Howl Your Appellations

There’s More to Come

BOEN OPEOR

Their voices disappeared along the long hallway. I dismissed the conversation the two Weres had. Surely, I have no business prying on their affairs. I’ve accumulated too much physical and emotional debt, I don’t think I can ever repay them in the amount that would satisfy me; not wanting to tally more debt, in the end, I only think about the things that concern me.

I take a look at the itinerary  again, I didn’t notice how the wrinkles it had had disappeared and now is a completely flawless piece of stationary. I wonder why the “normal” world can never acquire things like these, it’s as if the “Weres” and “Elementals” deserve better than the people living out their lives in the “normal” world. The paper has lost all of its creases, giving attention to a detail that I didn’t notice it had before; the border design are grapes and vines dipped in gold. A few foxes dance on the corners of the lower borders…somehow, the thought of foxes make me feel uneasy. It says, after breakfast, I’m supposed to leave the infirmary but… I’m to open the cabinet for a surprise. I guess they were growing tired of dressing me in a plain white dress all these weeks. I tied my hair up into a bun with a golden lace I found in one of the drawers a few days ago. My hands are that of a little thief, led to rummage around the infirmary looking for something fun to do with my fingers. In my defense, I laid it out in the open (on top of the nightstand table) for everyone to see, and they just accepted it. Welcome to my paradox, not wanting to owe anyone but also continuing to accumulate reasons for me to owe them. I’m really just better off living with myself and only occasionally meeting people. It always has been easy like that.

I take my crutch and proceeded to the wooden cabinet opposite to my bed. It’s a pretty old cabinet and there’s usually nothing in here but a few tiny brooms, over-sized white t-shirts and an extra white dress. This time, when I opened the door, unable to express my excitement to the fullest because then I would fall off my crutch, I let my voice rejoice instead. I could only expect that Cain made this for me at the last minute, but it is glorious. It’s an ombre silk cocktail dress with a matching mid-sleeve, see-through jacket. The bottom skirt of the dress seem to be made with a few scrap fabric and the best part is, it has pockets!!! Cain probably ran out, but this is what I love about art. It’s creative and unique, I’d make my sister mass produce these if I could… is it really okay for me to accept this? I’ve done nothing good for them, and yet they keep showering me with gifts. Are these people really just giving? Or am I just missing something obvious? I might have something they need, but I don’t know what it is yet. Still, I’ve been with these people for weeks now and if they wanted something from me, they would have taken it already.

I touch the delicate fabric of the dress a friend has woven for me. It’s so damn beautiful I might cry. I can do this. I can get through this, and I’ll go back to my normal life, act like nothing happened and forget about everyone as always. I just have to play along, yeah, I can pretend to be happy like a normal person. It’s the only way I can go through this whole damn minute without overthinking things. On the count of three, I’m a curious explorer girl excited to thank and greet the people who saved me from the malice in the woods.

1…2….3!

The dress fits me perfectly! Almost as if they took my measurements while I was asleep. I am, for the first time, outside the infirmary room, feeling brand new. The sun is shining through the large glass windows of the train cars, as if The Train is being cleansed by the sunlight every morning. I take a look at my reflection in the glass. She is glowing. Her smile is just right and the dress that Cain made for her is perfect. Do your best, me! I give her a peace sign.

I proceed North, the itinerary instructs that I need to head outside after I eat. This makes sense I think, I’ve never seen The Train from the outside yet. All I know is that, this ancient, metal locomotive somehow managed to entangle its fate within the inner linings of the Abalone Forest. It reminds me of that compact disk I found not too long ago. Did I ever end up using it? Probably not.

The day is quiet, maybe a sign that the morning will, more or less, continue to be “not bad”. The wooden floor embraces the foot of my crutch as it lands, making a sweet and drum-like beat. I pass a few rooms and see that the room before the cockpit and the “front door” is Imus’. I know this because someone carved his name on the metal door in cursive. It’s such a wild form of cursive too, a punk-ish sort of cursive. On the upper-center of the door, just above the cursive graffiti, is a round window. I’m five foot five without my trusty platform boots and that isn’t considerably a short height; it appears that I also lost the shoes I was wearing the day I was attacked, and I’m borrowing Reese’s white canvas shoes, although technically it’s not hers, she just found them somewhere for me to wear. Luckily for her, I won’t need the other pair. The window is just a bit above my head, but if I tip my toes I can take a little peek. But I will not. There’s something really odd about having your room near the front door and have a window on it. It almost seems like a trap, but my reason for not peeking is a little personal. I wouldn’t want anyone to ever look into my room, and so, I will never look into other people’s rooms without permission. I stare at the door once more, felt the Imus’ engraved name on the metal and prompted my self to finally set foot outside The Train.

                                                                                 ⁂

“Boen Opeor!!!” someone calls out my name. The bright light of the forest blinded me for a moment, as if someone took my picture, making it impossible for me to see the name caller. But when my eyes adjusted to the bright cream light and the evergreens of the leaves and the trees, I almost started to cry my eyes out. Not too far away from me were Reese, Cain, S.B. , Anda and the two siblings, Kaya and Koto. They were a few feet away from The Train and had confetti cones filled with all sorts of petals from places I can’t even imagine. They threw it all up in the air and the wind, as if their accomplice, carried the petals around in an arboreal dance. I just stood, dumbfounded by my disbelief of the moment. I’ve attended multiple high-class parties since I was a child, but this moment makes high class seem like a cheap knock off. Koto runs up to me and says, “We’re grateful that you’ve recovered. You look beautiful.” I couldn’t help but ugly cry at her words. Reese swiftly runs to me and scolds Koto. Kaya also began to scold Koto, while she just gave them blank stares.

“No, no. I’m fine. It just made me so happy to hear her words.”  I say under the sobs.

“Oh well, in that case! Good job Koto!” Reese smiles and wipes my tears with her poncho. “Ah! Now your poncho will get dirty!” I exclaim. She looks at my face and snickers, “We have very different views on the word dirty!”

Cain, Anda and S.B. finally approached us and congratulated me. “The dress I made looks great on you. Not that I had any doubts that it would.” I smiled and hugged her. “Thank you, Cain. I’ll cherish this dress for the rest of my life.”

Anda and S.B. gave me pats on the back. We’ve only ever talked a few times, but we’ve had our fun. They mostly drew on my leg cast and S.B. would give me snacks from time to time. It’s like they’re just regular kids and teenagers. But Reese’s tail, Kaya and Koto’s eyes, Cain’s ears, and Anda’s fangs remind me that I’m still in the middle of the forest with people who call themselves “Wolf Weres”. They don’t really expose these traits (except for Reese) when I was in the infirmary, but now that I’m better, they’ve taken the next step too.

“So Boen! Before we show the inside of our secret base. You should probably know how this place works first. You might get permanently lost or cursed if we don’t tell you otherwise.” Reese bares her fangs as she smiled and pointed at the facade of The Train.