The Son of the Emperor

I opened my eyes and I saw him. A giant of a man with black hair and a look of concern on his face. His body was golden and shining, emanating power. This was my daddy. He made me a boy. No time to being a baby, he needed me for something, I could feel it. I looked around and there were three more boys the same size as me. I turned back to look at my daddy but he was gone so I crawled over to the boy who was sitting alone, on the ground, and I gave him a hug. He smiled at me. I sat next to him and watched the two other boys that seemed different. Their power felt...not like my own or my daddy's. After watching them play a little, I decided I should go and hug them both. When I came closer, they looked at me with anger. I did not know what I had done wrong. I felt very sad but I kept going. I hugged the less angry one first, he hugged me back and smiled. Then I tried to hug my last brother. He pushed me away. I cried so hard that the other two came over to hug me and I felt better. I still wanted to the hug the last one but I was scared. The one who had smiled stared at his brother until he waved me over. I approached tentatively and hugged him. He let me. And then I was asleep on the cold metal floor. When I awoke, my brother, the one that felt the most like me, was sitting in front of me watching the other two boys play fight in he corner. The door opened and a nice older man entered. I went to him and tried to climb up his leg. He picked me up and told me his name was Yarl.

I wondered for a moment what my name was. I didn't have one. This made me sad but I hugged the man anyway and my sadness went away. My belly rumbled and Yarl produced some food and drink. This was exactly what I needed to feel better. My brothers joined us for food. For a moment, we were all happy together. When the food was done and we were all changed, Yarl left and we divided again. I wanted to play but there wasn't much to play with so I just decided to throw a small cushion at my brother. He was surprised but when he saw me laughing, he understood that it was a game. He took the cushion and threw it back. We needed more cushions. I was thinking about how much fun that would be and instead of the one cushion we used to have, we now had four. I smiled with pride. The other two boys approached and joined our game.

We played for a while. The boy who had put me asleep previously curled up on a cushion and went to sleep. The other one stayed close and watched him until, he too was asleep. I was hungry again. Maybe I could find something to eat. I tried to leave the room but there was no way out. This made me sad. My brother, he one with the same kind of power as me, was also asleep. I sat and waited for someone to come. It took a long time. I was very lonely but then my brothers woke up and we were play fighting one on one each on our side of the room when the door clicked and opened. We turned to see the giant golden man and a woman at his side. The man, he felt like two us us. He was our father. The woman felt like the other two boys in the other corner but also different. I figured she had made them and so she was their mother. The woman looked at us. She looked uncertain and cold. Father picked my brother and I up and the woman picked up the other two boys in her arms. I tried to cuddle a little but I was awkward and daddy wasn't very comfortable. I wondered if the woman would like to have a hug. She was probably softer too.

They took us out of our home and brought us to a room that had a table and chairs. She set her two boys down and Father set us down. He told us that we were named Samuel and Valorum. I smiled happily as I crawled along. I now had a name. I was very happy and my brother was Valorum. He didn't seem to care. Father told the other two boys that they were Adrien and Bastien. They shrugged and climbed on chairs next to my father. Valorum and I went to the woman. I asked her to picked me up. I wanted to hug her, she seemed like a hug-gable person. When she picked me up, I hugged her before she should set me down on a chair. Adrien got down from his chair and shooed Valorum away. He told me to get down so he could have a turn, I complied. I had no other choice. I couldn't say no. I was sad but I went to sit with father. He told us that we were all brothers, a family, that the soft lady who smelled like the ocean and apple trees was our mommy. I loved them already. Adrien wanted to get down so we all took turns sitting on mommy while daddy made us some food. It was the yummiest pancakes we had ever had. I tried to sneak onto mommy's lap more often because I liked how she felt. At one point, she realized I was sneaking and set me down. I was upset but Adrien came by and told me I was okay and I was. I just sat on daddy, eating and listening to everything he said. I loved him so much, I was so happy, I hoped that maybe we could be together forever, instead of being alone in that cold room. I rested my head on his shiny hard chest and fell asleep.

I don't know how long I slept but when I looked up, I could see that I was now in mommy's arms. She was so much softer. We were going somewhere. I didn't really care, as long as I was not alone. Daddy was in front of us. Holding the door open. Mommy smiled at me when she saw that I was awake. I smiled back. She set me down. I recognized the room. I wanted to cry but Adrien said no. I swiped at my eyes.I thought they were leaving but mommy sat down on the floor with us. Valorum stayed alone a little further away from us. I didn't know why he wanted to be alone but daddy sat with him. Mommy watched us play. We were having a wonderful time. Valorum and Daddy just looked at each other. Mommy asked daddy if he was talking to Val. That didn't make much sense because no one was talking but mommy but daddy answered that yes, they were talking. This seemed curious to me so I tried and nothing happened. I just said Mommy out loud. She smiled. Maybe she was warming up to me. That made me feel happy.

Mommy and daddy talked about us and what they wanted to do with us. I don't know if they knew we understood most of it but they talked about decorating the room and giving us our own beds and telling stories and teaching us. They talked about how we couldn't be seen by other people and that people should not know we existed. This made Bastien and Adrien angry but I was sad. Valorum seemed to think it made sense but I did not understand. Mommy grabbed a book and started telling us a story. We all sat around her, me in her lap as she read. I wanted to say something nice but I did not know the word so I said Mommy and smiled. She smiled back. When she was done reading, they put us in 2 separate cribs, apparently they had something important to do but I needed a nap anyway so I curled up, next to Valorum, I placed my arm around him and we both went to sleep. I had nice dreams because mommy liked me and I think daddy likes me too. I will have to make sure...

The next time mommy and daddy came back, they were both happy and mommy and daddy brought these little furry creatures. One of them was way to excited. I didn't like it, the other was an orange animal that immediately went to my pillow and curled up looking comfortable. I like that one. It was so much calmer. It just looked at me as I came closer and then looked away and put its head down. Mommy came with me and told me that this was a cat called Cuddles. I liked it already, with a name like cuddles. I smiled at her and stretched my hand toward it slowly. When I touched its back, it was soft and starter making a noise. I pulled my hand back, a little scared but the cat looked at me and closed its eyes. Adrien told me to touch it again, the cat was happy, so I did and it was amazing. I loved that animal so much. The cat stood and stretched and bounced off my bed. I followed the cat. I couldn't crawl fast enough so I grabbed it's tail to stop it. Mommy said no. I didn't know why but I stopped because I wanted mommy to keep loving me. I was a good boy.

Mommy and daddy were going to take us somewhere, I heard them say. I was excited to see what somewhere was. They seemed excited to see us see this thing. All of a sudden, we were in the middle of nothing...there were little bright lights everywhere and I was a little scared but also fascinated by the new scene. I held on, a little too strongly, to daddy, who had picked me up.