Monsters and Kings

The city of Kalayaan is a lot like the city where you may live. It has tall buildings and wide, lush green parks. There are shops that sell food, gadgets, furniture and toys. Gated villages, apartments and offices, malls and restaurants, large public spaces, almost endless roads – Kalayaan has it all.

But Kalayaan also has three wondrous palaces, set in the middle of the city, that are impossibly huge and majestic and float several stories off the ground. Its roads are mostly for walking, because everyone takes the megatrains or their flying cars. And though some of its people are much, much richer than others, everyone has a home, and nobody goes hungry.

This is because Kalayaan is a city of magic. Magic that most who live here are born with and can use as easily as you or I breathe or drink water. Even those who cannot use magic, and there are some, are surrounded by it every day, and it does make their lives easier than elsewhere.

Kalayaan is the capital city of Pilipinas –not the Philippines that you’re used to (and you would get plenty of nasty looks if you said “Philippines” in a public place). This is the other Pilipinas, farther away than any country you know, beyond the widest oceans and the highest mountain ranges.

Pilipinas is ruled by families. Like your Philippines. Of the three families, one of these is the Sovereign Family – the Prima Pamilya, whose decisions are obeyed and who have the final say about all things. There is a way to change the Prima Pamilya every ten years. That has not happened in fifty.

Our story today is about the children of the current Prima Pamilya, the Kings. This is not their true name – the original family name cannot be pronounced anymore by people. “King” is close to what the original name meant, but not really. Still, it is much easier to say, and so it has stuck.

Cleopatra King is the oldest. She wants people to call her “Cleo”. At thirteen, she is small and thin, with dark brown skin, and messy, wavy hair that people say she got from the first Filipinos. She is very smart, and very quiet, and very short-tempered when someone says something bad about her family. She likes to wear light-toned dresses with simple lines, her mother’s designer shoes, and expensive bracelets.

Elizabeth King, who likes to be called Liz, is the next child, only eleven, but she is already a head taller than Cleo and twice her size. Liz is a big, fair-skinned girl, stout of heart and laugh, with smooth, dark brown hair that falls well past her shoulders. She likes sporty clothes, sleeveless shirts and comfy sneakers.

Roosevelt King, who answers to Roo, is the third child, eight years old and taller still than Liz. He is also taller than any other eight year old you would know. He is strong and long-limbed, with a permanent light tan, very athletic, and likes to keep his hair short so it does not get tangled in the branches of the trees he enjoys climbing. He wears a lot of character t-shirts and loose jeans and prefers bare feet over any shoes.

Nobunaga King, the youngest, is three and smiles when his eldest sister calls him “Nobu”. His skin is milky pale, except for his rosy cheeks. He tends to get lost in the house a lot. He likes playing with his sisters’ dolls and zapping his clothes into pretty dresses with stars and teddy bears. His chin-length hair also changes color daily.

Our story begins one warm summer day at front lawn of the King house, which is a well-kept forest a couple of kilometers long and wide. Roo and Liz were playing a very exciting game of tag through the trees with several of their friends, while Cleo sat quietly under the shade of a giant narra, reading a book to Nobu. As Cleo spoke the words of the book, the characters on the pages would step out onto the grass and act out the events as Cleo said them, only stopping and giggling whenever Nobu would reach out and poke them with his fingers.

“Oh, dearest, we’ll never finish the story if you keep playing with them,” Cleo said. Nobu just laughed, smoothed out the wrinkles on his purple skirt, and gave Cleo a hug.

“Fly with me, Pa-Te!” Nobu squealed, his toes floating off the ground. Cleo smiled and looked up at her youngest brother, and at the sun. Cleo liked the sun. She liked how it felt on her face.

The sun’s bright rays were suddenly blocked out by a tall shadow. The shadow belonged to Gillen Reposo, one of her family’s guards, a mountain of a man with a voice like thunder. He reminded Cleo of a big, fuzzy bear – a bear who would bring back her favorite ice creams from trips abroad with her parents.

He bowed low in front of her. “Princess Cleo. Prince Nobu. I am sorry to interrupt your garden time. But your mother says you should play inside for the rest of the day.”

“Why?” Cleo asked. “Is something wrong, Gillen?”

“There is news of a monster who was seen near the palace, Princess,” Gillen said. “A beast-man ten meters tall with the head of a horse and hooves for feet. The ground is said to burn wherever he steps. And it is said he has an appetite for young children.”

“It is said?” Cleo asked, looking at Gillen curiously.

“It is said,” Gillen replied, with a very thin smile. “Princess, while the Lakan and the First Second are away on their foreign tour, it would be better for them to know you and your siblings were safe from harm inside.”

“Lakan” was what everyone called their Mother, as she was the leader of all of Pilipinas, and while it meant everybody obeyed her, it also meant she had to do important work like going to other countries and talking to their leaders. “First Second” was what everyone called their Father. People didn’t have to obey him. But Cleo saw that many people respected him anyway.

“Okay,” Cleo said. “For the Lakan.”

Cleo reached out and held Nobu’s hand tightly. She clicked her tongue twice and the book’s characters all dashed back into the book, which fluttered like a butterfly and perched itself on her shoulder. She called over to Liz and Roo, who were pulling leaves out of their hair and running up to them with arms outstretched, making airplane noises.

“We said goodbye to our friends,” Liz said, frowning. “The guards told us we need to go home.”

“Yes, there’s a monster,” Cleo said. She tapped the side of her nose and a gleaming silver string appeared, tying itself around Nobu’s waist while he continued to float like a balloon. She nodded her head at Gillen, who bowed to the waist at her and her brothers and sister.

“What kind of monster?” Roo asked. “Like, with huge teeth and bat wings?”

“No, maybe it’s like a big insect with scorpion claws and porcupine quills,” Liz said. “And bad breath.”

“Horsey!” Nobu shrieked.

“Yes, a man with a horse head and feet that set things on fire,” Cleo said.

“Doesn’t sound very scary,” Roo said, shrugging. Liz nodded.

“Well, Gillen says we should go home and Gillen is scared of nothing, so maybe they aren’t telling us everything,” Cleo said. She reached into a tiny handbag, slung across her body, for her phone (a gift from Father on her last birthday) and tapped the little picture on its screen with a television set on it. The air around them grew cool, and little blue lights popped up all around them.

And then, they were home, inside their third favorite den, the one with the biggest TV. Cleo brushed off the book on her shoulder, which flew to the nearest bookshelf and slipped itself back in. Liz plopped on the couch and turned the TV on, hoping to watch a nice cartoon movie.

“Ugh. Someone left it on the news again,” Liz grumbled, looking at Cleo and Roo. She held up a hand to wave over to another channel, but Cleo heard the people on the TV talking about Mother, so she motioned for Liz to keep it there first. A reporter was talking to a thin, pale man who looked like he had a lemon stuck in his mouth.

“It’s that meano from the Bahaghari family,” Liz said. “He’s saying awful things about Mommy.”

“What is he saying?” Roo, who liked watching news but did not always understand it, asked.

Cleo frowned. “That Mommy is always away letting bad things happen,” she said.

“Like the horse monster?” said Roo.

“Maybe,” Cleo said. The Bahaghari family liked to complain about Mother a lot.

Liz jumped up. “I have an idea,” she said proudly. “We can shut that meano up, get back our garden time, and help Mommy.”

Cleo looked worried. Liz was a very brave girl, which meant that her ideas were often not very safe.

“Let’s catch that horse monster!” Liz declared, leaping on top of another sofa with her hands on her hips. “I bet we can do it before dinner.”

Cleo and Roo looked at each other, and then started laughing. “That’s crazy, Liz,” Cleo said. “Kalayaan is enormous and we have no idea where to start looking. Even if we did, what do you think we could do against a horse monster?”

“And, um, we’re stuck here at home,” Roo said. “And there will be Guardians looking for the horse monster everywhere.” Guardians were a mix of a policeman and a soldier, who worked every day to keep Kalayaan and other places in Pilipinas safe. “Let’s just watch Moana again.”

Nobu hopped onto a chair and copied Liz. “I like Moana,” he said.

Liz scowled at her siblings. “Moana was a hero. We could be heroes if we catch this monster, you guys! Aren’t Mommy and Daddy always telling us to be kind and help people? What better way than to stop a monster from eating people?”

Roo clapped and found another couch to stand on. “This sounds like fun,” he said. “I’m in, Ate Lizzy!” The television blared out a trumpet blast, and every electric device in the room started to blink.

Cleo stood up and folded her arms, trying to look like she was in charge, which was not easy for a small person with two bigger siblings. “No! It’s too dangerous,” she protested.

“Not for us,” Liz said, with a bright big smile. “Ate Cleo, I know you’ll keep us safe no matter what.” She bit her lip and looked at Cleo the way a kitten would look at its mother for milk.

Cleo sighed. “Fine,” she said. “Besides, if I say no you’ll probably sneak off and try to catch the monster yourself anyway. But Nobu stays home. It’ll be hard enough watching the two of you and he’s too young.”

“I… I can’t go, Pa-te?” Nobu said, sadly, looking like he was going to start crying.

Cleo bent down and hugged her youngest brother. “Sorry, dearest,” she said. “This is a big boy and girl adventure. I don’t know what I would do if you got hurt.”

This was a lie. She knew exactly what she was going to do, but she didn’t want to think scary thoughts. “Do you understand?”

Nobu nodded quietly and floated back to a chair near the TV.

“Woo-hoo!” Liz shouted, raising her fists in the air. “Let’s go kick horse monster butt!”

“Wait, we have to make sure the yayas or Gillen’s team don’t notice we’re gone,” Cleo said. She reached into her bag and held out a small notebook filled with scribbles and equations.

Liz and Roo looked at each other knowingly. Liz held up a small toy hammer, and Roo had a handful of plastic building blocks.

The three children mumbled some words and held their things very tightly. When they opened their hands, the objects had disappeared and gone to their rooms. If someone asked about or looked for them, Cleo’s notebook would say in her voice that she was busy reading and studying. Liz’s hammer would say she was training to be tougher. And Roo’s blocks would say that he was making something cool and that he should not be disturbed.

“Okay, that’s done,” Liz said. “Assemble the troops, Roo!”

Roo saluted Liz and grabbed a big canvas bag, about the size of a small luggage, that was hanging on the wall with a checker design. He laid it out on the carpet and held it open, then whistled loudly. One by one, everything in the room that was plugged in, or powered by batteries, that clicked or whirred or blinked or flashed, gently packed itself up neatly and floated into the bag. The bag itself did not change size, and when the TV slipped into the bag with a “pop” sound, the bag bulged only a bit.

Cleo picked up a box of crayons sitting in one of the bookshelves and pushed it into her handbag. She then walked up to the wall, where a poster of a shimmering white crystal in a sea of stars was hanging, and touched it, breathing in and out slowly. “Okay, I’m full,” she said, after about a minute, motioning for Liz and Roo to come to her. “Make sure you’re all charged before we do this. The last thing I want is for us to be out of magic when we need it most.”

After Liz and Roo had also touched the poster, Cleo looked around to say goodbye to Nobu, but he had vanished. Since this happened a lot, Cleo did not worry – he was likely back in his room, or in other playroom, or somewhere else the yayas would find him eventually.

So, the three older King kids held hands with Cleo holding her phone, on a screen with a map of the palace, and a line that she drew to just beyond the palace walls. Blue lights and cool air again, and then, they were outside, ready to start their adventure.