I have Nine Lives

Chapter 168: Emotional awakening

Felix found himself back in the abandoned forest as he started to travel from tree to tree.

He took one glance back towards the location of the tube that could get him back to the human city, and after that, he bolted away.

He ran through the forest, leaving it behind in a few seconds as a road appeared in front of him.

The road was pretty long until the lion tribe capital, but it didn't take much, if any time for Felix to arrive there, he had grown way too much in his space adventures, so as he made his way around, he realized how small the planet they were on actually was.

Felix sighed as he looked at the opened gates of the lion capital and entered directly. However, before he could take another step, the guards that usually ignored his actions because they knew him stepped forward and stopped him.

Felix knew that his new human form made them do that, so he immediately morphed into his cat form which made the guards take a few steps backward before bowing in apology:

"We are sorry sir Felix, we have never seen your human form, so we have tried to stop you..."

Felix nodded and then left them behind as he made his way through the capital, he knew that Siracha must have known that he arrived by now, but it seemed he didn't want to meet him now.

He didn't come back to meet Siracha anyways so he made his way towards Lindo's house.

Felix took a few steps towards the house in his cat form as he reached the door, he stood there for a few seconds before knocking on it a few times, he could sense both Lindo and the child were inside.

The door opened and Lindo's eyes widened as he saw Felix, he thought that he would never see him again after he went to the humans, but here he was.

Felix smiled at Lindo as he entered the house and said:

"Lindo I came to visit my godson Jack, how is he doing?"

Lindo gave out a small smile as he closed the door and followed Felix inside:

"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

A little boy that looked to be around a few months old walked into the room from upstairs. He was wearing a small blue t-shirt that covered his whole body. He had short hair and blue eyes.

The kid came a little bit closer to Felix, in his cat form, Felix could come up only to his stomach.

Suddenly the kid placed a little hand on Felix's head as he patted him which took Felix by surprise, he hadn't got a pat on the head in a long time.

It was a quite nice feeling but he didn't let it linger for a lot of time as he morphed directly into his human form under the curious gaze of both people in the room.

Lindo was surprised as he gasped and said:

"Felix... you finally unlocked your human form?"

Felix nodded and glanced down at the little Jack as he took him in his arms, he didn't feel much as he kept the child in his arms which disappointed him quite a bit, he thought that if he had some interactions with someone that he had to supposedly love, his emotions would come back.

He didn't know why he didn't feel anything, but he continued to keep Jack into his arms as he looked at Lindo and asked:

"How have you been doing since.. you know."

Lindo shook his head as he remembered the funeral and said:

"I have gotten better, Manitola wouldn't have wanted me to mop around our child, and now that I have him to take care of. A lot of things aren't on my mind anymore."

Felix nodded and let jack down as he watched him start to walk around the house, even though he was only around a few months old it was obvious from the glint in his eyes, and the fact that he could walk that he wasn't any normal child.

Even among lion cubs they usually started to walk around 6 months old, compared to the normal lions who lived on earth the difference was immense but the evolutionary path of these lions lead them to have a rather more fragile childhood.

Felix knew that from the moment he left up till now, there haven't been more than 4 months, but the child could already walk steadily.

The gift he got from the goddess of illusions and charm must be the thing that fueled his rapid growth, or maybe it was a combination of both his natural talent and the gift.

Felix suddenly felt something in his chest move as he looked at the child walking around and playing, were his emotions coming back?

It was not a tang of pain, nor did he feel any discomfort from the movement in his chest.

It was something warm, something that he didn't feel before. Was it pride in someone else besides himself?

He could see that the child would grow up talented, and he felt glad because of that. He felt prideful that he had such a godson.

Suddenly a flood of emotions went through Felix's heart and mind, things that have been locked up in him since he had come to this dimensional plane.

He had never felt them before as his soul was never meant to experience these things. But as his body evolved and acclimatized to the surroundings, so did his soul.

He became a fully intelligent being with all of the package. That being intelligence, emotions, and a human form.

He had evolved into something far beyond what his original form was. He had become something more.

A few tears started to seep out of Felix's eyes, but they quickly dried while Lindo was looking after his child.

"So why have you come to visit us, Felix? Everything's alright with the humans?"

Felix nodded as he didn't tell him about the upcoming invasion. He still remembered how the president kept his citizens in the unknown and his words, so he didn't want to make Lindo panic. The upcoming fight wasn't going to be a place where he could interfere. It was better to not fire him up for nothing.

He knew that, unlike the normal humans, Lindo would surely want to fight for the future of his child, but with his current strength, that was a laughable thing.

Felix decided to play sometime with Jack, so he could become a little bit more familiar with him, he wasn't even sure why looking at him walk around would unlock his emotions so quickly. So he wanted to see if there was anything special for this child.

Seeing that Jack was on good hands made Lindo relax, so he went to the city to buy some more food as they were currently running out.

Felix continued to play with Jack for a few more minutes, then Jack looked at him and asked:

"Who are you, mister?"

Felix's eyes narrowed, was he supposed to be able to talk already?

However, he responded casually:

"Name's Felix, your father never mentioned me?"

Jack shook his head as he said:

"Father never talks to me. He just takes care of me..."

"Maybe it's because he doesn't know you can talk?"

The child put his head to the side as he realized that what Felix said was the truth. If Lindo didn't know he could talk, then why would he talk to him?

It was like trying to use sound to communicate with a deaf person. Or speaking English to a native African speaker who didn't know even 1 English word.

Why would Lindo bother? He wanted to teach him how to speak, but he felt that it wasn't the time yet.

"Well, I guess you will have more talks with your father after I'm gone."

Jack looked into Felix's eyes and asked:

"Where are you going?"

"Well, I have joined a different tribe, and I have quite a lot of work to do there. They gave me a free day, so I could resolve some issues and visit you two."

"I have resolved my issues a bit earlier before I visited you, so now, after this visit, I'm going to go back."

Jack nodded as he seemingly understood what Felix was talking about, which made Felix chuckle and ruffle his short hair.

He didn't know why, but he enjoyed the sensation of being around this child, up till now, he had been around other children, but he never felt anything.

Maybe it was because they were supposed, family.

Ah yes, family. A few more tears started to drop from Felix's eyes as he thought about that word, which wasn't ignored around this time. Jack patted Felix's hand as he asked:

"Why are you crying, mister?"

"I only cry when I fall and hit my toe on the furniture. Did you hit your toe on the table?"

Felix shook his head as he looked at the ceiling and said:

"I just remembered something about my family... and how I haven't had the best thought about them up till now."

Felix could now remember clearly... the meteor, Tsuru throwing him in the portal. He survived only because of her, and he owed her immensely... but there was no way for him to meet her anymore.

These emotions had been locked deep within him, but now they burst to the surface.