Chapter Twelve

Takinom Introduces Her Pupil I

A month after, Nivenna became Takinom's apprentice.

Outside of Chaor's castle at the front door, Nivenna was standing beside Takinom. Nivenna who normally doesn't fear anything, was now shaking and looked a bit pale from the fear that was building up inside her.

This morning, Takinom had told her to put on her best dress, which was a stunning black dress that covered her arms with red jewels forming swirls in an elegant design. Nivenna had no idea the reasoning of her putting on her most expensive dress ( the red jewels alone cost the same as half the metal in Underworld City), but getting to see the supreme ruler of all the Underworld was the last thing she would have guested.

But she knew there was something important going to happen and it was not just getting to see Chaor. Her first clue was of coarse her needing to wear the dress, but another was the fact that Takinom was also wearing an expensive outfit that Nivenna has never seen her wear before (granted she has only been living with the female warrior for little over a month, but she normally sees Takinom wearing the same outfit). The outfit was mainly made of black armor, but there was also red cloth under the black armor. The armor must have been made by a master craftsman and the cloths under it appeared to be made of very expansive looking silk.

The third clue was that they were not the only creatures at the Underworld Ruler's home .

The front door was opened and there were creatures of high status walking in or standing around talking. Nivenna was able to recognized a few as being Underworld warriors and political figures, but there were many she had no clue who they were. But it didn't matter whether she did or did not know them.

All of them were wearing the most expensive cloths, dresses and armor she ever saw in her life. It was shocking to say the least to see these Underworlders dressed up so nice. Normally, Underworlders hated to wear anything fancy, because they hated to spend so much on cloths. The most expensive silks could burn up easily and the fact that the cloths did not last long in a battle made it so hard for Underworlders to keep the cloths intact. If a Underworlder was going to wear these kind of cloths then it would normally be because they wanted to show of their wealth and impress others.

"Takinom, what's going on? Why are we here and why are all these creatures at Chaor's castle?" Nivenna asked, looking up at Takinom with a raised eyebrow. Takinom looked down at her new pupil and replied:

"Oh, right. You wouldn't know about the Riqueza Ball." Takinom, knew it might have been better if she would have explained to Nivenna about the ball before hand, but it just slipped her mind. " The Riqueza Ball is held every four solans for the powers of the Underworld to meet." Takinom explained.

"And what happens at this ball?" Nivenna asked, looking around the grounds at all the supposed powers of the underworld. Most creatures from the other tribes think the Underworld is all about brawns and no brains, but like any form of government there are people who got to the top of the political chain by being sly and excellent with their words. And looking around, it was clear as crystal that some of the creature couldn't least a second on the battle field. It was fairly obvious, which ones were the politicians and which ones were the warriors.

"Nothing really. The creatures that are invited to come just show off their power and wealth." Takinom told her. " Don't worry so much. Just stay close to me and don't talk to anyone unless they address you." She said, trying to get her pupil to relax.

Nivenna did calm down at hearing that her original idea of this being some kind of an important gathering was somewhat wrong and she even stopped shaking at this point, but the thought that she was still going to meet Chaor, the supreme ruler of the Underworld, was making her feel sick to her stomach.

Takinom could clearly see the girl's fears written on her face and she understood part of Nivenna's anxiety. A month ago, Nivenna had been on the lowest chain of Underworld society and now she is standing outside of Chaor's castle, about to meet the Underworld Ruler and was considered to be part of the circle of the wealthiest and strongest creatures of the subterranean tribe. Who wouldn't be nervous in this situation that the young girl was in.

But Takinom failed to think of another reason of Nivenna's discomfort. The true fear, Nivenna was suffering from was that she was going to met the most powerful creature in the Underworld; the same creature that she stole from a month ago. Though only Takinom, Sazo and her gang know about that, she still felt a dread that Chaor would somehow find out about her secret by just looking into her eyes and be able to read her like an open book.

She has heard all kinds of rumors about the formidable ruler and how he could make the toughest of creatures wet themselves just be looking at them. There were a lot more gruesome stories that she heard from some of the other older orphans talk about in the orphanage, but she tried not to think about them or else she might get queasy and loss the food she had inside her stomach. That would not be a very good first impression, especially not in front of some of the most powerful Underworlders politically and military.

"Are you coming or are you just going to stand there all night?" Takinom, who was standing five meters away from Nivenna.

Nivenna scolded herself for being to lost in her thoughts and fears to not have notice her teacher walk ahead. She was thankful, Takinom did not just went on walking and would have left her there alone.

"I'm coming." Nivenna said and quickly walked to Takinom's side. They both walked past the guards and went inside the castle.

Underworld balls were much different then the other tribes' formal meetings from what Nivenna learned about when Takinom was teaching her about politics and proper manners (okay, she was still learning the basics and those lessons started a week ago, but she still knew some things about political parties).

Back to how different Underworld balls are compare to the other tribes'. There are many, but it would just be easier to list the main two. First, Underworlders don't dance at all. They may have some music, but they really don't dance. Some of the younger generations have started to create their own style of dance, but not many; it's mainly the poor Underworlders that dance for entertainment. The other tribes have their own traditional dances they profarm at their balls, parties or vistabals.

The second thing that is different between Underworld Balls and other Tribes' balls is that there is fighting in everything including parties, which was the first thing that Nivenna and Takinom saw when they walked inside.

They had walked inside a large open space that was filled with all kinds of creatures. There was a crowed gathered around a circle or it was more like a ring, since its porpous in the first place was for battles to take place in.

Nivenna could clearly hear the sounds of fighting taking place within the ring, but the other creatures surrounding the fight were blocking her view.

Nivenna made a digusted face; she really wanted to see the fight. Times like this made her wish she was taller.

"Ha, you look so adorable when you get thrustrated." Takinom chucaled.

"Whatever." Nivenna responded, crossing her arms. Nivenna knew Takinom could see the fight since she was over twice her height, but Nivenna wasn't going to ask about the details of the battle. No her pride was too big to ask after Takinom laughed at her.

Takinom just laughed some more, then said: " Come on. They will make room for us to watch up front." She walked towards the fight with Nivenna right behind her and like Takinom had said, the other creatures stepped aside to let the Underworld queen along with the young girl have a front row view.

All the creatures around them showed Takinom nothing but absolute respatic. Nivenna on the other hand didn't know where she stood in this class group. Some looked at her with disapproval, but they quickly looked away when they saw Takinom staring at them.

The other creatures didn't know that Takinom had adopted Nivenna and made the girl her apprentice. Takinom has not announced the news publicly yet, so the other Underworlders were probably wondering why a little girl was there. This party wasn't for children and Nivenna could see it in their eyes that they wanted to say something about why she wasn't suppose to be here, but since Takinom was with her they were too scared to speak up.

Good thing they didn't know that Nivenna was or use to be an orphan; they would have defiantly had said something then.

Trying to not think about it, Nivenna instead turned her attention to the fight taking place. There were two male creatures in the middle of the ring. The one who was less injured and looked to be winning the fight, looked like a minotaur with red fur, purple hair and was wearing shinny silver armor. He had a large axe that must have been very heavy, but he was wielding it with ease like it weighed nothing at all.

Nivenna recognized him as Rothar, one of Chaor's most loyal warriors. She has seen him walking around in the Underworld City's poorer districts, looking for the creatures working in the Underworld black market. There was a few instances were the gang and other orphans in Sazo's house had to hid from Rothar in fear that he may catch them red-handed with the goods they steal.

Nivenna feared that he may recognize her for being one of the many orphans who steal and form gangs. But Rothar was too busy fighting his opponent to look at the audience.

Rothar's opponent was an orange ogre with eyes completely green, dreadlocks and had spikes all over him. He was wearing golden armor and a green loincloth. Like Rothar this large creature had a weapon, but instead of an axe like Rothar, he had a wooden club. Nivenna didn't know who the orange ogre was, but from how he was battling, he must be some kind of warrior. Even if he was losing just the fact that he was able to put up a fight with Rothar shows how strong he must be.

"Who's the orange ogre with the club?" Nivenna asked, but only spoke loud enough for only Takinom to hear her question.

"That's Ketacc, an UnderWorld Warrior Scout. He is very strong and courageous, but he's slow and has average intelligence." Takinom said. "Normally, Rothar wouldn't be beating the life out of him in a fight, but Ketacc was injured in a battle with some Overworlders near the Passage yesterday so he doesn't have enough energy to be fighting Rothar or any warrior for that matter."

With the new information she got from Takinom, Nivenna wondered why Ketacc would battle Rothar if he was too injured to fight in the first place. But she knew it probably had something to do with pride. Many Underworlders (especially the males) had a lot of pride and were too hotheaded for their own good, which will in the end lead to their downfall. Nivenna has seen many of her fellow orphans (and sometimes herself) use those weaknesses to win against opponents who should have crushed them, but lost all because they thought some peewee orphan couldn't do any harm to them.

A small mischievous smile formed on Nivenna's face at the memoirs of either herself or the other orphans managing to beat the adult Underworlders who underestimated them. Takinom never did have to teach Nivenna the lesson to never underestimate someone.

The battle wasn't getting any better for poor Ketacc. After a few more minutes of him struggling just to continue on the defensive, Rothar ended it with a final blow to Ketacc's head. The hit didn't kill Ketacc, but he would not be getting up any time soon.

"Well, that was a boring fight." Takinom commented. Nivenna had to agree with her on that; the fight was pretty dull.

Rothar was enjoying his victory, when he saw Takinom in the crowed, which surprised him, since she never did like watching fights. As he continued to look at Takinom, he noticed that she was looking down to her right and was talking. Frowning, Rothar looked towards where the short creature was at to see who it was. Rothar's frown deepened when he saw that it was child who he didn't know.

He was confused as to why Takinom would bring a child here during Riqueza. It would have been a different story if the child had some kind of states in the Underworld like being the daughter of some powerful or rich creature, but she didn't resemble anybody of high power. So who was this kid?

Takinom and the girl left and were walking to somewhere else, Rothar wasn't sure where though. With next two fighters wanting the ring, he began to walk out of the ring towards Takinom and the unknown girl.

"Greetings, Rothar. Your fight went well." Takinom said, politely when Rothar walked up to them.

"Thank you Takinom, but I'm not going to brag about that fight, since you know that Ketacc was not at his full strength at the beginning." Rothar said, then looked down at the girl who looked very nervous, which made Rothar suspicious.

"Of course, you wouldn't brag to me since you have nothing to brag about, but that won't stop you from bragging to your drinking buddies." Takinom said. Nivenna looked surprised at what Takinom had said, but then she became even more surprised at the fact that it made Rothar laugh.

"Ha, so true! Takinom, you know me so well." Rothar laughed some more, then he stopped and looked down at Nivenna. "So who is this little cutie with you Takinom? I don't recall ever seeing her before." No one else was around to hear them talk, so Takinom might be more welling to tell him the truth at least that was what he thought.

Nivenna didn't like him looking at her. She was still afraid that he would recognize her from the streets even though he said he didn't remember seeing her before.

"This is Nivenna my new apprentice." Takinom stated firmly as if Rothar would think it a joke. But from the look of pure shock on the warrior's face it's safe to say he didn't think it was a joke.

"This little girl your apprentice? When did this happen?" He asked, still staring at Nivenna, but this time with more curiosity than suspicion.

"About a month ago, but I haven't announced it yet." She answered. Rothar looked like he was thinking.

"Have you told Chaor yet?" Rothar asked. "He gets mad when you hid things from him.

"No, I have not told him yet, nor am I hiding my apprentice from him. There is no rule saying I have to tell him." Takinom said, not happy that Rothar was asking all this questions. She hadn't told Chaor about Nivenna earlier because he was still very mad that they hadn't fond the thief who stool from him. Takinom also needed to come up with a believable story of how she fond Nivenna and why she made the girl her apprentice.

"So then, you're going to tell him tonight? Because that's the only reason I can see for you bringing her along with you and telling me."

"You're correct, but don't go around telling people. I don't want the news to reach Chaor's ears before I get the chance to tell him myself." Takinom said with a hint of a warning to her voice.

"Don't worry, I won't. But could you let me know when you do tell him; it would be fun to watch how he will reacted to it." Rothar laughed some more then left the two females. The laughing didn't help Nevinna's nervous at all.

"I told you, don't worry." Takinom said. "Chaor won't care if I got an apprentice. He might be surprised, but it's not like he'll be mad at you."

"What are you going to tell him?" Nivenna asked. "You can't tell him the truth of how we meet." Nivenna's voice was low as she could possible get it so no one could hear what she was saying. Takinom looked at Nivenna like she had just asked a stupid question.

"Of course, I'm not." Takinom said. "Come on, it's time I introduced you to Chaor and don't talk unless he asks you a question." Takinom then walked away. Nivenna was silent as they made their way through the crowds of creatures who would step aside to let the Underworld queen through.

Takinom had said not to worry, that everything will be fine, but Nivenna couldn't stop thinking of all the possible ways it could go wrong. Her fears grew when she saw the massive red Underworld for the first time, sitting on his large metal thrown.

Author's Notes

Riqueza means wealth in Spanish. I got it on Google translate, so sorry if it's wrong.

Ketacc is an Underworlder who I think was never shown on the cartoon. On his card he was only wearing the green loincloth, but I added golden armor to his look, because the creatures at the party were wearing different cloths than what they normally wear.

I hoped you liked this chapter. The second part will not be the next chapter, because I haven't thought of how Chaor or the other Underworlders will react to Nivenna.

The next chapter will get back to Nivenna trying to find more information on her twin sister and the Gang of Seven get together to talk about going to the Overworld to find Aivenna. The chapter will be called: Making Plans.

Hoped you liked it and please write a review.