Lilac

The late afternoon sun cast long blue shadows on the freshly fallen snow. Half-entranced by the winter sight, Florina almost forgot why she was flying up so high. Her pegasus adjusted quickly as a stray freezing wind attempted to blow the lavender-haired girl off course. Shivering, she blew on her leather clad hands. True, she was dressed for the weather as best she could, but this winter was swiftly becoming one of the worst the lands of Sacae and Ostia had ever seen. An early frost had killed a good majority of the harvest while an onslaught of rain had drowned what remained. The people were starving and unrest was re-claiming the land just a year after the Black Fang had been eradicated.

Flying over a frozen lake of a farm field, Florina scanned the horizons, searching for any signs of life. She was accompanying Lyn to Ostia’s castle where Hector awaited her aid in finding a solution to these desperate times. Checking on the ground behind her, she could barely make out the rest of her party: Lyn at the head, Wil, Rebecca, and Matthew following closely behind. Staying at the back in case of ambush were two cavaliers; Kent and Sain.

A sudden movement caught her eye as she turned her head to the front. Pulling on the reins, Florina slowed her steed to allow a better glimpse of what was ahead. Nothing moved, but she didn’t dismiss it as mere coincidence. Circling back, the pegasus knight descended and landed just ahead of the group.

“Florina!? What is it?” Lyn came running while kicking up the knee deep snow as she struggled through.

“Bandits! I think they’re in the patch of trees about a mile ahead,” Florina spoke as she dismounted allowing enough time for the rest to catch up. “A-and I-I think th-they saw me,” Florina’s composure disintegrated as the men got closer. She knew they were all trust-worthy, but she still couldn’t help being on edge around them. All the stories she’d heard during her training. Quickly she brought her mind back to the present situation.

Lyn and Kent discussed their options as Matthew scanned the distant horizon, half expecting the bandits to instantly appear. Wil and Rebecca unpacked their bows and strung them in a professional manner despite cold fingers.

“You look cold, I’d imagine it’s twice as bad up there, especially for one as delicate as you, my pretty lilac,” Sain approached the knight smoothly, as he would with any other girl.

Florina backed off with a worried look in her eyes.

“We’re setting up camp over in that little patch of trees,” a most welcome interruption came when Lyn and Kent came to an agreement. Kent indicated a small grove behind them and the group quickly set out.

---

Florina was fumbling with the ropes to her small tent after seeing that her pegasus was covered up well enough for the moment. It was far too cold to leave him outside so she was going to bring him into her tent. It wasn’t too much of a problem even though it was a small tent, besides she felt safer sleeping with her silent friend nearby. However, it didn’t seem like she was ever going to get the tent up. With a muffled thud all of her hard work fell to the ground again. Cursing inside her head she blew on her frozen fingers, which had gone numb hours ago. It was a miracle she hadn’t gotten frostbite yet. Sighing, Florina picked up the heavy canvas material and again lifted the polls into the upright position. Running over she grabbed the ropes and began to tie them to the stakes she’d already pounded into the ground. No sooner than she’d managed to secure the second, her tent collapsed again.

“Need help?” a friendly voice came from behind, however a shudder escaped down her back as the green clad knight took the ropes from her frozen hands. “Here, let me do this and you go set up the pillars again! We’ll have this up in no time!” his smile sent her scurrying for the inside of the tent.

What was his deal? Ever since they’d defeated the Black Fang, Sain hadn’t been flirting as much with the other girls. Instead he seemed focus on her and almost solely her. Any other girl would have been delighted to be in her situation, she thought, just for her was this a nightmare. And waking up didn’t seem like it was an option.

“Okay, my precious lilac! You’re all set! Just call me if you need something! I’m off to set up my tent!” he walked off with a smile and a wave.

To Florina’s continued horror the green knight had given her a nickname and used quite regularly, in fact she couldn’t recall an instance since the start of this mess that he hadn’t. She removed the packs from her steed quickly and dropped them to the ground when she saw Sain returning. “W-what are y-you d-doing??”

Sain’s arms were full of his tent he had yet to erect. Beaming, he set down his pile right next to hers and walked back to his horse to retrieve the rest.

Florina stood in shock for a moment, shaking her head and hoping reverently this was all just a dream she led her pegasus into the tent and hastily tossed the rest of her gear in before dashing off just as Sain returned.

She ran to the traditional Sacae nomad tent, which obviously, was Lyn’s. Tears were beginning to form in her eyes but she didn’t care. She just needed to talk to her friend and get away from HIM.

“Florina, what’s the matter?” Lyn looked up startled from a map she had spread out in front of her on some furs she was sitting on.

The lavender haired girl stood inside the doorway fighting back her tears, “It’s Sain…” she managed.

Lyn folded up the map and made room for Florina on the pile of furs. “Come sit down, you look frozen to say the least.”

Florina nodded meekly accepting her friend’s invitation. Once she had sat down, Lyn pulled out a blanket from behind her and wrapped it around the pegasus knight.

“So, what’s our flirty friend up to now? Another nickname?” Lyn’s smile was caring; she knew what her friend was going through, after all, Sain had flirted with her as well.

Before Florina could speak two more people entered the tent. “Hey Lyn, do you think- oh! Florina!” Rebecca noticed the lavender haired girl’s distressed look. Turning to her companion she shoved him out. “Out! Out! Wil, you blockhead! Can’t you see there’s a girl in distress?”

Wil lost his balance and fell to the ground outside of the tent. “Ow, watch it Rebecca, I need my arms in top condition if we’re ambushed!”

“Oh toughen up you wimp! Go back to our tent! I’ll be back later,” the green haired archer yelled before joining her friends on the rugs. “So, what’s with the tears? Frostbite?”

Florina laughed briefly through her tears. “No, it’s Sain…” she gave a downcast glance at her hands folded on her lap.

“What has he done now? Don’t tell me he proposed?!” Rebecca exclaimed.

“Be reasonable, Rebecca!” scolded Lyn as Florina gaped.

“N-nothing like that! He’s, he’s setting his tent next to mine!”

“So, what’s wrong with that? You should be happy to have such a devoted man! I have to order Wil around ALL the time!”

“HEY! I’m not that helpless!” called a voice through the tent.

“See what I mean?” Rebecca’s smile suddenly obtained a hint of evil. “Excuse me while I deal with my husband…” the archer left the tent swiftly.

“Ow! Rebecca! Dear, that’s my ear you’re pulling off!” Wil moaned as his wife dragged him off.

The two remaining women waited until they could no longer hear the couple’s squabbles before returning to the issue at hand.

“So, Sain feels like protecting you. Is that all that bad?” Lyn gently spoke with her friend.

“N-no, I guess not, but… why me?”

“My guess is that it’s since he finds you a challenge.”

“So, I’m j-just a battle to him?” asked Florina, fresh tears brimming in her eyes.

“Well, you don’t seem to believe that he’s fallen for you.”

Florina shook her head, “What should I do, Lyn?”

Lyn thought for a moment. “Well, ignoring him has never worked, why don’t you try talking to him? Let him know you don’t like all this.”

“M-me? Talk to a guy?”

“At least try, I know you can. You talked quite a bit to Hector back when we were all traveling together, didn’t you?”

The lavender haired girl thought back, “But Lord Hector is…” she struggled to find the right word, “…different. More… polite?”

Lyn sighed, “It shouldn’t be much different. Just give it a go. And if he’s still annoying after that, I’ll deal with him.”

---

“Sain, can we have a word with you for a moment?”

The green knight looked up from his work after tying up the last rope to his tent. “Sure, Kent, Matthew, what’s up?”

“It’s about your obsession with Florina,” the thief spoke.

“Obsession?” Sain smiled guiltily, “I wouldn’t call it that…”

“It doesn’t matter what you call it,” interrupted Kent, “We’re concerned that either you’ve lost your mind or you’re going to be really hurt when she finally tells you she doesn’t like you.”

“Oh,” Sain paused in thought, “Well, maybe I have lost my mind, but I just think she just needs to get over her phobia of men,” his grin returned, “And who better to do it than me?”

Matthew shook his head.

Kent was nearing his limits of this hopeless knight, “Okay, say this actually works. What if she does like you? What then? You’ll just run off like you always do with some other pretty face and I don’t imagine she’ll be able to recover from that.”

Sain suddenly became serious; “I won’t. If she likes me it won’t be for the reasons you’re thinking!”

“Geez… you’re just like Serra when it comes to this issue. Always in denial,” Matthew had accepted this assignment just to get away from his girlfriend’s constant nagging.

“What, exactly, am I denying?” asked Sain incredulous.

Matthew raised an eyebrow, “That you’re completely smitten with your ‘lilac’.”

The green knight opened his mouth to protest further, but shut it quickly. Florina had exited Lyn’s tent and was nervously making her way towards him.

Sensing something major about to happen, the red knight and the thief left as if nothing had just happened.

“If it isn’t my lilac! Come sit with me for a bit!” Sain waved to the pegasus knight.

She hesitated and stopped in her tracks; deciding whether or not to run into her tent or back to Lyn’s.

“Aw, c’mon! I don’t bite!”

“O-okay…” Florina muttered meekly and forced herself to walk over.

Sain moved a small section of a fallen tree in between their tents, “Here, you can sit on this.” He allowed her to sit before he parked himself on the other end.  

Silence followed as both waited for the other to say something.

“What’s on your mind, you’ve been silent this whole time? Frostbite get your tongue?” mused Sain, still wondering what had brought on his comrade’s inquisition from earlier.

Florina looked at Sain for a moment and then to her hands folded in her lap. “S-Sain, I-I… I don’t… I don’t like… this… the...”

Sain smiled sadly, “I should have guessed, you don’t like me… well, I guess… I tried,” he managed.

“N-no! That’s not… what I meant. I-” she was cut off abruptly by an arrow whizzing between them and landing in the snow behind them.

“IT’S AN AMBUSH!” roared Sain alerting everyone in their group.
Hastily the soldiers grabbed their weapons and moved to surround Lyn’s tent. There was no time to mount her steed and Florina now found herself wielding her lance on foot. The group of bandits had surrounded their camp completely and from the looks of things there were at least 20 of them.

Lyn emerged from her tent, “Don’t count me out of this fight,” she said drawing her sword.

“You’re surrounded! Surrender Lady Lyndis and we’ll spare your lives!” shouted the largest bandit. His appearance suggested he was the leader and the large axe he had slung over his shoulder told the group that he was serious.

“Not a chance!” yelled Kent, he glanced back at their leader and she gave him a nod. Kent readied his weapon, being on foot he’d chosen a sword.

The bandit laughed. “Fine, keep your treacherous leader. See if she cares when you run out of food too. She doesn’t care; she’s got all the food she can eat in that palace of hers.”

“We know that’s not true!” shouted Matthew. “Lyn has cut back on the castle food, we all have!”

“Shut up you whelp, or I’ll cut you down now.”

“Why don’t you try?” Matthew raised an eyebrow as a dangerous look crossed his face.

“Enough, Matthew,” Lyn stepped forward, sword in her hand, but not quite at the ready. She looked up at the bandit, “You can see that I am on my way to Castle Ostia, can you not? Lord Hector and I are working to solve this problem to the best of our abilities, put down your weapons and we’ll let you go.”

“Peh, you think that I’ll ever believe you stuffy royals? Fat chance!” the bandit leader whistled and all became chaos as the band attacked from all directions.

Florina found herself cut off from her comrades and surrounded by bandits all wielding axes.

“Haha, look what we’ve found; a pretty little flower! What do you say to putting down your weapons and coming with us?” one of them jeered.
Florina searched for an escape, but came up empty. Instead she saw a bandit sneaking into her tent.

“Oh ho! Look at what’s in here! Ain’t he a beauty?”

“Don’t touch him!” Florina roared. The one thing worth more than her life was in that tent; her pegasus. Suddenly enraged the girl flung herself at the men blocking her way. They pushed her back but were soon met with the end of Florina’s spear. The man directly in front of her gasped and fell to his knees clutching at the wound he had just sustained. The second man barely had time to react before he too felt her spear. The third and fourth bandits were caught off guard for a moment, but recovered in time to lunge for the running girl. One of them grabbed her boot causing her to stumble to a halt. Suddenly he let out a cry. An arrow had lodged itself in his back, courtsey of Wil.

Florina didn’t look back to see what had saved her and started running again. Time was of the essence if she wanted to save her steed. She burst through the flaps of her tent to find the bandit crouching over her pegasus. He whinnied in fright. The lavender haired girl wasted no time in running her spear through this man too. He crumpled to the ground on top of her pegasus. Rushing over, Florina removed the man from on top of her friend. After making sure the pegasus was okay, she gave a quick sigh of relief, picked up her spear again and rushed back out of her tent.

“Where are you going, pretty one?” asked the owner of an immense axe that was now at her throat.

She took a few steps back as the bandit leader cornered her in her tent. Knowing her chances of escape were slim, Florina took the only option she could. “Hyahhh!!!” she charged at the man striking his side as he side-stepped. The tip of her spear failed to cut through the man’s armor. Stumbling forward in attempts to stop and turn, Florina felt something hit her in the back. “Aagh!” she cried out and fell to the ground. The bandit leader had struck her with his axe. Florina was in too much pain to move. She could only watch as the bandit leader walked in front of her and stare at his boats coated in grime. His black boots made such a contrast with the white patch of snow she was laying in. White, the color of her most valued companion’s soft mane, and also… of that stupid caviler’s smile. Why was she thinking of him in her dying moments? This puzzled her, but she felt she’d never get to know why. Never get to tell him what she’d really meant to a few hours ago. To go away and leave her alone, but that wasn’t what she wanted right now. Just to see him one more time and to tell him she was sorry. She continued to stare at the white snow in front of her face, waiting for the final blow.

It never came. Instead, red suddenly coated the patch of snow she was focusing on. As the red hit the white snow it sunk in, melting it away. The sounds of combat rang out as the steal of two weapons met.  Someone let out a groan and the pair of boots in front of her staggered back before falling over. The bandit leader dropped his axe into the snow with a muffled thud.

Florina’s vision was getting fuzzier by the moment; she would no doubt pass out from blood loss soon. She heard a hastily thrust sword impact the frozen ground and someone rushing over to her.

“Florina!!!! Oh, no! Don’t be dead, please don’t be dead!” it was Sain’s voice; that much she was sure of. A pair of strong arms lifted her limp form up and gently turned her over, cradling her gently. “Matthew!” he called out to the nearest comrade, “Get some bandages or something quick!”

The thief ran for Florina’s bag of supplies without a word. Her tent was closest and he knew full well she carried the most first aid supplies of the entire group.

“Hang on, Florina!” Sain called to the girl in his arms knowing she was starting to fade. He would have used his own cloak to bandage his comrade, but risk of infection was too high.

Florina stared up helplessly at the green knight. She was in too much pain to so much as speak. His face was full of genuine concern and if she wasn’t mistaken, he had tears starting in his eyes. Not once in her memory could she remember Sain crying. Not even when some of their comrades had been killed, he’d been able to keep a strong exterior. Why, then, was he crying over her?  She didn’t have much time to wonder as she soon passed out.

Matthew came rushing back, a red blur on the bleak winter scenery. “If you hold her I’ll bandage her.”

Sain nodded and adjusted the limp form of Florina carefully so that Matthew could access the wound on her back.

Moving her thin armor away from the wound, the thief suppressed a gasp, “…It’s deeper than I thought…. But he didn’t hit her spinal cord…” he worked quickly to stanch the bleeding. In no time at all Matthew had wrapped Florina in several thick layers of bandages, using up almost all of the girl’s supply. “We should get her out of the cold.”

Sain nodded and swiftly stood and moved Florina into his tent; he’d seen the one bandit entrance and didn’t think it was a good idea to put the injured in with the dead man.

---

Florina’s eyes fluttered open as she stared confused at the stone ceiling over her head.

“Florina! You’re awake!” Rebecca was the first to notice. She jumped up from where she had been seated. “How do you feel?”

“Unh, fine... well… no, that’s not… Sain? What happened to him?” the pegasus knight was having trouble making sense of her current situation.

Rebecca laughed. “He’s here. In fact he’s the one who brought you all the way here.”

“Huh?” Florina sat up and looked around.

“You’re in Castle Ostia. Sain rode you all the way here on his horse, but I guess you wouldn’t have known that being unconscious at the time.”
Florina was stunned, “He what? Where, where is he now?”

“Over there, sleeping,” the archer pointed to the corner where sure enough, the caviler was sleeping in a chair. “It was a four hour run, he’s exhausted from all the worrying.”

“And… everyone else?”

“We got here a few hours ago. We didn’t know any of this had happened until Sain had run off, Matthew told us. And he did a pretty darn good job at bandaging you up! Serra would have been impressed, but I bet she taught him.”

As Rebecca chatted on, Florina stared at Sain’s sleeping form.

“Hey! Look who’s up!” Hector entered the room accompanied by Lyn. “You gave us quite the scare.”

“Ah! Lord Hector! Lyn! I’m, I’m sorry for… causing so much trouble. Please forgive me.”

Lyn laughed, “He’s just teasing you. True, we were worried, but thanks to Sain, you’ll be fine.” She looked in the corner, “Still sleeping? I think I’ll have to tell Kent his subordinate isn’t getting enough sleep!”

Sain moaned a bit in his sleep.

“C’mon Hector, let’s go before he wakes up.” Lyn tugged on Hector’s arm, “We’ve got stuff to discuss now that Florina’s all better.” The two exited the room.

All was silent for a moment.

With a sly grin on her face, Rebecca walked over to the sleeping knight, jabbed him in the stomach and ran out of the room.

“Gaaah! What the?! Ack! Sorry for falling asleep on duty sir!” Sain stood up expecting Kent to admonish him. “Oh, wait, that was Rebecca, wasn’t it?”

Florina giggled at the strange sight she had just witnessed.

“Florina! You’re awake! Thank goodness! I thought, I thought you were a goner!” he rushed over to her bedside and sat on the edge. “Oh, right, you were going to tell me you didn’t like that… he began to back off when she grabbed his hand.

“No… don’t… don’t go… I, I was… wrong. I… I… think… I like… you…” she managed to get her words out in a whisper.

Sain sat stunned. One because she, the girl who was so afraid of men was holding his hand of her own free will and two; she’d said the impossible.

“You, you were… really concerned about me, weren’t you?” she asked quietly.

The green knight stared in wonder at the girl before him; he’d “fallen” for many girls before, but this one felt different. He leaned in closer; she didn’t back off. Their faces were now inches apart. “Did you really mean that?”

“Y-yes…”

Squeezing her hand gently he kissed her full on the lips. It was only a small kiss, but both of them were feeling a bit awkward about this.

Florina’s face was a brilliant shade of crimson.

“Get some rest, we’ll be here for awhile, and even if we were going somewhere, you’re in no condition to go.”

Florina looked a bit upset.

Sain smiled, “No protests, I’ll be back, but you aren’t leaving this room until I’m convinced you’re all better, my lilac.” He exited the room and shut the door behind him.

The girl laid back down, smiling to herself. She could deal with being his “lilac” after all.