Chapter 6: Chapter 6 – Off Into the Wind We Go

 ARNEL

We arrive back at the apartment soaking wet, having been caught in the storm still raging on outside. 

"I don't think this will let up anytime soon," I comment to my companion as I utter a simple spell to dry myself.

"Oui. It has been like this for the past few days. The weatherman always predicts sunshine, but the clouds tend to disagree," Gabrielle replies, also having dried herself. 

I open the door to the apartment, eager to get out of here and back in the warm, unconfusing, weather controlled climate of Pinag-adlawan.

To my (or maybe our) surprise, we find our pinili haunched on the ground, hugging herself, and very obviously crying.

Gabrielle and I look at each other, unsure what to do. I mean, I can understand the kid, it IS hard to lose someone whom you've depended on all your life, we both know that. But even if we both went through the pain of losing a guardian anito, our anitos weren't our only family. Gabrielle's anito was her nanny, and mine was (I thought) a jolly distant uncle twice removed. We both had other families during our early youth, but this pinili solely relied on her anito. It must be hard. 

"Uhm…" I start, inching forward hesitantly. 

"Chère?" Gabrielle also says in the softest voice she could manage.

The pinili. Wait no, her name is…what was it again? Something non-Asian…starting with an A.

Oh right! Amilyn!

Anyway, Amilyn turns around as Gabrielle and I make ourselves known. Upon seeing us, she hastily wipes her eyes and stands up. Her eyes are bloodshot. Gods know how long she's been crying. Has she been like that since we've been away? Yikes!

Amilyn clears her throat, still sniffling and drying her tears. 

"I'm ready," she says in a bare whisper. 

"Are you sure? We can stay for a little bit. You won't see this apartment again, you know. Authorities at Pinag-adlawan will make it so you and your nana, along with this apartment, never existed. You can take your time looking around," Gabrielle says encouragingly.

Amilyn shakes her head.

"No. I'm ready. We can go. You said something about missing a festival if we don't hurry. Wouldn't wanna miss that….whatever it is. Besides, if we stay longer, I would…it's gonna hurt even more. We should go. I'm ready," she repeats defiantly, sounding as if she's trying to convince herself. 

Gabrielle nods with understanding. 

I guess we're going then. 

"Come then. Let's get out of here," Gabrielle says, holding her hand out to the pinili.

Amilyn takes it. Gabrielle smiles at her reassuringly, nodding with encouragement.

"It's gonna be okay, chère. You're being very brave. Maybe you should be a redhead instead," she jokingly adds. 

Why this woman! Who says we blueheads can't be brave? I'll have a word with her about discrimation based on hair color someday. Anyway, I should let it slide today, just today. We have an emotional pinili to deal with, and a festival to catch. 

Gabrielle leads the pinili out the room. Amilyn lets herself be led away, slowly inching towards the door. Once she reaches the doorway, she turns her head, taking one last sweeping look at the apartment she grew up in. With a defiant sigh, she turns to look ahead of her. 

Down two flights of stairs we go, out the building, where we are once again exposed to the beating rain and flashing lightning.

"Is there a forest nearby? Anggitay don't like coming to crowded places," I ask, looking around.

"Yes, well, maybe. There's a little park with some trees a few blocks from here," Amilyn responds.

"Alrighty, lead the way. Oh, and full disclaimer, we tried using umbrellas earlier, yeah, not really worth the effort of trying to keep them upright. The wind just likes turning them into makeshift satellites," I say.

"Il a raison. We'll have to brave the rain. Besides, with the anggitay, rain won't be the least pleasant phenomena we'll have to deal with today," Gabrielle agrees.

"Uhhh…okay?" Amilyn replies wearily.

And thus, we thrust ourselves out into the open, rain, wind, thunder and all. 

Amilyn leads us to an (understandably) abandoned park. When I say understandably, I mean, who would put a park this far away from the nearest residences? Just coming here is an exercise in itself, given the distance. And in that rain? Phew! Amilyn said "a few blocks", and she has a different definition of the phrase.

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The "park", if you can call it that, if full of overgrown grass and rusting metal that I presume used to be playthings. Trees have obviously long since crossed the their threshold and decided to crawl towards the center of the place, so their roots scurry through the path, crisscrossing here and there. 

Anyway, we arrive, and Gabrielle points to a shed hidden amid the bushes. She mumbles something inaudible amid the rain, but I get her point. In order to summon the anggitay, we'll need to start a fire, and to start a fire, we'll need somewhere dry. The shed is the only relatively dry place we can find, so we make our way towards it. 

We arrive shivering from the cold.

"You should do it. I'm almost out of steam, and I never did well in summoning spells at school," I tell Gabrielle.

She rolls her eyes at me, muttering some very rapid French under her breath. I doubt they mean anything good, but hey, we can't risk me summoning a bentohangin instead of an anggitay here.

Gabrielle kneels, taking a bead from her bracelet. She brings the bead to her lips, muttering a spell under her breath. The bead glows, and then turns into a cauldron. She does this a few times, summoning, in order: a few bottles of herbs, a special set of stones, a bottle of rice, salt, and a live chicken. 

Beside me, I notice Amilyn look at the scene with awe. 

Right, always a wonder for the first timers.

"It's called ornamentation. You can turn anything into an ornament. As you might have noticed, those beads return to their previous state when a spell is chanted. You'll learn it at Pinag-adlawan," I explain in a whisper.

"I'll learn how to turn a chicken into a bead?" she says, sounding dumb-founded.

"Well, you'll start with simple things, like a stone into a bead. Live stuff are more complicated, they come in the later years," I answer.

She nods, though I'm not quite sure she understands.

In front of us, Gabrielle continues with the ritual. She mixes several ingredients in the cauldron. Then, she summons her kalis once again. She starts chanting under her breath, chicken on one hand, kalis on the other. 

Gabrielle raises the chicken over the cauldron. Then, in one swift motion, she slits the being's neck with her kalis. Blood squirts out the open wound like a red fountain, dripping down on the cauldron. Amilyn lets out a gasp. 

The cauldron starts to emit black smoke. The smoke swirls over the lid of the jar like a miniature cloud. Flashes of lightning light up the small, dark cloud. Gabrielle continue chanting under her breath. 

 The cauldron shakes and rattles. The smoke above it continues to swirl, now a mix of black and red, flashes of lightning still evident within. The pungent smell of blood, herbs, and the familiar scent of sagangan lurks in the air. Then suddenly, the smoke drops to the ground forming a ring around the cauldron. Cracks start to form on the earth around the earthen jar, growing wider and wider by the second. The smoke seeps into the cracks, billowing like cloth as it disappears into the darkness within. 

 And then everything goes back to normal. Gabrielle stands, discarding a still writhing gutted chicken to the ground. She reaches for her bracelet, takes a bead and brings it to her lips. The bead bead glows and transforms into a flask. 

 This one I'm familiar with. Gabrielle takes a swig off the flask. I turn to Amilyn.

 "We call it the juice. It's like autotranslate in liquid form. There are lots of languages in the world, and then the supernatural have a language of their own, so it can become quite a drag to learn all the languages in pursuit of comprehension. This liquid allows you to understand all known languages, and speak them at the same time. Very handy, even trickier to make," I explain.

 Just as I finish, they arrive. We first hear the unmistakable sound of hooves hitting the solid earth in haste. Then a blur appears in front of us, as if reality has become liquid. Then they appear: three fully grown anggitay, ready to take us home. 

 Beside me, I hear Amilyn gasp again, and I can't really say I blame her. 

 Anggitay are a sight to behold. Kinda like centaurs, but imagine female, and with a single horn protruding from their forehead. Like many of the supernatural, they don't see the need to cover their…well…intimate parts, so their bare chests are in full frontal view. They are adorned with all manners of shiny stuff, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, gold, some shiny seashells, you name it. Supposedly, the queen is the flashiest of them, though I can't say that from experience. I think every new one I meet is flashier than the other.

 Anyway, Gabrielle walks forward to the three, lets out a series of chirps and whistles, and the one in front replies. The bewildering exchange goes on until Gabrielle turns to us, nodding. That means they agree.

 "So, remember to hold on tight, no matter what happens. Make sure to tuck yourself in as much as possible, don't let your feet and arms dangle, hide your head, and make sure to not forget to breath. The last part is very important," I tell Amilyn.

 "What?" she replies in a blank tone, still looking at the anggitay.

 I lift her up by the armpits and unto one of the anggitay. This isn't the recommended form of travel for a newbie, but we really have no choice. Besides, they won't know fear until they know what to fear. This is good exercise.

 "Wo….woah!" Amilyn yelps out as I tuck her in.

 "Safe travels!" I bid her. 

 Her ride takes that as her go signal, and off into the wind she goes (literally). The last I hear of Amilyn is her ear-splitting scream. Ah, first timers. Those are the good old days.

 "Let's go. We need to be there when she arrives," Gabrielle says.

 "Right."

 I get on my ride, tuck myself in, and off we go.

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