I told my daughter the history of our ancestors. She was unbelieving, but soon, she would believe. It happened too long ago, but the memory remains clear in my head.

**

I entered the cave not by mistake or because I was a bear. But because I had been specifically asked by my grandmother. She wanted me to look at the cave art that was drawn by our ancestors. See, I'm a descendant of a small tribe from the deep provinces of Samar. According to my grandmother, our true home is a mythical place hidden from the eyes of normal people. She even went as far as proclaiming that we were—people—not of this world. I found it comical. I never believed in stories such as that because I was brought up in the city of Manila far from the prying eyes and the ridiculously sculpted beliefs of my townsmen. But my grandmother was dying, so, I agreed.

The cave was as dark as I expected. There were channels of water on the ground, creating echoes as they burbled seemingly sounding like a vicious animal out to get me. The scent of molds and rotten animal carcasses viciously assaulted my nose. But despite the erratic heartbeat that those scenes caused my heart, I continued to move forward. I labored against the labyrinth of crevices inside the cave but never feared getting lost because my grandmother had given me a map that I could peruse and aid me in my endeavor. It took about thirty minutes before I found the large chamber marked X on my map. There, my eyes barely believed the sight I was presented with. The entire chamber walls were filled from top to bottom with animal drawings and a majestic-looking landscape.

As I made my way in front of the wall that held the painting of a flower, I couldn't help but frown. The scent of roses permeated from the wall as if the flower drawn on it had a life of its own, spreading its fragrance in the surroundings. Although I found that weird, the city girl in me brushed it off and thought nothing more of it than the remnants of the paint that was used. Perhaps, the artist crushed an actual flower and used its tint on his painting, I thought to myself.

I was busy perusing a sketch of an antler on one of the cave walls when the flashlight I held started to flicker and the next thing I know, I was plunging. The previously hard ground beneath my feet turned into something keen to liquid mercury. A scream escaped my mouth and it soon turned into an ear-splitting cry as I continued to descend. All at once, my breathing became labored as I got continuously sucked beneath the earth. Closing my eyes, I thought I had wandered too deep and was caught in quicksand. I was about to die. But that never happened, because soon, I fell on something soft. It was a pile of dried leaves that cradled my fall. I was able to tell due to the crunchy sound it created when I steered and turned to my side.

Slowly, I opened my eyes and rose to my feet. The air was almost knocked out of my lungs when there, in front of me, stood a rainforest. Squinting my eyes, in the distance, I saw city skyscrapers. I even saw lights on them and found it truly weird. It appeared that a city was thriving somewhere at the edge of the forest. How could that be, I asked myself. I may not have been familiar with our local topography but a city in the forest was not something common, matter of fact, it wasn't normal.

I knew walking away was the best course, but when I turned around, what had lain behind me was a dark void. There was nothing there but swirling dust of back and brown. It seemed like a black hole, but calm. When I looked up, the sky was in a gyrate of red and purple hues. It looked like the horizon was transitioning between dawn to morning. Had I lost consciousness that long? I asked myself. I was certain I entered the cave at around four in the afternoon. I couldn't have possibly slept the entire night. But then again, I fell. Perhaps my fall caused my deep slumber.

The forest stood menacingly before me, but whether what lay on the other side was a city or something else, I knew I had to get there. I couldn't just stand on my spot and remain lost, so I took a step forward.

Upon entering, the first thing I noticed was the weird way the trees inside looked. The trunks didn't grow straight up, they were all leaning south, darted towards a particular direction—in the location of the skyscrapers. The ground was covered with thick moss and had small pink and white flowers peeking from them. The air felt warm, which was weird, wasn't a rainforest supposed to have a cold atmosphere? As I continued on my path, I also noticed that the forest floor was fully illuminated. Everything on it; I saw clearly. Looking up, I wondered where the illumination came from. The verdant canopy above me was dense enough to prevent sunlight from reaching the forest floor. It was weird, but I was thankful. Because at that time, I no longer held a flashlight in my hand.

It took me about an hour of endless greenery and low-hanging branches that clawed on my cheek before I reached a clearing. From there, I was presented with a city, surrounded by high-rising walls. The structure had me gaping in awe but at the same time caused a blooming dread in my gut. I was near turning to my heels and running back inside the forest when from the giant gate of the city, I saw a man waving his hand. He seemed to beacon me into coming closer. So I did. I took slow short strides towards the gate and the man; whom, by the decreasing distance between us, I noticed to have weird markings on the face, smiled. I smiled back, and as I continued to lessen the stretch of land that separated me from him, I also noticed that he wore animal skin; one belonging to a bear.

When I reached the gates, he bowed and said, welcome to Biringan.

I couldn't help but chuckle at that point. Biringan is a mythical place believed by the locals to house mystical creatures. Stepping back, I eyed the man and asked, "Am I dreaming?"

The man smiled widely. "You were asked to come here because the last of your ancestors is about to travel back, to take her place among the people inside this city. Now it's your turn to keep the secret and pass it on to your descendants.

I was so confused at that point, all I did was bob my head. But when the silence stretched uncomfortably between us, I asked, "so my family and everyone in my tribe are from this place?"

He didn't respond, he instead took a key out of his pocket and opened the gates. What greeted me sent shivers down my spine. A thriving civilization that was impossible to have existed in a place like that. There were modern-looking buildings that rose high in the atmosphere, cemented roads that branched out from one corner to another, street signs, and even pedestrian lanes. From where I stood, I even glimpsed shops like those present in Manila. By then I deduced that I was perhaps caught in what the locals called, the city of the mythical beings. For a moment, I felt like crying. I remembered my grandmother telling me once that when a person entered the mystical world, there was no way out.

In an instant shivers ran up my spine, but what truly got the blood in my veins running cold was the citizens I saw lurking on the streets. They weren't human. Some had the feet of a horse and the torso of a man. Others had wings that came in different sizes.  I saw women in white lacy dresses just floating over the streets and half-bodied creatures flying on the horizon. I saw dwarves lined perfectly, one after the other, crossing the streets. Then one of them turned to look at me. It forced me to take a step back. I found reprieve when he turned away, but all too soon, the residents stopped in their tracks and their sight took residence in my countenance. Some of them frowned while others waved their hand in greeting. But what got my eyes turning into saucers was when one of the floating ladies dressed in white took a beeline and headed toward me. She has a rather angry look on her face as if my presence offended her in some way. I took another step back. My knees felt like they no longer had the strength to keep my weight and that had me falling to the ground.

Looking up, I heard the man who greeted me whisper, "Would you like to come in?"

There was a mischievous glint in his eyes and it felt as though, he was eager to have me take a step inside. That alarmed me more than the white lady headed my way. I swallowed the lump of saliva that pooled inside my mouth and the words, "no thanks," instantly spilled out my lips. I rose to my feet and made a run for it. As I distanced myself from that place I heard wailing and then a roar of laughter. It felt like my fear amused them.

Soon I found myself back in the forest, exiting it with haste, and hurried back in front of the pile of leaves that I fell on. The dark void with its swirling ebony dust still lay before it, undisturbed and silent.

I tried to catch my breath in hopes to steady my heart then tilted my head to the sky. I screamed the words, "I want to go back. Please, wake me up."

I begged over and over but received no reprieve. The dread in me multiplied tenfolds as the seconds dragged on. Fear claimed my heart further when from the distance the laughing continued sinisterly finding its way to me. I begged again. When nothing happened, and the beat of my heart accelerated to a point where I felt lightheaded, I called out my grandmother's name.

It was a whisper of wind that had me tilting my head down and looking straight at the void. I watched, mouth agape as the dust in it started to swirl and took momentum, then slowly, it stretched forward and crept towards the pile of leaves I stood on. Alarmed, I took a step back but stumbled down when my foot got caught on a protruding root from the ground. I looked back at the forest and knew I had to get there. I feared that what lay inside the dark void was more ominous than what I saw inside the city. So I tried to rise from the ground, but before I could fully steady my feet, everything turned dark.

I awoke inside the cave, with my grandmother and four other people surrounding me. Her wrinkled skin momentarily looked young as it stretched to the side when she smiled at me. She held out her hand and with careful grace, she pulled me up.

"Was it so hard to have faith, Carmela? I guess people like you need to see in order to believe.

I gazed at my grandmother with tears dripping from my eyes. "I'm sorry, nanang," I told her.

She smiled at me and wrapped her arms around my shaking body. I smiled and right then I knew, I will never see things the way I did before.