A year passed.
Gilgamesh, Annanu, Enkidu, and all of Uruk had lived quite comfortably over the course of that year.
Nanshe seemed to have given up on continuing to pursue Annanu. She left the outskirts of Uruk for a while, but in the end, she returned and settled down there.
When Annanu asked her why, she did not answer. Instead, she asked him, "Don't you want me to come back?"
Annanu honestly did not care much either way, and that was what he told her. It made Nanshe so angry that she nearly beat him up, though she could not beat him anyway.
But fundamentally, Annanu still hoped Nanshe would keep a little farther away from him. It was not that he disliked her; he simply felt that being too close to him might have some effect on her.
Though he would never accept Nanshe's feelings no matter what, Annanu truly did see her as his friend.
A bad friend, though—the sort who traded insults and occasionally engaged in intense physical activity, beating the hell out of each other as a show of goodwill.
Wait, by that standard, Gilgamesh was too—
Annanu would even occasionally mischievously drag Enkidu along to turn into lovely women. Then, just as Gilgamesh was provoked into anger and ready to raise his banner for battle, they would suddenly turn into two gay men. Back and forth like that, Gilgamesh's worldly desires had been worn down considerably. Combined with his heavy workload, peacefully reforming the King of Uruk into a eunuch might be just around the corner.
Without those worldly desires, my beloved is this city. (Siduri gave a thumbs-up.)
Uruk was an exceptionally accepting city. Annanu and Enkidu had fully integrated into it, and its people had accepted these two unusual beings. They were no