Luddy didn't know it and Gilbert was never going to tell him, but he didn't exactly sleep till noon every day. He maybe sort of woke up just before dawn. Not for very long. Just… long enough. To see if Luddy was still there. Not that he was worried or anything. He was too awesome to get worried. He was too awesome to worry that maybe one day he would wake up and Luddy wouldn't be there anymore.

(How long had he been doing this? What day was it? Keh. Luddy would know. Gilbert wasn't going to ask him. It didn't matter anyway. Luddy was still there, hogging the bed like always. He was such a good big brother, letting Luddy share his bed.)

"Bruder! Wake up! Your breakfast will get cold!"

Grumbling, Gilbert dragged himself out of bed and into the only other room in the cabin. Luddy had his breakfast of eggs and venison all set out for him. Kesesese, what a good little servant. He plopped himself down in a chair.

"Sit up straight, Bruder."

Gilbert ignored him.

While Gilbert ate breakfast, he watched Luddy clean the floors with his deck brush. Gilbert hated that deck brush. Luddy wouldn't let him throw it out. There was a bandage wrapped around the middle from where Gilbert had snapped it in half and Luddy had repaired it.

"I don't understand you, Bruder," Luddy had said, dripping tallow onto the broken ends. "Why would you want to throw away a perfectly good deck brush?"

"Keh! His royal awesomeness doesn't have to explain anything to you!" Gilbert hadn't been angry. Why would he be angry? His little brother totally wasn't the boss of him. Obviously.

"Bruder?" Luddy asked. Gilbert snapped out of it.

"What?" he demanded.

"It is day 1065."

"So?"

"So that means… it one month it will have been three years."

"So?" Gilbert asked, drinking his milk in the way that annoyed Luddy(straight out of the bottle).

"So- don't do that Bruder, it is not polite- if it will have been three years since the accident… why can't I remember anything?"

"How should I know?"

"Well since you were there… I thought maybe you would have some idea?"

"I already told you; I don't know. Now leave me alone. I don't care about your stupid problems!"

His harsh words didn't even make Luddy flinch. He simply frowned. "Don't yell in the house." When Gilbert was the only human face you'd seen in three years, you developed a tough skin.

"By the way, Bruder," Luddy said, spooning more scrambled eggs onto Gilbert's plate(How awesome was that? His little brother was totally his own personal servant.). "We need more meat. You will have to go out and get some."

"Kesese, of course my awesome self can go out and get meat for his little bruder!" Gilbert sprang up and started putting on his boots.

Luddy watched him suspiciously. "…You won't try to wrestle a bear again, will you?"

"Why shouldn't I? We were eating that bear for a month!"

"You were also injured for a month," Luddy reminded him.

"Keh! It was just a scratch."

"It was not and you know it."

Just for that, Gilbert decided, he was going to go hunt some bears. He need a challenge once in a while anyway. And besides. His little brother wasn't the boss of him.

He had to cross the swamp to get to bear territory. If you didn't know the swamp, it was hell to cross. It had been hell that first day, tripping with exhaustion, Luddy's body on his back, but if there was one thing Gilbert was good at, it was putting himself in ridiculously dangerous situations and coming out alive.

The woods were kinda quiet. Gilbert sighed because that meant it was probably going to be a slow day and that meant he was going to need patience so it kinda sucked that he didn't have any.

The edge of the woods was an hour walk even if you knew the way but it didn't look like any bears were gonna show and Gilbert had time. He hadn't been to the cliffs in a while anyway.

Stepping out of the tree line an hour later, Gilbert plopped himself down on a rock and looked out over the edge of the cliffs in satisfaction. Looking down at the fields below always made him feel like he was the king of the world.

(Which he could totally be if he wanted to, by the way. He just didn't want to.)

The view was the same as it always was which was completely awesome thank you very much. Gilbert doesn't really go in for any poetic descriptions or crap like that but those hills in the distance were made for horses to run down. Looking out over it, he had to sigh a little. He knew there was a good reason he and Luddy never left the swamp but sometimes he had a really hard time remembering what that was.

But hey. Really, they were better off alone. They didn't need anyone el-

"You there! Seize him!"

Soldiers. He'd know a soldier's voice anywhere.

A young man about his own age came scrambling up the mountain trail. Seeing Gilbert, he stopped short for a moment. As the soldiers came up behind him though, he bolted behind Gilbert and grabbed his shoulder. Something sharp and cold scraped Gilbert's throat.

"Sorry amigo," the man whispered. "But I don't have much choice, comprendo?"

"Citizen!" One of the soldiers shouted. "Release that man!"

"Sorry, but I don't think I can do that." The young man's voice was absurdly cheerful. "I'm going to back up now. And you're going to let me. One wrong move-"

That was as far as he got because Gilbert slammed his heel down onto the other man's foot, forced the knife hand away from his throat, grabbed the other man's arm and twisted it behind his back. He grunted in pain. Gilbert grinned. The soldiers were staring. The one in charge cleared his throat.

"Well done citizen! Please hand over your prisoner."

Gilbert was beginning to remember why he hated soldiers. He pushed the young man roughly and walked him forward to where the soldiers stood at the head of the mountain pass. "Well? Aren't you gonna take him?"

"Yes. Of course. You two!" the commander snapped. "Take this man!" The two he'd indicated awkwardly tried to pick their way around him on the narrow pass.

"Hey. Soldier." The commander looked back to where Gilbert had been but suddenly he was gone.

"Up here, moron!" As they looked up to the ledge above them, Gilbert slowly let the rock fall, laughing like a maniac as they scattered, scrambling down the mountainside. He stood for a moment, watching them curse and run before he started walking away.

"Wait amigo!" the young man called after him.

"I'm not your amigo. Go away."

"My name is Antonio. Nice to meet you."

"I said go away!"

"I am sorry but you must forgive if I continue to follow you."

Gilbert scowled and pushed his way through the underbrush. He could lose this idiot in the swamp.

Or not. There was nothing Gilbert hated more than a righteous little jerk face who didn't know when to quit.

"Stop following me!" he snapped. "Why are you even here?"

"The soldiers, they moved onto my land." Gilbert could hear the grin in his voice. "They caused trouble that I didn't like so I caused a little trouble they didn't like."

"Great. Whatever. You caused trouble. Go home."

"I don't have a home anymore amigo."

"Do you think I care? Stop following me!"

"You saved my life amigo. I cannot walk away from that."

Gilbert spun around. "GO. AWAY."

"I won't do that."

Gilbert scowled and stalked away. Antonio followed him. Apparently it was easier to navigate the swamp when you were following someone who knew what they were doing. Gilbert swore under his breath and started formulating a plan that somehow ended with Antonio stuck in quicksand.

"Hey amigo."

"I'm not your amigo!"

"I am guessing that you live back here. Is that true?"

"Yeah, so?"

"How many other people live back here?"

"No one! What are you talking about?"

"Then, whose fire is that?"

"Wha-" Gilbert stopped and looked to where Antonio was pointing. Thick gray smoke was rising into the sky. Gilbert frowned. That was completely the wrong direction for their cabin to be and besides, even if Luddy did build a fire he knew how to make thin smoke that drew no attention. So what-

He changed course abruptly, crashing though the undergrowth. Forest fire? No, that couldn't be right. It had been raining all last week. So there had to be some other explanation. A natural explanation. It wasn't like anyone else would be living all the way back here, right?

Gilbert reached the tree line and stopped short. Antonio almost ran into him but he barely noticed. He was too busy swearing.

The beginnings of a military camp filled the clearing and stretched off into the woods. Everywhere he looked, soldiers where milling about, bringing in supplies, setting things up, following orders. They were making camp. They were moving in.

No. They just thought they were moving in. Well, they weren't. Not if Gilbert had anything to say about it.

"Hey! You!" he snapped, storming up to the nearest officer. "This swamp's taken! Go find your own!"

The officer looked at him, completely unimpressed. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, you can help me. By getting your stupid soldiers and getting out of here."

"Citizen, what is your name?"

"None of your business."

"Citizen, if your only objective to is cause trouble, I suggest you cause it elsewhere."

Gilbert opened his mouth to reply but Antonio beat him to it.

"Hey. I don't wish to interrupt, but I think that you are Lord Edelstein's soldiers, si?"

The officer looked at him coldly. "That's right. We are."

"Then you are here by his orders."

"Yes."

"You see amigo?" Antonio whispered to him. "They are here by order of the man himself. There is nothing we can do. They obey him only."

Gilbert got a strange look on his face as Antonio said that. "So, let me get this straight," he said, turning back to the soldier slowly. "If you got an order from this 'Lord Edelstein' telling you to leave, you'd leave?"

"Yes."

A slow grin split Gilbert's face. "Then I guess you'd better start packing!" he sang, turning on his heel and walking away. Antonio was following him, but this time, Gilbert couldn't be bothered to care.

He was going on a quest.