A/N: Well, I finally got inspired and so here's the next chapter. I don't own anything that I didn't create! Oh, and my mistake a couple chapters ago I said that Drew was Janie's Uncle when in reality he is her Great Uncle. Enjoy :) Chapter six: In which what goes up must come down
"What did you call that movie again?" Charlotte asked. It was mid-morning at the castle. The sun was up, spilling light into the room showing how dirty it actually was. Everyone was up except for Morgan; he wasn't exactly a morning person.
"I called it a chick-flick. It's a term we use in Wales to categorize romantic comedies like the one we watched." "Welsh people." She said back shaking her head
"Hey!" I started in protest, but then something caught me eye, something that moved. I screamed as the furry creature darted across the room, and jumped onto the kitchen counter.
"Ah! A mouse!" Charlotte screamed and climbed up next to me. We clutched each other in fright as we heard several bangs ahead. Morgan walked down the stairs; his hair stuck up at odd places and he was wearing white boxer shorts with red polka dots and a grey T-shirt. Seeing us and seeing the mouse he started to laugh and doubled over. He scooped the mouse up and took it outside. We shot him ungrateful glares as he was still laughing.
"Okay, okay I'm done now. But you should really see yourselves! You're standing in a sink!" He said
"Hey! At least we didn't come down in our under garments!" I said rather defensively. He looked down at himself for the first time and booked it to his parent's room. I'd never seen a guy his age run that fast, or skip so many stairs.
"Goodness, we really should clean in here." Charlotte remarked
"After breakfast." I said getting a pan down. We decided on omelets and figured Morgan would come back at the smell of food, but he didn't. And so Charlotte and I trudged up to his parent's room to find him sound asleep. "This always happens!" Charlotte exclaimed
"Here, go over there." She half whispered pointing to the side of the bed. She went to the other side and dug her fingers into the mattress.
"On the count of three we flip, okay?" I nodded
"One... two... three!" We flipped his mattress over on top of him. This seemed to be an effective way to wake him
"You guys are the worst cousins ever."
"Oh, we know. Now get dressed! Breakfast is ready, and after we'll need your help cleaning the castle. It's absolutely filthy." Charlotte said. And with that we went back downstairs and ate. Moments later Morgan appeared, fully dressed and ate two omelets. After that we got to work, filling two bucket's of water; one with soap and the other without. We went around the entire castle organizing things and cleaning up, when we found a piece of paper float from the ceiling. It was folded ten times and when Morgan opened it, the paper was actually three. He passed one to me, and one to Charlotte. They read;
Morgan; hey kiddo, how's the old castle holding up? Sorry your mum and I had to leave you so suddenly. It wasn't planned, I promise. If your reading this note that means you've found Janie and know all about great uncle Drew, and that college, oh, and Aunt Crystin. Don't let Calcifer bully you any, if he refuses anything just threaten him with water. Now, the next step in solving this puzzle is to get the black portal that leads to Wales open. It's simple really, you must follow the directions to the spell on the back of this letter. I miss you and I'll add a photo to the book when I get the chance to take one. Here's mum. Morgan, my baby, I'm sorry we had to go, you must forgive us. At the moment you're sleeping and your father is whisper-yelling directions at Calcifer. It's quite a sight actually. Oh, I wish we could have taken you with us to Wales, but your father said... He's telling me I have to wrap it up soon. I love you dear, and I've put a spell on the fridge to keep it stocked. My regards to your cousins!
-Mum and Dad.
Charlotte; your mum and dad are fine, I swear. They're here in Wales with everybody and we've all put our heads together to solve this curse, minus Aunt Megan. There's a photo of them included, you should have seen your father trying to handle the camera. Try not to miss them too much, okay? We'll be back before you know it. Oh, and disregard the ink spill, I'm writing with a quill and Sophie just attacked me. I know your strong mind will help in this situation. Best regards.
-Uncle Howl and Aunt Sophie
Janie; and you thought life in Wales was boring! How does it feel to be away from all of those electronics? Although I'm told you're more of an artsy gal, or so says your mum. She says hullo, and that she misses and loves you tons. How was your journey to the castle? I tried to make it easy and painless, but your mum and Aunt Megan wouldn't let it rest about why I was in Wales. I hope you're not feeling too homesick, your Aunt Sophie (my wife) says to check out the field for inspiration on drawing, as she is quite the painter. Best regards to you all.
-Uncle Howl and Aunt Sophie
Charlotte immediately flipped over the paper and looked at a photo of her parents. Her dad's arms were around her mum and they were smiling. Underneath the photo was scrawled; we love you! With a heart drawn next to it. At the same time Morgan got the album out and flipped to the back chuckling at a photo
"Hey guys, come look at this." He said calling us over. The photo he was looking at had everyone in the backyard of a house next to a swing. In the back were the adults, including, Howl, Sophie, Michael, Martha, Lettie, Ben, Megan, and another man. In the front were Mari and Neil. All of the adults looked perfectly normal, smiling and all. Howl looked slightly mischievous and Sophie looked as if she were being tickled. Mari and Neil must have been arguing because he was tugging on her hair and she looked as if she was going to punch him in the gut. I pointed to the strange man
"Who's that?"
"Oh, that's Uncle Gareth. He doesn't look to happy does he? Well, he and Howl don't get on right." Morgan replied laughing at the sight. We all exchanged letters reading them so that we would know what was going on.
"So, we need to do this spell." I said turning to them after I'd read Morgan's letter
"No, we don't I do. You guys can help with the ingredients though." He said to us. We sulked for a few minutes while he got everything ready to go.
"Well? Come on! We've got to get to the market before it closes so we can get the ingredients for the spell!" He said impatiently with a scroll of paper. We got up and put on cloaks getting ready to go. Once we were in the market we searched for crushed garlic, aloe vera, liquefied coal, one black feather from a crow, and powdered sugar. In time we found it all, the most challenging was the crow as Morgan made one of us hold it while he plucked a feather off, guess who got to hold the crow? It was one of the most terrifying experiences I've ever had. We must have looked suspicious carrying around a potato sack full of our ingredients but we made it back without many stares. When we returned to the castle Morgan ordered us to get out a bowl and moisten it, he was very bossy when it came to his magic. As I got out the bowl I wondered if I had any magic in me but that thought vanished as he called me over. I walked the bowl over to Morgan at the workbench area and then sat on the couch to watch with Charlotte.
"I still don't understand why we can't help." Charlotte murmured under her breath. He didn't hear as he was reading the spell
"Well, I'm glad it wasn't too difficult to understand. I've been told that the spell for your contract with Howl was horrible to understand." He remarked to Calcifer
"Yeah well anything regarding a heart contract is usually pretty complicated." He said back as Morgan put the piece of paper down. He crushed the garlic and put it in the moistened bowl and then poured in a certain amount of aloe vera, and then poured in the liquefied coal, once that was done he said some things quietly under his breath just so that Charlotte and I wouldn't be able to hear. Then he put the powdered sugar in, after that he mixed it together using the non-feathery side of the feather. Once he was sure it was mixed together he said more words and made some strange symbols with his hands. After that he got a chair and went to the door smearing the paste like substance around the door frame with the feather. He turned the dial to green, walked into the field and said something before returning, and then he turned the dial to red and walked into Kingsbury again muttering something before returning. He turned the dial blue down and went out to Porthaven and said something before returning to the castle. At last he finally turned the dial black down and turned the knob...
A/N: I thought this chapter needed a cliffhanger. I hope it wasn't too terrible as I wrote it in the past few hours when inspiration FINALLY hit me. Everytime you rate and review I pick up my cat and kiss her, cats have feelings too right? So go rate and review for the emotional well being of my cat.
