"... Uncle," uttered with a hesitant voice, "aren't you a man?"
The question from the boy sitting on his shoulders startled Mayari. "O-of course!" he said as if offended. "Why are you questioning my manliness?!"
"But why do you let Sister Tala pay for our food?" This made the man speechless. "And I thought you are the owner of the Sikat Troupe. You even tried to run away from paying. My father said that the man of the house should support and follow the woman so my mother was always the one in charge in our house while father works hard to provide for us."
The laughter from beside them made even the passersby stop. Meanwhile, the somewhat innocent barrage of words from the boy further bewildered the man.
Immediately, Mayari defended his actions to the child. "I left my things with the troupe. Since I own the troupe, what Tala used was actually mine."
This was really not what the boy wanted to ask. Ling already knew that other clans pay using some precious stones aside from exchanging goods like the Mal'it Clan because it would be difficult for one to carry goods for trade while walking around. What Tala used to pay was a kind of shell mined on coastal towns.
However, the boy was still thinking of asking his supposed question. This time he wanted to ask what he hesitated to say a while ago.
While walking, the two adults were talking about a problem with their troupe's family in the central island. Suddenly, a softer voice compared to before came from the boy again.
"Uncle, are dragons bad?"
Confused about where the question came from, Mayari stopped walking again. Meanwhile, Tala thought of the troupe's performance that the boy had seen.
"Maybe it was because of the show we had that night when you were still with your clan?" she said at she smiled at Ling.
"Mmm-mm," the boy silently mumbled while nodding.
"Oh, I forgot that was usually part of the troupe's ending show. Was it too scary for you?"
Since the Ling was not replying, Mayari figured he had hurt the little boy's pride. Mayari explained a little to make up for that, "Dragons are rare. Nobody I met can actually give a detailed recounting of any dragon stories. That was why most circulating stories were only speculations with what others heard or imagined. Same with what our troupe performs.
"However, there were more legends here in Kanan Island because some dragon tales happened in the Limaw Sea and it was rumored that Kal'wa Island, the island in this sea have clans who worship dragons as gods. The old man we were going to talk to has more stories so let's go find him."
Soon, they were walking again but it was Mayari who brought up another question. "Now I have a question for you, Ling." As gratitude for answering his question earlier seroiusly, Ling became attentive. "Why do you call me 'uncle' and call Tala 'sister'?"
Ling then answered seriously too, "Because you look like an uncle! Sister Tala looked like a princess but she told me I don't have to call her that since she was only a princess onstage." The determined tone made Mayari grimace and he glowered at the laughing Tala beside them.
After a few minutes of walking, they reached the island's coastline where the old man frequently fish. As it was nearing noon, they found some fishermen dragging their boats to shore to take their lunch but Mayari did not see a familiar figure among them.
According to the fishermen they talked to, the old man who usually joins them to fish left earlier, saying that he will go to the nearby cliff to continue fishing. The two then walked some more but, when they reached the top of the cliff, there was only a small bag together with fishing tools and a bucket full of fish in the area.
Ling already got down from the top of Mayari's shoulders so he went near the bucket to look at the fishes while the adults looked around. These fishes were smaller than what Ling had seen so far but their teeth were sharper and their movements were fiercer, with some fishes already eaten by the others.
'Why put these fishes together in one bucket if, a while after, you will lose some of your hard worked catches?' His thought was interrupted when he sensed something on the edge of the cliff.
Not sensing anything themselves, the two adults were talking if they should go back down to ask the fishermen once again if they saw the old man. It might be that the others just getting to shore saw him.
"Sister Tala, there was someone climbing below the cliff!" Ling shouted to inform the adults.
Mayari's confusion turned to surprise when, after a few minutes, a hand grabbed the edge of the cliff. This was followed by a head of white hair, then the dark face and body of an old man used to spending his time under the sun.
"Hmm.. You two are too weak. It was only the boy who sensed my presence. You're strong, kid." The old man rubbed the head of the small boy as praise then sat down to organize his things. He raised an eyebrow at Mayari. "What do you need, kid?"
This so-called 'kid' frowned by this address but answered, "We just want to borrow a boat to sail back to Dag'at Port. You know a lot of people here, anyway. But were you actually hiding from us, old man?"
Looking up fully, the old man didn't answer the question but asked his own, "Don't you have your own troupe's boat? That was bigger than any of mine for sailing for days."
"Hmm-mm. But the troupe has to go back to the town in Gitna because of some issues with the clan who was taking our family in. They will have to use that to go back."
A little confused by that explanation, Tala asked her own question to Mayari, "How about you? Weren't you going back too? Ling and I can just join a boat sailing back." She bowed to the old man. "We wouldn't be able to find someone we can trust with only me and the child travelling so we would like to ask for your help."
Before the old man could answer this sweet request from the beautiful girl, the big 'kid' talked again, "The problem back home was boring so I'll let Wagub handle it. Besides, it's better if I'm with you for protection."
The negotiations were done quickly despite the old man's urge to deny to help Mayari. But, since he could not let the woman and child suffer too, he gave in. After they were done talking, the group proceeded to walk back to the port, the three to prepare their things while the old man to talk to his trusted sailors.
"Oh, yeah, old man, this kid wants to hear your story on dragons." Mayari inquired as they were walking down the hill.
This statement coming from Mayari again made the old man frown. However, when he turned to Ling, the look he gave seemed like he understood something, then he told a story.
___
The dragon stories in these parts always happened either in the Limaw Sea or Kal'wa Island. The Limaw Sea was not a frequent route of any ships sailing since there were a lot of storms which resulted to deaths that occurred there.
The 'haze' in the area had formed a fog that disrupts the view of the nearby islands, thereby, making it unpassable. Those brave enough to go near the foggy area swore that they had seen dragons flying or swimming around.
One often told story was about an island that gad encountered a series of tsunamis and storms for a long time. Some were dying because of the calamities while some because of hunger since their livelihoods were destroyed by these same calamities.
The people thought of sending a young virgin girl to the sea to placate the gods. Once the girl was sent out during another fierce storm, a large shadow engulfed the view until only the remains of the boat where the girl was sailing in was found.
The events were too fast for the people to be sure of what exactly happened but what a witness told was that something flying in the sky swooped down the water. It covered an incoming wave then flew up again, leaving boat destroyed witj the girl missing. After that, the island suffered no calamities for hundreds of years.
___
Late into the night, onboard a boat sailing back to Pulo Isles, to the island where his home was, a little boy was asleep, dreaming about dragons again.