Despair and Happiness.(3)

The old woman rushed forward and picked up Nero, immediately noticing the black tribal clothing he wore. She glanced at her husband and when she noticed the wide smile on his face, she grinned.

"Oh Yushan, you dressed him up! You even remembered to make sure it matched!"

The old man, Yushan, laughed loudly as he looked pridefully at Nero. This indeed was one of his best works yet, at least when it came to fashion sense. This was something that he failed at since he was a boy so now that he saw some improvement, although it took decades, he was happy.

Yushan hit his chest and responded, "Winona, you underestimate your husband! Heh, now you know what I'm really capable of. I'm sure when he wakes up, even he will cry tears of joy at what I accomplished!"

Winona smiled as she slowly rocked Nero in her arms, lovingly looking at his little sleeping face.

"This young one sure sleeps a lot. Any normal child would've woken up by now, especially when his mother left. He must be tired from all the commotion he went through at his birth. Sigh, how tragic. It's only been a day since he was born. Yushan, let's leave him be for tonight. We'll continue snuggling him tomorrow. By the way, did you decide who you're going to get to breastfeed him yet?"

Winona laid Nero back down on his little bed and kissed his forehead.

"Goodnight little one."

She then left with Yushan in tow, discussing who was going to be his main caretaker in the future.

Unbeknownst to them, Nero was just listening in carefully, wincing a bit when he heard about them talking about giving him breast milk.

'Calm down. This may be hard to accept but my current body needs it. I'll just have to prepare to get used to it. Whew...anyways. What my parents in this world told me, out of ethics, I'll eliminate the Lunarians if I have the chance. That would be repaying them for birthing me into this world, as much as I hate it. As for that older couple...they'll be in quite shocked tomorrow."

The night quickly passed by and dawn arrived as the rising sun illuminated the tribal village. Men came out of their huts to go hunt food and sharpen their weapons while the women, who weren't fighters, took care of the daily mundane activities.

The village wasn't overly noisy, but the bustling economy of it would paint a picture of peace and harmony in anyone's eyes.

That morning, Yushan entered Nero's little room with two figures behind him, one mature woman and the other, a young girl. The woman looked very refined and "well put together" in her long purple robes combined with her feathery purple headdress. Her name was Aiyanna.

The young girl had a large smile on her face as she wore a plain light brown dress adorned with colorful designs on the bottom. She looked to be about 4 years old and her face was filled with curiosity as she looked at Nero.

"Mama, is that him? He's the one the chief and Elder Yushan asked you to raise?"

Aiyanna slowly nodded her head as she looked at Nero and a grave expression appeared on her face. Something was wrong here. According to what Elder Yushan said, this baby was sleeping since he arrived. Although they are babies that sleep a lot, this one was strange.

She hurriedly went forward and bent over his crib, picking him up in her arms. She tapped him lightly on the face and shook him a bit roughly, hoping to wake him up.

She tried tickling him, squeezing his cheeks, tapping him on the butt, and even showering him with kisses. Nothing worked. This increased her suspicion even more. Aiyanna slowly gave Nero over to the little girl and said quietly, "Raki, I'm going to report this to Elder Yushan and Elder Winona. Watch him for a bit until I come back. Actually..."

Aiyanna decided against leaving Nero in Raki's arms and placed him on the bed, just to be safe. After all, Raki was still a young girl so she might make a mistake that would injure Nero.

"Don't play with him too much but, try to wake him up. If after a few tries, you don't succeed, then just leave it alone."

Aiyanna quickly left the room as Raki stood there pouting. She wanted to hold Nero. But she couldn't deny that she was worried about him. From the expression on her mother's face, it was clear that it was something serious.

"Hopefully he'll wake up soon."

Oh, how wrong she was.

Aiyanna returned not long after with Elder Yushen and Winona. They all tried different methods to wake Nero up, but to no avail. As time went on, intense feelings of grief and despair entered their hearts.

It was especially apparent in the two elders that were entrusted with Nero's safety. It hasn't even been a day and something like this happened. It was likely that he was like this since he was with his mother but at this point, that was irrelevant.

They were still unwilling to give up.

With tears in his eyes, Elder Yushan said, "Alright, let's find every kind of medicine that would be able to strengthen his body. As long as he stays fed and we apply the medicine, I believe that someday, he'll wake up!"

Yushan held Winona's hand as he said this. The grief in her eyes was apparent. Yushan couldn't stand to see her like this. So, from then on, the elders tried everything they could to wake Nero up.

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and months turned into years. But he never even budged. Usually, they moved him around regularly to prevent his muscles from atrophying. Also, he grew quite a bit but other than that, they were no changes.

Ten years quickly passed by. At this point, the entire village had heard about Nero's situation and anyone who had medicine to spare would send it to him at the end of the month. Although he wasn't native to the village, he was still half shandian so the villagers quickly accepted him.

The sun had just gone down and night had quickly crept onto the village. Guards were circling the village, even more so than usual. It was clear that tensions were high at this moment.

On this night in the corner of the Hidden Cloud Village, there existed a recently built conjoined hut. On the left side, which was the smaller section of the hut, a tall figure lay on a medium-sized bed.

A red rug adorned the floor and a few normal pieces of furniture sat upon the rug. There were many native charms and artifacts hanging from the ceiling, all of them from people wishing the owner of the hut well wishes.

The figure laying on the bed was, of course, Nero. He had grown to around 6 feet four inches over the years and his thin body was wrapped loosely in a black robe. His neck had a thin gold necklace that was filled with golden animal fangs. Around each of his arms were one thick golden bracer and one golden anklet each for his legs.

His white hair had grown to his shoulders and his face wasn't pale anymore, it was almost grey. It was as if he was dead.

One couldn't fail to remember, that at this point, Nero was only 10 years old.

He hadn't shown any signs of waking up over the last decade and even if they didn't say it vocally, people were starting to lose hope. Only the two elders kept complete belief in his revival.

It was on this night, that the boys' eyelids finally moved on their own for the first time. His fingers and toes curled, his chest heaved, even his lips started twitching.

His hair and robes started fluttering even though there was no wind. It was as if some kind of supernatural phenomenon was about to happen!

His black wings that had grown to about 2 meters wide extended outwards and following that, his eyes opened!

"Finally."

He said his first word.

The yellow irises in his eyes flittered wilding in his black sclera as he scanned the room, making sure his eyesight was functional. He checked every possible sense, even taste, and made sure they were working.

"How good it feels to have a body once again."

Nero might've sounded unenthusiastic to someone who just heard him speak, but inwardly, he was ecstatic. He never knew how good it felt to actually be in a fleshly body till now.

Nero spent about an hour moving around every limb before sitting up on the bed and putting his foot on the ground. Although he had been well taken care of over the years, he still had to make sure his body was properly awakened before moving.

He would rather not embarrass himself on his first day awake.

After a few minutes, Nero got up and started taking small steps around the hut.

This was his first step.

Nero spent a few hours doing that until he got it down perfectly. When he stumbled, the humanoid was there to hold him. So all in all, things were going well.

It was at this moment that a melodious voice entered Nero's ears from outside the tent.

"Mama, do you think Nero will ever wake up? He's been asleep for a decade and counting. Could he already be..."

"Raki, don't say that. Although I admit that I no longer hold hope, let's at least believe in the elders' words. He will wake up."

As Aiyanna reprimanded her, Raki only smiled wryly. She perfectly understood what her mother meant but it was hard to keep this up. Every time she entered his tent to clean him, she would be greeted with disappointment. And as usual, she didn't expect anything different today.

So imagine her surprise when the tent opened from the inside and Nero walked out, completely awake.

CLANGG!

Raki dropped the basin in her clutches as she covered her mouth with her hands. Aiyanna was speechless as she looked at the tall figure.

"N-NERO?!"