Special thanks to hideingunderblankets for his OC, Tangath Tyzer.
Sorry for the long wait, I made the chapter extra long to make up for it. This is the longest chapter I have ever wrote on this account and I hope you guys like it.
Chapter Eight
Gang of Seven
A week after Nivenna became Takinom's apprentice.
Nivenna was carefully making her way to what she and her gang called the Outpost. The Outpost was actually not in Underworld City, but was hidden deep in Fear Valley. Because it was in Fear Valley, Chaor had posted warriors there to stop any spies from getting into Underworld City, Nivenna and her friends had to basically sneak their way inside. That really was not a problem for them, in fact they loved the risks they took getting there. It helped sharpen their abilities and kept them from going soft.
The real problem was that they feared fear itself: Fear Valley wasn't given that name for no reason, you had to be brave to travel through this location or risk running away every time the location played its mind tricks on you.
She finally made it to her destination, stopping next to an old, dead tree that over time had grown into a monstrous shape. It looked so much like a monster than an actual tree that Nivenna thought it must have been alive at some point and somehow turned into the dead tree it was today.
She cautiously looked around to make sure no one had followed her. Once satisfied, she reached out and grabbed a branch that made up the monster's small finger and pulled it down like a lever. A piece of ground in front of her moved to reveal an underground staircase. After walking down into the hidden passage, the entrance closed behind her.
The lighting was dim, but there was enough for her to see clearly and she knew in a second it would become brighter when she got off the stairway. The stairs ended and now she was walking through a hall with many doors and other hallways that lead to various different places in the Outpost. Like the orphanage, the Outpost was a maze that can have you lost for days, but this was home to her just like the orphanage was her home.
Thinking back, she couldn't remember if they had made the place or had stumbled upon it. She was simply to young to remember, but she did remember that they had to repair some caved in areas and they had even made new rooms and tunnels that made great short-cuts to various locations in the Underworld. There was even some that led to Underworld City, but she didn't want to use them in fear that Takinom would somehow find out about them.
A door suddenly opened a few feet ahead of her and a creature that looked like a cross between a King Cobra and a hyena walked out, closing the door behind him. The creature had the puffed out neck and head of a King Cobra, his scales were a red, brownish color with a diamond pattern. Unlike most snake-like creatures, this creature had legs with sharp claws and brown fur; he also had brown fur on the top of his hands and his head, which the fur on his head looked more like hair since it was longer and got into his eyes a little. He was wearing a black lion cloth and a brown vest.
Nivenna smiled at seeing him. She didn't think of him as a brother like Ladro`n more like a close cousin.
"Hey Smily. How have you been?" she greeted him. The creature turned his head to look at Nivenna, giving her a large smile in return. Of course he was always smiling not by chose though, he didn't have lips to hide his teeth making it seem like he was smiling all the time. Most creatures that looked like snakes didn't have lips either, but they had holes in the bottom of their jaws for their teeth or their teeth just curved backwards. Smiley's teeth didn't do either of these. This made it hard for creatures to tell if he was happy or not, which he normally is happy since he finds almost everything hilarious.
"Nivenna, it's so good to see you. I hear you have been too busy to stop by and say hello to poor creatures like us." he said. Like his appearance, his voice was an odd mix of a snakes' hiss and a hyena's laugh.
"Please just because I'm now Takinom's apprentice does not mean you guys are no longer my family."
"That's good to hear. I should warn you, your big brother is still pretty mad about the whole leaving the gang thing." he laughed/hissed, apparently finding it funny.
"Thanks for the warning." she said even though she kind of already guessed that.
"Come on all the others are inside the warehouse and they would love to see you again." he hissed. Nivenna was not sure if she should be happy or scared that her former gang wanted to see here. They either wanted to talk to her or kill her and she didn't know which one was worse. Reluctantly she followed him to the warehouse.
"Well, at least I get to see the warehouse one last time if my friends kill me." she thought. The warehouse was her favorite place in the Outpost for many reasons. First, it was the unofficial meeting place were the whole gang met and discussed about what or who they were going to steal. Second the place was gigantic, easily the biggest room she has every been in; it's so big that all of Chaor's army could be put inside it and still have room for more. Third, it's where the gang hides all the stuff they steal. Over time they have stolen so many things that now the warehouse looked just like they called it, a warehouse filled with all kinds of things ranging to small pieces of candy to a massive Underworld tank from Chaor's army.
A few minutes later, they were now standing outside of a large door, one of many that opens to the warehouse.
"Ladies first." he said, his arms raised pointing to the door with a slight bow. Nivenna hated it when a male creature did that; they don't do it to be polite like the other Tribes. They do it because they don't want to go inside first.
Rolling her eyes at him, she opened the door and walked inside. Smiley then walked inside and closed the door behind him. Like the rest of the Outpost, the warehouse was a giant mass, but it wouldn't be hard to find the rest of the gang. There was one place in the center of the warehouse where they had their meetings and that was most likely where they were at.
As Smiley continued to walk through the mass of stolen things, the more Nivenna was positive on where they were going. In some places there was so much clutter that they had to walk around it or climb over it. They had to be careful when they climbed it, because even though it was the least valuable things here they still had some value to them and they didn't want to break anything.
It took them awhile to get there, but Nivenna was okay with the long walk; it gave her time to think. The meeting place was the only place in the warehouse that was not cluttered. It was a clearing and had a large circular table in the middle with seven different chairs for the members, each member had a specific chair that no one else could sit in. There was also a few boxes and bins that had maps and documents, in a pile at the edge of the meeting place.
As they approached the meeting place, Nivenna could see some of the gang members sitting down at the table with some papers and maps laying on it. There was two members not present, but Nivenna knew why one was not here; the thought of her made her feel bad. Seeing that the other member missing was the one she hated, made her feel happier .
Almost everybody looked at them as they walked towards them. Only Ladro`n didn't look up at them, instead he kept looking at the map on the table. Menhita quickly jumped out of her set and hugged, Nivenna.
"Nivenna! Thank goodness you're okay." Menhita said as she squeezed the air out of Nivenna's lungs. Nivenna tried to tell her she was suffocating her, but the ex-Mipedian was squeezing her too hard.
"Stop it, Menhita. Can't you see you're choking her." Kasai said. Menhita looked down at a now purple Nivenna, seeing that her younger sister had changed colors due to lack of air, she let go of Nivenna.
"Sorry." Menhita apologized. Nivenna didn't hear her, since she was trying to catch her breath.
"Thanks, Kasai." Nivenna said, looking at him.
"No problem." Kasai said. Kasai was about two solens or one year older than Menhita and Ladro`n and was one of those rare Underworlders that looked like a skeleton on fire. He had large flaming wings and these weird purple eyes that glowed. Since he was naturally on fire all the time, he couldn't wear clothes. Instead he wore armor made of metal, painted red that he stole from an Underworld soldier, but without the helmet. He had to make a few changes to it for several reasons. First, his wings couldn't fit into it, so he made holes in the back. Second, it was way too big for him. He had to cut and weld almost all of it before it fit him. And thirdly, if he didn't change it then every time he went outside he would have to hide so no soldiers see him wearing it.
After all the modifications he made, no one was able to tell that it used to be armor from an Underworld soldier.
Nivenna looked away from Kasai and turned her head to Ladro`n, who was still ignoring her like she was not even in the same room.
"Ladro`n, aren't you going to say something to Nivenna?" Menhita asked. Ladro`n looked away from the map, but still would not look at Nivenna, instead his attention was directed at Menhita.
"Why should I?" he snapped at Menhita.
"Because she is still apart of your family. Now stop acting like a child and get over it." a deep male voice answered. Everyone turned to look at Tangath Tyzer the newest member of the gang. He looked like an anthropomorphic lion that was seven feet tall. His large mane is a dark brown, his eyes are gray and his body color is a deep color of tan. His body has a more leaner build than most creatures that look like him, wearing a brown loincloth.
Nivenna was glaring at him. She hated him, hated that Ladro`n let him join their gang and hated the fact that she was the only one that was not okay with him joining. She still blamed him for what happened months ago.
He was the oldest out of the seven and was the only adult in the gang. Unlike the rest of the gang, Tyzer was not from Sazu's house, he was not an orphan and he wasn't even a Underworlder!
He joined the gang about six months ago. Apparently he came from the Spirit Lands and left because he was sick having to deal with everybody there. He then somehow made it to the Underworld where Ladro`n found him and made a deal with him. The deal was that he would join our gang and in return we give him food and a place to stay where no one will bother him. Only Landro`n knows where Tyzer lives, since he doesn't want anyone, not even the gang to disturb him. The only time Nivenna sees him are at the meetings and when they go on a raid.
"Shut up! Tyzer I don't need your help!" Nivenna snapped at him.
Tyzer just shrugged his shoulders. "Sure you don't. I can see how well you're handling yourself." he sarcastically said, arms crossed.
Nivenna wanted to punch him in the face, but knew he would just easily dodge it. He was the best fighter out of the seven of them, only Landro`n stood a chance of beating him.
"Enough! Everyone calm down." Menhita ordered them. "We can talk about it later, but right now we need to think about what went wrong on our last raid." she said.
"Please, we all knew why we have not been able to pull of any of the raids for months now." Kasai said. It was the truth everyone know why, but no one wanted to talk about it.
"If Izannia hadn't got hit by those mugix in that raid." Menhita began to say, but didn't finish the sentence. The room fell silent, everyone seemed depressed even Smiley looked sad.
The memory of that raid still hurt like a fresh-cut made be a sword with salt rubbed into it.
Flash Back Four Months Ago
All seven of them were at the meeting place, sitting down and going over the game plan for one of the biggest raids they ever did. It was extremely high risk, but if all went well then it would be worth it.
"Alright here is our target." Ladro`n said, pulling out a map of Mt. Pillor. "This is where Lore keeps his mugix and that's where we are going to steal them." he said, pointing to a chamber that was circled.
They had been planning this raid for weeks now and everything was in place. They were just going over it one more time before show time.
"Are the decoys in place?" Ladro`n asked Smiley who was in charge of it.
"Yes, Sazu won't know we're gone all night, but when it's time to get up the other orphans will more than likely tell him or blackmail us later." Smiley said.
"That'll only give us eight hours at most." Kasai said.
"It will take us at least five hours to get there by foot, but will this solve that problem?" Menhita said holding up a flux bauble, battle gear that can transport creatures to random locations.
"Where did you get that?" Nivenna asked.
"Smiley won it and two others in a card game with some other orphans." she said.
"So how will they help us?" Izannia asked.
"The flux baubles will transport us to different locations and when we get to a location close to Mt. Pillor then we can navigate our way to Lore's chamber. When we have taken as much as we can carry then we'll use the flux baubles to transport to an Underworld location that's close enough for us to run back to Sazu's house." Ladro`n explaind.
"And I'll be the one that has to carry all the stuff to the Outpost." Tyzer grunted, thinking it would be a hassle.
"What if Lore is inside his chamber when we're there?" Smiley asked.
"He won't. My friends say he'll be meeting with the Queen all day." Tyzer said.
"Are you sure these friends of yours are trust worthy?" Nivenna asked, she didn't trust him. There are few creatures on her list that she trusts and Tyzer will have to prove himself if he wants to be on that list.
Tyzer looked at Nivenna straight in the eyes as he said: "I'm very sure they will not betray me if they know what's good for them."
"Okay, does anyone have any questions?" Ladro`n asked. Nobody said anything. Ladro`n was not sure Nivenna or Tyzer heard him, they were in some kind of staring contest. "Alright then, let's get all the tools and weapons ready. We leave in an hour." Ladro`n said, putting the map away.
Two hours later, they were deep inside Danian turf, steadily making their way to Lore's chamber. It would have been hard for all seven of them to travel together, so they split up into three teams. Every team had a different route to take them to Lore's chamber. Ladro`n and Menhita were team one; Smiley and Kasai were team two; Nivenna, Tyzer and Izannia were team three. Each team had one flux bauble and one mission to get to Lore's chamber and steal as much as they can then contact the other teams and tell them they had successfully completed the mission, so they may transport back to the Underworld.
Nivenna was hating being on the same team with Tyzer. Ladro`n didn't want anything to happen to his two youngest sisters who just happen to be the weakest members of the gang, so he put the strongest member on the same team with them. Izannia was fine with having Tyzer on their team, but knew how Nivenna felt about him. Tyzer didn't care if Nivenna liked or hated him, he was just here to do his job, which involved protecting the two young girls. Even though right now he wanted to hit one of them with his axe.
"Nivenna, give me the map." he demanded.
"No, I can read it." Nivenna said back.
"No, you can't. We are lost." he said trying not to yell at her.
"No, we're not. I know exactly where we are at." Nivenna snapped back.
Tyzer didn't know how much longer he could handle this. Nivenna was acting like a brat and Izannia was trying not to pick sides. They were at cross roads and didn't know which path to take. According to what Nivenna had said earlier there should have been no other paths. Just one straight tunnel that should have lasted for a while and not divide into two different tunnels.
"Look, if you know where we are at then you can tell us which way we need to go, but you can't. So give me the map!" he said, trying to take the map away from Nivenna who then bit his hand. Putting his hand over his lion mouth to stop himself from yelling, he glared at her with hate.
Izannia looked at Nivenna and then looked at Tyzer, they were having another staring contest and neither one was backing down. She knew they had to move soon or the Danians will find them and that'll risk the others getting caught as well.
"Umm, guys we need to hurry or the guards may find us." Izannia said, trying to get them to stop fighting.
"Fine, here." Nivenna huffed, giving Tyzer the map. Showing a victory smile, he took the map from her. Looking at the map for a second he said:
"We're going to the left." folding the map and tucking it under his arm. Nivenna had crossed her arms and had a scowl face as she followed him. Izannia was trying to keep the peace, but she was miserably failing.
An hour later team three was still making their way to Lore's chamber with Tyzer leading, which Nivenna wasn't happy about. So far they had not received any messages from the other two teams, but that was to be expected. They had agreed not to contact any of the other teams unless it was an emergency or they had completed the mission.
Now that Tyzer had the map they were making good time. In fact they were so close to the target that they could hear the guards from where they were at.
"Stop." Tyzer whispered. Nivenna and Izannia did what he told them to do.
"What is it, Tyzer?" Izannia asked.
"One of the other two teams should have been the ones to get here first, not us." he whispered.
"What do you mean by that?" Nivenna asked.
"We took the long way here. The others had the shorter paths, so they should have already completed the mission." he explained.
"Maybe some Danians saw them and they had to make a detour." Izannia whispered. Thinking about the possibility, Tyzer was not sure what to do. He hated the thought of the two girls having to fight the Danian guards. Sure he would be more than capable to defeat them, but he couldn't fight and keep an eye on them.
"Here take this," he gave Izannia the flux bauble. "If something happens to me use it to transport out of here." he said with a hint of a warning in his voice. Knowing those two they'll try to help him if the Danians over power him, even though the chances of that happening were slim to none, he wanted them to escape if everything goes sour. The girls nodded their understanding, but they didn't like not being able to do anything.
They continued down the tunnel and when Tyzer saw the twelve guards standing next to the door of Lore's chamber, he signaled the two girls to stop. They hid behind a bolder as Tyzer explained the plan.
"Good now here's the plan. I'll knock out the guards then when all of them are down we'll go inside and take as much as we can. After that we'll contact the others and if they don't respond then you two will transport out of here and I'll go look for them."
"Understood." Nivenna and Izannia both whispered. Nodding once, Tyzer then got up and began to run straight at the Danians with his axe ready to cut them down. Nivenna and Izannia stood back on the side lines like Tyzer told them to do. They watched as he quickly and efficiently hit the guards with his axe. Some of the guards were lucky enough just to be knocked out, but five of them were killed either by getting their heads chopped of or Tyzer snapped their necks. This didn't faze the two girls (they have seen worse on the Underworld streets).
After all the guards were incapacitated, Tyzer carefully opened the door to make sure there was no other guards on the inside. Finding no sign of any Danians, he gave the okay signal. The girls quickly followed him inside.
Lore's chamber was filled with books, scrolls, maps and stone tablets everywhere. The decor was just some old Danian artifacts and all the furniture was made from rock.
"Alright, this is only where Lore sleeps. He works somewhere else, so we'll only find a few items worth taking. Since, neither one of you can read Danian or not even Underworlder for that matter, I'll have to look at all the documents he has here and see if they are worth anything. Start looking for any mugix he may have here and watch out for traps." he said.
The three quickly went to work, Tyzer was searching in Lore's study, well Nivenna and Izannia were in the bed chamber. Knowing that they would only have thirty minutes at most to take the valuables before the Danians find out what's happening, they split up to search faster.
"Where would a Danian muge hide his mugix?" Izannia asked as she was going through Lore's wardrobe.
"Hmm, maybe some where near the bed." Nivenna thought out load. Walking over to the bed, she opened a drawer in a nightstand. "Nothing."
"Why have a drawer with nothing inside. From what we have seen so far, Lore only keeps the essentials" Izannia wondered.
"That's right everything here has a purpose, except for this nightstand." Nivenna said still looking at the empty drawer.
"But what if it does have a purpose and we just don't know it." Izannia suggested.
Nivenna thought about what Izannia said. Realizing that her sister was getting somewhere, she began to look for any hidden slots. Moving her hand on the inside of the drawer, she felt an uneven place that was in a perfect circle like a button. She was hesitant about pushing it, afraid that it might be a trap, but she took the risk. As soon as she pushed the hidden button, a secrete door opened on the wall revealing another chamber.
"Awesome." Nivenna said, getting up and practically running inside.
"Wait, don't you think we should tell, Tyzer?" Izannia asked, concern written all over her face. Nivenna had stopped at the doorway and turned to look at her sister.
"No, he told us to look for mugix and this secret chamber screams of being the perfect place to find them." Nivenna said before walking inside.
"But he also said to watch out for traps and that chamber would be perfect place for that." Izannia mumbled under her breath as she followed Nivenna.
The secret chamber was apparently a small mugic lab/library. There were bookshelves lined up on the walls; there were so many shelves that all the walls were covered. The chamber had a few large tables that had all kinds of test tubs with different colored liquids sitting on them. In the middle of the chamber was this massive, metal pot larger than the two girls combined. It had a fire underneath it that was boiling the gross, green liquid inside the pot.
Nivenna and Izannia didn't care about all those things, no what caught their attention was the mugix floating in the air above their heads.
"Woe, that's a lot of mugix." Izannia said, mesmerized by all the beautiful mugix that looked like shining stars in a night sky.
"How are we going to get them? They're too high up." Nivenna said. Izannia looked around the room and saw a chair next to one of the lab tables.
"I've got an idea of how we can fix that." Izannia said with a huge grin. Nivenna looked confused not knowing what she was talking about.
Meanwhile, Tyzer was still looking over the documents, but it was becoming more of a challenge than he thought. Most of it was encrypted making it difficult. The maps he found were the best things he found so far. They were not just maps of the Danian's homeland, he had maps from all over Perim.
As he was going over some notes, Lore had written, he realized something.
"It's way too quiet. What happened to the girls talking?" he thought. Stopping what he was doing, he walked out and headed straight to where he last saw the girls. He was shocked to see a door in Lore's bed chamber that was not there before.
"Come on, Nivenna. Reach higher." He heard Izannia say from inside the secret chamber.
"Oh, no." he thought then ran inside. He had no idea what those girls were doing, but what Izannia said had made him think the worst was about to happen.
Running inside the lab, he sees Izannia standing on a chair with Nivenna on top of her, trying to grab a Mipedian mugic. She was about to get it when, a bad thought popped into Tyzer's mind.
"Wait! It might be booby-trapped!" he yelled, running to stop them. But it was too late, Nivenna had grabbed the yellow mugic and out of nowhere a yellow beam shot Nivenna had been holding her in the air. Izannia had fallen back off the chair and onto the hard floor.
It was obvious that, Nivenna was in agony, her face was like a mask of pain even though she was not screaming. Thinking quickly, Tyzer looked for the source of the beam and saw a brown crystal on the ceiling. Quickly he grabbed his large axe and was about to throw it at the crystal, but before he could he was hit by a sleep sting attack (an attack where the attacker shots his victim with a dart that will make the victim fall asleep).
Pulling out the dart, he looked at where the attack had come from. He let out a load growl when he saw the dozen Danians standing at the doorway. Lucky for him and bad news for the Danians that it takes five sleep sting darts to knock him out and not one. Before the Danians could attack again, Tyzer attacked them with a skeletal strike. The earlier sleep sting attack had weakened him, but the attack he unleashed had still done its purpose.
The skeleton was only to distract the Danians a little bit, so that way he could attack them head on. With one mighty jump, he was now right in front of them and with his axe. He began to cut them down like weeds. Unlike before, the Danians had kept coming. There was no end to them.
As Tyzer was battling the Danians, Izannia was dealing with another problem. Nivenna was still trapped in the yellow beam and she didn't know what to do. Tyzer was too busy fighting off the Danians, so he couldn't help. She didn't have a weapon to use against the crystal and she couldn't leave without her sister.
Taking out the flux bauble, she looked at it then looked at Tyzer and Nivenna before making up her mind. With determination, she ran back as far as she could then turned around and took a deep breath. Letting out a scream that sounded like a battle cry, she ran as fast as she could then jumped using all the power her leg muscles had.
It was a stupid plan, but it was the only one she had making it the best one she had. She had jumped so high that she put herself in between Nivenna and the crystal. She had used herself as a shield and now that the beam had her trapped instead, Nivenna dropped to the ground still in pain.
Tyzer didn't see what happened to the girls, he was too busy fighting. Managing to kill all the Danians, he turned back to the girls to see that it was now Izannia who was trapped. Running to Nivenna's side, Tyzer checked to see what the beam had done to her. She was still breathing, but was shaking uncontrollably.
More Danians came, but Tyzer had his back to them and didn't hear them come in. It left him wide open for an attack. The Danians shot multiple sleep sting darts at him. Some missed their target, but at least ten had hit their mark.
Izannia was in extreme pain mentally and and physically. It was painful to keep her eyes open, but she somehow managed to do so. See what was happening made tears roll down her cheeks. In a desperate attempt to save the other two, she threw the flux bauble to Tyzer who was able to catch it despite being so weak and was bearly able to stay conscious. The flux bauble began to glow, signaling that it was about to transport them to a different location.
Tyzer's eyes grew wide when he understood what Izannia had done. She apparently had activated it before she threw it to him, but he was not about to leave her here.
"Vine Snare!" he shouted as the vines wrapped around Izannia's legs. Pulling as hard as he could, he was able to free Izannia and drag her down to them as the flux bauble transported them to safety.
It was dum luck that the location they were transported to was Fear Valley, only two miles away from the Outpost. Tyzer tried to carry the two girls there, but was only able to walk two steps before passing out.
He woke up later on a bed in one of the Outpost's rooms that was used as a medical room. Looking around, he saw that Nivenna and Izannia were not there. The only thing he could find was a note left be Ladro`n that said:
"Took Nivenna and Izannia to Sazu. We couldn't do nothing for them, but the doctors at the hospital might be able to help them. We gave you antivenom for the sleep stings you got hit with. You'll be fine.
Lando`n"
The two other teams were attacked by the Danians and had to flee. Smiley and Kasai were heading to the Outpost when they found them unconscious and brought them to the Outpost. Menhita give Tyzer the medicine, but couldn't do anything for the girls. So they ran back to the orphanage and told Sazu what happened, but lied and said it was Ladro`n that was with Nivenna and Izannia. Sazu didn't know about the gang or Tyzer, so they had to lie and change the story a bit.
The doctors were able to help Nivenna, but Izannia was not so lucky. The theory is that since, Tyzer had forcibly pulled her out of the trap it had done more damage to her then Nivenna. She is still in a coma with little chance that she'll wake up again.
End Flash Back
"It was nice to see all of you again, but I must leave." Nivenna said as she walked away.
"Wait, do you have to leave? Could you not stay for a little while?" Ladro`n surprisingly asked. Nivenna didn't even turn around when she said:
"No, I must go before Takinom starts to look for me." She then walked off, leaving her friends behind. In truth she didn't need to leave, she just didn't want them to see her cry.
Author's Note
As you probably know, I made up the Outpost location. I don't know if there is a location in Perim called the outpost. I don't think there is, but if there is one please tell me so I can change the name.
If you want to know more about Tyzer then go to topic/140014/95154360/1/OC-Discussion#110156293 on fanfiction. net. Please remember that Tangath Tyzer belongs to hidingunderblankets , but he gave me permission to use him in my story. I did change a few things, but I tried to keep him the same as much as I could. This Tyzer in my story moved to the Underworld instead of the wastelands.
Chapter nine; Questions. The next chapter will be where I left off at Chapter six with Sam just telling Nivenna about Aivenna.
That's all until next time. Please leave a review and thanks for reading.
