According to the stories, in later years of 1970's, there was family of three, consisted of a mother, son, and daughter.
It was 4:00am when the mother of these two children that we'll name Sita and Emil, left. She left to go the church for an early mass and a prusisyon.
Sita woke up from a bad dream. She dreamed of herself being abducted by elemental creatures, or what we popularly call here in the Philippines as 'engkantos'. She sat up at their 'papag' or pallet in English. She woke her kuya up.
Her kuya asked "Sita, what's the matter?"
"I had a nightmare. It showed me myself being abducted by engkantos!"
"Come of it, Sita. It was just a nightmare, okay? Return to sleep." Emil said and tried to comfort Sita.
Sita wants herself to be comfortable after the nightmare too, but it wasn't that easy to take off a nightmare from your head when you were just a child. She laid herself in the pallet again, but it just wasn't easy to sleep for her again.
The family of Sita lives in a nipa hut. Families before in many provinces live in such houses.
Sita closed her eyes..when something pounded the roof of their house. It has gotten both Sita and Emil shocked. They sat up nervously.
"Kuya, what was that?" Sita asked. Her voice suddenly expresses worry and fear.
"I don't know.." Emil whispered, even him is quite nervous.
"Where's nanay (mom)?" Sita asked. Tears now streaming down her soft cheek.
"She went to the church."
BLAG.
There was another pounding in the roof. A nipa hut is sensitive to violent movements. Every pound shakes the whole nipa hut, as if it was about to broke down.
BLAG. BLAG. BLAG.
The pounding continues. In those times, beliefs in engkantos, aswangs, ghosts etc. are wide that every family is scared of them or is doing safety measures toward them. Their house is located in the woods, with distant neighbors. To be able to go to the church or to the town, you need to walk through deserted woods before you reach the main road.
"Kuya, I'm scared!!!" Sita said, now crying.
"Calm down, Sita. You're with me, everything will be fine."
"Kuya, let's go to nanay!" Sita begged.
"When we get out of this house, that creature might eat us!"
"But kuya!!!" Sita continued to sob.
"OKAY! We need to see mom! When I say run, we'll run out to the road."
Sita nodded.
"1, 2, 3! RUN!" Emil said.
Sita and Emil ran out of the nipa hut and through the woods. The darkness of the woods is blinding. As they pass their neighbors, they saw no light of lamps or candles at all or any indication that people are already awake. All of the windows are closed, and everything is still as if they were alone in the place. Only their footsteps can break the lull of the neighborhood.
Emil is holding Sita's hands and is running as fast as he could. They never looked back to whatever is pounding there roof, too scared to know what it really is.
At least 30 meters away from the main road to the town, the two were stopped.
There is a big tuod (a body of a tree/tree trunk) blocking the way.
Sita and Emil tried to bypass the tuod by going to the left where the trunk's body isn't blocking. But to their surprise, the trunk moved and blocked them again. The children then went to the right, still, the trunk blocked them.
Desperate enough, Emil tried to walk over the body of the tuod to pass it, but it surprised them again when it floated just to not let them pass.
"Kuya, what is it??" Sita asked, now crying wilder than ever.
"I don't know. But we need to get through it!" Emil said.
Sita and Emil continued to try to get through the tuod. They continue to move left, right, or over the tuod. But the tuod continues to block them too, as if dancing with them. They even tried to move under the tuod when it floats, but the tuod will land every time they try doing so.
Emil sat in the ground, frustrated.
"What should we do?" Emil asked. Sita noted the frustration in her older brother's voice.
"Right!" Sita said. Suddenly, she remembered something. "Remember when we visited lola last week? She said whenever we're being played by an engkanto or engkantos, we need to take of our clothes and wear it reversely!"
"Right! Let's try!" Emil said.
Then the two took of their clothes and wore it reversely. Suddenly, when they tried to step over the trunk, it stopped floating, letting them pass through it.
On their way to the road, their mother met them. And they told their mother of what happened with the roof of the house, and the big tuod.
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