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Author's Notes: This chapter, I also went over and changed a few things.
Chapter Two: The Past II
Flash Back
Nivenna looked at Takinom then looked at Sazo and back to Takinom again. The poor little girl had no idea what to do or what to say, all she could think about was that she would be going to the Underworld Jail for the rest of her life or be executed. She didn't know which of those two options were worse.
"Nivenna, Miss Takinom here says that you have something belonging to Chaor." said Sazo. He oddly didn't seem angry, in fact he looked like it was no big deal that Takinom, Chaor's most loyal and trusted warrior, was here. Another odd thing was that Takinom was alone, not a single guard was with her and she wasn't carrying any weapons. It was like she was only here to visit a friend. Maybe she thought she did not need any help or weapons to arrest a child.
"Nivenna, do not be impolite, tell our guest where the mugic is at!" Sazo snapped.
"W-what mugic?" Nivenna was having trouble talking. Her mouth felt like a dry, desert in the deepest part of Mipedean territory.
"You know perfectly well what mugic I'm talking about!" Sazo raised his voice higher, which he rarely does, normally it's only this loud when he gets agitated by one of the older children."Now go get it, before I give you more work to do." Sazo was normally more calmer than this.
Nivenna knew the reason he was angry at her and he had a right to be. After all, he now knows where she was late last night while doing a very dangerous and stupid thing.
"Y-yes Sir." She stuttered. Nivenna looked at Takinom for a split second before running off to get the mugic. It might have been her imagination but, she could have sworn Takinom's smile faded away, turning into a frown at the sight of her getting into trouble. When Nivenna left, Sazo and Takinom continued their earlier discussion about Nivenna.
"Please forgive Nivenna, I promis she will pay for what she has done." Sazo was trying to keep Chaor from finding out one of his children stole from him, but he believed it was not necessary because if Takinom was going to tell him she would have already done so.
"That will not be necessary," Takinom placed her right hand on her chin like she was in deep thought of what her next move would be. Sazo believed she was no threat to Nivenna, but he could tell that Takinom was thinking about what to do with her. Takinom took her hand off her chin then she says " Sazo, I wish to adopt Nivenna."
"Why would you want to adopt Nivenna?"Sazo said that out of pure habit, he is always cautious when anybody said that they wanted to adopted any of his children. You would think Sazo would be over joyed when someone tries to adopt one of his six thousand orphans, but he had to make sure that the potential adopter had nothing, but good intentions. If he didn't the child could easily be sold into slavery or possibly even worse than that. Though Sazo didn't believe Takinom would do that, but then why is she wanting to adopt Nivenna after Nivenna stole from Chaor. It did not make sense to him.
"I saw her with my own two eyes, she was able to steal a mugic from Chaor's castle, escape alive, and then out maneuvor some of the best guards in the Underworld. If I adopt her and train her, she could one day be the most powerful warrior in the Underworld." Sazo believed every word Takinom was saying, but the thought of Nivenna becoming a warrior never occurred to him before. Sure many of his children have grown up to be solders in the Underworld army, one even made it to the position of capton, but Nivenna was still young what if she did not want to be a warrior. As if Takinom read his mind she said "Even if Nivenna does not want to be a warrior, I can help her be anything she wants to be."
Thinking it over, Sazo knew what to do. "I will let you adopt Nivenna, IF she agrees to go with you." He tells Takinom, but she looked like she was expecting that response.
The orphanage was like a giant, twenty story tall maze that covered ten acres out of the fifty acres of land that Sazo owned. If you didn't keep track with where you were going then you would get lost, possibly for days till someone finds you. But Nivenna has lived here all her life, so she knows where every room, chair, and crack in the whole place was at. Moving around the place was no big deal to her.
Nivenna ran into one out of one hundred and twenty bed chambers that was for the girls. Nobody was in the room, they were probably all out doing something. There was about thirty beds inside, one row on the right and one on the left, three stacked on top of each other all the way to the end of the room.
She walked to the one bed that was on the left side, she climbed the ladder beside the bed to get to the top bunk. This one was the bed she always slept in. Nivenna lifted up the matress with one hand then used her other hand to reach for something under it. When her hand came out, it was holding the red mugic." Why did I even want the stupid mugic in the first place." She quickly ran out of the room and down the never-ending hallways.
Before she got to the front door, Sazo was walking to her, "Nivenna, Takinom is waiting for you outside." That made her stop dead in her tracks.
"What did you say?" Nivenna asked, wanting to believe she misheard him.
"You heard me, now go." he ordered then walked straight past her, not saying another word. Nivenna's blue skin just turned white from fear.
"Great Takinom is going to kill me and Sazo does not care!" Nivenna slowly started to walk down stairs, fearing what Takinom would do to her. Nivenna opened the front door, walked outside where Takinom was waiting sitting on a rock sixteen feet away, looking at some of the other younger orphans playing ball.
"Nivenna, let's go for a walk." Takinom got up, flew over to where Nivenna was standing. When her feet were planted firmly on the ground she lifted up both of her arms in the direction to a dirt road, " I was thinking we could go to Emders Inn for something to eat."
"Are you not going to arrest me?" Nivenna held up the mugic to Takinom, not sure what she would say.
"No, I just want to talk," Takinom took the mugic from Nivenna's hand then placed it in a bag she had with her. Takinom began to walk to the dirt road. Nivenna after much hesitation went after her, slowing down when she was now beside the winged warrior." So why did you steal the mugic from Chaor, you could have stolen the same type of mugic from someone much less dangerous you know?" Takinom asked.
Nivenna knew that lying at this point would be a waste of time and would get her no where, so she decided to do something that she never does when in trouble, tell the truth.
"I did not care what type of mugic it was, I just wanted a mugic. And I guess the reason I stole it from Chaor is because I wanted a challange. "Takinom seemed to believe and understand Nivenna as she told Takinom how she got the mugic.
"Nivenna, if you agree, I will adopt you and you can become my apprentice." That caught Nivenna off-guard. Why in Cothica would Takinom want to adopt her. She stopped walking, her face was looking at the ground not knowing what to do.
"Why would you want me as your apprentice?"
"Because you have potential and it would be stupid of me not to teach a smart young creature like yourself."
"If what she says is true, I should not miss this opportunity, but she could be lying. Why would she lie if she wanted to kill me there would be no point in tricking me." Nivenna's head felt like it would explode from all her thoughts and questions rolling around her head. Finaly she made up her mind.
Nivenna lifted up her head to look straight at Takinom's eyes. "I will go with you if you promise that I can quit any time I want. Just in case I don't want to be your apprentice anymore."
Takinom put her right hand on her heart and raised her left hand up with a smile she said." I promise."
So Takinom adopted Nivenna as her daughter and apprentice, and they have been together ever since.
The present
Nivenna stopped walking, she looked at a sign above her head that read " Emder's Inn". This was the place she was looking for, it is where her and her friend were to meet at. She walked through the front door.
There were bunches of creatures eating at the different tables in the restaurant and because of bad table manners, food was flying everywhere. It was like watching at pack of wild animals devour the body of their prey.
Nivenna looked around the restaurant until she spotted Ladro`n in the back, sitting down at a small table with only two chairs, one on each side.
Ladro`n was about six-years older than Nivenna. He looked like a felane with gray fur, black stripes and white fur on his chin to stomach. He had black bangs hanging over his bright golden eyes that shinned like newly made coins. His black claws were so sharp that they could easily rip off any Overworlder's armor with ease. He was waering peasant clothes, the shirt was dirty and had so many patches that only half of the orignal clothing was still there. His pants were in the same shape as his shirt with a piece of rope used as a belt.
Ladro`n has always been like an older brother to Nivenna, they grew up together in the orphanage untill Takinom adopted her, but they still see each other from time to time. Some creatures mistake him as a Overworlder sometimes, because of the way he looks, but they are dead wrong in Nivenna's mind. Sure Ladro`n was born a Overworlder, but he is all Underworlder now. Sazo always told him to never be ashamed of the fact his family are Overworlders, because the past is the past and you should never stay in the past for too long. It will only make you loss yourself if you cannot get over something that cannot be changed.
Nivenna still remembers the story Lando`n told her about how he got into the orphanage and became an Underworlder.
One day a group of Underworld raiders attacked an Overworld village. They stole many things like silver coins, clothes, tools and a whole wagon of food. While the Underworlders left, they did not know that in the wagon they stole had more than just some food. When they got to the black market in Underworld City, they started to hear crying coming from the wagon. One of them took a look in the wagon and found a baby Ladro`n in a pile of food. Since he was too young for them to sell into slavery (who would even want a slave that could not take care of himself let alone work) so they gave him to Sazo.
There was some pieces missing to the story and some unanswered questions like which village was he taken from or who were his parents? Ladro`n never supplied any answers to these and other questions of his past. Though Nivenna did want to know more about where he came from, she never pushed for him to tell her. Ladro`n might not even know himself and Nivenna knows all too well what it's like to not know where you come from.
"Nivenna, over here!" Ladro`n was waiving his right hand making sure she could see him.
"Why do you always need to be so loud? You know I saw you?" Nivenna sat down in the chair opposit to Ladro`n, who was now showing a sinister grin."And why are you still wearing those old, ragy clothes? I thought you would have stolen enough money in that gang of yours by now to buy some decent clothes." Even though Nivenna sounded like a heartless critic, Ladro`n knew she was just as happy to see him as he was to see her, which was a lot.
"You know the gang leader takes almost all the profits from our raids." He tells her, even though he has already told her this many times before. Nivenna always thought it was ironic that Ladro`n joined a gang much like the one that took him from his Overworld family all those years. " I bearly make enough to eat."
" All right, then what is this big news that you wanted to tell me?" She asks, changing the subject and getting to the point of their meeting. Nivenna was not even looking at Ladro`n any more. Her eyes were closed with her right hand under her chin like she was about to go to sleep. This little act didn't fool him, he knew Nivenna would not ask a question unless she wanted an answer.
"Well three days ago, I stood up to the gang leader about how he takes all the money for himself. And well . . . we got into a fight, and I wound up killing him. So now I'm the new gang leader!" He said, grinning ear to ear. The news surprised Nivenna to say the least. She did hear some rumor about a new gang leader, but she would never have guessed it was Ladro`n. Not that she couldn't see him being a leader of a gang (he was the leader of their small group before it got broken up), it was just the gang he is in has a reputation for being one of the biggest gangs in the Underworld. There must be more to the story than he is telling her, but she wasn't in the mood to try to get anymore information from him, at least not today.
"So you're the gang leader and you still wear those old,warn-out rags that you call clothes." She said, her tone a bit harsh. She was happy for her friend, but she will always be a critic.
"Hi, come on give me a break will ya! You know fighting him was not easy." He was acting like his normal goofy self.
They began to talk about other things, asking questions about how they've been doing and bringing back old memories of them playing, stealing sweets, and tricking others to do their dirty work. It was a nice talk between two close old friends. Nivenna even started to smile.
Four years into the future.
In the Overworld a chaotic player named Sam was exploring a new location that he got in a trade. He looked around fifteen-years-old, he was African-American with short hair. He was wearing blue jeans, a red shirt that had the Underworld tribal symbol on it, black boots, and a backpack that had food, water, and all the things he needed for his scan quest.
The name of the location is Kirvak Mound. Looking around the waste land, Sam couldn't see any signs of life anywhere. There was only rocks, dirt and large bones that belonged to creatures long since died. There was only a few things that stood out: the bones that were actually cool to look at, almost like going to a museum back on earth; then there was this weird structure that kind of looked like the Washington Monument in Washington DC, only shorter and made out of grey bricks and; then there was the large mountain filled with tunnels that give the location its name, Kirvak Mound.
The chaotic player that traded the location card to Sam warned him not to go inside Kirvak Mound, but he never said why it was so dangerous. So a few days after he got the location card, Sam's curiosity got the best of him.
Today was sunny, not a single cloud in the bright blue sky. Seeing nothing special outside, he decided to go inside Kirvak Mound. He walked inside the giant mountain and explored through some of the caverns. Not finding anything, but endless tunnels, he became bored. With nothing to scan, he walked back outside.
"Well, that was a big waste of my time." He complained, as he walked out of Kirvak Mound. He had thought there was something dangerous in there, after what that guy warned him not to go in there. Why would he say not to go there if there wasn't anything in there that could kill him? It just didn't make sense.
The moment he was out of Kirvak Mound, he knew something was wrong, the sky was dark like it was night time, he was only in there for an hour. "Maybe it's an eclipse." Sam thought it was odd, but then again he is in Perim odd things happen every day. After standing around there a minute or two, he thought about going to his favorite tribe to see if he could get a scan of a creature he does not have.
Author's Notes: Kirvak Mound was in season two, episode nine, which is named "Time's up".
Please reveiw and tell me what you think.
