Calcifer stumbled over his own feet climbing the steep stairs to the spare guest room, thoughts running over each other in his mind. I hope I can pull this off...When all is said and done Howl will be indentured to me, I swear it!

Howl stopped abruptly before a long tapestry depicting a royal court. He tapped a finger on it four times in the shape of a circle. It rolled up at once, allowing a skinny door with an ornate brass knob to shimmer and materialize. "You will hide in here while I prepare to leave. It is my quiet place, where I go when I am not preparing spells. First, see if you can twist this knob," he said encouragingly.

Calcifer let a hesitating hand reach the cold brass. His fingers clutched around it. Awkwardly, he twisted his whole arm and pushed inward, the door gliding smoothly inward.

"Nice try, but next time you only need to use your hand and wrist," Howl sighed, motioning him inside, flicking a hand and simultaneously lighting several candles within a simple room. They brightly exposed a tall open window with flowing white curtains that caressed the wooden floors. All the furnishings expected in a typical room were there: a dresser in one corner, a closet next to it, and a bed on the other side.

"I prefer you to stay in this room overnight. If you want more amenities, just tell me and I can fix it," Howl offered, walking over to the closet and opening the door. He rustled through the garish and gaudy clothing characteristic of his style and chose purple and black themed robes. "Let me help you get dressed. These slacks fit over your legs, this shirt over your torso, and this robe over both. Oh, let's not forget the underwear….You see, all this is quite simple, but considering your motor skills…."

Several minutes of clumsy fumbling later, Calcifer admired himself in a tall mirror, laughing loudly. "I actually look good!" The candle flames rose very high in response to his spike in emotion, nearly grazing the ceiling.

Howl nodded in reply, a sly smile teasing his lips. "Yes, I do look very handsome indeed."

Calcifer threw an inquiring glance at Howl, which was ignored.

The cold pale light started to fill the room with a feeble glow of its own, testament to the new sunrise.

"Sophie should be waking up soon. Just wait in here until I come and get you. Try laying down in that bed and catch some sleep," Howl suggested, moving towards the door and leaving.

Once the steps faded away, Calcifer began speaking to himself. "Alright Howl, I will try that sleep thing Sophie and Markl like to talk about, right after I explore a bit through your extra dressers…You must keep this room kinda secret for a reason. After all, you sealed it with magic."

Calcifer mischievously sifted through the menagerie of items in the dresser. Besides underwear, socks, and boxers, he saw random crystal pieces, papers, and books. One particular tall, well-used leather-bound book caught his attention.

He lifted it out, inspecting the front that was blank and unmarked. He tried to pry it apart, with no avail. It was also sealed with magic. Remembering the circle trick of the room's materializing door, Calcifer imitated the pattern of points.

It opened to his delight. "Ooh, this is too good to be true! Howl, I know you too well. You have to be more clever with your magic passwords!" Calcifer cackled, plopping himself on the down comforter with more ease and less clumsiness than earlier, fascinated by what he saw.

"I had no idea Howl can draw so well!" he exclaimed in awe, admiring the deft charcoal sweeps and keen attention to detail. Splotches of watercolor graced the pages. He viewed each one: gray Wastelands, wind-swept plains, candid city life... On the next page, Calcifer paused.

The assortment of lines could not fool him; this was clearly a portrait of Sophie. Without clothing. She was posing sideways leaning back, starlight hair delicately feathering her neckline, eyes seeming to stare playfully at Calcifer while a gentle blush graced her cheeks.

Calcifer blushed back, eyes wandering to her chest where Howl recorded the puckering of her nipples, as well as the gentle sloping of her back down to the subtle curves of her legs stretched before her.

I had no idea how beautiful Sophie was. If she really looks like this under her clothing I…

He started to feel his male reproductive organ harden. Calcifer dropped the book, frightened. The leather book landed with a thud, forcing several of the loose-leaf drawings to flutter helplessly to the floor.

Is something wrong with me? Should I tell Howl? He looked at the lump in his pants, afraid to touch. More disturbing to Calcifer was not his physical reaction to the personal drawing, but an emotional one. Do I feel happy? No, this is different from happiness. But almost like eating bread and cheese. Well still not quite, I liked eating only because I felt satisfied…. But this feeling is not satisfaction. I almost feel…hungry. I don't know what I could do to satisfy that type of hunger. What if I—

Footsteps interrupted his thoughts as he went flaccid. Howl is coming!

Calcifer moved like he never has before, possessing a new skill of ambling grace as he scrambled to stuff drawings back into the book. Suddenly a breeze kicked up the white curtains. Papers began to circle around in a frenzied dance: smacking, writhing, twisting, whirling and climaxing to a wail.

He focused his attention to the window and ran to it, legs slipping and flailing awkwardly along the way, hair in his eyes. His arms and hands shot out to seize most of the drawings in time. He smirked to himself; the Sophie portrait was safe in his grasp, and the wind retreated.

Calcifer's victory was short lived, however; as his grip loosened to reach and close the window, an impish draft of wind squeezed through the crack between the two window panes, clutching the Sophie portrait for its own as it fled the castle, delivering the portrait to the unknown.

Calcifer went pale. "Oh man oh man, Howl is going to kill me!" he whispered under his breath, watching Sophie's seductive portrait flutter away in the shrieking wail of wind. "Stupid wind demons, always up to no good. I swear I will get them back when I return to my form…" he swore under his breath.

As the footsteps grew louder and heavier, Calcifer buried the book and its portraits back into the drawer amongst boxer shorts, and then smoothed the curtains and bedsheets. A knock resounded from the wood door and Howl entered.

"I see you got little or no sleep," he said, looking around the room searching for a reason to catch Calicifer at a fault. Pleased at finding no obvious reason, he said, "Well it looks like you can hold your own…. But make sure you do get sleep. Humans need that, as you yourself will realize soon enough…. However, Sophie made breakfast. Of course she questioned where you were but I said I didn't know. You will probably have to elaborate on that. For now she is waiting for me to be there. And by 'me,' I mean you!"

Howl gave an odd, almost maniacal laugh as he led Calcifer by the arm to the kitchen. Before entering, Howl whispered closely in Calcifer's ear, "Remember: protect Sophie, don't sell magic, and don't do anything I wouldn't do. I wish you luck, my friend. I promise you that your reward will be great." Here Howl gave a playful wink as he vanishes through a back exit in a flourish of feathers, likely to fly away for who-knows-how-long.

Calcifer held a hand to his ear where the traces of heat from Howl's breath and stern warning remain. Something already went wrong! Howl, why couldn't you have covered for me? I just hope I can last in this disguise and be convincing.

After momentarily collecting his wits, Calcifer enters lightly into the kitchen, assuming the confident regality of Howl. "Why Sophie! This breakfast looks lovely!"

Hm, that was good. Real good. Maybe I can do this after all, thought Calcifer with amusement.

Sophie returns a smile. "Come, sit with Markl, Heen, the Witch and I. The bread is especially soft this morning, and the bacon and eggs are just how you like it."

Calcifer wasted no time sitting down; the breakfast aromas were invitation enough. He dove into that food, using both hands to scoop the eggs on the bread, fitting as much into his mouth as possible.

"Haha, look Markl! He is eating worse than you, today! At least you can eat with a knife and fork…. Or perhaps my cooking has just gotten better!" Sophie gave a musical laugh, joined by the cackle of the Witch, and huffs of pleasure from the asthmatic Heen, and raucous chuckles from Markl.

This isn't bad. Not bad at all. A flame demon can get used to this life.

"Though Howl, I do worry for Calcifer! It's not like him to just leave, and without warning," Sophie remarks, eyebrows knit in concern.

(…)

Heavy steps echoed and bounced off the dark library walls, moon casting long shadows across the marbled floor through tall windows. Howl recognized the countless library rows and its dusty volumes during his apprenticeship, reminders of the long summer nights studying basic principles of his trade.

Howl reached into his traveling coat and procured a small candle, lighting it with a flick of a finger. The small flame illuminated the gold titles of century-old texts as he quietly glided along the aisles for the book he sought.

Howl moved past the different magic sections, towards the forbidden area he was restrained from so many years ago. "Ah, yes….The book which I seek should be behind this door," Howl whispered, hand outstretched to clutch the doorknob, then he paused.

The air itself grew stale; not even dust wavered in the candle's glow.

"Howl! You dare enter my library!" a voice boomed from above, shattering the windows, casting the shards forcefully into the air and snuffing the flame. Each jagged shard of glass sat in midair, rotating slightly before accelerating to surround and trap Howl.

He smirked under his hood and turned to face the voice. "So glad you could join me, Madame Suliman. I should like to call upon your kindness and borrow a book."


A/N: Wow I apologize for not updating in a while. This year was a doozy! I hope there are still people out there interested in my story, haha! The plot should pick up quick from here; I don't plan to make this story longer than ten chapters, twenty at the max—I notice readers tend to taper off around thirty. But thanks for even visiting this page, I really do appreciate it and I feel more productive and not like I am "wasting time" (yeah thanks mom O 3o).

Until next update!