Fiction: The Last Guardian Seeker

A Manobo-themed short story of mine was published recently in Dagmay, the literary journal of the Davao Writers Guild. "The Last Guardian Seeker" simultaneously appeared online (the guild's website) and in print (Sunstar Davao). It was divided in two parts; the first went live on June 2 and the second on June 9.

Dominique Cimafranca is the editor of Dagmay for June, and he sent me a flattering message through e-mail. It's a spoiler, but I'd like to share it with you: "Thanks for sending in this piece. I really enjoyed reading it. The ending left me wanting more, but it also feels complete in itself."

This is my fifth time to be published in Dagmay. One of my pieces is a poem, and the rest are short stories. "The Last Guardian Seeker" is my second Manobo-themed story. The first is "The Bride," published in June 24 last year. Incidentally, it was also Cimafranca who chose that story for publication. Here's what he told me then: "This is beautiful . . . Keep the stories coming!" Below is an excerpt from "The Last Guardian Seeker."

Timuk can't understand what the old man means, so he remains quiet.

The chieftain continues: "Most stories say the akaw will appear in the ninth day, when you are in your weakest. In my case, it appeared on the third night, when I was still strong enough to kill a man with one blow. It was dark—the clouds were hiding the moon—so I could not see the face of the spirit-guardian, but like what old people believed, it had the body of a human being and a crown on the head that was similar to that of a rooster. It was perched on a branch like a bird.

"Right away I jumped at the akaw. We wrestled. It seemed to know what I would do, so it was able to avoid my blows. But it was no more skilled or cunning than me, so it did not subdue me either. We fell off the branch. I was lucky to grip a vine. If I fell on the ground, that would be the end of my quest. You understand a seeker must not leave the tree or fall off it for the entire duration of the fagamal. The spirit-guardian, meanwhile, disappeared.

"It appeared again in the fourth and fifth nights, and we fought in much the same way as our first encounter. I was getting weak, and to my surprise, my opponent seemed to be getting weaker too.

"I learned why in the sixth night. It was a clear night. The moon was full and stars filled the sky. When the akaw appeared, I was surprised to see that it looked exactly like me."