Chapter 4: "The Tribe"

 The passengers at the truck were awaken due to severe shaking of the vehicle. It seemed like they hit or crushed something. The driver stopped to checked it but saw nothing.

  “what happened?”, asked the team leader as he goes down to checked everyone. Also, the team Seal Six immediately positioned themselves for possible attacked or danger.

  “I saw nothing Sir”, replied the soldier who checked the trucks.

   “be vigilant it is getting dark, we need to move slower”, ordered the team leader.

 “Copy that”, replied the troops.

  “we are almost there”, added the team captain.

  “Men, let’s move”. Signal the team leader.

 The troops continued the journey. Little did they knew they have just entered the other world.

   From afar, the troops heard the loud sound of gongs, shouting of men and women. The burning fire was also visible.

   “I think we are here”, Des Stated.

   “thank God”, sighed Myla.

  “Men, be ready for unloading”, ordered the team leader.

   The soldiers positioned themselves and followed the command. The team leader walked towards the burning fire where the tribes were waiting. The troops followed.

   “hayo”, the team leader bowed his head to the oldest man in the tribe.

   “mayo kay naabot na kamo”, the old man greeted the team leader with a genuine smile. It means, I am glad you already arrived.

The sultan was two hundred one years old. His skin was tanned, his eyes were big and round, he has white hair long mustache and he wore loin cloth. All men and women from the tribe wore loin cloth. The women don’t have upper clothes. All their teeth were black.

     The team leader signaled the troops to bowed their heads as they arrived as a sign of great respect towards the tribe. In returned the whole tribe bowed their heads as well.

    It seemed like the whole tribe prepared a great feast for them.

 “Are those frogs”, mumbled Marga.

 “unfortunately, yes”, replied Angel.

       There were three native wild pig roasted, grilled frogs, five bowled of snout beetles, different root crops and coconut wine.

   “Oh my God”, uttered Myla.

 “you have to eat everything that they have prepared, it is part of the tradition”, the team leader commanded.

    A loud gong and horn echoed all over the placed, it was a signed that the party was about to start.

All men and women, children, youth and elderly shouted in great joy, they started to danced around the burning wood.

  “looks like a chicken dance to me”, Lt. Dan commented.

 “all right, lets party! Party””, shouted Lt. Augostus who was moving towards the crowed of dancers.

 The tribe became jolly when they saw the visitors danced with them.

  “sige na, apil na mo”, requested the old women to the visitors. It means, come and joined us.

 The troops don’t have any choice but to obey since it was the first night of staying there. They needed to be one with the tribe for them to gained their trust.

  “hukasa ang senina”, the other woman ordered. It means they needed to took off their upper clothes.

  “what did she say? I think she wants us to take off our upper clothes”, Des stated nervously.

  The team leader understood the language so he communicated the woman.

  “ako ihangyo nimo nga ibilin lng ang senina sa mga dalaga sa ilang pang.taas, bisag gamay lng”, the team leader pleaded the woman. Good thing she nodded.

   “okay ladies, I am sorry about this, it is really part of their tradition to go naked before the God of fire as a symbol of humbleness. I know it is really strange but we cannot change anything about it. I just pleaded a win-win situation”, the team leader explained.

    “you can wear your bra, that’s all”, he added shyly.

“what? That’s pathetic”, Angel argued.

  “calm down and lower your voice”, Myla rebuked her friend. She knew her friend’s gesture might cause trouble.

“Des, I came here to teach, not strip dancing”, Angel protested to Des.

“Chill megs, look I am so sorry ladies, I have no idea about their tradition”, Des explained helplessly.

 All of them were virgin and conservatives. They all grew up in a Christian church.

 As they were discussing, Kristine stood up and approached the team leader and the woman all by herself.

 The three were all shocked and curious.

 “can you please translate it to her sir?”, Kristine said to the team leader.

 “Yes, I can”, replied the team leader.

  “is it okay if all of my friends are exempted on this? I can dance naked in behalf of them”, kris added.

“nay, siya lng daw mo sayaw nga walay senina para sa iyang mga higala” the team leader translated the words to the woman.

“buotan nga bata”, replied the old woman and nodded. It means, what a kind child.

“mura ka og taga diri”, the old woman added. Which means, it seemed like you are one of us.

The old woman kisses Kristine at the forehead. And put some ashes to her chin, chick and hair.

The whole tribe, paused for a while. Every attention was now focused to Kristine and to the old woman.

  The woman was the greatest shaman in their tribe. She was above than anyone else. Before a sultan can implement rules, the shaman had to agreed it first.  

 The old woman took the hood from Kristines face.

“Maanyag”, the shaman uttered. Means beautiful.

Kristine took her black jacket, her inner clothes until her black bra appeared.

 “ oh God! woke me up when its over, that is not Kristine”, uttered Angel in great disbelief.

The whole troops were silenced, doesn’t know what to do. The whole tribe watched as the shaman poured out an oil to Kristines forehead and feet. Then the shaman uttered some ritual and kissed her forehead again.

“sukad karun adlawa, magmalipayon ikaw, pag saway kay gawasnon na ikaw”, the shaman stated.

Even if Kristine was not able to understood the language, she just nodded her head.

 The horn was blown again, the party had just resumed.

  Kristine moved towards the crowd of dancers. She flaunted her body shamelessly. Her body was only covered by her bra and a piece of cloth around her hips that the shaman wrapped.

“I think that’s the real her”, marga smirked. She was annoyed.

“as always, wanted to be the center of everything”, she added.

  Angel was about to rebate with Marga since she was really pissed off from everything that was happening. Myla and Des tried to stop her.

 “relax, breath, you were just overwhelmed megs”, stated Des.

 From the distanced they could saw Kristine dancing freely as if she does not care everyone around.

 “she seems not her”, Myla stated.

“I really do not know”, Des commented.

     Adam does not know what to felt. Seeing Kristine in that sight made him lost his mind. He was surprised, amazed, mad and angry at the same time. How can a woman so silent became that shameless?

    Adam didn’t notice that he was clinching his hands all along. The team leader sat beside him that made him surprised.

     “her heart is pure just as her beauty”, the team leader commented as he watched Kris dancing from a far with the whole tribe.

   “don’t get me wrong Major Levonn, I am not fantasizing her, I am just stating the obvious”, the team leader added.

“illumine my mind”, Adam replied coldly.

“only a stubborn woman would do that unless you truly care for those people that you love”, he stated.

 Adam was caught by surprised. The team leader was right. Suddenly he felt a sudden chest pain. Not an ordinary chest pain. His heart ached. As he was about to stood up to go to the fire place, Adam saw Alfe coming towards Kristine.

  “Kris, I think that’s enough, exposing to much is not good for your health”, pleaded Alfe. He was now half naked too. He decided to joined the celebration just to covered Kristines body from the eyes of other men.

 “am good, you don’t need to worry, can’t you see, I am enjoying”, she answered.

Before Alfe could uttered other words, a young girl grabbed the hand of Kristine and invited her to dance more.

“bye alfe, enjoy the night”, Kristine shouted.

 After hours of continues dancing, the beat of the wooden drum echoed the place.

“nasayud ako nga malipayon ang tanan”, the sultan announced.

“I am sure that everyone are happy”, the team leader translated.

“oh really”, Angel mumbled.

 “og nasayod ako nga gigutum na ang tanan”, sultan added.

 “I know everyone are hungry”, team leader shouted.

 “mangaon nata”, the sultan announced in great joy.

“It is time to eat”, the team leader translated.

  “oh my God, I never thought that this tribe could kill me slowly”, Marga protested.

  Left with no choice, everyone was all settled to eat.

 While the tribe enjoyed the feast, the visitors doesn’t know what to do.

“can I go home tomorrow?”, cried Myla. “if I will stay here long, I will go crazy”, she added.

Some troops were able to eat some didn’t.

  Angel was vomiting severely and was turning pale.

“sir, can you please tell them, if we can rest?”, pleaded Des to the team leader.

  “okay, I will”, he replied.

 Good thing the Sultan agreed but the shaman requested something strange.

“they allowed us to rest but they said Kristine will stay with them for a while”, the team leader relayed the information to the troops.

“what? What if something might happen to her? to be honest I am not sure if we can continue this mission Sir”, stated Des in an aggressive voice. She was so frustrated. This was not the mission in her mind. She sensed that something was not right.

“we thought we came here to help, but it seems like, we came here to pleased them”, she added.

“you have to do something about it sir”, Lt. Dan agreed.

 The team leader became silent, he didn’t knew what to do, whose order he would follow?

“the volunteers can rest, half of my team will accompany them, I will stay here and Lt. Dan”, Adam suggested.

“thank you Major”, the team leader felt relief.

  The troops built the camps where they could stay. It took an hour before everyone was settled down.

When the ladies were all settled ,they had a short forum.

“I felt strange about this place”, Myla stated.

“me too, I felt so sorry for dragging everyone here most especially kris”, Des hysterically stated.

She started to sobbed. Myla comforted her while Angel was already asleep due to dehydration.

(Meanwhile the tribe were still drinking)

 “I felt negative vibes from this place Major”,  said Lt. Dan , as they were guarding Kristine who was now still seating at the wooden table with the tribe.

The shaman looked Kristine with amazement. It seemed like she found a new toy.

“me too, let just be vigilant, we haven’t started anything yet”, replied the major.

“inom pa”, ordered the shaman to Kristine. She handed the wooded cup full of coconut wine to her.

  Kristine just nodded. She drunk every cup of wine that the shaman handed to her. It seemed like she was under a spell.

“kana, maayo”, the shaman added.

Adam noticed that Kristine became tipsy. Her pale face started to blushed. He decided to interfered. It seemed liked the team leader did not care at all.

“Sir, can I talk to you for a while?”, Adam requested.

  But the Team leader did not responded to his request. He did not even turned his head and looked Adam, as if he was just there like a statue.

 “sir! Sir?”, Adam called him again. He was about to touched the team leader but the sultan got up and signaled him to moved away.

 “ayaw panghilabot”, said the sultan. Adam did not understand the language but reading his gestures, he seemed like pissed off by his action.

Adam tried to moved closer but Lt. Dan stopped him. Adam might cause trouble, they haven’t started their mission yet.

 “Major, calm down”, Lt. Dan pleaded. Adam was ready to fight at any given moment.

 “we have to remember, we have a mission to be accomplish”, he added.

The shaman walked towards Adam and said “nagdala ka og dimalas”. Which means, you carried the cursed.

  The old woman ordered the sultan to stopped the ceremony. So that everyone could rest.

 She kissed Kristine at her forehead then leave. The old woman vanished from the dark.

Adam felt relieved. He immediately escorted Kristine as she stood up.

 The sultan signaled them not to touched the team leader, they just followed to avoid any chaos. Hoping that the team leader was just fine.

 “are you okay?”, asked Adam, he noticed that Kristine was not wearing any clothes. He took his military uniform and wrap around her body. As he did this Kristine finally got block out. Her head landed to his firmed chest.

“Alex”, Kristine mumbled. “don’t leave me”, she added. Adam just let her talked. After a few minutes she stopped and fall asleep on his shoulder. He carried her towards the camp where Des were waiting.

 “oh my goodness, is she alright?”, Des exclaimed. Her eyes puffed. It seemed like she was crying the whole time.

“yes, she’s fine”, Adam replied. “she just drink too much”, he added.

“tomorrow morning, we are planning to leave”, Des stated. “I felt strange with this place. Everything seems not right”, she added.

“maybe we are all tired, you get some rest and let us discuss this tomorrow with the team leader”, said Adam.

Des just nodded. Adam and Lt. Dan visited the troops, they need to plan as soon as possible.

“how was everything major?”, asked Lt. Aliya.

“so far, everything was good. Did you check the radar? Is it reading any frequencies?” asked Adam.

“negative Major, we are planning to plant cameras tomorrow as we roam around the area, this was mandated to us as well as per the ordered manual”, replied Lt. Augustos.

“Okay, we will be divided into three. Let us move by pairs. As always, Lt. Dan will be my partner. Augustos and Aliya you go together. Lt. Jim and Lorenz the two of you will be responsible for planting cameras. Aliyah and Augustos you will constantly monitor the radar and will stay at the watch tower. As for me and Lt. Dan we will be  the one responsible for the volunteers and the whole tribe”, Adam ordered.

“Copy that Major”, they answered.

 “let us be vigilant, we do not know what kind of enemies we are about to face, I sense that something wasn’t right on this tribe, do not trust anybody, is that clear?”, Adam added.

“For now, I and Lt. Dan will be the watch guard. You can all rest now”, said Adam.

The subordinates immediately followed the order.

As Adam and Lt. Dan were roaming around, they saw from a far, a group of four men carrying something. They carried a cloth but it looked heavy since it took four men to carried it.

Few minutes later, the four vanished from the darked. Adam was curious of what was it all about this tribe. The place, the people and its traditions. Sooner he will unleased the truth.