The moment Syonas saw this man he knew who he was; he was his father. He was a baby, so everybody was a giant to him, but his father was unusually large, that was the first thought he had about his father; a giant among giants.
His father held him in his rough, calloused hands gently rocking him back and forth.
"My son, syonas welcome home." Daros said, his eyes getting a little misty.
From behind him emerged two women, one who looked similar to his mother except much taller and intimidating and a woman who was light-skinned like his father, he couldn't help but raise his palms to take a glance at them noticing that he was also dark-skinned.
He probably took after his mother.
With that, he was brought into his new home, and it was massive beyond the comprehension of his little baby mind. He genuinely could not fathom how a building like this could exist. He began eying his mother suspiciously from his perch in his father's arms, is there something his supposed to know here? Something that nobody is telling him? Why is this place so big?
Nobody noticed the paranoid baby and his drifting thoughts because of the small form that came bounding down the stairs.
"Daddy!! Give me my little brother!" a dark-skinned, blue-haired girl who looked to be around five years old ran down the stairs to stand at Daros' feet demanding her sibling.
"Hahaha, here you go be gentle and don't forget to greet your new mother." Daros chuckled as he handed a very reluctant Syonas to his daughter.
"Hello mama Jean, my name is Desandria, but everybody calls me sandy, daddy has told us a lot about you." Sandy said, while carefully taking Syonas from her father. This act left the young child highly dissatisfied, but since it was his father that gave him to her, he would behave himself for now, but any funny business and he would soil himself immediately.
Let's see how she likes that heh heh.
But she was the picture of a caring sister, and Syonas had to admit she was a lot softer than his dad's scraggly palms and rock-hard muscles.
It wasn't long before he fell asleep and although the adults had more things to discuss amongst themselves, this was the end to Syonas' day.
*********************
With the new additions to the Tellus household and the end to the recent skirmish at the borders, courtesy of duke Tellus himself, the kingdom settled into a peaceful period, allowing duke Tellus to spend his days training, tending to his garden and raising his children.
Two small figures made their way through the halls of the Tellus mansion in search of their lost sibling, well he wasn't really lost; father always knew where they were.
"sy! Syyyyyy! Where are you?" Sandy cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled in a sing-song voice.
"he's a baby sandy; he wouldn't be able to understand you even if he heard you." Candice reminded her sister in her perpetual flat tone.
Where Desandria was a boundless ball of energy Candice was a lot more restrained, possessing a much colder temperament in opposition to her sister and even her mother who seemed to possess a more bubbly attitude, don't be mistaken candy loves her mother a great deal. Still, the person she admired most was mama Lina who was a warrior in the truest sense, she was stoic and strong in character, characteristics that her young mind attributed to strength, with her father being the exception because although her father was the strongest in the house, he was a big softy nothing like what a great general should be in her mind.
So ever since she was young, she had been learning to discipline herself and restrain her impulses making her appear emotionless on the surface, but everybody knew that Candice was the most stubborn person in the house; well most of the time at least, but there was one person who she had infinite patience for.
"That isn't the point Candy. The point is to yell Sy's name loud enough that Papa decides to tell us where he is" sandy retorts with not even a change in shade at how shameless her tactics were, and right on cue, Daros' deep baritone rings out in the hallway.
"haha Sandy knows papa best, your brother is in my study. You can watch but don't disturb him" he said somehow speaking to his daughters without being in the room.
"Thank you, Papa." sandy yelled at space before running down the hallway at breakneck speed Candice in tow.
They quickly made their way to the study and Sandy busted into the study like a bull in a china shop.
"Sy come to sandy for lots of hugs and kisses" sandy declared at the top of her voice scanning the study for her brother.
It had been a year now since Syonas had come to his father's house and he was now two years old, at first he spent most of his time doing regular baby things, like crying, pooping and eating. That was until he discovered his father's study on one of his many forays into the labyrinth of a house they lived in and was immediately entranced by the enormous shelves that lined the four walls
Such beautiful lines, Syonas had never seen such in his life. He immediately began inspecting the books he could reach and luckily many of the lower books had pictures!
Over the next few weeks, Syonas came her every day to study these pictures and match them up to the words. It was a slow grind for a young child to learn a language but adding on the fact that Syonas still had to return to his mothers for feeding and changing made it even harder, Syonas spent the next eleven months deciphering the language written in these books, a colossal effort considering that time amounted to half of his life at that point.
He had also learnt that as long as he stole one of the bottles his mothers prepared in advance for his feeding he would only have to go back at night for his bathing and changing, but that was only a recent development. He hoped to finally honker down and reap all of the benefits of his hard work by reading all these books, but right as he was about to get into them finally; the door flew open and the meddlesome sister of his barged in.
It was a little endearing in the beginning how much she cared about him, but as time went by, the constant hugging and kissing was becoming more of a bother. Syonas was very sure that if Sandy could have her way his feet would never touch the ground again and he would spend his days in his sister's arms.
As for candy, she was not as intense as sandy, but in a way she was even creepier, he would catch her at times just staring at him with an intensity that even a one-year-old him knew was creepy, not to talk of now that he had mastered the hidden scriptures and become a paragon of boundless knowledge.
Sandy reached down and scooped Syonas from the floor and began walking out the door, her father's words completely escaping her mind in the face of the unbelievable cuteness that was her younger brother.
"come Sy, your big sister is going to show you something fun" she said while walking away.
Sy's hands stretched out in vein, reaching towards his precious books but sandy didn't stop and continued forward slowly increasing the distance between sage Sy and his holy text.
"Sandy wait I think he wants something" Candice said bringing great hope to Sy only to shatter it instantly
"We forgot his bottle." she said, picking up his bottle and bringing it to him.
'nooooooo candy you creepy traitor how could you stare at me so creepily for so long and now betray me!' syonas thought to himself.
The worst part of it all, he couldn't talk he couldn't say anything about it he may have been able to un-code the forbidden tomes, but he was nowhere near even understanding one word of this devil speak.
So he could only endure it for now hopefully they will end whatever fun they have planned quick. It will probably involve something dangerous like throwing him around or swinging him from somewhere, but there was no need to worry.
Papa is home.