DISCLAIMER: I own nothing else but the plot. This is inspired by the legend of the Pasig River, the Kundiman by the great Nicanor Abelardo by the title "Mutya ng Pasig" . Inspiration came from (of course) mai hime, and Nick Joaquin's stories.
Setting: Its 1896 in the Philippines, a time when legends and folklores and even the old religion is dying due to the Spanish influence, and Christiniaty is forced upon the Filipinos. It's the age of Galleons and the" forever busy city of Maynilad is blooming with mestizos (mixed blooded Filipinos) and traders. Don Perfecto Valiente Viola, A Peninsulares (someone who was born in Spain) is a Spanish official who ventured into the Philippines with his family. His wife is a mestiza, Ichigo Viola, half Filipino and half Japanese, and their daughter is course (obviously) none other than Shizuru Viola, a beautiful mestiza whose charms none can refuse.
The Pasig River was one of the world's busiest rivers during the ancient times. Before the Spanish colonized the Philippines, Maynilad was already an established Kingdom and port-city and the Pasig River (or ilog pasig) served as the major transport route and water source for the whole Kingdom. In Ancient times, it is said that a diwata (deity) sails across the river every night and blesses the sacred river.
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PROLOGUE.
Swirl after swirl of jet black fell upon her pale face. Her emerald eyes searched for answers through the darkness of the night and through those living red orbs that stared back at her. Raven tresses united with the dark colored water of the Pasig river. She stood as splendid as the full moon above! Like a virgin! Santa Maria! Like the Virgin that rode out through a holy dark night across the city while people, young and old alike, walked with her with lit candles in hand. She was the moon and people were merely stars, made to illuminate her and make her beauty stand out even more in the darkness! Her face growing more radiant and ethereal as alitaptaps(fireflies) rushed upon her, and forming stunning rays of light around her that she seemed to be cloaked with the starry beautiful night sky above - the fireflies encircling her like the stars as if in sheer adoration – she was the moon! The fireflies, the stars! I am in heaven! She is the Goddess! Shizuru thought to herself. And Shizuru would sink down into her knees and bring her face upon the feet of the beauty in front of her and kiss, kiss, kiss those sacred soles, kiss kiss kiss and adore her and praise her in between kisses. But she was not worthy.
"Sino ako? (Who am I?") The woman asked Shizuru with a very low but feminine voice. Shizuru was flabbergasted for she marveled at the beauty of the speaker and cogent thoughts dissolved from her head as only the sense of the body - of seeing, of sight, and site to see – was the only thing that she held important.
Ito and mutya ng Pasig || She was the muse of the Pasig.
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Review please, so that I may continue the story. If it sucks I shan't push through with it.