Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

The day I arrived in Avalon Isles, I was greeted by Indra, one of the foreign gods. I remembered him saying he was a Hindu god or something.

I couldn’t help but groan when I tried to rack my brains on the information regarding the man. We were quite close back when I was Nyxtriel and hung out a lot of times in Liada or in different parts of the Celestial Realm.

Information regarding the foreign gods was quite confusing and chaotic. The first time I learned of the foreign gods, I had a major migraine. No, it wasn’t the fact they were from a whole other universe, but because everyone that came was so diverse.

From what I heard, Earth had a variety of culture and belief. There were also many civilizations throughout its history so even their pantheons were a bit of confusing. Therefore, they had different kinds of gods each with different attitude.

Nonetheless, I was glad to see Indra again. I even wondered if he’d ever spar with me just like old times.

Anyway I was told to stay in Peach Mountain, which was under the jurisdiction of Xiwangmu, which I didn’t really mind. The sea of peach trees surrounding that dotted the mountain and surrounded the cabin I stayed reminded me of my home in Liada and my favorite pavilion in Celestine Territory.

Sun Wukong told me to be familiar with Avalon Isles, which would be my home for a considerable amount of time.

-I guess that’s something.

On one of my walks to the other parts of Avalon Isles, I met Hermes and Apollo who were both trying to annoy Dayang Masalanta, or what she preferred to be called Maria Makiling. I knew Apollo had this playboy nature in him since he used to flirt with me until we became official friends. I didn’t really know Hermes or Makiling though. I did not have much interaction with them.

“Ah, Nyxtriel!” Apollo called me with glee and immediately went to my direction. “I heard you arrived but Athena told us to only have a small welcoming committee so it was only Indra and Athena who came to welcome you.”

Hermes bounded close to us, followed by Makiling and the two then introduced themselves to me.

“You must’ve been startled to find yourself inside the carriage spirit.” Makiling said after her introduction. I couldn’t help but be at awe at her beauty.

I knew the foreign gods that sought asylum in our world had other worldly beauty, quite literally too.

-She’s probably the kind of woman who will have birds and animals surround her whenever she sings. I can feel it.

“You’re the fox goddess Nyxtriel right?” Hermes asked as we settled down on one of the many benches scattered in the area.

“Uhm… my soul is. Well, technically I’m no longer one since I’m inside a mortal body but I’m going to find my tails scattered all over the world to regain my power.”

“But you’re still a fox.” he replied, with a grin on his lips.

“Erm… yes?”

“Foxes are tricksters, are you one?”

I was confused at the question. Foxes had always been considered cunning and were sometimes regarded as tricksters. It was the reason someone cunning would sometimes be called foxes.

Then there was the vixen. I don’t want to get associated with that word.

-What is he on about?

“Why? My answer will depend on your reason.” I said with a pointed look.

“We’re planning on pranking someone, you in?”

I admit, I had been quite the good girl lately. But Hermes’ words struck me like lightning and awoken something in me. Something I never thought would ever resurface again.

That something was the love of playing pranks.

I flashed a grin on the duo (Makiling left sometime during the conversation). “Tell me the details.”

We ended up pranking Horus, an Egyptian god, by replacing most of his prized weapons into rubber weapons. He was screaming bloody murder when he found out about it. We returned his weapons sometime after sunset to stop the screaming falcon-headed god from destroying a part of the island he was living.

Good news though. Horus never really found out who replaced his weapons. And he still doesn’t know who did it until now.

***

Fast forward to three years, I got acquainted with Thor, the Norse god of lightning. He was a big man with a booming voice. He was quite hard to deal with at first, but since I had to spend some time with him to learn evasive maneuvers (avoiding his lightning strikes). Since I knew him, I also became quite close with Sif, Thor’s wife.

“My hammer?” Thor questioned when I asked him about his hammer one time. “Mjollnir was given to me by my father as a symbol of status as well as a weapon to strike down my enemies.”

All of a sudden, he started sobbing which was the first time for me to see. I couldn’t help but panic a little when he started mumbling something I couldn’t really catch. Sif was immediately by his side, soothing him down.

“I apologize for that Lady Nyxtriel. Mjollnir was given to Thor by the All Father, and he treasures it dearly. As you are aware Odin is plagued by a magical sleep at the moment and Thor is quite distressed about it.”

-Right. I did hear that one.

I did not press further for information since I wasn’t really the type to be nosey. We did stay as friends and would hang out from time to time, sharing stories with each other.

***

“I don’t like this.”

It was a year after I trained with Thor. I was trying to find a way to achieve a great deal of concentration and improving my mental prowess and internal energy by meditating. I asked the Chinese gods for advice since their ‘Cultivation’ was sort of similar to my Mystic Arts. Most of them agreed to teach me on that regard but there was one condition; I had to wake up someone called Buddha from his century-long meditation.

It was the reason I was standing in front of a closed stone door with no way of entering it.

“I really don’t like this.”

I could feel a strong energy behind the doors. And despite my improvement in both my physical prowess and abilities, I couldn’t help but be nervous at the massive energy.

-This Buddha guy is probably really strong.

The doors suddenly shook and slowly parted, as if inviting me to enter.

“I shouldn’t have agreed to this.” I grumbled, but I entered anyway.