Chapter 21

Ibaeran heard a knock on the door.

She then, wondering who it was, went to door and opened it.

Upon opening the door, she saw two young women standing before her.

From what they were wearing Ibaeran assumed that they were either servants or maids sent there by the king.

“Who are you two and why are you here” asked Ibaeran to the two women.

“We are servants of the king, sent by him to prepare you to attend a royal dinner with the king and the rest of the royal family” said one of the young women.

“Prepare me to attend a royal dinner?” said Ibaeran, a bit confused upon hearing what the young woman said.

“Just come with, the king instructed us to make you look presentable before him and the rest of the royal family,” said the other woman.

“Presentable?” said Ibaeran even more confused.

“Please, it’s an order from the king himself and if you refuse us, he would see it as an act of disrespect and anyone who dares disrespect the king often suffers a fate that makes death look resemble an act of mercy” said one of the women.

Ibaeran upon hearing what the woman said knew she could not refuse the king, fearing the power he possessed.

“Alright, take me to wherever want me to go” said Ibaeran.

Ibaeran followed the women as they led her through the palace halls.

The women looked; having no monstrous or bizarre appearance most other Uha Tamunaran had which made Ibaeran feel strange.

Ibaeran though had seen Uha Tamunarans with human appearances before but back then she was nothing more than a slave.

Those Uha Tamunaran abused her and her people, seeing and equating her and her people’s value to be the same as that of cattle.

And although Uha Tamunarans with monstrous features were just as abusive as those which seem human in appearance, Ibaeran feared those that look like regular people the most because to her the only thing more frightening than being beating and abused by a monster was being beaten and abused by a monster that wears the same skin as you.

But even though she feared though Uha Tamunarans that human at that very moment fear wasn’t what she was feeling.

She had acquired the power of the Su Baera, a power all Uha Tamunarans feared.

Feeling that power flow through every fiber of her being Ibaeran’s fear of the Uha Tamunaran had lessened, though the fear was still there as Ibaeran still had her doubts about herself and her ability to fulfill her responsibility as a Su Baera but the fact that the power the Uha Tamunaran feared was within her made her have a little bit more confidence in herself.

Fear wasn’t the emotion that Ibaeran felt as she roamed the castle halls with the two women, no, what she felt was a strange sense of comfort.

She actually felt safe around the two Uha Tamunaran women which both shocked and confused Ibaeran as she wondered what happened to the overwhelming fear she once felt of the Su Baera.

Was it because of the power she now possessed, she asked herself wondering why she was not scared.

“I can’t believe he actually found you” muttered one of the women.

“What?” asked Ibaeran upon hearing what the woman said?

“Mind your tongue Minji, and remember who you are taking to” said another woman, scolding the woman the spoke.

The woman, after scolding the other woman turned to Ibaeran and said, “Please forgive my sister here, she sometimes forgets her place”.

Ibaeran was shocked upon hearing not just what the woman said, but how she said it.

There, within her voice was fear and respect, something she never believe to from the voice of the Uha Tamunaran.

“It’s quite alright and please feel free to speak your mind” said Ibaeran which caused the two women to look at her with shock and confusion.

“What’s wrong?” asked Ibaeran noticing how the women were looking at him.

“The way you spoke, you didn’t yell, scream or insult us” said one of the women that spoke.

“Why would I?” asked Ibaeran, shocked upon hearing that they were expecting her yell at them.

“It’s nothing, we just weren’t expecting to speak to us in a... well humanely” said the other woman, carefully choosing her words as she didn’t want to enrage Ibaeran.

“Why on earth would you two think that I wouldn’t speak you humanely” asked Ibaeran.

“Well, you’re human and according to what we’ve been told, human is aggressive and dangerous like wild animals, and there is no human alive more dangerous than the Su Baera” said one of the women.

Ibaeran, upon hearing what the woman said couldn’t help but giggle a lot, finding sweet irony of an Uha Tamunaran, beings who out classed normal human being both in strength and raw power, considering that to be dangerous.

“What on earth would make you believe that humans were dangerous?” asked Ibaeran, wanting to understand why the Uha Tamunarans considered human as dangerous.

“Our king, Datubo” said one of the women.

“What?” Ibaeran, shocked to hear that it was the king of all Uha Tamunarans that brought about the idea that humans were dangerous.

“Why does the king believe we are dangerous when the Uha Tamunaran out match us in both strength and power?” asked Ibaeran, wanting to know why king Datubo considered humans as dangerous.

“It because you humans can build machines” said the other woman.

“Machines, how does that makes us dangerous?” asked Ibaeran confused as to how the simple ingenuity of her people made them dangerous.

“Our king told us that you humans were capable of building massive machines that were capable of wiping out with a single attack. He told us that your kind was planning to attack and conquer us all with your machines that’s why we attacked first” said one of the women.

“What?” said Ibaeran, shocked to hear what the woman said about humans, was that really what all Uha Tamunarans thought about all humans, if so, that would explain why they treated them so poorly.

The Uha Tamunarans believed that humans were their greatest threat and so they attacked and subdued them, turning them in to nothing more than their slaves.

Ibaeran, upon hearing why the Uha Tamunaran considered humans as dangerous could not help but wonder, why would the king of the Uha Tamunaran tell his own people that humans were dangerous.

The women led Ibaeran all the way to the royal bathing room.

Once there Ibaeran saw a golden pole, so large it resembled a small river.

“Why did you two bring me here?” asked Ibaeran.

“We told you, to make you look presentable before the king,” said the women.

“Presentable?” said Ibaeran, still not unable to understand what the women meant by ‘presentable’.

“Don’t worry about a thing, just let us do our work” said the women before they began to strip off Ibaeran’s clothes.

Ibaeran tried to protest, telling the women to stop as she felt immensely uncomfortable being, now being naked before them.

The women then lifted Ibaeran and placed her gentle on the tub.

The water in the tub at first was cold but it began to heat up the moment on of the women placed her hand on it

As the water heated up Ibaeran felt a sense of comfort in the warmth of the waters.

Once women saw that Ibaeran was relaxed they began to scrub and clean her entire body.

That was the very first time Ibaeran had ever taken a bath because clean water was hard to come by so she only kept water for drinking and not for cleaning her body.

Ibaeran, at that very moment at peace, forgetting all her worries as the warm water flowed on her bare skin and the soft hands of the women moved about on her body, cleaning her.

Soon the women were done and Ibaeran had to come out of warm waters that filled her troubled mind with peace, she wished she could spend a bit more time in the tub as it made her forget, even though it was for a brief moment, all her worries.

After bathing the two women brought clothes for Ibaeran to wear.

The clothes were vibrant and colored unlike the doll, tore and raggedy old clothes she normally wore, with smooth soft fabric that felt like heaven on Ibaeran’s skin as her usual clothes were as rough as sand paper.

Once Ibaeran was clothed the women brought a mirror so she could see how she looked like, now clean and wearing clothes so elegant and beautiful that it made her look like royalty.

“Is that me?” Ibaeran asked, unable to recognize her own reflection in the mirror.

Ibaeran, for the very first time in her entire life, she looked at her reflection and didn’t a hopeless slave she once was.

She had come a long way and seeing her beauty in reflection of the mirror reminded her of that was now a warrior, fighting for fate her people.

“Are you alright” asked one of women upon seeing the look of shock and amazement on Ibaeran’s face as both her and the other woman, upon seeing the look on Ibaeran’s face wondered if that was the first, she was seeing her reflection in a mirror due to how shocked she was.

“I’m fine” said Ibaeran with a confident smile on her face.

The women, now having cleaned and clothed Ibaeran were ready to take her to the dining table, where she would dine with the king and his family.

Ibaeran felt a little nervous about dining with the king of all Uha Tamunarans, even though she wasn’t as afraid of the Uha Tamunaran as she was when she was still a slave girl living in Ijawana, she still feared the king and the very thought of being anywhere near him made her heart race and an ice-cold chill go down her spine.

The women lead Ibaeran through the empty halls and Ibaeran, in an attempt to distract herself from thinking about the king and the fear she harbored in her heart for him, looked around the castle, observing more things about it from the massive firm strong pillars that held the castle structure in place to the beautiful carvings caved on the castle walls.

As Ibaeran looked at the art on wall she realized that they told story, a story about past of the Uha Tamunaran.

“What are those drawings on the wall?” asked Ibaeran pointing on the art works.

“Our history” said one of the women.

“Why is it on the castle walls?” asked Ibaeran.

The other woman then asked, “why do you want to know?” wondering why Ibaeran was asking so many questions.

“Just a little curious” said Ibaeran.

The women looked at each other, wondering why the Su Baera of all people was so concern with their history as they still believed that the Su Baera and the rest of the human race were dangerous and destructive creatures.

After a moment of silently contemplating the women decided to tell Ibaeran about the story behind the carvings on the castle walls as Ibaeran, despite being the Su Baera didn’t seem too dangerous or as destructive as originally thought.

“Those drawings as you call them on the walls tell the story of our past, the past of the race Uha Tamunarans” said one of the women.

“So, they are like records of your past” said Ibaeran.

“Yes, records past carved in to the castle walls, telling the stories of past so we may never forget them,” said the other women.

“Each drawing tells a story about a particular part of our history” said one of the women.

Ibaeran then went closer to the drawings on the walls, wanting to know more about it partially due to curiosity but mostly because she wanted to understand the Uha Tamunaran more.

Apart from the immense power the Uha Tamunaran possessed Ibaeran and other humans knew very little about them.

Ibaeran hoped that by examining the drawings she might be able to learn more about them.

Preyina during the time she was alive, had taught her a little bit of about the Uha Tamunarans including what most of the symbols used by the Uha Tamunaran’s meant, at the time Ibaeran thought that the knowledge of the Uha Tamunarans would be useless as she was nothing more than a laborer but now, she was glad Preyina taught her as that knowledge was what helped her understand the story the drawings were trying to tell.

Ibaeran from observing the drawings on the wall, managed to understand a bit of the history of the Uha Tamunaran, although it wasn’t an accurate one as they were some symbols drawn on the walls Ibaeran couldn’t understand but she was able to understand enough of the history of the Uha Tamunarans from the drawings on the walls to better understand the Uha Tamunarans.

“If I’m reading this correctly, there was a war of some kind between the Uha Tamunarans and some kind of monster race” said Ibaeran looking at one of the drawings of an army of what looking like human like Uha Tamunarans fight some kind of monster race.

“Yes. The great war of races, back then the Uha Tamunarans divided between two races E’Uhas and E’Tamunarans” said the women pointing at the drawing Ibaeran was looking at.

“Wait, are you saying that these two armies at war are ancient Uha Tamunarans?” asked Ibaeran, shocked upon hearing that the Uha Tamunarans were once divided and at war with each other.

“Yes, it is actually because of blood of the E’Uhas that most Uha Tamunarans look more like beast than they do man” said the women as they pointed at the drawing of the monstrous race on wall.

“So, you’re saying every single Uha Tamunaran that looks like a beast is a descendant from the E’Uhas” said Ibaeran.

“Yes and the Tamunarans are made up of humanlike E’Tamunarans like us” said one of the women.

“What started the war?” asked Ibaeran.

“Nobody really knows for sure; some legends say it was the E’Uhas were the ones who started the war as the ancient E’Uhas were believed to be as primitive and as barbaric as beasts they resembled” said one of the women.

“While others say it was actually the Tamunarans who believed they were superior to all other races including the E’Uhas,” said the other woman.

“How did the war end?” asked Ibaeran.

“That is another mysterious that nobody really knows. All we know is that a force greater that both the E’Uha and the E’Tamunrans forced them both to unite,” said the women.

Ibaeran upon hearing what the women said was both shocked and astonished, wondering what kind of force could be great enough to end a war between the E’Uhas and the E’Tamunrans.

“Enough of this, we must get to the dining room as soon as possible. The king hates it when his invited guests are late” said one of the women.

Ibaeran sighed upon hearing what the woman said as she didn’t wish to leave; partly because the mere thought of being anywhere near the king brought chills down her spine but mostly because she wanted to hear more about the rich history of the Uha Tamunarans

Even though Ibaeran did not want to, she knew she had to go, fearing the king’s immense power and understanding that even with the power of the Su Baera due to her lack of control and mastery over the power she may not be able to survive if he got angry and attacked her with his great power.

Ibaeran then, with fear in heart followed the women to the dining room.

Once in front of the doors the women said, “The king is waiting for you on the other side of this door. While you eat, try your best not to enrage him. The king is usually calm but when he gets angry not even an army of Uha Tamunarans can stop him”.

Ibaeran smiled at the women for being caring enough to give advise her even though she didn’t need it as she already knew firsthand how cruel Uha Tamunarans could be when enrage and excepted the king of all Uha Tamunarans, being the most power Uha Tamunaran to far much worse than other Uha Tamunarans when enraged.

“Thank you...er...I’m sorry I’m actually not sure what to call you two as I don’t know your names” said Ibaeran.

“My name is Minji and she is Finita” said one of the women, feeling that they could trust her enough with their names.

Ibaeran gave the two women a friendly smile before turning to face the door.

She then, with a deep breath, opened the door and then, summoning all the courage she could muster went into the room to dine with someone she feared much more than death itself.