It's summer in the global north (which is winter in the global south), and for the month of August Literatur.Review is bringing them all together, publishing previously untranslated or unpublished stories from the north and south of our world.

Allan N. Derain is the author of several books, including Iskrapbuk (UP Press), The Next Great Tagalog Novel at iba pang Kuwento (UP Press), Aswanglaut (Ateneo de Manila University Press) and Ang Banal na Aklat ng mga Kumag (Cacho and Anvil) which won the Carlos Palanca Memorial Grand Prize Award, The Reader’s Choice Award, and the National Book Award. He edited the aswang anthology May Tiktik sa Bubong, May Sigbin sa Silong which won the National Book Award and the Gintong Aklat Award. An Assistant Professor both in the Kagawaran ng Filipino and Fine Arts Department of Ateneo de Manila University, he teaches Creative Writing, Art Appreciation, and Philippine Literature and also currently serves as the director of AILAP (Ateneo Institute of Literary Arts and Practices).

The chief god with a meteor-like crest. Tungkong Langit is he. Who struts around like a rooster doing his courtship dance, to the wife who swerves while she walks drunk with palm wine. Is this Alunsina with hair as long as the moon-eating Bakunawa? Yes, the only deity apart from Tungkong Langit. A companion both in glory and in drinking wine from coconut sap. The strands of her hair were like alugbati vines clinging onto bamboo trunks and branches. They seem to have a life of their own. Because indeed they have, as they tightened their grip on branches and stalks so as not to fall into the abyss waiting under the grove, this goddess who was walking by. Because these leaning bamboo trunks used to be their pathways, during a time when there was no time, when just the two of them skirted over the ambit of nothingness.  

No matter how tightly she clung to these elongated poles, the female boss would lose her balance once her lustful husband mounted her. The two will wrestle, fall from the path, and roll toward the darkness and nothingness awaiting them.

Which was never darkness nor nothingness though it was often described as that. A place of eternal gloom, a misty world of chaos. Because no language to describe things aptly exists. Not in this place and time when no act of description was even needed. It was not empty, however. This place. This absence. For it was a tireless layering and merging of sea, land, and clouds. There were regions of the sea that rested on a cloud, and on top of that cloud were lakes that were extensions of the sea, where volcanoes appeared like mushrooms, spewing air, water, and electricity. And when pacified, they would be as still as a boat’s keel in a seaside mooring quietly growing clams and barnacles up to their rim, until they explode again.

Here, Tungkong Langit and Alunsina were the celestial hosts. Their haloes illuminated the extent of this world. Adding to their illumination were mysterious flying balls of fire called santelmo, chasing the darkness though blending with it oftentimes. The santelmo mated and gave birth to locusts which would later menace farmers once they learned to swarm fields and plantations. Except that this world had no fields nor plantations because there was no agriculture to speak of. So these harmless locusts merely went in and out of volcanoes because their parents nursed them in these places until they grew up to be healthy santelmo. And in this going in and out, frogs love to eat them so not everyone grew to become mature fireballs.

This was the world Alunsina had grown to love. She would visit the bosoms of every volcano and whenever she got tired, she would sit by the lake to comb her long hair named Banaag and Sikat. The dark hair being Banaag and the white-gray one being Sikat. They used to be separate names that later became one compound.

Banaag and Sikat would crawl into the water to play with the fish and the polliwogs. There they served as flourishing grass where small creatures swim and hide. As soon as Alunsina playfully asks “Where hides the beauty of the lake?” the hair strands would instantly part to give way to the radiant reflection of the female deity.

This is how Alunsina would usually spend her whole day. Not because she was lazy, but because work for her, in this time and place, did not yet exist. No kernels to pound, no stoves to light, no rags to wash and dry, no intrusive weeds to pull, no puzzle to ponder, no progress to advance, no fixture to check, no baby to feed, no corn to shell, no future to plan for, no learner to instruct, no underwear to mend, no piece that needs to be whole, no problem that needs solving. Not because this world doesn’t have anything, but because, as has already been said, it doesn’t have fixed words to signify things. But despite this absence, things were meaningful for Alunsina, like how combing her hair remained meaningful to her.

But for Tungkong Langit, this world was a prison, never a paradise, where he could not find the order he was hopelessly seeking, too stifled to do anything worthwhile, like living in a house in shambles. You want to fix it but the house is owned by someone else.

Until one day, a vision of a new world came to the Red-Crested Deity. A world yet to begin, which he saw like looking at a distant island of yolk surrounded by a sea of white foam. A clean white page waiting to be stained.    It called to him like a mermaid enticing a young fisherman, promising all bounty from the watery kingdom. Paths to clear, great beginnings, and wondrous ventures not yet undertaken. All he needed to do was take one long step toward it.

Tungkong Langit decided to take that big step. And Alunsina must come with him. So he immediately looked for his wife whom he easily found at her favorite spot by the lake.

“But why do I have to tag along?” asked the long-haired lady who still could not look away from her beloved lake. “You can leave if you must. You go, I remain. Come back whenever you want.”

Tungkong Langit stared at his wife as he entertained for a moment the idea of a new life without her. Exciting prospects, though he knew he would miss her later for he could not bear to lose her from his sight.

“I can't leave you here,” the male god explained. He began with the soft voice of Rogelio de la Rosa, that matinee idol of Philippine cinema from the 60s, then into that of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos announcing his brand of Martial Law. “When I go and make a new world, this world I leave behind, and those who live in it, must disappear. The new order I will lay down is the only one that must remain. All other worlds that will not abide must disappear on their own. Because there shouldn't be another world different from mine.”

“And why not?” Alunsina asked, arms akimbo, her proud voice like Susan Roces, that movie queen from the 60s, speaking to her favorite villain actor, Eddie Garcia.  “Because that would create a contradiction.”    
“I like contradictions.”
“It's not about what we like. It’s about what is good and right. It's about what's best for everyone.”

The female deity frowned. She didn't understand who this “everyone” is. There were only two of them at that time. Unless her husband is hiding something.

In Tungkong Langit's mind, however, others exist as “everyone”, and though they have yet to exist, it doesn’t mean they’re less real, as even now he is mindful of them.

“How will I be of use if I come with you?” Alunsina approached her husband as if ready to come with him.
“I will need another eye to see things beside me,” Tungkong Langit replied.
“Aw, you're going to make me a bystander! Can't I do the same work as you do?” asked Alunsina.

The male deity was surprised by her question. “Can you even be bothered, my dear? Are you up to the task? Remember, even rice cakes get overcooked with so many kitchen hands around.”  

“Making rice cakes is a different story, Lando,” because that's what she calls her husband. Lando. “Just tell me straight you don't trust me.”
“I don't want you to be tired. You’re not used to work.”
“I do want to work. I want to know what I can do.” The husband’s face grew dim.

“Why can’t I also be a creator?” continued Alunsina who couldn't believe the sad look on her husband's face.

Tungkong Langit became miserable. He knew that his wife's request was unrest-fermenting. “You do not understand what you’re asking, Ibyang,” because that’s what he calls his wife. Ibyang. 
“Then go by yourself! You go there. I stay here. Each his own.” Alunsina sank to the bottom of the lake trailed by her hair as long as the moon-eating Bakunawa. She slipped into the deepest part of the lake where nobody can follow her.  

Which she didn’t need to worry about because Tungkong Langit had no intention of following her. Instead, the Red-Crested Deity said, “Bathala ka!”  “Bathala” means god; and “Bathala ka” originally meant “You are a god!” but now also means “Do as you like”. For his patience was running out. And that was the first time those words were used that way.

He went home to pack for his journey. After preparing everything he need, he left, not waiting for his wife to come home to say goodbye.

Though he saw in his vision that he only had to take one stride to reach the other world, Tungkong Langit knew that in reality, this place was far away. So he rode a giant sea crab which was the only way to go.

During the trip, Tungkong Langit fell asleep on top of the crab. In the middle of his nap, he dreamed he was not the only deity going to that place for there was an entire caravan of them. Different deities of different mythologies and religions. Also riding their respective giant sea crabs. Others even brought mud crabs to ride on because they don’t know the sea crab from a mud crab, this migration of deities with the same intention of creating a new world. But only one dream world could become reality, so Tungkong Langit wanted so badly to be the first to get there so he can close the gate on the rest of them. He knew others were bent on doing the same. Unfortunately, his crab was not the fastest in the race.

Thank God, even in his dream, he was still able to remind himself that he, Tungkong Langit, was the only real god. Aside from Alunsina. There ended his dream.    

Even now, he was longing for his wife. Her broad behind he so loves to mount. And her curves from chest to waist. He was curious about how she was doing. If she had gone home. And once home, was she saddened when she found out he was gone? He wondered how his wife could easily give up on him. Would things have turned differently if he had been more tender with her? More generous and caring? If he had let her climb on him too instead of him always climbing on top of her?

No time to grieve, he reminded himself. This was true, especially in this time of no time. Or stated positively, this time out of time. (So ​​why use these words in this story if time did not yet exist? Answer: This is an anomaly, a limitation, of the language of storytelling and not of the events being told. Another question: What are crabs and locusts doing here when animals were not yet created? Answer: This question is the same as the previous one and can be answered in the same manner).

Tungkong Langit started working when he came to the place. He began to form time. His creation will be defined by this - a world marked by time. And he as the Father of Time. He wanted to measure his work in time. So he took out his wife's jewelry - the crown, thirteen giant pearls, diamonds, and other precious stones, and scattered them throughout space. The crown became the sun. The thirteen giant pearls became the thirteen moons spread throughout the galaxy, attended by the diamonds and gems as stars of various constellations. Their rotation, decline, and ascent were the mechanism of time, not an astronomical clock that signifies time, but time itself. Time would stop if they also stopped. And time that stops is time that ceased to be time.

That these would not rub or collide in their rotation, Tungkong Langit gave them a certain strain to dance to, so their movement could follow the same rhythm, the same flow. Time dance for this reason. Though not everyone can keep up with this dance because not everyone listens.

Tungkong Langit thought that if Alunsina could only see her jewels in this celestial formation, she might still be enticed to follow him. Which did not happen. For the whole star system, in all its splendor, was answered from the other world by a deep uncaring silence.

After a few deep sighs, the Creator laid out a wide expanse of glass under the sky. This he called the sea. He did this in memory of his beloved who loves to look at herself in the mirror. He hoped there may come a time when the sea could catch the same image. 
Then Tungkong Langit decided to bring forth from this mirror the likeness of his wife. Land began to  appear in the middle of the oceanic expanse. For texture and dimension, just as the width of his wife's physique is rich in texture and dimension, Tungkong Langit made mountains, hills, valleys, bays, plains, and deserts. Then, rivers, lakes, streams, springs, wells, and waterfalls were drawn across the land to imitate the highlights of her curves.

Tungkong Langit cried the moment he saw the outcome of his work. He cried, maybe because he was filled with joy at what he did. Although the picture he painted did not exactly match the image of his distraught wife, for there’s no capturing the beauty of the real Alunsina, the whole terra firma was blest with its own unusual grace. And he cried, maybe also because his longing for his wife deepened.

His tears fell as raindrops, watering the land for the first time. Various shrubs, trees, flowers, and grass grew as the earth was drenched. Thus the earthly image of the wife took on color and fragrance.

“What’s missing here is movement,” declared Tungkong Langit. So the Sole Creator sprinkled his blood all over. The drops of red that fell into the water turned into various kinds of fish. The drops that hit the ground became animals that walked and crawled (not including humans who would later become the most terrifying of creatures). The drops caught by the transfiguration in the air became birds. Various kinds of birds of different sounds, sizes, and plumage came to life. Tungkong Langit was most fond of the rooster whose form was inspired by his image. In the future, village chiefs will have this bird, the true imago dei, as their favorite pet, the fetish of their honor and manhood, the main star of all cockfights. The kristos, the caller of the cockpits, will serve this bird in its temples every Sunday, this bird most beloved to the Red-Crested Deity.

The despondent god could see life everywhere he turned. He gave them language so they could commune with each other. He gifted them with spirit, being, wisdom, intelligence, and courage. Above all, he never failed to bless them with an appetite, even the smallest of them. Because filling one's appetite is the happiest of all experiences.

He knew that since the lives of these creatures were part of his vitality, he would also be a part of them. And because of this, his pain was a little bit appeased. Once again, he knew he was not alone. He felt a gentle breeze entered this newly created world. A smile came over his tired face.

***

Alunsina has been living at the end of the lake ever since her husband left. There she continued to sip palm wine served by a jellyfish-like creature with tentacles coming in and out of its conch. She is served by the gallons which she sipped using the stalk of the tayuk plant as her straw  She didn't even ask herself how long she had been there. Because, unlike Tungkong Langit, she didn't have to time her movements.

She shut off her halo to make herself completely invisible. So even the searchlights coming from the santelmo had difficulty finding her. But she could see everything about and beyond her through her pair of red spectacles.

While submerged in the dark water, she pondered the meaning of “everyone”. The good of everyone. Her husband said. That she must consider. Alunsina felt a peculiar need for the first time. This need to know.

Her husband left her for the sake of “everyone”. Her husband chose creation because of this “everyone”. Was “everyone” what her husband wanted to create? If Tungkong Langit was to create “everyone”, who created them? Because they also belong to this “everyone”. And if this is indeed true, there must have been a creator to both of them who started outside of “everyone”. Wine and more wine. Her hair grew longer as her perplexities deepened. Where did they come from before they got here? Longer and longer. And where are they heading? Can it grow longer? There’s more. She will also ask why she is a woman and Tungkong Langit a man when they were created. And how important is this difference if this is their only difference?

When she saw an army of eels approaching, except they’re not eels but strands of Banaag and Sikat returning from their mission. The goddess sent them to watch over her husband and the world he was so busy with. They’ve returned successfully. They’ve circled from end to end the world Tungkong Langit was working on. They saw its past, present, and future. They replanted themselves to their mistress' scalp to begin their report. By reconnecting their body to her body they presented her, like a rolling film, the things their eyes saw, because each strand of Banaag and Sikat has camera-like eyes of their own.

Alunsina saw fire when first discovered by man; the bread Christ broke among his disciples; the sutra where ink and paper were first used, a cracked stone, a torn parchment ..., Portuguese galleons full of chained Congo slaves as it sailed the Atlantic​​, ..., Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccine, the head of King Louis XVI rolling, a broken jar, .., Eufracia's flowering, trigger pulled, PING! ..., Das Kapital being printed, the different flags of Katipunan, mountains of Jewish corpses in Dachau, the flowering of Malvina, ..., roulette of fate spinning, Boeing B29 of the USAAF dropping bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Mahatma Gandhi giving speech to the people of India, ..., Nena's flowering, the UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights, Mother Teresa’s orphanage, ..., the EDSA People Power, a scene in Kris Aquino's first movie, touching the trigger, PING! ..., fall of the Berlin Wall, the two sheep that used to be one, Armalite guns firing down the farmers of Hacienda Luisita, the pulling of the trigger, ..., a cracked skull, Burmese soldiers pursuing Rohingya refugees,  old people’s sandals left in the middle of Mendiola bridge, ..., a prisoner in Guantanamo with a black bag covering his entire head, the disappeared ones in their secret prisons, the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Napoles, Palestinian children hiding in collapsed houses in Gaza as Israeli Army drop bombs, ..., the stripped forest and the hollowing of mountains by nickel miners,  houses visited by Oplan Tokhang men in uniform, the birth of COVID19 inside a laboratory, body bags lining the hospital hallways...

Alunsina couldn't stand the onslaught of these images, she had to surface quickly from the bottom of the lake as she gasped for air. She found out something about this world Nietzche, Sartre, and Schopenhauer have long known but in different scales of realization.

“And I shall be the mother of them all!” she exclaimed as if all the water stored in Ambuklao dam suddenly burst out from her chest. Finally, she understood what “everyone” is. She understood why she and Tungkong Langit were a couple. They wouldn't have to know or be related to each other if not for this reason.

Pluck! Something like a coconut fell into the water and quickly sank. Followed by another. And another. Several more crash into the lake. Alunsina saw the santelmo dropping out of the sky, losing their light and balance.

Banaag and Sikat tried to catch what seemed to be rotten plums falling from a tree. Those sinking were  lifted with care and taken to a nearby healing cave. This cave they called The Hospital from that day on.

After the massive plunge, dead fish and polliwogs floated on the lake. Alunsina acted quickly for she realized her time was about to run out.

***

It was just a small hole when it first appeared in space. As small as a wedding ring. It appeared to the tune of “Atin Ku Pung Singsing”, a folksong that tells about the heartaches of losing an heirloom ring. If that part of space where it appeared was dark and within that ring was also darkness, then darkness upon darkness, how indeed can that ring be found if one doesn’t feel one’s way around?

Nothing lewd about the meaning of this ring. Though it had bad intentions. It thrived on dusts that settled by themselves inside the hole for dusts were known to do that. Dusts and then sand. For the space was like a shore full of sand. Then joined by pebbles.

Tungkong Langit didn't notice it at first, but he dreamt of a dusty bookshelf where he pulled out a leather-bound Bible, his favorite book of all but which he did not open for quite some time. So he was horrified when he discovered giant termites living in the pages of that Book, termites that looked like newly born mice, blind and hairless. Were they pups or termites? But in his dream, he knew they were termites that looked like pups. He threw the Bible immediately.

Tungkong Langit woke up disturbed for he knew strange termites were destroying his work. But since he knew nothing of their hiding place, he would have a few nights more to dream about them. And in every dream, he was repeatedly surprised by these giant termites.

What’s a day’s worth? How short or long should it be to finish a task?  The hole needed only a day. It only took a whole day to grow to the size of a peso coin, a week to become a lion’s mouth. At this size, it has gone from being a passive hole that waited for anything to stray inside its mouth to give it nourishment, to becoming a vicious trap, sparing no one, even those just passing by. They were gobbled, no one knew where to, and if there was any way out.

It grew to the size of a washbasin after several weeks. At this size, it was able to absorb heaps of sand and gravel followed by chunks of rock. It easily bagged a comet out of its path. Then, a star. Who was able to scream for help before she was completely wolfed down. Tungkong Langit heard her. lt helped him to track the source of his disturbance. The attempt to suck an innocent water buffalo was even prevented just in time. The Red-Crested God and the growing hole of darkness, the Creator and the Destroyer, finally met.  

To identify the enemy, Tungkong Langit aimed the sun's rays at its face, as if lighting up the mouth of a cave to see if snakes and bats were fortifying inside, or if cliffs and deeper holes were awaiting those who wanted to enter. But as the light intensified, the darkness became more immovable, dense with many layers.

Tungkong Langit was saddened. For the first time, he knew defeat. He wasn’t aware that on the other side of his world, which was the other side of this darkness he was facing, an entire forest was burned to ashes by his action. But because the sun proved to be useless, the Red-Crested One decided next to use water. He directed the river Halawud, the largest river in the world, towards the mouth of his enemy, hoping that he would drown it if he could not take hold of it. The same method used during the war by American and Japanese soldiers to torture their guerrilla prisoners.

But instead of being drowned, the gaping mouth loosened even more, challenging Tungkong Langit to give it all. For it did not even gag. The Red-Crested God was like a fool pouring water over a jar riddled with holes. Until Halawud dried up for the first time. The depleted river will be filled up again the next summer monsoon, but it will no longer be that large and overbearing river and cannot anymore boast of being the largest in the world which would have been the pride of the entire Panay Island. Meanwhile, the hole swelled several hundred times with the amount of water it absorbed.

Tungkong Langit was devastated by his two successive losses. But what he didn’t realize was on the other side of the hole, a great deluge was taking place. Where Alunsina was all wrapped up searching for beacons to save her sinking world. From here she saw the moons from her husband’s world. Which the gigantic hole was swallowing one by one. The place grew darker and darker as each of the thirteen giant pearls disappeared. The system that measured time got stifled. Nights began to disappear from the calendar creating dissonance in the celestial concert. So the giant hole, which was Alunsina's hole, was the first Bakunawa to ever swallow time and order.

It swallowed the twelfth moon. The thirteenth will soon follow. It was at this point when the Creator summoned his giant sea crab. Who quickly attended to his master’s voice. Upon facing the gaping mouth, the old crustacean immediately recognized a familiar face. Because unlike his boss who was not fond of roaming around, the giant crab has gone back and forth to every part of the world. He immediately recognized the tunnel back to the world where they came from.

So he was surprised when Tungkong Langit ordered him to close it for good. Did that mean he would never ever be sent home? He was even more surprised when he was told to cover it with his webbings. As if the All-knowing One mistook him for a spider. The difference between a spider and a crab may have been confusing at that time when so many creatures had just appeared in the face of this very young planet, he reasoned to himself. And because he was an obedient servant, holding secret knowledge on the side, and because he doesn’t want Tungkong Langit to further lose his temper, he did what he was asked to do.

He quickly minced some grass and leaves and moistened them with his saliva. Using his smaller pincers, he spun the concoction into strong cords, and with his larger pincers, he sewed the raging hole using these cords. The banded restraint of these filaments prevented the space cavity from further expanding.

Tungkong Langit thanked the giant crab which he immediately sent back to its cave. From here, the deity would have been ready to abandon the hole, because there was still so much to do, and this one, he thought, had already eaten up much of his precious time. When a whistling sound that seemed to come from a storm traveling in the middle of a forest, with leaves and branches disturbed by a passing wind, was heard from inside the sewn hole. As it approached Tungkong Langit, it became clear that the whistling sound, that turned into a hum, came from the scraping feet and wings of a swarm. When it landed on the web barrier, the hum changed to a noise like papers being torn. A horde of locusts came out, enraged raiders charging like winged lancets. They’ve completely torn down in no time the barrier woven by the giant crab. They were able to even block the sun with their multitude.

Tungkong Langit immediately recognized them as former companions in the former world. With this, he also finally came to understand the growing hole and what lies at the other end of it.

He summoned a giant tornado to blow away the horde from his sun. This cocky tornado shoved everyone who got in his way. He shook the locusts out like dust, restoring the sun’s brightness.

The locusts fell back, scattered like street protesters water cannoned by the military force. But they stubbornly regathered no matter where they were driven. As one mind, they planned their next move. They decided to come back once this world was to have its first harvest.  Because this world destroyed their world and killed all their kin, they determined from now on to live here to be its scourge.

“Ibyang!” The cry of Tungkong Langit thundered, reaching the other world.

In response, the hole opened up and swallowed an entire planet. The male deity called once more his giant crab. He rode on its back to retrieve the sinking planet. Due to the strong wind pushing toward the center of the void, Tungkong Langit was whirled through his aim, which he was able to grab. But when he was about to return to the light, tugging at the object he wanted to take back, he discovered that it was not the planet he intended to save but a roll of his wife's hair. So he tightened his grip even more hoping that he could bring it with him along with his wife’s entire body.

The two deities tensely pulled at each other. Their equal strength allowed them to remain unmoved. The struggle would have lasted forever, when Banaag and Sikat, instead of pulling Tungkong Langit further, just strangled the male deity with their invincible strands

Tungkong Langit used the remaining force of his fist to free himself from these immortal coils. But for every fiber he tore, thousands take their place. He lost his vigor and his fiery color turned blue. The strands pulled his head, hands, and feet in different directions. Tungkong Langit’s body was broken into many pieces like the bread Christ broke during the Last Supper.

Banaag and Sikat threw these pieces in different parts of the new world. The pieces that fell into the sea became the merfolks of the watery kingdom. The pieces that fell to the ground became the first humans.  They wouldn't have been if it wasn't for the divine couple’s quarrel, these humans who were not part of the original design. Their appearance also ruined the original design. But along with their most enlightened philosophers, they will declare this world to be without design.  

At first, Alunsina wanted to gather these pieces to resurrect her man, when she remembered the things shown to her before at the bottom of the lake. She realized that these living fragments would be the key to ending this world beloved by Tungkong Langit. Once they subdue nature and place themselves masters of all living things, as soon as they use the seas and the rivers as sewers for their toxic waste, release their nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons in the air, cover the atmosphere with their carbon footprint, denude the forest and level the mountains, mankind shall finally serve its purpose.    

She cannot interfere with what she did not work on. She cannot destroy what she did not create. That’s the law. She cannot undo this world. As a god who is not used to working, she was very thankful she didn’t have to move a finger to make things happen. Nor does she need to come into contact with these human beings. But she has decided to speed up things a little, to somehow guide them in the subtlest of ways, with every step and every careful suggestion, that they might do what they have come to do. In the meantime, this world and the shadow world will have to exist side by side. 

Tungkong Langit + Alunsina  is a retelling of the Panay creation myth, narrated by the Panayon storyteller, Hugan-an, documented and translated into English by F. Landa Jocano (Philippines International, 1959).