The Fool Moon’s Trickery

Once upon a time, there was a merchant who traveled across the lands with no more than the pack on his back, straw slippers and a hat. One evening, he set up his camp by the water-side and sang himself to sleep. When his fire died out, he lay on a blanket and kept his eyes to the moon, bright and blinding. He closed his eyes and heard rumbling beneath the earth. Was it an animal? He wondered. He sat up and saw nothing but the full moon in the sky and ripples across the lake’s surface. Twisting and curling into the clouds, there roared a serpent with vicious Oglowing eyes and crooked teeth. It bore no wings but its snake-like body rose into the sky. The traveler watched in fascination as the beast unhinged its jaw wide enough to swallow the moon. “It is the Bakunawa!” cried the merchant, shivering at the sight, “I did not know the creature resided here!” He thought to pack his bag and move further down the road and deeper into the wood.

Suddenly, cries and shouts erupted from a nearby island. Metal banged upon metal. The serpent hissed at the noise and twisted itself in a fit. Arrows and spears bolted and curved gracefully in the air, making their marks on the wicked creature. For a while, this violent exchange continued until the Bakunawa could no longer bear the pain in his wounds and slithered back into the waters from whence he came.

Lo and behold, the creature stretched its neck in greeting, “Human,” His deep voice rumbled in the water and the ground on which the merchant slept. “Would you be so kind enough as to help me tend to my wounds?”

The merchant narrowed his eyes at the beast, “Why should I help you?” He asked, “You will only rise from the sea to eat the moon again.”

It was the creature’s turn to show disdain, “The moon is useless to you. You do not eat it.”

“The moon gives us light in the evenings and makes the tide rise and fall.”

“You have your fires, and what good is there in water rising and falling?”

There was no hesitation in the merchant’s reply; “It gives us food. It makes us rich. You would not understand. You are a dragon, you would devour everything in your path. ”

The Bakunawa snarled, baring its jagged teeth “You humans are so picky with your lives,” He growled turning and curling around the shallow waters, “I have only one occupation–” said the dragon, “To guard the seas and take what I please. Your kind must always make a fuss over what occupation you must have; you cannot decide between being a farmer or fisherman.”

“I am neither.” cried the human. “Look, I carry pearl and gold with me! I am far richer than them.” The merchant opened his satchel to reveal the gold coins and pearls he had gathered from his quarry. The man did not notice the creature widen its jaw, showing the cave that was his mouth. A feeling stirred within the beast’s stomach. Deep into the dragon’s eyes revealed an abyss that reflected the shimmer and shine of the merchant’s wares.

“How beautiful!” cried the dragon. “I must have it. It shall adorn the walls of my cave, give it to me!”

The merchant snapped his bag shut. “No! Why would I give it to you?”

The Bakunawa snarled “It is a small compensation to trade, your ‘precious’ moon for those pearls and gold.”

“The moon has nothing to give me. The same way this gold and pearl are useless to you.”

The creature rose from the water, towering high over the merchant, “Look at me,” he said. “For all of my majesty and power, many creatures fear me and look at me with disgust. I must not be beautiful,” He turned his back to look at the moon. “I must take whatever beauty is around me and claim it as my own.” He lunged at the merchant, the force sending him to cower on the ground, “You humans are the same. You do not see yourselves as beautiful, so you protect what you think is. You too are ugly, and so you covet gold and silver. In that regard, you are no different from me.”

He slid closer towards the trembling merchant, its serpentine physique crushing the crunchy sand. “Now, heed my warnings traveler, and give me what I desire.” The merchant refused him again – and he would not be able to refuse him a third time.

Later, a hunting party from the neighboring village found the merchant’s camp. It seemed undisturbed, except for the footless sandals the lay strewn haphazardly across the sandy beach. Drops of scarlet trailed from them, into the quiet waters. As they tried to make sense of the scene before them, the Bakunawa rose from the abyss from whence he came, eager to claim the moon once more.