Year 1438, in the provincial district of Irid lies Tagon, a village hidden by the hills.
It has been two years since Haliya came to Tagon, and as she has been tracing her steps down the road towards the ricefields she saw the villagers at a distance. Her heart sank seeing a woman feeding her children, she forgot it was now lunch time so she diverted her gaze and started to walk towards the woods.
Haliya was born on an island far away and ever since she was little she heard of Tagon, the land of hills and rivers. It has always been her dream visit the place and that filled her thoughts always. She was betrothed to Dagami, the chief of Tagon, at a very young age. At the time of her betrothal, the very first time she saw Dagami, she was eager to ask him about the place where he came from but she wasn't even allowed to speak at the ceremony. He only looked at her once and she never had a chance to ask him about Tagon. Yet, since she got married and went to Tagon she still haven't seen much of the rivers nor the hills, and even much of her husband. He would left for work before sunrise and went home after sunset, and because of this she started to feel unimportant to him. So she decided to find him at the woods.
The sun was sharp that noon that it made Haliya felt sleepy. She was deep in her thoughts when she saw a woman approaching from the woods. When the woman saw her she called her name and invited her for lunch, it never crossed her mind then why people stop her from going to the woods. Till that day when the woman knew she was serious about finding the whereabouts of Dagami.
'Does the chief knows you're having a child?' Asked the woman after they both settle down inside the hut and began to eat lunch. Haliya never expected the news nor understand how the woman knew she was pregnant.
'The chief would be interested in this news, so better tell him later.' The woman suggested, Haliya nodded at the woman. She knew that the woman is her husband's close relative and is very affectionate towards her, the woman gave her directions to where her husband was and they went there after they took their lunch. She never failed to noticed the woman's sad look as they both head towards the fields. The woman made her continue to the woods without her. She went deeper into the hills to find the last valley beyond Tagon and she was there gazing at it from a distance and can't help but be mesmerized by its beauty.
A cold stream water greeted her at the entrance of the valley, with some flowering plants beneath the water, and a floating water-plants with leaves that looked like flowers. The streams crossed where she stood at from the sides of the ricefields. Even the birds sing at the beauty of this hidden valley, she could run around the place and bask at everything she'd seen. This is the place she was told as a child and this is what they looked like upclose. She went closer to what looked like an enormous taro at the side of a hill, with leaves so huge and dark green, this is what her husband used as an umbrella before, she thought. Beneath the taro was a quiet stream with crayfish and crabs crawling around, she understood why they always eat those, they were many of them from around here, and there was more. At a distance came large stones portuding from the ground and a running stream beneath it, she went there ahead and found a of spring water gushing out from a bamboo pipe. She thought she could live here forever for everything was here.
She didn't know someone was observing her at a distance, judging her every move.
She was browsing between the plants as she saw an edible fern growing around, those tops that she wanted to cook already but she noticed an old cabin few meters away from where she stood. She decided to go there and forgot the fern. A lot more of boulder was showing as she treaded towards the place. She silently knocked at the door and when there was still no answer she decided to come inside uninvited.
It was too late for her to realize she never should have went to the woods that day, she should have stayed home, because inside the hut wasn't the husband she came to find, he wasn't even human as she saw canines portruding from the sides of his mouth. He was a beast and he was hiding from her all along.
Note:
All characters, places, and events are fruit of the author's imagination.
The village of Tago(n) is inspired by our village, the western hills of Leyte.
