“Come on it’s over here!” Jason was running over the hill. Nick felt his heart almost burst. He wasn’t the most athletic child and he didn’t like being reminded of that fact, but this was always how it went and Jason was his best friend so being pushed to do new things was a fact of life.
Nick struggled up the last few steps of the hill and he dropped as soon as he reached the top. Jason was by his side as always, asking if he was okay, but this time he was more exited to get Nick to look below the hill. “What could be so cool that you made me walk through a bunch of hills and—–“ Then Nick saw it.
It was a graveyard, but not by any normal standards. Dozens, maybe hundreds of carabao skeletons were scattered around the foot of the hill. “Okay, you were right, this is really cool,” Nick whispered. “Told you so,” Jason replied, “But you haven’t seen the coolest part.”
Jason led them though the skeletal forest. Nick noticed that the bones were never complete, there were giant chunks of them missing, mostly from the back, he didn’t think this was a good idea, but he trusted Jason and that always worked out fine. Mostly.
“Be very quiet. It’s through here,” Jason whispered. “Seriously?” Nick was looking at the rock face Jason wanted them to climb. “I said be quiet, you don’t want to wake it up.” Jason clamped his hand over Nick’s mouth. “I’m dead serious.”
Suddenly the ground shook. Jason grabbed Nick’s arm and he dragged him under a nearby tree. “What was that?!” Nick was starting to get frantic. Jason pointed upwards and Nick saw the cause. It was terrifying. It towered over the trees and it roared with a voice like thunder.
“It won’t see us from under this tree, we should wait until it goes back to sleep again,” Jason said. “I brought food.”
Nick sighed. Stuff like this always happened with Jason.
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the Bungisngis entry in Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology. Ramos. 1971. and in 101 Kagila-gilalas na Nilalang. Samar. 2015
Bungisngis Illustration by Leandro Geniston fromAklat ng mga Anito
FB: That Guy With A Pen
