Chapter 1: In Which Howl and Sophie Argue
"I know this for a fact!" Sophie stated, setting her hands firmly on her finely curved hips. Her brown eyes narrowed sharply, and she took a moment to brush her short, silver hair away from her face. The beautiful young woman placed a most nasty scowl on her face.
"And I can assure you, my dear, that you are very well mistaken," Howl replied with a cocky smile. The black-haired man shifted his weight to one leg, tapping his fingers over the stone surrounding the fireplace they stood beside. His bright blue eyes gleamed.
"There is no such thing! Have you completely gone mad?" Sophie pounded at the stone around the fireplace. Her action caused the fire eating at the logs to jump up into the air slightly before returning to its former resting place. "There is no such thing!"
"Are you willing to make a wager?" Howl continued in his overly zealous manner, causing heat to rise to Sophie's cheeks. The young woman folded her arms over her chest, suddenly looking self-confident.
"Fine. Prove to me that this so-called Lockness monster exists and I will do whatever you ask of me for one day. However, should you fail to provide proof, you will personally serve me for one day! Deal?" she smirked, expecting him to back down. The wizard merely snapped his fingers, spun on his heels, and bolted up the stairs nearby, disappearing into his bedroom at the top.
"Can't you two ever fight about something interesting? Last week, it was Bigfoot, and now this? How many monsters is he going to have to make up before you quit humoring him?" Calcifer muttered, grimly, from atop the logs where he rested in the fireplace. He stretched a flaming arm out and snatched a fresh log from a pile nearby, gnawing on it. "Despite these ridiculous arguments, Howl still manages to win more often than not."
"That's false, Calcifer!" Sophie grumbled, staring at the stairs while waiting impatiently for her beloved Howl to return with said proof. It was true the wizard could sometimes prove that what he said was true, but Sophie no longer believed his animal stories. "He was wrong yesterday!"
"Only because you made me eat his proof!" Calcifer flicked his flaming tongue at her, his eyes narrowing into a squint.
"It fell out of my hand!" Sophie heatedly replied, shaking her finger at the fire demon. Calcifer waved his tongue at her but kept the rest of his remarks to himself. She was almost certain she heard him mutter 'liar,' but when she glared at him, he disappeared underneath the logs, cackling a quiet tune to himself.
This was not an uncommon morning within Howl's floating castle. Sophie would rise before all the others and prepare a hearty breakfast for her newfound family. Calcifer was kind enough to lend her his services, though not without complaint. He made certain she knew he was not happy being cooked on. In fact, he made everyone in the house certain with his protests. He protested so loudly that he woke them all up. Still, he allowed her to when he could very easily have fled the castle to escape her.
Usually, by that time, Howl had shuffled from his bedroom into the bathroom, where he started his morning ritual of grooming himself. When he was finished and certain that he looked his best, he'd stroll out of the bathroom, kick his young apprentice's door to wake Markl up, and head down the stairs.
Upon hearing the kick, Markl would nearly topple out of bed, every single morning, and stagger around trying to get dressed as quickly as possible. Breakfast was not to be missed. He'd never allow it. With his trusty dog Heen coughing and sputtering by his side the entire time, the boy would scamper out his bedroom and down the hall, dragging the Witch of the Waste, who had become the resident grandmother of their family, up from her slumber and down to breakfast with him.
From there, they'd have a relatively peaceful morning. Eating breakfast was almost always quite relaxing. Calcifer had calmed down from earlier, and the group sitting and eating at the table chatted amongst each other about whatever topped their heads. Heen sat on the floor under the table next to Markl's chair, wheezing and wagging his tail, hoping for the boy to slip him something good. Markl often did, and though he tried to be sneaky, everyone saw him doing it.
After breakfast was when everything went downhill. Grandma Witch would plop herself in a creaky rocking chair in the corner and rock herself back and forth, humming ancient songs rather loudly. She would sneak in a puff or two of smoke if she felt certain no one was watching, which caused Heen to begin coughing and wheezing rather dramatically. Howl and Sophie would start to have a civil conversation with one another which quickly turned into a heated debated. They rarely failed to have an argument in the morning in which one was trying to outdo the other. Everyone had come to the conclusion that their arguments were more like a game than actual fighting, and both actually enjoyed trying to best each other.
That particular morning was no different. Sophie finally took a seat at the table when Howl failed to come downstairs. Markl, who had been sitting at the table quietly, raised his eyes from the paper he was studying and scrawling notes on for a moment to look at the young woman. He dropped his pencil when Howl dashed down the stairs, halting directly in front of Sophie with a book in his hands. He waved it about in her face before flipping it open, flying through countless pages.
"Here it is!" Howl stated, holding the book just inches from her face. Sophie snatched it from his hands and examined the picture on the page before her. She tilted her head to one side, attempting to make sense of the blurry image.
"It's just a patch of fuzz! Who painted this! This is trickery, Howl Jenkins! I can't even read a word on this page!" Sophie shoved the book back at him, shaking her head. "That won't work! I won't budge this time because of some blurry painting!"
"It's not—" Howl stared at the foreign book, scanning over the words which only he could read. He sighed. He tapped his index finger on one of the words. "Right there! Lockness!"
"Looks like scribbles to me," Sophie replied. "You lose. You are now my personal servant for today."
"Blast you, woman! The only trickery here is yours!" Howl slammed the book shut, then smashed it down on the table. He did not notice that he had covered Markl's paper with the book in his rage, and before he knew what exactly he had done, the book burst into flames. Markl jumped back in his seat.
"My spell!"
"My book! Markl, what are you doing?" Howl quickly extinguished the flames, seizing what was left of his book. The paper below it was untouched. He examined Markl's notes, then raised an eyebrow at the boy. "This isn't the spell I told you to work on… Fire has nothing to do with floating spells."
"I'm trying to learn how to do a floating spell, but you started it on fire!" Markl blew ash from the paper he was working on, then pulled it off the table and shook it out. "And now my notes are all smudged!"
"They were wrong anyway," Howl grabbed the paper, crumpled it up, and then tossed it to Calcifer, who happily caught it in his mouth and gulped it down. The wizard plopped down in a chair next to his apprentice, fishing a fresh piece of paper from out of Markl's messy study pile. "Must I teach you how to do everything?"
"Yes," Markl replied, a small smile tugging on the corners of his lips.
"Fine," Howl said, hastily scrawling down various information on the sheet of paper. When he was finished, he offered the page to Markl and then went on to explain how things were done properly.
"Oh, personal servant!" Sophie sang as a knock on the door sounded. The young woman bobbed her head in the door's direction, indicating that Howl should answer it instead of her.
"I'll see you thrown out of the castle!" Howl snapped at her, grabbing the sides of the chair to pin himself to it. It was almost as though he were expecting Sophie to grab and throw him off the chair, an event which was highly unlikely. Underneath his gloomy gaze, his eyes twinkled teasingly and a smile slowly became evident. "I will serve no one!"
"I said that for years. People still cook bacon on my head," Calcifer peeked out from under the logs, rolling his tongue at them. "Kingsbury door!"
"I'll get it," Markl grumbled when he realized that neither Howl nor Sophie were going to budge to answer the then furious knocking.
He spun the color wheel and then threw the door open, finding a group of well-decorated guards standing in the doorway. The leader of the group pulled his hand back, having been prepared to rap on the door even louder. The group of guards stood tall and stiff, then, extremely formal. Heen began to cough and wheeze at them, running to the door to stand between Markl and the men. Even though he appeared and sounded distraught, his tail flapped in the air behind him. Howl and Sophie both leaned to the side to gaze around Markl at the guards. Grandma Witch snored loudly in the background.
"Is Sir Pendragon at home?" questioned the lead guard rather stiffly.
Markl gazed over his shoulder at his master, a rather unpleasant look on his face.
"I don't know," he grumbled. He directed his next question toward Howl, who was superbly hidden around a corner by that time, chuckling rather sheepishly to himself. "Is he?"
"I sometimes wonder that myself," Calcifer piped up, just loud enough for the occupants of the room to hear. "I don't think he's ever really all here…" The guards watched as a mysterious pan flew from the shadows and smashed into the flickering fire before clattering to the floor.
"I…" Markl tightly gripped the door, his cheeks turning slightly red. "I don't believe he's in right now. May I take a message?"
"Sir Pendragon's presence has been requested at the palace. It is rather urgent," informed the lead guard. "Please see to it that this message is delivered."
The guard handed a letter to Markl before turning on his heels. All of the other guards mirrored him perfectly, and together, they marched off down the street. Markl shut the door and flung the letter to the table, returning to his seat. Howl also returned to the table, plopping down and grabbing the letter so that he could read it. Heen huffed and fell to the floor, the momentary excitement having worn him down considerably.
"What does the letter say?" Sophie asked, noting a distant look of worry in Howl's eyes. Calcifer and Markl also noted his sudden soberness, leaning toward the wizard while waiting impatiently to hear what he had to say.
"Nothing very informative," Howl began, tossing the letter across the table so Sophie could read it herself if she so desired. "It simply states that Madam Suliman wishes to see me in regards to Prince Justin."
"Turnip-Head?" Sophie tilted her head to one side. She then chuckled, covering her face with one hand. "No, I suppose that's not a good title for a prince, now is it?"
"Are you going to go see her?" Calcifer questioned, rolling away from his logs briefly so that he could get a good, close look at Howl's expression. When he saw that his old companion was in deep thought, he retreated back to the logs.
"I don't see why not. I'm sure she's no threat to me, now. Besides, if this has something to do with the prince…" Howl laid an arm across the table, fiddling with the paper he had been using to teach Markl a new spell. "…I owe it to him to go, right?"
"What if he's… hurt?" Sophie asked, worry rising in her voice. Howl shook his head and flapped his hand at her.
"There would be more commotion around here if he was hurt. Besides, what good would I be if that were the case? I doubt it's anything of much importance, but I'll go ahead and go to the castle anyway." Howl slid out of his chair, wandering to the door. He paused with his hand on the doorknob, a smile gracing his lips. "Let's go, Markl!"
"Me? Why would you want me to go with you to the palace?" Howl's young apprentice questioned, turning in his chair. Howl wagged his finger at him, indicating him to come toward him.
"Because you're going to fly me there."