Enfant Terrible

It led a siege in my dreams. The bone giant. I had been training the folks of Quisao to protect their homes.(3) The giant rained stones on us so we had weave our way to the army. Our first wave was levelled.(8) I shifted stategies and instead of rallying a second wave, I decided to leave the villagers to man the defenses against the army. I had to prevent the giant from rejoining its horde. I ran, bouncing from one spike to the other.(14) The giant regained its stature and spat at me. "Just one? What is this an insult? Then I allow me to throw you a pebble. I evaded that but he showered me with stones. I withstood them somehow, gained his back, and severed the leash that held its body together. So it toppled. And the head seemed to me a nipa hut. The very first.(18) It was not much bigger than a dog house. I intended it as a gift to my toddler. I entered its mouth to inspect if it remained a threat. When I was sure it was safe, I motioned for my son to take it. Come, you can carry it, I told him. So my son did. We walked the grove of Los Banos, right along the red tapsilog place and the convenience store and the big chicken place. The people greeted us. But my ears belonged to my boy, with his happy nipa burden, bent and exclaiming all the way: I am a turtle. See? I am a turtle. Mga sipi: 3—A baranggay of Pililla, Rizal. The birthplace of my parents. The patron saint is San Diego de Alcala and, in fact, before Quisao was reduced to the biggest baranggay of Pililla, it was itself a town called Bayan ng San Diego. 8—Although my memory of this episode was choppy (or it was a choppy dream sequence to begin with and no lucidity would be able to retrieve what never existed in this subtle realm), the first wave was destroyed more or less in the following manner. We had successfully separated the leader from his horde. Yet the leader was only playing along, using our strategy against us to create a ruse. I had no way of knowing if my wave was driving the giant away or being lured by it. The giant rolled, shrinking into itself, until it was a rock. Then it stopped. When the wave had gathered to break it's shell open, bone spikes rose from the ground, impaling every villager groin to brain. It was a sky of white and red spikes. 14—This seemed the most clever way to get to the monster alive. I was confident of heroic success. 18—Yes. I was aware of the object sprouting from legend during the dream.