9 Let's play Siato!

Another usual sunny day in Quiet Lake Elementary school. Ato and his classmates were restless – eagerly waiting for the buzzer to sound. As always, they were excited to play in the school's ground every end of the class. All classes end at four o'clock in the afternoon in this rural elementary school.

"Quiet lake is the biggest lake in the country and is among the seven oldest lakes in the world," said their teacher who's obviously annoyed at the agitation of his students.

"You kids are not allowed to go near the lake because there are many crocodiles there. And you know what, Quiet Lake connects to Flowing Marsh river where Lolong was captured. Lolong is so far the biggest crocodile that was captured by man."

The topic about crocs briefly got the students' full attention. The teacher gave the students a fierce look.

"But some fishermen said that they've seen a crocodile that is much bigger than Lolong and it looks ancient." These were his last words before the buzzer alarmed.

The kids hurried to pick up their things. But Ato sat still. The last words of his teacher struck him. Something weird happened to him.

As soon his teacher mentioned the ancient-looking croc, Ato saw himself drifting in the midst of total darkness. He felt so exhausted that he can't move, not even his fingers.

Then he saw two fierce eyes opened in the dark – they're bright red. It stared at him and then suddenly attacked him! It's a giant crocodile! But it's face, especially its eyes, also looked somewhat like a fierce canine or wolf.

The image of the croc snapping him with its huge mouth and large razor-sharp teeth was quite vivid. His heart pumped faster. Not long enough, he felt the itchy sweats on his neck. They succeeded in bring him back to his senses.

As far as he can remember, he had no experience of something like this before. And as a carefree child, it didn't concerned him and he quickly followed his classmates outside.

Most of the students ran to the center ground to play. Ato opened his bag. His hand searched for something inside. When he pulled out his hand, he's holding a round six-inch long stick.

He also pulled the longer stick that was poking from his bag. It's about four times longer than the first stick. This pair of sticks were called siato sticks.

Ato and three of his best friends quickly found opponents to play siato. They were also fifth-graders from the second section.

Siato, or siatong in some provinces, was the most popular game among the Maharlikan kids. No kid in this country who doesn't know how to play this game. Siato was also Ato's favorite. In fact, he was the best in their school when it comes to playing siato.

The siato game uses two sticks of the same thickness. They are a little over half an inch in diameter. The first is more or less twenty inches long while the second is five to seven inches.

A rattan or cane stick is ideal but any round stick would do. Sometimes, a flat rubber band is tied at the edges of the short stick to serve as cushion and prevent injury to the players.

Two teams are needed with three to five players each. A concave hole is dug in the ground. The hole is as long as the short stick and less than two inches in depth and width.

To start the game, a representative from each team will have to do the "mano." This is the means to determine whose team will be playing the "batter" position first.

The long stick is placed in the ground perpendicular to the hole. Then the two representatives position themselves around thirty feet from the long stick. They alternately toss the short stick to hit the long stick. The one who hits the stick plays the batter advantage.

But this time, Ato's opponents demanded they play the batter first. They said that they'll not play with them if they won't concede. Ato and his friends yielded. Anyways, they're always excited to play siato whatever their initial position was.

Ato and his three teammates were strategically positioned in the field. They roughly form a diamond and Ato was at the front. Their role was to catch the short stick.

Today's game was four on four. Each member of the batter team will take turns to play. There are four different plays or strikes for each player to accomplish. The last two of these give the player the opportunity to score.

The first player positioned himself before the hole. He placed the short stick across the hole so that the hole and the stick formed a cross. He held the long stick with his two hands and placed its tip inside the concave hole so that it touched the center part of the short stick.

The two sticks now formed a "T" position. He will use the long stick as a lever to throw the short stick towards the direction where Ato's team was.

He put pressure in the long stick by pushing it on the ground. Ato and his friends were now in alert position and waiting for the short stick to fly towards them and ready to catch it.

The first play was for the player to toss, using the long stick, the short one within the perimeter field without it being caught by Ato's team in mid-air.

Using the long stick as lever, the first player flipped the short stick and it flew towards one of Ato's teammate. His name is Mik-mik. He raised his two hands in catching position and made few quick steps backwards.

But the stick passed over his hands. He failed. Mik-mik happened to be the shortest in their team. Had Mik-mik caught the stick while on air, the first batter will be out and won't be able to proceed to the next play.

Mik-mik picked the stick and stood at the location where the stick stopped. The player then placed the long stick on the ground perpendicular to the hole.

Mik-mik's chance now was to hit the long stick. If he did this, the first player will be out, he won't be able to proceed to the second play, and he will be replaced by the second player.

Mik-mik threw the short stick and he hit the longer stick! He and his teammates yelped and jumped for joy. The first player was out and their team didn't get a score yet. Mik was very proud of what he did.

The second player positioned himself before the hole and flipped the short stick using the long one. But Goryo caught the stick while still on air. He's out! Goryo glanced at Mik and winked his eye and smiled big. Goryo and his friends jumped for joy.

It's now the turn of the third player. He completed the first play. Goryo threw the short stick to hit the long one that was placed in the ground. But he didn't succeed.

The third player was now in the second play. He held the short stick with his left and the long stick with his right. Then with an upward strike, he hit the short stick with the long one.

The short stick flew and Ato and his teammates scrammed towards the stick, but they bumped each other and didn't caught the stick. The batter team laughed at them.

Ato picked the stick and stood at the location where it stopped in the ground. This was now the third play or third strike. Ato was going to toss the stick towards the player.

The player, while standing near the hole, needed to strike the stick. If Ato's team still won't catch the stick this time, the other team will earn some score.

The two did as described above but Ato's team didn't catch the stick. The player hit the stick and it landed on the ground about fifteen meters away from the hole. The batter team can now obtain score.

The score is counted in this way: The player goes to the exact point where the short stick stopped. From there, he measures the distance going to the hole using the longer stick. How many times the long stick is flipped before it reaches the hole will be the score of the team. In this case, they scored 31 points.

The player was now in the fourth or last play. He placed the short stick inside the hole with one tip protruding from the hole. Ato and his friends increased their distance from the hole and prepared to catch the stick when the opportunity comes.

Using the long stick, the player hit the tip of the short stick and it spun upwards, then, while in mid-air, he struck the stick with all his strength. He successfully hit it!

Ato and his teammates once again scrammed to catch the stick.

"I have it, I have it!" Ato yelled. His three classmates gave way.

He jumped and raised his right hand to catch the stick but his jump was not high enough. Goryo was at Ato's back. He quickly stepped in to catch the stick but he tumbled because his feet hit a tree root that was jutting out from the ground.

Their opponents jumped for joy and teased Ato and Goryo. The player ran excitedly to the where the short stick was and started counting his scores using the long stick. From thirty one, their score was now eighty two.

The third player completed all the plays. He will have a second turn after the fourth player.

It's now the turn of the fourth player. He placed the short stick across the hole and positioned himself. Ato's team knew his the best in their team. He told his classmates to move farther since he's known to be really good at throwing the short stick using the long one.

Biboy was positioned the farthest. When the fourth player flipped the short stick, it flew fast and straight to Biboy's location. Biboy moved backwards to reposition himself.

Not known to him, he had reached some sixth-graders playing with spiders. There were five of them squatting in the ground and engrossed in their spider match. They were yelling and cheering for the spiders like what adults do during boxing matches.

One student, who had the reputation of being the most bully in Quiet Lake school, was among the five. His name was Janoy. His spider has just been defeated. He had been giving it to matches since the last four days. He discarded the dead spider out of his annoyance.

And because he had no spider left, this annoyed him more. He bought his spider at a hefty price from college students who made a gig of selling rare or difficult-to-catch spiders to grade-schoolers.

His spider was called a "dotted pulahan." It's the fiercest spider and the most difficult to find. School-graders were able to caught few of these spiders but only the small ones.

Biboy bumped into them while he was trying to catch the stick. Two kids and Biboy fell to the ground.

"Eeeww, stay away from me! You're so dirty and smelly. You're contaminating my new polo shirt!" yelled one of the kids. He stared with disgust at Biboy.

"Do you know that this shirt is very expensive? Your mother can't afford to buy a shirt like this!" he added. The other kids laughed.

Janoy saw that Biboy stepped on his dead spider. He saw it as an opportunity. He accused Biboy of killing his spider by stepping on it. Being Janoy's true friends, the other kids quickly reinforced his lie since they also got very angry for bumping them.

The big bully grabbed Biboy's shirt and shove him. Biboy's eyes moistened but the other sixth-graders threatened him and demanded that he pays for Janoy's spider. Janoy grabbed Biboy again and said,

"No. You have to replace my spider with a new one!" the bully yelled and took the dead spider from the ground.

"It should be the same kind and same size or bigger! Look! it's a dotted pulahan. And I know you can't afford it," he added.

The other kids smirked since they knew that the dotted pulahan was rare and the bigger ones can only be found near the lake. One of them kept raising his head with a haughty expression. He wanted to make it a point to Biboy that he's looking down at him.

When Janoy saw that the internals of the spider came out in his palm, he shook his hand. The spider was thrown and shot into the hole of the boy's nose who had been raising his head.

The spider in his nose caused him to sneeze and phlegm spurted at Janoy's face.

"EEEWWW!" the sixth-grader kids screamed in disgust.

Janoy felt the sticky phlegm in his face and immediately pulled the lower part of the polo shirt of the kid beside him and used it to wipe his face. Seeing that his new and expensive shirt dirtied, the kid cried. He's sure his mother will twist his ear for this.

Biboy tried to repress his laugh at first but he soon burst into laughter. Janoy became furious and shove Biboy again.

Ato wanted to intervene but he felt powerless. Janoy was a plump boy and eight inches taller than Ato. He, nonetheless, approached Biboy and helped him.

"It's ok, we'll help you get the spider," Ato assured Biboy.

"Bring me the spider tomorrow or else!" Janoy showed Biboy his fist to threaten him and quickly left. His friends followed him.

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