Rewrite the Star

Chapter 12 - Freed

Datu Khuali was the chief of Bayug. He was known to be a fearless leader who would risk everything to gain power. He took Lisuga to his abode and made her one of his servants. He found her very extraordinary that his fondness of her grew. He offered her to be his wife, but she refused. The chief was furious that he ordered his soldiers to whip her and drown her in the sea until she would agree to his terms. However, she was very determined of not acceding his proposal that the chief forcefully wed her. He knocked her down and took her to his bedchamber to deflower her.

That midnight, arrows came swooshing outside Lisuga's hut and the guards were unable to dodge the sudden attack. When Dumagan entered Lisuga's room, she was feeling disconsolate, but she willed herself to escape from her dreadful incident.

They wandered up north and trekked along the nippy brooks with lush flowery shrubs growing beside it. As they followed the trail, they found a log lying on a crevice. They passed through it, then they crossed another stream. They rested for a while and drank water from the basin of a small cascading waterfall. After the break, they climbed up to a steeper dirt path. At the top, they found again another stream. Unfortunately for them, a rain started dripping from the sky that they had to ran slowly to search for shelter until they stumbled to a 'skull-shaped' waterfall. The water was flowing from the forehead passing by the two eye-like sockets, then moved along to the nose ridge and eventually reached its jaw, where at the bottom was a pool basin collecting the waterfall.

They silently mounted inside the slippery 'eye' and Lisuga did not wish any help from Dumagan. He knew then that she was angry. He tried to explain to her that he was drugged with candu by his new master. He was able to escape but it took him days to recover. However, Lisuga was still reluctant to speak to him. Albeit the cold breezy night, she managed to sit quietly inside the cave and fell asleep.

The next morning, Dumagan found Lisuga bathing in the midst of the pool basin. Then he noticed that she was rubbing her bare-naked skin with bark skin. He hurriedly went down to stop her from wounding herself.

"Stay right there!" She shouted.

"What is wrong? Did I do something? Please tell me," he replied worryingly.

She turned around to look at him but her teary eyes were full of hate and disgust, wanting to die because of shame. "I feel impure."

Then he realized what had happened to her. "Forgive me. I failed you. It pains me to see you like this. Although I do not know how to console you in this matter, I will kill him whoever that man is." He surfaced to the ground and added, "When I come back, I hope you are resting well."