Howl Your Appellations

What the Smells Reveal

Lissana Mons

    I made her feel uncomfortable. But it was unavoidable. All I need to do now is retreat and wait for her to consider my situation or at least feel as comfortable as she was with me before I acted out. It's really hard to control these things and she doesn't even know it, no way I can tell her too.

    She’s just staring at me. I don't know what to say. I should really go and have her rest. I'll be as close to her as I can be just in case. Ah, Luna, I pretty much messed up everything for everyone. I don't want to admit it but those guys were right. Boen deserves to be utilized better. I messed up and now the forest has to deal with my mistake.

She's still staring at me. I should just say something and leave, 

"It’s okay if you don’t want to invite me to your house anymore."

"You can follow me if you want." she says. I didn't expect that.

    I don't know what she's thinking. Maybe she had a revelation while she blacked out. In any case, I was gonna follow her anyway so I'll just do that.

    Her hair's surprisingly thick from behind and her body's like a plump hourglass. She smells super nice like a mix between crushed cherries and peaches. Everyone's going to come out and approach her soon, and it isn’t just the Weres I have to worry about . Shaen probably spread the word out about her too, she might even have knowledge about Boen that I’m not aware of. I don't think I can protect her from anyone like this. I'm too disadvantaged; I need to go back to home and ask Imus to help. I partially did this for them anyway... thought we needed something good for once after Nike...

    I can feel an extremely menacing aura the further we go in. The trees have no “life” in them. The sense of dread is so strong I don't think the faes would be able to withstand it. Where the hell is this aura coming from? The vibe is vile. Is this why Boen's been unscathed these past few days? It stinks like malice and all sorts of dead things. I thought I’d be used to the smell of rot but this is just on another level. 

“Through here, ah, are you okay?”

“Ah! Sorry I just smell something extremely off. Don’t you smell it?”

“Well, actually no. I just smell water and the ground? Does it stink that bad?”

“I can handle it.” This isn’t the worst stench I’ve smelled, but it’s definitely on the top of my list.

    “That’s not such a reassuring answer. I feel like everything is conspiring against us.” The way her mouth shapes as she pouts makes me want to kiss it. There’s probably no chance of that happening right now; like she said, everything is conspiring against us. Welcome to my world, missy.

“Maybe it is. But don’t let it bother you, just do what you want to do.”

“Hmm, is that how you think about things? Cool! You almost sound like my friend.”

“Ohh~? They sound like they’re someone I could get along with.”

    “Ha! Probably not. She doesn’t listen to anyone even if it killed her. She’d challenge you to a fistfight and might actually win. But she’s somewhere looking for volcano rocks or something for her thesis right now so...”

“Thesis, huh? She suddenly doesn’t sound like me after all.”

    “Pahaha! Man, you don’t have to put yourself down because of some school papers. It really doesn’t really matter in the end, anyway. Doing what you want is what’s important, right?” She almost sounds like the fae. But sweeter.

“Yeah.” 

“...”

    Oof another awkward silence. She’s just looking at me with a smiley little face. What now? Does she want me to go through the tunnel first? I really don’t want to. The stench seems to come from the end of the tunnel, but, if it means I get to see where she lives...okay.

“Awawawa-wait! Stop! Stop! Wait!”

“Huh? What?” 

    “I..uh..I think I’m not prepared to show you my cabin yet. It’s a little messy from all the thinking I did and my cat might be rude to you!”

    “If you don’t want me to enter your house, I guess I’m fine here. Your cabin’s just through this tunnel, right?”

“Yeah, but I feel bad making you follow me and then just get cabin blocked in the end.”

    “I...so do you want me to at least see that you actually live in a house or not? Either choice is fine with me. The smell is really annoying.”

    “I still don’t understand what you mean by “the smell” but, uh, okay alright sorry. Let me just run ahead and clean a bit and you can wait outside just so you can see I don’t live in the trees or something. Good? ”

“Yeah.Good.”

    She runs like a sock. All wobbly. I can’t really see well with all these vines and ferns. The cave floor’s extremely wobbly and uneven. And there’s moss all over the place! No wonder no one’s been able to touch her, following her’s such a pain. And the stench is just unbearable now, my head physically hurts from smelling it.

Thank god! Finally out of the scummy tunnel! It was longer than I thought. 

“....what the f**k?” 

Dude, what kind of sick freak would do this? Boen can’t possibly know right? What the actual f**k. They’re all…

    “Lissanaaa!!! Please wait for a bit more! Everything’s a mess and Soft’s being a handful! Give me another minute!”

    She doesn’t even know what she’s inside of. Now I understand why the cliff gives off the sketchy vibe. It’s a coffin! I...can’t stand it!!

“I’m leaving! I’m sorry! I can’t stand it here!”

    I can’t possibly stay here longer than I have. The smell might make the faes hostile against me. I can’t risk it. My pack’s suffered too much loss. I have to see Imus as soon as possible! Krolo was right, she might be a problem after all.