The Enchanted Forest of Mangga

12. The tree giant caretaker of the garden...

Danaya was powerless to protect her friends and yes, that also included the frog. She was raised only in the wondrous kingdom of mangoes where their job was to protect and preserve the juiciest and glowing mangoes untouched by mankind. Their enchanted forest of Mangga was kept hidden by predators and humans for as long as Danaya could remember. From time to time, there were occasional visitors who would either threaten or seek help from their enchanted land then at the end of the day, they were never seen again. It was best for the mango fairies because having too many foreign visitors would distract them from their duties.

One of the mango fairies occasional visitors would be the kapres, the tree giants in the Encantada realm. The kapres were not always harmful beings or pose a threat to most fairies, but their body odor and lingering tobacco smoke stank so bad that a fairy could lose consciousness. And in that moment while the older siblings pulled and tugged their youngest brothers from being swallowed up by a monstrous pitcher plant, Danaya's nose detected the familiar tobacco smell niggling closer and closer.

Bea and Ali continued to yell as Sez was heard to be laughing. "PULL! PULL! PULL!"

Kaloy was still entangled with his tongue around the young boy's leg and had fainted every ten seconds when his tongue stretched too much due to the children and the pitcher plant's tugging war.

Danaya swished her head and sniffed the air. They were inside the den of pitcher plants, and as the tobacco smell came closer to the entrance of the cave, a dark head popped in from above. Danaya widened her eyes and froze in her spot. The tree giant's eyes were glaring red and smoke puffed out from his large nostrils.

"ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!"

The kapre's roar echoed in the cave that made all the plants and even the giant pitcher plant shuddered in terror. The tugging war stopped. Bea and Ali turned around to see another encantada standing right in front of them. The creature was dark and hairy and muscular. Its head reached the top of the cave and its body blocked the only escape out of the cave. They were trapped. A puff of thick smoke escaped from the tree giant's nostrils again. He looked angry as he shifted his eyes to the children and to the pitcher plants. His hands were formed in a fists side by side.

"ROOOOOAAAAAARRRRR!!!"

Danaya pinched her nose as tight as she could. "Oh quiet, you! Ang baho! Your breath stinks!" The mango fairy grimaced.

To Bea and Ali, although the tobacco smell was too strong, it reminded them of their Lolo and his older friends who gathered in their small meetings, discussing about their business and smoking their packs of cigarettes until late at night.

"I cannot breathe you big boulder!" Danaya scolded at the tree giant.

"Is that a gorilla, Ate?" Sez asked. Half of his body was slimed with the pitcher plant's saliva and stomach juice.

The kapre glanced at Sez. He gasped.

"Mystica!" the kapre chided. He put his fists on top of his hips like how a mother will do as she caught her child being disobedient. "What have you done! Children are not food!"

The pitcher plant shuffled down limply and whimpered.

"You let the boy down!"

The pitcher plant unfoiled its tendril root and dropped the boy, sending Sez falling on top of his Bea and Ali.

"Yuck!" Ali said as he wiped the slime off his body.

Sez and Bea shrugged. The three children slowly stood up and looked at the kapre. The tree giant towered over them that even though Sez felt mesmerized at the creature, he slid his hand into his sister's hand. Bea squeezed her younger brother's hand.

The kapre shook his hand and waved a big finger at the pitcher plant. "How many times do I have to tell you! Plants don't torture children!"

While the kapre was giving a scolding session to the pitcher plant, Ali helped untangled Kaloy's tongue from Sez.

"Hoy, Kaloy, wake up!" Ali said as he tapped the frog's head.

"Hm, ah, huh?" Kaloy blinked. "What is happening?"

He turned his head to the side where he saw a big, scary giant growling at the pitcher plant.

"Ahhmmm." Kaloy fainted again with his tongue sticking out.

"Hoy, Kaloy! Kaloy!"

Danaya still had her nose pinched and rolled her eyes.

"Danaya?" Bea called her as she gently carried Danaya in her hands in front of her. "What is that? Is he another encantado?"

Danaya nodded. "A kapre. Have your grandfather told you about them?"

"I think so. I-it's big and s-scary. Is he going to hurt us?"

"That big bloke? Nah. Kapres don't like to hurt children or any human. They're kind to you only if you're kind. The problem is their smell." Danaya fanned the air. "It still stinks!"

"Sh!" Bea shushed her. "He's going to hear you."

The kapre sighed and laid a hand on his forehead. "Planting a giant garden is hard work." He turned at the children and smiled sheepishly as he scratched his hairy neck. "I'm sorry. Mystica doesn't eat children. That's her friendly way of greeting new visitors in our garden."

Kaloy's eyes blinked open and jumped in front of the children. "Friendly greeting?! You call that a friendly greeting? We were all scared to death!"

The kapre held in his hands in surrender. "I'm really really sorry. Mystica has an odd way of showing her affection. It won't happen again ever. Right, Mystica?"

The giant pitcher plant nodded its leaf above the mouth.

"Pweh!" Kaloy retorted.

"We don't get a lot of visitors especially human children in the Guiting Guiting garden so the flowers were pretty excited that sometimes they express their emotions too far. Mystica wasn't going to eat him. She tends to grab anything to put in her belly. If the object is too big, her saliva juices won't take effect too quickly." The kapre gazed at Sez. "So luckily, he's a big boy!"

"That doesn't make it any better!" Kaloy said. "It's the same as trying to gobble him up!"

The kapre laughed nervously. "I'm sorry again. I swear they're good flowers. They just need more training and it's best to keep a safe distance."

"Did you say this is your garden?" Danaya asked with an eyebrow raised.

The kapre beamed. "Yes! This is my garden. I started to take care of my love for plants and flowers. It's a hobby of mine. Do you like it?"

"Well, they're pretty...and very huge."

"Yes! Haha! I think I overfeed them sometimes."

Seeing the children covered in the pitcher plant's saliva, he suggested, "Come with me. I'll help you."

"No way! This is another trap!" Kaloy said.

Danaya nodded in agreement with the frog. Although kapres are mostly harmless, they can be very possessive and too clingy.

"I swear! It's not a trap!" The kapre crossed his heart. "I just want to help. Please don't be scared."

The children looked at each other.

"M-maybe it's okay," Bea said. "But if we don't like it, you have to let us go."

The kapre smiled. "Of course! You can trust in me!"

1204 words

10,749 words total

May 2, 2021