She dreamt of butterflies.
It was only yesterday that her parents revealed a part of her that was hidden behind human trappings.
For years something deep within her longed for the roads of the travelers, where she felt at home with the horses and peddlers.
She dreamt of dogs.
There was a hunger that only flesh could satiate. The revelation took root and she felt her whole being transform.
One moment she was light as a feather, on gossamer wings.
Another, a carabao, her hoofbeats ringing into the night.
She dreamt of deer.
Still, it did not end.
Her form was fluid, changing from beasts to insects to everything in between.
It took her parents’ will to stop the transformations.
She dreamt of moths.
They gave her raw meat to quell the emptiness inside her.
“Why me?” she asked through tear-stained cheeks.
It was the will of their people, her parents tried to make her understand.
They only appeared human for a time, and, to them, no one form was theirs.
She dreamt of beetles.
Their whole family were of the spirits.
Her parents told her that they had spent so much time in the human realm that it changed them.
It changed her.
They told her of the many forms they could take.
She dreamt of civets.
Their kind would travail the different paths with mischief or even more sinister motives.
The hunger that she felt would eventually turn her into a slathering beast, if not for the strength of her spirit ancestors.
Though there were those of her family that embraced the creature within and hunted live game.
She dreamt of fireflies.
She didn’t know how to respond to the new world opened before her.
She ran out into the woods and let nature have its say.
In an instant she changed into a creature that was something only she could be.
The form of a dog with wings like that of a butterfly.
As she flew to the midnight orb, she thought to herself:
I will dream of the Salut.
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the Sarul /Salut description in The Remnants of the Great Ilonggo Nation. Sebastian Sta. Cruz Serag. 1997. pg 62
Salut Illustration by Lynyrd-Jym Narciso
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