Xibalba hated parties.
Especially parties with other gods.
He had groaned when La Muerte he read the invitation. All the gods were invited to celebrate the day of the dead, hosted by Tezcatlipoca himself.
"But shouldn't we visit The Land of The Living like we do every year?" He asked.
"I thought you didn't like visiting the mortal realm?" She asked amusedly.
"Well... I don't. But you do. Why would you rather go to a stuffy party with people who you almost never talk to? Besides, with our luck my brother and your sister will be there"
La Muerte though back to the centuries of not talking and rivalry they had faced with El Chamuco and La Noche. "So? We probably won't even see each other. And besides, the last party I attended was two centuries ago."
Xibalba crossed his arms and said sardonically. "You rule a realm that is literally a non-stop party."
La Muerte put her arms around his waist and looked up at him with the most seductive face she could manage. "Please, balby, for me?"
He frowned at her for a few seconds, and then broke with a groan. "Ugghh, fine"
She squealed in delight.
"But you have to help me with names, and let me eat all the desert I want."
…...
And so there they were, in the luxurious palace of Tezcatlipoca. The columns and floor were made of turquoise and black lignite. the walls were each a different color, the northern one was black, the eastern one was red, the southern one was blue, and the western one was white, all adorned with large engravings of jaguars.
Dominating the room was Tezcatlipoca's throne, adorned with seashells and skulls. Behind it on the wall hung a ginormous smoking mirror. Sitting on it was, of course, the jaguar god himself, looking as regal and majestic as ever.
The palace filled with gods and goddesses, fine music accompanied the buzz of many conversations.
Xibalba stood in a corner, pretending to examine a carving. In reality, he was bored out of his mind, but he wanted La Muerte to think he was enjoying himself. She was off in a conversation with the Candle Maker, leaving him alone.
And then it got worse.
El Chamuco had found his way to the corner as well. La Noche wasn't with him, so Xibalba assumed that they were having the same experience. El Chamuco recognized his brother as well, and both gods turned away from the other and welcomed the awkward silence.
The large palace doors opened, and he internally groaned. If he had to hear "presenting lord/lady 'whatever', ruler of 'who cares'!" he'd bash his skull in with his chalice.
But instead of a god, an odd creature entered instead.
Xibalba glanced over at El Chamuco, who scowled darkly at the sight of the creature and hurried over to his wife.
Intrigued, he moved quietly nearer to the throne in order to hear better.
The creature quietly walked to Tezcatlipoca's throne, and bowed deeply before speaking in a gentle and slightly deep male voice. "Your Excellence. It is my regret that Lord Metnal will not be able to join in your festivities this evening."
Tezcatlipoca frowned momentarily, then spoke in a grave tone. "That is regretful indeed. My thanks for informing me of this. May I know why he is indisposed?"
"I am afraid to report my lord's realm is currently undergoing large changes that has put the inhabitants of the realm under great amounts of stress. My lord is attempting to negotiate with the inhabitants for various reasons, but he believed it to be rude to not be present at your celebration without an explanation and apology, which is why I am here, your Excellency."
Tezcatlipoca nodded his head slowly. "Thank you, tell Lord Metnal that I accept his apology, and am aware of the tribulations running a realm can bring."
Xibalba spied his brother and La Noche having a silent, yet apparently heated argument in a far corner.
His curiosity piqued, , Xibalba quickly slithered directly behind the creature as it neared the doors.
Just then, La Muerte ended her conversation with the Candle Maker in order to find her husband. A quick glance around the room revealed him to be walking towards the door.
She thought that he was leaving, and quickly rushed to him and grabbed his shoulder to stop him.
The noise cause the creature to turn around, and they both saw that the creature's skin was actually many pieces of different kinds of mostly white and green cloth stitched together, its' arms ended with stumps instead of hands, and in place of eyes had two large ebony buttons. Though the strangest part was the creature's mouth, marked by a dotted line of sewn black thread in the shape of a smile, which did not move as it spoke.
"Oh! My Lady La Muerte, My Lord Xibalba" it said while bowing.
La Muerte frowned confusedly. "I'm sorry, have we met before?"
"Oh! Excuse my rudeness, we have not been properly introduced. I am Patches, loyal servant to Lord Metnal."
La Muerte and Xibalba both glanced at each other momentarily in confusion.
Xibalba asked "I'm sorry, I don't think I've met this Lord Metnal befor, have you Muertita?"
La Muerte shook her head in response.
"Oh, I guess that's to be expected. You see, my master has been very busy the last few years gaining the respect and trust of his underlings, which so far has been a long and arduous process. This has the unfortunate side effect of making his name fairly obscure amongst our pantheon."
"You talk like he is running a realm. Which one is he in charge of exactly?" Xibalba asked.
Just then, the great doors opened, and in the doorway stood something that made Xibalba reflexively move in front of La Muerte.
He was almost Xibalba's height, dressed in head to toe in crimson armor made of scales and studded with spikes on the joints, and concealing his entire head was a red helmet that looked similar to a furnace, and had three vertical slits in the front to see out of.
When he moved, it seemed as though the scales stretched, allowing for more fluid movements.
Patches turned around and said in a surprised voice "m-master?"
He spoke in a deep voice which echoed out of his helmet. "Patches!" He said kindly, while slightly bending down to face his servant "I didn't expect you to get here so soon."
"M-my lord? What of the negotiations?"
"They ended sooner than expected. I'll fill you in on the details when we get home, but for now…" he said while nodding his head towards La Muerte and Xibalba "we have a party to attend."
"Lady La Muerte, Lord Xibalba." He said while bowing. "It is good to finally meet you both in person."
La Muerte courtesied stiffly in response, and a quick elbow into Xibalba's ribs to get him to quit staring and bow.
Just then, the announcer noticed the new arrival, and attempted to make up for loss of time with volume.
"Presenting Lord Metlan! Ruler of the Land of the Cursed!"
All conversation died immediately, as all eyes focused on Lord Metlan. The only sound made was the sound of El Chamuco and La Noche teleporting away.
"Excuse me." He said, apologizing to the couple.
As he passed them, Xibalba stared with his jaw open, attempting to find a face behind the slits in his helmet, but found none.
He strode slowly over to Tezcatlipoca's throne and bowed deeply.
"Your excellency, I apologize for my lateness, I was…"
Tezcatlipoca raised his hand to silence him.
"Your servant has already informed of the reason for your absence, and I have already accepted your apology."
"Many thanks, your excellency. It is very good to see you again."
Tezcatlipoca nodded in agreement.
Metnal bowed again, began to turn, when he stopped.
Someone caught Metnal's eye. In the corner stood a goddess with long curly brown hair and skin the color of chocolate. She wore a simple red dress, a red rose in her hair, and black tinted glasses.
Striding slowly over to her with all eyes following him, got down on one knee and took her hand lightly. "Excuse me my lady, I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting you yet."
She didn't look down at him, but smiled. "Nor I you, my lord. My name's Meche, what's yours?"
Xibalba had pushed himself and La Muerte to the front of the crowd. "What is with people and wearing shades indoors" he asked his wife quietly.
She responded with another elbow to the ribs. "Idiota! She's blind."
Metnal hadn't realized this yet, and continued. "I'm Lord Metnal, ruler of the Land of the Cursed."
Meche frowned. "Really? I thought that…"
Just then, an older god with red skin and grey hair and beard stepped between the two and put his hand on Meche's shoulder.
"Hello, I am Lord Xiuhtecuhtli, god of fire. I am also Meche's father." He said with a defensive edge to his voice.
Lord Metnal gasped, and then shook the god of fire's hand excitedly. "My Lord! It's such good luck that we met here! How is little Rincon doing?"
Taken back by the sheer politeness of this stranger, the old god stepped back in surprise. "He is doing fine" he said, now with the edge in his voice replaced with genuine confusion.
Metnal sighed in relief. "Oh, thank you! I was so worried that he would have trouble adjusting to the new environment."
"I am sorry, but Rincon arrived in my realm a decade ago. How long have you been El Chamuco's replacement?"
If the helmet wasn't covering his face, or if he even had a face, Xibalba believed that Metnal would have scowled at the mention of Xibalba's brother."
Scanning the room, Metnal quickly realised that he was no longer talking to the god of fire, but to almost the entire room from the large group surrounding him with curious looks.
"Oh, a short while now, I believe my predecessor wanted to keep his retirement a bit of a secret. To elaborate, I have 'inherited' The Land of the Cursed from... El Chamuco in the way that he offered it to me in a way I couldn't refuse, and, there were obviously no objections from anyone else."
A small ripple of nervous laughter spread through the crowd.
Meche spoke up. "Are you related to El Chamuco then?"
"No. Which is one of the reasons why I couldn't refuse his offer. You see, I have no mother or father, meaning that otherwise I would have no other chances to claim a title for myself."
La Muerte couldn't help but feel sympathy for Metnal. "An orphan…" she said under her breath.
"I prefer bastard, gives a bit more of a commanding presence" he quietly whispered back to her.
Just then, a large bat flew into the palace, and dropped a note into Metnal's outstretched hand. Looking it over quickly, he growled quietly in frustration.
"Patches! We need to go, there's trouble in the House of Darkness."
He bowed respectfully to Tezcatlipoca, then Xiuhtecuhtli, and then moved around the fire god to speak to Meche privately.
"My lady, I sincerely hope we'll see…oh no I'm so sorry" he started, just then realizing that she was blind.
Meche giggled "It's fine."
"My lady, I sincerely hope we'll MEET each other again." He said, correcting himself.
"Me too my lord."
With that, Lord Metnal hurried outside, and in full view of all the partygoers, loud out a loud, shrill whistle followed by "Celso!".
Immediately, a gigantic dragon as black as night with burning red eyes landed in front of him, to the shock,, fear, and amazement of different partygoers.
With one hand, he through Patches onto the beast's back, and then leapt on the dragon himself with surprising agility.
And just like that, they were gone.