"Come here, you little monster. Your end is near." He said, challenging the Beast which swung uncontrollably.

Teased, the Monster screamed angrily while opening his wings, which it used to blow, with brutal power, a sandy wind.

Babida and his war comrades were sent into the air spinning, then they landed painfully on the surface of the ground. Some of them died on the spot. Their weapons were spread all over the combat zone.

Lain and hurt, Babida was looking up at the sky. His axe was a hundred meters away from him. He felt like his days were numbered. He expressed his last wishes.

"I wished our ancestors, gods of the Batang people would lend me their superpowers so I can defeat the Monster and in return, I promise to let them harness my plot of land for the next ten years as I will leave," Babida vowed.

As he was done mentioning the name of the ancestors, a voice that he only could hear, enjoined him loudly: "Babida, Babida! Rise and go pick up your weapon! Your wishes have been accepted."

A shooting star fell from the sky, rolled around Babida to cure his wounds, and then evaporated.

In the greatest shape of his lifetime, the seventeen-year-old boy stood back on his feet. The Monster was still yelling but he wasn't intimidated. He sprinted to grab his axe and threw it with incredible strength and accuracy on the leg of the giant bird.

Bingo! The Beast was hit and blood burst out diffusely. The animal went wild, swirling like a tornado in the direction of the inner village. It lost its balance, destroying everything on its path, and crashed into a home.

"Annaaaa, Suzieeee!" A man shouted while running toward the location where the Monster had fallen. It was Bibi, Suzie's uncle. He raced as fast as he could but tripped over a stone and sprained his left ankle. He stayed on the ground, sobbing.

Babida began to run as well, as voices emerged beneath the enormous injured bird.

"Help! Help! Bibi, we are stuck in the cave." Anna cried out while three-year-old Suzie burst into tears.

The Monster was moaning. Then Babida came up to its level, stood over it, and with an air of superiority declared: "Die, you, bird of ill omen!".

Then he snatched his axe from the Beast's leg and extended his two hands in the air.

Lastly, he directed with unprecedented brutality the blade of his axe on the animal's long neck and the Monster pushed his last breath.

"Hurra! Hurra! We are safe. The Monster of the forbidden mountain is no more. It has succumbed to the sharp blade of our valiant defender." Uncle Bibi intoned despite the pain from his bruises. And the crowd which flocked to the place repeated the slogan after him.

Babida had just killed the villain and people were euphorically celebrating his prowess. But he urged them to first help him pull away the Beast. There were two persons enclosed in the cave whose exit was blocked by the fallen Monster.

Anna got out holding in her hands a sleeping three-year-old Suzie. She thanked Babida and the rest of her rescuers, then walked to the position of her wounded brother Bibi and tried to bring him moral support while he was being auscultated by a native doctor.

As the Emperor had ordained, Babida took to him on a silver platter the head of the dead Monster and he was decorated with the medal of the highest honor and merit.

And a few days later, he left Ekule village for an unknown place to fulfill the pact he had concluded with the ancestors.

All this while eighteen-year-old Suzie stayed under the heavy falling rain to listen to her Uncle Bibi recounting to her a fifteen-year-old story that starred the today old, the yesterday young, Babida the lumberjack. She was now in admiration of who she thought was a man without manners, a stalker. She looked around and….

"Where is he, uncle Bibi?" She asked angrily.

"Where is who?" The uncle reacted.

"The lumberjack!" She shouted.

They circled their eyes around but he had vanished away...Too late, Suzie!

TO BE CONTINUED…