Mutagen

Day 153 - 8:16 PM - Village of Exiles, Barangay Mardrijelos, Municipality of Algeria, Province of Cebu

"Shouldn't we talk about this somewhere no one could hear?"

Erille replied to Pefile's question while glancing at the surroundings.

Pefile could not help but loosen his tight grip on his spear. He was pretty agitated at the topic of his abducted wife that he forgot that this was not the right place to talk about private matters.

"Lead the way."

Pefile replied to the old Tamawo.

Erille then turned to the people around them.

"All of you return to what you are doing. Don't be a bother to our King."

"Yes!"

The people replied, respectfully bowing to Pefile and Erille before they left.

"How many times should I need to tell you that I am not your King?"

Pefile frowned.

"Unfortunately..." Erille smiled. "No matter what you say, it is not something you will be able to change."

Pefile fell silent. He had already grown tired of refuting the old man in front of him.

Following Erille, Pefile was brought into the largest house at the center of the village. It was a house built under the roots of a giant tree. Most of the furniture was made using smaller roots and was even embedded on the walls. It was a living house.

Pefile entered the house without hesitation. He had entered this place a lot of times than he could remember. The last time, however, was already more than a decade ago. It was at the time that his wife was abducted by his brother.

It was also when Pefile was forced to escape this place, unable to save his poor wife.

"Please, take a seat."

Erille said, preparing a hot drink using some leaves unknown to humans. The leaves emitted a sweet fragrance and had a slight fluctuation of magical energy. It was a magical herbal tea.

A cup made of wood was placed in front of Pefile as he took the seat. He did not hesitate to take the cup and drank a bit of the tea.

"Can you tell me what happened already?"

Pefile asked as he put down the cup.

"To tell the truth, no one knows what exactly happened to her," Erille replied after taking the seat in front of Pefile. "From the message my son sent us, it seemed that her health is deteriorating."

"How is that possible?" Pefile was agitated. "My brother... Artile fell in love with her. There's no way that he would let this happen."

"It is true that there was no way that he would let this happen." Erille agreed. "He even used precious herbs to improve her health as much as possible. However... None of it worked properly. She would get better because of the herbs, but it would get worse after a while. From the last message that my son sent, it seemed that her condition was getting worse that she was unable to get up from her bed anymore."

"This... Did I take too long..." Pefile murmured, looking down at the table. "No, I'll make sure that I will take her back this time."

"My King... That would be dangerous." Erille warned. "Back then, you weren't able to take her and had to escape. You almost died. Now, the young ones had grown. There would be more of them to stop and capture you. Forcing you into a disadvantageous duel with your brother. If you fell into their hands now, there would be no escape anymore."

"That might happen," Pefile said.

Erille looked at his respected King. He believed that he would be disheartened by the truth. But the old Tamawo was surprised.

Pefile actually looked calm.

"Right. I might get caught if I went there." Pefile raised his head. "That's if it was the same as the past. Now, I have measures to take. And this time, I'm not alone."

This made Erille surprised. Just what gave Pefile the confidence this time?

However, if Pefile did succeed this time, there would a great change within the tribe soon.

***

Several hundred years ago. It far before the people of the West colonized the country.

A tribe of beautiful men already existed. They were magical beings, spirits of nature and water that gained physical bodies due to the blessing of a goddess.

In return for the blessing they received, they guarded the sacred bodies of water, keeping them clean and free of contamination.

Many of them split up from the main tribe, searching for other sacred bodies of water. Those that found theirs founded their own tribes, spreading their kind all across the country, especially the Visayas, which were surrounded and separated by different bodies of water.

Unfortunately, their existence had a fatal flaw. They were unable to have women among their race, unable to increase their number. This was only addressed by taking in mortal women to be their wives.

Unfortunately, mortal women of the past would not want to be brides of creatures they deemed as inhuman. Even with their beautiful appearance, only a few of them succeeded in winning over the hearts of their partners.

Because of this, they were unable to increase their numbers to protect the sacred places they guarded. Being inhuman creatures, they were chased away by humans. Worse, they were killed.

Many branching tribes perished because of this.

The goddess that created them felt pity. However, while she was able to create their tribe, she had no ability to alter their current state. That was why she asked for the help of another god. That nameless god gave the beautiful tribe the ability to charm humans in order to continue their race.

And that was when another problem was found. As for how nature went, creatures with long lives tend to have a hard time increasing their numbers. Their fertility was low and it was up to chance whether they would have children.

Some of these beautiful tribes were already at the edge. Their numbers were dwindling and were barely increasing.

And because of that, many of their tribes began to abuse the ability that was taught to them. They stopped charming mortal females because of love. Instead, they charmed them to continue their race.

The deranged race began to hoard mortal females, taking more than one female as their wives. Some even began to kill each other due to the fact of targetting another member's females.

It created distraught between them and the humans. The latter began to wage war against the creatures that took their women.

But more than everything else...

The goddess that created them was enraged by their unscrupulous act.

Thus, after the war was quelled, the race was cursed. It did not matter whether who was the culprit or the innocent. The entirety of their race was cursed to prevent the event from happening once more.

That curse was the root of the restrictions that the tribe currently had.

And from there, they could only continue the life that the goddess that created them paved for them.

The curse kept their number from increasing too much or even from perishing completely.

That continued until the present.

That was how the present Tamawos came to be.

The Tamawos had very low fertility. It was rare for anyone to actually have siblings. Those that managed to have more than one child were deemed lucky.

One of those lucky people was the previous king of the main tribe in Kawasan. A mortal woman's fertility was short compared to the lives of the Tamawo. Even so, despite the large gap between their births, two princes were born in that king's era.

Unfortunately, that king was quite old already. His life would last only for the next hundred years when he had his second son. Still, the queen, who was a mortal, still died earlier than the king. It was something that could not be helped due to the difference in races.

The two princes had a gap of twenty years in age. By the time the second child was born, the first was already an adult. During childhood, a Tamawo's growth was similar to humans. They would only start aging slower once they reached adulthood.

Everyone valued the first prince. He was deemed to be the next king as the older one.

Unexpectedly, the valued heir to the throne grew eccentrically. His thoughts were outside the norm of their tribe. His thoughts were farfetched, and there was a lot in the tribe that he disagreed on.

Nonetheless, he was the best warrior at the time. It was what mattered the most to their race. A splendid warrior would become a splendid king as they said.

It was until...

The first prince fell in love with a woman. She was pretty, kind, and gentle.

They met by accident when the woman was lost in the woods of Kawasan. She saw the first prince in his undisguised form. Normally, a person would feel afraid seeing a beautiful but inhuman being. However, it was not the case for that woman. She asked Pefile about directions without any shred of fear.

The fascinated first prince decided to guide the woman out of the woods. She safely got out of the forest, thanking the first prince with a beautiful smile.

From then on, the two met with each other from time to time for the span of two months.

It all happened with the first prince not telling anyone.

Unfortunately, the kind woman was just a tourist in this place that came with her parents and siblings. They came to visit some relatives and would leave afterward.

The first prince was distraught. He definitely fell in love with that woman.

He could have charmed her and abduct her.

But the eccentric prince did not want to follow the steps of his tribe.

He did not want for his beloved to become like a puppet. Albeit able of thinking independently, their priority was always their husband. They had no freedom at all.

It was not true love at all.

The first prince wanted to follow her. However, he was the first prince, the heir to the throne. There was no way that the others would let him leave and would force him to charm the woman instead. After all, he already fell in love. If he did not get the heart of the woman, he would die sooner or later.

Even so, he could not force her to come with him.

He decided to confess on the last day that they were together.

Unfortunately, it was too sudden. The woman was unable to sort her feeling yet. It was regretful. If the first prince had done this sooner, there might have been a chance to make her stay.

Their last meeting ended with the woman running away. It was a bad ending.

However, the first prince was unable to let go. He remembered where the woman's hometown was. Since he would die soon anyway, he decided to take the gamble.

Throwing away the title of the first prince, he left the tribe in search of the woman he loved.

There, the first prince disappeared without a trace. It caused the whole tribe to turn upside down. Worst, the king was already in his last years. Soon, they would need another king to lead them.

The search for the missing prince began. Unfortunately, no one was able to find him.

Even so, the old king decided to wait for the return of the first prince.

That, however, gave a bad taste in the mouth of the second prince.

After all, it was always the first prince and not the second. The second prince was already sick of it. Since the first prince left, he should have the throne instead. However, no one thought of such a thing.

Soon, the king died, leaving an empty throne.

Without anyone to take over, the oldest Tamawo took the lead temporarily.

They were still waiting for the first prince.

Unfortunately, the second prince was having none of it any longer.

Allying himself with the enemies of the previous king, he took the throne by force.