Could They Be Pixies Or Sprites

We used to live in a remote farm up in the highlands of Tanjay, Negros Oriental (Visayas Region). I was young about 6+ years old. One day, we were harvesting peanuts with my mom and siblings. It was Sunday. This is also the day where by father and big brother went to Amio, Sta. Catalina to buy some supplies because the Sunday Fair happens only once a week and very far. They left before the sun came out. It's a 3 to 4+ hours trek each way so it's like grab and go business.

For us that stayed, we too were tired from harvesting peanuts all day. About an hour before dusk, we heard our sow (female pig) squealing because maybe she's hungry and maybe because we separated her from the piglets that's soon to be weaned. My big sister put her some distance away from the house into this wooded area close by a pit's mouth. The sow was quite heavy maybe around 150+/- kilos and the inclined area where she was tied up was never put into consideration by my sister. Although, we all knew she was still alive before dusk because we heard her squeals but by the time my sister went to fed her, she came rushing back screaming that our pig was now dead. 30 minutes later, my father and brother arrived from the Sunday fair. Father got very furious and even cried because he loved that pig so much because it was very tame and not difficult to take care. Feeling upset and depressed, he left again we don't know where even if it is already getting dark. My mother realized that there is nothing we can do about what happened because it was not intentional to have our pig killed the way it did. So we all tried to sleep it through the night.

Early the next morning, we asked help from our tenants to come and retrieve the dead pig we left all night at the mouth of the pit a distance away. To lose such a bulky source of meat can be a bad waste so my mother decided to have it butchered the double-dead way. All day, we were busy having people coming over to barter for the meat. We only kept a little meat cooked for dinner which tasted funky-- (not fresh meat anymore) and the pig's head my mother sat by the kitchen sink. We had 2 carabaos (water buffalo) tied 50 yards away from the house as losing a farm animal can set a paranoia of leaving our other animals out in the field.

A little around midnight, there starts the weird sounds by which my mother was keenly listening hoping my father would come back home. The sound, yes, the first odd sound she noticed was like that of a horse blowing its nostrils right below the floor we were sleeping in (our house were in stilts). We don't have horses at all throughout our farm lives. Our neighbors don't have horses either so my mother started to wonder already. She was the only one awake listening to those strange sounds. Our house is really tiny and most of the time we all sleep together side by side. There were 6 children in my family but the eldest is away for school in Mabinay. There were 5 children left in the farm with my 2nd sister as the oldest Gamay (13 yo), oldest brother Dondon (11 yo), next brother Dodoy (9 yo), me (6 yo), youngest brother (4 yo). Mother tried to ignore the sounds she heard until she saw a ball of light the size of an old peso coin (1.5"+/- in diameter) appeared from the stove then crossed to the tiny window approx 7 feet away and then disappeared. Another ball of light appeared sitting by this open tiny window (about 1x1 ft). Then another ball of light appeared from where the head of the pig was accompanied by gentle whispers of what sounded like voices of tiny people. But when a ball of light came close to where my brothers were sleeping on top of the dining table, she woke my sister up whispering gently to look at the ball of lights floating inside the kitchen. I heard them whisperin' but I never opened my eyes because the way how my super-imaginative mind works, I know intense fear of anything can kill me. So I just lay still and listened, I heard the murmurs, the horse blowing its nostrils, the chicken's whispers as if talking to each other in the dead of night and the increasing fear my mother felt. When mother asked my sister if she saw the ball of light bobbing up and down the window, she said no. Mother rubbed her hand over my sister's face and she almost screamed seeing a bright ball of light floating by the window. Two brothers were sleeping just 3 feet away from this window and mother asked her to wake Dondon up. She pulled his leg and asked him to come down, rubbed his face and showed him the ball of light. Then woke Dodoy last who immediately saw the ball of light by the window and from the stove. He scurried down too shocked to figure out what was going on. All of these I heard with my eyes shut tight (and them recounting the event of the night by morning).

My family was not into revering the existence of elementals because we were taught that they are lesser entities than humans. Because the world is for human beings and not their kind so dominion of this world falls to the people with flesh alone. Unable to stand the supernatural intervention, mom and sister stood up, took a dry empty corn cob, dabbed it in kerosene, lit it up and dropped it by the window so they can see if there are any creatures beneath the house through the slats in the floor. There was none-- mother banged the wall addressing whoever was out there "... STAY AWAY YOU CREATURES OUT THERE! LEAVE US ALONE!" (this gave me chills as I was writing this down). I can sense the growing fear from my mom's voice and it made me afraid even more all the while staying motionless as best as I could but with all of my hearing senses turned up high.

As the flames from the 3 cobs went on for a few minutes, we had a momentary peace--total dead silence not even the crickets dared to chirp. When the flames died, several minutes passed and strange sounds came back, the balls of light appeared and disappeared. One time I dared myself a peek. I saw a ball of light came on on one of the base of the stone prongs by the stove, then it died down and came back on. One ball float up about a feet up in the air and then disappeared gently. My mother and sister recalled that when the light balls appeared by the window, they saw it fell to the ground and disintegrated along with the soft murmurs as if little people were whispering. Light balls goes up and down again and again. It went on until before dawn broke.

There is no explanation of what caused those light balls appear and disappear (they aren't fireballs because they are bright luminescent light). This only happened once in our lifetime and never again. But the memory of it all was saved and up to this day, we were still wondering what those creatures were. Although I tried to search for answers, I came up with the notion that they might be pixies or sprites. Whatever caused them to come out, I have no solid answers except that the sow might have destroyed something in their domain and they have to end its life.

Rewinding back to the time my father and brother were coming home from the Sunday fair: He recalled that when it started to get dark-- (the twilight zone) they were on the last kilometer to home, him and Dondon followed a woman who was 20 paces ahead of them. Father was a fast pacer most of the time and Dondon tried to keep up also anxious to get home. He swore that no matter how fast he tried to catch up with the woman as she might be one of the neighbors, they never caught up with her until she disappeared on the area where a path that goes to our house also happens to be where our pig died. In fact, from the path, it was just 20 feet to the pit. Everything around the pit was mostly cleared out except for the trees that shades it making it almost hidden. The woman had long dark hair but her clothing was somewhat brownish that can easily blend with the drying grass along the path. The coincidence adds to the mystery of who was the woman and how did our house suddenly had such inexplicable occurrences.

(My father went away for 3 days staying mostly with my Uncles who lived 10 kilometers from home) -- he missed all the weird events that happened to us.