We ended up staying the night at lola’s hut, but we had to look for food in other places as we didn’t know which ones were mixed with her blood.

Once we’ve had some fruit that we’ve picked off of nearby trees, we had set out to travel once more.

I was moping the whole time. Whatever happened yesterday was finished. It cannot be undone. But a sense of guilt and sadness still hung over me.

“I-It’s my entire fault – us being stuck in this weird world, lola dying…”

Andres handed me a white cloth. I thanked him and reached out for it. I used his handkerchief to wipe my tears and to blow my nose. We continued heading south, with the sun shining like royalty guiding us. “I know last night was too much – and I’m glad we both survived what happened… but you know, you shouldn’t be blaming yourself. It’s not your fault. What happened was no one’s fault.”

I had the hiccups from too much crying. I tried to calm myself by breathing deeply. “I… I don’t know anymore. I mean, everything’s just so bleak. Why did those things have to happen? I mean what If the same thing happens to us? What if we get stuck here forever? Are we always going to be live with fears in our hearts and sadness in our lives? Like who the hell cares if these creatures are good or bad, they’re alive – we all have lives! Weren’t we supposed to value life above others? Why do we have to kill and be killed? Can’t we just live in harmony?”

“Hey, hey, calm yourself. You don’t need to keep overthinking. You’re not making things easy for yourself, Isay.” He placed his hands on my shoulders and gave me a sturdy shake. “We’ll find our way home, okay? I mean we’ve done it when we were kids, what more if we’re adults already?”

“But…”

“No but’s.” Andres said with a slightly strict tone to it. He stopped walking as he stood in front of a lake. “I have good news.”

“That’s the first one we’ve had since we got here.” I smiled weakly. “Let’s hear it.”

“We’re here now.”

“Huh? Here?” I stared at the crystal blue lake; it was so wide and beautiful in its captivating shade of blue. “We’re supposed to go to the fairies’ kingdom. How can you say that we’re here when we can’t really see anything here? It’s just a lake.”

Andres stretched his arm ahead with a downward angle and my eyes followed the direction where he was pointing at. I stared at it and kept on blinking dimly as I tried to understand what I was seeing. There was nothing above the lake, just the space between it and the sky.

“As I said, it’s just a lake–“

“Look more closely.”

I did just as he suggested. Once you gazed under the water, there is an inverted reflection of a grand white castle that doesn’t exist above it.

All that came over me was bewilderment, as if yesterday’s drama did not happen.

“So the fairies’ kingdom… is underwater? How is that possible?” I wondered loud enough for Andres to hear.

“A lot of things are possible in this world, Isay.” He walked towards the body of water.

“How are we gonna go there? We’re not merfolk or anything.”

“That’s true. Good question.” He agreed. “It seems the path to the kingdom is through the lake.” He said almost automatically.

“Let’s go?” He stretched his palm in front of me and smiled sweetly. I couldn’t deny how seeing his pearly whites could be so refreshing – as if there was an invisible blanket of comfort covered me with warmth. It reminded me of when we were kids; I would always feel like this when we were together.

I took his hand and followed after him. Our feet slowly submerged into the water as we continued walking. The water levels kept on rising as we went further; it was now just a little under our noses.

Should we continue walking? Something like this would look really bad if we were in our world. It’s as if we’re lovers trying to commit – AH! What am I thinking?!

“Take a deep breath. Hold it in until I let go of your hand.” Andres instructed as he looked back at me. “Okay?”

“Alright.” I closed my eyes for a bit and slowly expanded my lungs. Once it was full, I opened my eyes and started walking again with him.

We were fully submerged into the water now, but for some reason, our feet were stuck to the ground and we were not floating at all. We continued traversing the land under the lake that spanned for a few hundred kilometers. If we did walk the whole distance from the land to the opposite side of the lake, it would take us half a day or more before we would rise above the water on the other side. However, Instead of getting even deeper, we were somehow emerging from the waters already just after a couple of minutes’ walk.

We found ourselves somewhere in the middle of a like with a large castle that was colored in an off-set of white with a faint tint of yellow, it was as if the smooth walls and pillars were made of ivory and made the castle sparkle under the rays of the sun. I gasped as I marveled at its beauty. Perhaps it was also because of the huge colourful gemstones plastered on its sides.

The image that burned into my mind was not too far-off from the ones that were depicted in the television as a castle of the diwata. I stared at the colossal statue in the middle of the castle’s façade. It simply refused to be ignored. It was of an imposing man with arms raised towards the heavens. Behind him was a gigantic bird with wings spread out that were almost as wide as the castle itself.

“Oh how glorious Bathala is.” A calm, dulcet voice stole our attention. When we turned our heads, we saw a very beautiful creature. Her skin was smooth and white like porcelain, while her coffee-colored tresses flowed down like the gentle waves of the sea. Aside from her lovely visage and the elaborate white robes and a flower crown, what really made her stand out was a red tattoo on her left cheek. “He made us meet today, at this day and time.”

“Your Highness, the queen of the diwata.” Andres bowed his head in respect and did a curtsy. I opted to follow his action. It was not surprising that the woman before us was not just a fairy one with royal blood flowing through her veins. “We are ecstatic that Your Greatness even bothered to greet us.”

The queen responded with a mysterious smile.