like father

Syonas remembered the day he came into this world just as clear as he remembered every day ever since, most days didn't stand out, they were mostly a blur of crying, feeding and images of his mother. Still, there was one day that stood out amongst the rest, the day he met his father.

He remembered that morning very clearly, after his morning feeding and abolition, he was taken out of the hut for the first time, the same hut he had been inside for all sixteen months of his life, at the time.

He remembered immediately bursting into tears at the stench that assaulted his young nose upon exiting his former domicile, drawing the attention of everybody there, but not for long though as the people of the colonies had much more to worry about and what drew their attention was the beautifully crafted carriage parked in the middle of the ugliness that was the colonies' slums.

Painted in beautiful emerald green, imbedded with the most expensive and outlandish jewels that told of a wealth that the denizens of these slums could not even comprehend.

From this carriage disembarked a man dress in traditional butler attire, a brown long sleeve shirt with an intricately designed collar, black slacks and sandals. He possessed the racial traits typical of slaves, dark brown skin, cross-shaped eyes and rainbow-like hair.

Even while crying his eyes out Syonas' young mind still had the extra processing space to memorise his features. He made his way to them before dipping into a bow.

"good morning mistress the Lord has commanded me to pick up you and the young master, I was also told to apologise for his absence, he had other pressing matters." he said in an even tone.

Syonas felt his mother clench up in anxiety from the unexpected attention she was drawing.

"by your lord, do you mean Daros." She said hesitantly

"yes, my lady, lord Daros is a duke off the highest pedigree, an honour earned through blood and war in recognition of significant contributions unrivalled in their magnitude." The butler said with great zeal and enthusiasm.

"Daros is a duke?" my mother asked with scepticism.

"yes, mistress" the butler answered curtly with a tinge of pride in his voice.

"Daros? Big guy, loud voice, a little obnoxious, you're telling me he is a duke?" she asked her shock again more than evident.

"The lord has his..... Eccentricities but I assure you he lives up to his name" the butler replied, his face twisting, as though he felt shame for making even the slightest disparage of his master.

"........... Okay" after a moment of silence Jean eventually gives her permission and follows the butler to the carriage under the stares of everyone present before getting on.

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Jean's mind began to wander during the carriage ride to their destination; she remembered the first time she met Daros.

She was on her way back from the fields after a long day of work and came across a strange scene, a master was giving out food to orphans on the middle of the street.

He had the normal defining features of a master, pale skin, golden eyes and blue hair in a crew cut, dressed in a simple black shirt and black pants; he stood at a towering 6'6 with facial features reminiscent of sculpted marble and a figure like carved stone.

Though she found those features impressive that is not what drew her attention, what drew her attention was the way he treated the children, how he let them scale him with their muddy dirt-covered hands and how he played and laughed with them, Jean found herself being drawn to him and before she knew it she was before his crouched form.

Finally noticing her presence, the gentle giant stood to his full height towering over her, he smiled and introduced himself in a somewhat loud voice.

"Hi, I'm Daros," he said with a bright smile on his face

Jean had never really been a girly girl, in fact, you could say she was a tomboy and one of the reasons for that was her father.

Her father was no ordinary slave, he was a soldier who fought for the kingdom, and he instilled her with specific life lessons in the short seven years he was in her life, Lessons of self-respect, integrity, and determination.

With her looks, she could have easily gone to some of those big whorehouses and become a famous prostitute, making enough money to spend the rest of her life in relative comfort but the thought of selling her body for her survival stung her pride so much it took no more than a few seconds to scrap such ideas and march forward into the fields to work for her food, a hard choice for an average seven-year-old to make; not Jean though.

Since then she had been something of a loner, when puberty came round, she was smart and immediately covered up everything, thankfully there was no lack of mutilations taking place in the colonies and everyone just assumed her face had been maimed.

Since then things had settled into a lull she was waiting so she could come of age and begin cultivating biding he time and planning her future, she could afford no distractions.

Until she met him.

Daros was different from everyone she had met so far, and if she had to compare him to anyone in particular, she would say he reminded her of her father. He didn't wear his pride on his sleeve the way her father did, but it was there, in his words in his gestures in the way he carried himself, and that's what drew her in.

She knew Daros for six months, and in that time, he had told her many things about himself; like the wars he fought in, never about his achievements though, mostly about his friends and how much he missed some of them.

How many wives and children he had; two wives and two daughters precisely and how he liked to garden, it was his favourite past time.

They spent a lot of time together because he visited the colonies a lot to feed the orphans and during this time Jean found herself hopelessly in love with him, a feeling he didn't seem to reciprocate or even notice.

On one of his visits, he tells her how things where escalating on the border and how he was being sent of to war, her heart clenched knowing that she might never see him again and in that moment of emotional turmoil she blurted out all her feeling in a garbled incoherent mess of verbal diarrhoea, she didn't remember what she said in particular, all she remembered was that at the end of it she and Daros had made it back to her cabin and their clothes where dropping to the floor to be followed by a night filled with passion.

The next morning she woke up in the arms of an already conscious Daros, she panicked and tried to stand up only for him to tighten his grip.

"Too late to run now, from now on your not getting rid of me" he said with a light chuckle.

It was still a few days until he left for the war and what followed for her was bliss, Daros brought his family to the colonies to meet her, a move that shocked her but did not go as badly as she expected.

His two wives, Daisy and Lina, the latter was a member of the slave race, where both strangely welcoming and kind to her.

She later on found out that Daros was very depressed by the situation in the slums and the only reason he kept coming back was for her and although he was too much of a knucklehead to understand his emotional state at the time, they very much saw this coming, and were already mentally prepared to add another member to the family.

Daros offered to buy her from the colonies and take her with him, an offer that she rejected because even if she loved Daros she still had the blood of her father in her veins and she would earn what she wanted she would scrape together the money to buy her freedom herself.

At least that was the plan until she found out she was pregnant and she immediately changed her mind, she may be willing to suffer through the tragedy that is colony life personally, but there is no way she is raising a child in this hell hole.

Sadly, by the time the letter got to Daros and his wives, they were on the frontline, and they had gotten themselves into a bit of a difficult situation, so to protect Jean and his unborn son from his enemies, the then pregnant Jean had to be moved to a new home in a secluded location in a different section of the colony where they spent the last three years in hiding. ( Syonas was born in the second year.)

After a three-year separation, Jean found herself missing the big oaf more and more, even the shocking news that in their time apart he had somehow become a duke did nothing to dampen her spirits, though the anxiety of carrying around her defenceless son in the open where anyone could hurt him was still weighing on her the thought that he would soon meet his father made it easier to withstand.

The carriage stopped and then she saw him; his hair was a little longer, and he had a new scar on his cheek, but he seemed fine, as soon as he made it to her, he enveloped her in his big arms burying his face in her hair and taking a deep breath of her scent as she took a deep breath of his.

"I missed you," Jean said in a soft voice that she would probably kick herself for later.

"I missed you too." Daros said in a similar voice

"But first things first" he said presenting his arms to receive his son

"Have you named him yet?" Daros said his face blooming into a smile when he saw the face that looked like a softer version of his.

"no, my father named me, I thought I would give him a similar memory of his own father" Jean said andDaros nodded his smile growing fatherly.

"Okay, then he will bare his maternal grandfather's name, Syonas of the house of Tellus the second of his name." Daros said his voice full of pride