Part 1
Laum
Under the Deck
'Bakunawa... Bakunawa...'
That was my Grandmother.
Her hoary voice echoed in my dreams. Oddly enough it sounded like a tinkling bell. She was retelling my favorite tale of the creation of Abbalon and its neighboring islands.
I used to listen to her all night while she was reciting the tales and epics of my great and proud ancestors. Even Nanang (Grandmother) was at the dawn of her long life, she utilized her remaining strength to come constantly to our small Nipa hut, which then, my little sister and I would sit in front of her listening eagerly to her stories.
The torch-lit bamboo wall was our humble background and the shadows of her hands were our improvised illustrations, the silhouettes of the horrid monsters of her tales. Those nights. I wish that I could go back to those nights. Sitting next to my sister, hearing her cheerful laugh while grandmother making a weird face. Father leaning back at the wooden doorway and Mother cuddled him behind. Both of them were looking at us. And Marikit, a pixie, wolfing down the stored fruit from the hidden food Jar. I hope I could go come back. How I wish I could.
However, the cold and the not-so-gentle rocking of the ship awakened me from my hopeful dreams and brought me back where I currently was. Every sway of this sea vessel, the sturdy corners let out a weird creaking sound.
Yes, I was here aboard inside this thing the called 'ship', a merchant ship to be exact. Bending my knees and feeling downcasted, feeling the heavy splashes of the waves through the ship's wooden wall. I lifted my eyes to glance at the squared window adjacent where I was sitting. Flashes of lights followed by thunder roars shook the glass window.
The trickles of water from the wooden floor above moved whenever the ship swayed. It was raining heavily outside. I could almost not hear anything than the eventual crackling of the thunder, the splashes of big waves and the heavy rain.
I was below the deck.
'Ah, already night, huh.'
I'd been down here for almost three days since I left my homeland. I was bitterly sulking, unexcited even when I was in my new journey towards unknown lands. For those three long days and nights, I spent inside here sleeping. Nevertheless, as I had just said, the ravaging seas and the thunder roars awoken me from my sweet dreams.
The rectangular lamps on the walls were swinging, harmonizing as the ship rocked.
"Middle of the storm, well, as I don't care if the ship sinks." I mockingly murmured not caring for others who were aboard in this thing.
Fortunately for me, I was alone in the dark. I was only with the wooden boxes that contained various goods, also come from my homeland. Perhaps the crews were busy up there outside and risking their precious lives trying hard not to let the waves swallow this ship, so thankfully one heard me. If they do, most probably they would throw me in the waters to calm the storm.
Yeah, I was alone.
Or so I thought when suddenly I was forced to remember as –
"Oh, you don't say that"
A pixie popped up in front of me holding my cheeks while staring straight to my eyes with a troubled look. The pixie was dressed in her casual blue dress with glittering tiny lights. She had wings like those of a dragonfly except it also glittered and she could fit into my hands. Her tiny pretty face had the hint of wariness. Still, I knew she was enjoying pinching my cheeks.
"Hurrah! Hurrah! Smile"
As I had said, she's Marikit, a pixie, my personal pixie.... or not?
No, I do not think so.
She is my... What can I say.... uhm, if I were a planet, she would be my satellite, my moon. That, maybe? My everlasting companion, an extension of myself, or so she had said. However, I highly doubted she was serious about saying those words.
Since I was four-years-old or so, she had been always on my side. I found her in the forest beaten and chasten out by her kind. I was lucky or maybe unlucky, as pixies, same as other elementals, were usually shy, not letting themselves to be seen by mortals, and I, for some reasons, had stumbled upon them, lots of lots them at one fateful occasion.
Marikit must have done something terrible to be cast away by her kin. I heedlessly helped her and I found myself also beaten by her colleagues too. Although they were just using mocking words and irritating small skills and magic, still, it was effective against a kid and a useless pixie. What I did back then was ridiculous. As a result, she now followed me everywhere I go, even if in Mother Nature call time. She followed me like a shadow or a tail not because she's grateful and trying to repay when I helped her out but because she is too lazy to get her own food.
That, I think she had me in her mind as her mother bird. She's only loyal to her instinct telling her 'follow your food'. Ah! Now that I thought of it, maybe she sees me as a portion of the food itself.
Yeah, somehow I got the glimpse why her colleagues chastened her out.
"Hmm?" My eyebrows rose as I made a quick glance at her cute face.
"You had promised to Papang (Father) and Nanang (grandma)" She paused and pinched further my cheeks from her grip. "You promise to stay alive no matter what happens, right?" She flew a little step back and spun into the mid-air.
"Ouch... it hurts. All right, all right,"
'Did I just make some promises like that'
As I far as I could recall, the last time I saw Nanang, she was telling me to enjoy life and learn more. There was not a word about keeping my life, was there?
All I had thought all of this time was 'I am supposed to be the next Rajah. All my life, I have been forging myself to be the next. Yet, why I am here? Why I am going away to the place that I will be leading someday?'
I knew that there's a big possibility that I could not return to my homeland again.
Ever since I had come on this ship, the sun had not shown itself. It was as if the nights would go on forever and now was the ultimatum as the ship had been fighting and striving for an hour now before a ravaging storm.
Yet, this pixie had convinced me to live for the reason -
"Besides, I'll starve to death if you'll be gone. So my Laum must live, okay?" She smiled at me while flipping her glowing wings.
"Heh..."
Just as I thought. This pixie, if not only for the years she had been with me, I had definitely already used her as a bait to lure some magical beast or sold her out to some Babaylan shamans.
"Okay?" She pinched my cheeks again.
The Dutch Door leading up to the deck above opened, followed by silhouette and footsteps walking down from the wooden stairs. The hush of harsh wind and heavy rain entered the dark room. Holding a lamp and a wooden basket, an Old Man walked to my direction.
"Marikit, someone's coming"
Without a second thought, she went hiding in my sling bag made from colorful weaves laying next on my right side.
The Old Man stood at my front. He was drenched. He was in a light brown vest. Under was his soaked dirty white long-sleeved shirt. Long pants below were thick and brown. He has his rapier on his left side.
His old eyes laid down on me.
"Here, wear this. Must be cold wearing nothing but that" I looked at the basket as the old man pointed. It had a brown furred jacket "Under this, your food"
That explains the cold, I guess. I was currently wearing my 'Bahag', a stripped clothes wrapped around my waist passing between my legs, and my upper ethnic clothes which were a collarless, sleeveless jacket whose length only reached my upper waist. The color of my clothes was dirty white with a zigzag design of red, which indicates my status in our society, a son of Rajah.
"...."
"It would be a problem if you die in this cold" His voice was slightly on the husky side.
As he said that, he turned his back and clambered the stares again then closed the doors. His shadows disappeared after closing the doors.
The pixie immediately popped her head from my sling bag.
"Ney, My Laum, who's that?" She looked up at me while gnawing innocently the fruits from my bag.
"Beats me...Why you?"
'Aaaah~, what I should do to you? Why should you worry about my life when you are eating my entire lifeline?'
Or, why should I worry about my lifeline if I do not care about my life anymore?
I tried to grab her but she was sneaky enough. I let out a defeated sigh as I saw all the fruits were gone. However, she must still have a little conscience as she offered me the fruit she was gnawing.
"Here"
"No, thanks, just finish it already"
I Sighed.
"Is that so?" She smiled hearing me.
The rocking of the ship was still ongoing. The concert of the thunder roars and the splashes of the big waves continued. From time to time, I could hear the yelling above. The crews were too lively since the ship was on the brink of sinking.
"Marikit"
I called her with a voice enough to make her stop and look on my way.
"Yes?" She answered after finishing the fruit.
"You must not be seen by the other, okay?"
"I know, you don't have to worry or jealous... Jeez... even someone will offer me food and ask me to be theirs, I won't accept their offer. I am always yours, Laum." Her smile beamed with a smudge on her cheeks.
"It's not like that"
"Jeez. You're not so being honest sometimes, you know, but Roger that"
"As I said, it's not that!"
She went hiding to my bag again laughing on her tiny voice while her head left peeping at me. I looked at her, and then she replied with a smile again.
"You must live, okay?" She mischievously whispered as if she was just playing jokes with me.
Joking aside, knowing the way she smiled back at me, I bet she knew what I meant.
Pixies and alike can be sold at a high price for they have many uses in terms of magical and medicinal means. Babaylan shamans use pixies to summon high-level spirits and as a reagent for high-graded potions. Some use pixie's dust to detect invisible things and spirits. That went without saying that Marikit must not let herself be seen by anyone.
I softly patted her little head with her sky blue short hair. While I was doing so, she tilted her head.
"Creepy, don't smile at me like that, Laum."
"Okay, okay"
I just had lost my appetite to pat her.
"...."
"Ney, Marikit, Don't eat all the food at the basket, okay?"
"AH!..hehe... About that" She smiled wryly while lowering her head and hid in the sling bag again like a snail in her shell house.
"Don't tell me...." I hurriedly grabbed the jacket and witnessed there was no food in the basket. "Aaaah! Marikit!"
She immediately flew out of my bag. She prostrated herself before me, bowing.
"I'm so sorry, kind-hearted Laum. I was just... a little bit hungry. Forgive me!"
I sighed again. There's nothing I could do now since she had eaten all my provision.
She was still bowing and hitting her head on the floor.
"That's enough. I'm even not hungry."
"A-are you sure? You forgive me already?"
I nodded.
"Yay! But Jeez... I don't really want it when you're angry, Laum."
"You're always the one who makes me do."
She laughed. "I guess, that's true."
I guess it's okay if she always does. At least it made me remember I am not alone. That I still have her.
She flipped her wings and landed on my shoulders.
"We're going far from home, Laum. But I will be with you."
"Yes, we are."
"We'll witness new things and learn different things. We will go to different places and make new adventures. Perhaps we'll make new friends."
"Perhaps..."
"Once we return home, we will tell Nanang about travels, right?"
I turned at her. Returning home will be very difficult for us especially in my circumstances. I fell in silence.
"We'll come back home, right?" She paused, waiting for me to answer. "Right, Laum?"
I could not answer her. But somehow it made me think. I never thought of returning home because of my circumstance. But if I return home, what would my Father say? If I return home, will I still be next Rajah?
But I haven't proved anything yet worthy to become a Rajah.
Perhaps, I could use this chance to prove myself. Why I haven't think about that?
I was so in despair on what happened to me, on my Father's decision.
But I should not spend my time sulking. Instead, I should make this as an opportunity to prove my own. Looking at the tradition, the next-in-line Rajah should be gone into a journey to a faraway place and accomplish something great to name himself worthy as a new leader of his people. This could be it. This is for me.
I should learn new things from now on.
"Right, Laum?" She asked once more.
I smiled. "Of course, we are, Marikit. We'll be coming home someday. And at that time, I will be a worthy man to be the Rajah of our village."
"Hmm! Right!"
"But now, let's prepare ourselves and head to the west."
"I'm always prepared. Jeez." She puffed her cheeks like she heard me kidding at her.
Seeing her like pouting, I laughed a small one. Eventually, she joined me too.
"So, it's decided then"
"Yeah, it's decided, Marikit. Let's survive this and get my Rajah-hood"