I hate waking up this early. Nivenna thought as she walked to Kopond's castle. Today she is supposed to have a lesson with the Underworld High Muge. What the lesson was about, she didn't know or cared. It was too early to do anything, but sleep in her opinion. She was never a morning person.
After walking a few minutes, she finally made it to the muge's castle, which looked like an odd crossover of Chaor and Najarin's castles. As she approch the front door, it opened by itself. Most people would be weird-out by that, but she has been here many times before and knows what to expect.
Walking inside, she goes straight to the library. When she get there, Kopond was going over an ancient scrool at a table made of black stone.
"Glad to see you here on time, Nivenna." he said. His eyes never leveling the scrool. Nivenna didn't say anything, she just sat down on the opposite side of the table.
"What is the lesson about?" she asked wanting to get it over with so she may go back to sleep.
"History." he simply replied. Nivenna was actually glade it was about history. History was always one of her favorite subjects. She always makes good grades in the subject. In fact Takinom sometimes comments that it would be much more easier and more accurate to ask her a question involving history then to look it up in a book.
Kopond put the scrool away and took out a large, black book that must have been 5,000 pages long. It was titled Kiru in huge red letters on the front cover.
Nivenna know the name well, he was the founder of Kiru City the capital of the Overworld and to many Overworlders the fonder of the Overworld itself.
"Many creatures only know Kiru's earlier accomplishments, but they don't know all of them. Mainly because the Overworlders destroyed the documents containing them." he explained, Nivenna raised her eyebrow.
"Why would they do something like that? Don't they think he is a roll modal for all Overworlders." she asked.
"Because they wanted their children to only know him as what he was like before he became a Underworlder." he answered.
Nivenna's eyes went wide at the news. Never has she heard or read of the fonder of the Overworld turn into a Underworlder and she has read many ancient and new books about Kiru. Kopond know he had to explain further.
"The reason why few Underworlders know of this is because we also wish it be kept a secret. Can you imagine everyone knowing that Kiru the Overworlder's hero of all time, founded Underworld City as well. But unlike the Overworlders we know the importance of remembering the past, so we may learn from it."
Nivenna know that statement was not completely true. The Overworlders do think that learning from the past can save the future and there might be some Overworlders who know of this secret, but she didn't argue the point.
"Who else knows of this?" she asked.
"Chaor, Takinom, Agitos, me, now you, and a few other higher-ups that know to keep their mouths shout."
Nivenna understood what he meant, this was a well-kept secret and if someone were stupid enough to late it slip out there would be great consequence.
"Now read the entire book and after you are done, then you may ask any questions you want." he told her. She took the book and opened it to the first page. Her face instantly showed her surprise at seeing a picture of Kiru. It was like looking at a blue version of Chaor. She wanted to ask about it, but if she did without reading all of it, Kopond would take the book away. So she hold her tongue for now and continued to read.
An hour later, she was done reading and the picture was now only one of many questions she wanted answered. She gave the book back to Kopond.
Knowing that Nivenna has a very curious mind whin it came to learning, he prepared himself for all the questions she will ask him.
"Is Najarin really that old?" she asked. She wanted to ask about why Kiru and Chaor like so much alike, but she wanted to ask the simple stuff first.
"Yes, he is that old. He is probably the only Overworlder left that knows the whole story of Kiru." he answered. Nivenna thought that might not be true, there are many Overworlders and he nor she could possible know without a debate that only Najarin knows.
"So, I'm guessing that Kiru is Chaor's ancestor from how they look-alike. Am I right?"
"Yes, Chaor is the descendent of Kiru. Of course there are many descendents of Kiru all a cross the Underworld, they just don't look like Kiru as much as Chaor."
A few minutes later, Nivenna asked most of her questions and Kopond answered them to his best abilities. He was surprised that Nivenna was not asking that many questions. Normally when a creature learns of Kiru's whole story they have many, many questions.
"One last thing."
"And what would that be?"
"When Kiru commented that life is like war, what did he mean?" she asked. Kopond was surprised, nobody has asked that before at lest not to his knowledge.
"If I were to guess just what he said." he answered. Nivenna didn't understand and he saw that she didn't, so he tried to explain further. "If you think of it life is just like a war. On the day of a creature's birth it is like being drafted. Its childhood is boot camp were they learn about survival in the real world or war. Then when they are all grown up they will be shipped off to the war or adulthood where they must know who their allies are and who their enemies are."
Nivenna thought about what he said and she did see some similarities to life and war.
"Are there any other books about Kiru?" she asked hoping there was.
"There are many books about him, but you mean are there any others about his Underworld life. Am I right?" Nivenna rolled her eyes, Kopond was always correcting her on her grammar.
"Yes you are right." she said.
"There are a few. Most are kept under lock and key, but I have six of them in my privet collection."
"May I read them?" she politely asked.
Kopond thought about it for a minute, then he stood up from his chair and walked to a different section of the library. Nivenna waited for his return.
A few minutes later, he came back with six ancient books in his hands.
"Be very careful with these. They are older than Kiru City's Ancestors Walls." he warned her. He placed the books in front of her and went back to reading his scrolls. Nivenna carefully began to read the first book.
She spent the rest of the day studying the history of Kiru and his family.
Author's Note
I don't know what Kopond's castle really lookes like I made it up.