"This world makes it especially hard to fall in love. Wizards and witches eating hearts, people trading their very own hearts to demons who fall from the sky. Yet...I know I would be able to. No matter how hard it is."

Chapter 1

Rebounding Magic

It was a sunny day out in the Waste, where the castle of Wizard Howl moved slowly. The hodgepodge of houses, cannons and smoke chimneys looked as scary as usual, with its frog mouth opening every now and then while its eye like structures twitched slightly.

Inside, Markl looked out where he stood on the balcony. His nose breathed in, relishing the feeling of fresh air. His eyes looked out and about, where he rested them on a crouching figure. He scanned the area around it. Strewn about would be what looked like papers with black markings on it. The figure got on all fours and seemed to be drawing something on the ground.

"Hey Calcifer!" Markl called as he went inside. "Do you sense the person outside?" he asked.

The fire demon's flames crackled a bit. "I can, but only enough to tell that it's flesh and blood."

Markl looked at the ceiling in thought. "It looked like it was preparing a spell out there."

"So it is. I can feel it gathering it's magic," Calcifer spat out a few sparks. "I can't really tell what kind of spell though."

"Oh. Be right back then." Markl ran out to the balcony again, observing the figure as it was now reading a piece of paper. A circle and strange lines connecting to different parts of the circle formed what looked like a seal as a huge rock sat in the middle of it right next to the figure. He squinted his eyes but the sun stopped all possibilities of making out more details than just a white figure sitting on the grass. He huffed and went inside again.

"I can't tell if it's a he or a-"

BOOM!

Something crashed right into the castle, "Woah!" Markl spied black smoke from the balcony right away.

"That definitely came from the guy outside," Calcifer was curious. Who could have possibly caused an explosion that large to hurl an object right at the castle? "That was also some strong magic."

Markl raced to the balcony, but couldn't see anything through the black smoke.

Crash. The sound of metal colliding with the ground was heard. The boy still couldn't see anything through the black smoke. "Oh no," Markl said fearfully. He walked back inside.

Calcifer looked smug. "That was a part of the castle," he stated. The fire swayed slightly from side to side as if he was shaking his head. "A part from the right eye." Howl was going to be displeased, he knew it.

Markl was horrified. It was a good thing his master wasn't here right now. "At least he picked a good time to chase girls," he muttered.

"What should we do?" he asked the fire demon.

"I don't know." Calcifer replied as he gave the boy a smirk.

"Maybe I should talk the person who did this into fixing it." Markl sat down on the bench.

"Not now." Calcifer looked at Markl. "You'd get lost in smoke that thick."

"Right. I'll wait for the smoke to clear up then." They stayed in the castle in silence, Markl hoping that the smoke would rid itself already. A few minutes had gone by, before someone was knocking at the door. The boy sighed and stood up to answer it.

"Castle door." Calcifer said cautiously. Maybe it was the wizard that cast the spell?

"Stand by," Markl turned the door knob green down. He opened it, also expecting it to be the wizard who cast the spell. But instead he was greeted by the sheepishly smiling features of a young lady. Her hands twitched nervously at her sides, Markl amazed at how white her overall appearance was. She had pale white skin, she wore a modest white sundress with white boots, her eyes were emerald gems that held emabarassment all over. But her hair- that shocked him the most. They were as white as the clouds and almost as poofy!

"Well um, hello there!" she waved her hand nervously, while Markl was still gaping at her. "I well, was performing a magic spell right beside your castle over here and it so happens my magic rebounded by the sheer intensity of the magic from this place therefore hurling the test piece right into one of your castle's eyes." she spoke so quickly that the apprentice didn't even catch a single thing that came from her.