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“Ah! Gross! How could you—! Oh, is this a hairball?” Mat screamed like a headless chicken as my clothes fell on its head, submerging its tiny body in a swarth of green and gray. I burped several times after throwing up my clothes, but Mat was no longer concerned.
“This fabric feels pretty good. Why did you eat it?” Mat struggled out of the clothes, poking its head through a sleeve.
“I ate it to wear it.”
Mat was stunned by the bluntness of my voice and sighed, “Once again, your common sense could use some work.”
I didn’t respond. There was something else on my mind at the moment, and it was a little difficult to explain.
Without the buffer of clothes, my body slid through the narrow tunnel and landed in the pitch black. Although the roots of the balete tree had disappeared, I could still feel them constraining my body as I shifted around, careful not to squash Mat.
Naturally, since I spat out my clothes, I now had nothing to cover my body besides the hair on my head. The long black strands fell like curtains over my shoulders, obscuring the brunt of my unblemished flesh, but after wearing clothes for such a long time, it felt unnatural—
Joke lang, I felt better without them. It was as if a weight was lifted from my shoulders. The casual breeze of wandering air on my skin was refreshing, and the silky, warmth-trapping hair on my back felt delightful.
The only thing that was awkward was the fact that I was a giant compared to Mat in this moment, and even if I squatted on my ankles with my legs pressed together, it could pretty much see everything.
Since that was the case, there was no difference between shameful and shameless. I squatted1 with my knees far apart and rested my elbows on them in a casual manner.
After Mat climbed out of my clothes, it naturally saw this and slapped a hand over its eyes with a shout.
“Ay! What are you doing? Even if you are my master, you cannot be as shameless as this!”
“Didn’t we agree that I wasn’t your master?” I complained.
“No, I’m so young, I have a life and a wife in my future! You cannot take this away from me!” Mat cried, hugging an armful of fabric.
I knocked on the roots with my knuckles, producing a loud rapping sound that echoed in the trunk. “Stop that, get your head out of your ass, I just want to be comfortable!”
“If you can promise me ten fields of rice, ten chests of betel nuts, and five chests of gold, I will be willing.” Mat twirled a strand of horse hair between its fingers.
“You think too highly of yourself.” I couldn’t help but scold.
Before Mat could spout any more nonsense, I transformed my bottom half into a beast, filling the dark void with copper red fur. I flicked my tail at Mat’s face with a scowl, “Is this better? Will you calm down yet?”
“…I am so flattered that you revealed all of yourself to me today.” Mat said with a silly smile on its stupid horse face. “Not only your original form, but also your human face.”
“My face?” I subconsciously touched my cheeks and found that they were bare. There was no sign of my mask anywhere, but it must have fallen out with my clothes as I vomited.
Coldness descended between my brows. Mat’s chattering turned into an annoying buzz in my ears as the urge to squash the little thing between my fingers grew stronger and stronger.
Why should it know what my face looked like? Why should it get to live with an impression of my face?
Why—?
I shook my head.
Stupid.
Those sort of thoughts were stupid. Why be outraged that others could see?
Just be more careful in the future.
I looked around the trunk, “Where did my mask go anyway? Was it underneath there?”
Mat was successfully distracted by my words and glanced as well. “I don’t think so. I didn’t see it. Don’t worry, we’ll find you a better one soon.”
Its comforting words didn’t comfort me at all. My face felt particularly bare without the mask, and I couldn’t help but cover half of it with my hand.
My eyes rolled from the pitch black ground to the heap of fabric to the sides of the hollow tree trunk. They rose steadily to the source of light at the very top, like a flashlight shining into a trashcan. My eyes skipped over a protrusion in the wood, thinking that it was just a knot, but when I returned to look at it, I noticed that it had a distinct crescent shape.
A third pass over, and it was clear that my mask was somehow embedded in the balete tree’s trunk.
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Visual if you don’t know it because why not: Filipino squat
