The Fox in the Village

I don't know if I'm feeling furious, shocked, or scared right now, as I'm closely lying on the ground looking at the old man I hated ever since my arrival here. He smiles grimly and seems to claim success as he looks back at me. He's got the aura and the look of an old guru and a tribe leader with his hands holding a brown cane made out of a tree branch and a fox's skin and head as his coat. His inside clothe is a white dress clothing, different from the rest of the tribe which is often a white shirt or sando and a pajama. This inside clothe is all white, as if his heart and desire were as pure as its color, but it's his foxy coat that defines him. "Thou can never change Amara's fate, Samantha. They have been faithful to me ever since and they shall believe and do as I say. For more than a decade, everything here has been thine and will always be. They are thine forever. Now, so thou are," says the old man in a calm, firm and rest-assured voice. "I'm in my final years now on my master's degree in sociology and I am doing my research here in Amara, a place and tribe not so common here in the Philippines. According to the source I've found in the research, many of the country's people isn't actually familiar with this place and tribe. I was curious enough for the reason that I am passionate of what I'm doing more so because I wanted to see and experience my country of which I left since when I was three for migration. They say, this is the one with the weirdest culture which is really suitable for our research. I guess, we'll try exploring the rest of the country once we're done with this one. I actually just saw this in an app and decided this could be the target of my research. What's actually quite weird is that, it isn't shown in the map of the Philippines though few of the articles I've read says it's part of it. Quite interesting, right? So, I and my mates are required to live with them and observe their culture. I am... We are here now." I said while smiling genuinely. "Come on Sam. Do you like vlogging or what?" teased Frolly while laughing with Lucas. I look at them with only my eyes moving towards their direction and where they can still see my smile. "Well, I'm not sure. I guess I just had to record things before they get our things out from us." I replied then continued on packing and fixing our gadgets and the rest of the things the tribes forbid us to bring inside their place. I admit that I actually love doing these kind of things, personally, but I also hate to admit that not having our gadgets for a certain weeks or months of our stay on our target places because it's part of that place's requests due to the culture and tradition they have where only our notebooks and pens are allowed makes me frustrated. I had my frustrated sigh, like I never get used to this, and after packing the last piece of object these people will keep away from us while we stay in their place, then came four people wearing white clothes (a combination of a sando or shirt and pajamas). All of them wears the same clothes and a seem to be handmade necklace made out of black beads having a fox's shaped pendant out of a carved magnesite stone. They came to welcome us by giving us the same handmade necklace they're wearing. They were barefoot and were only communicating by giving us hand signs and gestures, telling us that our gadgets would now be taken and we should only take inside what's allowed for us to be brought, which includes their necklace given. We weren't actually inside their village yet, just in the entrance near their gates and fences made out of tree branches and other raw materials put together by ropes and other stuff. A man in the same clothing style arrived. He seemed different from the others as his body was well-built and his face much cleaner and brighter than the others. His posture seemed firm and confident too and seemed to have a better facial expression that while I observed him, he smiled at us. "May the fox admire your presence and may he give you all the prosperity you all need for your reason for being out here in our village," says he who has just arrived and is different from them. Then he added, "I am Aram. One of the villagers here. I would like to express my sincerest apology with regard to some of your stuff you can't bring inside. I hope you understand. Master Quino asked me to accompany you to our village as he's quite busy today. Shall we?" and then he had all his arms as a sign that we're welcome. "I see. He's talking." I mumbled to myself. We were led towards the village with only our feet. It was probably a thirty minute walk from their village entrance towards the village itself. We were told that they weren't allowed to ride horses or any type of animal, since these are only an enemy and food for the fox and so to them. Another reason was because, according to them, it's being one with nature for the feet to learn to move and wander by its own strength. Quite interesting, I guess. Before the moon glanced at us, we were able to see the different places the village had. I keep on using the term village as their tribe seems to actually live in a normal village, only that their civilization is quite backward compared to us who can't live without electricity, appliances, gadgets, slippers and curfews. I've also observed a division of people within the tribe. There were people who were actually not allowed to speak, just like the ones that we had encountered earlier and, according to Aram, it's part of their culture and tradition. On the first day, I'd already learned that there are two groups of people in their tribes, which are the gifted and the fallen. The gifted ones are almost all of the wealthy families and those who aren't wealthy but were chosen to serve Master Quino and they are all free to express themselves and do as they please while the rest are fallen and are not allowed to speak and were under some prohibitions I might actually learn in the coming days of our research here. Right now, Frolly is with me inside the nipa hut where we are staying for two weeks, while Lucas is located in a different one since they did not allow us to be in the same place together. Part of the culture, I guess. I was busy writing my journal when Frolly spoke, "Have you felt the creepy vibe when the night crawls Sam?" "Naaaa. It's probably just because it's our first day here and we're not used to their kind of life. I was more immersed in the fact that they also have social stratification here." I replied while shaking my head, smiling in disbelief about the presence of inequality even in a tribe. "Gosh Sam. You're such a nerdy. I wonder how Lucas is on his place." Frolly said with a worried tone. "I think we had better sleep now so that we can ask Lucas, of your question personally tomorrow, plus that Master Quino is about to see us tomorrow. We had better get ready." I responded while preparing to nudge into my blanket and into the bamboo bed. I felt her blow the candlelight in between us and lie onto her bed silently while I, eyes wide open for a few minutes, thought of how small this place was which, according to Aram, was catering different visitors they already had before. I also thought how there were already a lot of visitors before, but only few articles around were present discussing their tribes?