Meeting the Gods

"Where are we going?... Sir? Lord? Shiva???" Rudra asked, confused over what to call the man.

"We are going to meet the rest of the 'Judges' my boy, to answer all the questions you have in your mind, in peace. And you don't need to call me sir or lord or any of that. Just call me by my name or something." Shiva said waving his hand.

"But you are elder than me, and you are a Go-"

"Oh come on boy, I have watched you grow up and I know that you don't worship any of us. As I said, you don't need to call me by any title, just call me by my name." Shiva interrupted him and said.

" Ok... Shiva... I will call you by your name." agreed Rudra. They continued chatting until they reached a large exotic, ancient-looking door.

" Wait before we enter, any tips?" Rudra asked Shiva.

"Tips for what "

"Tips on how to talk with the 'Judges'. I mean they are-"

"Gods? So what? I am one too. You are doing pretty well aren't you?"

"Well, I am, but I don't think everyone is as chill as you "

"Trust me, boy. Agreed that they are not like me, but every one of them is a character and when you get to know them, you can't help but want to stay in their company."

" A character???.."

" Enough chatter boy, let's go in now, everybody has to continue their jobs from tomorrow," Shiva said and pushed him through the door.

'The gods have jobs?' Rudra thought as he entered, and decided to ask them later.

" Well, here we are everyone I present to you the billionth champion Rudra!" Shiva said as they entered the room. As soon as he entered the room Rudra had to cover his eyes as he couldn't handle the glamour in the room. A large room filled with approximately a hundred extremely beautiful gods and goddesses.

"Why are you covering your eyes, boy?" he heard Shiva say

"WHY! What do you mean why? Have you looked at yourself? You were already handsome enough but what is this? My eyes can't handle the beauty in this room!"

"Hahahaha" Shiva and the gods started laughing at his antics.

" Have you looked in the mirror recently, boy? You aren't that bad yourself." Shiva said with a shrug.

"Of course, he hasn't, darling. Did you forget already? He has just reached heaven and already contested a dance championship unknowingly. How would he know what he looks like now?"

Rudra heard a sweet and loving voice. It was as if his mother who he had never known was speaking and he opened his eyes.

"Mum?" muttered Rudra unknowingly as he looked at the goddess in front of him. One look and he knew he was looking at Parvati, the Hindu goddess of love, beauty, and motherhood. The goddess was the textbook definition of a mother. Anyone who laid their eyes on her would instantly know that she was the goddess of motherhood. Otherworldly beauty. Eyes filled with love and care. This was the woman who had managed to capture the heart of the man known as The God of Destruction, The God of Gods Mahadev Shiva.

Rudra who had never experienced the love and care of parents was brought to tears just by looking at her. It was quite weird, as nobody had that much of a reaction by just looking are her but nobody present in the room said anything as they already knew the truth.

Parvati looked towards Rudra and hugged him lovingly as if he was her son. Unknown to Rudra she looked at her husband and their children with a smile and tears in her eyes as Shiva, Ganesh, Kartikeya, and Ashokasundari had wide smiles too, and shed little tears, but soon wiped them. Shiva signaled Parvati to wipe her tears and not show Rudra her sobbing face. Her tears disappeared as if they were never there and she released him from the hug. She held him by the shoulders and asked lovingly,

"Do I remind you of your mother?"

Rudra shook his head as he wiped his tears and said

"No, I never had parents."

"It's ok, it's ok," Parvati said as she started brushing his hair.

"You called me Mum right? So from now on I will be your mother. You are going to continue calling me Mother, alright?"

Rudra frowned and looked at Parvati questioningly tilting his head to the side as he was really confused. She just smiled in return. He looked at Shiva, and he just shrugged saying,

"Just accept it, boy, it is her nature after all."

"Ok, mum" Rudra agreed.

Parvati smiled brightly and took him to meet the other gods. She introduced him to every one of the gods. Some of them even asked for pictures and autographs as he was a champion and they seemed to know something about him that he didn't know. He gladly accepted and signed the pictures. After all the introductions, everyone got seated and Brahma started speaking,

" Boy, this is the right time, to ask your questions and get to know everyone."

Rudra looked at Brahma. It had taken a while for him to get used to interacting with Brahma. He was the God of Creation after all. And it was weird talking to him as he had four heads and the heads were always starting and finishing each other's sentences. He was relieved that the time to get answers had finally come.

He looked towards the gods and asked the obvious question first,

"Why are you wearing modern clothes and why are there phones and all that here?"

The moment he had seen them during the contest as judges he was surprised to see them dressed in modern clothes. They were gods, right? Weren't they supposed to wear traditional clothes and all that stuff? Why were they wearing all types of modern clothes that he had never seen and also carried phones and had digital screens, etc?

"Woah woah woah, wait right there young man. Who do you think you are talking to, huh?"

Said Thoth coming forward along with him Hephaestus, Mrikinda, Hedjhotep, and other deities of science and clothing. They looked reasonably offended by Rudra's comments.

"Oh sheat you have pissed off the Science and fashion clubs, boy," Vishnu said holding back his laughter.

"Get that Stereotype out of your head young man. We have the most advanced technology in the entire multiverse. No civilization has managed to reach our level ever. There is a reason we are Gods OK. And these guys along with me are at the top of their respective fields. Come on use your common sense do you really think we are not going to change our attire according to the timeline?"

It was really really weird for Rudra to see a person with the head of an ibis talk. How was it even possible for an IBIS to create a voice like that? But then again he had seen a chibi calf dancing and DJing not long ago, so he had to get used to this.

"Although the timeline doesn't affect us as we are above those trivial matters. You see our existence is above that of universes and their particular timelines. Heaven is a different plane of existence altogether. You see we were once normal beings to-"

"Thoth, Thoth stop enough, do not keep rambling on and on and on. Just leave him be. We brought him here to answer his questions. Not to give him a lecture on our history. OK", Vishnu interrupted Thoth before he continued talking.

"Oh, I am very sorry my lord. It's just that-"

"I know Thoth, I know how eager you are to teach him. But he is just a child you know. He has to go on his journey now. You can teach him everything you know when he returns." Vishnu whispered to him.

"Alright, my lord," Thoth said and turned towards Rudra.

"I hope we meet again boy, take care," he said and went back to his seat.

"O K that's what you meant when you said everyone was a character huh?" Rudra turned towards Shiva and said raising his eyebrows.

"HaHaHaHa yes my boy. Thoth cannot stop himself from sharing his knowledge and talking about science. You should ask your next question now" Shiva replied.

"Oh yes, I had forgotten about that. Well where am I and what happened to me? I was in my room watching anime and the next thing I know I am in front of an entrance to a massive venue and winning a dance contest!"

"You are in Heaven and you are dead, next question please." Hades said.

"Short answers huh, I like it. How are all of you together, I mean you belong to different countries don't you?"

"We don't belong to any country child. We have our own pantheons. Shiva, Brahma, and Visnu lead the Hindu pantheon together, Amun-Ra leads the Egyptians, Zeus here leads the Greeks, Dagda leads the Celtic, Odin leads the Norse, The Jade Emperor Yuhuang leads the Chinese, Buddha leads the Buddhists, Amaterasu leads the Japanese, Hunab-kun leads the Mayan, Huitzilopochtli leads the Aztech and I lead the Biblical Pantheon. And we meet each other every day as everyone works at the same place. " said a man with long hair, a beard, cool sunglasses, and a white and golden overcoat. He looked just like Leroy Smith from Tekken

"You are Yhwh?" asked Rudra.

Yhwh nodded and asked,

"Is there anything wrong with my appearance?"

"No no no no. Nothing wrong. You just look like a character from one of my favorite videogame. You look very very cool. Nice to meet you," said Rudra extending his hand forward for a handshake.

Yhwh accepted the handshake with raised eyebrows and a wide smile. He was one of the strongest among the gods and made himself seem unapproachable. Most people would get overwhelmed by his aura just by standing in his presence. It was amusing for the gods to see a young boy willingly shake hands with him. But it wasn't unbelievable or shocking. He was 'their' son after all. This much was expected.

"Sir, you said that you don't belong to any country but most of your pantheons are named after countries aren't they?" asked Rudra.

"We just took the name and ran with it," Yhwh said with a smirk and shrugged his shoulders.

Rudra shrugged and moved on to the next question. He took on a serious expression and looked into the eyes of every god present there. The mood turned very serious and everyone was silent. He finally broke the silence by asking the most important question that was on his mind for a while now.

"I will ask about other things later on, but now would anyone care to tell me how and when will I receive my reward ?" he said uttering each word of the sentence slowly in a serious tone.