Eternal Promise: Fragments Of Us

SIDAPA

IT WAS burning hot. It was in the middle of the day and here I was flooded with new souls.

“Why did it have to happen now?” I asked myself in exhaustion. “Is it mating season or something?” I tried cracking a joke, but it was awfully lame.

I now found it awkward talking to myself like this since Libulan became part of my life. At first, his presence was annoying. He was a pesky little one, too. I called him ‘little’ because he was literally short for someone who was a God. He was only 5 feet and 5 inches tall, and a total klutz. I also discovered that he wasn’t a fan of anything scary. He revealed to me that when we first met, he thought that I was going to eat him alive, or lock him up somewhere. Before, I felt offended by those kinds of first impressions, but Libulan was so honest about it that it only proved how purehearted he was. It didn’t stop him from interacting with me.

“Sidapa!” I flinched when I heard Agui’s voice. His sudden visit only meant one thing.

?The festival!」 I exclaimed inside my mind. I totally forgot about Agui!

“Why are you here?!” I half yelled at him. That came out wrong.

“Huh?!” Agui raised an eyebrow, and a large vein protruded on his right temple. “What do you mean by that?! Today’s the festival, right?! So I’m here, duh!”

It might sound that Agui was angry, but this was his normal way of speaking. He was always hyperactive and couldn’t contain his emotions, so one would think that he was always shouting.

I sighed, and continued sorting out the new arrivals. “Right,” I said in defeat, and let out another sigh.

?Wait! Why am I so disappointed that Agui is here?!」 I thought as I gasped in shock, shocked of myself.

Agui walked around. I wasn’t facing him so he must be busy eyeing the area. “You still live on this mountain!?” he asked. I could feel the disgust in his tone. “This place is pretty boring, Sidapa!” he commented.

“You don’t need to tell me,” I retorted. “Mortals don’t come here so it’s the perfect place for me to do my job,” I defended.

“Boring!” he exclaimed, then I heard a crackling sound. He probably unleashed his fire powers. “You should interact with the humans! They are fun creatures, Sidapa!” He encouraged me, but I wasn’t a bit interested.

“Leave me alone, Agui,” I said in a low voice.

“Huh?!” he reacted. Even if I was a little farther away from him, I could feel his temperature rise. He was agitated. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Stop that. There’s a lot of trees here. You’re going to ignite a forest fire,” I told him, but Agui was a short-tempered guy to begin with. Talking out to him was pointless and a waste of energy.

“Hey, has anyone told you that you have quite an attitude?” Agui asked in an insulting tone. The sound of his fire got louder by each second, and he stopped shouting his words. That was a sign that he was pissed off already.

“No. And I don’t care. If you’re just going to create a commotion, then get lost,” I retaliated. I could imagine the veins on his temples protrude again.

“Sidapa! You insolent oaf! I challenge you to a fight!” Agui declared. He was brimming with confidence. When I faced him, most of his body was already covered in fire.

I found it so childish of Agui. If he disliked the likes of me then why did he bother talking to me all this time? He could have just headed out right to the village if it was the festival he was after.

?And this is why I told Libulan that Gods were not perfect beings. Agui is one perfect example,」 I sarcastically thought.

“Go home, Agui.” I tried to stay calm, as much as possible. Violence would only bring chaos.

“Not until I beat you!” he insisted.

?What a load of crap,」 I thought while giving Agui a bored look.

Agui’s fire grew larger. That amount of fire was enough to burn plants nearby. This forest was densely surrounded by large trees. If he was to burn a single one of them, the fire could spread in no time – not to mention that the weather today was burning hot, too!

“Agui, stop it! You’re going to attract attention!” I shouted at him, but he ignored me.

“I’m going to burn down everything in my sight if you don’t fight me head on!” he threatened. “And your tree is going down first!”

I snapped. Agui was taken aback when a clump of black smoke swallowed both of us, trapping us inside. Fear slowly engulfed the raged God of Fire when he realized that he had nowhere to escape. I closed in towards him. My eyes glowed white and I released a brooding black aura all around me. Agui knew it was me telling him that he was facing death itself. He cowered in fear as his glorious fire died out.

“What did you say?” I asked him. I was still in my semi-human and semi-God form, but Agui could feel my tremendous power weighing down on him. It was suffocating him. “Try burning it now and let’s see whose head will come off first,” I challenged him, but overflowing confidence already left his body.

Agui backed a few meters away from me. He trembled, and his knees were shaking. I almost laughed when I saw the look of fear on his face. It was hilarious to think that another God cowered when they witnessed my true colors.

“I’m going to get you for this, Sidapa!” Agui said to me, pointed a finger at me before running like a complete coward. He jumped off the cliff to escape, but I had a feeling that he still planned to go to the village.

“They’re already cooking the boar,” I said to myself when I smelled the aroma of the roasted meat.

I went back to my tree and continued my disrupted progress.

EVENING came. I finished just in time. A few died today, but most of them ended in the afterlife.

“Did I make it?!” I almost fell off my tree when Libulan popped out of nowhere, haggard and a little disoriented.

“Libulan? What happened to you?” I asked in awe, and came down by jumping directly to the ground. It created a loud thud, and small animals nearby ran in fear and hid somewhere safe when they saw me.

?Even animals can sense the danger in me. So why can’t Libulan?」 I wondered as I looked at the clueless Moon Deity.

I didn’t become the God of Death just to deliver some cringe nonsense to be laughed at. In this physical world, I was the symbol of fear and the epitome of death. My looks weren’t just for show. I was meant to look hideous so I could bring out the negative sides of mortals. A human heart’s desire was the most fragile thing to deal with. If you inflicted it with the tiniest bit of fear, they could transform into something unimaginable.

But fear could also become a weapon. Humans that were exposed in years of fear sometimes developed a type of coping mechanism. It strengthened their will to live and fought for justice for those who couldn’t acquire them.

“Is the festival already over?” he asked and totally ignored my question earlier.

“It hasn’t started yet but it will begin soon,” I informed him, and Libulan was relieved. “What happened to you anyway? You look like you are in a hurry,” I noticed, and he flinched.

“N-Nothing.” It was obviously a lie. He didn’t look in my eyes when he replied and he was anxious. Something definitely happened!

I came closer to Libulan then I gently lifted several strands of his hair and rubbed my thumb against it. “Your hair’s still wet. Did you fall into a lake or something?” I asked. My eyes went down on his clothes. They were dry. Did he perhaps take a bath before coming here?

“It’s Bakunawa,” he softly uttered. “He tried to eat me again. It was so close because he bit the tip of my robe and I fell into the sea,” he explained.

“But your clothes are dry,” I pointed out.

“I managed to escape and came home to change them,” he said. “I really thought I won’t make it to the festival,” he added.

“I see. But you look like you just cried,” I noticed again. Libulan’s eyes were swollen. “Did you have a fight with someone?”

?I knew it!」 I exclaimed in my mind when Libulan flinched.

“How can you tell?” he asked in a low voice, and slightly lowered his head. He probably felt shy when I saw him in this state.

“You said you were supposed to be up there tonight. Did one of your brothers scold you for skipping?” I asked. Libulan nodded faintly.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “It was Likabutan, our eldest, that gave me a good scolding for always going out without telling anyone. He was furious because they didn’t know where I went for the past few days,” he explained.

“You’re right. Today makes it two weeks in a row,” I said. “So you mean, you’ve been going here every night in secret?”

He nodded again and felt ashamed. “I mean, even if I told them they won’t believe me and they might even forbid me to go here. I don’t want that,” he defended.

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Why?!” he squealed in disbelief. “Because I like being with you!” he yelled. When Libulan realized that his statement sounded more like a confession than a mere excuse, he gasped in regret and ran off in utter embarrassment.