Hello there! I do not really think it is woth mentioning, but here it comes: I do not own anybody or anything out of Howl's Moving Castle. In this case I used the backround from the book.
So in this story the witch has her own demon who is not nearly as nice as Calcifer and there is a bit more backstory then we get in the movie. It is not really important, but just in case you were curious. It will be quite obvious that this story takes place long before Howl was even born or stepped into Ingary so sorry if you wanted to read about him.
A last Warning: Various english teacher of mine accused me of writing nonsense and always took points for my bad spelling! Good luck!
The witch was staring at the moon. There was nothing else to look at, the waste was barren of all life. Except her of course. How could the King banish her?
What ever did she do to him? So perhaps she should not have cursed his nephew, but he was such an annoying little twerp, and besides he was still alive and would probably stay like that for quite some time. No harm was done.
The witch sighed 'What to do?' and pecked bored at her fingernails. "How about some good old revenge?" proposed Lily, her ever faithful firedemon. "Revenge sounds so crude. We are way to good for that." opposed the Witch and stared back at the moon. "So you are going to sit here on the dust and dirt of the Waste and do what exactly?" sneered the demon, "Are you going to built a castle of sand? Do you not need water for that to work?" The witch huffed in exasperation. "I just might." But the witch had no intention to build a castle of sand. If she was getting a castle it would be made of the finest crytal Ingary would ever lay eyes upon.
Lily hummed a bit and let her deep voice echo around the landscape. "My dear, " she hesitated a moment "What shall become of us? Where did we go wrong?" The witch grumbled "Well, how am I supposed to know that? I cannot go back to the King and ask him, now can I?" she was getting flustered. She does not like to admit to weakness, she usually would never hide anything from her demon, the demon that grants her the powers to bespell anyone she likes, but she does feel just a little bit threatened while using said powers. It was quite strange. "You cannot?" Lily asked astonished. The witch grind her teeth. "I would never even get close enough, as you well know! I would be killed as soon as I step a foot out of the Waste."
A sigh was all the demon had to offer on that.
"If we would have known before all this went wrong." lamented the Witch and stepped back to have a better viewpoint of the moon. "If we could just step back in time..." She contemplated for a few heartbeats. "Say Lily, can we travel back in time?" The demon watched her carefully. "I guess."
"So if we went back in time, we could find out what made the king do this to us, right?"
"Possibly."
"And then we can fix it!"
"Well, we could try. But I do not think it would be wise to mess with the way things are."
"Ah, do not be like that, my dear. We will not have to go back very far. Just a few days!" The witch could see the relief on the face of her demon. "And besides you would be able to set things straight if I somehow ended up erasing my very existence, right?" The demon laughed weakly. "Of course I would. It would be terribly annoying to find another human who knows how to appreciate my generous gift of magic." The witch smiled in reply, but feeling a chill deep down in her chest. She got that sometimes.
"So, how do we travel back in time?" The demon looked at her strangely.
"Alright, I know, I need to figure it out myself!" the witch proclaimed, dusted of her hands and looked searchingly over the Waste, maybe the answer was just waiting to be found.
What fallowed was a most entertaining show of the strangest behavior. The witch performed strange dances, she collected strange stones, she ate strange things, she sang strange songs and then she did various combination all at once. All the while she was trying to get a grasp on the concept of time. Every exercise she untertook was interspersed with magic and very draining. Lily watched the proceedings with mild interest and a glowing complexion. "I just do not understand, how you can look great all the time, supporting me with your magic and not even breaking a sweat!" panted the witch after she let herself fall into an undignified heap on the ground. A worried look crossed Lily's face "Ah, but I am a demon. We work different than you humans." The witch gave a tired smile. "I wish I would work this way."
She took a few moments to catch her breath. "You glow just like the moon." she stated, but the demon only scoffed: "I was a star, we glow much brighter and much more beautiful than the moon." The witch looked into the skies and back to her companion. "But look at it! It shines so bright!" Lily rolled her eyes. "Of course you would think that, but the moon is not very far away compared to the stars and you can still see those, now can you?" The witch was very thoughtful. She held her gaze on the moon and then took a step back. And then another and another. "I do not think, that the distance makes much of a difference." She proclaimed and turned on the ball of her foot. Lily was about to point out the fact that a few steps are not quite the distance she was referring to, when the world started to spin an blur and suddely stood still all together. "What was that?" The witch asked and tried to see a difference in the world around her.
Then She heard voices in the distance.
"NO! You can't do that to me! Do you know who I am!" screeched a woman. "You are hereby known as the Witch of the Waste! If you value your life you will stay here woman!" came the stout reply of one of many soldiers of the king. " You can't leave me here!" raged the woman, who indeed was the very same witch of the waste.
"We did it! Exclaimed the observer. "We stepped back in time!" She did a little victory dance and then grinned at her very best friend. "So we do it just like last time and travel further back!"
The demon just smiled at the humans enthusiasm.
The witch closed her eyes, took a deep breath and walked slowly backwards. Nerver once picking up her feet completly, after three steps she turned on her feet and... Nothing happend. She could still hear herself screaming and insulting everyone and everything but no blurring or spinning. "You did not turn on your heel last time. But on the ball of your feet." interjected the demon which fallowed the witche's progress just a little bit worried.
"Aah, right. Thank you." The witch looked at her feet, as if it was somehow their fault for not turning properly, and then tried again.
This time she did get the world to spin and blur around her. She still stood in the Waste, but if she really did travel back in time she was not banned yet. So with new vigour she set out to investigate what happend to let the king banish her to the waste!
I plan to write another chapter. Chaos and mayhem all around with a time travelling witch!