Okay, so I absolutely luv Sain's character. He's just so funny and so easy to work with. There's just so much to say about him!
Sain: And there's so much to say about you, too, keaira19! You're beautiful and smart and looking at me like you're going to hit me over the head with that rock in your hand. You're not actually going to do that...are you?
Never mind. Anyway! So I came up with this idea! Sain should finally find that one woman for him.
Sain: And I found her! It's you! ...Um, okay, never mind. I take it back. I mean it. ...Oh good, you put the rock down.
And since Sain can't seem to stay interested in one woman for very long, I thought this story would be really funny, too.
Sain: I can too stay interested in one woman for long! I'll love you forever!
Don't make me use this rock.
Sain: Aw, you're so cute when you're mad.
I don't think you want to find out if you're still 'charming' with a black eye and a bump on your head now do you?
Sain: No, ma'am.
That's more like it! Now, enjoy the story and please let me know what you think!
Sain: Yeah, let me know if I'm funny! Because keaira19 doesn't think I'm all that funny and...
Oops, I had to use the rock! Read, enjoy, and review!
The Quest
Sain is lonesome.
Yes, he has Kent. Yes, he has the company of his fellow comrades. Yes, he has better things to worry about (a.k.a. his duty as a knight fighting in a very important war against Nergal) than his loneliness.
But Sain is a guy and he has special needs…needs that can only be fulfilled by the fairer—more intelligent, amazing, superior, you get the point—sex.
So Sain has a mission, a quest, if you will, to find the perfect maiden. She must be beautiful (even though he finds every single woman he comes across beautiful), intelligent (even though all women have at least half a brain over Sain), and funny (though Sain isn't very funny unless you count his pick-up lines…ha, now those are funny).
Anyway, he is determined to find her—whoever 'her' is. And he'll do anything to get her. He'll use all his masculine wiles and witty flattery to woo her into becoming his wife. The goal is gaining a wife…by any means necessary.
The only problem?—there are so many beautiful women in camp.
There's Lyn, the striking Sacaen princess; Priscilla, the demure and charming troubadour; Nino, the adorable little mage; Serra, the demanding, but cute (to some), priestess; Ninian, the dragon dancer; Fiora, the moral and duty-bound pegasus knight, Louise, the enchanting archeress; Isadora, the knighted blue-haired beauty; Farina, the bold pegasus knight; Rebecca, the charming, green-haired archeress; Florina, the timid, lavender-haired pegasus knight; Karla, the deadly gorgeous swordswoman; and of course, Keely, the headstrong and beautiful tactician.
What's a man to do?
"Kent, what should I do?" Sain asks his partner.
Kent, ever moralistic, shakes his head. "You don't want to know," he says.
"But I do! I really, really do! Because Kent, my man, I don't know what I will do! There are so many to choose from. I don't even know where I'll start," he wails.
"I think you should start with a good review of your priorities because—"
"KENT! You are not helping!"
The red-haired knight grumbles to himself about psychiatric help before he replies with an unenthusiastic, "Fine."
Sain jumps up and down like a little boy, and gives his partner a bear hug. "Thank you so much, partner! Okay, so where should we start?"
Kent closes his eyes, and leans against the tree behind him, feeling a headache coming on. "I don't care. Start anywhere." I can't believe I actually conceded to this nonsense, he thinks. Sain must be rubbing off on me.
Sain excitedly scans the camp. His eyes find Lyn first, practicing her sword work with her fellow Sacaen, Rath, nearby. They seem to be talking as she lunges and thrusts, probably about their glorious plains again.
"What about our Lyn?" Sain asks Kent who's staring at Sain incredulously. "She's beautiful, and smart, and—"
"And she's our liege, Sain!" Kent sputters. "I didn't think I had to remind you that our liege is hands-off, but apparently when it comes to women I must remind you of all the rules."
Sain nods at his partner. "Okay…so does that mean I can't woo her?"
Kent groans. "YES!"
"Wait, so I can woo her?!"
Kent reaches for a lance before he realizes that it wouldn't be wise to knock out his partner because that would probably leave Sain with even less brain cells. "No, Sain, you can not—repeat 'can not'—woo our liege. Lyn is here for us to protect, no take advantage of."
Sain pouts. "I never take advantage of women."
Kent just looks at his partner.
Sain looks away.
"That's what I thought," Kent says.
"Fine," Sain says, still upset. His eyes wander over the camp, looking for more women. "Aha! What about Priscilla?"
Kent tries to find some reason to stop Sain from hounding Priscilla, but he can't. I am so sorry Priscilla and the other women of whom I cannot find reasons to stop Sain from coming after you, he thinks. "As far as I know, she is unattached, but—"
"Yes! Thank you, Kent!" Sain exclaims, pulling out a parchment paper. He scrawls 'Priscilla' at the top. "Okay, let's keep going!"
Kent groans again.
"Oh, stop it. You know you're having fun." Kent opens his mouth to say something, but Sain cuts him off. "What about Nino?"
"Sain," Kent starts sternly, "Nino is only a child. You can't honestly say you're attracted to her."
"But she is cute with that—"
"No! No, I don't want to hear it," Kent says, putting his hands over his ears. "I simply won't allow you to proposition Nino. Do you understand me, Sain? No Nino."
"I think I should at least give it a shot—"
"Listen to your partner, Sain," someone says. Kent jumps up from his position, looking around for the owner of the voice. Sain does the same, but his attention quickly turns to his quill which is dangerously close to the parchment…
"If you write down Nino's name on your ridiculous list, I will personally make you incapable of following it," Jaffar says as he emerges from behind a tree. "Nino is under my protection. If you touch her, I will find out, and you will pay."
Then he disappears.
"Jeez!" Sain says. "Fine, I won't put her name down. He's a little overprotective, don't you think, Kent?"
Kent just shakes his head.
"Moving on! Ooh, what about Serra?" Sain asks.
Kent tries not to laugh. "Serra? You like Serra? Most people can't stand her."
"But she's so cute," Sain says.
"But looks aren't everything and Serra is—"
"They're not?" Sain asks curiously, scratching his head. "But they count for a lot, then, right?"
Kent goes back to leaning against the tree with his eyes closed. "Serra's yours."
"Yes!" Sain says, writing her name down. "There's Ninian dancing. Ah, she's so very beautiful. What about her?"
"She's a dragon," Kent says, hoping that says it all.
Of course it doesn't.
"So? I don't discriminate," Sain replies.
"Sain, don't go there. Ninian and her brother are dragons. They don't belong in this world. Therefore, if you marry her, she'll have to leave you. Does that make sense?"
"Oh," Sain says, nodding. "Okay, you're right."
"Finally," Kent says.
"Then how's Fiora? She's beautiful, too. Even more than Ninian."
Kent stiffens. For a while now, he's been looking after Fiora way more than a comrade should. He's purposely befriended her sisters, and has asked, multiple times, for Keely to put them near each other during a fight. Fiora is everything that he's ever wanted in a woman. She's beautiful, yes, but she's so much more. She has a strong sense of duty and morals, and never deviates from those ideals. She's in essence his perfect match.
No way was he going to let Sain get her first.
"I think she has a husband back in Ilia," Kent lies. "Sorry, Sain."
Sain looks at his partner quizzically. "But I heard you ask Farina if she's single and she said yes."
Now Kent really wanted to knock Sain out, but he refrained. Fiora would have done the same, he thinks. "Oh, right, I forgot. I guess you can't believe everything you hear. If Farina says she's single, she must be."
Kent curses his morals as he watches Sain write his true love's name down on the list.
"Ah, be still my heart! A fair-haired beauty is cometh!" Sain gushes. "What about her?"
"Sain, that is Lady L—," Kent starts, but Sain's already gone. I don't think I've ever seen Sain move that fast, he thinks.
"Ah! Mine eyes have seen perfection made flesh!" Sain exclaims.
"I'm sorry?" Louise says, utterly confused.
"Surely the gods have graced me with a vision of heaven itself! Those eyes, like celestial orbs! That hair, like molten gold! What greater ecstasy could a humble knight know than to encounter such exquisite rapture on this earth!"
Don't you think you're overdoing it, Sain? …No, of course not.
"And…who are you again?" Louise asks, quite taken aback by Sain's words.
"I am Sain, knight of Caelin! And I am awed by your beauty!"
Yes, because she didn't understand that from your earlier soliloquy.
"My, how flattering…," Louise says, not sure of what else she should say. She smiles. "I am Louise."
"Lady Louise? Not the Etrurian…," Sain murmurs.
"Yes. I am wife to Lord Pent, Count Reglay," she says.
"What? You…you are the countess?" he says, his heart breaking.
"Yes," Louise says.
Sain shakes his head wildly, silent for a few moments. "Bad Sain! Bad, bad Sain! You have gone too far! Oh! But why? She is so lovely! What could I do? How could I resist?"
"Well…I should let you be. You certainly do seem to be in quite a bother…," Louise says, leaving him. Before she's out of earshot, she calls, "By the way, Sir Sain, Lady Keely calls for you."
And then she leaves…rather quickly.
Sain, with a defeated expression across his face, trudges back to Kent. "That is Lady Louise, the Countess Reglay."
"I know," Kent says.
Sain gapes. "Then why didn't you tell me? Nay, never mind, I would not have listened, methinks. She was just so lovely, so very lovely… Ah, well. Mustn't dwell," Sain says. He brightens suddenly. "What about her! Isadora!"
"Isadora? I don't know much about her, to be honest," Kent admits. "I think you should meet her first before you—"
"—start writing her name down," Kent finishes as he watches Sain draw the last 'a' of her name.
"There!"
"But you hardly know her," Kent accuses.
"I know all I need to know about her," Sain insists.
"Like what?"
"She is beautiful and single: perfect for me!" Sain says.
Kent sighs. "Why do I ever bother?"
"Ah, in the skies! There flies Farina!" Sain says, pointing upwards. "Kent, what say you to her?"
"I say that she's not interested in you because I've spoken to her on multiple occasions," Kent says. "She finds you rather repulsive."
Sain looks aghast. "Why?!"
"You're not rich," Kent says.
Sain nods. "Yes, you're right. But together we'd be rich with love!"
"But she wants money, so let's move on," Kent says.
"Fine," Sain says, giving up because he's found another girl. "That beautiful archeress!"
"Sain, we already went over this. Lady Louise is married," Kent says.
"No, no, not her! That archeress Rebecca," Sain says.
"Oh," Kent says, mulling it over. "I suppose she's single. Though I have seen Raven around her quite a bit. Wil, too."
"But they are no rivals of mine!" Sain declares. "On the list Rebecca goes."
"So who's next, Sain?" Kent asks. "I'm getting tired of this."
"Only a little longer, my friend," Sain says. "Ah, what about Florina?"
Kent laughs. "Are you kidding? She's terrified of you!"
Sain looks hurt. "Why?"
"Florina is timid around women, afraid of men, and terrified of men who chase women like you do," Kent says. "It would never work. Besides, Fiora and Farina would come after you with their lances if you went after their younger sister."
"Ah, but not if I woo Fiora," Sain says. "Then I could woo Florina after…and possibly even Farina…"
"Sain, repeat after me: I, Sain, will neither go after Florina nor her sisters," Kent says.
"I, Sain, will neither go after Florina nor her sisters," Sain says, "except for Fiora because she's single. Got it, Kent!"
Kent, repeat after me: I, Kent, will neither hit Sain over the head with my lance or push him off the ledge, Kent thinks.
"Karla! What magnificent beauty!" Sain admires. "What about her?"
"Sain, she could cut you up into ribbons," Kent says.
Sain shakes his head confidently. "Not once she meets me! Then she'll be too enthralled by my charm—"
"Her brother is Karel," Kent says.
This time, that says it all.
"Oh, well, in that case, Karla is off-limits," Sain says. "Well then, I think I am done. Thank you, Kent, for helping me out."
Kent gets up, and brushes himself off. "Don't mention it," he says. "And I mean it: don't mention it—especially to the women of this camp."
Sain nods, too busy looking at his scroll. "Oh, wait! Keely had called for me!"
Kent, a man of his duty, scowls. "Sain! If our tactician calls for us, we do not delay! It could have been important!"
"I got it!" Sain exclaims.
"What?"
"She must be calling for me because she loves me," Sain says. "That is why it was so urgent that I come to her."
"She's called for me before and she doesn't love me," Kent points out.
"Yes, yes, but you don't look like me," Sain says. "Ah, I must put her name down. She could be The One!"
"The one to kill you, yes," Kent mumbles to himself. The tactician's temper is not something to be trifled with unless you have a death wish…or you're Sain.
"What was that, partner?" Sain asked.
Kent shakes his head, and starts leaving. "Nothing, Sain, nothing. Good luck."
Sain smiles. "I won't need it! But after I find a wife, I promise I'll help you find one, too!"
"Oh, the joy," Kent mutters. "Can't wait."
"I can't wait," Sain says to himself, a broad grin on his face. "Finally, I'll find a wife."
Or he'll find a lot of rejection, either one!