STELLAR MARK

CHAPTER 2: AT THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF

Darkness descended over the mountains as Mang Reno and Aling Trena found a baby girl wrapped in a soaked garbage bag near the river.

“She’s alive,” Aling Trena whispered.

Mang Reno nodded, but footprints in the soft earth made him uneasy.

“Someone was here,” he said. “We need to get home.”

“Do you think they’ll come back?”

“Maybe. But we won’t give her back.”

They climbed toward their small nipa hut, Aling Trena holding the crying baby close.

“Can I call her my daughter?” she asked.

Mang Reno wiped a tear from her cheek.

“If that’s what your heart wants, then she’s our daughter.”

At home, they warmed water and removed the wet covering. The baby’s umbilical cord was still attached.

“She was just born,” Mang Reno said.

Tears filled Aling Trena's eyes.

“How could anyone be so cruel?”

He did not answer.

He simply stared at the baby.

“Why would someone do this?”

“We don't know.”

“How could a mother abandon her own child?”

“Maybe she had a reason.”

“What reason could ever be enough for something like this?”

Mang Reno had no answer.

He looked at the baby again.

“Perhaps someday, we'll find out.”

After a while, they replaced the wet covering with clean cloth.

Aling Trena took a small blanket and carefully wrapped the baby in it.

Then she sat beside their bed and rested the baby against her chest.

The little girl immediately became quiet.

Aling Trena smiled.

“Reno.”

“Yes?”

“Look.”

Mang Reno came closer.

“She’s quiet now.”

“Yes.”

“It’s as though she knows she’s safe.”

Mang Reno gently stroked the baby's head.

“Maybe she does.”

“Reno…”

“Hmm?”

“What if this is really the answer to all our prayers?”

He froze.

For a moment, he said nothing.

Instead, he sat beside his wife.

Together, they looked at the baby.

“If she is the answer,” Mang Reno finally said, “then we will take care of her.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Aling Trena tightly held her husband's hand.

Outside their small home, the cold mountain wind continued to blow.

But inside the humble nipa hut, a new warmth had begun to grow.

A warmth that did not come from the fire.

It came from love.

They did not know that while the baby slept peacefully in Aling Trena's arms, a tiny mark on her wrist began to glow faintly.

A star-shaped mark.

For the first time, a soft light spread across the dark room.

Neither Mang Reno nor Aling Trena noticed.

But far away in the forest, several birds suddenly took flight.

The ancient trees, silent for years, seemed to bend together beneath the passing wind.

As if the world itself had been waiting for something.

Someone.

“How could anyone abandon her?”

“We may find out someday.”

They wrapped the baby in clean cloth and placed her against Aling Trena’s chest. She quickly fell silent.

“What if she’s the answer to our prayers?” Aling Trena asked.

“Then we’ll take care of her,” Mang Reno promised.

Outside, the mountain wind blew. Inside, warmth filled the humble hut—not from the fire, but from love.

As the baby slept, a star-shaped mark on her wrist began to glow.

Neither of them noticed.

Far away, birds suddenly took flight, and ancient trees bent beneath the wind.

The world seemed to have been waiting for someone.

And now…

she had finally arrived.