Howl Your Appellations

Fun Ride

BOEN OPEOR

This isn’t the first time I drove my car after the incident. Were People started calling it “Prince’s Mourning”; the days from when Krolo was killed, to the day Prince finally reunited with his mother and friends. After I woke up, I immediately looked for Soft but she’s nowhere to be found. I figured she’d stay on the ruins but that doesn’t seem to be the case. She’s still somewhere out there, back to the status quo we had when we were younger. Maybe that’s the reason why I’m not so worried.

I drove to Sea Twin alone two days after I woke up. Isa was thrilled to finally hear from me after a few months and she wasn’t too surprised about my now prosthetic leg. She even thought I was prettier with it. She’s still the same old Isa but the visit came with a twist. She told me that Dan hasn’t been coming home as often and she still doesn’t know the real reason. Dan warns her that he’ll be gone for a while, a few days, and comes back.

“It’s suspicious but I don’t know how to confront him about it. I’ve always been the go-with-the-flow twin but something tells me that where he disappears to is dangerous. I have no concrete proof but I feel it.” She said to me clutching her hands.

I don’t know anything about Dan that she doesn’t already know but if Dan’s someone who involves himself with the forest or the elements, then Isa has every right to be worried.

She also mentioned that Beanie hasn’t been visiting the cafe for a month. It’s very strange for him to do that but not entirely unheard of.

“He likes the mountains just as much as he likes the cafe after all.” Isa said.

Sure I’m worried about him, but I also don’t want to see him at the moment. He’s someone close to my grandfather and even gave me the keys to the cabin even though he knew it would be dangerous. I don’t want to confront him about these matters yet. It’s better that he’s up there in the mountains, hiding from the forest.

Thinking about Beanie and Isa makes me want to stop by the cafe, but that’s not what I’m driving today for. I’m driving because I need my cabin to be constructed as soon as possible. The Train might be my new home but I’d like to live closer to the city. Now I understand Sana’s sentiments about her little rundown shack. It’s nice to have a little house of your own, somewhere completely quiet to recharge.

“Hey, Boen.” A voice from the backseat beckons me. It’s Lissana’s voice, duh.

“Yeah?” I reply. Not looking away from the curved roads.

“Have you ever written one of those?” She asks, pointing to one of the Gondolas.

I stare at the various gondolas going up and coming down. They’re beautiful just like a rainbow during rainy season. They catch sun rays and glint it as if making the impression that they’re made of stars. I direct my gaze back on the road.

“I haven’t had the chance yet. You can see it leads to the higher mountains, right? Not a lot of buildings there but there are small communities scattered about, I heard. I don’t know how people manage to live there for a long time to be honest. At least the gondolas are cheap!” I exclaim. But the two of them stay silent.

“Have the both of you ever ridden a gondola?” I asked.

Sana and Beige don’t move their gaze away from the gondolas in the sky. Sana opens her mouth,

“I haven’t but Beige has. He says he misses it a bit. Says the sky’s prettier up there than anywhere else.” She relays.

I look at Beige from the front mirror and can see that he misses it, but his smile seems content.

“Nothing beats the forest though.” Lissana adds. I don’t know if those were her words or Beige’s.

I would like to agree but I’ve never ridden any of the gondolas before. To think that Beige was originally from the mountains then is intriguing.

“I didn’t know you were from the mountains Beige? It’s pretty cool that you live in the forest now.” I say jokingly.

Sana looks at Beige with a bit of a concerned expression. Beige smiles as of he doesn’t have a problem in the world. I really wish I could hear him, I don’t know how much Lissana paraphrases when she relays his messages to me.

“He prefers the Weres in the forest.” Lissana says as if she’s offended.

‘Prefers the Weres in the forest ’ she says. Weres in the forest? There are more?

“There are Weres in the mountains?” I ask trying too hide that the thought that there are more scares me.

Sana jolts up.

“You mean you didn’t know? There’s still other Weres in the forest we haven’t encountered yet. There are also Weres exclusive to the caves. As far as I know, the mountains only have two: the Falcons and the Rams. I heard the Falcons are slowly going extinct though.”

“What?! That can happen? Holy…”

It’s getting harder to focus on driving with such an interesting and honestly depressing topic. I stay silent for a while. Need to calm my nerves.

The both of them stay silent and kept their eyes outside the windows. The forest on the left side of the road, and the mountains on the right. Sana seems to be judging the speed of my car using the forest and Beige just blissfully looks at the mountains.

I speed up a little, it made me feel a little bit uneasy that there aren’t any cars other than ours, especially at this time of the day. Sana feels that I’ve sped up and gives a little nod as if she’s commending the car for its hard work. I’m sure Sana’s ridden a car before but she acts as if it’s a foreign creature.

A few minutes later and we meet the sea. It’s a beautiful golden and deep blue. It’s just a little over past noon so the sun rays strike extra vividly. The waves look like silver cotton and the water, a second sky.

“You guys can pull the window down. I bet you haven’t smelled the sea in a while.” I tell them, but Sana seems to be the only one who’s excited.

She rolls the windows down and the wind swiftly enters the car like the crashing waves. Her hair, at the mercy of the salty wind, becomes even more unkempt but it makes her look more fun, more desirable. I wish I could take a picture.

“Oh! That reminds me! We have to stop by the Gilia Max Store. I need to buy a new phone!” I tell them.

I’ve been aching to listen to Patricar Far’s podcast again and I have to message Moze that I’m still alive. My family’s probably howling at her for updates. I feel bad.

“We’re gonna stop by there first, okay?” I inform them, just so they won’t be so shocked when the store doesn’t have lumber and furniture for sale.

Beige gives me a thumbs up but Sana just proceeds to shove her head out of the window. She’s like a dog but I’ll lose my mind if she decides to pull her tongue out. I would literally combust.

I wonder if she thinks I look pretty driving like this. I’m not doing anything special but I hope she thinks so anyway.

“Hey, Boen. Do you know how much I love the sea? It reminds me of your wavy hai---WHOA WHAT’S GOING ON! Was there a bump or something?”

“N-no! Yes! I was trying to avoid this little lizard crossing t-the road. It was a really cute lizard, wasn’t it?! Beige?”

That was close, I nearly crashed the car because Lissana thought my hair was like the sea. I know she’s doing this on purpose but it still caught me off guard.

“But yeah, the sea really is so pretty. No wonder the moon loves it so much.” I say, reaching to imply that Lissana’s the moon…

“Well yeah, but…yeah…” She replies, “I met this…um… creature in the caves once.”

“In the caves? What kind of creature?” I ask.

Sana doesn’t really have strong memories about the caves. She’s told us stories of the two Weres she’d saved and the few Weres that were still living there but that was only a portion of what and who she met there.

“A creature who likes the water. He especially liked the sea.” she replies.

I don’t think we’ll get a more detailed description of the creature she met but it definitely left some sort of impact on her. A creature that likes the sea.

“The sea is hard to hate.” I state.

We’re getting closer to the outskirts of the city. There’re more buildings now and we’ll soon pass the port. I focus on the road but occasionally look at the scenery of a more civilized Abalone. It’s definitely a beautiful, modern port city. All in a uniform scheme of Pthalo green and blue.

We passed the ‘Sea Twin’ and I think about Isa and Dan. I’ll be sure to visit them again, but this time I’ll have to drive forward. It’d be nice to introduce the two of them to the twins but I wouldn’t want to complicate things too much. Sana and Beige are people of the forest, they’re not even people to begin with so it’s better if I ask them how’d they feel about it later. Or, I can just ask them right now.

“Did you guys see the cafe on the side of the hill earlier? My friends own that cafe. We could stop by later, that could be nice, yeah?” I throw my bait.

“Um…” Sana pauses to listen to Beige, “It’d be fine for me…or not …um how do I explain this in a way that won’t offend you…”

I can already guess what she’s about to say but I can’t be too sure.

“Oh, just say it. I’ll prepare myself. Maybe it’ll be less offensive than what I’m thinking.” I tell her honestly.

“W-what are you thinking?!” She squeals.

“I don’t know! You tell me the reason first!” I blurt back.

“We don’t like the smell! Sure it’s fine right now because we’re near the sea, right? It still smells like the sea! When we’re inside that glass, metal jungle, it’ll smell like humans everywhere!”

I knew it was about the smell. Though I think Beige has more reasons than that. I don’t pry. I engage into empathy mode. I don’t want to be in a place where I don’t like the smell either.

“I guess that’s understandable. It’s fine. We’ll go visit them some other time. I’m making it one of my life goals for you guys to eat at Sea Twin.” I declare.

“Pfft!”

Lissana let out a hardy laugh and I could see Beige’s shoulders move, implying that he’s chuckling. It’s so nice to see them laugh together. I laugh along with them.

⁂

We pass an over pass that also serves as the city's welcome signage. It reads “Welcome to Abalone City!” with the city sigil as waves and a trident next to it. It’s a little outdated, but it’s considered a historical landmark because it survived the wrath of war three decades ago.