“It was an accident!” Ani wailed. “I got sucked in when you started running. I’ve been yelling the whole time but you didn’t hear me.”
“You should know better than to stand close to a tikbalang,” Kilat said angrily. “I could have kicked you by accident!”
Ani continued to wail. “Take me back! My mother’s going to kill me! I have chores to do!”
They had stopped just beyond the monument. There was a statue of the man who was buried underneath, and behind him, a long thin marker, much like a sundial.
Ani knew him as a great man, one who had inspired the people to fight for their rights and freedom. Kilat, whose father had been alive long before the archipelago acquired its name, thought of him as just another human.
Kilat did want to take Ani back. He didn’t like babysitting. But there w
