2.
The name of the boat was Amansinaya. Its slender body reminded him of the mermaid that dwell in the nearby sea of Tigbao that was fable of having a ten feet long slender tail, seduces the men of Magsalangi, and on the cave near Hinlotungan they mate with the enthralled man to produce awa, the mother of the bangus. With no katig it swims gracefully over the tide like a mermaid, and never fails to seduce other fishermen. The villagers coined Amansinaya as Kataw san Tawad.

3.
What left for him was a piece of stale bread. For three days of searching, his rations of beef tapa, nilagang saba, tuyo, and a loft of bread were consumed. The beef tapa was the favorite of the hungry waves. It was the custom of their village to throw foods to the wave to ease its anger when it yells and lambastes their boats.
On that second night of his journey, the wave shouted at him.
“Ako an Balud
tag-iya san lawod,
ihatag mo sa akon
an imo pagkaon”.
The raucous voice echoed along the nearby mountains, brought lightning and summoned rains. The tides, some of those three meters in height moved back and fro with a force to sway the boat. Amansinaya danced on the angry rhythm of the gulf tossing its body from one wave to another like the fiesta dance where he and Olivia met.
Among the ladies who joined the fiesta dance, she’s the only one stood out. Her face resembled the full moon that brightens the Asid Gulf after a heavy typhoon – round and calm. God gifted her with the lusciousness of coal colored hair, where no fingers may trap on its strand as fingers run from tip to tip. She had a fair skin; smooth and delicate unlike to the daughters of the Asid who after eating too much fish almost develops scales and frequent bathing on the gulf give them the color of the molave tree. And when she moves, only an engkanta can match her alluring sway.
She walked toward him, hair danced with the wind (or the wind swayed in unison with her hair), and smile like the shape of Amansinaya on a clear and silent gulf, her lips curved in a slender shape and dimples appeared on both cheeks. Now you are here. Tomorrow I’ll be gone, can we danced until the goddess come.
They danced before he answered the question of her eyes. Their feet swayed to the beats of the sound system. His hand slid on her arms, memorizing its skin, and calculating it’s every angle. Their eyes met and whispered endlessly on a vernacular known to them as the brain silenced and the heart talked.
And on his mind they danced again.
Before he got drown by the angry waves, he threw his beef tapa along with the memory of Olivia.

4
Itay, I want to learn to swim, I want to be in the gulf and play along with my friends.
The gulf is too dangerous for you, Amansinaya. The gulf hosts the demons the elders speak; they steal children and mutilate their bodies, a nice meal for their hungry stomachs.
How about the sea?
Sharks dwell in the sea and only the bravest fisherman has the guts to travel alone in the sea, because sharks can destroy a boat by a single bite. Can you imagine what will happen to a girl snapped by the jaws of this creature?
But Reynaldo, he’s only…
You will never touch the gulf, play in the sea or bathe in the river, promise me Amansinaya.
Her eyes turned blue.
Winds silenced the gulf. The waves stopped moving, hushed words of despair and reflected the serene sky – no billowing clouds, and no flying birds.

5.
They said he was tricked by Magkal, the spirit of Asid. They laughed at his naivety – he was the best boat maker, the handsomest of all the man of their village yet he was fooled by Magkal a spirit considered to be as dumb as their own gulf.

6.
Egso Roberto told him that Magkal wanted a child from the son of his enemy, the most loved and admired son of his enemy. And this child will turn to her father and then to his enemy.

7.
Olivia returned to him. She walked toward to his hut that witnessed their desires, passions and moans. She carried a baby wailing like a siren, eerie and haunting that calls for sailors to their untimely death. The dogs were too afraid to bark, retreated to their posts on folded tails and the only thing they can do is howl. And that evening, the village was covered with howls and it stretched toward the gulf where the spirit secretly smiled.

8.
“Kun ako sa langit lumapadon
Kandila an akon pagkaon”
She sung this song over the window while children of her age played and bathed on the gulf. This song was her companion like a cricket with his chirps during lonely nights. Her clear, crystalline small voice occupied their hut made this sad and morbid song a sweet one for an innocent child.
But her father hated this song. He first listened to it when he was nine years old, where his grandfather was about to die. The manangs of the village came to their house sang this song while their grandfather was too weak to join them. And when he sang it inside his room, his father beat him for singing a dirge. That was the first and last time his father beat him because the following day he disappeared along with the other fishermen over the Asid Gulf and he vowed never to sing this song again - a song that invites death.
He only understood Amansinaya, her loneliness.

9.
Before he left the village, he found the mermaid’s heart along the side of the gulf. It was hollow but heavy. When he picked it up it was still beating with the rhythm of life. He washed it to the current of the gulf till it stopped. The spirit of the mermaid returned to the water as the body of a man return to earth.
It was only Egso Roberto who confirmed that it was a mermaid’s heart indeed. He told him that he can prepare special oil out from this heart that can make one’s eye unseal for four nights. Nights because once you apply this oil to your eyes, the world will turn as you perceive it into night.
Knowing the heart’s name was part of the ritual in creating the oil. Egso Roberto placed a piece of the mermaid’s heart inside a conch, and then left it along the shore of Asid overnight. He guarded the preparation knowing that its pungent scent would attract dogs and curious villagers.
In the morning, after he shooed five dogs and talked with three curious and drunken villagers, Egso Roberto placed his left ear to the conch opening. He heard the rumbling of syllables just like a cacophony of winds trapped inside. Slowly, he closed his eyes and listened – mermaids sang a melody of a forlorn name.

10.
Olivia, that’s the name of your mother Amansinaya. And she’s special and so as you.
If only mind has its own tongue.
She’s part of the water, part of the Asid. When she returned to the gulf, she became the gulf. If you will follow her, then you will become part of the gulf and be with her.
If words of caution are lullaby, you will never forget it.

11.
The first time Amansinaya drew, she used a charcoal and drew an image of a pot bellied crocodile whose limbs were too small to be noticed on the complimentary calendar of the mayor of the town. She was only two at that time and the only toys she had were chunks of wood for dolls and charcoal for pencils.
“Itay, lolo,” pointing her small dirty hand to the image she drew like an artist presenting his masterpiece; her eyes glistened with pride, a premonition of reality.
After he saw the image, laughter burst from her father. He thought that his daughter regarded the mayor as her grandfather, and tried to copy the picture but her unskilled artistic talent betrayed him. He laughed at lies shadowed as a joke.

12.
That was her daughter’s fifth birthday. Amansinaya, the child with the name of a pagan goddess had her first birthday celebration as she thought. Men from their village came to their hut and drink tuba. The women came to prepare the feast. Tiya Aling cooked her special dinuguan with unripe papayas, Tiya Niit brought her kakanin of biko and suman latik, and Tiya Inda cooked the celebration’s favorite paksiw na halo (monitor lizard on vinegar). The children came along with their parents and during the whole day they celebrate, aside from Amansinaya who was locked inside her room.
The party was not for Amansinaya, but for the new boat his father made. It was the tradition of the village to throw party to a boat to give good lucks. At night, the boat will sail for the first time to determine its capacity to bring luck to the owner and also to determine its fate (they believe that when a boat capsizes on its maiden voyage the boat must be destroy because it will only bring bad luck to the whole village). On a clear weather at that time it was assumed that the boat will have a good maiden sail.
While they celebrate outside, the wind talked to Amansinaya telling her stories of mermaids, crocodiles, and dragon. The five year old child was amazed by those stories that when the wind told her that the dragon that lived under the Asid was eager to meet her; the face of innocence was painted with the palette of curiosity. Follow the boat, it will take you there – the wind whispered in her mind, and the maiden voyage of her father’s boat was about to start.
The windows opened and the wind carried her toward the boat like a cat carries its own kitten. Then the wind hid her inside the casserole that’s on the boat along with other tributes to the Spirit of the Asid.
The villagers cheered loudly for the coming of age ritual of the boat. Their chants were reminiscence of a virginal offering to the sun god of Aztecs, wild and passionate. As the boat touched the water for the very first time, the feelings became complex; a myriad explosion of triumphs and uncertainties. They held their breath as the boat paddled its way; it didn’t shake even tremble far from an infant learning its first step. Eyes opened in bewilderment as it crawled over the waves on its perfect balance. Only a word left on their lips, a word meant for a question – survival.

13.
It was Egso Roberto who argued to name the boat Amansinaya not Kalipayon. He believed that Magkal will do everything to acquire his daughter and naming the boat just like his daughter will fool Magkal. The whole village laughed how foolish Egso Roberto thinks. They told him that if the boat will be sacrifice a hundred years of bad luck will come to their village. Its better to sacrifice a child’s life rather than the whole village’s fate, besides no one cares for Amansinaya it was only Egso Roberto.
He left with a cold shoulder believing from that very moment, the village decided for its own fate. A cold wind blew on his face as he left and it told him of what happened to Amansinaya.
Nagtuna na.

14.
He returned in daze, his face were the expression of an empty canvas – pale and weak. The villagers asked what happened; he pointed the boat and called his daughter’s name.

15.
On the first night of his search, he saw a silhouette of a crocodile. Cunning as it was, it silently swam like a snake slithers in the grass, and tales from fishermen who saw it says that in a blink of an eye it attacks. It attacks using its strong jaw, destroying the boat first then attack the hapless fisherman using its scaly tail. It sings if it senses fear while taking its prey underwater, and laughs if it senses its prey readiness to die. Most of the fishermen who disappeared in the gulf are said to be the victim of this crocodiles this includes his father.
A pair of red eyes emerged from the water. It sensed anger; it sensed retribution and it sense redemption. For the first time of its life, the crocodile shed tears and told him of Magkal, the father of Bunalak, the grandfather of Amansinaya, the Great Spirit of Asid.

16.
Magkal was the brother of Baconaua, the dragon. Unlike Baconaua who ate the sun every time she felt hungry, Magkal lived peacefully under the sea. Out of boredom he decided to create crocodiles, his first children.

17.
The crocodile bid farewell to him when the waves turned violent. Amansinaya rocked and moved in no directions. It swayed toward the coast, but he tried to steer the boat. Muscles from chopping woods were sufficient to control his boat away from danger.
“Kun ako sa langit lumapadon
Kandila an akon pagkaon”
It’s the same voice of her daughter he heard while he shivered.

18.
The wind is a trickster, an annoying trickster. He laughs at you when you cower in fear, he weeps with you if you remember someone, and he reads your mind toward his advantage. He’s mean. He’s a conniver. A good liar. Piece of advice don’t listen to him when you’re in the basin of the gulf.
Egso Roberto used to tell everyone who wanted to go to the basin, the Baba san Lawod.

19.
Rowing the boat required a great amount of energy that he almost consumed all his rations. Upon finishing his meal, he heard the silent lullaby. It was the sound underwater. The guidance of the male seahorse to its young, the father jellyfish which swam with his children, the bolinao playing hide and seek in the playful seaweeds with his offspring. The sound of being a father is what he heard.
For the first time on that first night of his search, he dreamed with eyes wide open, he dreamed Amansinaya.

20.
She danced over the gulf, calling out his name. Her sweet and innocent voice turned to be melancholic voice, a voice of longing, a voice desperately seeking for love. She was not little Amansinaya anymore but Amansinaya as a woman, grew in the presence of the wind and water that kissed him during the exploration. Water avoided her silver silk gown as she danced on the rhythm of the waves. The grace of her mother was bestowed on her, as she skipped with the flying fishes and danced on top of the scaly plates of saurian. The ebon-colored skin swayed and kissed the midnight wind. She grew up to be a beautiful lady. The feature of her face resembled like Olivia’s. It was beautiful as the radiance of moon in the company of the stars and calm as the midnight sky over Asid Gulf.
Itay, lolo took care of me. He’s been waiting for you… he’s been…
Her lithe hands moves in unison with the wind drawing in closer and closer to her heart, and she smiled. Her lips curved like Amansinaya. It was not a sweet smile rather a lonely one.
Take the wind Itay, it will bring you to lolo. She never opened her mouth.
He was about to receive the wind when he woke up. He cried for his daughter and he cried of guilt – he didn’t trust her daughter, more he begun to love her.
Sorry.

21.
They say that life is like traveling amongst the waves.
Love is written in the sand.
Winds whisper lies.

The second night is bulleted with riddles from the stars and the moon. On his village those are the words of the elders but he heard it always with Egso Roberto when he stress on something, may it be net knitting or playing hantak.
He was lost in the gulf, and the stars and the moon buzzed enigmatically. Amansinaya came to his mind, beautiful as her mother.

22.
The third night was about to end when the waves begun to ramble. How can a piece of bread calm its hunger? Bahala na, then a wave twenty feet tall with a ferocity of a hungry crocodile smashed on his boat.
The boat being stress and weak from battling the wind and the waves from the past few nights gave it up.

23.
Mermaids sang unknown dirges, for him songs from the gulf were dirges. Underwater, he closed his eyes.

24.
He felt the waves move under his body. He felt the roughness of this surface. Being safe and alive came to his mind, the familiar coolness on the surface reminded him of their house.
Before his father vanished, they were the richest family on that village. His father was able to build a house that has a cleanest kitchen. It was big enough to be his room. Best of all, it was the only kitchen that used tiles. He slept at the sink during those hot afternoons.
Maayo kay nagmata ka na,
The surface where he lay moved like the waves that made him to fall and stumble, until he realized he found himself in the body of a colossal creature. It moved away to the water, giving him enough space to defend himself if ever it will happen.

25.
It spoke in a hissing loud voice. A stream of water trembled on coldness as the giant snake speaks. Its tone is a mixture of coldness of its scales and boldness of its venom.
When it hissed, it was the wind that crosses Asid that brings deceit. The warmth of the gulf is due to his breath – a fiery one.
Afraid as he stood, he hid it to this creature. But how can he hide it every time that this serpent looked at him. An eye as big as a bilao and red as the flame, it looked right through his soul searching his deeds and emotions and slowly eating whatever it saw leaving only fear. A reflection of himself was slowly burning in the eyes of the snake. His whole persona was consumed by the snake until he noticed the limbs.
“Kun ako sa langit lumapadon
Kandila an akon pagkaon”

26.
He heard a legend of the serpent that crept from the cave of Mandaon to eat the sun - Baconao they called it. The people of that town noticed the earth trembled and saw the giant snake moved out, and they prayed. Lightning stroke the serpent as an answer for the faith of the people and turned the menace into stone. Today, the stoned snake welcomes spelunkers of the former lair of the Baconao, the devourer of sun.
He remembered his lola, a devout Catholic, one of the Marian devotee and uttered every verses of pasiyam and pasyon in Latin. She taught him once.
Pater noster, qui…es in caelo, sanci…ti…ficetur lomen tum. Adv… eniat reg…num tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sic…ut in ca… elis et in t…er…ra. Panem nostrum quo… tid…ia…num da no…vis bo…die, et dimitte no…bis debita…

27.
An akon guinahangyo
pagkamoot sa puso.
Amansinaya sang beautifully. Her eyes turned to blue, and the colossal serpent slithered towards her. Its long and slender forked tongue caressed her body. The tongue wrapped her body as its simplest way of comforting.
Kag kun magkadto sa hilayo
adi lang ako
nagapalangga sa imo.

Instead to hate the old dirge he was moved to tears. Her daughter only wish was to be loved. She knew that she was different - that her eyes turned to blue when she’s sad, that she can talk with the winds, a part of the Asid gulf and the granddaughter of Magkal, the dragon who lived under the Asid gulf, the creator of crocodiles and mermaid. All she wished is her father learns to love her. It was ten years ago that she became the gulf, ten years of waiting for her father to noticed her the same way he talked about the gulf every time he drinks tuba with their neighbor Egso Roberto. Ten years her father cursed the gulf. He never sailed or touched its water, she never felt his embrace. She never felt that she was loved by her father.
He drew the balaraw Egso Roberto gave to him. The dagger was five inches long, crude and rusted; its simplicity hid its purpose and story. Egso Roberto told him that it was found in Baconao’s stoned body after it was stroke by the lighting. The balaraw glowed like a firefly that lost on the rain, it shone brighter as he screamed and ran toward Magkal.
Now I hate him.

28.
Her name is Kaglibot and she told him the tale behind the ‘hatred’ of Magkal.
It was Magkal who called them the Spirit of Asid. The wind that moves in Asid is from Magkal’s own breath. The wind has its own life, its own mind. If the village feared the wind, they also feared Magkal. It was also Magkal that created waves, the way it moves is how the water dances and if he shouted the water trembles in fear producing bigger waves. It was the custom of the village to pay tribute to the Spirit to protect them not for bad luck but from the curse the villagers almost forgot.
Magkal created crocodiles to protect his lair, Baba san Lawod against the villagers. Afraid to die, the crocodiles he bred were cunning and attacked only those who ventured near his lair. Unknown to him, the crocodiles were voracious eaters. They never satisfy on what they eat. One of those crocodiles, Magnayon told the others that he wanted to eat the sun that he begun to move away from the lair until he reached the village of Tawad. The people were shocked in the presence of a saurian. One of the villager who had courage to face even a demon speared Magnayon, and before he died he cursed the village.
“My father, Magkal brother of Baconao will avenge the death of his son. The village’s favorite son will sire the destruction of this village.”
That event brought shocked to the whole village, a crocodile twenty feet long cursed that village. As the time passed, every one in the village forget the curse, it was only Egso Roberto who can remember it.
When Magkal learned the death of Magnayon, he created Bugnayon. She was created from the water and the wind gave her life.
Bugnayon was the fulfillment of Magnayon’s curse. She walked toward the village and found the favorite son of Tawad, a young and handsome boat maker. She lived with him and conceived a daughter, a union of water and flesh – the fulfillment of Magnayon’s curse.
It didn’t last long, Bugnayon returned to her father and Magkal punished her for eloping with a human, even conceiving a daughter. The Spirit turned her into a mermaid, but before she was turned into, Magkal ordered her to return to the village and gave her daughter to her father. A flesh must stay with flesh.
No one heard about Bugnayon, because of this Magkal missed its daughter, and summoned Amansinayana, its granddaughter.

29.
The balaraw found itself in between the scales of the dragon. Its limbs started to cripple. It shouted in agony as the weapon dug deeper and deeper cutting its flesh. It breath fire, it plunged its head toward the stream but it never attacked its attacker. Its whole body started to numb, slowly it felt that his flesh turned into stone. From the wound it spread like ripples over the gulf. Its red eyes that consumed his soul looked at Amansinaya with compassion and love before he finally closed and turned into stone.

30.
The gulf moved violently. Waves moved in different direction, and with a split of time, it ran towards the village of Tawad like bulls on the rush.
Panginoon, sa imo mga kamot guinahatag ko an akon kaluluwa. And Egso Roberto smiled one last time.

31.
She hated her father. She hated him.
She ran toward the colossal statue of Magkal, even in death she felt the compassion and love of her grandfather.

32.
He was shocked. He wanted to hug his daughter but hatred drove her daughter away from him. He wanted to kill himself just to redeem what he was done. He was there just to save her daughter and to be with her again, but now it was lost, it was lost forever to him.

33.
She drew the balaraw from Magkal’s body. She wanted to kill her father but a surge of ether was consumed by her body. Her slender bones started to expand, the bones on her limbs shortened. Her flesh bulged constricting her breath dropping her on the ground. Her lungs begun to boil, she felt fire razed on her veins. The skin changed its color from light to dark, from smooth to rough eventually turning into scales. The once ebon-colored hair started to fall. And she grew.
When she stood up, she was on her limbs. And when she spoke fires came out from her mouth.
What I have done?
I hate you, I hate you! And she hissed.