Sunset fell on the village of Iculengan, and she watched her child, Yadan, play through the last light of the day. He was so bright and handsome, just like his father. Guimbangun sighed. It had been a year since Lumalindaw went to fight the enemies of Nabbobawan. She understood why she had to let him go, but she could never understand why it had to hurt so much.
Yadan and the other children were playing with sticks by the trees near their houses. Guimbangun tried as hard as she could to make sure Yadan would grow up to be a kind and gentle soul, but the boy idolized his father, and her pleas fell on deaf ears.
She wondered what Lumalindaw was doing now, probably preparing for his next battle, she supposed. She smiled. It always made her happy to remember how they had first met, her a woman bathing in the river and him, a corpse.
Nothing her magic couldn’t fix, of course.
The children were playing rough, and Guimbangun was about to step in when one of Yadan’s playmates climbed the tree and fell. The children gathered around their unmoving playmate and some of them started to cry.
Yadan, as impatient as ever, went beside the fallen child and told him to get up. The lifeless body of the boy suddenly sprang up, wide awake and Yadan told him to start their game over.
The boy may have a lot of his father in him, but he was also his mother’s son.
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the Gaddang Epic “Lumalindaw” in Philippine Folk Literature:The Epics. Eugenio. 2001.
Guimbangun Illustration by Yanna Gemora
FB: Yannami