The Tale of Xenosa

Preppy Party

Cheska's POV:

The next morning we decided to wake up earlier than usual to go and help Lady Katalina with the household chores again. Yesterday's conversation drained us, emotionally and physically. Today both Lacresia and I will do our best to gather information about the monster we have to face, the Bakunawa. How we will do that? I don't have a clue but Cresia says we can start from the information that Lady Katalina told us before. But before anything else, we decided to get some fresh herbs from the garden, since we'll need to change our wound bandages. Lady Katalina was kind enough to teach us about the ways of healing, she only taught us the basics since we'll need to unlock our powers first then we can learn the more complicated stuff. The gashes and wounds that we have are all most likely to be healed already. While the bruises that we had completely disappeared already. Luci and Louis are getting on pretty well, they seem to like each other a lot. Weirdly enough Luci seems very protective over Louis, and all this time I thought cats only wanted to eat birds. Lacresia also seemed to relate to me a lot, considering that we are pretty much in the same situation together. I always say this but I'm very grateful for her, I don't think this journey would even be bearable if it wasn't for her. Also, I'm very thankful that she hasn't left my side yet, considering the fact that she doesn't have to do it, I mean I know she seems to think that we should together but I'm just worried that something bad might happen to her. I am not sure if it's just my conscience speaking but I really am truly worried. I don't want her to get hurt because of me. But she seems very adamant about her decision, she wouldn't allow me to talk her out of it. It's only normal that I worry for her, we are friends after all right? Huh, friends. Never thought I'd be able to say that. Though I grew up pretty normal, I really can't recall if I had any childhood friends at all. The other kids aren't very welcoming to strangers like us, Nana, and when we first arrived in Samar. I'd try to join the games they played but they wouldn't let me. Believe me, I've tried to get them to like me and I've tried approaching them first to be first with them, but they just wouldn't budge. It didn't help that Nana had rumors about being a mangkukulam, a witch if you would say. Which actually turned out to be true, who would've thought right? I was snapped back into reality when Cresia snapped her fingers at me while saying, "Earth to Ches, hello is someone there?" I was so caught up in my thoughts that apparently she's been trying to get my attention by calling my name for the last 2 mins already. I blinked twice and then said, "Uh yeah I'm here. Sorry, I've been zoning out quite a lot lately, maybe it's the nerves. My anxiety had been high to the roof ever since I've heard of the bakunawa." "Well, I really can't blame you. I've been thinking about it a lot as well, I mean if it were to swallow the moon that would mean it would be a pretty huge dragon. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it," Cresia said. I only nodded to her in agreement with what she just said. We then went back inside the hut and went up to our room. Upon opening the bedroom door we noticed books placed on top of our beds we looked at each other, confused and a little frightened by it, "maybe Lady Katalina left this here for us since we told her we wanted to study and all" said Cresia. I guess she's right. I picked up one of the books and it read " Mandadagut's Odyssey", a story huh. I gave it to Cresia not wanting to do anything with it, I wasn't interested in fictional stories anyway. I then picked up the second book from the pile, this time the title was written in Latin it read, "Aperi librum et animam tuam aperiet" ,which translated to "Open a book and it will open your soul" the cover had a mirror on it. I opened it first and to my surprise the first pages were blank, I scanned the book some more and discovered all of the pages were blank, what was I supposed to read? Was this a joke or something?I then looked at what Cresia was going she was reading rather loudly, she seemed to be interested in the novel. At that moment, I then realized something. I needed to read the title aloud, but what do I do with the mirror? Hmm, what do mirrors do? They give you your reflection right? I then thought of doing something though I find it rather stupid, it's still worth a try. I then held the book, leveled just enough with my face that I could see the whole reflection, and uttered the words "Aperi librum et animam tuam aperiet" and just like that golden dust circled the book and an invisible force dragged the book from my hands and placed it in the middle of the room, it was now floating mid-air and opened to a very specific page, bright yellow light also appeared from the book thus illuminating the entire room, even Cresia stopped what she was doing and looked at the now magical book. This brings me back to the first magical book I opened, the one that talked and told me about the prophecy, I remember how awestruck I was with it. It was magi,c after all, I don't suppose this one could talk as well for it seemed quiet for a talking book. I then headed over to where it was at slowly, then with all the courage that I could muster I read the writings. I was amazed, this book somehow knew what I needed to read even without asking for it. It showed my pages of facts about bakunawa. Armed with my need to fulfill my curiosity and to eradicate the feeling of uneasiness within me I read it. "well what does it say?" I heard Cresia say. "Take a look at this! It says here that a bakunawa is a serpent-like dragon creature, scales as tough as metal. In some parts of the Philippines, particularly for the Bisayan people, they believe that it is the cause of earthquakes, rains, wind, and eclipses" Huh a moon eating-serpent, perhaps that's the reason they believe that it has the power to cause eclipses. I then continued to read, "it's movements served as a geomantic calendar for the ancient people of the archipelago, and were part of the shamanistic rituals of the babaylan. It is also said that bakunawas are extremely aggressive to humans but once it has found its master it is just as loyal to them." So that's why they made it the Labyrinth's guardian, its loyalty is unwavering. Still, it has been influenced and compromised by the other creatures there. I've given those facts thought and realized that maybe the reason why the bakunawa is furious now was that it was broken then? After all, it's been left there by its formal masters, perhaps it missed them badly and thus the reason for its aggressiveness to the same kind as them. I then continued to read, " A lot of stories has been associated with the name Bakunawa here's one, the Bisayan tribe of Cebuanos believed that when the supreme creator, Bathala, created the 7 moons one for each night of the week. The Bakunawa was in awe of their beauty and wanted to possess them all. And so it would rise up into the sky just to swallow it whole, but this action angered Bathala. And so Bathala ordered its people to bang gongs and pans whenever night fell into the sky. The noise drove the Bakunawa away and never to be seen again. Another story tells us that Bakunawa was in love with a human girl. But it being a monster the people loathed it, when the chief found out about the Bakunawa's affair with the human girls, the chief ordered his men to burn the girl and her family. This angered bakunawa and as revenge, it planned to eat all 7 moons. But as it was to eat the seventh moon Bathala appeared angry and flustered by the monster's actions and banished it from the ocean. never to be seen again It is said that the bakunawa retreated to the deepest parts of the earth and hid there. The eclipse happens when the Bakunawa attempts to eat the seventh moon but is intervened by Bathala thus not being able to fully swallow it. For this event not to happen again, Bathala planted bamboo trees on the surface of the moon that looked like stains from afar driving the Bakunawa away for good." Well, the second one's tragic but it was up to me I'd pick the former, judging from the story you can really tell how loyal the creature was. But then I remembered what Nana and Lady Katalina said, all the stories are real. I was about to think about how I could piece all the information together when Lacresia said, "I got it. Bakunawa was a human that fell in love. In the fictional book that I read Bakunawa was turned into the serpent as he wished for revenge and to gain power. He then headed to the 7 moons but then Bathala intervened. The eclipses are a result of that, Bathala wanted to give a lasting lesson to its people, that whoever should defy him in this life or the next will not be able to gain another chance to be with their loved ones again" "Well that was helpful, now we know how to scare it but how do we exactly kill it? Bathala only banished him. The passage didn't mention about a way to kill it." To this Cresia grinned at me, "Maybe that's because we can't Ches. But we can drive it nuts." hmmm I smell a plan coming up.