The Legend of Kawayan

Once there was a man, he was like any other man in the tribe of Mactan. His name was Kawayan. He was a strong, solid man, with a body built for working, hunting and scavenging, but not for battle, never for battle. He led a simple life, and like any commoner it was his duty serve the chieftain, Lapu-Lapu.

But one day this would all change, and it is I, gentlemen, who shall tell you the story of a commoner who became a warrior, a warrior who became a hero and a hero... who was forgotten. And now my brothers, this story begins.

Kawayan woke up early, or at least he perceived it as early, for during those days it was impossible to know the exact time. Interestingly enough, he woke up to the same sounds every morning. The singing birds, the splashing waves, the laughing children and every other thing you'd here on a quiet, seaside village. When he was but an infant he was afraid of these sounds, but as he grew up he had become accustomed to it, and now it was a sort of melody that he couldn't live without. It formed a sort of symphony that reminded him of reality. He than continued his daily activities in a happy mood.

His whole day was going on in the same planned fashion that it had always been, nothing was out of place, everything was going the way it should go.

And this was how his day was until noon (or what Kawayan perceived as noon). This was when a voice called him.

It was a woman's voice and was not much louder than a whisper, but to Kawayan it sounded like someone yelling. "Kawayan, we need you." the voice called.

Kawayan collapsed, he was lying down on he ground with his ears to his ears. "Kawayan, listen to us." the voice called, it was cold and forbidding.

"Kawayan, we need you." it was still a woman's voice but it was different, it was gentle, quiet "Kawayan, please listen to us."

And with that Kawayan got up and answered "I'm listening, please continue."

"We need your help... we are all... in danger." the gentle voce replied "Only you... can... stop this..."

"Stop what? Who are you?" Kawayan asked. "Look at the skies, what do you see?" the cold voice commanded. "I see two women, they're made out of clouds." Kawayan replied.

He pondered on what this meant for a couple of minutes and upon realizing it he said "You're the women of the forest. The diwata."

And out of nowhere two beautiful women appeared, one with long fair hair and a pleasant smile and one with short, cropped hair and a scowl.

"You are correct, Kawayan, we are the diwata." the woman with fair hair said. Kawayan stumbled backwards a minute ago he was talking to voices and now he was talking to two magical women.

"We need you to follow us." the woman with cropped hair said "We shall lead you to the danger we spoke of." Kawayan followed them without questions, he was too puzzled to think clearly.

And they led him to the danger, or if you're not satisfied with that to the ocean. There were several huge ships heading in their direction, but at the time the ships seemed miniscule.

"What do you see Kawayan?" the long haired woman asked.

Kawayan replied "I see 4 or 5 balangay with rooves heading this way, inside them there are tiny white men."

At first sight they looked harmless, and they might as well have been. The vessel these white men were in looked like any balangay.

It took Kawayan several minutes to realize that those men weren't tiny, in fact they were quite the opposite. "Those men aren't tiny are they?" Kawayan asked "That means the balangay are huge."