Well.....here it is. You asked for it. I supplied it. >.> I'll post a new chapter every Sunday, unless you want me to stop~ Please tell me what you think~ I know it's hard to read because of the paragraph formatting, but I can't seem to get it to indent...sorry~

Sorry...

I uh...have been busy with school lately... >.> sorry about this, but I lost my train of thought with this story...I'll post more later after I get rid of this writer's block...until then....bye I guess.

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ellipsis... XD

Chapter 2

The door swung open slowly casting light into the dark shrine. I had never seen the inside of the Shrine of the Rose. I smelled burning incense mixed with dust. The smoke was thick and hot and burned my nose. My eyes started to water from the bitter odor. The wooden boards that constituted the floor creaked as the Weasel took his first step into the shrine. As we stepped deeper inside, I began to hear mumbling. A few more steps and a figure appeared from the smoke.
Father Yosei was kneeling down in the middle of a circle of seven incense burners. Rose petals were scattered all over the floor underneath him. He must have been unaware of our presence because he continued to mumble in some incomprehensible language.
I looked up at the Elder and saw how nervous he was. Sweat was running from his forehead down his long nose beading up on the end. He was also shaking visibly as I saw him struggle to speak.
“Please….lose your nerve….come on…..” I thought as I closed my eyes in silent prayer. All the stories of the Father’s wrath came back to me, multiplied in ferocity by the tension of actually being this close. “Come on….just turn around and walk away….he’ll never know if you just leave now….”

“F-Father…”
Damn….That stupid Weasel had to open his mouth….
My eyes were still closed, but I could hear that the Father had stopped his chanting. I opened my eyes to see him standing with his back to us. I swear I could see his anger billowing off him.
“Elder Gregory.” His voice was dry from the smoke, yet it was still filled with something between disapproval and amusement. “What has happened that is so important that you must disturb me?”
“Well….F-Father…you see…” the Weasel croaked.
“Has someone died?”
“No-o..but..”
“Have we been attacked?” Father Yosei’s voice was dripping with ill-suppressed anger.
“No…b-but, sir..”
“Then why would you disturb me?” Father Yosei turned towards us. His eyes were red from smoke and his hair was frayed from sweating all day. His face was shrunken from dehydration. He looked demonic. Evil. Every fiber of my body told me to run, but my legs wouldn’t move.
Chirp. Chirp.
My fear momentarily forgotten, I turned to see Hinataro, eyes wide and shaking with fear holding the little bird so tight it began to chirp in protest.
“I-I….I….” Hinataro sputtered.
“Are you responsible for this unholy intrusion?” Father Yosei began to walk towards Hinataro while glaring down at him with unrestrained malice.
“Father!” Elder Gregory blurted. For once, I was grateful for that mouth of his. My brother looked like he was going to faint from terror. I felt a strange and sudden urge to grab him and hold him away from Father Yosei.
Immediately, Father Yosei’s anger was directed at the Weasel.
“Explain this, Gregory. Now.”
“Sir….this child….h-he..”
“Spit it out.” Father Yosei’s tone had become more contemptuous.
“This child has the inner light.” He said.
Father Yosei’s eyes seemed to lose focus. His expression was as if someone had slapped him with no warning. “W-What?” he said, now confused.
“He healed this bird. I saw the holy aura myself. It’s true, Father.” I could tell the Weasel had relaxed from the change in Father Yosei’s mood. But I myself was stunned. Inner light? What the hell was that? I looked to Hinataro for some clue, but his face was as incredulous as mine.
“Alright. As hard as it is to believe, this child born of wicked lust, is destined to be a priest.” Father Yosei said the words in a disbelieving monotone. “His training shall begin tomorrow.” He turned to look at me for the first time. “And this one?” His question was directed at Gregory, but his stare was fixated at me.
“I do not know. It is possible…. They ARE related to his Holiness, Tosoph…”
Still staring at me, Father Yosei responded with a grunt. His eyes speared my flesh all the way to my soul. “If he indeed possesses the inner light, it will show itself eventually. But, for now, he is to return to his chores. There is much that I must prepare for tomorrow. Take your leave. Prepare a bed for Hinataro in the priests’ quarters. He is to reside there from now on.”
“Yes, as you wish Father.” The Weasel grabbed our arms again, but with less force than before. He turned and began to march us back outside. When we reached the entrance, he released his grasp on me. “Return to the gardens, Kagemaru. Your chores are still unfinished.” In my stupor I silently nodded and watched as my brother was leaded to the other side of the Rose Monastery. He looked back at me with a blank look. I felt a huge sense of loss as he slowly moved away.

Chapter 1

My name is Kagemaru. I have a brother, Hinataro. We’re twins, and we both have the same, shoulder length white hair and blue eyes, but we’re nothing alike in personality. Hinataro is sweet and nice and goody-goody: always sucking up to adults. To put it simply, I’m not. We are total opposites, and I despise him…
We live in Rose Monastery. It’s a large series of buildings enclosed by a stone wall. The massive oak doors that open into it have a giant rose carved on their surface; the doors are as tall as three men. I have to admit, those doors are very impressive. There’s a graveyard in the northwest corner. I feel safe there. The monks only go there on Sunday to clean of the tombstones, so I mostly have the place to myself. The tomb of Tosoph- the greatest priest to have lived and the man to take down the Dark Lord, Don Malo- is the largest structure in the graveyard. Next to it is my mother’s grave.
Our mother died long ago, and Father Yosei took my brother and I in. Father Yosei was a mousy-looking man. He wore spectacles and smiled all the time. But, he was known to have a temper. I am told that I am NEVER to anger the Father; the consequences would be dire…
But it wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart that he took us in, though he’ll say it was. No, the reason is because he owed my mother a substantial debt. Her grandfather was Grand High Priest Tosoph and Yosei’s mentor. It was my mother’s connection with the Church that saved us. She was a harlot in Yosei’s eyes- a nun who turned her back on God and ran of with a soldier. And by association, Hinataro and I were the spawn of a sinful act. I’m sure that he hates us.
We were treated as dirt for years- we were fed and clothed and provided beds, of course, but we were hated for just have been born. The monks looked down on us, never offering more than was necessary to sustain us.
That changed all changed one day when Hinataro was discovered to have “it”.
It was Saturday: our turn to tend the gardens. Hinataro was weeding the garden behind the kitchens where the cooks grew the food. While weeding the tomatoes, Hinataro discovered an injured bird- a pathetic little runt who had fallen from a nest in a nearby tree. It was barely breathing and was sure to die soon.
“Kagemaru, look…” he said holding the tattered thing. “Poor little guy…”
“Do you want me to snap its neck?” I said.
“What?! No! Don’t you touch it. I’ll take care of it.”
“Put it out of its misery- it’ll die soon anyway….” Hinataro always was too positive about these kinds of things. That bird was as good as dead. I sighed as he held the thing to his chest like a baby.
“Hey, what are you two doing? You’re SUPPOSED to be weeding the gardens…” I looked behind us to see Elder Gregory, a close confident to Father Yosei, looking down his huge nose at us sternly. He had really beady eyes and a nasally voice that reminded me of a picture of a weasel in a picture book in the Rose Library. So I decided, to his great displeasure, to call him Weasel. “What have you got there? Is that a dead rat? Why are you….OH… MY… GOD!”
I turned to see what had startled Elder Gregory. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. The mass of tattered feathers Hinataro was holding was glowing with a soft, warm light. It seemed to radiate out of Hinataro’s chest. I watched as the light intensified and enveloped the whole area. I had to cover my eyes from the brightness. When I opened my eyes, the light had dissipated.
The sound I heard sent chills down my spine. It was the faint sound of chirping and rustling wings.
Hinataro opened his hands to reveal a very much alive little bird.
The next thing I knew, The Weasel had snatched Hinataro’s and my arm and jerked us up with strength that I didn’t know that frail body could produce. His sense of urgency was obvious as he dragged us around the kitchens and across the common grounds like we were sacks of potatoes. I looked over at Hinataro as we struggled to get our footing. He was still holding the bird in his hand. He was looking at it with a shocked and terrified expression on his face.
I saw the other monks stop with their chores as we were jerked around by the Weasel. My eyes grew even larger than before as I saw where we were headed- the Father’s private prayer shrine. The wooden structure was located at the north end of the Rose of Light Monastery. All day every Saturday, Father Yosei fasted and prayed in the shrine. NO ONE was to disturb him during this holiest of times, EVER. Whatever Hinataro did to that bird was obviously of the absolute HIGHEST of offenses to bring it to the attention of Father Yosei on today.
“Hinataro… what did you do?” I asked him with obvious fear in my voice.
“I…I don’t know…” The sound of his voice was ragged and tired.
“Silence, you two,” said the Weasel, “you are about to enter the Holy Shrine of the Rose.”
The other monks watched in terror as Elder Gregory dared to intrude upon the Father.