Chapter 90: Mother

"Allah aşkına…" Abdullah lost his words at this sight.

Angelo took a glance at the tragic scenery, shook his head and patted Abdullah on the back. "Wake up kid."

"We can joke around, we can mess around, we can fuck around, but do not remember."

"We are in a war, and in a war shits happen."

Abdullah nodded his head while still staring blankly at the devastation beneath him. However just as he is about to turn away, a vague sound caught his ears.

"You hear that old man?" Abdullah stopped and asked Angelo.

"Huh?" Angelo gave him an awkward look on his face. "You know my hearing is not good right, young man."

"Sir, I think I heard something too." A soldier behind Abdullah answered in Latin.

Abdullah got surprised. "You understand Latin?"

"Yes, sir." The soldier replied nervously.

"A Roman soldier who understands Latin? That is incredible!" Angelo exclaimed sarcastically.

Abdullah climbed down the walls to take a closer inspection of the ruins where the sound is coming from. As they go closer and closer, the sound became clearer and clearer. It turned out to be the crying of a baby under the rubbles of a collapsed building burnt down in the fire.

With no hesitation, Abdullah ordered the men in the surrounding to offer him a helping hand to clear the rubbles, move away the demolished pillars and clean the ceramic bricks, trying to save as much time as possible to avoid the worst outcome that can happen.

What they found out under the rubbles is truly shocking.

A woman, presumably the baby's mother, sits on the smeared ground with her head hanging low unconsciously, skin covered in cuts, gashes and ashes but there's no blood coming out from her. On her back there is a immense piece of oak wood plank that perhaps fell onto her when the ceiling of the house collapsed. When the last moment of her came, she showed a human being's incredible strength and potential, with that fragile skinny back of hers she supported a weight perhaps thrice of her body and remained in that position for more than a day until help arrived, just to protect the baby in her chest.

While the baby on the other hand, although also covered in a layer of grey ashes, remains unharmed. The poor baby is still trying to suck milk out of the deceased woman's breast, but nothing came out. Perhaps hunger is the thing that caused the baby to cry which attracted Abdullah's attention.

A Roman soldier moved forward, kneeled on one leg and placed his finger under the woman's nose, after a few seconds, he stood up, looked at Abdullah and shook his head.

…

Two hours later, in the Monastery of Christ Pantokrator.

"So that is the entire story of this baby?" Asked Antonius with the washed baby drinking milk soundly in his sturdy arms wrapped in bandages.

"Yes." Replied Abdullah in a reticent tone.

Antonius sighed. "Even if you ask me to look after this kid…. I have completely no skills in parenting… And you know the condition of my hands, how am I supposed to look after this baby?"

Abdullah remained silent, apparently what he has saw today is too much for his mind to handle.

"Perhaps I can help you with the baby."

A lady who was seated on the ground for all the while stood up and approached the two men and voiced out timidly. Behind her another lady is pulling her cloak trying to ask her to sit down.

"You can call me Palaiologina." The lady replied. "Palaiologina Notaras."

"Loukas' close in kin?" Antonius narrowed his eyes and hugged the baby even tighter. "Why are you here to help?"

Palaiologina replied firmly with light in her eyes. "Because it is my sole duty and responsibility as the Mega Doux's wife to help the people in times of difficulty and need."

"…And besides… I am also a mother of four, I can feel the pain of the mother who sacrificed herself to god just now."

Palaiologina pulled up a boy and the lady behind her who was pulling her cloak for all the time since just now and introduced. "This fair young boy here is my youngest son, Jacob Notaras, and this is my daughter, Anna Notaras."

Antonius looked at her for the second time, stood up and handed the baby over to her. "Thank you, kind lady, please take good care of…" He tilted his head towards Abdullah and asked. "This baby has a name?"

Abdullah shrouded his shoulders. "Maybe he has, maybe he don't, but perhaps the only person who can call this baby by his name is non-existent in this world already."

"Fine, from today onwards he shall be called Valentino, I shall take him as my ward… Just to kill the boring time waiting for my injury, of course."

Suddenly, the baby burst into a series of ear-shocking sobbing with dry tears, Palaiogina began comforting the baby by swaying her arms making it a cradle. Just as Antonius and Abdullah began thinking of the pleasant old memories of them in their mother's arms back in childhood, Anna by the side blushed and yelled.

"Hey! You too! Why are you still staring? My mother is about to feed the baby!"

Antonius and Abdullah looked at each other with eyes of ignorance for a while, then suddenly came to realise something, hastily nodded their heads and turned back.

"You too, Jacob."

Anna kicked her brother in his leg and pushed him forward to join the gang of Antonius and Abdullah.

Soon, the baby stopped crying as he sucks sumptuously, while the two men and one boy standing in front looks at each other with an embarrassing smile on their faces, resembling college kids reprimanded and punished by their tutor.

"Forgive my sister." Jacob Notaras gave a sheepish smile. "She is just a bit dismayed because our house got burnt in the fire… She is like this on some occasions but not always, she is usually a rather quiet and well-mannered noble lady of virtues…"

"Well, boy." Antonius gave a devious smile and interrupted. "Even the most serene noble lady will become rowdy when you jolt your spear of love inside."

"…" Jacob Notaras did not quite catch him.

"I heard that!" Anna stomped her feet and yelled in the background.

While Abdullah remained silent and emotionless throughout.