Sophie lay stiffly on the cold stone ground. Not a sound could be heard except her own breathing, which echoed throughout the room. Slowly she opened heavy eyelids. She sat up suddenly and gasped, the sound reverberating throughout her. She was blind!
She sat, staring open eyed at absolutely nothing. Darkness overwhelmed her, she couldn't see a thing. She blinked several times, hoping beyond hope that wasn't the case. As she sat there in silence, reason seemed to come to her.
She wasn't blind, the room was just pitch black. That was it. She sighed in relief, and tried to get into a more comfortable position, shifting stiff joints and cramped muscles. Slowly she attempted to move her way around the room. The floor was flat, meaning this was no cave, it had been man-made.
Sticking her arms in front of her, she shuffled about. The sound of her feet on the stone caused a dull roar in her ears. She figured it was just because of how silent it was in here. But as she walked, the noise was getting definitely louder, rising from a murmur to almost a scream. She stopped moving, and the sound gradually decreased.
Somehow, the sound of her footsteps was amplified as it echoed throughout her surroundings. She dropped to her hands and knees, in order to muffle the sound.
She moved slowly, crawling across the floor as quietly as possible. She stuck a hand out, feeling for a wall, or maybe a chair. Anything. And she found it. She yelped as her hand made contact with something fairly sharp. Jerking her hand back the sound echoed around her. Amplifying in each echo until it was a deafening scream. Continuous and a growing louder, Sophie clamped her hands to her ears. Her head began to pound and she screamed in agony.
A/N: Dear lord! I haven't posted any more chapters? I really thought I was at least on chapter three! I've got my work cut out for me! Sorry to keep you all waiting, you've probably forgotten what happened in the first chapter by now! Well without further ado I should get to writing!
Disclaimer! I do not own Howl's Moving Castle, the characters, places, ANYTHING! All I do have, is this idea, so please do ask before using.
Chapter 2: Missing
Howl waited quietly for Aguentuhm to return. After pondering his predicament carefully she had announced that she needed to stretch her legs a bit and had left the room. Howl didn't blame her; they had been sitting in the comfortable living room for hours to no avail. He slumped in the large chair and sighed, pushing his hair out of his face with long elegant fingers. They shook slightly as they brushed his forehead. He hurriedly drew his hand away.
Aguentuhm's voice floated from the doorway, "How are you feeling?" Howl turned to reply, but stopped short. He had been expecting the large silver she-wolf to be standing in the doorway, but what he saw most certainly wasn't so. A tall dark woman leaned casually against the door frame with large toned muscles. Her tan skin reflected the light of the fire softly, making her nearly radiate with warmth. Long locks of silver hair flowed over her shoulders creating a perfect frame around her strong face. Steely grey eyes shone intelligently. Her arms crossed over her bare chest as she waited for a response.
"You reverted back into that form?" Howl said conversationally, turning his head back to look at the flames.
"Yes." She crossed over to him and took a seat on the couch. "It is more comfortable speaking to you like this than in my wolf form."
"I see." Howl continued staring at the fire. It was quiet for a moment.
"You didn't answer my question." She said accusingly.
Howl rolled his eyes but said nonetheless, "I'm fine… at the moment." He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze.
"I've given it thought. The only scenarios that seem to fit would be either a curse has been placed upon you or," she paused. "It is of natural occurrence. Neither would surprise me."
"Natural?" He turned to look at her. "How could something like this possibly be… natural?"
"Can you think of any other possible reason?" she said strictly. Howl simply looked away, considering the gravity of what she had just said.
"So a curse then?" he said, dismissing the other absolutely outrageous idea.
"Most probably. Have you had any bad run-ins with any other witches or wizards as of late? Besides the Witch of the Waste I mean."
Howl shook his head and shrugged. "Well it doesn't really matter." He stood up and straightened his jacket. "I don't care who put this curse on me, all I need to figure out is how to break it." He flashed a charming smile in her direction. "Thank you for all your help Aguentuhm."
"It's Agu – "she started, but was cut off by the wave of his hand.
"Really you should let me call you by your full name, it's so much prettier than Agu. But I should probably get going. Sophie's going to have my head if I'm late." Again he smiled dashingly then swept out the door. Aguentuhm stood alone in the room, the fireplace crackling.
"Be careful… Howl."
--
When Howl came home he found Markl in an absolute frenzy. The boy was prancing about and his mouth was running so quickly he seemed to stumble over his own words. Howl vaguely caught the words Sophie, potatoes, and Cesari's.
"Woah, woah, slow down!" Howl placed his hand on the frantic boy's head. As soon as the boy had calmed enough to breath regularly Howl started again, "Now, what is it?"
"Sophie's gone missing!" Markl blurted.
"What?!" Howl went suddenly rigid. Markl cringed at the sudden vehemence of Howl's reply.
"We went to get groceries and she sent me to get the potatoes but I sneaked off to Cesari's instead and when I came back she was – "
"You're sure? You're sure she's gone?"
"Yes, I checked the whole marketplace. I asked around, and no one said they had seen her." Markl replied. Shying away from the wizard, for fear that the man would be angry.
Howl collapsed in a chair in front of Calcifer. "It's one thing right after another. What am I supposed to do?" he muttered, almost to himself. "Calcifer, is there anyway you can get her location?" He said louder, staring intently at the fireplace.
"Maybe not her exact location, but I should be able to get some idea of where she may be… with a little bit of help of course. I can't really do it on my own."
"I see." Howl said, standing up. "Markl, get me the shovel will you?"
"Ah, yes master Howl!" the boy said, leaping up and running over to the closet.
"It's not in there." Howl called over his shoulder." Look in the yard." Howl ran over to the bench, and pushing things aside snatched a mirror, a bowl, a cork and a pin. Turning on the faucet at the sink he filled the bowl halfway with water, and gently set it on the floor. Shoving the pin into the cork so that the head poked outward he dropped it into the bowl of water. The cork and pin floated in the half empty bowl. Taking the mirror he laid it on the side of the bowl, so that it faced towards him and stood up on its own.
Markl scurried to the door to the yard and flung it open. He looked hopelessly at the piles of junk before him. Then, taking a deep breath he disappeared among the mounds of stuff. There was the sound of scuffling around, including some clangs and a couple strong booms, which was quickly followed by a muttered string of curses, quickly cut off. Finally Markl came back inside, wiping soot from his face holding a shovel with a wooden handle.
"Thank you, Markl." Howl said, taking the tool from the boy. "Get ready Calcifer."
"Ready." The fire flared in the hearth.
Wrapping a sleeve around the handle, Howl carefully proceeded towards the demon, keeping his hands steady. He slowly edged the end of the shovel under Calcifer and shifted it around, back and forth, until Calcifer sat atop it. Pulling it out, he spun cautiously around to face the rest of the room.
"Stand back Markl." Howl muttered. The boy quickly obliged.
A string of incomprehensible words flowed from the wizard's mouth. It almost sounded like the man may have been singing, as the words wound about the room encompassing everyone in it in its melody. Calcifer began changing colors, passing from hues of reds and yellows to deep blues and purples, pulsing with the beat of the complex spell.
A strange whirring noise arose along with Howl's voice. Markl gasped as he realized the whirring was coming from the bowl of water. The cork within it was spinning faster and faster. The louder Howl's voice got the faster it spun. Louder and louder, faster and faster. The two went hand in hand until suddenly, it stopped.
Howl hurriedly set Calcifer down and peered into the bowl at the cork. It pointed towards the west without wavering, as if nothing had ever happened. Howl then whipped his head to the side to look at the mirror. It was pitch black. The shiny surface reflected nothing, and instead showed only darkness. Howl's forehead creased and he frowned.
Markl tottered next to Howl before gaining to courage to ask, "Master Howl? What just happened?" The wizard sighed and rocked back onto his heels.
"It's a location spell Markl." He responded dryly. "The pin in the cork points to the direction Sophie's in."
"And the mirror?" the boy asked.
"Is supposed to give us an image of where we're looking."
Markl looked confused. "But it's black."
"No, not black…" Howl said examining the mirror. "Dark. There's no light."
"Well that doesn't make any sense. It's broad daylight."
"Precisely. Which means we can rule out her just wandering off. She's obviously in somewhere. And something tells me she wouldn't be there by choice."
"Wait. So she was kidnapped?" Markl looked back up at the wizard perplexed. "But who would?..." his voice faded into silence.
Howl's face was dark as he mulled over the idea. The more he thought about it the more it made sense. But the more it made sense, the more Howl didn't like it. The Witch of the Waste was no longer a threat, so who else would possibly want to hurt Sophie?
"Calcifer," Howl said softly, his voice cracking. "Start heading west; scout around. If you see anything suspicious call for me. I shall be in my room thinking things over." The wizard then proceeded to disappear upstairs, leaving a disgruntled fire demon and an equally worried boy behind.
--
A/N: I really must thank you all for your lovely comments and for sticking with me. I promise I will try my hardest to keep up with it. Obviously there's a lot to come. Oh, and a side note. I have both seen the movie and read the book. In the book Markl is actually Michael and is around 15 years old. I must admit I like Michael better, but when I first wrote this I had only seen the movie. Just warning you I may incorporate a bit of the book into this. Such as Cesari's, where Sophie's sister Lettie works at. It's a cake shop, but I don't think they ever actually told you the name in the movie. So that's just a treat for you, and I HIGHLY suggest you read the book. It really is wonderful.