The lady who sleeps in the water

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There are two types of tree that are considered sacred or cursed in pohnpei. One is the aiou tree. Aiou has roots growing from the branches. It looks like a tree with long hair. Since lihmwodeleng has long hair this tree kind of resembles her hair. The other tree is an  exotic kind of nut tree called mworop. These two trees are considered  sacred or cursed because lihmwodeleng inhabits these two trees. The islanders cut down these trees if they were near their houses. If it was not cut down, their children would get sick or possessed.

There was a family who lived beside a stream. They had a simple home for a large family. They lived in their land for years. But once in a while one of the children would get sick. The couple who lived there had eight children, six boys and two girls.

Beside the stream grew the mworop tree. The children loved to climb on it and played in the tree. The parents didn't mind them playing in the mworop. But the neighbors tried to tell the parents that the mworop tree is sacred and the children shouldn't play in it. But the parents didn't listen to the neighbors. They thought that the neighbors were insane and superstitious.

Every day the children would play in the tree and everyday the neighbors kids would stop playing with them.

Nick was the oldest of the eight children. He was sixteen years old. He was daring and adventurous. Being the oldest, he had the advantage of controlling his other siblings. The children would never defy nick. They were afraid of him.

One day the children were playing hide and seek and it was starting to get dark. Their mother called out to them to go get cleaned up and ready for supper.

"After supper, when mom and dad goes to bed and when they think we are sleeping, you guys meet me here under the mworop." Nick told his three younger brothers.

" What if we get caught?" The youngest one asked nick.

" We won't. Trust me."

"What are we going to do in the night and dark?" They asked nick.

Nick just smiled and they went ahead to get cleaned up.
Everyone got cleaned up and was now sitting at table. They ate their suppers with small talks and after supper the children headed to bed.

After one hour, nick got out bed and waked his brothers up. They crept silently out the backdoor and headed toward the mworop.

"Okay let's play hide and seek. But were playing in the tree." Nick said.

" What? We've never played in the night before nick?" The brothers said.

"Never mind that. We will play in the tree." Nick demanded.

So they climbed the tree and started playing. Nick was the one who's going to seek them. The three brothers hid themselves in the tree.
Nick counted to ten and climbed the tree. He checked the first branches , no one. The next high branches ..still no one. He climbed until he reached the highest branch.

He called but there was no one. He was starting to get frustrated now. He checked every inch of the highest branches. But there was still no one.

Finally he gave up. Nick started to climb back down. He almost reached the bottom branch when he heard a smirk beside him. He turned around to where the smirk came from, but there was no one. Just as he was about to turned his head back..

Pow!!
Someone hit his face. He looked around but there was no one.
He continued climbing down when he heard someone laughing from the top branch.
Nick looked up and saw a figure at the top branch looking down on him. He tried to fasten his trip down but the figure started to move. It was climbing down the tree but it was too fast. Nick tried to scream but the figure had caught up to him.
The figure was an old woman. She grabbed him and after that possessed his body.

The next day the parents found Nick's body lying under the mworop. His body was covered in bruises. They took him inside and looked for the other brothers.

It was after three hours when nick woke up. His parents were crying and also his two sisters. But his brothers were standing behind them but they were staring at nick. Beside the brothers stood a woman. She was beautiful and was wearing  a red dress. He asked his parents why they were crying.

"Nick where are your brothers?" His mother sobbed.

" They're behind you mother."

But the mother just sobbed. Nick told then that his brothers were behind them but they thought he was going crazy.
Nick would talk all day to this woman and his brothers but his family only saw him talking to himself.
Nick lost his mind. He lost his brothers and at night this old woman would torture him. But his parents didn't understand because what they saw was nick hurting himself.
He lived the rest of his life acting like a crazy person all because he didn't listen to the pleas of his brothers to not play in the tree at night.
After the parents gave up looking for their three sons, the father decided to cut down the mworopw tree. He cut the tree down and burned the roots.
But if he had listened to the neighbors warning he wouldn't have lost his other sons.