To say Calcifer was surprised to find an unconscious human girl in the middle of the wastes WHILE it was raining was an understatement, in fact, he nearly tipped the entire castle down the side of a mountain.
"Calcifer! What's wrong?!" Sophie cried, with her room being the closest to him it was no surprise to Calcifer that she decided to be the one to ask.
"There's someone out there" Calcifer said, "in the wastes. It's raining so I can't exactly go out there myself to see what's going on."
"A human?" Howl wondered, just making it down the stairs to see what was happening.
"Yeah, I think she's unconscious" Calcifer replied.
"Probably slipped" Markl shrugged. His magic had definitely improved since he just appeared sitting on the stairs out of nowhere.
"I'll get her" Howl volunteered, opening the door that lead to the wastes.
When Howl came back carrying the girl, Calcifer found himself curious to see what she looked like and turned up the lights a little.
"Whoa..." Calcifer gawked at the girl.
"Huh?" Markl blinked, being the only one to hear him.
"Huh?" Calcifer immediately replied, he found that this was the best way to end a conversation, and he used it quite frequently too, Markl saw where this was going and dropped his question instantly.
Howl placed the girl in a chair in front of Calcifer to warm her up and Calcifer used this chance to get a better look over her.
The girl had long bright red hair, which looked like it hadn't been brushed in weeks yet was still untangled. She wore yellow pants and an orange T-shirt, which had slightly slipped to the side due to how large it was. Strangely enough her feet were bare but failed to show any cuts or bruises that would come from climbing mountains.
For once, Calcifer understood what a beautiful human looked like. Back before Sophie was around Howl would come home bragging about some beautiful girl, it was usually a different girl every time too. Calcifer had also seen Howl bring multiple different girls home, but none seemed as attractive as the girl in front of him.
"Nice find, Calcifer" Howl joked, Sophie lightly tapped him on the arm, playfully scolding him.
"Agreed" Calcifer nodded before he could stop himself.
Sophie started giggling at Calcifer's outburst before announcing that she was going back to bed. Markl had disappeared as well.
"So..." Howl grinned at the fire demon.
"Don't. Even. Start." Calcifer was still upset about the fact that he had let something like that slip.
Howl grinned even wider, but didn't say anything else.
"...So...uh...how many of them are like that?" Calcifer gave into his curiosity.
Howl smirked at his friend's question, "it depends on what 'that' is."
Calcifer's outer layer of fire turned a little hot pink, "...uh..."
"Here's a tip, wait until she wakes up, sometimes they look beautiful while they're asleep, but hideous while they're awake" Howl advised, not even bothering to hide his grin.
"I'm sure you know all this from experience with Sophie" Calcifer deadpanned, "back when you thought she was old, her looks were one thing you could go without seeing."
"But then when she turned back to her real age while she was asleep she was quite beautiful herself" Howl finished for Calcifer, "yeah, it's a similar situation. Better hope she doesn't have a curse on her like Sophie did."
"She doesn't" Calcifer argued, "seriously, I wouldn't let another cursed human join the family, this place is full of problems already."
"Oh? You want her to join the family? Better ask her for permission before you bring that to me" Howl teased.
"Urgh, get out! I'll call you down when she wakes up" Calcifer snapped, flinging a small flame at Howl as the chuckling wizard made a dash for the stairs.
"You just want to have her to yourself so you can stare at her" Howl laughed, making Calcifer even more mad before leaving the room entirely.
"Grr, sometimes" Calcifer grumbled, going back to look at the girl, only to find two wide red eyes staring at him, "oh my god! Don't scare me like that!"
The girl giggled and reached out to touch him, "hey, are you a fire demon?"
The sound of her voice put him in a daze for a moment before he retreated away from her hand, "hey. hey, careful, you could burn yourself!"
"Spell of fire resistance" The girl replied.
"Wha?" Calcifer blinked.
"I'm a bit of a pyromaniac, a little while ago a wizard taught me this spell just in case I got carried away" The girl explained.
"A-a pyro-" Calcifer found himself going out from the shock. The girl became worried and quickly pulled two logs out of her bag before giving them to him, "where did you get these? They're really good wood."
"I make money from chopping down trees and selling the wood I don't want, see?" The girl showed Calcifer the inside of her bag, the only things that were in it was an axe, lots of wood, a single change of clothes and some food.
"Huh...what's your name?" Calcifer wondered.
"I'm Kakaku, it means 'angel of fire'" Kakaku replied, "what's yours?"
"I'm Calcifer" Calcifer greeted, "hey, wait, how long have you been awake?"
"I've been awake ever since your friend picked me up, I'm pretty sensitive when I'm asleep" Kakaku explained, giggling when the fire demon dulled down a little out of embarrassment, "I'm honored to hear that a fire demon find me attractive."
Said fire demon grabbed one of the logs he'd been given and hid underneath it, mortified.
The rest of the early morning was spent with Calcifer trying to cover up his embarrassment and Kakaku trying to coax the fire demon into coming out. Calcifer had completely forgotten his promise to Howl about waking him up when Kakaku gained consciousness.
Sophie woke up to the sound of laughing.
"What...?" Sophie rubbed her eyes and cracker her bedroom door open, unfortunately her plans on being sneaky didn't work out thanks to Calcifer's ability to control the moving castle; he knew she was there.
"Sophie! Sophie! Help me!" Calcifer cried.
"Why? What happened?" Sophie wondered.
"She won't leave me alone to be mortified!" Calcifer pouted.
"Huh?" Sophie looked at Kakaku, who was laughing.
"I heard him say I was attractive" Kakaku explained.
"Angel of fire my ass" Calcifer grumbled.
"Huh?" Sophie turned back to Kakaku.
"My name is Kakaku, it means 'angel of fire'" Kakaku grinned.
"Well, Kakaku, my names Sophie, it's good to see you conscious" Sophie bowed politely.
"Nice to meet you" Kakaku smiled before turning back to Calcifer and reaching into the fire pit.
"Wait! What are you doing?!" Sophie exclaimed.
"She knows a spell that lets her touch fire without burning" Calcifer explained, "now get this bloody pyromaniac away from me! I want to be embarrassed alone, thank you very much!"
Thanks to all the shouting, the rest of the household woke up.
"Great, just great" Calcifer groaned, "let the entire house in on my cause of death, why not?!"
"It's actually quite cute" Sophie giggled.
"Just what I thought" Kakaku agreed, Calcifer's outer flame went back to hot pink, causing the girls to giggle even more.
So, chapter 2...Yeah, all this was written a few days ago, I randomly watched the movie and the ideas just started to flow...I'm chomping through chapter six right now. I hope my boyfriend likes this...I got him into the movie not too long after I finished writing chapter three, just so I could bring up this story when it's published...I hope I don't get into trouble for that comment XD
Anyways, I'm gonna follow a system that I experimented with in another one of my stories, a certain number of reviews (stated in the AN after the chapter, like now) gets you the next chapter.
5 reviews = chapter 3.