farmers, has arrived in the dining room and are all clearly waiting for Gil and the guardian to appear.

After another hour no one is even bothering to pretend they aren't waiting for the guardian anymore, and it's getting awkward, when Andrew catches sight of Patrick(the Infuriating) sneaking up the stairs. Patrick (the innkeeper ) notices as well, and tells Patrick the infuriating to come down and not pester the guardian and his friend.

Patrick the Infuriating retorts that they've been up there forever. Others join in on his side, and most of the rest side with Uncle Patrick that they shouldn't bother the guardian and his servant. Andrew stays out of it, and fetches two buckets of water from the rain barrel. As Uncle Patrick grabs his namesake by the collar, Andrew takes aim, and throws the water over the two Patricks, and everyone near them. As they stop he aims the second bucket at the ones who weren't in range of his first splash, and pauses. Who's that? There isn't anyone that age that's blond. And beside him—

Andrew sets down the bucket very carefully, and Uncle Patrick notices Gil standing there, once again carrying his brother. But who's that with him?

His hair's a strange kind of straw color that isn't like the usual yellow, more in-between straw and dandelion petals, and Andrew's never seen anything like it before. Andrew's never seen him before either. Who is he?

Gil is eyeing them all with strange look when the stranger elbows him. He winces and asks for breakfast. As Uncle Patrick gets it, the strange boy claims a table for them, and the crowd draws back.

"Gil!" the stranger points at the bench imperiously and Gil hurries over to sit there .The stranger's grin is terrifying, and so is his aura. And Gil acts like this is familiar, a routine, and as if the strange boy told him to pick up one of his sister's three terrifying cats, he would. Given his sister's cats, the terrors of the village, Dinah especially known to scare Gil, this means a lot.

And why did something about the stranger seem familiar? Not that Andrew has ever seen him before, but it's like he's heard about someone who looks like that once.

"Andrew!" Uncle Patrick calls, and the thought vanishes. He scampers over to help with the food, and is glad to notice Patrick the Infuriating slink, dripping, out the door. "You take care of this for a bit." Uncle says, then leaves Andrew wondering what to do as Uncle Patrick heads for his rooms.

Andrew takes the trays and serves Gil, his brother, and the stranger, and carefully doesn't pester them, remembering what Uncle Patrick said about pestering.

The rest, however, will pester, he thinks. He stands by his second bucket of water. It will probably be needed.

Edgar, the second loudest person in the village, (the first is Patrick the Infuriating); looks like he means to approach the table and demand attention, notices Andrew with his bucket, and backs off.

The straw haired stranger grins appreciatively, with a thoughtful gleam in his eyes. Gil shudders visibly while eating. His little brother doesn't seem to notice anything and keeps eating like they had last night, as if they expect the food to be stolen at any moment.

"Thank you for chasing him off." The stranger says. "I wish I'd thought of water. It would have been so much help when certain people argued," his grin reappears, and this close Andrew can see why Gil had shuddered. There's something, sly, conniving and terrifying in it. "Don't you think so Gil?" the question is singsong, and Gil shudders again. Andrew sees Patrick the Innkeeper return as the youth continues more seriously. "This is good. I always did like what you and your uncle left for me. Thanks."

Silence slams down, as loud as last night's thunder. What did he say? What does he mean?

Wait. Andrew finally remembers what had been niggling at his thoughts earlier. Three years ago, Gil had asked if anyone knew… a boy who had strange yellow hair, looked about fifteen, and was named Oz!

And there was a thing. Leave food out for the guardian, otherwise supplies go missing. This way you could control what food went missing. But it was mostly a tribute thing, especially with the few who hunted Forests Edge. Andrew had helped Uncle Patrick the Innkeeper prepare for the once a month offerings.

"You're—"

There is again that smile.

"Oz, what do you mean?" Gil asks and Andrew feels his stomach sink through the floor. He'd been right. This is the guardian. This is terrifying.

He can tell others are making the same connection now that Gil has said the name Oz. And this explains how Gil didn't know he knew the guardian, if he knew him as a human until… recently?

The guardian, who apparently doesn't have to look like a rabbit, explains to Gil. Andrew misses most of it, but is paying attention again in time to hear Gil mutter something about how it never occurred to him to wonder what Oz ate.

Oz laughs. "I don't need to, anymore, but I like to."

The whole room seems brighter when he laughs. It gives Andrew courage to stutter, "Um, Lord Oz, Great Guardian…er…I'm sorry if … If I've ever offended you. I never meant to. I didn't know you were…." He trails off helplessly as sounds of startled realization and agreement echo through the crowd. He heard someone mutter about '..the infuriating not included…'Was that Eustace?

Gil looks astonished.

"Real?" finishes Oz.

Andrew's stomach falls through the floor again.

"Oz! That's not helpful! You're scaring him." Andrew doesn't recognize this forceful, confident Gil. When did he get like this? If he's been like this all along why has he always avoided everybody?

Uncle Patrick bustles forward. "He meant no harm or offense. My nephew is a good lad."

"None taken. Gil says he's something of a friend, and nobody but Gil had actually seen me and survived for decades, so no one could tell you if I were real or not."

Andrew is stunned. Gil told The Guardian that he, Andrew! Is a friend. Something of a friend, anyway. Still! He wasn't sure Gil even knew his name.

Uncle Patrick looks startled and the crowd murmurs in surprise.

Gil speaks up. "That's not all that comforting, either, Oz."

"Am I that scary? Nobody needed to see me, so they didn't." He looks around at the crowd and points to Eustace, and a couple others. "I saw you, though," he added thoughtfully.

This is fun. He'd been alone so long he'd forgotten what it was like to mess with people's heads. He remembers now though. It's fun. Even the faces Gil makes in frustration are amusing, and he realizes he's still kinda giddy over having his Gil finally remember him, after so long. He might be immortal, but it's still hard. At least his desperate move with the contract had worked. He could find his Gil. That is enough. His servant is his property, and his family, and these people were hard on what belonged to Oz. So he will enjoy messing with them no matter how much Gil sighs. But he'd gone overboard when he explained how long he had known Gil. That made Gil need to ask about what he'd meant, and he knows that someday Gil will want to know what happened in those three lives. And Oz will have to tell him. But for now, they need to find Gil's sister Alice, and then… who knows.

He stands. "Gil, we're leaving."

Gil jumps. "Oz what—?"

Just like before. Gil has an essential Gil-ishness, and that sort of thing is part of it. Oh, the memories that brings up. Clearly he needs to get Gil used to it. Gil needs practice not jumping, so Oz will give him practice.

"We need to find your sister, don't we?" He says, and realization dawns in Gils eyes. They'd talked about this during the week between Gil getting his memory back and now, and Oz wants to see Gil's sister, Alice, who names her cats Dinah, Snowdrop, and Kitty, and who knew Gil should be named Gil. He's noticed in his wandering, that certain groups of people have similarities to other groups he knew, and tend to come together over again.

He's never managed to forget finding Elliot as noblewoman served by a maid with violet eyes flecked with gold. Leo had been very frustrated. Oz had been relieved to find someone else who remembered, and traumatized by Elliot-the-woman. That was so wrong. Leo thought so too.

But since those who belong together seem to come together, he finds Gil's sister's resemblance to Ada, suspicious. He needs to see that she's safe, and so does Gil.

As Gil asks for supplies, Oz watches the crowd, and finally announces, "I'm leaving with him. Don't leave anything in my forest anymore. Hunting is allowed, but only as much as you already did. Do not dig near any holes, or you'll fall in caves. And no building in the forest. I'll probably come back someday, and I want my territory the same as I left it." He pauses, "and someone write to Alice and tell her we're alive and coming." In case something got in their way. Like Pandora people deciding that they had to attack the B-rabbit who would destroy things if left unchecked. Never mind that he saved the world, or that he wasn't like other chains, and didn't need a contract to exist in the world, but their reaction to him was to think he was his contractor and try to catch or kill him to banish B-rabbit back to the Abyss, and since he used his power to save Gil they will have felt it and begun to hunt him. He's pleased that no one connected the legend of a rabbit guardian to him, or found him after he used his power a year ago.

"And tell no one who came from outside that I'm real," he adds.

As the only home he'd known in this life fades into the sea of trees behind them, Gil feels light.

"Gil, are you still a Baskerville?" Oz asks abruptly.

Vincent is running ahead, exploring, and acting younger than Gil remembers him ever acting, even when he was that age last time. It's strange and nice.

"I don't know," he answers, thinking hard. Had he healed like he had last time? If he did then he should still be Baskerville. "Why?"

"I want a contract. But I won't turn you into an illegal contractor. So? Are you?"

He remembers that he still healed kind of fast, but those were all minor cuts and bruises anyway. But… he had no scars. Not from the time he caught a fishhook in his thumb and it was stuck there for two days, or from the deep scratches Dinah and Snowdrop left in his arms. So… maybe.

"I might be. But I think we'll have to wait and see."

So they traveled. They got into a few interesting adventures before they made it to Alice, and when they found her realized that she was once Ada, and their uncle had been Oscar. They heard familiar music and tracked it to a pair of pianists, one of whom was loud and brash, and the other went by Leo again, and greeted Oz and Gil with relief. They tangled with Pandora, and set up a deal to ensure they were left alone, and they found three daughters of a noble family, served by an odd but caring knight-in-training.

And those were not, perhaps, the ones they expected.

Oh the eldest daughter had a fan and knew how to use it, and the youngest was unfamiliar to them, but the middle daughter took a perverse joy in disturbing others by crunching candy at odd moments, and often met the wrong end of her elder sister's fan. Startlingly she was better with a sword than the knight, who loved meat, and still slept with a plush rabbit. Oz was not jealous. Not at all, really.

And it was there that they stayed, and Vincent developed feelings for the youngest daughter, and Gil fell out of a tree and broke his arm. When it healed within a week he was confirmed to be a Baskerville, and he and Oz remade their contract.

Fin.

(")_(")