Fallen in Love with Moonnight Goddess

Forest

"Hey spirit, what are you?" Makisig said while they were walking through the thick forest.

"Huh? What are you talking about? I am a spirit. Did you get stupid after just one fight? I can't recall you being hit in the head in our last fight. " The spirit answered admonishingly.

"No. What I mean is that I can't understand what you are. Are you a Goddess Makiling spirit? Are you a different person? "Come on, enlighten me here." Makisig said.

"Makisig, we are god. Do not put us in your box of understanding. You can't understand our complexity. Our deity and our being cannot be understood at your level of understanding. We are a mystery. " The spirit explains, "Some things should remain a mystery; do not try to understand everything; your faith is sufficient; even if you don't understand, just have faith in us, okay?" "Said the spirit."

Makisig sighed and said Okay, I just want to know more about you and Goddess Makiling. That's why I'm asking.

"Mmm. I know you have good intentions when you want to know our internal being or our origin, but these things are never meant to be understood. So let's just hurry up; the night is coming. " The spirit replied.

Why can't you just lift me up again so we can go to our next destination? He replied complainingly.

We don't need to fly; we are supposed to pass through here in this haunted forest. Don't you feel that we are being watched?

Huh? Are we being watched? Makisig looks around to see if there's someone watching them.

"Wait, we already passed this path before. I remember this rock. I sat here two hours ago. This is where I tied my lace. Look, see this branch? This is the one I used to pinch the guava. " Makisig explained to the spirits.

Okay then, I'm going to tie my handkerchief to this small tree. If we pass this again, we are just walking around in circles.

After 30 minutes of walking, they came across to where Makisig tied his handkerchief.

"What? How could this be? " We walked straight, but why did we return here? " Makisig said in confusion.

"This is not right. Someone is leading us astray. We followed the correct path from the village; we can't just get lost that easily. Makisig, raise your staff up and say this word. "Let there be light." The spirit commanded Makisig.

"Let there be light!" he exclaimed, raising his staff. A bright sphere appeared and floated above them. This illuminated their surroundings.

The illumanation reveals a creature sitting on a large branch of a Balete tree. The monster is about two feet tall, with a very large mouth and sagging genitals.

It has an awkward feature: it's a lanky, wrinkled black creature. It has long, thin, wobbly legs; hooves; and big joints. It has long, thin arms and fingers and a mane like that of a horse that goes all the way down from the head to the buttocks. It has wide, protruding lips that cover its face when it laughs.

The creature then quickly got down from the tree and hid.

The spirit then said, "It's a Tambaluslus. This monster hides under trees on moonlit nights and loves to chase people who are lost in the woods.

"That is a very ugly-looking creature." Makisig said.

You need to take your shirt off and wear it backwards. That is the only way we can get out of this confusion.

"Huh?" "Why?" he answered, frowning.

"Just do it quickly," the spirit insisted.

Makisig took off his shirt and wore it backwards. A very loud laugh echoed throughout the dark forest after he did this.

In that direction! Blast it with your bright sphere, Makisig. The spirit commanded Makisig again.

Makisig swung his staff hard. The bright sphere then flew in the direction of where the laughter is. Ahhhh!! The scream of pain echoed in place of the loud laughter.

The bright sphere then goes back to where Makisig is standing. The trees surrounding them move, creating a visible path.

Then they hear a clipping sound. It sounds like the sound of horses' hooves. It is closing in on their direction.

Wosshh. Arrows were shot at their location, but the spirit transformed into wind and deflected the arrows, scattering them in different directions.

The hoofing eventually slows down, but this creature where the hooves came from is lurking in the dark, encircling them. It's like a cavalry who is about to march into battle. These creatures used the trees and surrounding plants to hide while shooting their arrows towards Makisig and the spirit. Then they hear a bray.

"Neigh! "Neigh!" the creatures said.

It's a horse? a bunch of horses. a bandit? We are not fighting demons now? Do we also fight with bandits? ugghh. Makisig whine.

The creatures come out of the dark. Indeed, these creatures are half humans, half horses. Its lower portion of its body is a horse with two feet only, but it has hooves. The upper body is human, but the face is horse. It's like a centaur in reverse.

The tikbalang with almost golden hair moved forward and said, "What brings you here, apostle of Makiling? This forest is under our protection. Your presence here is a clear violation of the treaty signed ages ago. "Are you here to declare war? "

The other tikbalang also came out. There are almost a hundred of them. It's like a group of co-eds banding together.

We are not here to declare war against you; we are here to ask your permission to accompany us to the city of Biringan.

Your kind is the only one who knows where and how to get there.

Biringan is a mythical city in the Philippines. It is not visible on maps or in satellite imagery.It is far more advanced compared to the big cities in our modern days. It is also called by the local fishermen "a city that rises from the water up to the clouds. The tikbalang are the only creatures that know how to get there because the tikbalang used to live there.