Howl Your Appellations

Open Sesame

BOEN OPEOR

  The book of contents unknown to me yet doesn't seem to catch me at the prime moment. I'm about to eat with my cat and listen to music as celebration for me not going completely off the rails again. The book can wait til after I've had a healthy dinner and quality time with my furry companion. 

   I place my hood on one of the chairs and leave the book on the section of the conversation pit where I accumulate the books I plan on reading, hopefully, in the foreseeable future, the pile will diminish instead of forming a formidable column. Skia's Appellation Record lies on the very top. To be honest, the title's mostly intriguing to me, but it reminds me too much of Lissana right now for obvious and chilling reasons. I want us to get along, but now I wonder why I even bother. I didn't really intend to form new relationships when I landed here. My goal was to get away and escape, escape to find the farthest distance I could chase. A big lady got me sidetracked, now I feel less like Boen. I wanted a simple escape not the call to adventure...and yet I grab every opportunity I can to find newer, more interesting things (which aren't necessarily safe or rational). Maybe Lissana and I are like the little star conjunction the Necessity Rover found, maybe we're only meant to briefly intertwine and separate definitely. 

   I'll give the trust Lissana route another chance, if we can't work it out in the next couple of days, I guess I'll have to move to the city and continue doing what I want. I love this cabin and the isolation it provides, but I can't fight the type of people like Lissana, the wolf girl or the guy who was stalking me. All of them share the same ... advantage. They're dwellers or the forest and probably servants of the elements. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm screwed. My moon ring spiraled me down a path of total drama and confusion because it's just something I can't give up. 

   With my mind buzzing with a million thoughts and my head utterly full, Soft reaches her little paws at me, exposing her toe beans and instantly massaging my deep-in-thought expression. She's finished eating her exquisite canned dinner while I haven't even eaten half of mine. The overthinker's dilemma. I speed eat all my dinner of spaghetti and one boiled egg while trying not to choke. I'm not done thinking and I think it's best if I thought about things a bit more. The stars are finally sizzling and the balcony's desperately enchanting me to have a glass of wine and think under its surveillance.

   I'm actually outside on the balcony, wearing my two piece pajama. I figured my onesie wouldn't set the mood right. The night is breezy and, as always, artistic; Unbothered by the light pollution of the city, the night sky in Abalone forest is a pretty galactic purple and dark blue. The stars serve as irreplaceable freckles of space. I hear a few wolf howls from a distance. They're making a lot of noise tonight. I wonder what the occasion is. The wine in my glass is madder red, unlike the glow of the moon. The book I poached nestles unopened on my lap.

My grandfather willed this cabin to me apparently; and my moon ring was his but decided to pass it on to me. I’ve become a rather bitter-sweet adult without any familial support and only the yearning for what affections my grandpa could have given me had he not died too early. I wonder why he chose me. He barely met me. Why am I so special?  None of my family members wanted to talk about him and no one really knows who he really is except Beanie. It’s hard to talk about him with Beanie, he seems to hold really deep emotions for my grandfather and I don’t want to pry on other people’s emotions. But if given the chance, I’d like him to tell me everything knows.

There are rooms in this cabin that I can’t access. The main bedroom lacks a door handle and a keyhole, as if there were never any to begin with. And I still haven't figured out where the rooms the two windows on each side of the cabin’s supposed to be. I once saw Soft’s tail from inside it and I can only assume one of the rooms in the ceiling which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.  It’d be a waste to leave the cabin for the city and not uncover some of its mysteries… maybe the smell that drove Lissana away is within the inner confines of my grandpa’s secret rooms. I take a sip of my cheap wine,

“Things would be so much easier if Beanie took the offer of sharing the cabin with me...” 

Somehow these words escaped my mouth. He’d been taking care of the cabin a long time before I got here. Maybe he could smell it too, or maybe he has other reasons why he doesn’t want to stay here. My moon rings glistens under the moonlight brew. I think it was not too long ago when I sent Patricar Far a message about it, I asked if there could be gemstones on the moon and that maybe my ring could be one of them. She never wrote back or answered my question in her podcast, but I do believe that she’ll respond when she finally has an answer she’ll be satisfied with (I hope).  If only this thing could tell me what it is and what it's capable of, then maybe I could harness its powers too. I have so many questions…

I look down at the book of records. It’s actually not as thick as one would expect. I hold it up against the light of the moon, for a moment I saw a fog-like presence seeping from it. I’m guessing it only has about 100 to 150 pages. It doesn’t make a sound from me shaking it, I was kind of hoping it would. As much as I am excited to open it, I feel a bit of reluctance. What if this thing’s cursed? Then again Lissana wouldn’t keep a cursed book in her house, right? I already stole it, so I might as well complete the deed and read it.

I open the book and the words are in really messy cursive. The cover page only has the words that says “Owner: Skia Mons” and below it, “Pack Genteel ”. So it’s more of like a little journal than an actual book. If this turns out to be this person’s diary I’d be a bit hesitant to read on further. I turn the page and the book seems to be dedicated to Grey, Nike, and Sana. I'm guessing the ‘Sana’ mentioned here is Lissana. I feel the page where Lissana’s name is written. The paper’s very tender.

The next page has even messier handwriting. I’m not sure if this is deliberate so that no one else can read it but her or that she just has the most atrocious handwriting and this is only the beginning of a painful read. From what my glorious brain can comprehend, it seems she's writing something in the lines of:

“I had the greatest idea ever. This book. My journal. It’s gonna be our secret weapon against the other Weres! I’m going to write everyone’s Appellations down and document their strengths and weaknesses with my flawless documentation skills. I might also put things about the faes that would come in handy so look forward to that! Ha! P.S. Grey might also write on here which makes this journal an even better idea!”

There’s a  little P.P.S. written with a rather neat handwriting at the end of the page, it says, “Grey’s here!”

It’s a little cute not gonna lie. I feel like I’m holding someone’s embarrassing scrapbook but more importantly, what are “Weres” and I guess the existence of faes is confirmed? I hope more things will come to light the more I read on.

I turn to the next page. Everything’s a jumbled mess. I can clearly see that there’s a main paragraph and a poorly- drawn table with what’s supposed to be packs and names but there are so many things all scribbled on top of each other. I try to find anything that I can pinpoint to read and that’s when I saw it: Krolo.