Chapter 13: Strange Times


"Time is an illusion."
― Albert Einstein

Strange gods squabble in the desert and Nick pays the price. A strange trio is summoned to find that which was lost.


Western Desert 1942

Sam's hand shook in fear as he aimed his pistol at the jackal in front of him. The tall black-furred canine god only wore a white linen piece of fabric around his waist as if it was a kilt and a belt made from woven reeds held his curved sickle-shaped sword, which appeared to be made from bronze. There was something powerful which the creature seemed to radiate with, something unseen but felt within his very psyche. "Who are you!" the tank commander asked yet again in as menacing of a voice that the human could muster.

"What I am is none of your concern," Anubis growled back in a condescending manner. "A mere mortal, even one as strange as you, would never understand the ways of we gods."

There was a whimpering sound from the fennec fox who was still prostrate upon the ground. "Bring him an offering, some food and drink!" the small fox frantically whispered to the human. "He is a great god."

"I'm not wasting any of our supplies on this guy!" Sam replied. There was the sound of the machine gun's bolt being drawn back and Nick looked up to see that Leroy had trained the large gun at the god.

The tank's driver looked down at the jackal and stated, "This may not kill you man, but it sure will hurt like hell!"

"Don't you fear death?" Anubis asked as he looked up at the human. "I am a god of death."

"Sure I don't want to die, who does?" Leroy replied. "But I made my peace with God before we crossed over with our unit into Iraq. This might not be where I am supposed to be and why we are here is still a mystery, but I believe that death is not the end for my God conquered death and promised his followers that he will welcome them into heaven."

"Here I control who goes where after their death and not your god," the jackal god scoffed.

"Look we are not here to argue theology," Sam interjected. "But you seem to be awfully interested in the fox and I want to know why you want him dead?"

"It is his son who has caused all of this to happen," Anubis answered as he swept his arms in the air. "You and the scorpions, none of you belong here. The red fox's son is a god and controls time and reality. He must be stopped before all of creation becomes unraveled!"

"That still doesn't answer my question," Sam snapped back. "Why do you want to kill the fox?"

"To release his spirit from his mortal body so I can take him back to the other gods," Anubis sighed. "I cannot transport him alive, only his soul."

"So I have to die, so I can save the world?" Nick asked as he stood before the god.

"Yes mortal," the jackal god nodded. "It is the only way."

"Then do what you must," the fox muttered out as he lowered his head. "If it will save others, I am willing to give my life." Nick closed his eyes and when he heard the sword being drawn from its scabbard he added, "Is this going to hurt?"

"I'd think so," another voice cheerfully answered from among the ruins. "You do know that killing him is not really necessary?" The jackal god lowered his sword as everyone looked over to see a white fox sitting on the remains of a wall.

"You…how?" Anubis asked as he watched the naked fox stand up on his four paws and wag his nine tails.

"Oh come on brother, I may not be the god worshipped by the fennec foxes, but this world is full of other foxes who are my followers," the strange fox answered as he smirked at the jackal.

"You're Kitsune and you are real?" Nick choked out in surprise. He stood there with his mouth hanging open. Then he noticed that the humans around him stood frozen as if they were cast from stone.

"It all my heavenly perfect cosmic fur," Kitsune laughed as he leaped off the wall and landed near Anubis. "Except I'm pretty sure I'm called Kumiho in this reality or maybe Tenko? I'm also not sure if my fur should be white or golden when I'm here? As for your friends, that's just a simple binding spell I use for fun. They should be fine when I'm done here and let them go."

"So by the fact that you are here, but so are these mortals, I can assume that the rabbit has not yet chained the new time god?" Anubis asked.

"There was a slight problem in that plan," the fox god answered as he shook his head. "It seems that the little bunny was very headstrong and managed to convince Arianrhod to take her to him and…well, they were sent somewhere else by the new god."

"Are you talking about Judy?" Nick interjected in a frantic tone. "Did something happen to Judy?"

"Quiet mortal!" the jackal god sniffed in contempt. "We gods are talking."

"Don't yell at one of my worshippers like that," Kitsune teased the larger god. "Do I yell at yours?"

Before Anubis could respond, a whirlwind of sand appeared in their midst and as it fell away, Set stood there. "I was victorious and have rid the desert of those evil creatures!" the snake god happily boasted. Then he saw the white fox standing there. "What are you doing here? Go back to your eastern lands fox!"

"You always have such loving words for a fellow god!" the fox god scoffed. "That is what makes you so popular during parties."

"I have no patience for a trickster god, such as you!" the serpent god hissed and then turning back to Anubis he asked. "Cousin, why is this mortal still alive? I thought we agreed that you were going to take his soul back to the other animal gods?"

"Great, go and kill the father of the god who is already angry and destroying everything," Kitsune sighed as he rolled his eyes. "That will really impress him!"

"Then what would you have us do?" the serpent god snapped at the fox god. "We cannot transport his mortal body, can you?"

"Nope, but we both know who can!" the fox god said with a grin as he pointed at the rising sun.

"No…no…absolutely not!" Set hissed out in anger.

"Don't tell me that Ra is still mad at you for killing your brother Osiris?" Kitsune asked. The fox god's head was tilted sideways in curiosity. "After all, didn't you help him repel Apep?"

"Still, no!" the desert god shook his head.

"He's not mad at you, right?" the fox god looked at the jackal god. "You go and talk to him."

"Why don't you?" Nick interjected.

"It doesn't work that way my meddling mortal," Kitsune replied as he gave the other fox a wink. "If I go, it won't be Ra up there, but instead, well let's just say it will be a certain sun goddess who I would have to face and she still isn't happy about a prank I pulled on her a millennium ago."

"I'm not seeing a god or goddess up there, but only the sun," Nick continued. "Everyone knows the sun is a star in the center of the solar system."

"Science always takes the fun out of everything," the fox god complained as he morphed into an anthrophonic form and stood up on his two foot paws. "Don't think with your head, but feel with your heart." He poked the other fox in his chest. "Maybe it would be easier to just let them kill you and take your soul?"

Nick winced, at first from the god's touch before he gasped and stiffened while he looked down in surprise at the end of a bloody curved bronze sword which was sticking out of his chest.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Kitsune barked out as he leaped back from where the tall jackal god was pulling his sword free from the now dead body of the red fox.

"It is easier this way," Anubis answered. "We are out…"

Braaatttta tattt tatt

Leroy had shaken himself free of the spell which had bound him and opened fire with the massive machine gun that was mounted on the tank and the Browning's heavy bullets slammed into the god of death, sending him staggering backward. The smaller white nine tail fox moved with a speed the mortals could not comprehend and before the tank's driver even knew it, the fox god was standing on the turret and had grasped the gun with his paws. "STOP THAT!" Kitsune snarled.

Below them, the other humans and the small fennec fox were still motionless.

Anubis stood back up and shook himself as he snarled at the human with the large gun. "You dare assault a god?" he growled as he brought his sword up.

"Not now cousin," Set cautioned. "You must first catch the fox's soul before it escapes too far from his body, for he is not one of our followers and will go to his god's version of heaven."

Nick had felt the searing pain when the blade tore into his body, but now the only thing he was feeling was weightlessness and he seemed to be floating in the air above his body which lay twisted upon the rubble-strewn sand. A great light appeared above him and he heard voices, with curiosity he began to float towards the bright light and whatever was within it which gave him that comforting feeling of rest and love. Suddenly his assent stopped and he tugged at the large paw which had seized him, looking back he realized he was in the clutches of the jackal god. "Come, we have much to do," Anubis called out.

From the corner of his eye, the newly dead fox saw something watching them before it disappeared. He knew within his very consciousness that it was the real spirit of death and not another mere god.


Nottingham: 1215

The T-Rex who will be called Sue, winced as she struggled to her two large feet and slowly looked around. That white feather stuck between her eyes was bothering her, but there was nothing she could do to work it loose. Looking around, she sniffed the air and smelled the distance fire coming from the woods and the stench from the village of Nottingham. She frowned when she saw that a mist was coming from the river before her, a dark mist that would conceal her prey from her eyesight and she would have to rely on her sense of smell instead as she hunted. Striding down the riverbank, she was engulfed in the mist and she suddenly realized two things that she hadn't noticed before, she wasn't hungry and her side no longer hurt.

In the leafy bowels of Sherwood Forest, Judy sat by the fire and listened to the bard sing an old song about a knightly fox and his maidenly lover, who was the daughter of the rabbit king. The smoke from the fire before her began to billow out around her and she found herself lost within its grasp.

A fog rolled down the river, a thick seeming wet evening fog like those found on a cool summer's morning when the sun rises in the east. Marion held the strange feather and prayed to the god known as the Great Lion and the Meek Lamb, she who was he and was one. The fog suddenly seemed to thicken around her and she could no longer see even the stout bars which held her prisoner. With a gasp, she found herself standing naked in a glade within a very primitive dense forest and in the center, there was what appeared to be an old circle of stones. It was an ancient Neolithic henge which must have been there long before the Legionnaires walked this land or even the Church came with its strict version of religion.

"Who are you and where am I?" a voice asked from the darkness. The vixen squinted as a gray furred rabbit stood there in the shadows. Realizing she too was naked, the newcomer blushed and called out, "Where are my clothes?"

There was a heavy thump and both the vixen and rabbit stared in awe as another creature entered the grass-covered ring. "Lost…so lost…not hungry…no hurt," the large-headed beast said as she towered over the others.

"Tis the dragon!" Marian cried out in fear. "Don't eat us!"

"Not hungry…no eat," Sue said as she tilted her head in confusion when she realized that she understood what the puny creatures were saying.

"Sisters!" a voice calmly spoke and the transparent figure of an owl appeared in the center of the stone circle. "Peace be with you my holy trinity of daughters, for you three have much to do. Tonight you shall retrieve that which was hidden after good King Arthur died, I am sending you to return the Holy Grail."

"Arianrhod!" Judy cried out. "I thought they killed you?"

"Death and I are old friends," the goddess laughed. "And she too has had enough of your son's temper tantrum."