“Other world…?” I gazed up the three moons up the sky. “First the kapre, then the creepy woods, not to mention the three moons… Isn’t this just a dream? Hey – Oww!!!” Andres pinched my right cheek hard as he wore a blank look on his face.

“I’m sorry to say that this isn’t just a lucid dream.” Andres spoke. “It’s as real as the pain you’re feeling.”

“Wait, so… This is reality?” I felt my knees turn into jelly and I almost fell when his arms supported my weight. He asked if I was alright and I barely nodded.

“Take a seat and rest up for a bit; maybe fatigue’s also getting to you.” He gestured towards a big rock and assisted me in walking towards it. “So you can’t really remember, huh? I knew something was up when you acted like that years ago.”

“What are you talking about?” I slowly sat down and stretched my legs.

“They say that the human race almost became extinct during the olden times so Bathala tried to maintain the balance and created a similar world to ours as a place for the mysterious creatures to live in. There are times when some of them manage to cross to our side to do harm because they felt that Bathala favors humans excessively; while others would go to our world as part of their stewardly duties. There are times though, when it goes the other way around – when humans stumble upon their world. Just like our situation right now.”

I felt my vision blacken for a bit as cold sweat seemed to run down my face. Is he speaking of the truth? At this point, it appears I don’t have much of a choice other than believing his explanations.

“One notable difference between the worlds aside from their inhabitants would be the number of moons. In our world, as you know, we only have one moon going out the night sky since the enormous water serpent, Bakunawa, already ate six.” It appeared that there was a slight twinkle in his eyes as he continued to speak. “Even before it could eat the seventh one, Bathala advised the people to bang their pots and make noises so that they can trick the moon devourer to go back to the bottom of the seas. This led to Bakunawa to stop targeting the last moon in our world. And because there are no humans upholding that tradition here, Bakunawa kept on eating them and upon feasting on the last one, all seven moons are vomited back into the sky.”

“That’s just nasty, where did the sky or the moon ever did to Bakunawa?” I rhetorically asked.

“Who knows, that’s another story, I suppose.”

“But, assuming that everything you’re saying and everything that’s happening is real, how is that related to us being stuck in this world and how can we get home?” I threw him another question.

“The moons indicate a ticking bomb, well, a deadline; one that if we are not able to meet would mean that we might get stuck here forever.”

“I – I don’t want to get stuck here forever!” My voice was shaky. I haven’t even been here for thirty minutes but I already feel like anything could just pop out and kill me at any time. My trembling hands found his shoulders and shook him, “Please. Tell me you have a plan.”

“We’ll do something about it. We’ll find a way to get back home again.” He looked up the sky and gazed at those silver orbs. There was finality in his tone at first, but the last part showed a subtle vulnerability or perhaps feelings of uncertainty.

Andres’ eyebrows met before he looked at me and smiled, “I’m sure we will be able to do so, after all, we’ve done it before.”

“When Bakunawa eats the last moon and you have yet to leave this world, you will forever inhabit these difficult lands.”

A soothing voice played in my head like a beautiful melody. For reasons unknown to me, I could just tell that it was a message to us by the goddess Tala when we first arrived in this world as kids.

Although the face she had was unfortunately blurred out by the unreliable memories of mine, I feel that she has been a burning brightness of hope in our previous journeys in the dark.

Somehow, I felt a little better despite still being a worrywart altogether.

After the quick break, we continued walking towards the moons as we passed through the forest. It wasn’t long after that when we heard a baby cry in the middle of the night.

I wondered how a baby would be lost in the woods at this time. However, one look at Andres’ face made me understand what was going on.

It was probably a trick of those hiding in the darkness so they can lure their prey before catching them.

We silently agreed to avoid the direction where the cries came from by continuing with the path we were taking.

As the night continued to lose its youth, my legs began to tremble with tiredness and my throat just begged to be watered down nicely.

I wonder what ordeals should we face and be successful in so we can go home.