The Meeting

Umbra looked skeptical. "You have friends?"

"Oh, yeah, totally. Four, in fact. You may know them." Time look particularly proud of himself, sitting smugly at the table and crossing his arms.

Everyone stared blankly back at Time, not understanding whatever allusion he was trying to imply.

"Aw, come on, nothing? Nothing at all?"

More confused glances.

Time's eye twitched. "Oh, for crying out loud, I'm talking about the rest of the Überdragons! There's five of us, remember?!"

"You can't be serious, Time," Umbra gasped, lowering his voice.

"Dead serious. Just about as dead as Aunora was a couple months ago," Time murmured, Aunora barking in complaint. "We're having a meeting today anyway, so I figured I should introduce you guys to 'em."

Matthew adjusted his glasses, eyes wide. "We're actually doing this," he said breathlessly, "We're meeting the gods."

"Don't get too excited," Time said, waving off Matthew's amazement with a clawed-hand, "They're all pretty stuck up. I'm the only one who really knows how to have fun. Though," he added thoughtfully, "Life can cook, so that makes parties a little cooler."

Time tossed a large stack on money bound by a rubber band on the table and started to walk away.

"Our bill was only twenty dollars," Umbra commented, taking Victor by the hand.

"I don't really need it," Time replied, shrugging. "Now let's go."

"Where's this meeting thing at?" Aunora asked, gulping down the rest of her drink.

Time held out his hand, magical energy surging across his skin. "Oh, it's only like a block or so away. But I wanna teleport, because teleporting is like two hundred times more radical than walking."

A portal appeared at his whim, an odd power Umbra had discovered Time possessed. Normally, a mage would have to cut the runes of their destination into the air and activate the spell, but Time didn't seem to be hindered by that limitation.

In fact, Time didn't seem to be hindered by any limitation. Umbra had witnessed him generating anything that came into his mind, something considered impossible by every law of magic that existed. Mortal mages preformed their spells and summoning by transmuting their innate magical into another form, like a weapon or a tongue of fire. There was no creation from thin air, energy only changed its form. To make something, you had to give something. Time seemed to pulling food, drink, and whatever else he could imagine from thin air, no spell required.

Conditioned to Time's pushy ways, Umbra was the first to step into the portal, Victor following close behind.

----

Umbra bent his knees for impact, landing on the sidewalk with the grace of a large cat. He grabbed Victor's shirt collar, waiting for the boy to pitch over. Surprising, Victor only staggered some, quickly finding his footing after a few seconds. Umbra flashed him a prideful smile and patted him on the head, knowing it was important to celebrate the small victories. Victor blushed.

Matthew landed on the ground behind him, throwing his arms around Umbra's neck. He enjoyed experimenting with teleportation to find the perfect speed and angle to hug Umbra at without hurting him. So far this was his first successful try. Umbra winked at Matthew.

Seraph landed next to Victor, and the two quickly started to engage in cheerful conversation. Seraph had been perfectly stable during teleportation, which impressed Umbra. Then again, he was over one hundred years old, which meant he had a lot of time to practice teleporting. Umbra tried not to think about how his child was technically older than him.

Aunora and Esper arrived together, as usual. Esper hung into Aunora's arm, trusting her to sniff out any danger he couldn't sense. Aunora lazily chewed at her nails, but watched their surroundings with narrow, scarlet eyes.

Time, contrary to everything Umbra assumed he'd do, simply materialized in front of him, not even bothering to use the portal. He clapped his hands, the vortex disappearing.

"Well, we're here!" Time called, plopping down on a nearby bench, "Now we just gotta wait. The perception of time in an immortal being is pretty wacked up. When you've been alive for an eternity and the passing of time doesn't really matter to you, it gets hard to show up to stuff exactly on the minute."

Umbra shrugged, figuring he had nothing else better to do. He sat down, on the other end of the bench, pulling Victor into his lap. Time had taken them to a small park in Alcorith, one that was lesser known and even less popular. It was quiet and quaint, but the scattered litter and empty swings also brought a note of eeriness.

Suddenly, one of swings started to stir, like a brisk wind was pushing it. Electricity danced down Umbra's skin, the hair on his arms standing on edge. He glanced up, his instincts screaming for him to bow in his.

Standing in front of him were the gods of Life, Space, Order, and Chaos.

Author's Note- you may notice something strange about this, think, think back to when I first mentioned the überdragons.