Legendary Guardian – Temple Acolyte

"Auron, it is time to get up." Youke gently touched the shoulder of the sleeping boy. The sky was still filled with stars. His nephew stirred, his eyes fluttering. Satisfied the child was awake he retreated to the door. "Prepare yourself. I will wait for you in the common room."

Auron rubbed his eyes and rolled from his sleeping mat. After a stretch and a few deep breaths, he got to work folding his covers and rolling the futon for storage. He swiftly had the thing placed in its compartment in the floor. After a quick check to be sure nothing in the room was left amiss, he took his white robe from the peg on the back of the door and headed to the bathroom to clean up. Hands, face, hair, and teeth later he exchanged his sleeping clothes for the robes. He was ready to start the day.

"Let me see," said Youke. Auron presented his hands and turned his face toward the light. Youke checked his nails, flipped the hands, looked at his face and tousled the lengthening hair on his nephew's head. "Good. Though I do wish you would cut your hair." Auron responded with a strong shake of his head in the negative. "All right then. We should not be late."

Youke turned out the light and opened the door quietly to keep from disturbing Shana. The two stepped out into the darkness and left for the Temple.

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Since his visit to Master Umaro, days had become an endless cycle of sameness for Auron. Youke would come to wake him well before dawn. They would walk together in silence to the Temple and go their separate ways. Youke now trained the dedicated in weapons and tactics. From dawn until dusk he drilled his students hard in a dizzying array of weaponry – long, short, soft, rare, and hidden weapons were all skillfully and artfully revealed to his pupils. Auron would catch glimpses of his uncle demonstrating some technique as he passed the training room and feel a pang of jealousy.

As an Acolyte, Auron spent most of his time training his mind. First bells rang at dawn. If you were late to morning meditation, you did not eat breakfast and were given more rigorous tasks for morning work. Auron made that mistake only once. His stomach had growled so loudly by mid-day that he could barely concentrate and finish moving the woodpile from the yard to the kitchen.

After meditation, acolytes were assigned to work teams or met with their designated mentor for study. There was a never-ending list of things to clean, tend, or otherwise fix on the grounds of the temple and monastery. One day might find Auron trimming hedges, cutting flowers, or harvesting vegetables. Another day might find him on his knees waxing the temple floor by hand with a small cloth or polishing the metal plates engraved with the names of lost pilgrims. Other days, he worked in the kitchen making food or washing dishes. All the while, monks and priests reminded him that work should be an act of giving or meditation.

"Work and Sin are the two constants of life. To work as giving you must work with joy of service. To work as meditation be observant of your actions and present in mind. Be aware acolyte, always aware. Be aware of yourself and your actions. Be aware of consequence."

Over and over he heard these words. He tried to understand, but felt there must be some meaning he missed.

Meetings with his mentor were demanding in other ways. Often Barak would ask him a single question and listen to his response. Auron had been asked about how his mother's death made him feel, if he missed Kilika, if he loved his uncle, if he liked the sunrise. The questions seemed to have no end. There was no discernable reason behind the inquiries. The priest would give hypothetical situations and ask Auron to explain what he would do in response and why.

"If you were walking on the road and observed someone hitting another person, what would you do?"
"If you had only one coin in your pocket but saw a child who was starving, would you use the coin to by food?"
"If someone struck you would you strike them back?"
"If you knew that by dying you could save the life of someone else, would you choose die?"
"Do you think there is ever a time when a person deserves to die?"
"How do you know you are real?"
"How do you differentiate between something you want and something you need?"

The questions made Auron's head hurt from thinking. No matter how simple the query seemed, Auron always found the answer hard to express. It made him tired. Sometimes it made him sad. Often it left him frustrated.

After lunch the Acolytes would meet in the Great Hall of the Temple to sing the Hymn of the Faith and chant words of scripture. Auron always found this time comforting. For a reason unknown to him, the vibrations and harmonies always conjured images of his mother in his mind. Sometimes they were so vivid he thought he could smell the perfume she used to wear or feel her breath on his cheek. Surprisingly, the sensations never made him sad. He mentioned these feelings to his uncle one evening. Youke had sat silently for several minutes in deep thought before saying, "Perhaps, Auron, your mother reaches from the Farplane to comfort you."

The time between the chants and the bell for supper was filled with various tasks. If you did not return to work duty, you attended a lecture by a priest. The lectures consisted of the history of Spira and Yevon. Auron had learned the hard way not to fall asleep during these sermons. Though they bored him to tears, it was better to listen than to run the temple stairs for half-an-hour while reciting the Precepts of the Order to a series of monks. At each landing the offending Acolyte was gently struck at the shoulders near the base of the neck with a thin bamboo pole. It was supposed to encourage the student and assist in helping them focus. Though it didn't really hurt, it had defiantly tired Auron and taught him to be more attentive.

What little time was left was spent on the mats of the training room. Acolytes were confined to learning the slow movements of the meditation katas. Though the movements could be used at speed for hand-to-hand combat, it lacked the excitement of what the older boys were learning. He badly wanted to learn the skills his uncle possessed. "You must learn to walk before you learn to run, Auron," Youke told him. So, despite his impatience, he practiced his kata diligently.

After supper in the dining hall, everyone gathered for prayer and meditation. Acolytes, dedicated, monks, priests, and teachers – all of them lined a great hall in the monastery sitting on their knees and breathing deeply as the tones of bells sounded. When the final bell rang, his uncle would come to stand beside him and they would walk home together in the dark.

Shana was always waiting for them when they returned. They would sit together in the common room and drink tea. Shana would ask questions about the content of their day and after an hour or so Youke would tell Auron that it was time for him to go to bed. Auron would dutifully wash up, go to his room, pull out his sleeping mat, change his clothing, and go to sleep exhausted.

The sunrise would begin the cycle anew.

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"Auron, it is time to get up..."