Chapter in which There is Much Back and Forth
Howell raised his head, staring into the night sky. He reached up a small hand, pretending he could grasp at the stars and hold them tightly in his palms. He giggled.
It was at this point that he noticed that some of the stars were moving. Some of them were shooting across the sky. Howell wondered if they were the "meteors" he had read about in his textbooks. Were they not stars after all?
"Heeeelp meeee…"
Howell sprang to his feet, brushing the dew from his clothes. Where was the sound coming from? The sounds? There were dozens of little voices calling him to now—calling for help. He had to help!
Who was calling, though?
Howell spotted twinkling lights in the distance. He rubbed his eyes. This wasn't possible. Stars? Over the marsh?
Nevertheless, he sprinted down the hill, only to find bright orbs sinking into the marsh waters and going out.
"Heeeellpppp meee…" one cried out as it drowned.
Howell bit his lip. What could he do to save fire?
No. Now was not the time for thinking. It was the time for action! He jumped feet-first into the marsh, making his way to the closest light.
"No! Get away from me!" The flicker tried to twitch away from him. "Don't! Go away! Let me die! I—"
"Stop, stop, stop." Howl held up his hands. "You aren't telling it right, Calcifer. You were begging for the beautiful me to save you."
"Did you ever clean your ears?" Calcifer crackled from the grating, twisting into a rude gesture. "I definitely told you to go away. You were the one who didn't listen."
"I know I heard you call for help." Howl scowled down at the flicker.
"You must've heard someone else, then," Calcifer snapped back. "You were probably crazy. What kind of kid reaches out to try and grab fire? You would never have lived past childhood if it weren't for me."
"Liar! I'm too gifted to die young. It is a curse, you know, being so beautiful and so talented and so—"
"Finish the story, Calcifer?" Michael interrupted.
Calcifer bobbed on the logs thoughtfully for a moment. "Well, that's where it ends, really."
"What? That's a stupid story," Michael replied. "You didn't even get to how you two started living together. That was too abrupt!"
Howl and Calcifer looked at each other. There wasn't much they could say.
"It was at that moment we gazed into each others eyes and our hearts fused to one," Howl said vaguely. "We knew we would be friends forever and therefore built a castle together the next day. Even as a child, I was amazing."
Calcifer rolled his eyes. "Fool."
"But Howl," Michael complained. "You said you would—"
"I said I would tell you as much as I could so I did," Howl replied. Quickly changing the subject, he added, "You said you wanted a lesson, right?"
"You didn't even tell me what Calcifer is," Michael said, cutting through the distraction. "I thought that's when I'd learn."
"Well," said Howl, "you were wrong."
Michael pouted. Howl ignored him. Calcifer retreated back behind his logs.
"Caaalcifeerr…" Michael said, putting on his best whining Howl voice. "You'll tell me, right?"
"No can do, kiddo," Calcifer cracked. "If Howl won't say anything, it means I can't, either."
Michael sighed. "Why did you even tell me the story in the first place, if you knew you couldn't finish it? Now I'm all curious."
"We'll call it a testing of limits," Howl replied simply. "Apparently, that's as far as we can go. Anyway, I've set up a lesson for you. Do you want it or not? I don't have to teach you, you know. I have a thousand other important things I could be doing, really, I don't need an apprentice…"
"I'm coming, I'm coming," Michael replied, standing up from the stool. "You're so difficult, Howl."
"Yeah, he's real heartless," Calcifer added, smirking.
"You love saying that, don't you?" Howl absently thumbed a quill.
"What else can I say?" Calcifer turned around in the fireplace and vanished.
"No, get away from me—" The fire kept darting out of Howell's hands, growing ever closer to the water.
"Don't you want to live?" Howell asked desperately, trying to catch him.
"No! No! Just let me die!"
"No!" Howell protested. "Not if you can live!" He lunged, grabbing the spirit and clasping him tightly between his hands. "I—I read in an old book about this! I—I can help you!"
"No!" the fire squeaked. "Put me out! Put me out!"
"No!" Howell paused, breathing deeply. "I want you to live!" With that, he quickly lifted his hands to his mouth and swallowed the flame whole.
"Howl!" Michael exclaimed. "Howl! Are you listening to me? Howl!"
Howl lifted his head. "Hm?"
"What are you doing?" Michael shouted, desperately trying to rub the spilled ink off of his notes. The flames weren't helping. They never did. Why was it always fire? Couldn't Howl screw up some different, less dangerous way?
"Oh…my apologies." Howl tapped the notes with his forefinger, clearing the mess in an instant.
"Don't just apologize, tell me why you're acting like this!" Michael responded, throwing his notes back on the desk. "So at least I know why you're being useless."
"He's always useless," Calcifer called from the grate helpfully. "You need to ask him why he's being useless at this particular time."
"I was merely lost in my thoughts. Sorry. Let us get back to your lesson." Howl turned his gaze back to the spell. He suddenly realized that it was two spells, squashed together. No wonder there had been so much failure. He quickly separated the two parts with a tap of his hand while Michael wasn't looking. There. If Michael hadn't been paying much attention, maybe he wouldn't notice the sudden format change on the page.
"Thoughts?" Calcifer asked. "I didn't think you had those."
Howell coughed, his throat hot and sooty. His heart hurt. It hurt so much! What was all this pain? He trembled, coughing. Where was the fire? Where had it gone? More coughing. Was he dying? What was happening?
His hands felt suddenly warm again, pressed against his chest. Warm and heavy. The pain was gone. He looked down. The spirit was in his hands again, sitting on something weighty, glaring up at him.
"You shouldn't have done that," it said.
"I didn't want you to die…" Howell replied.
"You still shouldn't have done that." The spirit flickered. "Now we're stuck."
"Stuck?"
"Guess what you just gave me?" It flicked to the side, allowing Howell to see what he held in his hands. Howell choked.
"My—my heart? Is that what that is?" he gasped, eyes wide. "How—how am I even alive?"
"Oh, you can do all sorts of things with magic," the sprite said. "You can turn things into other things or cut bits of stuff off and make it new stuff… Anyway, you're perfectly alive, as long as I am."
"Does that mean I can live forever?"
"I guess so." The fire shrugged as only a fire can shrug. "I never gave much thought to it. I guess I have to now, though, thanks to someone."
"I'm…I'm Howell," Howell introduced.
"Howl?" the flame repeated. "I'm Calcifer. I'm not very pleased to meet you, Howl."
Nonetheless, it was the start of something neither would be able to escape for a very long time.