The Moonlight Daughters

The Last Link

Adan was gone. Only the two girls, the unconscious wolf, and the burning wolf were left. And so, the wolf howled signifying his victory. The two girls were stepping back. They might be the next victim of him. The burning wolf slowly turned around.

"Don't...Don't come close!" Grace Joy warned. She and Anna raised both their right hands toward him just when he faced them.

The wolf was just silent. He didn't move. He was just staring at them.

"What is he doing?" trembling Ana asked.

"I think we are not going to like it," Grace Joy responded.

The dog took one step forward. The two took a step backward.

"Don't come any closer. Don't come any closer," Ana warned once more.

The dog took another step. And so, the girls gathered some moisture in the air and they put them together forming a huge ball.

The dog took another step. The girls threw it to him. Unfortunately, the ball of water didn't touch him. A barrier of bubble suddenly coated him. And so, the ball of water exploded when it crashed into the bubble.

The girls screamed when they got splashed by water from the explosion. While the dog was unaffected.

Meanwhile, they heard a voice coming from nowhere.

"Don't hurt him. He is a friend," the voice of a girl said.

"Oh my God," Ana knew that voice. She turned around while searching for the familiar voice. "Seline? Is that you?" she asked.

"Who is Seline?" Grace creased her forehead.

Meanwhile, a huge bubble suddenly appeared in front of them. A few seconds later, it popped out. To their surprise, there appeared a girl in front of them. She was hiding inside that bubble all those times.

Grace widened her eyes. She also knew her. She was her junior high school classmate.

"Seline Napda-aw!" She pointed at her.

"You knew her too?" Ana got surprised.

"You too?" Grace was also surprised.

"Hi Ana!" she waved her hand.

"I knew it," Ana smiled.

"Grace Joy de la Rochaz. I see, you can still recognize me," she smiled at her.

****

"What?" Benjie yelled because he got shocked about the news. He was talking to Gilhameer on the phone.

"How is he?" he asked.

"He's here in laboratory A..." he answered. He looked at Cainnick who was still lying on the table. "He's still asleep."

"Okay. Wait for me there. I am going there," he answered. He immediately grabbed his car keys on the table in the middle of the living room. He also grabbed his sweater scattered on the sofa. He rushed towards the main door and he headed towards the garage.

****

Danny and Daya were walking along the road. They were looking from side to side searching for the address of the house the old lady told them to find. It was already dark and the sun already had set.

"Number thirty...one, Number thirty-two... no..., thirty-four, thirty-five... thirty-six...not even here," Danny mumbled while he held his head down as he walks, he was staring at the piece of paper in his hands. The paper contained the address of the house where the old man's family lives.

"Are we there yet?" Daya asked. She was walking slowly behind Danny.

"Don't worry. We'll get there," he responded.

Finally, Danny stopped in front of a pink iron gate. And so, she also stopped. There is a small two-digit number painted in white on its upper right corner.

"Forty," Daya read.

"We are here" Danny smiled against it. "Knock the gate, please," he told her.

Before she pushed the doorbell, she looked at her brother-in-law. She felt uncertain.

"Are you sure this is it?" she asked.

Danny pouted and shrugged.

"It's worth a try. Besides, I trust the old babaylan."

She sighed. A few seconds later, she hit the doorbell.

****

In the house of Seline, where the mermaids brought the unconscious stranger...

Seline was sitting next to the bed where he was resting on. She held her hands above the wounds the stranger got from fighting. Each of the wounds was covered by bubbles as they slowly get healed. Grace and Ana were standing at the back watching her heal the boy's injury.

"We are classmates when we were in eighth grade. Yet, I had no idea that you have the ability to heal people," Grace Joy told her. Seline smiled after hearing the question. She put down her hands to rest.

"I got my mermaid powers when I was in grade six. I can't explain how it happened...but I feel like it happened in a dream. Even Ana can't explain what happened to her. What we know is that we were both fallen into a lake."

"Lakes?" Grace Joy suddenly wondered. Could it be possible that the lake she had fallen into was the same as the lake Seline was talking about?

"How about you Grace?" Seline asked.

"'The lake...What does it look like?"

"It was surrounded by huge mountains..." Seline was trying to recall what she saw.

"Dandelions are planted around the lake. There is a forest also" Ana continued.

"'The lake water was the most beautiful I have ever seen. Color blue at the center and almost colorless at the sides." Seline added.

"Every time there's fog, these firefly-like things were coming out from the deep, right?" Grace Joy said. Because of that, Seline and Ana started to get intrigued.

"Oh no. It can't be," the both of them looked at each other with their eyes wide in shock.

"Don't tell me..."Ana put her hands on her head.

"Impossible," Seline mumbled.

"And sometimes you are there, sometimes you are not. Every time you go there, it feels like you are in a dream, am I right?" Grace Joy told them.

"I...I...Think so", Seline stuttered.

"What the heck is wrong with us?" She muttered while rubbing her hair.

****

Daya and Danny were still outside the house. They kept on ringing the doorbell but no one was opening the gate.

"Tao po!" Danny called. "Tao po! Yuhoo! Apo!"

"Apay ngay? Awan dan sa? ( Why? Are they gone?),"she wondered. She pushed the button another three times. They've waited for several seconds hoping that someone was going to open the gate. Yet, no one nor they can't hear any activity behind the pink gate.

"Apo...?" Danny shouted once more. "Ay wada kayo (Are you in there)?"

Later, someone finally opened the gate from the inside...

An old man whose skin was wrinkled. He stepped out of the gate with a rod for he can barely walk.

"Yes. How may I help you?" he asked the strangers.

"Are you Teodoro Dominguez? The grandfather of Nick Dominguez?" Danny immediately asked.

"Yes...I am," he answered.

"Are you friends of him?" he further asked.

The two strangers looked at each other. They didn't know what were they going to say.

"We are going to ask you something?" Danny asked instead.

"What's the question?" his jaw was shaking as he speaks.

"If possible, can we will ask our question inside your house? Because as much as possible, no one in your neighborhood must hear what we are going to tell you"

****

In a living room inside the home of Teodoro, Daya and Danny sat on a couch facing a huge cabinet where a large television was placed.

"Do you want to watch something?" The old man asked. "It's okay. Don't be shy to use the television."

He sat on a chair next to the couch they were seating on.

Danny cleared his throat. He began to speak.

"The reason we are here is that--"

"I know," Mr. Dominguez held his head down. He sighed. A few moments later, he looked at them with his face blank. The two couldn't read his reaction.

"'This is about the island?" he asked.

"Uhm... we have no idea about that. But we are here because one of my colleagues told me that you know the disputed land of gold. The land our ancestors defended from the ancestors of the Idarugans, " he answered.

"Like I said. It is about the island," he muttered.

"What? An island?" Daya reacted. She had no idea that it was an island.

"You know about this, Danny?" she asked.

But even Danny doesn't know. He shook his head.

"The Idarugans failed to claim that land. Now, they are desiring to claim it again," Danny said.

The old man nodded.

"But...But how did they discover that land? It doesn't make sense. I mean our ancestors live here in the mountains. " Daya questioned. She was puzzled.

"The land was home of the anitos. That place was said to exist in another world," he answered. "It is not really an 'another world' though," he clarified. "It is the other reality of this world."

"I don't get it," Danny said.

"The anitos are living in the same world we are living in. The only difference is that we can't see them, likewise, they can't see us. Our perception of reality that we see of this world is different from what they perceive in this world," Teodoro explained. "For example, the Baguio City we city here is really Baguio. But for them who live in another reality, they might view this place as a dessert or a pure human-less forest," he explained further.

"Do you know where can we find the portal?"

"Yes," he answered.

The two got their ears focused on what he's about to say...

"But you are not allowed to enter. There is this strong force of magic that engulfs the entrance to protect it from the outsiders."

"I am sure your father learned about this" Danny told to Daya.

"I am not yet done," the old man said.

" After the war between the tribes - Ba-as and Idarugan. The mermaids who are chosen to guard the island requested the three leaders of Ba-as to help them guard the portal to the other reality."

He stopped his story for a while.

"Are you really sure that your father never mentioned this to you?" he wondered. "Your father knew what am I talking about."

"He never told me stories about this," he answered.

"Then, listen carefully," the old man said.

"The three leaders of the Ba-as tribe had agreed to protect the portal to that land. To do that, the mermaids had to use their magic to make a barrier that covers the entire portal. Then, the leaders used a drop of their blood to make the barrier more powerful. The oath that whoever dares to cross the barrier will instantly burn to death."

He lifted his left sleeve to uncover the mark on his left arm. He let them see it. Danny was surprised to see a familiar mark. He also saw a similar one from his father's arm.

"Except for the people who bear this mark on their wrists."

Danny dropped his jaw due to his surprise. He held his hand up and pointed at the mark. He wants to speak but he was just stuttering.

"My father once had this mark. He passed it on to me. Whoever bears the mark decides the strength of the barrier. If one of the bearers dies, the barrier will weaken. That's why if the bearers will going to die, they must have to give it to someone next to his generation to preserve the barrier's power. "the old man added.

"That's why Dionysus killed my father because of that?" he raised his voice. He stood up because of frustration. Daya tried to calm him down. He sat down after he managed to control his temper.

"Dionysus might have killed one of us."

"If they managed to kill you. Then, the barrier will disappear." Daya held her head down.

"The leaders of the Ba-as knew that the next generation of Idarugan will be going to do the same thing their ancestors have done. As for the 'keys', they hid them somewhere. God knows where in the Philippines each of them was hidden."

Daya was about to ask something but they suddenly heard the sound of shattering glass. Everyone in the living room got startled. And so, Danny stood up before Daya and Mr. Teodoro.

"It's from the kitchen" Teodoro whispered.

Danny hushed him. He was looking towards the direction of where they heard the broken glass. He was keeping himself alert while his eyes were concentrating on the entrance to the kitchen. He signaled Daya and Mr. Dominguez to stand behind him. And so, the two followed what he instructed them to do. The old man then pulled something out of his pocket. Slowly, he held Daya's hand and raised it slightly. Afterward, he placed the thing in her palms. Daya folded down her fingers to hold it and then she immediately put it in one of the pockets of the maong jacket she's wearing.

The lights in the living room suddenly shut down. Danny immediately turned around.

"Run!" he yelled.

And so, Daya immediately assisted weak Mr. Teodoro towards the door. Danny hurriedly turned into a Dire Wolf before a wolf suddenly hopped out from the kitchen entrance. Danny immediately charged upon the intruder.

They were already near the door. They suddenly heard a loud banging noise coming from the outside. As they heard the sound, they can see that the door was budging.

"Let's go upstairs," the old man suggested.

And so, he and Daya immediately walked towards the stairs.

The door was slowly getting crashed, Daya was having a hard time assisting the old man climbing up the stairs. While Danny was dealing with an unknown wolf.