The Tale of Xenosa

Stranger Danger

Cheska’s POV:

I awoke with a sudden jolt, instinctively I reached for my punyal. My eyes were barely open when I noticed a slimy and greasy feeling on my fingertips. It smelled of foul and rotten flesh, did a creature of the night come at me while sleeping? If that happened for sure Luci would have done something. Speaking of Luci, where is she? I roamed my eyes around attempting to get a sight of her.

Oh my effing gosh! Luci’s gone! Realization dawned on me, something must have approached us while I was out and took Luci. I gotta find her, she’s the only guide I have and well the only friend I have with me. And with that thought, I quickly got up and dusted my clothes. I reached for my pack and flashlight. Now, where do I start looking? I thought to myself. I was deep in my thoughts when I caught a whiff of the air, the smell of rotten flesh reached my nose. I then closed my eyes and tried to concentrate in the direction it came from. “Ahah! I got it!” I then ran off to follow its direction. As I was running I noticed the smell was getting stronger and stronger but it felt like the air has gotten thinner. I must have wandered too deep into the ground already. The surrounding walls of the tunnel also got muddier while the pathway had hints of sand on them. Weird. What is this place? I noticed the tunnel walls getting smaller by the second, I bent my head little by little but the tunnel walls got so cramped up that I had to crawl in order to fit. Goodness, what was I getting myself into?The smell of rotten flesh was so strong that I couldn’t help but suddenly miss the open outdoors, the warm summer breeze, and even the occasional air pollution from the city, which would be paradise compared to this place. I continued to crawl the tunnel walls until it suddenly got bigger again, now a whole person could stand up and fit. This place was so giving me the creeps. I continued to walk trying to follow the scent but it lead me to a dead end. The place I was at now was muddy and smelly, I couldn't help but remember Nana’s stories about the shapeshifting creatures that prey on human beings they lived in swamps and places like these. I continued to wander around the place trying to find Luci, I even called out her name a couple of times, but it seemed like I had no luck. I searched the whole place until I found a hidden compartment, it was underneath some kind of mailbox, well I imagined it to be a mailbox or what’s left of it. I opened the compartment and found a scroll. The scroll had inscriptions on it, much like the ones we found at the entrance. The markings said, “ aperi ocolus tuos” it meant to open your eyes. As soon as I said those words a map showed up. I studied it for a while using my flashlight, it looked like it showed me my path on this place. One weird thing about it is that the whole map kept on changing, it seemed like the tunnels kept on connecting and disconnecting again. The map even showed the place where I fought the Bungisngis last time, this sure beats Google Maps. I was busy reading the map when something suddenly hit me causing me to lose my flashlight. “That’s just great!” I turned around to see a person! A girl actually and she looked like she was just around my age! What’s this a shapeshifting monster of some sort? I backed up and instantly reached for my punyal. I then lunged at her without any hesitation. My knife was just inches away from her neck when she suddenly screamed “Wait! Stop” My eyes widened at this, the creature could speak! “What are you? And how did you find me?” I said with my knife still on her neck. I wasn’t like this before, a few days I probably would have not done this. But ever since Nana disappeared and ever since I got into this place my guards were up and I’m actually quite surprised at how I was able to do all sorts of things! I never imagined I could actually kill a person let alone a monster. My train of thoughts broke when the girl finally answered, “‘I’m human, well I’m supposed to be human. And I didn’t find you I was looking for my pet”. With that, I lowered my knife and nodded at her. “If you were looking for your pet, why were you running?” I asked. “I was being chased by something on my way here! at first I thought it was just another piglet or something but no it had to grow fangs.” she answered like we were just talking about the latest gossip in town, even though we were total strangers. “I’m Cheska and I’m from Samar.” I said extending my arm to shake hands with her. “My name’s Lacresia! I’m from Palawan,” she said while extending her hand as well. Just when we were about to shake hands we heard something growl from a distance. I gulped upon hearing footsteps coming towards us “Uhm Cresia the thing that was chasing you what exactly was that?” I questioned while readying myself for the fight that was about to happen. Though scared and visibly shaking Cresia answered with a small voice “Aswangs. I was being chased by aswangs Ches." I tried to rack my brain for pieces of information I knew about aswangs but I didn’t have any, all I knew was that I needed salt to throw at them. Right now I didn’t have any. Cresia and I looked at each other with one thing in mind. Run. And so we did. I grabbed her by her arm and pulled her out of there. “C’mon we have to go faster, those things can catch up to us at any second”.

We ran away from that place the only problem was we didn’t where we were going, the path we were taking was entirely different from the one I took before when I followed the smell. The map was right this place was shifting. We were both out of breath when we reached some kind of cliff, how we got here I didn’t really have a clue but one thing was sure though, this was where we face those aswangs. Though I was panting, I thought about how we were supposed to defeat those aswangs. As if Lacresia could hear my thoughts she said, “We need to strike it at the middle of its back” I looked at her wide-eyed and said “And what do we use to do that? I don’t think my knife is going to be of much help.” She nodded at me agreeing with what I just said. “We use a bolo like this one,” she said while reaching something from her hip. “ From where I’m from people believe that the only way to kill aswangs is to strike them at the middle of the back with a bolo, but after doing so we have to bury it underground.” she continued. “Can’t we just cut off its head or something?” I said remembering what I did with the Bungisngis. She looked at me and said, “If it were any other way the aswang would just lick itself and heal its wounds, and if you cut its neck it would only find a way to re-attach itself.” I was about to ask another question but the aswangs were already here, at first they were only piglets but then they're shapeshifted into some kind of human, only these humans had tongues so long you’d confuse it for chicken fingers. On their tongues were huge taste buds with budding saliva on them, it was slimy as hell. Its teeth were sharp and small you’d think it was filed after every meal they had. It had a lump on its back causing it to hunch towards the ground. Its skin was rotten you could see some of their bones peeking through. They smelled like rotten flesh. That explains a lot. Why didn’t I think about these kinds of stuff sooner? The fight for our lives began, with the aswangs slightly getting the upper hand. I managed to cut one on its back with my knife but the wound wasn’t that deep. Just like what Cresia said, the aswang extended its tongue and licked it self healing the wound. I backed away upon seeing that I just might have made the aswang even hungrier now. The aswangs looked brainless much like zombies but they were able to circle Lacresia and me. Now back to back I had the familiar surge of energy again from when I fought the Bungisngis yesterday. I looked behind me and Lacresia was already twirling her bolo and striking an aswang at its back. She looked at me and handed me her bolo, and with skills, I didn’t know I had I evaded their attacks and strike one aswang on its back as well. The familiar smell of disintegrating flesh filled my nostrils once again. Did all monsters do this when they’re killed? It’s kind of like a monster thing now. I handed Lacresia her bolo back and she landed her final blow on the last aswang standing. Just like the other ones, it too turned into black and red smoke. Cres buried her bolo, just like what she said. While waiting for her I tried to look around for our pets. I cried Luci’s name again and this time she came. “There you are girl, where have you been?” I said while hugging her. “Were you hiding from the aswangs? Is that why you were gone? It’s fine now. Don’t you ever do that again okay?” I noticed someone from behind me it was Cresia, she was now holding a red-keeled flowerpecker. “Hi, you okay Ches?” she said. “Yep, all good,” I answered and smiled at her. I wasn’t a fortune-teller or any kind of oracle but I knew this was just the start of our new adventure. "Wanna wander around the tunnels together?" Lacresia asked hopefully. "Sure, I'd like some company" I answered. In this tunnel of uncertainties only this was for sure, from here on things are going to get even weirder.