A Darkening World And A Sleepy Protagonist Chapter 9 (Unedited)

A tickly feeling awakes Neal. His nose scrunching up in discomfort as he feels something rough and wet along his cheek, then along the corner of his left eye. Not exactly something he could ignore and drift back to sleep with.

He lifts a hand, trying to swat away whatever it was, but did not expect to touch something a lot bigger then what a typical fly size would be. His eyebrows furrow as he feels the soft thing under his fingers, was this hair or fur? Did an animal get in and decide to come over and have a taste before they ate him?

With this thought he opens his eyes, a jolt of surprise going through him as his eyes met anothers. Who is so close that their nose could touch his easily, actually.. they were touching. 

The child pulls away, a large grin on their face at seeing him awake. Neal’s own eyes can not help but glue onto their teeth which have him thinking of a kittens. 

He needed to take a moment to take in the child in full. The child, the butt naked child, who sat there beside him on the bed. Where did the child come from? This..

His eyes trail along the body before looking back at the curiosity filled eyes of the child, a little boy.

Wait, what about the egg? Neal sits up quickly, eyes darting around in till they land on the shattered egg pieces on the floor. 

Could..could it be?

He looks back over at the child still staring up at him with large innocent filled eyes.

“No way..” He had not expected this would be what would come out of that egg. How did this even make any sense? 

“This aura…Azarias? No, it couldn’t be…” The voice speaks of very important information, but since Neal was on ‘ignore mode’ for the voice it went unheard from Neal.

The loud sound of growling fills the room, the source being the little childs stomach. The child simply blinks, continuing to stare at him as if waiting for Neal to solve the sound on his own, not giving any real complaints of his hunger. 

“Are you hungry?” Neal gets out of the bed, pausing a moment in thought before telling the child to wait there. 

The boy blinks and Neal turns to leave the room, but as soon as he took a step he hears a small thud and the sound of little feet moving quickly towards him. As the sound stops Neal turns his head to see the little boy standing behind him, with a hand stretched out and holding onto his pant leg. 

The little boy did not want him to leave him alone, wanting to stay by his side. Neal was unsure on bringing the boy with him, but after a moment of staring into those mismatched eyes filled with innocence and faint sadness he could not help but let the boy come along.

Was this the effect of puppy eyes?

Giving a sigh Neal picks up the child, grabbing a blanket to wrap around him and then shifts him into a comfortable position in his arms. Holding him in a way he could have one hand free, before leaving the bedroom.

Beyond the fact of needing to find food in general, he was not even sure what this boy that came from an egg would even want to eat. He really hopes that the child would be able to eat a variety of foods. Otherwise caring for him would be a lot more difficult.

Neal was about to leave the house, but the child stops him. A small hand lightly tugging on his sleeve, looking up at him with big eyes as he points to the ground in what looks like it used to be a little living room. 

“Do you want me to put you down?” As he goes to do so the child made a displeased whine, gripping tighter to his shirt. Lifting the child back up, he wonders what it is he wanted him to see.

Deciding he may as well go and see he went over to where the child pointed. Still confused as he stares at the perfectly normal wooden floor. 

Well, what seemed normal in till the child had him lower him down and they patt the ground with their hand. A small handle appearing, a faint light shining through connected cracks that formed a square. 

Filled with astonishment Neal reached out to grip the handle, pulling open the little door in the floor to reveal a ladder going down into a candle lit room. Growing more and more curious he set the child down, not getting any resistance this time, and headed down into the hidden room. 

Never minding how the candles had lit themselves, Neal looks amazed at storage down here. Blankets, dishware, even food jarred up that looked perfectly fine to eat. A lot was down here that Neal could use for awhile. 

Excited Neal grabs a blanket and takes some of the food and puts it on the blanket. Grabbing a few other things before tying the blanket up like a sack and went back up the ladder with it. He gave no attention or mind to some objects that looked unfamiliar to him. Such as the faintly glowing sword set up in the corner of the room, or the glittery jewellery boxes lined up on a shelf in the back.

The boys teeth are sharp, so Neal had decided their was no need to be worried about things such as baby formula. Not that their was any to give him anyway. So he cut up what seemed to be some vegetables and got a cup of water for the boy. 

He did all this while carrying the boy, since as soon as he had come out of that room the boy was glued to him once again. 

Neal takes a seat on the bed, the boy in his lap and a small plate of vegetables in his free hand.   The child watches him as he reaches out and takes a bite of a carrot slice, before then picking another one up and offering it to the child.

If this was a normal newly born child then this action would have been ridiculous to even think about, but since this child was not normal it easily took a bite of the carrot. After the first bite the boys eyes lit up and soon he was going through the plate of vegetables with quick speed. Even quicker was him chugging down the water in under a second then looking sadly into the now empty cup. 

The puppy eyes came yet again, and before Neal knew it had had given the child over five buckets of water. 

Five buckets…this boys thirst was insane! At least now he was satisfied, handing the cup back to Neal before gripping onto Neal’s shirt and rubbing his face into his chest, making a sound that reminded Neal of a cats purr. He couldn’t help but gently stoke the boys back in a calming manner, finding him very cute in his actions. Barely a second passes and the boy is sleeping, a content smile on his face.

Sleep..that sounds good about now. So Neal places the cup down, shifts his position where his back was against the wall of the well and drifted off easily under the suns warm rays.

No animal dared to approach them, leaving them to sleep in piece as the two slept soundlessly. The sun lighting them up making a beautiful picture an artist may be itching to paint if any were to see it. 

–

Running around the sunny yard was the little boy. A large grin on his face as he chases butterflies. He wore only a shirt, due to Neal not having anything in the boys size even with the surprise storage in the house. 

Currently Neal was going through things in that storage, currently all the fabrics and clothing. He hoped to find something in the boys size, but so far just a few women’s dresses and what seemed to be a very big mans clothing. To big for even Neal to wear. 

Neal glances to the happily playing child, wondering if he was just imaging things but..he felt this child was a bit taller now then he had been when he first hatched. Could this be a growth spirt or was he really just imaging it?

It was hard to know since this was not exactly a normal human child. Not that Neal had much knowledge on how to take care of a normal human child either to begin with. Hopefully he could do well with this one, whatever kind of creature the boy was. 

Who knows, maybe this is how humans are born here? In this new world he had now truly begun to accept that it was not his own. 

A bundle of flowers is suddenly shoved into Neal’s field of vision. Breaking him from his thoughts as he focuses in on the excited looking child presenting him what looks like a gift.

“For you!!” The voice small, high and adorable. Full of joy as the child bounces on the heels of his feet unable to contain his energy. 

Then their was this, was it normal for a child to speak so soon? Was this child growing up a bit to quickly?

Neal smiles warmly at the child, touched by the little gift even if it was a bunch of weeds picks from the ground around them. He takes the flowers, looking at them thoughtfully before over at the child. 

“Thank you, I really like them.” He reaches out, gently patting the boys head before having an idea pop into his mind. 

“Here, let me show you something.” He pats the wooden floor beside him, the spot is sitting in being the edge of the patio. 

The child comes closer but hops into his lap rather then beside him. Always trying to be as close as he could for as long as he could. Only sometimes going to run off and play in the yard. 

Neal works with this, putting an arm on either side of the child as he began to fiddle with the flowers in his hands. He begins to make a flower crown, knowing how to make one very well due to his mother showing him many times. A skill he had used to make many flower crowns for Marshall.

Marshall.

A strike of pain goes through Neal’s heart at the mere thought of his name. His smile falling to a sad one as he places the now finished flower crown on the boys head. 

“They look a lot prettier on you.” He said quietly, adjusting the crown to fit the boys head well. 

The child hops off his lap, grinning as he grazed the flowers on his head with his fingertips. He did a little hop and spin, as if to show off. As he took in Neal’s sad expression he pauses, his own grin falling as he comes back over to Neal. 

“Why are you sad?” A small hand gently holds Neal’s cheek, the child looking at him with his big eyes filled with worry and confusion. Everything was fine, why was Neal sad?

Neal had not realized he had been displaying his feeling, nor that the child would recognize this as sadness. He had never shown it to him before after all, or even taught him what sadness was. 

How was the child aware of things not yet taught to him?

“Just thinking of someone special to me..no need for you to worry” 

”Someone special?” In till now the child thought he was the only person in Neal’s life just as Neal was the only one in his. At the very least wasn’t he the most important and special? After all where was this person now that Neal thought off? Not here. Meanwhile he was here, he cared about Neal. Having another person on Neal’s mind made an uncomfortable feeling form in his stomach. Not that he understood why it was.

“Don’t be mistaken, you are very special to me too” Neal reaches out and lifts the child into his arms. He saw his expression fall and thought maybe the child thought he didn’t see him as special. As if one could only have one special person.

He smiles, cheering up a bit at Neal’s words and enjoying being in Neal’s arms. A place that smelled of such a lovely lavender. Cuddling up into his arms the child shuts his eyes, enjoying the scent of lavender and their own scent stuck to Neal. A lot more pleasant then when all those unfamiliar scents had been on him, those the child did not like. 

Stroking the boys head gently, Neal realised he had yet to call the child a name. He couldn’t just call the child ‘you’ or something like that, a name was important. 

What could he name the child though? 

“Azarias….” He whispers under his breath, the first name that had popped into his mind as he had been thinking about it. 

The child’s eyes shoot open, faintly glowing as he looks up at Neal who had gone back to going through the clothing. What the boy had heard sounded very familiar to the boy.

Our name…