2 Chapter 1 - Into the seas

Part 1

That was my Grandmother.

Her hoary voice echoed a tinkling bell in my dream and retelling my favorite tale of the creation of Abbalon and its neighboring islands. The cold and the not so gentle rocking of the ship awakened my slumber and brought me back where I currently was. Every sway of this sea vessel, the sturdy corners let out a weird creaking sound.

Aaah, I used to listen to her all night while she was reciting 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 of the silhouettes of the horrid monsters of her tales. Those nights. I wished that I could come 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 come back. How I wish I could.

Yet, 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 splash of the waves through the ship's wooden wall. I lifted my eyes to glance the squared window adjacent where I was sitting. Flashes of lights followed by thunder roars shook the glass window.

I was below the deck.

Ah, already night, huh.

I'd been here for almost three day since I left my homeland. I was sulking inside, unexcited even when I was in my new journey towards unknown lands. For that 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, 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 together with wooden boxes that contained various goods also 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 troubled look. The pixie was dressed with her casual blue dress with glittering tiny lights. She had wings like those of a dragonfly except it also glittered and she could fit in my hands. Her tiny pretty face had the hint of wariness while she was enjoying pinching my cheeks.

"Hurrah! Hurrah! Smile"

As I had said, she was Marikit, a pixie, my personal pixie…. or not?

No, I do not think so.

She was 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 kinds. 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 faithful occasion.

Marikit must have done something terrible to be casted away by her kin. I heedlessly helped her and together, I found myself beaten by her colleagues too. Although they were just using mocking words and irritating small skills and magic, but still, it was effective against a kid and a useless pixie. What I did was stupid back then, by which, as a result, she followed me everywhere I go, even if in Mother Nature call time. She followed me like a shadow or a tail not because she was grateful and trying to repay when I helped her out but because she was too lazy to get her valued food.

That, I think she had me in her mind as her mother bird. She only loyal to her instinct telling her 'follow your food'. Ah! Now that I thought of it, maybe she saw me as a food itself.

Yeah, somehow I got the reason she was chasten out by her colleagues.

"Hmm?" My eyebrows rose as I made a quick glance on her pretty, cute face.

"You had promised to Papang (Father) and Nanang (grandma)" she paused and dropped my cheeks from her grip. "You promise to stay alive no matter what happen, right?" She flew a little step back and spun into the mid-air.

"All right, all right, stop pinching my – "

Did I just make some promise 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 not keeping my life, was there? While she was speaking those caring words, all I had thought was 'I am supposed to be the next. All my life, I have been forging myself to be the next.' Yet –

Ever since I had come on this ship, the sun had not showed 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.

However, this pixie had convinced me to live for the reason -

"Beside, I'll starve to death if you're gone. So my Laum must live, okay?" She smiled at me while flipping her glowing wings.

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 chicks harder but she let go.

"Marikit, someone's coming"

Without a second thought, she went hiding herself in my sling bag made from colorful weaves laying next on my right side.

The Dutch door 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.

"Here, wear this. Must be cold wearing nothing but that" I looked at the basket as he pointed. It had brown furred jacket "Under this, your food"

That's explain the cold, I guess, as I was currently wearing my 'Bahag', a stripped clothes wrapped around my waist passing between my legs, and my upper ethnic clothes which was a collarless sleeveless jacket whose length reached at my upper waist. The color of my clothes was dirty white with a zigzag design of red, which indicated my status in our society, a son of Rajah.

"…."

"It would be a problem if you die in this cold"

As he said that, he turned his back and clambered the stares again then closed the doors. After his shadows disappeared after closing the door, the pixie immediately popped her head from my sling bag.

"Ney, My Laum, who was that?" She looked up at me while gnawing innocently the fruits from my bag.

"Beats me….Why you?"

Aaah~, what I should do to you? Why should you worry about my life when you finished my entire lifeline?

Or, why should I worry about my lifeline if I do not care about my life anymore?

I tried to grabbed her but she was sneaky enough predicting my every move, which leaded me to let out a defeated sign as I saw all fruits were gone. She must have a little conscience as she offered me the fruit she was gnawing.

"No, thanks, just finish it already"

Sigh.

"Is that so?"

She smiled at me as she heard that.

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 extinction.

"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…Hmm... ' Coz I am always yours" her smile beamed with a smudge cheeks.

"It's not like that"

"You're not so honest sometimes, you know, but Roger that"

"Like I said, it's not that!"

She went hiding to my bag again while her head left peeping at me. I looked at her, and then she replied with a smile again.

Ah, what a lovely smile this creature had.

Joking aside, knowing the way she smiled back at me, I bet she knew what I meant. Pixies and alike could be sold in high price for they had many uses in terms of magical and medicinal means. Babaylan shamans used pixies to summon high-level spirits and as a reagent for high-graded potions. Some used pixie's dust to detect invisible things and spirits. That went without saying that Marikit must not let herself to be seen in the public eyes.

I softly patted her little head with her blue-green short hair. While I was doing so, she tilted her head.

"Creepy, don't smile at me like that"

"Okay, okay"

"…."

"Ney, Marikit, Don't eat all the food at the basket, okay?"

"AH!.. hehe.. About that" She smiled wryly at me while lowering her head and hid herself 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 there. "AaaaaaH!"

Ah, Nevermind. Maybe, as long as you are here, I could not care less about the food.

As long as you're here, I could carry on in this unknowable journey of mine.

As long as you're here, I could keep my promise to them.

Seeing her smile, I decided to look forward. I decided to endure all of this until I step the sands of our homeland again.

Together, we will be home again.