Disclaimer: I don't own Howl's Moving Castle.
Into The Sky
Posted: January Twenty-Second, 2007
She loved him, perhaps as early as when she had first seen him. Or maybe it was the dream that had finally cleared all her confusion away, the dream she remembered with such clarity that she often misremembered it for real. Regardless, back then she had felt like she would never see him again. After all, Howl only ate the hearts of beautiful girls. This time she knew better.
He had just lost track of her, that's all.
Because he loved her back, and it wasn't a matter of saying it. They didn't have to tell it to each other, they knew. So every day she cleaned his castle, she fueled his fire, and she wept while she waited for him. And she was certain he knew this, he had just lost track of her after they had moved the castle. He had just lost track.
When he didn't come back from the war, yet another foolish war that the foolish Kings and Queens had started, she knew he was just a little late. After all, there had been times when he had been gone for days and weeks. That was something she had always kept in her mind, and those were words she had replayed every time she saw him slip out the wooden door and into his portal with the black sign. The portal of unknown destination, the one that only he could use.
The first time she had seen his monster form, the feathers dying and his body bloody, she had fought the urge to scream. He didn't have the sense to think of himself, that was her job. He would fight until he died. But she knew that he could never die, he was a great wizard and would always be able to save himself. He could never die.
Her heart had begun to ache. She missed him, couldn't he sense it? There was no magic for her to use, no wishes that could be granted, nothing that she couldn't do herself. So she went to look for him with the only way she knew how. By jumping into the sky and walking on air.