Howl Your Appellations

Everything's Going to Be Okay

BOEN OPEOR

    Lissana, A.K.A. Sana, left me inside her little messy shack. All that talk about protecting me and she leaves. There're cobwebs everywhere and an annoying amount of mishandled books on the floor. But surprisingly, her shack smells more like an abandoned cottage than an open garbage can so I give her points for that! I pick up her books one by one. I think better when my hands are busy anyway. They’re all mostly old folktale and fairytale books. I haven’t heard of any of them: The Shark and the Phoenix, The Tales of Muttonshells and 101 Sea Ear Stories. There’s one book that looks like it’s handmade with a blue hardbound cover pertaining to an image of halos intertwined with one another.It has a little latch lock to keep the book closed and secure.The intriguing book is titled, “Skia’s Appellation Records”. It looks severely gripping. I’m instantly drawn to it as if like a fish enchanted by a familiar-looking snare. Would Lissana mind if I took this? She probably wouldn't, right? Since it’s on the floor and everything. If she looks for it, I’ll give it back.

    The book is snug inside the large inner pocket of my hood. But I have no more books to put away or inspect. Was it so important that they had to talk outside? She gains yet another secret. She seems like a nice person overall. But nice people can make mistakes too. That’s why I should keep my distance and trust her with caution. But what if that person approaches me again? I chose trusting Sana after all. I’m 80% sure she’ll protect me then. 

    Breathe. This place feels really peaceful, like there was once so much love inside it and it never forgot. It seems a little lonely though, hm? Maybe flowers would lift this room up from its peaceful melancholy. I saw a few Bluebells and bloodroots just outside as we came. Maybe these empty Corky Cola glasses would feel better harboring life within them. But then she did tell me to “not dare leave her shack”. Well, it’s not like I’m leaving, I’ll still be in the vicinity. She can always tell me to go back.

    “Umm...” I take a peek outside. “Huh?” there’s no around.Did they run off without me hearing? That’s kinda rude of her, actually leaving me to go somewhere else. Now I have to pick those flowers.

    I exit Sana’s shack and notice how worn down it is. It’s made mostly out of wood and the architecture is barn-like, like a little caravan. I could guess the house used to be bright white with a green roof. On top of the roof is a broken weathervane, or is it a wind vane? Either way it’s broken so it can’t tell either. The building is surrounded by rubrum,silver feather grass and beautiful winding trees. A fox makes an inquisitive stare at me as I sightsee. Two others come out from the bushes and do the same. I give them a little wave and they decide that it was pointless to bother their time with me.

     The trail leading to the entryway of the house is lined with god-like bluebells and impeccable bloodroots. They seem to love growing here, like a small efflorescent city. I pick a few healthy ones for the three glass bottles present in the shack. If I don’t think about Lissana, the wolf girl and the old guy who threatened me, everything seems perfect, the specks of light from the unbowed trees make me want to dance for joy. Out of the corner of my eyes, I see the specks sashay from the bushes and the tree trunks. Fairies maybe? At this point I’d believe in all sorts of existences. A small gust of wind blows at the trees as if telling me I was on the mark.

    I placed the flowers on each of the lime-colored glass bottles. I filled them with water and care, now Lissana has something to take care of when she gets back. Mission accomplished. I notice that one of the vases only has one bloodroot bud in it, that’s no good. In my philosophy, there should always be two of a kind.

    I leave to pick up a small one on the side of the shack. I hear Lissana enter. She’s squirming some sort of explanation for her leaving. Something about family. I peek my head in a bit annoyed.

    “Oh! You’re back! Also I didn’t really clean. I just picked up the stuff you had on the floor and put them inside that trunk. And I got flowers for your bottles!” 

    “Dude, I was only gone for like…five minutes.” she says as if she’s the master of time. I believe it took her a bit longer than that. Leaving like she did will only make me more suspicious of her. I’ll tease her about it.

    “Right and it only takes five minutes to pick up stuff from the floor and pick flowers outside.”

“I told you not to leave my dumpster salad.” she replies in a disappointed tone.

    “Ah, f**k, I did it again! Sorry. Luckily you were only gone for five minutes.” I state. She looks as if she wants to punch me but she digresses and gives me a little laugh. It’s a soft and beautiful laugh.

    She retreats and flops on her bed then moans, “Aaah, I don’t know what I’m doing!” her hands covering her eyes. 

“Eh?! Ah why so suddenly...was it bad news after all?”

“It’s just a lot. I’m going through a bit and now I have you to worry about.” She whines.

    I approach her in an irritated manner. “Take responsibility for your actions! i***t! Do you honestly want me to punch you right now or do you want to talk about it?”

    She removes her cupped hands away from her face and she views me, our eyes exactly parallel to each other. She shyly looks away and faces sideways.

“Punching me will only hurt your tiny little hands. And I don’t think talking about it will do me any good.”

    “Oh you have to talk about me though. You owe me you know, despite the things I heard about you, I still managed to get excited about looking for the wolf girl together with you. Now that people started to notice that I’m here you suddenly don’t want to protect me anymore?”

    She flicks her gaze at me as if I had wounded her in the chest, “I never said I won’t protect you! ” She pulls my hair to move our faces closer, her big round obsidian eyes glaring at me,“Don’t forget that I marked you as mine. What happens to you directly affects me and my dignity.”

    I take a gulp and give her a headstrong reply, “So what are you going to do about it? How are you going to protect me? Do you know where I live? Do you know what I do?”

    Her face mellows like a baby’s after it's stopped crying. Her tense and intimidating expression turns into an embarrassed one, though she’s trying her best to hide it.

“I---I want to know...” she reveals meekly. I smile and reply,

“Well of course you do. Do you want me to tell you?”

“Didn’t I just say I want to?!” We both laugh at our ridiculous situation.

    “Well, I live in a cabin beyond the mountain. From the stream, you can see the cliff where it’s built. I could show you how to find it later if you want. Um, I have a crocheting job so that takes up most of my time. Then I mostly just play around looking for stuff.”

    Her eyes look like they’re sponges trying to absorb what I just said. I can’t tell if she’s listening intensely or if she’s spacing out.

    “Does that help?” I ask. She continues to gaze and says, “So there really was a cabin there. That cliff gives off a really sketchy vibe.”

“Ha? What do you mean sketchy? It’s perfectly un-sketchy if you ask me!” I protest.

    “I’m just saying, everyone thinks it’s weird there. It’d be great if you tell me how to get there tho. So you won’t have to look for me and I don’t have to look for you.”

    “Sounds logical...okay. So...whenever I want to run around the forest you’ll be with me?” I ask. She surely can’t be with me all the time, right?

    “Well, the more I spend time with you, the more my scent rubs off on you. They won’t try to get close to you if they know I’m always with you.” She answers and I am slightly discomposed. Her scent rubbing off on me??

“I’ll be with you whenever you want me to.” She pauses, “Everything’s going to be okay.” She says.