I am an emperor who conquered six nations and won the hearts of many of my people. The people conquered by me loved me, but some people hated me. I never regretted what I have done and always lived for the people. I did not have an heir because the love of my life passed away. Right now, I am slowly dying. I forgot the reason why.
Was it because of revenge for their country? Or was it old age?
I slowly closed my eyes, feeling all the pain in my body slowly faded away, and my mind fading away into a deep slumber. My senses were going away one by one. The last thing I heard was many people yelling and crying. I was happy that some people still cared for me, even when I am dying.
I always wondered how it would have been to have an actual family who genuinely loved and cared for you. I never had any siblings or any family. Even if I had loved someone, she passed away earlier in my life without bearing me any children that I could look after. In short, my whole life was lonely.
When I lost my hearing and everything went blank, I know I have finally died and can finally rest in peace from all this corruption from this world, but I was sad that I couldn't have a normal life as most people did.
Well, I thought I was dead until I opened my eyes again. I could see a bright white light blinding me from the end of the tunnel. The tunnel is cramped and slimy. Sort of, made me wonder 'where I am?' and 'what is this place?'. The light at the end of the tunnel was getting closer and closer. As I got closer, I heard many high and low voices, but it wasn't clear. There was also someone screaming things that I couldn't quite understand as well. I tried to reach out towards the light, but my arms were kept in place by the tunnel walls.
Why was it cramped up anyway?
I closed my eyes as the incoming light blinded me just a bit. The next thing I noticed was the warmth of a foreign but familiar that I lost a long, long time ago.
I felt so safe and warm.
I slowly opened up my eyes to see a woman smiling down at me with warmth. Her face and arms were covered with sweat and there were signs that she had been crying.
I thoroughly examined her face. There was only one word that would describe her and that would be beautiful. Her hair was dark brown with natural auburn highlights peeking out through, showing itself in the light. She also had bright green eyes with specks of gold near her pupils. Her skin was smooth and shiny. Her natural white teeth smile pulled through even if she was tired.
"Hello, my sweet baby."
I was still staring at her, dumbfoundedly. It took me a second or two to process what she just said.
Baby? BABY?
The first thing I did was bring my hands up to my face to look at them. I did not care if that woman thought that I was crazy.
My hands were small and chubby. I tried to bring up my head to see the rest of my body, but I can't. I didn't even have the strength to get out of her hold. I looked up at her to see her concerned face.
Wait, so if I am her baby, then that tunnel must have been her-
I felt my face flush red. I had been given birth to just now.
The knock from the door interrupted my disturbing thoughts.
"Come in, honey. We have another boy." Mom's voice was soft and straining, probably from exhaustion from giving birth.
A tough-looking guy came in with the word 'worried' all over his face. He didn't even notice that he slammed the door shut. When I made eye-contact with the guy, he gave me a small smile. He was built and looked sharp. He could also be a strict and stern type of guy.
"Honey!" The stern-looking and robust guy turned into a - you know, a man that turns mushy and lovey in front of his wife. I turned away in disgust. It is cute for a couple, but they should learn how to restrain.
Mom cleared her throat, turning dad's attention towards me.
Dad picked me up and held me like all parents hold newborn babies. I could feel his hard arm muscles underneath my body, and it was uncomfortable. I couldn't say anything either because I had no teeth.
"Hey, there…"
Dad looked up towards mom.
"What are we going to name the baby?"
"I kind of thought of a name for him already."
"What is it?"
"Alexander."
"Oh, so I have two sons that are named after kings."
Even though I was an emperor and not a king, I liked that name. The name 'Alexander' suited me probably better than Deacon.
"Hey, now that I look closely, Alex has my good looks too. The only thing he has of yours is your hair and eyes."
What was this guy rambling on about? And how did that nickname just smoothly roll into that sentence?
I watched as my dad kept on talking to my mom, and mom kept on rolling her eyes on him. From all the noise from the conversation, I heard a soft click. I glanced over to the door just to see a tiny boy come in. He had dark brown hair and icy blue eyes. The boy stared at me curiously and then made eye-contact with me. We were both staring at each other, not blinking, as if we were having a staring contest. It was the boy that broke off first. His eyes wondered above, probably towards mom. I looked back at mom to see her smiling at the young boy, and waving him over towards us.
"Come on, Arthur. Look at your new baby brother."
So his name was Arthur. The boy finally cracked a smile when he heard 'brother.' Arthur ran towards us and jumped up on the bed. He slowly crawled to the side of the bed and sat next to mom. Arthur started cooing once we made eye-contact again. Then after two minutes of him giving me affection, my stomach started growling. Dad took it as a signal to leave and took Arthur with him.
The next thing that happened was unbelievable. Even if I am a baby, I was still an adult male on the inside. I was disgusted, and I wasn't going to drink milk. My stomach started to hurt, and my mom started getting worried that something was up, so I manned up and started drinking.
The way I am saying this is going to sound very wrong, but it tasted so good. The MILK, not-
Anyway, it is a biological process of a mother giving food to her newborn child. The milk was tasty and delicious. I am pretty sure only newborns will understand the feeling.
As my stomach got full, my eyes started to grow droopy. As my mind went blank, the last image I saw was my mother's warm smile that I am grateful to see.