Chapter 2: New Land and Life


After breakfast, Sophie collected the dishes and silverware and places them in the sink to wash them. Howl helped Sophie with drying the clean dishes. He looks at Sophie as she pulls a strand of her star-light-colored hair behind her ear and he smiled warmly. "So", spoke Howl, "what are your plans for today?" Sophie thinks, "Well, I have to do the laundry. I mean, after all the dangers we've been through, it seems like we have no clean clothes at all!" The two of them laughed, along with Markl as he was wiping off the dinner table. "That would be wise to do", said Howl, humorously. "While you do that, I'll go out to see if the countries cleaned up the mess that the war made. I hope that "our" secret garden is not in ruins." Sophie gives out a little gasp in thought of that. Howl gently places his hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Don't worry. I'm sure that it is fine. If it is destroyed, I promise that I will make it beautiful again." He strokes Sophie's hair and shows her an encouraging smile. She smiles back at him. "Okay, Howl." Howl gives Sophie a warm hug and continues helping her with the dishes.

After they were finished, Howl grabbed his coat and walks to the stairs which leads to the door. He looks back at Sophie to say goodbye. Sophie holds his hand and says, "Do be careful, Howl. You never know if Suliman's henchman are still out there looking for you." Howl smiles, fearless. "I'll be alright, Sophie. They can never catch me. Besides, now that Suliman and the king have agreed to stop the war, I think things will quiet down with their search for me." He squeezes her hand slightly. "I'll return back home in the evening. Look after the others, okay?" Sophie smiles, non-worryingly. "Okay." The two loves kiss goodbye and Howl turns the door knob to the right for the black color to appear on the color wheel, opens the door and flies out to wander the lands while Sophie waves from behind, still in hope for his safe return.

"Now, Markl," Sophie says to the young boy. "What say you help Grandma Sophie with the laundry, eh?" Markl makes a confusing facial expression. "But, Sophie", he says with a small chuckle, "You're not old anymore." Sophie looks down at herself, notices that the skin on her hands are not wrinkled and veiny. "Oh, yes. You're right!" Sophie says with a laugh. She completely forgot that she is in her normal age again. She suddenly looks back on the memory of when the Witch of the Waste cast the spell on her that turned her into a ninety year-old woman. Although she could not tell anyone about her curse, she was infuriated by what the witch had done to her. But Sophie smiles, knowing that both hers and Howl's curse are broken. "Nothing can go wrong from now on", she thought. She walks upstairs to gather the dirty laundry and brings them outside of the castle in a big basket. Markl also brings out another basket full of clothes and places it next to Sophie's. A warm, summer wind blows upon their faces with the sun shining bright in the sky with no clouds surrounding it. The grass is as green as the leaves on the trees that are next to the lake. Flowers were blossomed in many beautiful colors and the bees are buzzing happily, enjoying the sweet smell of the nectar in the flowers. Sophie and Markl help each other wash the laundry in the lake with soap, put the clothes line up and tied it from one part of the castle to a tree nearby. As they started to clip the damp clothes on the clothes line with pins, Markl remembered something, "Too bad Turniphead is not here. He used to love doing the laundry." Sophie nods. "Yes, I know. I'm glad that his curse was broken too. Although...I never realized that I was his..."true love"." She blushes a tinge of red on her cheeks and smiles flatteringly. Markl chuckled as she said that. "Yeah, I thought that was amazing." Sophie looks at him. "You think so?" Markl nods at her. "Yes, I think so too", she says.

Suddenly, just as Markl held out a wet shirt for Sophie to hang, she reaches out for it without looking and he looks at the end of her wrist collars. Her left hand was invisible!! Markl gasped. "Sophie!!" Sophie jumps with a startle. "What?" she asked. He pointed at her invisible hand with his index finger shaking in fright. "Y-Y-Your hand is gone!!" Sophie looked confused. "What are you talking about?" She suddenly looked at her left hand and realized he was right! Her hand is gone!