Nero of the North

A New Home?

 "Nero!" I heard the voice of Caius calling out to me. "Get up you lazy bum! Mum made breakfast!" While passing by my room on his way to the kitchen, he banged on my door making it creak worryingly.

"I'm coming..." I barely mumbled, trying to wake myself up while stretching. I had weird dreams all night, and couldn't sleep too well so getting out of bed was extremely hard. I already started contemplating sleeping in but the smell of Lucia's famous porridge was too good to pass.

Slowly, I left the warmth of my blanket, listening to my bones cracking. First left, then my right foot touched the cold floor. I searched for my sandals, quickly finding one but not the other. I sighed, standing up.

Luckily the air wasn't as cold as back home.

I froze, as the images of yesterday's dream came rushing into my memory. I felt the rising anxiety and longing for what I seemingly lost. My hands found their way around me in a weird hug to myself. I felt like I wanted to scream, but no voice came out of my mouth as I came crashing down to my knees. My head falling forward, heavily.

"What have I done to deserve this..." a little voice in my head continued singing the same song it did for two weeks when I first came to Rome. It felt like I was regressing, just because of one dream, one meaningless dream.

I didn't even remember it well, but there was my old home and it felt real. And...

I finally noticed the second sandal.

"And now I'm here, and there's nothing I can do to fix it." I mouthed, reaching out for the shoe. "It's better than being dead, though." I summarized, playing with the wooden sandal I got from Rufus.

The situation wasn't as bad as it seemed, and even though I missed my real home, here I at least had a roof over my head, and people who also seemed to care about me. Rome was an exciting prospect to me. Not everyday does one move back in time to see its wonders and I wasn't going to be the one to waste that opportunity on worry and sadness.

"So... what's next?" asked the quiet voice in my mind. But a different voice responded.

"Breakfast." I looked up, it was Lucia, looking at me with worry in her eyes. She was peeking in through the barely opened door, as always when she entered my room. "Nero? Are you okay?

"Y-yeah" I quickly answered, sitting back on the bed. "I'm fine, just... I dreamt of where I come from."

She nodded slowly, as if thinking. "I see... Breakfast will be waiting for you when you feel better." She answered after a moment of hesitation.

"I'm coming, it's nothing." I answered, finally putting on the rest of my outfit.

I thought she left my room, but she kept standing there. I looked at her puzzled, but in response her expression changed from worry to something I could best describe as sadness, and she was gone in a second, hiding again.

I sighed and got up from bed, making my way to the kitchen for breakfast.

It was very tasty, as always.

***

"Father! Come on! Not so fast!" Yelled the man walking next to me. In response Rufus only waved his hand and seemingly got even faster. "I hate this." Sighed Caius.

Today was the day of the Mercury - precursor to the modern wednesday. That meant that we 'got to' as a 'reward' walk a couple of kilometers with Rufus, to the city guard's training grounds. Rufus saw that as an opportunity to bond with his son - and recently also with me, but both of us hated it, or at least the travel there. He insisted on us walking there on foot instead of using horses (which I still haven't learned how to ride by the way, and this could have been a great opportunity to do so). He said that this hour-long walk was beneficial to us, which both me and Caius disagreed with.