Howl Your Appellations

Remnants

BOEN OPEOR

    I’ve read most of Skia’s Appellation Records and while what I’ve been reading has been interesting, there’s really nothing I can do about the information except maybe identify the people in the book in real life. The book is a whole mess but sometimes when Grey writes on it, the pages they write on are always visibly cleaner. They mostly just clarify or correct the words Skia writes. I have the impression that even though the book’s a total mess to read with little to no coherence, they took the words they wrote in seriously and with intent. The importance or purpose of Appellations was never mentioned and from what I could gather, they’re important titles that change after a long duration of time. Though Krolo’s didn’t really change. Although, I can’t say for certain since the book is, in a way, incomplete with their various information lacking.

    I can’t believe everything that happened to me and Lissana only happened yesterday. I stayed up reading the book but couldn’t fully finish it and ended up falling asleep on the conversation pit again. Honestly! I should have gone to my room if I knew this would happen. All the plastic covers of my junk foods are littered everywhere but it’s a good thing I finished my drinks. I’m not in the mood for doing some laundry today. 

    I picked up everything that doesn’t belong to the conversation pit and proceeded to throw them all away in the kitchen. Now that I’m up, I better do my homeowner duties and maybe take a bath even. I’ve had such rough days. I can’t believe so much has happened in so little time, it feels like a dream. I began to make breakfast for my wonderful cat who’s nowhere to be found again and for me, my wonderful self who has so much in her mind.

    I think I’ll prepare something healthy today. But it’ll be the usual for Soft. Seriously, where has she gone off to again? She better not be in the secret rooms again. She’s been hiding more and more now. But anyway, breakfast! I’m going to be making Egg burritos with sweet potato hash! I don’t particularly cook but this is what came up when I searched, “Healthy breakfast for sexy business ladies”.

    I have most of the ingredients for the breakfast burrito. Eggs, potatoes, garlic, salsa seasoning (for some reason) and grain-free tortillas. I don’t have avocados so I’ll have to make do with my bananas. I minced the ingredients like an elite professional and cooked my hash and eggs in the biggest skillet I’ve ever seen. My grandpa must have been a big eater. The ingredients sizzle and turn into scrumptious colors. In the end, I made seven burritos because I liked the way the food sounded in the pan.

    Delighted with my work, I place it on the kitchen counter where I normally eat and prepare lime juice. I open a can of cat food and wait for Soft to come scurrying towards the kitchen. I wait for a couple of seconds and call her name. I see her leave the guest room on the second floor carrying a chunk of wood. It must have fallen somehow, which is highly unlikely since all the hanged decorations are bound intricately and extremely tightly. She must’ve picked it up outside and thought I’d like it.

    After a few minutes of waiting for Soft to come down, it was clear that she wasn’t going to while I was there. I can never understand cats and their mixed signals. I leave the cat tray near the counter and proceed to eat my own breakfast. It tastes incredibly savory, which is a shock to me because I expected it to taste like s**t. I may be a jack-of-all-trades but I’ve never really considered my cooking to taste good. I get distracted by the process, as weird as that sounds.

    The morning is blue. It’s as if something has happened to the forest overnight, something sad. I don’t know if I’d meet Lissana today. But something tells me that I should just wait for her to come again. It’s fairly faint however. I’m compelled to run to the edge of the cliff and lookover a tiny patch of forest where she might be calling for me. How entitled of me to think that. I decided to follow the urge  anyway.

    The grass and the soil feels as if they’ve been cultivated overnight. The green of the grass almost seems like it’s holographic with how clean it is. I’ve only been on the tip of the cliff when I first got here but the scene is a lot more different than I remember. The first time, Beanie gave me a tour of the cabin and we had a picnic on the edge of the cliff. He prepared all kinds of food for me and it truly felt like a welcome. He told me about how the forest is too crowded for him, how the excess of trees obscured every path. He said he preferred the mountains. I couldn’t agree or disagree because I didn’t have any experience with both. Now that I have a few experiences with the forest, I think I do understand what he’s saying. Without all the trees, I would’ve found the person I’m looking for right now. I’m on the edge of the cliff; it’s overlooking a small stream and dozens and dozens of trees. It’s like a fortress of spikes and occasional low hanging clouds. The morning breeze blows at my body as if trying to push me off the cliff. I wait to see a familiar figure maybe hanging about the stream. None of the sort came.

    I went back inside the cabin that instantly warmed me as I entered. I stared at the place where I’d stood and thought long and hard about what Beanie had said before he gave the keys of the cabin to me: “I’m sorry I’m passing the burden on to you...but the forest will protect you. I’m sure it will.” At first I didn’t think of it much but now more than ever, I want to see Beanie again and I want him to tell me what he meant. The forest… he talks about it as if it’s a person. Well if the forest does intend to protect me, then I won’t have to worry about going out there again, right? Probably not.

    I washed the utensils I left to simmer and checked my phone for any work-related updates. It says they’re approved of my new design (thank god!) and that they’ll send it to the manufacturers soon. Sometimes my sister surprises me, not in a good way though but in a “wow I can’t believe you’re actually doing this” type of way. I take pride in my works and I make sure that they’re in the best shape and form, my sister knows this but our preferences don't  match most of the time so she almost always asks me to send another version just in case. When she approves my design right away though it means she wants something from me. And I'm pretty sure it’s to attend that business meeting Moze told me about. Well, it’s still a month from now so I’ll allow her to make as many bribes as she can. There’s a one in a million chance that I’d actually show up.

    I checked my other emails and nothing else deemed urgent or important. That’s great news for me but I still have some crocheting to do. The flow of today feels like any other day. If it was a normal day I’d be running around the forest taking pictures, but now I can’t. In any case, I’m certain that this is only temporary and I’ll be able to indulge again. I heat up hot water out for my bath. I don’t know why but the bathroom has no hot water so I have to manually heat some up and carry the kettle all the way to the bathroom. I think of it as  a mini exercise so I don’t actually end up not taking a bath. Be reminded that most of the stuff here is for one big male adult, so everything’s a bit bigger than I’d like them to be. 

    I move under the various wood dangles that seem to sway by themselves while I’m traversing towards the bathroom. I learned to ignore it but sometimes I wonder why they do that. Dead wood is the thing my grandpa valued the most in this city. 

    I reached the bathroom and poured all the hot water on the bathtub. I turned the faucet on so that when I got in, I wouldn’t burn to death. I went back to the livingroom and took Skia’s Appellation Records, I figured I’d read the rest while having a relaxing bath. I checked up on Soft’s food bowl and saw that she’s eaten her food, yet there’s no sign of her anywhere. As long as she eats I’ve nothing to worry about. I’m a little worried about the thing she was carrying earlier though. 

    I placed the book on the top of the toilet cover and threw my clothes onto the hamper. The hamper’s already forming a mountain since I haven’t done any laundry and I keep changing my clothes as if I have a butler that washes all my clothes. I’ll get to washing eventually.The bathroom has a big wall mirror where you can stare at your little naked body. I strike a few poses and resign. I’d say I put on a little weight but nothing too concerning. I also placed a clothes rack in here just because I felt like the bathroom was too long and empty. A single potted plant I named “Charlie” was the only decoration when I got here.

    While I  conversed with Charlie about the weather, the bath bomb I had placed has purely and perfectly dissolved into a galaxy of watermelon colors. I placed a few plastic roses in the tub and settled a metal tray on the sides of the bathtub to make a makeshift table for me to place the book on. I let my toes feel the water and, immediately, submerged my whole body unto the tub. I splash the galaxy water on my face and remain in total bliss for a few well-deserved minutes. My hair spreads like seaweed when submerged in water, I pretend that I’m the mermaid on the Abalone flag. I play with my boobs a little bit and proceed to clean myself.

    The bookmark I placed on the book fell when I opened it, it was my favorite bookmark too. I made it with Moze when we were skipping pottery class in high school. It’s a regular bookmark made with cheap origami paper with a doodle of an alien character we liked as kids. Now it’s all wet and my mood’s a bit irritated. Where I last left off, Skia was talking about a strange mold that grew on the ceiling of the shack. Somehow, the book just turned into a regular journal with a few tidbits about the other “Weres” and something about outsiders. I’m guessing outsiders are just normal people who sometimes stay in the forest. Skia is friendly, it seems, so she befriends some of them. They don’t seem too important though since she barely talked about them. I wonder if they knew she was a Were? I wonder if a lot of people know about Weres.

    A few more pages of her misadventures and a page about Grey again. Skia seems to really enjoy Grey and I honestly assumed that they’re a couple...Lissana’s parents even. But I can never confirm it. Skia writes:

    Grey, your fur’s so beautiful under the moonlight and your panting when you're exhausted from a fight makes me high. You’re great. I love the way you carry yourself and how I know I can depend on you. Paint me again the next time I’m back.

    She then proceeds to write all the colors she can think of then signs the message/poem with:

Your canvas, Skia :)

She writes as if she lives in the shack but I don’t think that’s the case. Maybe it’s a forbidden love? How dramatic. I’ve never been drawn to romance but sometimes I do find it incredibly cute. I would have preferred the book to have more Lissana content. But I guess she wasn’t too involved in this at the time.

I read over more of Skia’s stories about a small pond she found with water that tastes incredibly delicious and effectively refreshing; about a group of erratics in the shape of mammoths; about an incredibly thin tree with paper-like leaves that produce the aroma of fresh bread; about stairs leading to elongated caves that lead to who knows where. This is where I realized that she’s somewhat like me. She values explorations and now I’m itching to have some of my own although it seems a little risky. She’s lucky she has the power to protect herself against the world, how does one become a Were, I wonder? Questions unanswered.

I’m down to the last three pages of the book and I’ve lost all hope of gaining information that I need, or that I know how to use. This was my initial thought until I saw that the handwriting changed from Skia’s to Grey’s.