Howl Your Appellations

Pre-Tournament Days

BOEN OPEOR

It has been three days after we revealed everything to each other, three extremely long days of trying not to adjust and panic. Now I think we have a sort of system on how to interact with each other. If we encounter each other unexpectedly, we'd act like as we were before but never let the moment last for more than a minute. The pack has already made strange assumptions about how we got into a fight that night, and now we hate each other. We're really bad at hiding our feelings so they must think that we're just making faces to appease them and to maintain peace on the Train. It's somewhat amusing, but I really do find it difficult to face Sana. I don't think another Nike incident will happen, but she still has that option. I don't want her to kill another family member, she's lost so much already.

These days, I've been mainly doing house chores until Mei finishes making my new leg. I feel like the girl from the story, "The Sea Maiden's Meadow". The protagonist of the story is a girl from the sea who really adores the plants of the surface world. She's been miserable at the sea so she decided to risk it all and swim to the surface. Eventually, she managed to find land and met a florist. She offered doing house chores in exchange for that the florist gives her one plant per month. She managed to find an abandoned cottage near the cliffs and decided that to stay there for as long as she can.

It's a really touching story except for the end, the florist found out that the sea girl was actually a fugitive who stole a precious pearl of the sea kingdom so that she may be able to breathe while on the surface for a long time. The florist inevitably betrays the girl and the sea kingdom guards failed to detain her as she fell from the cliffs trying to escape them.

The pearl was never found, but the girl left a beautiful garden full of different flowers and plants near her house on the cliffs.

I don't know why I felt compelled to explain the whole story when I could only relate to her working for something very desirable in return. But, if I want to connect her story to mine, if my secret is discovered, I will inevitably die. Our circumstances are similar. The world is full of girls with problems bigger than they are, maybe that's how it always will be.

For the past days, I've been in charge of most of the housework; cooking, cleaning, laundry, and just making sure that everyone's fed and has slept even for a bit. I feel like a part-time mom, without the pay. I've even just settled wearing a blue sweat shirt and an apron over it. I'll never know when I'll get dirty from their requests.

Kaya and Koto help me sometimes, but they also seem to have something going on for the Lava Moon and I don't want to disrupt them while they do their thing. It makes me wonder about how those two still manage to stay here, despite hinting that they have a family to go back to. I wonder if one day they'll just decide to leave, and we'll never see them again. We have to make the most of these days. Living like a family like this, it almost seems like we have no problems in the world, like we're all perfectly content.

It's only been three days, but I had to wash two baskets of clothes for two of those days. These people really break out a sweat when they train for their wolf tournaments. I feel like I'm forming a chart in my head of everyone's clothes, especially Cain's. Despite training, she still manages to dress like a little queen. She's literally the best, her clothes are a pain in the ass, but it's a fun surprise to see what she'll wear next. Imus only white half-sleeve v-neck shirts, Beige likes to wear black button-down shirts, Miller likes to wear flannel button-downs, and Mei likes to wear tan polos with quirky ones in between. S.B. sweats the least out of all of them and he only wears shirts with stripe designs, Anda likes to wear loose pastel t-shirts, and Reese washes her own ponchos but the clothes she wears underneath are simple Lolita blouses.

Right now I'm sitting on the counter, listening to their clothes being washed. It's certainly so blissful and quiet that I forget that we have pressing matters to take care of soon. But thankfully it can wait until the end of the tournaments. If I didn't enter these woods I wouldn't have discovered the potential I have. This was planned at some point, right? There's something orchestrating these events from behind the cosmic scene, and Lissana and I are stuck in the middle.

The sound of the washing machine makes me extremely sleepy, this almost feel like how it was back at the cabin. "My cabin on the cliffs." another similarity to the sea girl. It's making me uneasy that I'm making these connections at three in the afternoon, inside a make-shift train hideout.

My cabin will be finished in a few days, I just have to wait for the furniture I ordered to arrive. Kaz hasn't been to keen about me the past few days, I guess he has more things to worry about, and he just wants the cabin to be done and over with at this point. I'll be going back there, alone, without Soft. I still need to find her and tell her to come back, I just hope that she hasn't involved herself into something sinister. I don't really have a good feeling about her spending time with the literal sky diety. She can't be that responsible...can she? I miss her so much.

"Yo! Boen, doing the laundry?" Reese invades my thinking time. "You're like a mom! Not meeting up with Kaz today?"

"I'm all yall's mom! Oh, and I was at the cabin today, there's really nothing new to report. It's almost done, just need to add furniture and I got myself my house back!" I explain, already reaching for the cold juices inside the ice box I proped up.

"Whoa! Good for you, mom. You still need to help out here even after the house is finished. We're too used to the groove of things now. Can I have a---" I give Reese the bottled juice from my ice box, "Hey! Thanks! They weren't lying when they said you turned this space into a pitstop!" Reese laughs.

""Well, you'd all have to go to the kitchen to get something cold drink so I thought it'd be nice if you guys didn't have to walk all the way~!" I say, feeling proud of myself and happy that my efforts are appreciated.

Reese drinks the bottled juice in one go. The transparent water glistens in the sunlight, and so does the sweat that drips from Reese's face. She finishes and leans on the counter to stare at me.

"Have things been troubling you? Also, what's this?" Reese points at the piece of paper I was doodling on just a while ago.

I blink, and think about my response, "Troubling me? Well, yeah just...well yeah a lot. I still haven't found Soft, I need to start preparing to go back to the cabin, and I got to secure future savings from my job."

This is the best I can think to say, without revealing too much. Sorry Reese, you're like my first and best friend here but I can't reveal what's honestly eating at me.

"Man. That sucks for you. And Sana?"

I try not to make it obvious that Sana's a major source of my stress. "Ah...I don't want to talk about it. It's best that she focuses on the tournament."

"Oh! You're pouty because, you won't be seeing her as often? Hahaha, well I hope the both of you make up soon!" she nudges me, and then softly adds, ''But I'm sure it'll end up well. We've been through so much and we still get days like this. Feels like nothing even happened. You know what I mean?" Reese smiles, this is her way of cheering me up.

I love how she looks in the afternoon, poncho and messy hair and all. I love how she doesn't pry and waits for the right time.

"Yeah...I think I believe that." I reply, thinking about all she's done for me, and about how she's wiping so much sweat from her face.

"What's it like to train for the tournaments?" I promptly ask.

"Huh? Oh! Well, we have to train at the deeper parts of the forest, I can't even show you unless you fly up and I can point the place to you. So yeah. But if you feel rebellious enough, you can fly up high into the sky and south from here is more wood, Hahahaha! But our pack usually practice near the mountains, under the aging tree." Reese explains.

"Oh, wow. What's the Aging Tree?"

"It's tips are ash grey thoughout all the seasons, you can't miss it from up there. Now we can't really see it much from below but we already had permission to mark the tree so that area's Pack October's territory. In the morning, the tips would shine silver sunlight on us like bestowing us with good Karma. If you see the tree, know that we're under there, strengthening our Appellations until we cry."

"That's amazing! I'd like to see the spot someday, but I also don't like that the forest floor descends. I don't have the guts and strength to confront that fear yet."

Reese places the empty juice bottle on the counter and I throw in on the tiny trash bin I also prepared, "Yeah, I don't want you going in there too. It's dense and dark, and we won't be able to see you because you're so tiny~~!" I forgot that they can turn into giant, ferocious wolf beasts for a second.

"True that, true that." I reply defeated because she's right. She pats my head and almost goes on here way.

"Oh! But what are you doodling?" She asks. The master informant of the pack never forgets to ask questions unanswered.

"These are some of the patterns I'm designing for work, I still plan on spending time in cities after all. I need money for that. And these right here are my designs for a 'tattoo' I want for my new leg! I still can't figure out if the flames are overkill, or not. Thoughts?" I raise the paper to give Reese a better view.

"Hmmm, I think the yellow flames suit you, Boen! Yeah! Go with this one. It'll look so great!" I somehow got Reese excited for me. It's a great feeling.

I reply to here with the same amount of giddy, "Really? I think so too! Alright! I'll tell Beige when he gets back. He says he'll be finished with the leg two days from now. So in three days, I'll have a kickass new leg!"

"f**k yeah, Boen!" Reese pumps her arms and bids me farewell.

And just like that, the Train is quiet again. I'm pretty sure the members take breaks in pairs, but Reese's pair didn't show up. So now it's just me and my thoughts again. I look at my phone to see if anyone from the pack has texted me and the last message was from two days ago and it was Anda saying she was craving sushi. Thankfully, we had a large variety of Inner Market fish hidden inside the walk-in freezer room. Nikki had to tell me which fish tasted like fish from the human world though. It was very educational.

I set the washing machine for one last spin before I dry them. I intend to hang these clothes later just to feel even more like a domestic, stay-at-home, mother. As I shuffle around, the papers I was doodling on fell to the floor. It's nothing too problematic, these things happen all time.

Sigh, nothing too problematic and yet I feel this overwhelming feeling of fear. I look at all the doodles I'd drawn over and over on the piece of paper, all I can imagine is my sister rejecting every piece.

I'd already sent her texts, emails, and tried to call her but to no avail, but why. Why is she calling me now of all times?