GW: Hooray, another chapter is here! This is where Renee and her animal friends meet some of the residents of the castle. Enjoy the chapter!
Meeting the Residents
Inside the castle, Renee and her friends finally made it up the stairs and peered over them to scout out the area.
"All's clear," Kat said, flitting about. "All I see is a comfy chair in front of a roaring fire."
"Finally, a place to rest," Renee said tiredly as she moved up the rest of the stairs and towards the chair where she plunked herself down in it. Yakumo and Deni rested besides her, Willow sat on Renee's lap, And Kat rested on the handle of the chair.
"The fire's a bit low," Yakumo noted as the oddly green fire was dimly lit. Getting up a bit painfully, Renee threw some logs onto the fire, making it burn brighter before sitting down again.
"Does anyone notice this fire is green?" Deni deadpanned, but shrugged as she lay down again.
"This place is such a dump, even for a wizard," Willow yawned as she climbed back up on Renee's lap. Looking around, Renee could spot dirty dishes and silverware, books laying everywhere, and what not. "I wouldn't think of this place as a castle," Renee sighed as she started to close her eyes drowsily. "Well, another good thing about being old is that nothing frightens you," Renee chuckled softly.
A moment she said that, the fire suddenly took the form of a duck with his eyes staring at the newcomers, he was wearing a black jacket over a white shirt, a red bowtie, and a collar. But his outfit, like his black hair, was fire as he stared at the group.
"I don't envy you, lady," the fire duck said, startling the girls. "That is one nasty curse. You're going to have trouble getting rid of that one."
"The fire…is talking?" Renee gasped in disbelief. "And it's a duck?" Willow, Yakumo, and Deni said, licking their chops at how good that duck looked right now.
"The Master speaks truly," a deep and slow voice added in agreement as another voice said, "Oh, poor dears. And they can't tell anyone about it."
Renee turned to see a hunch-backed vulture wearing a butler uniform and a large hen with her arm in a sling came towards the duck fire.
"Well, they can understand us," Kat said, lightening this peculiar situation.
"Are you Raimundo?" Renee asked the fire duck. "Certainly not!" the vulture snapped indignantly as the duck fire stated, "I am Count Duckula, a fearsome vampire…or I was until a scheme of my friend Igor's to get me to be more vampire-like malfunctioned and I now work for Rai as a fire demon."
"And I'm his nanny, Nanny," the hen, Nanny, greeted. "And this is Igor himself." "Charmed," the vulture bowed.
"A fire demon?" Renee smiled hopefully. "Perhaps you can lift this curse on us."
"Maybe, maybe not. If you can find a way to break the spell on me, then I will be able to break the spell that's on you," Duckula reasoned.
"If you're a vampire-turned-demon, how do we know we can trust you?" Willow said slyly. "You can't," Igor smirked with Nanny sighing, "Igor, you're not helping with the situation."
"Will you promise to help us if we help you?" Renee asked Duckula.
"Well, I don't know, vampires or demons don't make promises," Duckula shrugged.
"Go find someone else, Ducky," Kat snickered. "Come on!" Duckula said as his arms flared up. "Feel sorry for me! This spell keeps me stuck in this castle and Rai treats me like a slave!"
"That half-bit wizard treats the master like a dog," Igor said angrily. "He even treats me and Nanny like his servants as well. That punk!"
"Yeah, and he makes me do everything! I have to keep the water hot, the room warm, the castle moving…!"
"How unfortunate for you," Yakumo said softly as she and her friends were becoming sleepy.
"Have you ever tried moving a castle, it's hard!" Duckula whined before saying to the group, "If you can get me and my friends out of this rut, I'll return you back to your original forms. Deal?"
"Fine, it's a deal," Renee said as she soon fell asleep along with her friends.
"Hey, hello? Lady?" Duckula called to her from his pyre. "It's no use, master; she and her comrades are asleep," Igor yawned. "And now, Nanny and I will retire as well." With that Igor and Nanny fell asleep next to the fire-duck.
"Some help these guys will be," Duckula grumbled in annoyance as the castle continued moving.
Morning arrived as a celebration was going on outside of a town. It appeared battleships were going off to sea as people cheered. Later, two people, the Fuhrer of the town Roy Mustang and his second in-command Riza Hawkeye walked through the town to a plain house with the words 'The Great Wizard Mung Daal' on the front. When they reached the door, Roy began knocking on the door.
Renee and her friends were still asleep when the repeated knocking woke them up. "Someone's at the door," Deni mumbled groggily, but stopped when three footsteps were heard marching down the steps. In panic, Renee and her friends closed their eyes again and pretended to be asleep.
The footsteps belonged to three children who were rushing to the door. One was a boy with black hair, and wearing a red and black striped shirt, black jeans, sneakers, and holding a blue blanket.
The second was another boy with light brown hair under a ski cap, violet eyes, and wearing a white shirt under a dark blue or black jacket, black shorts, knee-high grey socks, and brown shoes.
The third was a girl with shoulder-length brown hair, violet eyes, and wearing a dark pink blouse under a purple overall dress, white knee-high socks, black shoes, and a pink headband in her hair.
As they tried making it to the front door, they stopped and looked curiously at the old woman sitting in the chair 'sleeping' with animals at her feet.
"Who's this?" the first boy asked puzzled. "It's the Amestris door, you guys," Duckula said in a bored tone as Nanny and Igor started to wake up as well.
"How'd she get in here?" the girl asked curiously.
"No time for that; quickly, hop on, Linus," the second boy ordered as he kneeled down and the girl got on top. The first boy, Linus, nodded as he climbed on top of the girl and, after getting situated, pulled the blanket over him, which immediately gave him a beard and turned into a long blue coat that hid the two kids.
"Coming," Linus said in a deeper voice as he walked towards the door. Before opening the door, he muttered, "Stand by," and twisted a knob that had four colors to blue, which in turn changed a little circle to the color blue and he opened the door to reveal Roy and Riza.
"Good day, Fuhrer," Linus said in his disguised form. "Good day," Roy said as he pulled out a piece of paper and said, "Is the great wizard Mung Daal at home?"
"I'm afraid my master is not here at the moment," Linus said as Renee and the animals watched. "I speak for him in his absence."
"An invitation from His Majesty," Roy said as he handed the letter to Linus. "The time for war is here. He requires that all witches and wizards aid our homeland. Mung Daal must report to the palace immediately."
"Fat chance," Kat muttered quietly as Renee got up and added more wood to Duckula as Nanny and Igor watched from the shadows.
"Thank you," Linus said as Roy closed the door and Linus, still on top of the two other kids walked in.
"I can't believe its come to war," Renee sighed dismally. "And what are you doing here, grandma and her filthy pets?" Linus asked sternly.
"Filthy?!" Deni snarled indignantly, but was shocked along with Linus and the kids that she could talk. "What the-?"
"Young Linus, Riko, and Yori are apprentices, but they can understand animal-tongue," Igor explained as the girl, Riko, sighed, "Looks like the animals might be enchanted."
"Well, anyway, what are you all doing here?" the other boy, Yori, asked again.
"Ducky said we could stay here," Katrina giggled. "I did not!" Duckula argued. "They just waltz in here like they own the place from the Wastes."
"The Waste?" Linus said as he took off the blanket and Yori and Riko got up. "How do we know she's not a witch?"
"Yeah, I mean, she looks like one, and she has talking animals," Riko nodded in agreement.
"Do you honestly think we'd let a witch inside?" Nanny scolded as Renee chuckled a bit just as a bell rang from the outside.
"Amestris door again," Duckula sighed. He was technically the doorman for Rai and he didn't like the job very much.
Riko and Yori sighed as Riko got on top of her brother with Linus climbing on top of her and putting his blanket disguise on again, mumbling, "Must be a customer."
Opening the door without changing the color, Linus opened it to reveal Nina Tucker standing outside. "Ah, hello, my child," Linus greeted in his old man voice.
"My mommy sent me here to get a spell," Nina explained. "Ah, yes; come in," Linus said as he led Nina in. Yori then whispered furiously to Renee and her friends, "Don't cause any trouble, granny and mongrels."
"Hey, I'm a bird," Kat snapped, but to Nina it was chirping. Renee walked over to the window followed by her friends and was amazed to see she wasn't in the Waste anymore, but the bustling city of Amestris.
"It's not the Wastes?" Willow said softly, coming out like a mew to Nina. As Linus looked for a spell, Nina asked Renee, "Are you a witch too, granny?"
Renee smiled at the girl and replied, "That's right; I'm the scariest witch of them all!"
Nina laughed as Linus hustled to the girl and gave her the spell, saying, "Dust this powder and the winds will favor it."
"Thank you," Nina said politely as she gave Linus some coins and left.
As soon as Nina left, Riko and Yori got up as Riko sighed, "I don't know how long we can hold this disguise up everyday, bro."
"At least you don't have to be at the bottom," Yori shot back as Linus told Renee, "Stop telling the customers lies."
"What about you?" Yakumo questioned the three apprentices. "You're wearing a disguise."
"We have to; we're practicing our magic," Linus explained as soon as the bell rang again.
"Back to work," Yori grumbled as he and Riko got into position again and Linus was in his old man disguise.
"It's the Radiant Garden door," Duckula groaned as Igor sighed, "This is ridiculous for the master to do this everytime someone knocks."
Linus went to the door with Riko saying, "Stand by," as he switched the color of the knob to red and opened it to reveal Leon.
"Hey, is this the residence of the Great Wizard Merlin?" Leon asked.
Renee was shocked at the new arrival as Linus replied, "It is."
Leon continued, "I have an invitation from the king that says all witches and wizards must report to duty at the palace."
"I'll inform him right away," Linus said as Leon took off. "Incredible," Willow breathed in as her friends gasped. They were no longer in Amestris, but Radiant Garden!
"The royal city…" Renee realized as Yori, with the three now in their regular forms, snapped, "Move it, you lot, or you'll lose your noses!"
Renee and her animal friends obliged as they went back inside the house and shut the door.
Renee still stayed at the front door as Riko ordered them, "Stop wandering around." "Don't tell us what to do, brat," Deni snapped back.
Still curious as to how the castle can travel from one place to the other by turning the knob, Renee decided to test it out for herself.
She switched the color to green and, opening the door, realized they were back in the Wastes again.
She shut the door again and switched the color to blue and opened the door to reveal the house being in Amestris again.
Closing the door, she was about to turn the knob again when Linus, Riko, and Yori came up to her and Linus saying sternly, "Knock it off, granny. We're getting angry."
"This is a magic house, isn't it?" Renee smiled as Yori groaned in frustration, "Took you that long to figure that out."
"Where does the black one lead?" Yakumo asked.
"Only Master Raimundo knows that," Linus said as he and his two fellow peers went to a cabinet and opened it up and grabbed some bread.
"I'm starved," Riko whined as Linus split the bread into three equal shares and gave it to the twins. Yori then grabbed a plate of cheese and the children went and sat down at a semi-messy table. Renee hustled to the food-covered table and pulled out a tray that had fresh and unused meat on it. Next to it was a basket of eggs.
"Why don't you have bacon and eggs instead?" Renee asked. "Yeah, they build strong muscles!" Kat added as she looked at the meat and eggs hungrily.
"Heck yeah, but we can't use the fire. Master Raimundo isn't here," Riko said as if it were obvious. Renee didn't take the answer as she, with bacon and eggs in one hand, went over to the pots and pans and pulled out a frying pan, saying, "Don't worry, I can cook."
"It doesn't matter if you can cook; Duckula only obeys Master Raimundo," Linus argued.
"I hate to say it, but young Linus is correct," Igor nodded. "Yep, not even Harima can use Ducky-Boss," Nanny added.
"I will not take any orders from you," Duckula snapped as he flared up a bit and stuck his tongue out at her. "You're looking good to eat, duck," Willow said, licking her lips in hunger.
"There's my hat," Renee said as she picked her hat up and placed it on the chair. "Now then, Duckula; let's cook."
"Do I look like Julia Childs to you!? I don't cook!" Duckula said in exasperation. "I'm a scary and powerful vampire-turned-fire demon!" To prove his pint, he stuck his flame tongue out at Renee.
"Master, you're acting like a child," Igor sighed.
"How would you like a bucket of cold water in your face?" Renee smirked before she added to the fire duck demon silently, "Or would you rather have me tell Rai of our little bargain?"
"Oh, why you…I should've never let her in here!" Duckula yelled before Renee put the pan over his face. "Good fire ducky," Katrina giggled as Renee started to put some slabs of bacon on the pan.
"Now that you mention it, I could use some good bacon and eggs right now," Igor said, licking his chops as Nanny nodded.
"Here's another curse: may all your bacon burn," Duckula said darkly as Linus and his two peers looked on in amazement. "Duckula is actually doing as she says…" Linus said in awe.
"I think some tea would be nice," Yakumo said before asking the three apprentices, "Do you have a kettle here?"
"Sure," Riko shrugged as she got up and ran to the sink to get a kettle.
"For Pete's sakes, don't get the kettle! Whose side are you on!" Duckula griped.
At that moment, the color turned to black and the door opened as Harima and the boy who rescued Renee from the soldiers walked in.
"Master Raimundo," Linus said, getting up and being followed by Yori as the boy with the blanket explained to the Brazilian teen, who was now identified as the wizard Raimundo, "The king's messengers came today. They say you have to report to the palace, as both Mung Daal and Merlin."
"More problems for you, Rai buddy," Harima sighed to his friend. Renee and her pals, recognizing the two boys, gasped a bit before Renee continued cooking. Even Igor and Nanny went silent as they watched what would happen next. Rai and Harima approached the stove as Rai looked at Duckula with a bemused stare, remarking, "Duckula? You're being pretty obedient for a hot-headed duck."
"Not on purpose! She and her stupid animal friends bullied me!" Duckula, whose color turned from green to a reddish color, fumed as he continued cooking the bacon.
"Not just anyone can do that," Harima mused quietly as Rai looked at Renee and her animal friends, asking, "And you are…who?"
"Uh…" Renee faltered a bit before replying with a smile, "I'm your new cleaning lady, you can just call me Grandma Renee."
"And we're her little helper animals!" Kat chirped before she stopped herself and realized Rai and Harima could understand her. "She rescued us from a science lab," Willow quickly covered so Rai and Harima wouldn't get that suspicious. "We're enhanced creatures with the ability to speak."
"They can understand us?" Deni hissed to Igor with Rai and Harima not hearing her. "Well, he is a powerful wizard and Harima is a wizard, too," Igor shrugged.
Rai, accepting the answer Willow gave them, nudged Renee to the side as he took the spatula from her and asked her, "Hand me eleven more slices of bacon and about a dozen of eggs."
Renee obliged as she handed him the bacon and eggs. Rai put them on the pan, which was large enough to hold all that food and started to crack the eggs, giving the shells to Duckula, who ate them willingly.
"So, who hired you to clean?" Rai asked. Renee answered, "Duckula did. He's disgusted by how dirty it is in here."
"It's true, I don't have all the time to clean this pig-sty up," Nanny added.
"Riko, Yori, and Linus, get some plates," Harima ordered the kids, who grabbed enough plates for Renee, Rai, Harima, Igor, Nanny, the animals, and themselves and they set it up on the dining room table.
"Wait, you're all going to eat while I did all the WORK!!" Duckula exclaimed as Igor and Nanny made their way to the table following Rai and Harima.
"Come and have some breakfast, Renee," Riko invited as she and her friends went over to the table While Renee sat down, Kat hopped onto the table where her own plate was set up and Willow, Yakumo, and Deni ate on the floor where their breakfast was.
With their food being served, and Renee having some tea Riko cooked up while the animals had water, Renee looked for her silverware Just then, Linus held up five clean spoons and a semi-dirty fork.
"Choose one; Nanny and Igor eat with their hands so it's just the humans eating. The rest are dirty," Linus smiled as Renee choose a clean spoon. Rai and Harima choose spoons while Linus and Yori got the rest of the spoons and Riko got the fork.
"I always get the dirty one!" she whined as the group began to eat.
"Looks like we've got a lot to do, Renee," Kat smirked as she began pecking at her bacon.
Rai sliced some bread up, giving some to Harima and offering to the three kids, "Bread, you three?"
"Thank you," Linus said as he took a slice with Riko and Yori shaking their heads.
Rai then gave a slice to Renee, with the woman saying, "Thank you," and taking off a few pieces to give to her friends.
"So, friends; enjoy," Harima said as he ate some eggs. "Alright! I can't remember the last time I had a good meal," Yori smiled as he, Riko, and Linus dug into their bacon while Renee ate more slowly while Igor, Nanny, Deni, Willow, Kat, and Yakumo munched away.
"Even manners are a mess in this house," Renee noted as she watched Linus munch loudly on his breakfast. "I know what you mean," Nanny huffed as she ate some bacon politely.
Without warning, Rai said, "So, what do you have hidden in your pocket, Renee?"
Renee paused, as did the animals, as the woman checked the pocket of her pants…and pulled out a red envelope.
"That wasn't there before," Willow noticed. "Or was it?"
"May I see it?" Rai asked as he held out his hand to grab it. Renee tried giving it to him, only for the envelope to burn up with Renee dropping it in surprise as the letter burned to reveal a message now burned into the table.
"Scorch marks!" Linus gasped as Yori asked his teacher, "Can you read them?"
Rai smirked as he said, "Well, this is ancient sorcery and powerful one at that."
"Is it from Wuya?" Riko asked as Rai read the scorched message on the table, "You who swallowed a falling star, O heartless brat. You're heart shall soon belong to me…well, this can't be good for the table, huh, Igor?"
"Indeed, sir," Igor nodded. 'Oh, dear; that witch will not leave you alone," Nanny sighed.
Raimundo placed his palm on the scorch marks and started to rub it away, even if it did burn his hand a bit.
"Wow, the mark is gone," Harima nodded. "The mark may be gone, but the curse is still there," Rai said mysteriously. "Harima, I need to talk to you, dude. Sorry, friends; please continue your meal." Rai took his plate to Duckula and fed the fire duck-demon the rest of his food. "Duck-dude, move the castle 60 miles to the west."
As Rai headed upstairs, Harima took his plate and said, "Sorry for leaving." He followed Rai upstairs with food in hand as the rest stared dumbfounded.
"Well, that was…peculiar to say the least," Yakumo said softly as Rai called from upstairs to Duckula, "And while you're at it, make hot water for my bath."
"Like moving the castle isn't hard enough," Duckula griped.
"You're not working for Wuya, are you?" Linus asked Renee suspiciously.
Renee looked outraged as she fumed, "I would never work for that witch! She's the one who-!"
Renee's mouth clamped shut as she tried to say 'the one who cursed me and my friends,' but thanks to the spell, Renee couldn't say a word about it.
"You mean we can't tell anyone about how she-" Willow's mouth also wouldn't say anything either, proving not even the others could say anything about the spell.
Renee became angry as she pounded the table hard and shouted, "When I get my hands on that witch, I'm going to wring her stupid neck!!"
Settling back down, she noticed the shocked looks on Linus, Riko and Yori's faces and said to them, "Eat your food!" before she started to tear into her bacon.
"Is she psycho?" Yori whispered to the animals with Kat replying, "Meh, never acted that way before."
GW: Well, we've met the residents of the castle, including my two new OCs, Riko and Yori Maebara!
Riko: Be sure to tune in next time and remember to read, review, and suggest.
Yori: Also, vote in the newest poll please.