Cradle of the Valiant (Duyan ng Magiting)

CH 5 - HOUSE ON THE FLOATING ROCK

The building blocks are arranging themselves on top of one another and the little girl would lazily knock them down again.

She sleepily looked outside the hut but all she could make out are faint outlines of constantly shifting shapes.

The cat jumped in her lap and she absently stroked her fur. The feline purred contentedly and languidly stretched.

"Go chase a mouse or something," she commanded.

The cat looked at her belligerently and answered.

"What am I, an animal?" She licked the back of her paws as she said it.

Rai raised her left eyebrow but said nothing. She went back to rearranging the blocks. The shapes outside the window moved according to the blocks movements.

The hut looked like a little bamboo house from the outside but it folds and bends in space and time and the inside is like a small island.

It even has its own pocket weather.

It is constructed of 8,888,888 bamboo slats all inscribed with strange markings and because of the way it folds in spacetime, anyone who would happen to wander here would see a single stick embedded on the rock.

The rock itself is part of the ancient fragments that came from the beginning of creation.

It floats everywhere...and nowhere.

The house has three inhabitants: Rai, Xien the Cat and...

"Hrmmm....Good morning, you two."

An old guy came near the two holding a steaming cup of coffee and a saucer with rice cakes.

As soon as he sat down, the empty air below him was filled with a chair. He set the cup and the saucer down on the empty air in front of him and they floated.

"That looks sooo weird!" exclaimed Rai who got up from the floor and sat across the old guy.

Another chair materialized from under her.

"What's weird? The coffee?" the old guy asked.

"Noooo...the invisible table, dumdum." She gestured at the empty air between them and an ornate wooden table appeared.

Xien jumped on top of it and took a bite at a rice cake.

"Will you eat like a civilized person?" The old guy irritably snatched the saucer away.

A bib magically appeared on the cat's neck and she took another bite even as the old guy was trying to take the rice cakes far from the cat's reach.

The look he threw at the cat was as dark as a moonless night.

"What. You said civilized." Xien plucked at her bib.

Rai burst out laughing.

The old guy was poker faced.

"Come on, dude...Xien was only teasing you because you always take it seriously".

"Don't dude me. I have a name, thank you."

"Thank you is really a weird name," the cat interrupted.

"I will pay you to keep quiet."

"If I had a nickel for every time you said that, I'd be rich," Xien countered. "Oh wait, I actually have every nickel for the time you have said that! I am rich!" She jumped with seeming joy. "Pay up, grumpy old man."

The old guy threw a nickel at the cat and it hit her forehead.

"Ouch," she said as she chased the coin as it rolled.

The old man looked at Rai and spoke seriously.

"The fold we have been waiting for is at hand. Be prepared."

"Aww...must I? I like it here. It is peaceful," Rai pouted.

"We have been prisoners here. The peace you are talking about is just the calm before the storm. Be ready. The fold comes in 12 hours. I have prepared everything you need. Whatever you want to bring, you have to decide now."

"Can I bring the waterfall?" Rai pointed at the waterfall near them. It starts from empty air and lands at empty air but it was moving nonetheless. The water cascades beautifully downward but it seems like the river where it flows is nowhere to be seen.

"Seriously?" the old guy looked at her sternly.

"You said whatever I liked..." she murmured petulantly.

"I don't recall saying that", he said shortly.

He brought out a small, brown drawstring bag, undid the knots and took out a cellphone and handed it to her.

"A cellphone, really?" she sounded amused and annoyed at the same time.

"You know it is only a representation of the way you see the world, Rai. That's why it has to be you. Your mind is unique in that it can channel the mystical forces necessary to cross the Nexus of Realities."

"I don't understand any of it but if you say so..." she said dubiously.

"It's all there. All you have to do is bring it to the Gate of Transformation and the portals will be generated."

"And the 8 warriors will be there?" she looked outside, trying to imagine what their first meeting would be like.

"For all our sake, I hope they will be," he also looked outside.

"You are not sure?" She seemed alarmed.

"Everything has happened according to the Chronicles of Time but the random have a way of happening sometimes," he said mysteriously.

"I don't like random!" She crossed her hands in front of her.

"The certain comes with the uncertain. Such is the nature of things. Enough complaining. As I said, prepare for the trip. You have a long journey ahead of you."

Xien suddenly poked her head from the end of the table.

"Where we goin?" She grinned as best as a cat could.

"Can I take that one?" Rai pointed at the cat.

"Certainly." He barely concealed his elation.

"Could you not look so happy?" Xien grumbled.

"I am not. I will be devastated when you're gone," he declared solemnly.

"Hypocrite!" Xien jumped on the table and took away one rice cake.

"Be careful out there, Rai. The Chronicles will give us a little insight from time to time but remember that once you enter that world, there will be no reset. Real history is about to begin and we don't know how it will go. Your action and that of the others shall determine that."

"I will meet them again for the first time. I hope they will like me."

"They will all adore you. Trust me," he smiled.

"Apo, when I take the cellphone to the gate, it will become my new world, isn't it? What will it be called?"

His eyes clouded as if remembering something. When he answered, there was an unmistakable note of pride in his voice.

"The Cradle of the Valiant."