As far as the eye could see, rolling hills, clumps of trees. Shadows passed over the open landscape as the wind chased clouds across the blue sky; Guts could feel the sun on his face where he stood at the open window. He closed his eyes a moment, took a deep breath: he felt calm, yet exhilarated, as though something momentous was just beginning; something he had been working towards his whole life. It had all been a prelude; now the real work, the real i living /i , could begin.

"Admiring the view?"

Guts lingered a moment before turning. "Yeah." He looked around, seeing the finery of the castle's interior – tapestries, well-crafted furniture; an enormous sword, in a bracket on the wall.

Griffith crossed the room to join him at the window. "Magnificent, isn't it." His voice was quiet, almost... reverent as he gazed out over the open countryside.

Guts watched Griffith in profile: his expression was beatific, the sun gave him a radiance.

Griffith turned, saw Guts looking; he smiled, and Guts shifted his gaze.

"So, what do we do now?" Guts looked about him; the castle was theirs for the keeping. A base. It was like nothing Guts had ever known before. Solid walls, fires in fireplaces, any food he wanted; and the land that surrounded it, he had a place in that, too. At Griffith's right hand; the second in command over the entire kingdom.

He felt a hand, light on his shoulder; turned to look at Griffith once again, seeing that shining smile still there.

"Nothing. Nothing more. You've done enough for me." The hand moved subtly to Guts' neck, the thumb just barely brushing his cheek... "My truest friend."

And at that moment, Guts began to feel some thoughts sliding into place, and the beautiful, fulfilled, i complete /i feeling he had had beginning to fragment into empty, lonely blackness. He desperately tried to cling on, but he knew it was too late. A voice in his head told him he was alone, and he was.

Guts woke up cold, breathing hard, uncomfortable on the rocky ground; and when he thought of that feeling he'd experienced, for just those few brief moments, he was overcome with a bitter, bitter disappointment that pained him in every fibre of his being.