My brain couldn't grasp what Saga said last night. It lingers in my head even now that I'm trying to cook breakfast inside my dorm room near the window. But food is much more important than Saga. So I focused on my cooking than his... what? Is it even a proposal? An invite? "Ugh! never mind! Food first! Food first!!"
So, I focus on stirring my onions, garlic, green and red bell pepper and cilantro until they are fragrant. Adding in my marinated ground beef from last night on the veggies and giving another good stir until the beef is well incorporated and covering it for atleast 10-15 minutes or until the beef sweats. I added in my day-old, left over rice on the mixture. Coating it well with the beef's juices or until everything is mixed well. Adding in salt and ground white pepper, and oyster sauce, another stir and I set it aside. I turn off my induction cooker off, started prepping for my lunch box.
Along the way upon preparing my lunch box, River started to rustle underneath her duvet from last night's drunken coma. I hear her stand as she slowly make her way to where our tiny table is located and sits on the chair. I turn to her and I almost laugh when I see her still asleep, but still sitting straight. Wow, I didn't know that my cooking can wake the dead? Or the drunk?
As soon as I finish my bento, I prepared our breakfast on a plate for us. Setting River's infront of her. As soon as my hand left her plate, her eyes open blearily. As bleary as it looks, she takes in her place and is suprised to see that she is about to get her breakfast. I almost smile as I say, "You sleep walked to the table for breakfast. Did you know that?" I finish as I give hers, her cup of instant coffee, the one we bought yesterday. The smell of the coffee seemed to get her mind working to form a coherent sentence as she says, "Yeah, it's a condition I developed whenever I was drunk beyond awakening..." she finish slugishly as she takes a drink from her cup. Taking it in to herself for a moment as I wait for her sleeping brain to rewire itself for the moment. "Ahh..." sighing happily to herself. "This coffee is really good? What is this?" She asks, looking at the label. "Nescafé 3n1 coffee. This is really good! I like it!" And drinks some more. After finishing her coffee, she scoffed down the stir-fried rice I made for her, sighing as she spoons it in to her mouth, moaning silently. I couldn't help but laugh at her antics as if it's her first time eating breakfast. "What? It's delicious! I didn't know you can cook like this? It's so good! What's that?" Pointing at the bento on my side.
"Oh, this? It's our lunch." Getting the lunch boxes and hands one to her.
She opens it and sees burrito wraps, pickled green papaya with raisins, carrots and bell peppers and a caramelized platain for dessert in two separate bento boxes. River's jaw drops as soon as she realizes that she also have one for herself. It almost cost my eardrums when a sudden squeal came out from her and jumps on her seat as she says, "I have my own bento! I have my own bento!"
"Calm down or I won't cook for you anymore?" She did as she was told. "Here drink this," handing her the cold ginger juice I made earlier. "It's ginger juice. Boiled, crushed ginger with calamansi, and honey. It's good for hang-overs. Finish it so we can go to our work. It's our first day today so we better not be late.
And so we start our day at work.
**
"Come on, Luna..." River whines, as she eats the lunch I have prepared for us. "...tell me what happened last night when you and Saga were by the bonfire?"
She have been bothering me since after breakfast rush, when the people starts to trickle down. River wouldn't stop pestering me since she couldn't find me last night and later found me by the bonfire with Saga beside me. I guess it would not be a bad thing if I tell her. Besides, I have not decided the answer yet; to what Saga wants from me. So, I tell River everything.
**
After awhile, River is gaping at me, disbelief showing on her face. "You have not given him your yes?" She asks after sometime.
I can't help the blush coming off of me. "What can I say? I don't even know the guy yet to go on a date with him? And..." averting my eyes not letting her see my warm flush face, "I've never been asked on a date before. Ever." I murmured.
River's eyebrows shot up when she realizes that I have no experience with boys. At all. After a few seconds of silence, she suddenly stand up and hold my hands and says, "I will help you steal the heart of Saga Mondragon! Trust me!"
Now, it's my turn to raise my brows up to my forehead and gape at her. "River, I-I don't want to steal the heart of someone, or anyone for that matter." I groan out. "I just-I don't know, get to know him first? If he is really that serious in getting to know me, then I will say yes to a date."
River, looks at me in seriousness, then she nods after a deep thought. "I think you have a point. You need to get to know him as a friend first, right?"
"Right." I replied, smiling shyly. Glad that she gets it.
"Well then, why not hang out with him first?" She asks.
"Hang out? How?" I inquire.
"Let me do the planning." She says and smiles at me.
Well, I don't think it's a bad idea, so I let her.
**
Tonight is a fullmoon and I couldn't sleep. I glance at River's side and she's in a deep sleep. I need to get my restlessness out of my system or I will stay awake 'till the morning comes and I will be of no use if I plan to go to work that way. So, I hop out of our dorm room and sneak out of the building to the nearby forest.
I soon as I found a clearing, I sat in the middle and let the full moonlight shine down on my being. I feel the solemnity and serenity it brings. As if it is urging me to let out the real me. The fullmoon gives me peace and santuary that I have never known before. And I am happy because of it.
By the next fullmoon, it will be my 18th birthday. It will also be the day that the social worker will release me from the system and I will be completely on my own, I couldn't wait to be out of their hair anyway.
My solitude is interrupted by the rustle of the leaves and snapping of twigs on the forest floor somewhere nearby. I did not open my eyes until I feel something behind me; quietly observing me. I slowly open my eyes afraid that whatever I see, I hope that it's not an axe murderer lurking near the campus grounds; because technically I'm still inside the campus grounds. Turning my head slowly, but before I could completely see what's behind me, I heard a deep warning growl. All of my bodily hair rises to the intensity of the growling. My body is at full alert. Heart beating furiously, to the point of uncontrollable panic. Cold sweats, spurting in every crook and canny of my body. My face, warm, despite the chilling evening. And here I am, sitting in the middle of a clearing with a growling animal behind my back. How the heck an animal get inside the campus in the first place? I feel warm huffs fanning at the back of my tangled bed-hair as it slowly sniffs my nape and neck. I hear the silent crunch of the soil beneath its feet as it slowly prowl around me until I am fully facing a... wolf!
A huge black wolf!?
*****
End of Chapter 3
*Have you ever seen a wolf before?
*What do you think you need to do when you are facing a wolf for the first time?
*How are you going to relate this to yourself if you were in Luna's place?
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YOU ARE READING
RISE OF BAKUNAWA(Saga's Luna Story)
Hombres LoboThey say monsters are real. Some says it's just fiction. But what if one of it is true? What will you do once you uncover the truth? Will you deny it or will you... go with it? == Luna grew up as an orphan. No family, no background. The forest range...
