Howl Your Appellations

Welcome, Not Welcome

Reese Lanterman

“Imus is trying to explain things to her right now. Don’t do anything that might startle her...or maybe don’t do anything at all? You guys should wait in the Kitchen Car.” Mei suggests, eyeing  the subordinates with distrust and also worry. “It wouldn’t be nice to have her meet so many people, but I think she might have encountered Reese at some point. Did you do anything to her? Hm?”

 Reese places her fingers above her chest as an offended gesture, “I would never interact with an outsider! I just jumped over her when she saw me!” she replies. The other subordinates and the two omegas stare at her with an air of distrust. Their gazes retract from her as she does not feel a pinch of guilt at all. The guest was not the first person she had jumped over, she’d jumped over dozens of outsiders and never got into trouble for it; it sort of became a secret hobby of hers after a while.

    “Oh? You guys dare doubt me? Too bad, Sana was there the entire time. Ya’ll can ask her if I did anything or not.” The kids digress, when Sana’s name is mentioned, everything immediately shifts directly to how they can reprehend their Alpha. Mie instructs everyone to go help out somehow inside while he asks Reese a few more questions.

    “Hey, if there’s anything you’re not telling us---” Reese opens her mouth but Mei stops her before she could speak, “If it’s anything  related to the guest, you have to spill it.” He gives Reese a stern look. From his point of view, Reese is no more than an eccentric teenager. It’s important to treat her how she wants. 

She stares at him as if she was seeing a house she was not permitted to visit but would like to enter quietly. Mei knows this look, even though he just joined the group, he has good cohesion with everyone. Somewhere in his past life, he has encountered a similar situation,“It’s fine. Collect your thoughts, it’s fine.” He says to her. Reese is reassured.

    “Hmmm, I know you know how I am, so I’m not worried, but I think I may have been stalking her the moment she stepped on the forest.”  She twirls her index fingers together while her tail sporadically jerked from side to side. Mei waits for her to continue. The time was late afternoon, the sunset breeze blew at their base. The inner light begins to strengthen as the sun dips down and the forest surrenders to the night.

    “I needed inspiration for my works in progress...” She continues, “...I currently have five, but I came up with four more ideas in the last  few days so, well…,you know, anyway, I think it was when I was also tailing Sana, to check up on her. I saw her eyeing this girl, our now esteemed guest. I guess the outsider caught her eye somehow, so I checked the girl out too. And I noticed that she was weird. ”

“Weird? Weird how?” Mei asks.

“Well, like fae-like weird.” She replies, “She sometimes just disappears or moves too fast. But to be honest it was just fun seeing her take pictures of things and just minding her own business. She had her own thing going on and I liked that. I noticed several Weres spying on her too, it was super funny, us just peeping through the bushes while she pranced around, enjoying herself. Eventually everyone got bored, and  it was down to just me and Lissana. But one afternoon, it was just me and the girl. Sana was somewhere flirting with the Deer Weres or something, so I followed the girl alone as she drove to the tips of the abandoned road like a maniac. It was crazy, Mei! I don’t know how strong her tires were but man, I thought all four of them would pop. She eventually made it to the top of the road. Homegirl was wheezing super hard when she stepped out, and I noticed she did not have her phone anywhere on her, but I guess the view was just too great for a camera because she started crying. It was a really loud and authentic cry; it was the type of sobbing you tend to keep for a special occasion, for when you are sure you’re completely alone. She must have held it in way before she began living in the forest. I felt like a real p*****t watching her cry that much so after that I stopped following her. I guess Sana didn’t stop stalking her or whatever because as I was checking up on her, as per ordered by Imus, she finally noticed and chased after me! She told me something like:  ‘Don’t run that way! You’re gonna get in so much trouble if you run that way!’ and to no surprise, I continued to run ‘that way!’  and encountered the girl again. That was the closest I ever got to see her and I think she took my picture when I jumped over her. When I looked back, she and Lissana were talking. Lissana really likes this girl, I think.”

    Reese waits for a reaction from Mei. He was listening very carefully and intently. He finally opens his mouth, “Thanks for being honest, Reese.” he says. Reese snickers and replies, “What good would lying do? Although I wish you’d be this dedicated when I talk about the characters of my stories!”.

    Mei laughs and smiles his big smile for Reese, it’s a sort of wacky fatherly smile that releases emotional and bodily tension. “Well, I think you should try and say hello to the girl you’ve been stalking.”

“Owa! Seriously?” Reese exclaims.

“Maybe a familiar face would calm her down. You’ll never know.” He responds.

    Mei gestures Reese to enter and to be nice. The Train’s narrow halls welcome her back as if she wasn’t just inside a few moments ago. Her footsteps are heavy, Reese’s body feels the weight of her anxieties. She’s not normally the anxious type, but she still feels somewhat embarrassed about seeing the guest cry that day; the image was burned into her memory like a recurring daydream. The sounds of her footsteps become heavier as she approaches the room of the girl she and Lissana, for a time, took a fancy to. She sees Nikki standing in front of the room with her hands crossed but holding the ladle still. The other members of the pack are right behind her, curious of the lady who awakened.

“Ah, so Mei already told you. Go ahead, she was a bit fussy when she woke up but Imus managed to calm her down. She can only look at two people at a time for now. So you all go do something productive! Go on!” Nikki shoos her underlings with the swish and swash of her ladle. Surprisingly, Koto seemed to be compelled by the sudden awakening of the guest.

“So she woke up after all, huh?” Reese asks the little kid. She darts her gaze at Reese and replies, “Now, I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.” then makes her leave. Reese thinks about it for a while but decides that the guest is definitely better off awake than being unconscious and bedridden. She enters the room and finally sees the guest upright and awake in front of her. She starts to blush and sweat uncontrollably. Also in the room is Imus, sitting beside the guest’s bed. Reese starts, 

“Um, uh, welcome! You’re awake!” she meekly and embarrassingly manages to spew. The guest slowly turns her heavy head in Reese’s direction. She stares and squints aggressively until finally she lets out a sound, “Reese!?” the both of them share looks of confusion.