VANGUARDIA

Chapter 9

Regina's POV

"Regina.. "

A low voice brought me to consciousness. I didn't even remember falling asleep. I tried to open my eyes and squinted them to adjust to the presence of light which I am sure is not within the four corners of my bedroom.

"Regina, panahon na.."

I found myself lying at the ground under an old tree. Confused, I moved to sit and take on the surroundings. Where am I?

Nakailang linga ako sa paligid. I am in the middle of a barren land. The tree above me is dying as well, its dried leaves are falling off to the ground.

I stood up and remove the dirt in my hair and clothes. Where did I get this? I am in a flowy all-white dress.

"Regina."

The voice is nearer now. Lumingon ako and there I saw him. He is one of the elders who leads the island. I was five when I last saw his face, but I know him.

Vanguardias have wide range of abilities one can imagine. If you are living in a magical world, anything is possible. And there are like three levels of power.

The elders are considered the wise men of our community and the group with the highest level of ability. They can go back to the past, can even change it but with a consequence that no one knows the extent of. No one dared to do it or that is what I am aware of. In war, they are the intelligence as they can ruin any plans the enemy made in the past. They just have to go back at the perfect time to know about it.

Since there is no war, to put this ability to good use, they decided to make a study on Vanguardia destinies.

They have this theory that our destiny keeps repeating and they have years long of study to prove it. Someone who was born thousands of years ago may have the same destiny as mine. Going back and forth to the past and write books about each Vanguardia with remarkable fate became their community mission. These books will be the reference for future generations. That is why if we have questions about what's going on in our life, they may have answers in one of those books.

Ali was one of them. Even outside our island, he is doing his role to the community: going back and forth to the past; writing his portion of that book. Basically, he is training to be one of those wise men so he could lead in the near future. That is until his soulmate died and there is expectation that he'll follow anytime. They cannot risk him dying while in the past because it can trigger some changes if they found his body there.

Meanwhile, I am a life giver of forest, in our language "tagapanatili ng buhay ng kagubatan". This is the most common ability. For better analogy, we are the rank and file in the community. I hate to say "weakest" but that's just what we are. We are in the lowest level because that's all we can do: grow plants. If creative ka, baka mas madami magawa mo like the one I did during that accident.

In between the Vanguardias who can go and change the past and the Vanguardias who can give life to the island, we have healers, warriors, gatekeepers and many more. Gatekeepers are the bearers of the keys to the other dimension. We passed a certain gate when going into the human world.

"Nakita mo na siya." That woke me up from thinking.

"Who? Where are we?" I asked.

He smiled a little. "Isang tao. Hmm."

Oh, he's talking about the soulmate which I ignored.

He continued, "At nasa ating tahanan tayo, Regina, gumamit ka ng tamang wika."

Tamang wika? Tahanan?

"Nasa isla tayo. Huwag mo sabihin, nakalimutan mo na?" sabi nya at sabay kaming tumingin sa malawak na kapatagan na may nanunuyot na lupa. Lahat ng maabot ng mata namin, walang buhay. Tumingala ako sa malaking punto na unti unti pa ring nalalagas.