Banting

The Age of Mother: Sirena

The Sirenas

She kissed Lihangin goodbye and dived in the water. As she swims deeper in the Banting, she knows she will never see Lihangin again for the life she would create can only live in the waters. Agemem swims endlessly but not without direction, she knows where to go and the water is guiding her and after a long journey, she found the place where she is to give birth – in the navel of the Banting.

She gave birth to five (5) beings, the twins Magindara and Magindusa, Oryol, Litao, and Tala. The siblings are like their mother Agemem with fins and tails, but they can be distinguished by their features; the twins are slender, beautiful, and fast in the waters. Oryol is fat, heavy, but as fast as the twins. Litao is lanky and slow, but he has the greatest endurance and can swim the farthest distance. Tala the youngest is beautiful, sleek, and graceful, but she is stranger than her siblings for she has two big fins at her back that slows her when they swim.

The siblings grow fast and reached adulthood through the passage of time. Eventually, they entertained their feeling of love and lust and the siblings made love with each other with any and each of their siblings. Magindara, Oryol, and Tala are mothers who can give birth and Magindusa and Litao are fathers without sons and daughters for they cannot identify their children unless the mothers tell them. This in turn, makes children obedient and loving to their mothers but disobedient and indifferent to their mothers.

Time passes and the Sirena, as Agemem named them lived a nomadic and peaceful life under the rule of the mothers. Since their tribe grows into a multitude of sirenas, there arises the need to produce more siksiklat ( a sea herb that the sirenas eat). The sirena's way of life is a hunting life that involves stealing sisiklat to tambanukanos who farm these herbs. And these hunting expeditions cause a great deal of life to sirena hunters, for the tambanukanos are shell creatures similar to a lobster or a crab with more powerful pincers. Agemem, in her deep thought, was convinced that they need to sow and farm siksiklat to avoid deaths and to prevent a full-scale war with the tambanukanos. A hunting party was organized by and she tasked Magindusa and Litao to head the expedition, with them are the sons of Tala: Dakawe, Mapulon, and Dagat. Their task is to swim to Galatea the deepest part of the Banting, and there they should look for Tubbataha the nest of the tambanukanos, created by sea stones, corals, and pearls. There they will find seeds of the sisiklat, and the tambanukanos do not eat sisiklat herbs but they need its seeds to feed their fishes.

The hunting party left Banting and dived for long until they reached the Galatea where it is cold and the warmth of Agemem is not felt. They managed to locate the nest of Tubbataha were they find the place where the tambanukanos kept their seeds, the place is a heavily guarded open clam, and the only passage is a small opening where two people can fit perfectly. Magindusa devised a plan, since he, Mapulon and Dagat swims faster than Dakawe and Litao they will serve as a bait, they will swim in front to drive the guards away while the two will sneak amidst the confusion and gather as many seeds as they can get. Litao agreed to this plan, but the three sons of Magindusa although they agreed are half-hearted to the plan.

On his signal, Magindusa, Dagat, and Mapulon should burst into the guards, but it is only Magindusa who did so, for Dagat and Mapulon wants to stick with their brother Dakawe to load as many seeds. These angered Magindusa but he has no choice but to continue to serve as a distraction, his speed served him well and allowed the remaining sirenas to sneak carefully to the nest and started to load many seeds as they can, that made Magindusa relived that the plan may work, but Litao is irritated. However, a water suddenly shakes and from the nest a massive creature emerges, a giant crab. The four gatherers tried to escape but their numbers prevented them to leave the clam, Dakawe and Mapulon escaped while Litao and Dagat are caught in the pincers of the Giant Crab. Litao struggled but failed for sheer strength cannot defeat the giant, he strikes his spear but it shattered when it hit the crabs shell and after all their struggle failed, in the sight of Mapulon, Dakawe, and Magindusa, who were now in a safe hiding place, Dagat and Litao were torn into pieces.

The remaining sirenas journeyed back to Banting with a full sack of sisiklat seeds carried by Dakawe. Magindusa reminded the two to give him the sack in case the tambanukano pursued them for he can swim the fastest and save the seeds, while Mapulon can confuse them for he swims the faster than Dakawe. Moments after his reminder, a group of tambanukanos is on their trail, Magindusa asks for the sack but Dakawe threw it to his brother Mapulon to escape, while he dives to hide and left Magindusa to run. But, the Mapulon's speed was not enough the chase lasted for some time and the sack of seeds was slashed by a tambanukano causing its content to spill. Eventually, they reached the Banting and narrated their story to Agemem, Magindara, Oryol, and Tala.

Magindusa stated the truth that because of the children disobedience it caused Litao and Dagat to die and lose a massive amount of seeds, while Mapulon and Dakawe assert that Magindusa's plan will not work, and they do not trust him for there are not their mothers. Agemem in her despair to the loss of Dagat and Litao gave Magindusa an angry beating, for Agemem believed that it is his fault that two children died in his supervision. Magindusa in return strike Agemem that startled all the beings of Banting, for with their laws and tradition, no one should strike a mother, more so the Great Mother Agemem. They quarrel turned into a full-blown fight that when Magindusa was to deliver the final blow Oryol shielded Agemem while Tala aimed an arrow against his brother. Magindara approached her twin and convinced him to lower his weapon.

Without a word the sirenas seems to be divided, those who believed in Magindusa and those who support Agemem. Time again passes and Magindusa frequently shows his disgust to Agemem and the rule of mothers. He created more followers with his twin Magindara, they wanted a rule by fathers and depose Agemem, Oryol, and Tala in their triumvirate rule. Eventually, they plan to rebel.

Gabii was high in theBanting when Magindusa gave the signal where he and his followers approachedAgemem and his two sisters. Since Agemem's followers are the mothers and theirchildren they were easily defeated. Magindusa seized the rule and declared theAge of Father rule in the Banting.