The full moon lends its light to the carnage.
Piles of human flesh strung across the plain like an abattoir, the crunch of bone and the screams of pain filled the air as the monster ravaged its way through my village.
Yet, we knew that in the next month it would have our worship. When the light of the full moon extends over our village shall it become a beneficent deity, watching over our crops like stoic sentinels.
I’m tired of this.
Why must we suffer with the whims of the moon? Why must I have to bury another member of my family and then ask blessings of their murderer? Why must I hear their screams every time I sleep, wondering what I could have done to save them?
In their “benevolent” form they appeared much like we do, but that does not fool me. I know their true nature, their one eye and their terrible fangs. They cannot hide behind their facade of peace only to bring war the next time the moon rears its next full face.
With the rise of the new moon I make a vow.
I will end this cycle of torment. I will raise arms against this confused god and bring it down to its knees.
I will.
I have lost too much to the terror, to the screams. Each night I can only see the face of my brother as he hung from the mouth of the tagamaling. His last scream will haunt me until the end of my time.
I am joined by the other hunters, each has lost a lover, a friend, a sibling or a parent to the maw of the mad god. Each has nothing left to lose. Not anymore.
So I write to you this letter, my beloved son.
Always keep yourself strong in the face of evil, and never compromise who and what you are to anyone.
Goodbye.
*The Tagamaling switches between beneficent deity and man-eating monster. It turns monstrous between the full moon and the new moon.
Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the Tagamaling description in Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology. Ramos. 1971.
Tagamaling Illustration by Jowee Aguinaldo.
