2088, october…

“I can’t believe we have come to such a beautiful place!” the young woman exclaimed, fascinated with everything she saw. Unlike what must of the rich womans want for their honey moon, she decided to go to a modest village in Brazil. Said village, dedicated to the agriculture and it’s one of the few villages that are still considered folkloric, or traditional. Even with all the advances the science had made, this zone of Brazil was still pretty much in the ‘ancient’ age, entering there was almost as if you returned to the start of the century.

“I’m glad you like it. Though we have to hurry to get to the inn, it’s already getting late. Tomorrow you will have all day to wander through the lands.” His now husband told her, happy to see the woman he had been in love for a decade so happy.

It took nearly half an hour to get to the inn they were going to stay at, which was really modest not to say it looked really old, it was probably built during 1990’s. Mister Kang made a disgusted face, even if he had accepted to travel to a poor village in Brazil for his honey moon instead of going to Hawaii like most rich men did, it didn’t mean he was really pleased with the place. ‘You did it because you can’t deny anything to her, specially when she asked so enthusiastically, now bear with it’ he though while carrying the luggage to the small room they would be sleeping at.

“Let’s go eat! I’m dying to taste the local food!” His wife said excitedly, taking his hand and dragging him downstairs to the dinning room of the inn. To his surprise it was a beautiful place due to the view they had in there, though still poor looking. It was a large room with glass doors to the countryside, the tall trees in the distance very imposing.

“¡Eu disse que viu um! (I told you I saw one!)” one of the men sitting on a near table talked in hushed tone, but still too loud to actually keep their conversation a secret.

“Você está louco, se você tivesse visto você seria menso. (You are crazy, if you had seen one you would be retarded)” the other one replied. YongGuk was trying to ignore them, thoug his wife seemed fascinated to hear the local language.

“¿Você acha que ele iria me deixar tocar? (You think I’d let it touch me?)” YongGuk tryied to get the attention of his wife, but she just kept eavesdropping.

“Você está certo, isso realmente seria um idiotase eu deixá-lo tocar Pombero (Your right, you really would be an idiot if you let a Pombero touch you)” the other man whispered back. All the people around sent dirty looks at the two men.

“Pombero?” YongGuk heard his wife ask loudly immediately feeling as if she’d done the most stupid thing some one could do, or at least that is what all the looks everybody sent them told.

“Shhht!” the woman that administered the inn hurried to shush his wife. “You must never say its name out loud! Specially after the sun sets!” she reprimanded her.

“Why? What’s so special about the Pombero?” people started to leave, looking at her indignantly. YongGuk felt like plastering his hand to his wife’s mouth so she would shut up already.

“If you keep repeating its name, he will come. The best you can do now its leave an offer for him, so he won’t get mad.” She indicated something in Portuguese to one of the kitchen assistants, said assistant appeared with a vase of hard liquor and some food. The owner of the inn gave it to his wife.

“Uhmmm, what do…?” she started to ask, being interrupted by the owner that just signaled her to leave it outside. She stood up and placed the offer in the floor, turning around to look at the people inside with a doubtful expression.

“Come. And close the door behind you. Leave to your room and don’t come out until morning.” Their food was retired from the table even when they hadn’t finished eating yet.

They left for their room and didn’t come out until morning, just like the owner said. Though in the breakfast the newly weds were curious about what was the ‘Pombo’ and so they got close to the old woman and asked straight forward.

“The ChePombero is…”

“ChePombero?” the young woman couldn’t help but interrupt.

“That is a more respectful way, ‘Che’ it’s like saying ‘Mister’. Well, the Pombero is..., well he is a protector of the woods, though he’s temperamental. A slight touch of his hands can leave you retarded, mute or leave you trembling for days, even weeks! He’s not always bad, and you can actually ask him for a favor, leaving of course an offer every night during thirty nights for him otherwise… well he can be a naughty one. He would cause a lot of problems at the house, and to the people in the house. His name should never be spoken out loud during the night, neither should you talk bad about him nor whistle after the sun sets or he could show himself to you! Believe me you don’t want that.”

The Kang  husbands looked at each other, the wife excited to hear the folkloric leyends and the husband nervous to hear about a ‘demon’ of the night.

“So if you hear a high whistle in the night, or a bird chirping… it most probably is the Pombero about to show himself, be careful.” The owner of the inn warned before leaving them alone.

That night, the owner came to them during dinner and gave the wife the offer for the Pombero, this time instead of food, there was tobacco. The days passed by nicely, and in the night the wife would put the offer for the Pombero in the same spot while the husband would make sure to close every little gap in their room.

After that they enjoyed their time in the south of Brazil for twenty three days. But the twenty fourth day, they got to the inn pretty late and they had already had diner out, so they didn’t went to the dinning room…. She didn’t place the offer that night.