Rey was quite certain he had never worked as hard as he was now. The gentle heavenly wind whistled in his ears, sharp and painful. The beautiful blue sky was not as beautiful as it usually was in his eyes as he tried to run faster and faster and faster up that impossible hill.

He dimly heard the voice of the adult angel who ran the training course in the background, yelling at him to move his feet more, be lighter on his toes, there was no way such a clumsy angel would ever reach the top of the hill. Rey was certain he would have blushed at that if his face weren't already stained red from the exertion of the training. Rey looked up from his running and his heart skipped as he saw the top of the hill. Then his heart plummeted.

All the other angels had finished already.

When he finally reached the top, he collapsed in exhaustion, hands shaking as he rested his weight heavily on his abused legs and knees. He knew all of his peers were looking at him but he ignored them. It would be over in a moment anyway. It always was.

And, as he predicted, he soon heard the gruff voice of the trainer congratulating everyone (Shiva in particular) on a job well done. The time and place for the next training session was given and the angels left quickly, eager to return to those fun activities that all adolescent angels loved. The trainer turned to Rey and said nothing. Rey couldn't bring himself to look at him.

"I – I'm sorry," Rey choked, trying desperately to catch his breath. There was a pause and Rey wanted to disappear.

"Why do you apologize, Rey?" Rey clenched his eyes shut in frustration to stave off embarrassed and angry tears.

"Be-because I f—I failed," he answered miserably. Silence again met his utterance and he added, almost as an afterthought, "I'm weak." Had he been watching his trainer, he would have seen the minute – almost unnoticeable – change of his expression. His left eyebrow lifted a fraction of an inch and his eyes flashed dully in response to the pathetic admission. He sighed.

"Yes, you are," the angel responded. "Because weak people don't look at their teachers when they're being spoken to." Rey froze and the shame bubbled up within him again, familiar but hated. He took a deep but shaky breath and attempted to straighten himself. His trainer waited patiently until the young angel's eyes were upon his before continuing.

"Weak people give up in the middle of an exercise because they don't think they'll ever overcome it. Weak people look to obtain external validation from others instead of turning inward to find it themselves. Weak people never try to better themselves.

"Yes, Rey, you are very weak." Rey bit his lip and tried harder to keep the tears at bay but it wasn't working very well. His vision was already blurred.

"But you are not without hope." Rey's head snapped up towards his trainer so quickly the adult could almost hear it. This was the first time he had ever given Rey anything other than criticism. It was long overdue, but the trainer had honestly believed that this young angel was capable of succeeding, and had given him time – maybe a little too much of it – to discover that on his own.

Rey couldn't believe his ears and listened raptly as that tall and rough-looking angel spoke again.

"You do try," he said softly. "You try but you never believe that you can succeed. That is your flaw. It is not humility, Rey to disbelieve your own talents, your own efforts; as it is neither vanity nor pride to put faith in them. I cannot give you the ability to be proud of your achievements, and I cannot give you the wisdom to know when you must be humble and modest. That comes with practice. And with practice comes hardship." He stopped a moment and Rey was sure all the breath had left him. His mouth was parted in awe, his eyes wide with respect and admiration, his body taut with restrained emotion. He had never, in all his years of life, ever heard of anyone believing in him even to the remotest extent of what his teacher seemed to express.

Suddenly, his teacher grinned, and ruffled his long purple hair with a toughened and calloused hand.

"The anger helps a bit too; it proves you're motivated. If you end up tearing all that pretty hair out in your frustration, you'll know you're doing something right."

Rey never forgot that day.

First ever Saint Beast fic (that I've posted, I actually have several going currently)! I'm really excited about it, cuz I kinda love Saint Beast and stuff. Go figure... ;)

ANYwho, I wrote this as a prologue to a chptr story, but I'm not quite sure about the whole thing yet. Usually, what I like to do is post the first chptr, see how people like it and then go from there. If this is received well by at least one person, then I will continue it (not a review whore, guys, just throwing that out there). If not, that's fine too! Either way, I don't own Saint Beast, or the characters, but I do own Rey's wonderful little teacher! This piece, if I continue it, will be a reflection of Rey's character, because I do think he does have a bit of an inferiority complex that he doesn't let on to people in the anime (even Luca or Shin), and I want to address that.

Another thing, I love Shiva, and he will probably be a recurring character in the story (but he won't be an attention hog) if it continues, but don't worry, there will not be any JudasShiva because I just cannot picture that pairing at all! JudasShin all the way. There also won't be any GouGai or KiraMaya because I just can't see the romance between Gou and Gai in the anime and KiraMaya just does not do anything for me. Kira is also a royal jerk.

One last thing, I have never heard the drama CD, even though I really want to, and have only read little snippets of it on the internet (which is how I know that Kira is a royal jerk). If anyone has any knowledge of it, and doesn't mind sharing, do tell, please and thank you! If this continues, the references are largely to the anime and not the drama CD's, just a heads up.

Thank you very much for putting up with me and my long author's notes!