Chapter 3: Chapter 1 - Doortal
The amber sky enveloped the lush forest-the Sun had just risen. A swift rush of air frightened a flock of chirping mocking jays perched on one of the branches of a narra tree. It was Hanz. He had been hopping from tree to tree for what seemed like five minutes but he was already miles away from his starting point.
He stopped on the branch where the mocking jays were. As he looked behind him to see the scope of what he had just traversed-noticed the bushes shaking.
"Hmmm. Interesting..." He mumbled as he faced the sky and sniffed to scan the area. "Looks like I'm not the only one headed to the Tree." he said with a blank expression on his face. Ignoring the possibility that someone could be on his tail, he bolted.
After thirty more minutes of acrobatics, he arrived at his destination.
"It's been a long time since I've last seen this place." He took a huge breath in and let it out.
In front of him was The Balete Tree where he had spent most of his life. It was a huge tree that towered over every other tree in the vicinity. Vines hanging from its branches, leaves were brown which used to be green.
Hanz stared at one of the leaves that were barely clinging to the branch. He watched it get blown by the wind and as it fell to the ground.
"Weird." He was not talking about the leaf getting blown away by the wind but the fact that it was brown. He crouched down to reach the fallen leaf and took a closer look. "Never in my lifetime have I seen the Tree's leaves turn brown." He added.
As he was observing it, a crunching noise was heard from the bushes behind him. He stood up and scanned the area-looking around for whoever stepped on a dried branch.
He took one sniff into the air and...
"It's you," Hanz said as a shadowy figure appeared behind a small tree but as the clouds moved above, the stranger's face gradually came to light. No one moved or batted an eyelid. It was a stare-down. "I knew from the start that I wasn't alone... Carlo!"
"Damn! Do I really need to take a bath that badly?" Carlo said as he walked his way in front of Hanz and gestured to give him a high five.
"Yes, water the Tree while you're at it," Hanz replied after their palms met in the air.
"How I wish it was that easy. We all know that The Tree can flourish even in the harshest weather." Carlo paused, "this is so weird."
"Yeah... I know."
"Maybe that big-ass bird that lives nearby is pecking way too close to its roots," Carlo responded. "that googly-eyed bird..." He said with a touch of fear on his face. "Have you seen it?"
"I honestly don't know. I never came back to this place after we left." Hanz looked at Carlo's ears. They had grown since the last time he saw him. "Your ears..."
"I know, right? It's my ring-something's wrong with it. Even the distinct Kapre smell can't be hidden anymore." Carlo sighed.
"Huh." Hanz was baffled. First, the leaves turned brown then Carlo's ring not working as intended. "Gertrude said something about anomalies. I wonder if the malfunctioning of the rings is one of them."
"Anomalies?" Carlo shrugged in wonder.
"Nevermind. Can you tell me what's brought you here?"
"I can't tell you."
"Did Gertrude summon you?"
"Please... It's a secret." Carlo seemed helpless. He's trying so hard to not answer Hanz. He shook his head side-to-side while biting his lips.
"I see. So Gertrude summoned you too." It's obvious that Hanz was trying to trick him to speak.
"I didn't say anything. How did... Wait... Were you summoned too?"
Hanz covered his face out of embarrassment for Carlo.
"Damn! You fooled me there. Just don't tell Gertrude I told ya."
Hanz looked below and shook his head. Carlo didn't change at all after many years. He's still gullible as ever.
"I can't promise you that but I will try." Hanz jokingly said.
As they turned around to approach the Tree, they heard a scream.
"Hey!"
It was a familiar voice of a woman. The scream was so high-pitched that Hanz almost felt like his eardrums were going to explode.
"It's her," Hanz said.
"Totally! That's Barb for ya!"
Hanz and Carlo frantically looked around for the source of the voice.
"Hey dimwits, I'm right here!" Barbara with her long, wavy, brown hair waved at the boys.
"Barb!" Carlo threw his arms in the air as he ran towards her.
"Don't you dare! Don't come any closer Carlo or I'm going to let my bugs eat you to your bones!" Her hand was in the air.
"What the heck did I do?" Carlo asked Hanz but the answer was just a shrug.
"You Kapres surely don't like taking a bath, do ya? I can smell you from miles away, you moron."
Hanz chuckled in the background.
"Ugh. It's my ring... Gertrude said I can have it fixed by the ringsmith."
"Sorry, I did not mean to offend you," Barbara said.
Carlo responded with a smile and a head scratch.
Barbara stopped in front of Hanz and threw her arms to each side. Hanz looked confused. "Why are you so confused? Just hug me already you stupid aswang."
"Forget it. You know I'm not into hugs-"
"Like I care." Barbara pulled him in. She caught him and hugged him. "I know you've missed me anyway." Hanz did not protest. He let her hug him for two seconds then made distance. Barbara's bugs, from her hair, crawled onto his shoulder.
Hanz looked at his shoulder and saw the bugs crawling. He flicked the bugs off of his shoulder. Then suddenly, Barbara hit Hanz on the head.
"Why did you have to flick my babies away like that?" Barbara shouted at Hanz.
"I'm s-so so-sorry!" Hanz said as blood came dripping down his nose. Carlo laughed loudly in the background.
Barbara offered a hand to Hanz to help him stand up. "Sorry. You know how I feel when my babies get hurt." She said.
"Yeah. I... I need to remember that."
Barbara and Hanz noticed that Carlos' laugh stopped abruptly.
"Guys..." Carlo said while looking like he had seen a monster. He looked behind him and saw a creature strutting its way down the path they were standing on. "Guys... We need to move now!"
"What is it?" Hanz and Barbara said in unison.
"It's..." Carlo said with his face turned pale. "It's that..."
"Just spit it out already!" Barbara snapped at the shivering Carlo.
"It's that motherfucking tandang!" He finally answered.
Everybody raced to the Balete Tree. The rooster kept moving and pecking its way toward them.
"This is not good!" Barbara took off her ring and turned into a Mambabarang. Flies, cockroaches, beetles, and other bugs flew out of her necklace while waving both her arms in a circular motion. The bugs made what seemed to be a barrier for both her and Hanz.

It stopped, straightened its neck, and glared at the three. The fat bird was almost as tall as Hanz.
"Cover your ears and run to me, Carlo! Get in the barrier!" Barbara screamed at Carlo.
"We're gonna die!" Carlo started sprinting towards Barbara's barrier of insects.
The overgrown rooster opened his beak and began screaming. "Clock! Clock!"
"Barbara, make another barrier for Carlo!" Hanz roared.
Barbara shook her head. "No, I can't do it. I'm not strong enough. This is actually the first time I'm using this move."
Hanz closed his eyes out of frustration. He couldn't look at Carlo getting hurt from the potentially fatal scream of the Tandang.
"Barbara! Hanz! Help!" Carlo, still covering his ears, had stopped running. The Tandang's scream was too powerful. "Barbara, do something!" Carlo added.
"Hanz, let's walk towards Carlo. If we're close enough we can just pull him inside the barrier." Barbara suggested.
Hanz nodded and the two slowly walked towards Carlo who was obviously in distress. If they walk too fast they could accidentally walk out of the barrier.
"Come on Hanz! Walk faster!" Barbara pleaded but even with the barrier, Hanz was weakened. He could still hear the Tandang. Aswangs' ears are far too sensitive.
"We're too late! Carlo's down!" Hanz screamed with his hands on his ears.
Carlo had passed out on the grass. He lay there, motionless.
"Oh no! Carlo, please! Somebody help us!" Barbara turned to Hanz's shoulder with her eyes closed.
Suddenly the Tandang stopped. Everybody opened their eyes and looked at where it was.
"It's alright, Mr. Tandang." A dark-skinned girl, standing next to the Tandang, suddenly appeared.
"Willow?" Barbara's eyes widened. With the Tandang calmed down, she slid her ring back to her finger and her face started to turn back to an ordinary-looking woman. The bugs hurriedly flew back to her necklace.
"Yeah, it's the girl who delivers potions," Hanz replied.
Willow was feeding the Tandang with some bread crumbs. Her humongous backpack cast a shadow on her and the Tandang.
"Go now, Mr. Tandang. Shoo!" She told it off gently and gracefully.
"Thank goodness!" Barbara said as she wiped her forehead with her shirt. "I remember that Tandang was as big as a dog. How did it get so big?"
"Maybe its owner fed it too much," Hanz answered.
"It's physically impossible for tandangs to grow as huge as that one." Barbara rebutted.
"I've been in this realm for so long but I still wonder why humans keep those pests."
"They keep them for cock fights and farming but humans don't know that they are a deterrent to the Tree Dwellers." Willow faced Hanz as she answered him.
"He knows that, Willow. It's a rhetorical question but thank you so much for helping us."
A warm breeze blew and Carlo's distinct kapre smell reminded them that he lay there hopeless.
"Shit, Carlo. Let's not forget him, guys." Barbara turned to his direction as Hanz carried Carlo to Willow. "Carlo needs your help. Kapres have bigger ears than most of us so it's a bigger pain in the butt to him." She addressed Willow.
"But shouldn't his ears be smaller coz he's wearing his ring?" Willow picks up Carlo's hand gently and showed it to Hanz and Barbara.
"Let's just say that his ring is acting weird," Barbara replied.
"Makes sense... Okay, one second. Lay him here. Let me just..." Willow whipped out her humongous backpack with a huge thud while everyone gathered around Carlo's unconscious body.
"Not this... Not this..." She looked at all the bottles of remedies one by one and threw them out of her bag.
Barbara, who was looking over Willow's shoulder, had her eyebrows raised in wonder. "Do you need help... with anything?"
Willow ignored her and kept pulling items from her backpack. "Here it is! I knew my father wouldn't have missed making this one." She exclaimed with her head held high.
"I bet!" Hanz chuckled.
"Let's turn him to his side," Willow commanded and so they did. She dropped one drop of the remedy into each ear.
"He should be waking up any time soon, right?"
"He better be, before that darn chicken goes back for an encore." Hanz jokingly mumbled to Barbara.
"Do you think I put in less than what's written on the instructions?" Willow, unsure, asked the two.
"Wait, you're the albularyo here. It should be us asking you questions like that." Barbara's eyes widened.
"Calm down, Barb. She's just trying to-" Hanz was interrupted.
"Mmmhmm." Carlo mumbled. The three all scooted closer to him.
"He's waking up," Hanz said, then he let out a sigh of relief.
"Wha-" Carlo's eyes were barely open.
"Carlo, right?" Willow was unsure of his name. "Are you... okay?" Willow moved her face closer to Carlo's.
"You don't wanna do that. He stinks, you know?" Barbara warned Willow but it was obviously too late.
Carlo yawned.
Willow was stunned for a second then hurriedly scooted away from Carlo.
"You should have warned her sooner." Hanz tapped Carlo's shoulder.
"Hey, what just happened?" Carlo, almost as if he was whispering, tried to get up.
"You were knocked out by the tandang that was guarding the entrance," Hanz explained.
"Is it normal for him to forget what happened to him?" Barbara asked Willow. Willow nodded then got up and packed all the bottles back in her backpack and headed for The Tree.
"I better go back home now. Father wanted some ipil-ipil leaves and I think I've collected enough. See you inside?"
"Thanks, Willow! We owe you big time." Hanz got up and waved goodbye to Willow.
"Get up, stinky. We need to go." Barbara offered her hand to Carlo who was in a daze. Willow was seen entering the Doortal in the background.
"What happened? Where's that ugly tandang?"
"It left. Somehow Willow calmed it down and it rushed home." Barbara brushed off Carlo's dirty shirt as he stood up. "Are you okay?"
"You know what? I don't feel any pain at all." He answered.
"Her potion worked then," Hanz said with a subtle smile.
"I hate that Gertrude called us back without clearing the area first. What if Willow never showed up? That tandang could've killed Carlo." Barbara spoke up. According to Hanz's and Carlo's faces, they agree with her sentiment.
"But I'm alive," Carlo replied after pausing for a few seconds.
"Yes, you are..." she replied as she held both hands of the two boys.
"Wha-What are you doing?" Hanz's face was red while Carlo's eyes widened and brows raised.
"Don't be silly. Let's all head into the Doortal and see how the academy looks." Barbara led the boys close to the Doortal.
"I personally don't like the idea of going to school. I've already graduated hundreds of times in this realm just so I can have something to do." Hanz sighed.
"Me neither. But I do have a feeling that Balete Academy will offer a different experience than any of the schools here in this realm." Carlo smiled.
Barbara turned her face towards Carlo. "Finally, we agreed on something, Carlo."
"Anyway, I still find it funny that they named this portal Doortal. Whose genius idea do you think was it?" Carlo joked.
Barbara stopped walking. "You open it."
"Why me?" Hanz asked.
"Just open the darn door, I'm holding both of your hands, you imbecile!"
In front of them was a wooden door that was fixed to the trunk with a rusted doorknob. It clicked as Hanz turned it.
"I hated the last time I jumped into one of these things." Carlo closed his eyes in fear.
"Why are you afraid of so many things? You're a Kapre in a human's body, you know that, right?" Barbara responded.
The door screeched open. Inside was like a sea of colors. They couldn't see anything.
"I'm ready," Hanz stated.
"Me, too." Said Barbara.
"I'm not sure if I am." Carlo opened his eyes and saw what seemed to be rainbows swirling, colliding with one anot
her. "I'm gonna puke."
"Just hold on to me, coward." Barbara pulled both of their hands and jumped inside the Doortal. They fell into a never-ending, bottomless pit.
"Barbara! You-you're a b-bully!" Carlo's cries echoed as they waved their limbs while falling.
End of Chapter 1
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