From the southern front entrance, a small hall led to the chapel. The chapel's roof held a small bell tower, used to ring out the time or alert people in emergencies. Behind the chapel was the priest's room, followed by the dining room and kitchen. Together with the northern wing and the western annex, that made up the entire small church.
The church also served as an orphanage. The north and west wings were used for the children's rooms. The children lived there from when they were newborns up until about the age of seven. Once they reached six or seven years old, they would leave the church and find work somewhere. The church wasn't big, and there weren't enough beds for everyone. Still, the children with no families kept arriving, one after another.
The church was run by two people—an elderly priest named Phil and a young apprentice priest named Finnick. Phil had dark brown panda ears and was a local from the village. He had trained at a regional temple and since he returned to his village as a priest, he had been taking care of the church ever since.
Lately, Phil had been suffering from worsening back pain due to his age. As a result, most of the child care and daily chores had fallen completely onto Finnick's shoulders. Finnick had come to the church five years earlier and had been working hard ever since.
Because Finnick was always so busy, the older children helped look after the younger ones and did small tasks around the church. At the moment, the twelve children were living there. Among them, Bao Bei was clearly the smallest.
Since Bao Bei was still too little to bathe on his own, the job of bathing him fell to the apprentice priest, Finnick.
"Bao Bei, let's go took a bath," Finnick said kindly.
"Took a bath? What's that?" Bao Bei tilted his head, unfamiliar with the word.
Finnick felt a sting behind his eyes when he realized Bao Bei didn't even know what a bath was. What kind of life had the boy lived until now?
"It's a place where you wash your body clean," Finnick explained gently.
"Wash your body clean... It's Mama... Who would ali licked me… and..made me clean," Bao Bei mumbled, remembering his mother. His ears drooped and tears began to well up in his eyes.
Seeing Bao Bei's big blue eyes slowly filled with tears, Finnick gently picked him up and held him close.
"I'll help you take your bath, Bao Bei. Don't worry," he said softly.
In the changing room next to the bath in the west wing, Finnick undressed Bao Bei, removing his smock and small underwear.
Bao Bei was still young and his small body was covered in soft fur, from his back and belly all the way down to his legs. The fur helped protect his body from losing too much warmth. His fur, split into shoulder length white and black colors.
When Finnick removed his own clothes, Bao Bei's eyes widened in surprise.