It was her sixth birthday and she wanted a horse.
Her grandfather had promised her that she can start riding at age six. Saori had been eager to ride since she was three. Without a real horse, she pretended to ride using her pillow as a horse; but that was no fun. She counted down the days till her sixth birthday and watched from the window for her grandfather's return. He had been away from one of his many business trips. When he comes back, he should have a horse with him.
To her disappointment, however, he did not bring any horse.
Instead it was a group of boys.
Saori was not happy; in fact, she was mad.
To calm her down, her butler Tatsumi suggested that she could play with the boys. "They can be your horse," he said. To him, it was only an innocent suggestion. After all, Saori was only a little girl at age of six.
What he did not anticipate was that Saori took that suggestion to the heart. With a whip - a real whip - she went to the boys and demanded one of them to be her horse. A boy named Jabu volunteered. He probably thought she was going to ride on his back and he crawls slowly on the carpeted floor. He had played this game of sort back in the orphanage. But instead of crawling slowly on the floor, Saori had him on his hands and knees in the yard. She climbed on his back and used her whip. Grabbing his hair, she wanted the horse to run as fast as he could. In the end, Saori jumped joyfully up and down while Jabu groaned in pain.
The other boys may have sighed in relief but only found her standing before them wanting another horse.
They looked at her fearfully.
Except for one.
"We are not your servants!" He stood up to her. "We owe you nothing!"
"Seiya!" Tatsumi rebuked. "Do not talk to Miss Saori like this!"
"I can speak to her however I want!" The boy Seiya insisted. "Do not think that I am grateful to be here! You separated me from my sister! I am more than willing to go back to where I came from!"
Angered, Saori used her whip on Seiya; but Seiya caught it before it can hit him.
"Saori-san, ignore Seiya," Jabu came forward. "I'll be your horse."
"No Jabu!" Seiya stopped him. "Don't put yourself this low. She isn't worth it."
Before Saori could say another word, her grandfather Mitsumasa Kido stepped in. "Saori, your playtime with these boys are over. Come, they have training to do."
"What about my horse?" She asked her grandfather.
"You will have your horse," Mitsumasa Kido replied. "When you earn it. One day, you will have a horse with wings."
She rarely saw these boys since then. Four years later, at age ten, she saw her grandfather sending them away to be trained as Saints.
Mitsumasa Kido had told her the stories of Saints, warriors to fight to protect goddess Athena for justice and peace. The boys were sent to various places around the world. Saori went with her grandfather to see those boys off. Instantly, she spotted Seiya. He had grew a head taller than her and was heading to Athens.
Her eyes were glued on Seiya. He stepped on a ship and was ready to go. Suddenly, Saori bolted from her grandfather's side and ran to Seiya. At first, everyone thought she wanted to hug him. But what she really did was shoving Seiya into the water.
And that was the last time she saw Seiya before he left for Athens for six years.
Six years later...
Standing on the cruise ship, she was shivering as the wind blown through here hair. Water was really not her thing. She was having sea sickness since she stepped on board. The idea was Julian Solo's; cruise was a birthday present from him.
She and Julian Solo met at a party three years ago before her grandfather passed away. He claimed that he fell in love with her since the day he saw her. Saori wasn't convinced to say at the least. With the grand wealth behind her name, too many men were willing to fall in love with her. Julian had the right script, but he wasn't the actor. Saori knew he only had his eye on the wealth.
She closed her eyes and waited for the motion sickness pills to take effect.
"Oh there you are," Julian came to her with two glasses of drinks. "I was looking for you."
"And you found me," Saori replied as he handed her the drink. "What it is?"
"Something special," Julian said. "You will love it."
Saori smelled it. "It isn't alcohol, is it?"
"No," Julia said. "It's from Greece. Try it."
She took it sip, and it was sweet.
"To us," Julian raised his glass and saw Saori drank the whole glass. "Tell me, do you like my ship?"
"It's...it's boring," Saori replied, becoming drowsy. "It's like a prison...with nothing to do..."
Julian was offended by her reply. "Really?"
"Really," Saori said. "If I were to choose...I want to be off from this ship...and find myself a horse...with wings..."
Her feet were light like feathers. She moved away from Julian and found it hard to keep her balance. The sound was fading too. She could hear someone yelling. She could feel sea water splashed over her. She could feel the waves taking her away from the ship and everything went black.
Sanctuary, Greece.
It was ten in the morning and the sun was above in the blue sky. Silver Saint Marin knocked on the door of a cottage.
"Seiya! Are you still sleeping?" She demanded. Under her breath, she cursed the fate that she had a disciple like Seiya. He couldn't master his training and often got beat up by other disciples in the Sanctuary. Seiya wasn't small in size but he was often the target of bullying. To much of her frustration, Seiya hardly ever stood up for himself, as if he wanted to be beaten to death. Yesterday, they had a heated argument where Marin accused him wanting to be a failure. This morning, he didn't show up for his routine training. Marin knocked on his door but he wasn't answering. Running out of patience, she busted the door open and found the cottage empty.
Did he run away?
Athens, Greece
A young man walked down the street and was on his way to the dock. The words from last night's argument were still ringing in his ear.
Seiya! You need to stand up for yourself! Do you want to be a failure? Why are you here in the first place?
No, it wasn't his choice to be a Saint. He was sent here by Mitsumasa Kido against his well. Even if he were to earn the Cloth, it would be taken by Kido as part of his weath anyway. After he woke up in the morning, he asked himself why he didn't realize that he's no longer in Kido's control. He was sixteen, not ten. He could walk away if he wants to.
So he got dressed and walked out of the cottage without looking back.
Leaving Sanctuary wasn't easy. From mortal human's view, it was a place of historical ruins. Only the Saints and well trained warriors were capable of crossing the dangerous mountain range to gain access to the real Sanctuary, where twelve Houses of Gold Saints and Pope's chamber stood. Although being in Sanctuary for six years, Seiya never saw the Gold Saints nor the Pope since he was only a Silver Saint's disciple.
In other words, he was a nobody.
He was determined to leave and managed to cross the dangerous mountain range. Returned to Athens, he found himself liberated.
"No! Stay away!" A young woman protested.
Seiya looked into her direction and saw a young woman of sixteen in a white dress sitting on the ground. A few men surrounded her, and she was ready to fight back. Before one of the men was about to grab her, Seiya intervened. The young woman closed her eyes as Seiya beat them to the ground.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
The young woman looked back at him before passing out.
After looking at her face, Seiya recognized her. "Saori-san?"