Chapter 1.1: The Guardian of the Light

Luna and her grandfather typically spend their Sunday afternoon gun-shooting. Bagwis, Luna's grandfather, just recently paid off his late 18th birthday present for her. It was this simple indoor gun range he had been paying in monthly installment for a year. Luna and Bagwis stood in good postures and comfortable stance as they competitively shot their targets. Both of them had been attaining excellent scores and neither hesitates to ruin the record. Severo, Luna's father, who was regulating the game called for ceasefire and they halted in unison. They unloaded their guns and took off their earmuffs and protective glasses.

"Nicely done, Luna. I'm impressed." Bagwis said amusedly.

"Thanks, tay. I guess I was in such a good mood." Luna said with a big smile on her face.

"Is that so?" He replied with a chuckle.

Her mother Flora and Severo stood outside the hot range waiting for them.

"Now young lady, don't get proud as punch, it was just a simple exercise." Bagwis tapped her shoulder as they reached the exit. She nodded in reply.

Luna is Bagwis' sole grandchild and heiress. Not with riches, but with something else. She was the successor of a magical amulet, their family's legacy. She was five years old when Bagwis started telling her stories about their late ancestors who passed it down from generation to generation. It was an ancient necklace, a thin oak brown rope holding a muddy white stone which shines and glints only at moonlight. The beholder obtains superhuman strength through the occult stone. Her grandfather always wore the amulet and he possessed incredible vigor and stamina. According to her grandfather, the amulet must be passed down to a worthy inheritor, someone strong in both body and mind. That's why he's been training her for years and years now. Martial arts, arnis, boxing, and now, gun-shooting.

Luna is the next guardian of the moon, like what he is now. According to him, Bathala bestowed a sacred duty among their blood lineage to protect the moon deity from the menace of the spirit of Bakunawa who escaped from the dungeons of the underworld. During the ancient times, when Bakunawa used to be a colossal monster, people practiced banging gongs and playing mellow music to suppress it from devouring the moon. This was believed to be the reason behind eclipses, a moment in time when the moon seems to disappear from the night sky. Once the ritual vanished, a guardian was then pledged to protect the vulnerable spirit of Bulan who animated the moon. The divine duty was accompanied by a powerful stone. It inflicted marvelous strength to the beholder that required a great deal of responsibility. Once the amulet has been passed down to her, Bagwis will lose all his superhuman strength and transfer it to her through the stone. She must then be deserving of the divine duty through obtaining intelligence and adept skills to befit the role of a noble guardian. And ever since, she devoted her life into becoming one.

This might seem bizarre and difficult to believe to some but Luna upholds its veridicality. She has never seen the monster with her own two eyes and it was only through her grandfather's stories that she heard and pictured it but she never for a one bit fell dubious. She contains its credence inside her like blood flowing through her veins. She doesn't need much explanation, she just knows. There were moments when she could feel the moon's fear waking her up at night, as if telling her that there really is something out there, desiring to surcease it. It had an enigmatic connection to her. She would knock on her grandfather's door and find him lying awake too, feeling the same intuition. And that's how she knows everything her grandfather tells her is real. But not everyone in their family believes them, especially her own father who distrusts Bagwis and trivializes the entire thing.

"You are on fire tonight sweetheart!" Flora greeted.

"Who wouldn't be all fired up knowing that she now has her own place to shoot guns?" Bagwis bantered.

"Yeah right it's mine tatay." Luna rolled her eyes wryly. She's aware that it isn't fully hers yet, not until she graduates college and gets a stable job. He didn't want her to get distracted from her studies.

"So spoiled." Bagwis shook his head, continuing to jest. He took her basket and handed his safety equipment to Flora. He then went straight to the safety room to return the guns.

"This whole place is a gift to you, you know that right?" Flora said as she collected Luna's safety equipment.

"Opo. I just can't wait to run this place, mama." Luna mischievously smiled at her mother as she watched her reaction.

"Now, now, sweetie. We've talked about this." Flora prudently reminded her of her grandfather's agreement. She sighed and dropped her case. She didn't really care about business, all she wanted was to spend time there training. She thought showing her mother a hint of enthusiasm for business would poke her to reinstate the agreement but it did not. Well, at least she tried.

"Just kidding ma, sorry." She sheepishly said with an accompanied cheeky laugh.

"This is such a lush present for a young girl. He should've invested in a profitable enterprise instead. This is merely a luxury." Severo coarsely said. Luna sighed when she heard her father's snarky remark. It pricked her since her father always sided with what's convenient and practical rather than thinking of her happiness, even just for once, even just for now.

"This is not your decision to make, Severo." Flora stated restrainedly.

"Exactly. If it were mine, everything would be better." He walked out of the place and went straight to their car.

"He can be a handful sometimes, sucking the joy in everything." Bagwis showed up from the safety room while Flora stuffed the gears in a shelf.

"I'm sorry pa, you know how he is. Everything for him must be practical." Flora apologized.

"Yeah, yeah." Bagwis dismissed the glum spirit. "This place is a present for my only grandchild regardless of whatever. Now who wants to have dinner? I'm starving."

Bagwis and Severo never agreed with each other since the day Bagwis mentored Luna. He finds their legacy preposterous and he believed that Bagwis was dragging her daughter into insanity. Eventually, he relented from defying since Flora and Luna themselves concur with Bagwis.

"Let's have fried chicken, tay." Luna suggested as she gathered her things.

"Chicken it is. Let's go Flora, don't mind the shelf. I'll tidy that up tomorrow."

"You always say that but you never organize your stuff, Pa." Flora griped.

He grabbed Flora by the hand and dragged her away from the safety equipment lockers which she eagerly wants to organize.

"Forget about that, Luna and I are starving. Aren't we, apo?" And ignored his daughter's remark. Luna giggled as she allied with her grandfather. She's awfully fond of her mother's neat-freak nature and her chidings toward his father for his messiness. Luna figured that it was Bagwis' way of bonding with her.

"Come on, mama. I'm hungry." Luna chimed.

"Okay, okay. Just keep this place clean and organized please. You don't want this to be a breeding ground of cockroaches, right Pa?" Flora grabbed her bag and wore her hat as she reminded her father.

"I'll also clean this place when I'm here mama, don't worry." And they all walked towards the door.

"You both talk like I'm a filthy old man." Bagwis complained to them.

"If you don't like hearing it from us, then you better tidy up or at least give us a call to help you with stuff." Flora exhorted.

"No free chicken for you if you keep berating me like a child, Flora." Bagwis laughed. He then turned off the lights and locked the door after making sure that the whole place was secured.

The three of them reached the parking space. Flora and Luna entered Severo's car while Bagwis had his own ride. It was an old shabby car he purchased around forty years ago when he got married. He never bought a new one since then. His wife, Athalia, died five years ago due to lung complications. She had Alzheimer's disease. He refuses to replace this old car because it was one of the remnants of their marriage.

"I think we need to buy him a new ride." Flora worriedly said as she watched her father still revving his car while they passed by.

"Like he's gonna let you, mama." Luna said out of subtle exasperation. Bagwis' stubbornness either worry or irk them sometimes. His car was old, his house was old, his shirts were old. He strictly prohibited them to spend a single centavo on him. He refuses to change his usual life setup and he prefers to keep things the way they were. They can't really tell if he was being parsimonious or being extremely sentimental.

Bagwis is seventy years old and the odd member of his family. His brothers and sisters downplay him as the guardian of the moon. They're also envious of him since their father bestowed him of the largest share of inheritance even thought he's the least successful sibling. And also because he married the sweet and enticing lady, Athalia, who was the best.

"Sometimes I just wish Ma never died. He would've never been this stubborn." Flora sighed.

Luna watched the night sky as they travelled away. She wondered about the marvels of the moon. Bulan, her grandfather would call it, the spirit of the moon that illuminates the night. The exquisite, but vulnerable. She's educated that it's just a celestial body rotating around the earth merely borrowing light from the sun and causing the tides to rise and fall. She understands the logic behind it and how it debunks her belief of the moon deity. Regardless, she still trusts the folklore. She believes that there's more to nature than we can fathom. For her nature was an abyss-like well, still a lot to uncover. So she infers that whatever is on her plate right now, either that be science or folklore, is presumptive.

Bagwis once told her that his great great grandfather faced the vicious Bakunawa who possessed a notorious criminal, almost succeeding to devour the deity. According to him, Bakunawa must first kill the beholder of the amulet in order to release itself from the mystical powers restricting it to be set free from premise of the earth. The amulet does not just inflict superhuman powers, it also contains abstruse magic to restrain the spirit of Bakunawa from soaring up to the sky to reach Bulan. Once the beholder dies, the stone deteriorates too since the guardian's heart and the stone is bind together. The stone's cessation breaks the magic, unleashing it from prohibition. If it succeeds, there would be no more illumination in the night. Unforgiving darkness will prevail after the sun sets, giving life to a variety of creatures that will thrive. They will ravish on human flesh and blood and earth will become hell at night without Bulan's light. On the other hand, it still isn't too late if death was upon the guardian, he could seize the stone before he runs out of breath to chant a quick spell of retribution. It will turn him into an innocuous entity that will only last for a brief moment. This was the final resort into destroying the vile spirit so one must be quick and astute. With limited time, he must race towards the greedy fiend and squeeze its core until it weakens and dies. Its death doesn't mean it dies eternally. It resuscitates in evil deeds and as long as there is evil, it keeps reliving. As the story ended, the old man sacrificed his life to retribute and slay the savage entity into ashes.

Luna knows that this entity has its own time and one can never tell when it will attack. It struck her great, great, great grandfather which was more than a hundred years ago. It makes her nervous and pumped up for no apparent reason. Perhaps she shared Bagwis' ardent passion about slaying the entity.

"Luna." Severo called her, pausing her thoughts.

"Yes papa?" She replied. Their car stopped at the red light. Her dad asked her about school which was about to start next week. She is now enrolled in second year college. They spent the rest of the car ride talking about school. After the hearty meal, they went home.