I would like to say that the Maester treated me as his own son, cared and brought me up with fatherly love. Sadly, I cannot for he did not. When we arrived at the temple, I was immediately placed into the care of the orphanage and that is where I remained until my education began. The nuns and priests were strict when it came to certain things but they understood the pain of the children there. Was I in pain? Not in a sense, I didn't remember my mother, her face was a blur. Maybe I could catch her scent on the breeze and a glimpse of memory would skitter across my mind. I was not like the other children, those who would cry because they remembered their family and how they were taken away. Those who wanted to go home and see their mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers again. Those who were left broken with the knowledge that they were orphans and there was no way to bring their beloved family back, they were on their own.

Me? I was too busy getting into trouble to have much care. As a little boy, who doesn't love playing in dirt or finding bugs? Why wouldn't you want to share them and why did girls think they were so gross? Why didn't the nuns like it when I brought them inside to show them the huge worm I had found? It never made much sense to me.

As much as I loved playing in dirt or playing tag with the other boys or teasing the girls about having 'cooties', there was one thing more that I liked best. I remember one day when I was about three, a warrior monk had come in to talk to one of the priests. Strapped to his back was a shiny long sword. It fascinated me and I spared no time in asking him why he had it.

"To protect the people I care about," was his reply. Those words never left me and maybe those were the roots that were planted to bring me into the service. Either way, I was scolded for being in other people's business.

There were times however, when I felt impossibly lonely. A room full of other young boys, listening to them snoring in the middle of the night when one should be dreaming and having your head full of silly nonsense, I remained awake. Awake with the troubling thoughts that perhaps I did miss whatever family I had long ago, a deep empty feeling was created whenever I thought of what my family would have been like. That hurt, a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that echoed in my heart. It was empty and the worst feeling in the world, so much so that it made me want to cry. It was those nights I didn't sleep well, at least they never came frequently.

My time at the orphanage seems like a million years ago now, I was out of there by the time I was seven. Many children remained, some had been taken away by aunts and uncles or grandparents. Others stayed because distant family members simply couldn't care for them and were instead sent to the education wing in the temple.

The nuns had started basic education when you were six. How to tie your shoes and count on your fingers, simple math and how to form sentences and speak properly. The told you how to dress this way and make sure you didn't look like a slob. Table manners were important and always say please and thank you. Remember to bathe and we started making our own beds. Simple life lessons to make sure you didn't end up rude and ungrateful. Those lucky enough escaped and were sent to another section of the temple, I was included.

This section was to continue education. Priests and Monks that specialized in certain topics, mathematics, history, english and grammar. All temples have these special sections but not everyone goes to them you see. Only families who can afford to send their children off to be educated will be here, I suppose it's like a boarding school if you want to look at it that way. Bevelle Temple has the highest education level, Djose and Macalania come in second while Besaid and Kilika come in last. Many from those islands only become trade workers anyway or Blitzball players, maybe that's why the education is low because it isn't prioritized. That's my opinion anyway.

Anyway, this is where I met Wen Kinoc. I was assigned to the same room as him, along with three other boys. I was nervous, not entirely sure what to expect when I walked up to room two-o-three. I opened the door and all heads turned toward me. Introductions began.

"So you're the new room-mate?" This boy was average height for our age, brown hair and bright green eyes. The boy sharing the top bunk must have been his twin, I thought. "My name is Kalrich, Kal for short, and this is my brother Daniel."

"Dan, for short," Dan added. He was just a hair shorter than his brother with a more calm air to him. Kal let off energy and mischief while Dan was quiet and more relaxed.

"My name is Wen, Wen Kinoc." The third boy was short, pale, blonde hair, and watery blue eyes. He seemed friendly enough.

"I'm Auron," I said. I was taller than all of them. I noticed they all had much shorter hair, I never got a haircut in the orphanage. I refused to sit still long enough for them to cut it and so they gave up.

"Nice to meet you, where are you from? I'm from Luca," Kinoc said.

"And we're from Kilika," Kal and Dan chimed together.

"I'm from...here," I said.

"Well well, we got ourselves a local," Kal laughed and I felt my face flush.

"I hope you don't mind heights, the only bed left is the one on top of mine," Kinoc said.

"I don't mind heights at all," I replied.

"Great! I was kind of hoping I didn't have to switch. I'm not a big fan of heights you see."

"No, it's perfectly fine."

"Well now that we're all acquainted, I guess we should go pick up our clothes and uniforms," Dan said. The three of them left and I remained for a second, thinking to myself. These boys seemed nice enough, perhaps we would even go on to be good friends.

"Hey, you coming Auron," Kinoc asked as he stood in the doorway.

"Yeah, sorry." I walked with him down to the assembly hall. There were tables upon tables spread out with packages on them, each with the student's name on it. I found mine after much searching and decided I would wait until I got back to the room to open it. No sense in losing anything important in this large hall, it would probably end up in the trash by the end of the night anyway if I did.

When we did get back to the room, there was a lot of trying on uniforms and looking over schedules, borrowing each others to see if we had any classes together and goofing off. It was different being surrounded by these guys, much different than in the orphanage. Sure I had made friends there but these guys were definitely something else. When the lights went off, I climbed into my bed and wondered what the morning would be like. Would I like my teachers? Would it be hard? Would I have to study a lot? I didn't know, I suddenly got nervous and found sleep to be difficult. I was restless and drifted off late in the morning, not a good way to start school at all.