Chapter 574: Is it really a reunion without a bit of chaos?
"Baby..."
Neel stared at Shwa, who was blinking slowly at her from my arms cradle. As far as I know, babies couldn’t see clearly at first, but they could still differentiate shapes and colors. In Shwa’s case though, he could also differentiate mana--that was how he knew if Natha and I came closer. After all, we had been feeding him with our mana since he was still inside the seed.
He seemed to recognize Jade somewhat since the little boy had a trace of my mana. For others, however, Shwa would just stare blankly, perhaps trying to register them. He managed to recognize his principal nanny who sang him a lullaby every night, but that was it.
Still...wasn’t that pretty good for a week-old baby?
Neel stood still, almost as if frozen. At first, I thought she was angry that we forgot to tell her directly, but then I saw the sparkle in her eyes and the slight tremble on the tips of her outstretched fingers.
"This...won’t break if I touch it, right?" she whispered hesitatingly.
Ah...it was kind of fascinating how everyone had a slightly different but also kind of the same reaction. I laughed and shrugged. "Depends on how hard you do it."
She gulped and moved her hand to poke the baby’s arm lightly; so lightly that it was barely a touch. Only after I told her she could touch a bit ’harder’ did she hold the curled fist and sway it slowly, as if making Shwa wave his hand. She slipped her thumb between the curling fingers and kneaded the baby’s palms, making Shwa wiggle from the ticklish sensation. He let out a small giggle, and Neel froze.
"Wow..." she exclaimed softly.
I never thought of Neel as one to get touched by a baby, but there she was, staring blankly at the wiggling and giggling baby. The amazement was clearly reflected in her eyes, which, in itself, amazed me.
"Babies are...amazing, aren’t they?" she said in a daze.