Enkidu and Shamhat set out together on the road back to Uruk.
Because of Enkidu's appearance, birds no longer dared to perch on him, and gazelles and buffaloes no longer grazed on the moss growing upon his body.
Shamhat could not help but understand a little more why Enkidu had chosen to leave with her.
—Because she had touched Enkidu's heart and exchanged wills with him, transforming him from a simple man of clay into his present form, one identical to her own. The forest could no longer be considered Enkidu's home.
With a human form, one ought to live in a human city-state, rather than wander the wilderness alongside beasts—this was a "truth" that all living things understood.
An unreasonable truth, but it was the law of the world.
Still, there was something else weighing on Shamhat's mind.
"Say, Enkidu."
From behind him, Shamhat tugged at Enkidu's pure white clothes.
"What is it, Shamhat?"
Enkidu stopped walking. There was no confusion in his eyes; they remained as calm as ever.
Shamhat felt a little creeped out under Enkidu's gaze and lightly slapped his shoulder. "Eek! Listen, if you're going to imitate humans, you should at least put a few more expressions on your face! Keeping the same expression all the time is scary!"
"Is that so? I can imitate more expressions, actually, but before Shamhat, I do not feel there is any need to show more of the expressions I can imitate."
Enkidu said this with the "unchanging" calm expression Shamhat had mentioned, smiling.
"Mm, forget it." Shamhat's face twitched. Shaking her head, she said helplessly, "What I wanted to ask was, didn't you say you had an older brother? What was his name again?"
"Ah, Annanu? What about it?"
Enkidu tilted his head slightly and asked curiously.
"Mm,