The scent of dust lingering from the ancient structure, the whistling of trees as the wind passes by, and an intense stare from both parties. These are the components of the reconciliation of Ezekiel and Bagani.
"You got to be kidding me." Ezekiel trembled as he saw Bagani.
"You... You're the guy I met in the forest. You don't look that great, are you okay?" Bagani greeted Ezekiel and asked him in a worried tone afterward.
"Don't get any closer! I'm not falling for your tricks freak!" Ezekiel aggressively threatened in fright.
"I don't mean no harm. That guy you dropped, he's severely injured." Bagani quickly noticed James.
"I said stay back!" Ezekiel dreaded with no consideration on his fallen ally.
"We got no time to argue here, he's dying!" Bagani yelled at Ezekiel to talk some sense into the foolish action of the individual.
"Tsk. No matter how I look at it he's right, but what if its a trap? Damn it." Ezekiel irritatedly thought to himself. He sucked up his fear and pride and decided to unite with Bagani. "Okay, I'll work with you. What's the plan?" He asked.
"Village Magbato is too far, we should get him inside the temple." Bagani swiftly acted.
The two tried to push the gigantic open, but to no avail did it even budge. The smell of smoke suddenly encircled around the surrounding, above a tree near the temple fell small embers.
"Hey, tell me I'm not the only one seeing that." Ezekiel alarmed Bagani as he saw the burning embers.
Without any reason whatsoever, the huge gate opened in front of the two widely. This led to Bagani neglecting the fumes of burning wood and Ezekiel's warning.
"Help me get him inside, there might be something we can use inside to patch up his wounds." Bagani ordered. Ezekiel quickly followed and took their fallen inside the building.
The establishment had a humongous empty lobby with an artistically designed cobblestone floor, it had an abundance of pathways leading to multiple rooms, there were also trees blooming edible fruits on the empty corners, and pillars huge pillars were everywhere as well. The interior was cleansed, it was spotless to the last molecule of dust. This struck suspicion to the two.
"Someone lives here." Bagani and Ezekiel thought to themselves.
"It's a trap." Ezekiel informed.
"Yeah I sensed that as well, but first we should cover up your friend." Bagani replied as he struggled to not panic. "Grab those papaya fruits and crush them.
Ezekiel quickly followed and the two applied the mashed fruit into James's cut, they also ripped a piece of their clothing, tied it up altogether, and further bandaged the injured guy. All of a sudden as soon as they finished, an ear-splitting stomp startled Ezekiel and Bagani from behind. The two were petrified as they saw a 9 feet tall muscular creature with eyes glowing like burning charcoal, it had the same scent as the embers Ezekiel noticed earlier. It had very dark skin, a curly and unkempt hair, and a shirtless upper body but it wore clothing on its bottom half. The colossal beast tried to grab both of them along with James.
"Scram!" Ezekiel screamed.
They both ran in opposite directions from the other and dodged the being's grab, Bagani threw James at another corner to prevent him from being taken as well. Ezekiel grabbed random fruits from trees, he then forcefully threw it one by one at the giant as a distraction. "Come on you blue-skinned brute do something!" Ezekiel whispered.
Bagani then snatched the sharpest branches from the trees around him, he charged at the back of the behemoth and stabbed its behind with the razor twigs. The giant didn't even flinch, it instantly noticed Bagani and flicked him with its humungous fingers. Bagani flew to a wall and hit his head which drove him unconscious. Meanwhile, Ezekiel keeps relentlessly throwing picked fruits to the colossus, the creature then once again stomped its foot, this time it not only deafened Ezekiel but also controlled the cobblestone tiles near Ezekiel to rise and uppercut the young boy which led him knocked out.
"What happened?" Bagani woke in a daze, his vision was spinning continuously. He was in a lightened room, feet covered in a blanket, a warm rag to lie on. He got frightened as he looked forward, to see the dark-skinned giant sitting in front of him, Ezekiel was senseless lying beside him. "Wake-!"
"Don't even try." The giant spoke in a deep voice, puffs of smoke exiting his mouth as whenever he talked. He didn't even lend an eye towards Bagani and only looked at the doorway. "Let your friend rest Asulhero." He then exited the room, strolling easily without a care in the world.
Bagani froze in shock as the massive creature spoke, Ezekiel shortly woke up afterward and Bagani explained the whole situation in an enlivened tone.
"The heck are you talking about? Where is he? Why are we still alive? Where's James?" Numerous questions began to spout out of Ezekiel as he woke up.
"He might not be dangerous, I mean we're the ones that invaded his home. " Bagani suggested.
"We still need to find James, that guy will die." Ezekiel stated.
The two raced outside the room, they once again found the stone lobby. The giant was on top of a tree in a corner smoking on what looks like a cigarette. It pointed to a room without any questions from either Ezekiel or Bagani. The two got the hint and rushed to the said space. To their relief, James was resting on a bed unscathed by the giant, his wound was cleaned and he looked substantially better.
"I told you he might not be that bad." Bagani surely uttered. They then exited the room to talk to the colossus.
"Why didn't you eat us?" Ezekiel queried.
"I'm not a savage kid. I don't eat humans." The creature replied. Once again not paying attention to where the two were at.
"Y-you know what I am?" Ezekiel stuttered in surprise.
The being raised an eyebrow and then asked the boy. "Are people that uneducated these days? You call yourselves the smartest creatures and you're that uninformed." He teased. "And you Asulhero how did you even manage to get here? You're supposed to be extinct by now."
Bagani clenched his fist in frustration of the 'Asulhero' thing. He then furiously asked."What am I exactly?! What the heck is an Asulhero?! I'm Bagani stop calling me that!" He screamed.
Ezekiel saw the tension of his newly met comrade, he asked the behemoth to break the tension. "How about you what are you?"
A long silence was present within the air as Ezekiel asked, the giant jumped down of the tree causing the ground to shake and made a loud bang. "Call me Bulawan." He then sat down at the ground and questioned Ezekiel. "My time to ask. Why are you here?"
Ezekiel gulped his spit in distress and answered honestly. "I want to learn how to kill an Aswang!"
Bulawan let out a dramatized laugh as he heard Ezekiel's answer. "How about you kid why are you here?" He then asked Bagani.
"My parents told me to come here, they gave me a map to find the place." again replied.
Bulawan laughed even harder. "He doesn't even have a purpose!"
Bagani finally snapped. "Listen here you bastard! Luz died to make me reach this place! I'll slit your throat if you keep talking crap about why I got here!" He screamed in anger, huffing air with every wail.
Bulawan finally batted an eye to Bagani and company, his legs got weak and wobbled as he stared at the Eye of Bathala. "You don't say..." He muttered.
Bagani swallowed his pride kneeled, Ezekiel did the same afterwards as a sign of respect.
"Please teach us!"