Howl Your Appellations

Straight Path

Reese Lanterman

“Another gift? For me?” Boen asks, slack-jawed, “I don’t really need any more you guys have given me enough.”  She frantically looks for more reasons why she doesn’t deserve another bounty from them.

“Well, this gift is from Mei specifically. It’s instinctive when he does these things so never you mind and just accept it. ” Reese explains. Boen tries to recall the person called “Mei”.She rummages around for an image and in the darkness of her mind, a face pops up. Oh! He’s probably the big guy, Boen reassured herself. They’ve only met a few times due to Mei being one of the most active members of the pack when it comes to guard duty and hunting. But Boen remembers him as being gentle and only a tad bit stoic.

“I wonder what he got me…” says Boen out loud. Then immediately blushes after realizing, “It’s not like I’m expecting anything extraordinary, or anything! I was just….wondering…” The two girls give her a pair of smug looks and continued on their way. “Come on, the next rooms are pretty interesting~!”

“What does the itinerary say, B?” B unfolds the piece of paper as they’re walking, she opens it and finds that the next few rooms are labeled as “Unoccupied”. “It says the next two rooms are unoccupied; says it’s free from renovation.”

“Ah, who wrote that? That’s not completely true. The first room of,” Cain hops over the border of the previous car to the next, “this car, is just a big storage room, our glorified broom closet!” The walls of the train cars often vary as years of renovation waxed and waned the whole appearance, interior and exterior, of The Train; this particular car had the walls of an old cottage style wall paneling with a mocha-colored wallpaper. It amazes Boen that such decorative feats can be done to a train in the middle of the forest. The Weres much have an establishment similar to HomeDeco or Home.ily somewhere in the deeper forest, Boen imagines.

The door to the “Broom Closet” is a double sliding door but entirely made of wood that resembles timber coated with a glossy caramel coating. It’s a magnificent gate for a storage room. Cain opens the sliding doors and reveals darkness. It just dawned on Boen that, The Train has electricity and also probably plumbing; she’s inevitably lost in her thoughts while Reese and Cain look for the light switch.

“You see the thing about this room is that it’s weird, hahaha. Okay well no, We just started hoarding a lot of our stuff here when the room became vacant. It’s a mess and the only way to turn the lights on is through a string…It’s like that one game with the prizes and the strings attached…um excuse us for a moment Boen.” Cain and Reese began to bicker about where the string should be and Boen, still lost in thought, simply stared at the darkness for a little while longer. A bedroom-sized storage closet seems like the perfect place to hide old junk that still sparks a little joy into your being.

“Ah, Boen stay there, okay? There’s some dangerous stuff on the floor.” Reese clicks her tongue, clearly annoyed that they didn’t even make sure that the string was in an, at least, discoverable location. Boen, stays put but began to notice a raindrop-shaped stuffed toy dangling from the left side of the sliding door. “Wouldn’t it be funny if that toy was connected to the string they’re talking about, hahaha, unless…” Boen inches herself closer. The raindrop-shaped toy reveals its little tired face resembling a sucklet. Tantalized, Boen reaches up to grab the toy and pulls it down.

“Click.” The light fixtures on the ceiling resonated. Reese and Cain stare dumbfounded at Boen holding the little raindrop boy connected to the light string. “So you found it!!” Reese exclaims giving Cain a side-eye, “I told you it was connected to the raindrop, not the cloud!” Cain rolls her eyes and admits her mistake. The room is now fully lit and all the “junk” is exposed to Boen as if like a pried open storage unit. Boen felt the urge to say “Yuup” but the two Weres would probably not get the reference, Boen thinks.

“This is what you guys call your glorified broom closet?!” She inquires, “There’s so much stuff in here, it’s like a magical storage unit!” Flustered and embarrassed, the two decided to pick something from the shoddy Hodge-podge of shelves inside the room, inspecting them for cracks or errors.

The room is as big as the infirmary, it has space for one family-sized bed and other bed room appliances, there’s even a sink in between the gaps of the shelves, the racks intertwining like the branches of an old maple tree. It’s hard to decipher which gap leads to the end of the room. The windows seem to have been boarded up and that was why Cain and Reese were so obsessed with finding the string that turns the light on. There are different types of strings and ropes sprung onto the ceiling and above the shelves, there are books, flasks, vials, old chairs, a few tables round tables with an old scale and baskets; wooden mannequins lay on the floor and a couple of bear traps, used and unused, plagued the floor as well. It is extremely hard to navigate around all the trinkets, traps, books and strewn about leaves scattered all over the wooden floorboards.But the room doesn’t end there, there is a clothes rack full of dust, a couple of animal figurines that’s about the size of a small child, and a large bird cage with several bird cages trapped inside of it. And those things are only the ones that can be seen on the surface.

“Wow, you guys have a lot of stuff, I don’t think I can look through everything here if given a day to!” Boen rightfully announces, “Where did you guys even get all these stuff?”

“To be fair, not all of these are ours, some of these were left behind by their previous owners, some might ask for their stuff back in the future.” Cain explains waving her index finger.

“Hmmm, it’s a really interesting room! I like how the light makes it feel like a cottage. It’s like a little witch and a hoarder became roommates!” Boen jabs, “Don’t you mean a dragon?” replied Reese.

“What? There are Dragon Weres?!” Boen’s voice echoed inside the room, misunderstanding Reese’s correction.

“Whoa, probably not. If there were, they wouldn’t be content with just the forest. They’ll devour everything.” This comment made Boen shudder at the thought.  It seems that even magic has its limits. 

A wolf's howl can be heard from afar. Boen has gotten used to the woodland sounds the forest makes, some sounds are more familiar than others. The October pack howl a whole lot, as if they’re sending their prayers to the moon.

“Aahhh! Patricar Far!! She completely slipped my mind all this time! Aghhh! I must have missed so much updates by now. I have been gone way too long!..” Boen messes up her neatly tied bun and it turns into a mess, but it suits her. The two guides sensed that she wasn’t having another panic attack but they were rightfully confused.

“Ah! Patricar is a podcast host. She’s the astronaut that gives the rovers maintenance on the moon. I’m kind of in love with her…” Bone blushes.

“Ohhh, dude, we forgot to get you a damn phone! Super sorry about that, I haven’t been using ours so the batteries shriveled up and died.” Reese apologizes. “It’s alright…this just made me realize that I have a life to go back to. I kinda had doubts about going back but now I realize that I’m being an i***t and running away from my responsibilities.” Boen stares at her foot and sways it. “I’ll get myself my own phone, you guys, thanks.”

“Now that’s the spirit Bobo! Pack October always stays determined!”  Reese hugs Boen with spilling enthusiasm. “Does this mean she considers me as part of her pack?” She thinks and smiles to herself. She feels as the though the day couldn’t get any cheesier.

“Alright you two, on to the next room! Or do you have anything you want to take from this room as a souvenir, Boen? How about this wind-up bird that plays an anno--er I mean, eerie tune. ” The bird chirps a cute little tune, similar to a lo-fi lullaby.Cain beholds the trinket in front of the two girls hugging. “Hmm, I don’t know Cain, it looks like you’re just using me to get rid of your old stuff.” Boen jokes.

“Then I’ll throw in this cute sling bag with just a tiny little small hole on the corner. It was made by Cornelias from the inner market, his stuff’s always pretty good. See, isn’t the patterns on the sling interesting?” The bag and the bird are conveniently placed on the top of Cain’s palms, serving it like a platter to the king. The bird and the bag do indeed look promising, they possess light earth  and orange colors. The hole on the bag can easily fixed with a little sewing.

“I..uh..”

“Psst, Bobo, just take them. Those are from her exes. She’s been trying to get rid of them for ages but can’t bring herself to throw them away.” Reese gayly whispers into Boen’s open ears. “Ah so that’s how it is.”

“Sigh. Alright, give them here. I know a person and a cat that might find good use for these. ” Boen smiles and takes the bag and places the bird inside softly.

“Oh, thank Luna. It was driving me crazy knowing that those things are still here. Thanks, our little outsider.” Cain playfully punches Boen’s arm and celebrates in the background. It still catches her off guard that the people she’s conversing with are a lot older than her.

“So what’s the Inner Market?” Boen asks, “I hear you guys mentioning it all the time, is it like a little market you Weres go to to buy food and stuff?”

“Ha! It’s more like a whole kingdom!! It’s a place of trade and commerce kinda of separate from the physical forest. The ruling bodies are the Elementals and the forest itself so it’s almost like a perfect city. The only catch is, no one’s allowed to live there. A vendor has the maximum of a week to maybe prop their business up but they have to leave for a certain duration, let’s say, 2 days? Minimum. If you stay there for longer than a week, you turn into dust.” Reese gestures her fingers to make an explosion and blows at them.

“Doesn’t that seem a bit unfair to the people?” Boen asks, genuinely curious. “Well, no. The “market” is an independent space, an empty realm at first. It does not require anything that any human or Were could offer. It is simply a place that exists. All the merchants there are aware of this and a week is plenty enough for a person to stick around there. Do you understand?”

“So you’re saying that, in order to keep the peace, no prolonged residence can permitted because the “market” doesn’t owe anything to anyone?”

“Yes! The trees need the rain, the soil needs worms, and the wolves need the moon. The inner market only revolves around itself.” With hands stretched out into the air and clenched fists, Reese preaches, “Of course there is a loophole to this, but people who attends the festivities of the inner market always has a place to go back to. That’s how we’re different from most humans.”

Cain leads Boen’s hand forward, giving her a satisfied smile, “When we get the chance, we’ll take you there. Maybe you’ll understand us a bit more then.” Reese skips ahead, visibly excited and elated. Boen contemplates about how great it would be to have a home where everyone loves each other and understands one another.

The next room was just a regular room. It had two beautiful round windows and a bed situated on the east side of the room. There is a writing table, a cabinet, and a large closet. There is a wonderful moss-colored carpet beneath the bed which make the room feel well-kept and cozy.

“Can you guess whose room this is?”Asked one of the girls, the one with the poncho. Boen immediately sweats as she realizes that she’s staring into someone’s room without permission again. “Uhhh….”

“Oh relax. This wouldn’t be a tour if we don’t show you all the rooms. Besides, we’ve got nothing to hide anyway~~” whistles Reese, half-lying and half admitting the truth. “So? Who’s your guess?”

“Ummm, is it your room, Reese?” She blurts out without thinking.

“...”

“It’s Nikki’s room.” Cain admits, “I can’t believe you think of Reese this highly. I’m honestly shocked, Boen.”

“Ah, Oh! It’s Nikki’s room! It makes much more sense now!” She comments. “So this is Nikki’s room…”

“Don’t be fooled Bobo! Her room might be clean but who knows what she keeps inside her closet!” Reese objects, trying to defend herself.

“You, shut up! We’re not rummaging through Nikki’s revealing clothes. Let’s move on to the next car.”

“Where’s Nikki now?” Asks Boen, surveying the room, checking if the bed sheets are making rise and fall motions.

“She probably out hunting. She’ll be back later tonight too.”

 Boen hears another howl from afar.