Flashback:
"Hello, Talia." He said as he nodded approvingly at me.
"I've been expecting you."
-*-*-*-*-*-
"...Uh, why did you call me, K-Um, Bathala, Sir." I said, sweating.
"Well," He started, going to his chair and sitting down, "I heard that you had a bit of difficulty of understanding our purpose, and I wanted to give you a tour of the Diwata Site, like how I do to all of the newcomers here."
He now looked at me questionably. "Now, any questions before I start the tour?"
"W-Well, two questions. Maybe more. First of all, all of the past memories I remember that I with my 'mom' when I was younger's fake, right?"
"Well, yes."
"If so, what was my past?"
"Well, you see," Bathala said, looking a little tense. "To be honest, we don't quite know. We just discovered a great source of power somewhere in Manila, and if you didn't know, powerful deities tend to attract a lot of monsters, so I sent Hannah, Ribu, and Maya there to rescue the source, and lo behold, here you are now."
"....WHAAAT?!? SO YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE I CAME FROM?!? WHO MY PARENTS ARE, WHERE I GREW UP, NOTHING?!?!?"
"...." He went silent for a moment. "Yes. I'm terribly sorry, Talia."
"...Wait a minute, Maya and Ribu were there!?!"
He deadpanned. "Tell me, What was the name of your history teacher?"
"Maya-oh...But who's Ribu??"
"I believe he was your gym teacher, Mr. Leon."
"What? But Mr. Leon was serious and strict while Ribu's just mellow and chill!"
He sighed. "Mr. Leon can break a radio system of a bus, which is literally impossible for everyone. And also, even though he's an idiot, he can act. And acting, believe it or not, is a vital ability in survival."
...Wow. I'm so dense. But still, not knowing a thing about where I came from....that's kinda sad. But there's still one more question that's been in my mind for a while.
"Which deity am I?"
"......" His stare softened a little. "You are the reincarnation of Tala, the powerful goddess of the stars, and one of the daughters of Bathala."
"......YOU'RE MY DAD!?! AND MAYARI'S MY SISTER?!??"
His stare then hardened, as he looked at me with frustration. "You're really dense, aren't you?"
"But still, is it like that-"
He sighed heavily. "Only spiritually, in a sense. But in a literal meaning, goodness no. Now, do you have any more questions?"
...I do, but I think I already wore him down and he'll just get mad, so...
"Nope."
"Very well, then." He said as he stands up. "Let the tour begin."
-*-*-*-*-*-
"....So you can talk to your past self, huh?" Maya said awkwardly, breaking the silence.
Bathala assigned Maya to give me a tour, and there was still a little bit of tension after what happened in the diner.
"....I guess?" I said nervously.
She glanced at me with curiosity in her eyes. "How did you communicate with her?"
"Uh, I watched her save a Filipino from the Spaniards from the Spanish-Colonial period, and when she was going to go away, I guess she somehow sensed me and started a conversation, but it was cut short when you woke me up."
She smiled softly. "Well, you're a lucky kid. That's a rare ability you have there."
"...Thanks, I guess. And can you please stop calling me a kid? I'm 16, you know."
"Well, I'm 20-years-old, you know." She said, smirking at me.
"...Ok, I give. Now, where are we going?"
"Well, the first place of our tour is the balcony, where you can view the outside, kid."
Sigh.
-*-*-*-*-*-
I'm currently leaning on a railing goggling at the beautiful scenery before me: A mountainous place with an abundant amount of trees and wildlife everywhere. I would've thought that Tarzan's family lives here, but there's just one thing that's very off.
I gaped. "WE'RE ON A FLOATING ISLAND?!?!"
-*-*-*-*-*-
[BATALA]
-*-*-*-*-*-
She grinned widely. "Yup."
"HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE FOR A BUNCH OF PEOPLE TO GET ON A FLOATING ISLAND WITHOUT SOMEONE DYING?!?!"
"....Magic." She said, making jazz hands.
I groaned. "I'm getting a headache from all this new information. Wait...Am I gonna have to stay here forever?!?!"
She sweatdropped. "Again with the never-ending questions... Well to answer that, no. When you learn everything that you need to know, you can leave if you want. But you can also be a resident in this place, up until you earn the right to live in the Kaluwalhatian, also known as Filipino Heaven."
I felt a rush of relief after hearing that. So that means I can go back to my place! But...I'll be lonely... My mom actually isn't real, I don't have any friends there, and I'm not sure if it's even possible to find my family since even the reincarnation of Bathala doesn't know where they are.
...Maybe it's best if I stay here...
"But can I even fit here? Belong in here?"
"Of course you can!"
I blinked and looked at her. "I said all of that out loud, didn't I?"
"Only the 'fitting in' part, but you definitely think a lot for a 16-year-old kid. And don't worry about 'fitting in,' because you already did." She smiled at me. "Everything's gonna be alright. I promise."
I slowly started to make a genuine smile at her. "Thanks, sis."
She made a weird sound. "Sis?" She cried indignantly.
I sputtered. "B-Bathala said we were in a spiritual sense-"
"Okay, first I had Hannah as a spiritual sister. But now I have two?!? And I remember in heritage class he had more... Exactly how many children did that old man have..." She started to mutter incoherently.
I chuckled. Maybe she's right. Maybe I can fit in here. I think I'll stay here, at least for a little while. I mean, what could go wrong?
"I finally found you!!!" A voice said behind us, making both of us stiffen and simultaneously turn around to see a wounded Ribu armed with an axe going inside the balcony and quickly blocking the door.
Maya gasped. "Ribu, what happened?"
He panted. "The Site's getting attacked!!!"
"WHAT?!?" She said in disbelief. "B-But the Site's security system was fully enhanced with spells! And we've been friends with the races for thousands of years! But I did hear one of us accidentally stepped on a duwende's*[1] mound-"
"Maya, this is clearly not the time for your weird ramblings!" Ribu said (actually, more like shrieked). He then sighed shakily. "Follow me, we have to move to a safer place."
Ribu then slowly opened the door behind him, looking at both sides of the hallway, then bolted to the right.
Maya quickly took my hand, muttering, "Why did I have to jinx it?" and then ran after Ribu.
When we caught up to Ribu, I said frantically, "But I thought this was a completely safe place-ASWANG APPROACHING!!"
Ribu diverted his attention at the front and threw his axe at the aswang, hitting it straight at its chest.
The aswang groaned and turned into a pile of dust. We stopped for Ribu to take his axe and also for the three of us to take a breather from running.
I took a deep breath. "How is it even possible for an aswang to be here at daytime?"
Ribu froze. "....I never actually thought of that."
Maya said exasperatedly, "Does it actually matter to think about that right now when our lives our in danger?"
"Good point."
After a few moments, we begrudgingly kept moving forward slowly.
"Okay, now can you answer my question?"
He sighed. "Kid, this might seem like a great place to live in, but like everything, this place isn't perfect. Since a lot of deities stay here, this place tends to have a few ambushes here and there." He paused. "Though come to think of it, we never had something as big as this."
He pondered that as he calmly killed the 3rd aswang that tried to kill us.
"Well, maybe we just got a hit of bad luck. Anyways, we're here!"
He went up to a wall and gestured for Maya to open it. Maya sighed and raised her hand, and the baybayin symbols came:
"E-bo-ya? Oh wait, it's I-bun-yag...Reveal?" I said, looking at the symbols.
Ribu looked at me shocked. "Did you just-"
A door appeared, cutting them off.
Ribu went silent. He then said, "You can read them-"
Inhuman screams echoed in the hallway, the source coming from behind us. We turned around and paled at the sight of a small army of aswang led by a single manananggal*[2] going towards us fast.
"Ok. Good job. You're learning. Now, if you don't have anything else important to say, let's go."
We opened the door and went inside and was able to close the door at the last possible minute.
...I want to go home.
-*-*-*-*-*-
[1]: Duwende: A small magical elf. Or goblin. Or dwarf.
[2]: Manananggal: Picture an aswang with bat wings and no lower half, and also with a bad hair day. Well, that's it.