OLYMPIANS' LOST PROGENIES

CHAPTER TWELVE - Mt. Malinao

Just like what Emma explained, we waited for the not ordinary creatures at the top of Mt. Malinao. We waited for the night to fall and we only have fruits as meal. The claypot provided everything like the usual. We hid behind a huge acacia tree surrounded by thick rows of orange marigolds. Emma said the flowers' scent would be beneficial for them because they would confuse the creatures and hide their human smell.

Unlike at Mt. Banahaw, creatures here were fewer. I saw a one-eyed giant which Emma called 'Bungisngis' or in the northern part of Davao, 'Mahentoy'. This giant looked like he was lost and the other tiny creatures were making fun of him because he looked like crying. I guess it was a baby giant.

Barry didn't enjoyed the sight. He was silent all the time and I think all he was thinking was to finished the Task given to us. When a huge balete tree slowly emerged from the earth, Barry moved as if he was ready to ran to the entrance. I saw May grabbed his shoulder and they gave each other a meaningful glance.

"Get ready!" May whispered as we waited for all the creatures to enter the balete.

"One..." I heard Barry said.

"Two..." May said after.

"Three!" Barry and May chorused.

We all ran as quick as we could. May and Barry entered first and I followed next. Logan was at the very rear telling Emma to hurry up. When we entered the other side, I expected the same disgusting things I saw back at Mt. Banahaw's balete. But this one was never like that. This place was a vast land of gray and white stones. The canopy were made of rough-looking flaky stones with irregular pits where gray light was passing through. Debris and powdery things fell from above. When we started walking, the ground was wet and there was a small river ahead of us.

"What is this place?" Barry asked himself. I looked around, trying hard to figure out where were we. But how could I know? I'm not like Nicole who knew everything because she loves going to Library. And also, like Emma. Wait, like Emma?

"This is it!" Emma said excitedly. "This is the way to Aswang's Throne!"

"You know the way?" May asked seriously.

"Of course!" Emma said, walking ahead. But she turned her back and looked at us. "Better if our leader comes first." She looked at Barry.

Barry lead followed by May once more. Then I am the third again. I heard Logan letting Emma to go ahead before him. After a while, I heard them following us.

There was no trail guiding us. We just walked ahead while Emma instructed us where to turn or what to look at. When we reached the end of the ground, a vast stone cliff met our eyes.

"We need to climb up!" Emma said, almost in a command.

"Wait, is there another way to get there?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's not safe to climb up without a harness or something?" Logan added.

"There were many dangerous things we've met on the way here. A cliff as high as this won't be deadly like the giant snake, or that lake." Barry said. I heard his voice shook when he said the word 'lake'. He started climbing the cliff.

Fortunately, the surface of the cliff was not as smooth as it looked. There were small irregular-shaped grooves where we could fit our hands in which helped us to lift ourself a bit easy. A couple of hour passed and I heard Barry yelling at us.

"I'm on a platform!" He said.

I looked around and noticed that our surroundings started to get hazy. It was darkening the place but the gray light from the pits above still managed to give us a little light. When I reached the platform where Barry said he was on, we heard Logan yelling from the way down. May was already with Barry and both of them gave me a hand and lifted me into the flat ground.

"Logan?" Barry yelled.

"Emma?" I yelled loudly.

"Help me!" Logan screamed. We heard him saying something but it was hard to understand them. "Keep going! Emma's gonna kill us all!" He yelled before we heard him screaming while falling.

"Just as I thought." May said to no one. She sounded like she's expecting this things to happen. "Barry, Jimuel, we have to keep going. Come on."

We hurried our steps, but only to see that there was another cliff and we need to climb up again.

"We can do this!" Barry looked at me.

I grabbed the first groove I saw and lifted my body with full strength. We kept on progressing as we started to hear Emma bellowing.

"Keep going bastards! I'll kill you all when I get to you!" Emma sounded very angry.

I kept on thinking what happened to her. She looked alright just before.

"I'm coming!" Emma screamed so loud, it was like she's a huge monsters ready to eat us.

Then we heard a swooping sound from the bottom. We hurried. The haze started to get thick but it was moving downward. Everything above became clear. We were near the top and never wasted a single second to reach it.