"I'm here!" Akali said a little too loudly to herself and the world that the creatures walking about glanced her way, but she couldn't help it and didn't care. Black eyes, silver eyes, fiery eyes, whatever color turned to her, she didn't care.

She huffed out a laugh--grinning all teeth--as she gazed at the famous acacia tree. It was everything she had imagined it would be, all the stories she had heard about coming to reality before her, reachable in only a few steps. She almost ran with exhilaration that surged from her heart, racing down her torso and her legs. She almost ran to reach her dream.

She skipped down the path lined with tall trees, dirt mounds, and mushrooms--establishments and homes of the Engkanto, spirits living gloriously in the mystical Central Forest. It wasn't like where she had come from, outside a small human village in the Southern Forest, within a gathering of mango trees where a minor group of peaceful diwata--her kind--lived. The Central Forest was crowded and bustling, all sorts of creatures going to and fro, bumping her shoulders and elbows from all angles.

"Watch where you're going!" Akali almost jumped, looking down at her feet, where a nuno shouted. Her hand grazed the top of his bald head. She stopped to apologize, but the nuno, a creature only less than half her height, turned and continued without giving her a second look.

"Move it!" a higante said above her, giving her a little shove on the shoulder with a stocky finger, and she almost toppled on her feet as she looked up at the towering higante who rose more than double her height.

Akali stepped aside, clutching her sling bag to let him pass. "Sorry," she said before gearing her legs and following everyone's quick pace so she flowed with the sea of creatures.

She focused on the path to the famous acacia tree--the shop was called Pinta, known as the most remarkable tattoo parlor in the realm of the Engkanto.

She traveled all the way from the Southern Forest to get a job as a tattoo artist in Pinta. Though her father told her she wouldn't make it, her heart would be broken for dreaming something impossible because diwata were never meant to become anything other than stewards of the forest. She didn't listen.

Akali's grandmother had taught her all she knew about drawing body ink, and it was all she wanted to do--all she wanted to become.

Her heart pounded as she neared the acacia tree, her father's words ringing in her ears. She knew why he had been worried. Part of the reason was due to her blood. Akali's grandmother was a mangkukulam--a creature of spells and magic, and she was a great tattoo artist in their little forest. Their neighbors came to her to get inked. Some creatures even came from other forests only to experience her grandmother's talents--a legend. But that all ended when Akali's grandmother married her human grandfather. The Engkanto hated his kind--they were the vilest of all creatures, destroying forests to make their homes instead of living in them.

Akali had that human blood, though she was known as a diwata like her mother. And when her grandparents passed to the afterlife, her father and mother decided to hide the human part of her identity.

Akali clung to tha decision now. If she could get a job as a tattoo artist, she would do anything, hide anything, and a little secret wouldn't harm anyone. It shouldn't even matter if she was part human. What should matter was the truth, she believed, that she was a great tattoo artist like her grandmother had been. If anyone were to find out that she had human blood, she would have already proven herself.

She stopped a few steps from the entrance of Pinta. The gate was a ring of tiny mushrooms the size of her toes, enchanted to keep those with ill intentions out. She stepped over the boundary, and a soft breeze washed over every inch of her like the edge of a leaf scraped on her skin.

A few more steps, and she made it to the entrance of the parlor--a hole carved on the bottom of the acacia tree's trunk where a mound molded into a desk stood as the receiving. A santelmo the size of her fist, a round and floating fire creature, hovered beside the desk and illuminated the entryway with a faint yellow glow.

"Hello?" Akali said to the creatures behind the desk, but they were all busy running around. Most of them were dwende in red sarongs, lacking height that all they saw was their path, and none looked up at Akali.

The air was filled with a mixture of heavy herbs. Her nose caught the scent of sampaguita and coconut. She stepped into the entrance, the smell welcoming and pulling her inside. She looked around at the level--a lounge where creatures of all colors, shapes, and sizes waited, sitting on large round river rocks pushed up against the walls. Several more santelmo floated near the ceiling and above the heads of the creatures, casting a warm light against the grayish-brown wood of the walls.

At the center of the lounge was a carved wooden statue of an anito, the spirit of the tree. The head was round with no face, and the body was a stomp with no arms or legs. Akali bowed to the anito from where she stood and whispered her request to enter, "Bari-bari, apo."

Painted art hung on the walls. Akali's eyes examined the details of the colors and saw that they weren't painted at all. They were tattooed. She smiled at the cleverness of the parlor's decoration.

"Excuse me," Akali said, tapping a dwende on the shoulder, but the small creature waved her away.

"Please, please, please, wait at the entrance." The dwende picked up a basket of herbs and ran toward the staircase that led up the hollow trunk of the tree.

The stairs rounded the circle of the trunk until it reached the top. The sun's brightness shone through the hole at the summit, light peppering through leaves and branches.

Mesmerized, Akali's body moved on its own, stepping to the staircase and climbing up to the second level.

When she reached the second floor, she found rooms divided by hanging vines. And as she stepped on the landing, a familiar scent hit her nostrils--the smell of the metallic tang of ink. A whiff jogged her memory--a bamboo stick in her hand, the thorn in the other, the sound of pounding, wood on wood, needle on skin. Every hit cracks the surface of the skin, allowing ink to seep in.

Akali stepped back and looked around once more. Still, no one minded her. She could see inside a few rooms when creatures--workers in Pinta wearing uniformed red sarongs--came in and out, parting the hanging vines. Baskets stacked over each other on the floor and jars of ink in different colors lined neatly on console tables push up against the room partitions--some made of vines and some made of dried woven bamboo.

Her eyes lingered through the vines of the nearest room, and her heart skipped a beat as soon as she saw what was inside. This was where the real magic happened. She could only see part of the dalaketnon that held a bamboo stick in one hand and a pomelo thorn in the other. The creature's pointed ears twitched, focusing and bending down over the arm of another creature, undistinguishable through the gaps between vines.

Akali grinned and hopped. She walked to the room on her toes and ducked her head inside. It was a shared room for four tattoo stations. Three seats were occupied. One was for a female garuda, a creature with the head of a bird. The other was for a tikbalang, one with the head of a horse. And the third was for a male, a diwata like her. Only a few creatures looked like humans; diwata was one of them, mangkukulam and yanale were too, and if the manananggal didn't cut themselves in half during the full moon, they would pass as well.

Dalaketnon, with pointy ears, stood beside each station, holding bamboo sticks and thorns for tattooing. Intricately carved tables by the chairs carried bowls of ink in different colors. Akali could almost smell the reds, the blues, and the greens like she could smell the herbs from the level below.

She stared at the bare chest of the diwata, where a large eagle was painted over his right breast. The dalaketnon tapped the bamboo stick over the thorn that pointed at the diwata's skin, completing the eye of the bird.

Akali bit her lip, watching the eagle in ink rippled over the skin of the male. Her eyes lingered, following the curve of his collar and neck, and when they snapped up, they met with the diwata's dark eyes. "Oh!" She blinked, realizing that she was staring. Heat rushed to her face. Ashamed, she meant to apologize, but someone spoke behind her before she could.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?"

Akali turned, but no one was there, and she furrowed her brows, confused.

"Down here," the voice said irritably.

She looked down at her feet, and a nuno stood there, mirroring Akali's furrowed brows. Frustration crossed the face of the creature, between her long, twitchy ears that protruded from each side of her head.

"I'm..." Akali started, but she didn't know what to say, overwhelmed by her surroundings and the surge of emotions she felt at this level--a sense of happiness and belongingness.

"You're not a client. You're not supposed to be here." There was a hint of anger in the nuno's voice, evident that she was trying to contain it. "Come with me." She turned, her sarong ruffling with her movement--its red shade was more profound than the other dwende's.

Akali followed the nuno, but she looked back to the room and found the diwata with the eagle tattoo watching her as she went. They took the stairs until they reached the first level, and she was led to the receiving at the entrance.

"Now," the nuno said. "I will forgive you for entering without a guide and without pay because you are a potential customer." The nuno floated to reach the tall, flat surface of the table and waved her hand. Out of a puff of white smoke, an open book appeared on the desk. "So, for our client record, what name shall we write?"

"Akali," she supplied quickly. "But I'm not a client."

The nuno raised a brow, and her frown deepened, causing her already wrinkly face to wrinkle more. "Then what are you doing here?"

"I'm here for work." Akali gave her best smile, straightening her posture and clasping her hands together in front of her.

The nuno stared. "Aren't you a diwata?" she asked.

Akali flinched, the truth almost spilling from her lips--a diwata, yes, but also a mangkukulam and a human. She bit the inside of her lip and tried to smile again. "Yes, I'm a diwata."

The nuno laughed. "I don't understand. Is this a joke? A diwata looking for work?"

"Uhm--" Akali didn't know how to answer that. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to answer it.

"Diwata are not meant to work. Didn't your father teach you that you're meant to live and look pretty in the trees?"

Her father had said that. Her whole village had said that. Everyone knew it. Diwata were not workers by nature. They were the keepers of the trees. But Akali was not just a diwata.

"I'm--"

"You're wasting my time," the nuno cut her off. "We have no opening."

"But I'm very good. I'm an excellent tattoo artist." Akali begged, trying to convince the nuno. "I can show you my work. Please give me a chance," she said, digging in her satchel to pull out her drawing pad.

The nuno laughed again. "A diwata who wants to be a tattoo artist? You are out of your mind."

"I'm not!" Akali's smile faded, and her voice rose, offended. Her hands paused inside her bag.

"Leave! I'm too busy to entertain your none sense!" The nuno waved both of her hands as if to shoo her. "Don't let her in."

Heavy stomping came from behind Akali, and when she turned, a higante stood behind her, his shadow covering the entirety of her and more.

"Alright," Akali raised her hands in defeat. "I'm going." She shook her head, disappointed and angry. She stepped back from the desk and walked to the mushroom ring boundary, escorted by the massive creature.

The higante grunted. "Sorry." He shrugged and left her to walk the way on her own.

"It's not fair." She shook her head again, heat bursting from her neck and cheeks. It was not what she expected. She thought it would be easy--come to Pinta, get a job as a tattoo artist, and become famous--but she was put to shame and embarrassment instead. Her eyes started to blur with tears. Maybe her father was right. "It's not fair," she said again.

She made it to the boundary of tiny mushrooms on the path, stopping and turning around, looking back at the parlor. The acacia stood the tallest among the trees around. When the wind blew, only its leaves rustled, and its trunk stayed strong, unwavering.

Akali took a deep breath. "I'm not going to quit," she said to no one, determined to return to the front desk to demand the job again. When she strode forward, she stepped on something.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" A dwende was hopping, holding her foot. After a few hops, she fell to the ground on her bottom. Its round green eyes started to water.

"Did I step on you?" Akali asked, kneeling beside the dwende. "I'm so sorry."

"I'm alright, yes, yes, yes. I'm alright." The dwende nodded and tried to get up.

Akali assisted her. "I'm really sorry." She noted the dwende's skin--white for good and not red for evil.

The dwende limped. "Nothing to worry about. You are Akali, yes, yes, yes?"

"I am?" Akali's brows shot up, and she looked at the dwende's attire, a red sarong like those who worked in Pinta.

"Good, good, good," the dwende nodded. "You're called back. We have a job opening."

"Really!" Akali almost jumped. The tears in her eyes vanished, and her heavy heart was lifted. Her wide grin returned. "Thank you so much! You won't regret this."

"Oh, no, no, no. It's not me you should thank. No, no, no. It's not me. Come, come, come." The dwende stepped toward the acacia tree and waved for Akali to follow. She limped, but she walked all right.

Akali followed the dwende back to the front desk where the nuno stood, her face even more scrunched than before.

"Thank you. I'll work hard, I promise." Akali clasped her hands, grateful for the opportunity.

The nuno snorted. "I doubt that." Her green skin turned greener as she sneered. Nuno was a type of dwende, a sort of cousin, but they were categorized differently due to their conspicuous character--unfriendly and naughty but not evil.

Akali's smile faded, confused by the nuno's reaction. "But I thought--I'm given work?"

"Yes, you'll work alright," the nuno waved her hand at the desk, and a piece of paper appeared on the book for client records. "Here. Sign your contract in blood." The nuno raised the paper and a pomelo thorn to Akali.

Akali reached out and took it immediately. She didn't question why the nuno seemed angry about the job offer. All she cared about was that she got the job. But when her eyes skimmed the contract, it was not for work as a tattoo artist but a job as a cleaner. "I think this is wrong."

"Nothing wrong with it," the nuno said. "You are allowed to work here to clean. Your wages will be paid in gold. Your contract includes accommodation and food. Take it or leave it."

Can you change the contract to a tattoo artist instead? Akali asked, hopeful.

"The only opening we have is for a cleaner. Take it or leave it." The nuno repeated with finality.

"Alright," Akali breathed out the disappointment, but she wouldn't let this get her down. She would start as a cleaner, but eventually, she'd show them she was a great tattoo artist, and they would have to give her the job. She pricked her index finger with the thorn, and with her blood, she scrawled her name on the contract.

The nuno grabbed the paper from Akali, and it disappeared into the air. "From now on, you will call me Ma'am Nyan." Then she pointed at the dwende beside Akali--the dwende who had stood there for the whole process and had been so quiet that Akali almost forgot about her. "You'll be working with Makka, and she'll show you how to do the job." Ma'am Nyan floated down to the ground, and before she walked into the shop, she looked over her shoulder and said to Akali, "We don't like slackers here."

Akali only nodded, and she looked up at the acacia tree. Excitement returned. When she looked back down, the male diwata who was getting a tattoo at the upper level was coming down the stairs, and he was watching her.

"I'm sorry." Akali bowed as soon as the diwata reached the entrance, but he walked past her as if he didn't hear her, as if she was too unimportant to waste any time on.

Akali scrunched her nose after him, then shrugged and turned back to watch the acacia tree, her smile reforming over her lips and her eyes.

"Are you coming or not?" Makka was already moving to the stairs, looking over her shoulder at Akali. "Hurry before ma'am Nyan sees you just standing there. Oh, she'll catch you. Oh, yes, she will."

Akali scrambled to walk. "Coming!"