Sain came to consciousness as he felt enveloped by the sensation of soft clean sheets, although he found it difficult to breathe as if a great weight had been placed on his chest. Opening his eyes, the sight of a clean and orderly room greeted him. He was currently lying in a bed as morning sunlight slowly flooded through an open window, reflecting off of Gera's brown curls as she lay face down on the bed, a damp cloth in one hand and breathing rhythmically. Gera looked young for her early thirties (her having taken Sain in at the tender age of fourteen) and the only sign of the life of servitude she had endured were the rough calluses on her hands and the various scars she had acquired along her wrist and forearms from being beaten with a switch when she was young. Gera didn't like to talk about her past. Her brown curls obscured a lovely face, and she liked it that way. It was dangerous for a colorless woman to be found attractive. If a noble or merchant discovered her appearance, then things would change for much the worse, being bought or sold as an object. This was the woman who had raised Sain from infancy.
As Sain shifted in bed to get a better look at his surroundings (this most assuredly NOT being his room in the colorless quarters) Sain found the room to be furnished quite lavishly. The floor was polished until it shone, and several cabinets filled the wall along with a mirror and a wooden basin full of water for washing one's face and hands. Cotton cloth was blowing gently in the breeze by the window, blocking some of the light from the rising sun and letting poor Gera sleep. Attempting to rise from the bed, a wave of dizziness swept over him. He barely rose an inch before collapsing once again. At this point a dull ache could be felt around the middle of his chest, and looking down in horror Sain saw a spider web of black lines spiraling up the front of his shirt beneath his skin. Attempting to lift his hand, Sain struggled to pull the neck of his shirt down slightly and saw the wood grain ring now firmly dug into his chest, the black tendrils spreading from it like a black spider web of veins beneath his skin. Sain reached out, attempting to grasp the edge of the ring but to little luck as there was almost no room to get purchase on it. Finally managing to grasp a part of it he tried to tug it out to little avail other than to increase the pressure he felt on his chest, the black lines assuring that it stayed firmly rooted in his chest.
"What is this thing? I thought It was just some memento left by my Guardian," Sain thought to himself as he tried to gather his thoughts."I was out to feed Mira, when..."
Memories of his encounters with the three gardener adepts flooded his mind, pushing back all fog of sleep. Attempting to rise once more, Sain felt something slide off his lap onto the sheets beside him. It was a large green egg with a black crown. The sound of footsteps could now be softly heard coming from the door opposite the bed, and Sain quickly snatched up the egg as Gera stirred in her sleep at the sudden movement. The door slowly opened and a man in blue robes with an odd six legged serpent on his shoulders stood quietly in the doorway, a look of surprise appearing on his face at Sain who lay weakly clutching the egg defensively as Gera was slowly roused to wakefulness.
"See Reazon, I told you he would be up!" a soft hissing voice echoed from the serpent on the man's shoulders. "Out for exactly sixteen hours and twenty one minutes."
Raising a finger to the serpent man, Reazon-Sain supposed- quieted the serpent while Sain gawked at the talking beast in bewilderment. A talking beast! Alarmed and confused Sain could only clutch tightly to his charge and glare at the two newcomers.
At this moment Gera, who had finally come to her senses, saw the man in the doorway and quickly cleaned off her own face with a cloth she had held discreetly before falling to the floor on her knees and bowing towards the man.
"Welcome my lord, we are sorry to disturb you this morning!" Gera's soothing voice filled the room as if by reflex.
Reazon smiled at Gera who was kneeling with her face to the floor gently, before turning his attention back to Sain.
"Well young man, it seems you had quite the adventure." The man's deep voice seemed to fill the room. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Reazon Gladiolus, I-"
A soft cough came from his shoulder interrupting him, before Reazon continued. "Oh and this is my familiar, Rhyme StoneEater. As you may have surmised from the staff and talking lizard-"
"Serpent!" Rhyme chimed in with agitation.
"-I am a gardener." Reazon continued ignoring Rhyme's glare coming from his one open eye.
Sain clutched the egg more tightly and continued to watch the pair like a caged animal. As he tried to adjust himself into a more defensive position, he collapsed against the wall, the room taking on a fuzzy edge to it, before coming back into focus.
"Take it easy lad! That adept's blow took out half your heart and a portion of your lungs!" Reazon exclaimed as he stepped past the still kneeling Gera to try and catch the young man before he could topple off the bed.
Dizziness came once more with profound effect on Sain as he fell back against the headboard and focused what he could of his attention on the Gardener.
"How- no what, is it exactly Sir Reazon wants from this servant?" Sain began, plastering as much false humility into his voice as he could muster while maintaining his grip on the egg.
Gera finally rose from her position on the floor, frowning at his obviously hostile body language.
"Oh I don't want much, Sain," Reazon said calling him by name "Your father entrusted me with keeping you safe and well hidden before he passed. I owe him... but that is a matter of the past. What I want from you, young man, for the moment at least, is to calm yourself and listen to my story. After I am done I will present you with a choice. One path will lead you to obscurity and likely your eventual demise, the other will be filled with countless struggles and dangers but will give you the chance to control your own fate."
Sain gazed at Reazon in confusion as the man pulled up a chair to sit beside where Gera had previously been resting, Gera herself standing quietly in the corner and listening intently.
"The choice is yours, child." Rhyme's soft voice slipped past his serpentine lips. "We promise regardless not to harm the little one in your arms, nor Gera whom we left you with all those years ago."
"Wait," Sain said looking to Gera "HE is my guardian? The fellow who left me here with nothing but a name, a token and a musical instrument?"
Gera quietly nodded as Sain was filled with both curiosity and resentment, the desire to know more of his history fighting his desire to get up and strike the man for abandoning him to a fourteen year old girl in the lowest strata of society. Gera didn't deserve the beatings, the rejection, or the responsibilities of becoming an adoptive mother at fourteen! Gera had never complained, but as Sain grew older and talked to the other colorless who had been around when he had been handed over, he had discovered the hardships this young woman had faced to become a mother to him.
"Yes," Reazon replied slowly looking Sain in the eye. "I left you with Gera seventeen years ago on the evening your mother, Dayja, passed from this world. Your name and ocarina are from her. The ring is a small gift from your father to keep you safe, and seems to be doing its work well. In fact, the story I intend to tell begins on the day you were born, and will explain many of the questions I am sure you have."
Sain continued to look at Gera, whose gaze was locked on Reazon's back, looking slightly pale. She turned her gaze to Sain with concern evident in her eyes as both adults waited for Sain to answer.
"....Let's hear it then. I doubt I could stop you if you wanted to talk, as I can barely move anyway. Tell me your story, but don't think this makes me recognize you or respect you!" Sain said dropping all pretense of cordiality as he glared at the calm and refined gardener.
Reazon smiled in the face of Sain's outburst, chuckling at his childishness, which only served to annoy Sain further.
"This story begins seventeen years ago, on a chilly night in early spring...."