Promises are said to benefit your own image

25 July 2014

Usually, I am uneasy when my shoes are dirty. At this moment, I feel no such thing. I feel perfectly okay even when my shoes are dirty. 

I just heard the word kasaysayan over the radio. It holds more meaning than its English counterpart, history. History pertains to the story of man. Kasaysayan denotes happenings of the past that has meaning. As if it justifies that whatever occurs will have its meanng only when it has already happened. Only those that come true become meaningful, there is no other arena for the presentation of truth other than the reality where we are in today.

I hope I could become better at describing how wonderful each day You make is. I've been constantly running out of words. Since the past few days when prayer became so common and natural than something routine or a responsibility I should fulfill, my days have been much more. It evolved from being night and day, an obligatory passing of time you should make the best of. You know well that this would end. I do too. Hopefully, I can make the best of the ride.

For that, I owe You one story. The story goes that once there were 3 princesses in a magical kingdom. The oldest princess, Princess Coral, decided to go to a training camp on a faraway land to enhance her fighting skills, leaving the younger princesses to defend its people from monsters.

It has been observed by the kingdom's advisers that the forest creates a monster per month. To prevent these monsters from attacking the people at the same time, the kingdom's council formulated a system to lure only one monster out of the forest for a fight with one of the princesses. They assigned one of the chambermaids this monster regulation task. Chambermaid Bliss was designated to keep the monster within the forest until a princess is prepared to defeat it and to lure it to the battleground when a princess is ready to fight it off.

You would ask, why should the princesses fight these monsters? Don't they have knights and soldiers? Like all other kingdoms, they do have knights and soldiers, but only those with royal blood can successfully bring these monsters to rest.

But Bliss, with her other tasks, easily forgets or rather, opts to forget, the task of calling out these monsters out of the forest. Afterall, who would want to deal with monsters? Besides, chambermaids do no such things in other kingdoms. They only deal with routine house chores and help in monitoring the supplies of the kingdom and, because the castle hires a number of chambermaids, Bliss has plenty of working hours to spare for personal matters such as fitting on the princesses' clothes, filching off produce from the castle's silo, sampling all the dishes from the royal kitchen, gossiping and lording over other chambermaids and stable boys and, sleeping. These unobserved activities of hers are unknown to the council that they entrusted her with the menial and dangerous but nevertheless important task because for all her deficiencies. Let's simply say that Bliss is an expert in projecting an image among her superiors that evokes their trust.

The month of Fevrier was about to end. Princess Diamond said she would deal with monster Januar when she saw that Princess Cloud was gearing up for the fight with any of monsters Januar or Februar.

Monster Januar was a 20-foot two-sided scaly dragon. By two sided, Januar had no back. It had two faces, two chests, two arms and hands and two legs and feet. Januar looked like two dragons glued back to back. Its arms could bend to an L from the front or from the back, so could its knees. And at the end of its legs, though it only has a pair of feet, it runs both ways, 3 sets of curved black claws on the front and four webbed toes on the opposite side. And its four fingers that were spirally covered with nails are very agile, probably because of ball and socket joints. The downside was it has a poor sense of balance because it had no tail and without a backside, it does not have wings.

Februar didn't look anything like Januar. It had big eyes on its face. In fact it had no other facial feature other than its eyes which occupied 70% of its round head. Its skin was moist and slimy and though it has no nose or mouth, you could hear its raspy breathing. Or was it moaning? If there was no hunch on its back, it would have stood 50 feet tall. Februar was so bent over, his forehead almost touched his feet. He had no appendages but was cylindrical from its head down. Febrar had no neck.

The ochre Januar, tripped and fell flat on one of its faces. Februar was struck with a stone on each eye. It promptly died. Princess Cloud slayed monster Februar even before Princess Diamond decided to face monster Januar by poking her javelin spear on the sole of its right foot to its dying breath.

Soon it was Mars and, because Bliss was not diligent in leading the monster as she was directed, monster Marz came out of the forest as the council feared. That afternoon, Princess Cloud was out with her chestnut mare on the clearing south of the forest by Lake Nyakar. The charcoal-armored Marz was blazing orange and red and its beady eyes were located on where a human's ears would normally be. Princess Cloud led monster Marz to Lake Nyakar. Submerged, Marz crumbled into the pieces of fish feed it became shortly after.

It was already Mai, the 5th month, and it was almost over. On the north of the forest, from the castle, the residents could hear the hollering of monster Avril and the less menacing roars of the still developing monster Mayo. Princess Diamond may be ignoring these threats but Princess Cloud could not tolerate it anymore. She thought, it would be the 7th month when Princess Coral returns. This implies that Princess Cloud had already slain 2 of the three monsters she should be killing. From the last scroll Princess Coral sent, she promised Princess Cloud that she wouldn't have to deal with these monsters again because on her honor, she, Princess Coral, pledges to pursue monster-slaying. If Princess Coral killed monster Avril, that would mean monster Mayo and the still to be formed monster Juni should be Princess Diamond's responsibility. As the youngest princess, Princess Cloud informed Princess Diamond that she'll deal with Avril and leave the rest to her. Princess Diamond agreed.

Before it was the next day, Princess Cloud sent Avril eating dust after two swift blows before it had walked 3 feet away from the south edge of the forest.

Currently, it is the month of Julliet and Princess Coral is back, with a week-long merriment welcome from the entire kingdom. In the midst of the celebration, the still undead monsters Mayo and Juni attacked the town square. Mayo was a formless blob which stood five times the height of the tallest horse in the kingdom. Suddenly, Princess Diamond unsheathed the sword of her guard to face Mayo. Princess Coral made it her responsibility to lead the people to safety. Princess Cloud then had to shoulder the task of beckoning Juni back to the forest which, if you could still recall, should be accomplished by Bliss, who at the moment was petrified on the spot with the bread she was devouring one after the other as she kept enumerating its bad points fell off her mouth. It had been tough for the three princesses.

When Princess Cloud made it back to the castle, she was told that the council found her negligent of her duties as monster-slayer since the monster, Juni, was still alive. As Princess Cloud was leading Juni back to the forest with the intention of claiming its life, Juni knew of the trails in the forest better and was able to escape to its retreat where it nursed its fatal wound as it was ailing loudly.

This proof of its life was able to convince the council of Princess Cloud's laziness. It covered up the agreement between Princess Cloud and Princess Diamond that both monsters should be killed by Princess Diamond for their share of 3 monsters each. Princess Cloud also thought that killing Juni would be to Princess Diamond's dishonor and that would only bring Princess Diamond to a bad light. But because Princess Diamond killed Mayo before the kingdom though it was her duty to kill it a month ago, last Juin, the kingdom was impressed by her efficient battling ability and forgot that it should have died a month ago. And because Princess Cloud was with Juin and Princess Diamond already ended Mayo's life, the people were now expecting her to finish Juin off.

All the while, Princess Cloud held her tongue on the agreement between her and Princess Diamond since her sister did not even show signs that the agreement occured between them even on the private talk with their elder sister Princess Coral. Princess Diamond did not even defend her younger sister before any of her accusers all the while Princess Cloud thought of not exposing her negligence of her duties before anybody. Princess Diamond however thought of telling Princess Coral how Princess Cloud had always done Bliss' assignment. Princess Coral said she would, from now on, regulate the monsters and she made a list on a clay tablet of the division on monster-slaying. Princess Cloud knew that she would keep on fufilling Bliss' duty anyway as Princess Coral would be preoccupied with the dam construction. As opposed to Princess Coral's verbal pledge, only Princesses Diamond and Cloud would face the monsters alternately from the month of Juillet to Decembre. Then she said that among the three of them, there should be fairness before she said that each monster should be killed three weeks after the month it was created to which the assigned slayers agreed. The princess who would finish within the assigned period would be given a feast. The one who wouldn't finish the task on time would throw a ball.

After completing the tablet of the transaction, Princess Coral claimed the talisman of each dead monster from her sisters. Princess Diamond's two talismans were already on the table. Princess Cloud pulled from her pocket three talismans. She did not speak a word but was hoping that Princess Coral would notice how it was not fair that she had already killed three and was still expected to kill multi-headed, poison spewing serpent Juni and Juli after that because Princess Diamond would have her retreat on the month of Aout.

Is it fitting to end it this way or should it still be continued?