Chapter 1: The City Council

As they make their way through the city streets filled with electronic advertising screens and flying cars, Nimona was immediately greeted by almost everyone. At first, she felt anxious to see anyone after they addressed her as a monster for over the past 1,000 years. However, it wasn't long before Nimona was met by several people and kids who wanted to get her autograph while she makes her way down the street while being escorted by Todd and Ballistar.

It does seem ironic when Ambroisius Goldenloin was the one to earn such admiration first since he was the direct descendant of the heroine Gloreth herself. However, now that everyone knew the truth between Nimona and Gloreth, Goldenloin is no longer the aspiring Knight that he once was to eyes of the people in this Kingdom. Not that it matters, Ambrosius felt grateful that he is no longer put under such overwhelming stress while doing his duty as a Knight of the Realm. Ever since the Director tried to fire one of the cannons to kill the so-called monster along with throngs of innocent civilians, Ambrosius didn't know what to believe anymore.

It wasn't long before Ambroisius appeared from the other side of the city streets while watching Nimona handing out her autographs to the kids all around her. She couldn't help but feel hesitant in doing so after suffering from so much PTSD since Gloreth was forced to turn on her. But it's all in the past over and done for everyone in the city wished to atone for their foolish prejudice by starting over again with Nimona.

Furthermore, since Nimona destroyed the wall right were the laser cannon was once placed at, it gave most of the citizens in the Kingdom the opportunity to step outside of their city to see the rest of the world around them. Thankfully, there hasn't been anymore monsters seen around the massive, wide landscape. So with all this, they have Nimona to thank for in giving them all a chance to open up their eyes and start over again.

The Knight Lt. had no other reason to feel jealous or offended when seeing Nimona earned the respect she deserves since he and his ancestors were brainwashed by the very people that created this Kingdom so long ago. Before long, his friend Ballister Boldheart came up to him from his left.

"So Ambrosius, are you going miss your fame and your title command from here on out?"

"Actually no. I'm just at fault as the Director is. You were right about her and your sidekick. I should've listened to you back then." Ambrosius replied, feeling ashamed of his responsibilities as the former Captain of the Knightly Order. "So as a result for my irresponsible actions, me and my family have, therefore, paid the price. "

"Fret not, Ambroisus." Ballister said as he hung his arm over his friend's shoulder. "We'll both do our best to make up for each other. Besides, we both owe Nimona this much after she recently saved this kingdom from being destroyed by the Director. Now that she is hailed as a hero in this city, I couldn't help but notice how happy Nimona is right now."

As they both turned to see Nimona, she had several pictures taken from one photographer while asking her to show him her best grinning facial expression. In excitement, Nimona grins with both her hands raising up with a "Metal" gesture. At the same time, several other kids wanted to get their pictures taken with Nimona as they asked her to shape-shift into the animals that they like to see. Nimona couldn't help but cackle while amusing the kids with her funny antics as she got her pictures taken in the form of a bear, a horse, a gorilla, and the wolf.

"Metal!" They all cheered as the photographer made snap shots from his camera.

For Ballistar and Ambrosius, they couldn't help but smile as they both watched Nimona make all those silly animal faces on the camera along with the kids that were once brainwashed by their parents and ancestors. Well, even though Nimona felt fear for how the little kids have been raised, it was never too late for the children to learn new things from her point of view, especially when their parents watched in amusement just to make up for their blind prejudice.

After several minutes of photography, Todd and the Knights ordered the crowd to move along as they continued to escort Nimona to the place to meet up with the City Council.

As Nimona approached the building that was once known as the Glorodome, she sees several huge changes there which made her even more relieved than ever before.

The building that was once were the Director was at went under a complete transformation. The front of the structure's entrance and all around circular stadium, they are showing tall red-pink banners hanging down to about 100 feet from the dome. It's building walls are painted with light-red colors from both sides. The banners are seen with a tall picture of a fiery phoenix that impresses even Nimona over so many levels. Overall, now that the Director is no longer in command of the remaining knights, they changed the name Glorodome into the Knight Academy of the Red Phoenix.

For the Knights guarding the place, they still have their regular knight armor except that they changed the color of their breastplates, shoulder pads, and their greaves with shades of pink since it is how they are inspired by Nimona not to give in to fear of people like her as well as not fearing the world outside of their city hence why they are reorganized into the Knights of the Red Phoenix.

In fact, ever since the wall came down along with their corrupted Director, some of these Knights have been order by the Council to help escort and secure various trade caravans that go in and out of the city. So far, they haven't engaged in any hostile creatures outside of the Kingdom while carrying on their new duties handed to them by the council members.

In front of the Academy, Nimona also sees a new statue placed at where the Statue of Gloreth used to be at. Ever since Nimona was hailed as the real hero of this Kingdom despite everything and that she told them about her friendship with Gloreth, the City Council decided to dismantle the Statue of Gloreth after realizing that Gloreth wasn't the hero they all thought she was. In regards to her happy past memories, Nimona drew out a picture of her younger self sharing an apple with a young Gloreth before showing it to the Kingdom's architect; this all began one week ago right after Nimona came back from the dead.

As of today, Nimona felt delight to see a ruby statue of her younger self and Gloreth made out of marble concrete built in front of the entrance of the Academy. Nimona's statue is built and carved into stone painted with pink colors. The Statue of the young Gloreth is carved and painted in a mix of blue and gold. Just like in Nimona's drawings sent to the architect, the statues of the young Nimona and the young Gloreth are both seen sharing an apple to each other as a sign of friendship and equality. At the bottom left below Nimona's statue and engraved to the left side of its foundation, it shows the faces of Nimona's animal forms carved in marble stones painted with red colors from left to right; the gorilla, the whale, the ostrich, the horse, and the dragon seen inside small ovals. For the one at the right end after the dragon carving, there is an carving oval portrait showing the face of the Great Black Kaiju and the Giant Red Phoenix divided with a slash in-between the two immense creatures, which represents the symbol of a balance between dark and light.

Impressed by the new statue, Nimona made a devilish smile as she made another "metal" gesture at it before moving on.

With every knight seeing the new statue in front of the Academy, Todd, Ambrosius, and Ball were all like trying to get used to the new era that Nimona helped them all create. In the mean time, Ambroisus walked alongside Nimona to show the guards their clearance before entering the Academy.

Nimona showed them her invitation from the City Council and upon seeing it, the guards opened up the gates for her to pass through.

As she and her escorts entered inside the Academy, Nimona was directed to the elevator on her left by the reception at the front desk facing the main entrance of the building. Once she was inside the elevator, Todd, Ambrosius, and Ball came in after her before the doors closed from behind them. Todd pushed the button that takes them all the way up to the 20th floor of the building, which happens to be the Council Chambers Floor.

Just as they reached the 20th floor, the elevator doors opened up to reveal a small hallway that leads to a conference room in which were the Council members will be waiting for Nimona at.

Without further a due, Nimona and her escorts stepped out of the elevator and walked straight towards the room at the end of the hallway before they were greeted by a tall nobleman wearing grey robes with blue linings reaching down from over his shoulders all the way to his dress shoes. He was also seen with black short hair and a short chin beard with blue small eyes.

"Greetings everyone, my name is Lord Vince Foxlain of the Kingdom's City Council. Which one of you is Nimona?" The Council nobleman said as he made his introduction.

In response to his greetings, the female red-haired teen stepped forward from the two knights and merc as she looked up to Lord Vince.

"Ah, I see you still are trying to make your debut, eh?" Vince said as he sees Nimona in person. "I can't imagine your pain and confusion but we just want to talk. We're already well aware of what you have been through so just bear with us, okay?!"

Feeling a bit nervous with the Kingdom's Council members, Nimona turns toward Ballister for advice.

"It's okay, Nimona. They all wanted to redo everything in this Kingdom from your perspective." Ball told his sidekick.

Taking a deep breath, Nimona followed Lord Foxlain to the conference room where 4 more Council members are sitting across the huge, round table, all of them waiting for her.

As she and Lord Vince entered the conference room, Ball, Ambrosius, and Todd stood next to the doorway while they both take their seats next to each other.

From across where Nimona and Vince are sitting at, they see on two more noblemen on their right and two noblewomen on their left before Vince introduces his fellow Councilmembers up front.

For the two councilmen sitting at Nimona's right across the table, one is seen as in his late-30s dressed in a black suit with a blue necktie, wearing glasses and has light-brown hair with dark-brown skin and grey eyes; the other nobleman is shown to have white skin with red freckles on his right cheek and is wearing a blue, checkered tuxedo suit. They're both looking over their paperwork before they turned to face Nimona, who is still feeling uneasy with their presence.

"Nimona, the two on the right is Lord Lamerson Dumerain and Lord Garrett Culrey."

As for the two councilwomen sitting at Nimona's left across the table, the first women is seen to be wearing a purple-business dress blouse and skirt as part of her council business attire with her right hand wearing a golden bracelet with a small ruby gem in cased into it; she is also seen with blond-hair tied behind her back in a long ponytail and has light-green eyes. The second councilwomen happens to be a lady with white-colored skin in her early 20's and is sitting at the left of the first women while wearing a tan-colored dress shirt and a solid red colored A line skirt reaching down to her knees; she also has a diamond necklace shown around her neck.

"As for the councilwomen on the left, this is Lady Mallory Quebec and Lady Uley Oren."

"It's an honor to meet you all here. I'm still feeling bit..."

"We already know, Nimona." Lamerson said, trying to end her sentence before it even started. "We don't blame you for everything that happened before the Director is taken out and that we all understand it wasn't right trying to attack anyone that is different but it's not easy for people like us to accept such changes. Well, Queen Valerien was the one who appointed us to be not just her council members in this city but also her wise advisors to govern the kingdom. For every decision she makes to bend down tradition, she reports her decrees to us and her reasoning of doing so before we make our verdict; this is usually because we used to be the Queen's closest friends way before she ascended the throne 25 years ago."

"Is that how it was when the Queen tried to make Ballistar part of the new generation of knights when he was just a commoner?" Nimona asked, referring it all to her boss.

"Technically, yes." Lord Culrey answered in a short response. "But with the Queen dead, we couldn't turn to anyone else to govern the Kingdom other than the Director of the Institute."

"You all do realize what kind of person she was after she set the boss up, did you?" Nimona responded, feeling disgusted by how the Director committed such sins recently before taking her down.

"We didn't know about the Director's true colors just yet. She used to be one of us Council members before she assume control of the Institute, just like her father and her grandfather did before her. In fact, we've all known her for like 15 years before the death of the Queen." Lady Mallory explained.

"When she almost destroyed the city just to have me killed, did you all pity the Director in the end?" Nimona asked. "I don't regret stopping the Director since she nearly made a bigger mistake than all of the people that attacked me without warning."

"We do, actually. We already heard about your story with Gloreth. So the real reason why we are all here today is because we still need you to go over several stories before this Kingdom was built just to understand what really happened." Lady Uley said as she responded to Nimona's question before getting straight down to business.

"We do want you to start off what happened after you fled Gloreth's village." Lord Foxlain said. "Are you okay with this?"

"Yes, I am." Nimona replied as she took a deep breath.

Seeing that Nimona is ready for her first story, Vince takes out a briefcase to go over one of the files dating back 1,000 years before the Kingdom was founded. As he placed one document on the table, Vince starts his meeting with Nimona while ordering the rest to listen carefully.

"So Nimona, when our scouts and historians came back from their trip around the countryside they are able to recover some ancient documents from several ruins 50 miles east from city up in the mountains." Vince explains as he shows Nimona the first scroll in front of her.

As Nimona looked at it, the old scroll shows an ancient text describing a small picture of a drawing of a brown-haired man dressed in a dark-grey trench coat armed holding a long rifle in both of his hands, with a cutlass inside a sheathe strapped to his back. The man is seen standing on top of a mountain while aiming his rifle at the Great Black Monster. Below the mountainous slope that the hunter and the monster standing on top of, lies a small village surrounded by a forest.

"We also managed to decipher a tablet relating to the scroll. It says that his name is Sir Louis Herulain who happens to be an infamous monster hunter that used to live in the eastern mountains outside of Gloreth's village." Vince added in. "He was last seen in the ruins of Fort Maren in which lies in the somewhere near the river at the foot of the mountains. They also mentioned that he was hired by the very village that Gloreth lived in back then. Do you know anything about this hunter?"

Nimona snarled at hearing that name for since is still haunted by the name of Herulain.

"I do. In fact, he was my first nemesis that I have encountered after my run in with the overzealous villagers..." Nimona hissed as she is about to start her story with the City Council.

*Author's message: In the next chapters, I'll be starting to go over what Nimona had been through over the past 1,000 years. I may have some ideas for Nimona, but if any of you still have suggestions for me over how she is able to put up with the world of prejudice and fear, feel free to PM me.*