Howl Your Appellations

The Progress in These Times

Reese Lanterman

In a spire, watched by a thick red dragon, the knight training is as ambitious as a stuck princess; the princess is looking forward to a young prince coming to her stratum to complete her potions of chasm. This is the chronicle of a youthful stupid cavalry, thirsty for adventure, a ruined princess who was lifted up to provide purest hearts and disaster for the realm known by witches and dragons.

“I thought this was the continuation to the Bee story, it better not end up as  one of your “wips” I know you barely manage to finish them!” Cain jeered, the whole night sky taking her complaints as the stars discuss in blinking murmurs. It seems that Reese and Cain has been paired up pretty frequently since the outsider/guest arrived. They found themselves closer to each other as packmates and friends. Reese only normally lets the less vocal members read her “wips” but decided to give Cain a chance since everyone else has been more than preoccupied with the recent happenings.

Reese hogs the beautiful web-designed cotton blanket they were sharing. The light from the wooden light fixtures Mei made during the summer illuminates their expressions: Reese’s smug and comfortable; Cain’s irritated and at her limit. She tugs back and now has the blanket all to herself. Revealing that Reese had her warm poncho the entire time.

The tower is the highest place on The Train. It is said that Nike and the previous members of the pack made it out of the trees from the inner forest, which is said to be ten times tougher than the trees in the regular forest. Their fort is one of the most formidable territories in the Abalone. The two young Wolf Weres laid on the highest platform, on lookout duty just in case things escalate for the peculiar or the worst. Presently, the forest has other activities to attend; the Weres too preoccupied with the current shifts in their respective worlds. The night is to rejuvenate as well as to cause terror but when all the world is tired and confused, nothing notably precarious usually happens. But one can’t be too sure, thus, the two wolf Weres still take the time to keep their pack safe.

“But doesn’t this introduction sound a bit too pretentious? Dude, are you okay?” Cain announces. Reese stares as her with a slightly surprised expression. She has been in a slump for a while now, she figured that it probably won’t show in her writing much but seeing as someone as frivolous as Cain towards her writing noticing the change, it seems to indicate that maybe her mind has been slacking-off.

Reese scoots closer to Cain and huddles under her side of the blanket. “I know everyone’s worried too. But something’s just  really bugging me, you know? She’s been gone for almost two weeks now. I’m normally the person keeping an eye on that slacker but now I’m totally in the dark. Imus isn’t even sure if she’ll be able to get out of ‘there’, where-ever she is.”

Cain looks at Reese then gazes at the stars. She gazes for a considerably long time, as if looking for a stranded constellation and a lonely spaceship. “I think,” she starts, “I think it’ll be okay. I don’t have any basis for this of course but, I feel it in my gut that she’ll be back, probably sooner than we think. I have that much faith in her.”

“Faith, huh? I guess that’s a good chip to bet on. She never really needed my help anyways, me checking up on her was more for me than for her.”

“Obviously. I bet everyone’s having a conversation just like ours right now. We’re all dealing with a potential loss of a good leader again. And I don’t think everyone’s completely moved on from Nike either.”

Reese flinches and stretches her arms horribly, she then, without warning, lays down on the cold wooden floor, bringing Cain along with her. “Nike. Man. Man…” Reese whispers.

“I know, right?”  Cain replies, “Look, it’s fine if your writings suck right now. You’re allowed to suck. My dresses has been really sucky too. But there is something cheering me up  whenever I wake up.”

“I know what you mean. I can’t believe her presence would somehow brighten us up in a way. Beige even seems to be more positive these days it’s like Lissana isn’t even on his mind.”

“Uhhh---” a soft and modulated voice emerged from the latch door. The two girls immediately sprang up and posed alertly. Beige’s bronze-colored fur glistens under the moon’s light. He continues,  “That huge coal-brain has been living in my mind rent free for the past two weeks. And aren’t you two supposed to be on look out duty? What’s all this chummery?”

“Chummery…..? Ah! Anyway, we were just taking a short break! Wait is our shift over? I thought we still had like another half hour. Right, Cain?” Reese asks and looks at Cain for back-up. “Y-yeah! What made you come up here so early? Is something wrong?”

“Sigh. No, nothing wrong. Imus told me the both of you are going to give Boen a tour of The Train tomorrow. I wouldn’t want the both of you oversleeping so I decided to end your shifts early.”

“Ah! How could I forget! She’s been trying so hard with her one crutch too. Ah, dude I didn’t plan anything special for Bobo…urk…Cain, did you?” Reese cries, hoping that Cain prepared at least an outline of the tour for tomorrow.

Cain sighs, “Yeah I did make a small itinerary but we’ve been doing other stuff so I haven’t really…uh ” she looks at Beige. He sways his head and says,

“This is exactly why I’m giving you both some time off. I think it’s better to cram anyway but don’t tell Imus I said that. Both of you remember what we planned on doing tomorrow, right?”

“Yes of course!” they both reply. “I just forgot that we were going to do them on the same date. We’ll make tomorrow a great day for Boen. Don’t you worry.” Reese announces.

“Oh I do worry. Make sure you don’t miss anything. Ask SB or Anda for help if the both of you run out of ideas, understood?”

“Yessir.” Reese and Cain descends down the stairs casually starting an argument about who’s the bigger i***t. They decide that they’re both idiots and acquired the assistance of SB and Anda for their tour.

“It’s been a while since we slept in the same room together, this is nice.” SB claims. How he still has his pureness is beyond everyone’s guess. He may not be the youngest but everyone sure treats him like he is.

“Yeah, well this is because our senior forgot to do their homework. Such a shame.” Anda jokingly states.

“We’re only here because we know you’d feel left out you little cockroach!” Reese rebuts as she writes on their itinerary.

The four teens continue to bicker and discuss until they inevitably fell asleep. They all collectively dreamt about  beautiful blue crystal-like eyes staring at them from the darkness.