“Grrrah,” The crocodile groaned.
“Hush now, the food will come by soon, then we will both have something to eat.” The aswang said lovingly to her pet.
Prey was hard to come by these days, the humans knew that this place in the swamp was the hunting ground for the aswang and her pet, but that wasn’t about to stop her from finding a meal.
“We just have to go closer to the village, and then everything will be better,” The crocodile grunted again and the aswang reassured him. “I know, we’ll find some children, I know how much you like the taste of those.”
The crocodile wagged its tail with joy; it had not had that treat in many months.
“Yes, let’s go nearer to the village and set a trap. We can catch the ones swimming by the river!” The aswang walked alongside her pet to the riverbank.
She was hungry, and so was her pet. Due to the human’s caution, food was hard to find. The last meal they both had was a fisherman that strayed too far into the swamp. He was stringy and tough, not a dinner that either of them savored.
The aswang was all smiles though. She knew that prey would be plentiful. She had always relied on the strength of her pet to catch their meals, she was not like the other aswang who would fly around the village terrorizing the humans.
She was an agalon hayopan, a kind of aswang that would raise crocodiles to hunt their prey for them. The other aswang would often jeer and call their kind lazy, but they would never know the hardship one would take just to raise a single crocodile from an egg.
Her pet grumbled again and she laughed. They spent years together and she had raised this one ever since he was a hatchling. She knew his quirks and quips just as well as he knew hers. They were inseparable. She knew that once he had something to eat, he would change back to his lazy self.
“We’re here,” The aswang and her pet stood by the river.
“Time to get some food.”
“Grrrah,” replied her pet.
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the Agalon Hayopan legend from Bicol: Filipinas Volume 12, Page 53, Filipinas Pub., 2003
Agalon Hayopan Illustration by NightmareSyrup
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