Howl Your Appellations

The Stars So Far Away

BOEN OPEOR

Everyone's of attendance when I finally reached the dining room. I didn't wear my prosthetic this time, only my crutch aided me to my trip back. It's not ideal, but I've found that it's fun to skip, float, then land perfectly; there will be times that I might lose my leg or worse. It's better to not rely too much on something impermanent. At least, something that doesn't guarantee consistency.

Everyone looks at me like I got injured again, but none of them stood up. I believe that their training was something I can't even begin to imagine. I pray to the moon that their souls be hardened because there's still a few more weeks before the tournament. I look to see if Imus has recovered from his hangover, er, drunkenness, and apparently he has! He looks back to normal, it's honestly a bit fast but maybe he wasn't that drunk in the first place. He might have been just confused.

"Boen! Hurry up and let's eat! Kaya and Koto prepared a feast!" Lissana's strong voice resonanted around the room. It promptly wakes everyone up from whatever trance they were in.

"Koto did much of the cooking." Kaya immediately corrected. Lissana nods and gives Kaya a smile and a thumbs up. She's just the most beautiful creature. And here I am wearing an over-sized shirt.

She inivtes me over to sit on my chiar and I hurriedly waddled towards it, I had so much on my mind that I forgot that I was actually starving. I've eaten at the Inner Market but a full meal's just fills you up different. I sit down and prepare my utensils,

"LET'S EAT!!!" I announce and everyone started eating like wild animals. All the utensils fell down the floor and everyone was eating like there was no tomorrow. Slabs of meat went flying around and no one cared. The room was so rowdy that it shook, someof the members even transformed into wolves just to have a better feel of the meat, fish, and other delicasies.

I was no different from the rest, I may not be able to turn into an animal, but I have worked up my appetite and I'm just as feral as anybody else. My giant shirt's now stained with all types of sauces, soups, and creams. Nothing mattered, all that mattered is food and filling our stomachs up.

We continued to gobble everything up like a certain no-faced monster eating at a bathhouse with an unlimited supply of food, only we were slowly running out since we only really had one chef for the day, and that chef has tiny hands. Right now, the boar sisters are transformed and are sleeping next to each other. It's easy to forget that these two girls are actually part beasts, even the sound of their snores ring with intimidation.

A few of the ladies has fallen asleep as well, now that I'm slowly gaining my sense of dignity back, only a few of us are awake at the moment. Mei has already left the dinner table and has probably went to bed. I'm sure he plans on cleaning the place up tomorrow, and I would sure like to help by washing the dishes. I'm making a mental note to myself right now.

So let's see, the only ones awake right now are: Lissana (still eating), Imus (drnking), Beige (cleaning up), and Nikki (chatting with Miller). Most of the 'adults'. I'm somehow awake too which is a surprise, I guess all my experience with family and business parties prepared me for these moment. I wasn't allowed to sleep until every guest was greeted as they left, and some guests leave at the latest hours. Truly tourturous Out of everyone, I really want to have a small chat with Beige, but I'm pretty sure he didn't bring his notepad and pencil. Forget helping tomorrow, I can do that tomorrow! I can help tonight! But only so much since I'm full and I don't think my stomach can handle me moving around too much, and my crutch will break under my weight!

I first start with the plates I'd used up. I made sure to move the left over food and on a bigger plate so I can stack all the plates and cups together. It's funny, I never really helped out with anything like this at home. The servants did everything and everyone ate so cleanly that there was barely anything to clean, thank goodness for that. I finish up with my dishes and proceeded to take some of Reese's. She's a cute sleeping wolf right now, wearing a poncho. She got it all dirty but nothing a little laundry soap can't fix. It's honestly amazing all these wolves sleeping so close to me, and not only wolves but wild boars too. It's feels surreal to think that these wild animals will never intend to hurt me.

Reese only ate soup among all the dishes, she must really like soup. Her fur's dripping wet and it's honestly kind of gross because of all the different colors, from shades of orange to green. I'm sure she'll be embarrassed about this so I'll just keep quiet for now. Her side of the table is cleaner than the rest at least, not that I'm judging.

Beige finally sees me collecting the plates slowly, I'm relying too much on my crutch and it doesn't really allow fast movements. Opens his mouth but I can't hear anything. Oh no, what do I do? I'm pretty sure he's talking to me right now. I look around to see if there's any paper of pencil lying around. I start to panic until Imus relays his message for me.

"He says you can finish up with that side. He'll do the rest. Don't push yourself." Imus says focusing his eyes on the glass he's holding. He shakes the cup, making the clear red juice form a whirlpool.

I finish stacking up and reply, "Oh sure! I was just helping out because I need to burn a bit of what I ate tonight. I don't normally sleep right after a large dinner. I have to move around a bit first." this is half true. I didn't really mind before, but now that I'm gaining weight and a bit of a belly, I want to at least manage it.

"Man, what's so wrong about gaining a bit of weight? If you'd like, I can share my whole routine to you~! But you'll have to be able to carry tree branches 50 times your weight!" Lissana laughs from across the room and I blush. The thought of Lissana lifting large chunks of trees might make me faint.

"W-well, sorry that we can't be as toned as you~!" I playfully jeer and she smiles and goes back to eating. I can't believe she can eat so much. She's slowly devouring what's left on the serving plates. Ah, she doesn't want to waste the food that Koto and Kaya prepared for us. Her stomach's so kind.

"Beige is telling you to sit down now. He finished clearing the plates." Imus says to my surprise. Was I staring at Lissana for that long? I didn't really do much, but I guess I have no choice.

"Well then, the three of us are gonna wash a few of these. Those we can't, we'll leave for you, Boen." Nikkis stands up from her seat and carries a handful of plates and bowls with her. Mei also follows suit and gives me a good night nod. I return the nod and the three of them left with towers of plates and kitchen utensils. Now it's just me, the sleeping Weres, Sana, and Imus.

"Want some red juice? It's non-alcoholic, only it does have a bit of a sedative kick. We normally drink this when we're too tired to sleep. The body just wants to train. You can imagine the detriments it can do to a growing body." he view the lot sleeping around the floor, "Although, Kaya and Koto worked hard too."

Imus takes a sip at the red juice. I can't possibly imagine what he's thinking. He offers me a cup and I take it. I've drunken a couple cups of these but I don't feel sleepy at all. I wonder why. I do feel sleepy, but only because I'm tired and in desperate need of rest.

"It tastes nice at least." I let out as I finish taking a sip, "It doesn't seem to work on me."

Imus doesn't look at me, and takes a sip again, "I guess not."

"You don't seem surprised." I start copying his cup twirling habits.

He looks at Lissana: still busy eating. She doesn't seem to mind our conversation, her mind is too preoccupied with how much she can eat. Watching her pushing herself to eat so much; I think it's about time she stopped to be honest, she can only be so unselfish.

"I don't think you'll ever run out of surprises. But then again, we'll live a life longer than you, so maybe you will someday." Imus tells me. He always did seem like the type of guy who doesn't get surprised too easily. He almost seemed bored.

"Does anything, ever surprise you, Imus?" I ask him before taking a sip of the red juice. I can hear Reese move her whole body down from the chair and position herself comfortably on the floor.

"There was someone...you know who he is. I knew the Mons siblings since we were kids, but Nike was always someone that surprised me." I finally turns to look at me, then continues, "Do you know why I'm not the Alpha right now?" he asks. I never really questioned it deeply. Both of them seem like they belong where they are now.

"You mean you're stronger than Lissana? More qualified?" I ask in return. I don't understand why he's asking me this.

"Hah, I'll never be as powerful as her. Even if she has been holding back for Nike's sake. My lungs and body can't compete." he reveals. "Just how being a Were didn't give Beige his voice, my lungs didn't change, even though my body's stronger now and can practically live for as long as I want."

"How does it feel...never reaching your full potential?" I try and not display my feelings of pity.

"I don't care about that. I was happy being with Nike. Sigh, talking about him like this is harder than I thought." he places his face on his hands.

"You don't have to tell me about him, you know. Apparently, it's tell Boen-Stories-About-Nike day." I admit. I feel like it's too coincidental but not at all forced, except for Nike right now.

"Hah! I can never shut up about him. But I hate talking about myself. You already know that I loved him more than anything else and I'll die letting everyone know who he was and how much he meant to me." the drowsy lovestruck Imus emerges.

"Nike really liked papayas because his favorite color is orange. He also liked braiding hair but told me to keep my hair short becuase he couldn't braid my hair all the time. The i***t would get lost at the Inner Market and we'd have to find him, we called it Nike Hunt. He makes the best blue juice known to man, you haven't had blue juice but it's highly alcoholic so I don't recommend it for lightweights. We'd turn over large rocks a lot, and sometimes, Prince would come join us. Those two were pretty close. Nike always had a way with people, he wasn't necessarily liked by everybody but he was honest, no one could deny that. Nike, when he looks at me the world melts, and he can only cry through one eye."

Imus told me a lot of things about his lost lover. I couldn't possibly absorb all of it but I made sure to listen properly. Imus' voice is always loving when it comes to talking about Nike. People really do change when they love someone, and that love never really dies. Imus is the living testament of their love and I'm a willing witness. It's a love so bright that should have dimmed down, but Imus won't allow that until the day he dies.

He tells me small trivia about Nike for a few more minutes and he finally reaches what he considers the end to what he can share,

"He was my Trust Scar. The person who turned me into a Were was him." he reveals.

"I don't understand. He gave you a scar?" I asked. There're are still rules of the Weres that I don't fully understand.

"The other members didn't tell you about this? Those idiots. To become a Were, you have to be given a scar by a Were you completely trust. It's actually a very dangerous process, if both of your feelings of trust don't match, you'll just end up with scars."

"I didn't know...that mean everyone..." I look around the sleeping members and think about how they went through something excruciating. "If it doesn't hurt the first time?"

"Then we stop or try again. It's different for every Were. But there's always a scar involved. Once the scar heals we slowly turn into Weres. Then we age as if time stopped. It's not noticable, but we still age even by just a little." he finishes up his cup and gives a tired but accomplished sigh, "Welp, it's time you hear it from her. She'll be on top on the Train entrance. I'm going to bed."

Imus stands up and leaves me to think. By her he means Lissana, right? I didn't even see or feel her leave. I guess they really did plan this day to an extent, at least for Imus and Lissana. I try my best to give myself courage to stand up but I think I need a bit more time. Today's finally the day she tells me the truth of her brother's death.