The woman has black hair and grey eyes, she is wearing a blue camouflage stamped combat uniform, pants, shirt, and jacket. She wore ankle-high boots. And strangely although she was as beautiful as Eset, she didn't care for her appearance, with her hair quite messy and stains of mud and oil in her clothes and face. Her boots were even as dirty as they could.
After she entered an owl came following her and perched on her right shoulder. It was directly staring at me with its black eyes as trying to read my mind through my sight. Actually, it seems like it is teaching me something. It makes me want to keep looking at them and understand what they are trying to tell me.
I start seeing the library where I once studied together with Ms. Barley. However, the books started to travel through the air and when they stopped in front of me portals were opened.
I enter one of these portals. In front of me, a jungle appeared with tall trees covering most of the sun. I never had been in a jungle in my life but I could feel the fresh air and the humidity around me. Suddenly, a loud roar near me scares me. From the foliage, a majestic tiger appeared. He was about 1.7 meters tall, almost reaching my height. The fur, although with spots of dirt and mud, was beautiful representing his power. However, I could sense his hostility. He is ready to strike me, the eyes focused on my every move a low growl showing its sharp fang towards me.
Fear filled me. I knew that there was no way I can escape him. He also knows it. He is probably the king of this forest. A being unmatched by others around. But the training I had wouldn't allow me to simply take this down and simply surrender without even trying something. I take on a stance that allowed me to maybe grab the tiger when he pounced on me. I am filled with fear, yes, but fear can be conquered and used to one's advantage.
"You better not look into Sofia's eyes for too long young man. It might break your mind."
.The moment the tiger was about to pounce me, a woman's voice sounded throughout the land. The forest, the sky, and the ground, all sounded like her. Around me, the scenario started to be unmade. The jungle is turning into the different bricks walls with the hanging tapestries from the place I was before going to the jungle. The sky is turning into the galaxies that were covering the dome. And the ground is going back to being the pure white floor of the room.
"What the f**k?" I am still in the fighting position from before. "W-What just happened? T-the tiger, the forest where are they?"
"HAHAHAHAHA" Janus is laughing as if the greatest comedian in the world had made his show live in front of him. "Looks like you went through quite the adventure, huh, boy?"
The two goddesses were instead more intrigued by what happened instead of laughing, looking at me with those focused eyes I was told I had when learning something that truly interested me.
"Boy, what did you see?" the military-wearing goddess was the first to ask. "A battle? I'm assuming from your stance."
"No, no just a tiger about to attack me." I answer her. "Wait aren't you going to explain me what just happened."
"You just a fake sight created by your memories, experiences, and knowledge," Eset answered me. her voice smooth as ever helping me calm down. "An illusion if you will. Athena's owl tends to do that to mortal minds."
I see a magical owl. That explains it.
I take a deep breath, calm myself, and drop into my chair. But a strange sense of discomfort hits me.
"What?" their piercing gaze is the source of my discomfort. "Is something wrong?"
"You seem to be getting the hang of all this god stuff, huh?"
Janus had this grin on his face. I didn't like it. It made it seem as if he had won a bet about me.
"Well, I saw enough magic for a lifetime in like ten minutes so if I keep getting surprised by every little thing you gods do I would probably kill myself in surprise."
Then the three gods started laughing. Janus in that obnoxious way he does, Eset had that ladylike way with her hand covering her mouth, and Athena was more like chuckling instead.
Athena mumbles something to herself. I can't hear her.
"Anyway, Eset the last time I saw you it was in the Jade Emperors' palace? What was it? Chinese New Year?"
"If my memory doesn't fail me, yes. About 300 years ago."
The two of them took the seats to my right while Janus stayed in his chair, this time even trying to sleep. Since the talk of the two goddesses would be impossible to participate in, I decide to annoy Janus.
"Say, Janus, what are we doing here?"
"Huh?" Amazing! He managed to sleep in this incredibly short span of time. "Oh! You gotta wait for the last one to arrive. Then we explain to you. Here read something to pass time."
He knocks on the table that shines with a dim, almost unrecognizable, grey light and a stack with different magazines of several different topics appears in the middle of the center of the table.
The moment I am about to ask another question Janus had already closed his eyes and the two continued on their two only conversation. Something about different views about the politics of gods of different pantheons. Absolutely bonkers.
So obviously I decide to pick a magazine. I choose one about cars, mostly to see the illustrations of the cars. I would sometimes work with the mechanics but mostly helping them in the workshop. I ended up learning a bunch about cars and such but nothing too deep.
After about an hour and a half, the doorway started to once again glow, this time in a beautiful cyan. Also, a cold started to blow across the room. Quite the incredible entrance.
A man entered the room wearing complete skiing gear. A mask was covering half his face and the other half with goggles. I could only see his hair, a lavish blonde hair in a man bun. His boots were covered in snow, dirtying the ground with it.
"Skiing gear? Do gods need to wear them?"
"Not really but if I was skiing in the Alps with a Hawaiian shirt would be quite a strange sight, no?"
The god made a lot of sense actually.
"So, you are the human this time around." He started to ungear himself. His goggles revealed deep blue eyes that shined like an ocean. When the mask came off, you could see he was quite handsome, looking like a model for magazines. "I'm Ullr by the way."
He was pretty friendly, giving me the feeling of an old friend that I hadn't seen in so long.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Cain"
I stretch my hand to shake his hand. Ullr has an intrigued expression, not what I was expecting. Then I realize, they are gods. I don't think a simple handshake is the way to go.
"I-I'm sorry"
I immediately get up from my chair to give a proper greeting.
"Hahaha!" the god gives out a hearty laugh. "No need for that young man. I'm not really the type for such formalities. It was just weird that you didn't have that reaction immediately. I suppose meeting three gods in a row makes you more desensitized to this whole ordeal huh?"
"Y-Yeah I think so."
I still nervously answer him. I go back to my chair. Ullr seats next to me, to my left.
"Well, now that all of us are here. We can get started"
"I suppose now you guys can tell me what we are doing here?"
"We are going to make your character!"
Janus announces happily.
"Huh?"
Make your character? What the hell is he talking about? I can see that the three other gods are completely disappointed in Janus's explanation.
"Explain it better you dumbass." Ullr was the first to talk. "The hell do you mean character creation? Is that one of your damn video game thing?"
"I'm sorry Cain," Eset says being more in a state of exhaustion. "Ever since Janus started on those videogames, he keeps using them as parameters and...is just too much."
"Well, no problem really. It's just confusing." I answer her. "Honestly, Janus just kept leaving me in the dark so I'm more confused than anything else. So can you please explain to me what we are doing here?"
"Understandably so. "This time Athena was the one to speak. "And to answer your question, we are here to give you gifts, special abilities, to help in your travels through the other world."
"Yeah, superpowers for our dear confused mortal," Janus interjects. " Although you can fight with a sword and a bow, there are monsters capable of destroying buildings and, you know, be the size of buildings."
The gods had a perplexed expression. As did I. HE DIDN'T EXPLAIN ANYTHING TO ME! Goddamnit! Magic I can deal with it, as sword fights, but monsters? How the f**k am I supposed to deal with building-sized monsters.
"Janus?"
"Yes, Eset"
"YOU SHOULD HAVE EXPLAINED EVERYTHING TO HIM!!" Eset angrily shouts but quickly calms herself. down. "Why can't you just follow the order?"
"I could but it wouldn't be as fun." Janus had that mischievous smile on his face. "I prefer to have a good surprise more than anything."
Eset releases a heavy sigh from the god's words.
"Janus couldn't you have at least say the bare minimum."
Now was Ullr's turn to reprimand the god.
"Again where is the fun in that?"
"You-"
Eset once again raises her anger but quickly subsides before she could do something she would regret. Janus stayed chirpy throughout the entire exchange which annoyed me.
"Well, no way to change what already happened, even though it angers me too," I interject in their conversation. " So we better continue with whatever it is we doing, no?"
This result in an awkward silence between the five of us. I hope we can do this without any more problems or surprises.