Bagani was a boy who lived in a village made of strong men and women. He was an only child of his late parent who died from an epidemic infection while trying to rid their village of the plague that came from an enemy attack; both couples who were the best traditional doctors in the village succeeded in defeating the plague with their formidable herbal medicines and treatment but the plague was too strong so on the way to victory while subduing the virus they died along with it. They died a hero but little Bagani was left alone with no mother and father to lean on.
The inhabitants in the village were people who worshiped the god of the stone. Every six months in the village the family with a virgin daughter would donate their daughter to the stone god to have a sip from the blood flowing in her right vein. This sip will only last for an hour. The ritual incurred no form of death but the repercussion was that the hand in which the virgin will donate to the stone god to drink from would shrink and wither for five years and after that regain its normal form. Since stone is a hard element that requires more enormous efforts to break which most times was nearly impossible or hard to do; the stone god blessed every villager with monstrous strength to be strong on the surface of the earth.
Bagani was honored by the king and queen due to the heroics of his parents to combat an enemy orchestrated attack with an epidemic empowered by the god of medicine from their enemy village when they saw they were too strong in war and couldn't overtake their lands. Bagani was taken to the palace quarters to be taken care of until he became of age. The king made sure he received the teachings of the royal to be educated; to learn how to read and write. Gave him to his royal hunters to teach him how to shoot an arrow and how to hunt all kinds of animals. He enrolled him into the academy of the royal warriors to teach him how to war and use warfare equipment. Because of this Bagani loved his village more and had the bar of patriotism for his village increased to the max.
One day, he saw the stature of his father and mother in the chambers of the king. He has never entered this quarter of the king's palace before. He was only ordered to occupy and live at the tail end of the palace. He got tired of seeing the same environment over and over again, so he got curious to explore the beauty of the other side of the palace. His curiosity landed him in the chamber of the king's quarter; the spot the king loved to visit anytime he wanted to clear his mind, think on how to rule his people better and how to pass partial judgments during difficult disputes. Bagani got to this chamber and saw the carved image of his parents. He also saw so many heroic writings and mini sculptures of departed people who died in one way or the other while on official duties from the king. He was amazed and jaw dropped at the record of heroes past but as he kept reading and viewing the charming sight of archived heroic and historical achievements; that was how he heard a loud voice from behind him. Bagani turned to look, only to see the only one ordained by the deity to rule his village staring at him angrily.
To be continued...
Photo from Pixabay.