Chapter 10

A few hours had gone by-I was still flying the plane, following the red beam of light which was supposed to lead to Howl's castle. At first, I thought I was just getting myself more lost and Howl had made some stupid vendetta against me or something and had given me the ring just so I could get more lost-but pretty soon, I noticed lights and heard a familiar train that usually passed by the old hat shop I worked at in Market Chipping and soon I was passing over the town and making my way to the Wastes.

When Howl had first flown off, I had been flying steadily for a few minutes when I heard a small cough behind me-somehow Sulliman's dog had followed us onto the plane and was sitting on the back chair of the plane, staring at me. I was this close to tossing him, but I loved animals and I especially loved dogs…I just couldn't find it in my heart to do it.

"Get off," I told him, hoping somehow he would obey me, but he stayed on the plane and was still there as I passed over Market Chipping.

"That's Market Chipping," I said to no one in particular (maybe the dog?). "We're almost home,"

Sulliman's dog coughed in response causing me to glance back at him and glare slightly. "Don't try to act cute, mutt, I'm still not going to trust you-you are that evil hag's dog,"

The dog coughed in response and I rolled my eyes and continued to fly. Pretty soon, I heard familiar gears and loud machinery close by and I saw Howl's castle in the distance. I guess Howl really did know what he was doing? And to my relief, Markl was at a balcony on the castle and was waving his arm.

"Sophie, here!" He yelled.

That's when it hit me-I had no idea how to land the thing-rather than crash into the castle, I decided to try flying around the castle in circles until I figured out how to land.

"Uh, Markl?" I called, flying around and around.

"What?"

"Don't suppose you know how to land this thing, do you?"

"…uh…"

I looked around, looking for a lever, a button, something!

"Wait, I know! There should be a lever next to the wheel-pull it!"

I found the lever and pulled it-the engine sputtered and I thought I found the brakes-but then it sputtered some more and the plane began going faster and faster.

"Markl, I don't think that did it!" I screamed as I flew past him. I tried to steer the plane but the steering began losing control of itself or something and next thing I knew I was crashing into the main room in the castle.

"Sophie!" I was stuck in some rubble and Markl was looking for me-I followed Heen as he made his way through the crushed rubble and into the actual castle-moving aside some of the rubble, I broke through and saw Markl in on the floor scanning the rubble, clearly looking for me.

"Markl," I said to get his attention. "I'm home!"

"Are you hurt?" he asked me as I slipped on some of the rubble and landed next to him.

"I've been better," I said, rubbing some of the crumbled rock out of my hair. "Thanks for coming to meet us,"

"Us?"

On cue, Heen came up to me and crawled into my lap.

"Uh, say hi to our new pet, Markl," I said.

. . .

"It hurts…let go,"

"Shut up,"

"You're hurting me!"

"I said shut up!"

"Get off me!"

"Soph…you're so beautiful when you're scared,"

"OW! STOOOOP,"

"Your stupid parents…I told them they would just ruin you but they wouldn't listen. But its okay now, isn't it? You'll grow to love me just like the others did,"

"STOP IT, LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Soph…am I going to have to give you the belt again?"

"GET OFF ME!" I screamed and thrashed. The world that existed in my past and nightmares was gone; I was back in Howl's living room on the couch that was now in front of the fireplace; only Howl was standing over me with a shocked look on his face.

"I was just making sure you were okay," Howl whispered.

I shook my head, realizing it was one of those memory-dreams again. "I'm fine," I said. "You're back?"

"Yeah…I'm going to bed though-you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah," I said softly. "Course,"

. . .

It was the next morning-I had spent most of the morning getting the stupid plane out of the living room and the rest of the morning making breakfast for Markl and me and giving the scraps to Heen. I was finally starting to relax when Howl came down the stairs and greeted us with his presence.

"Morning, everyone,"

"Morning, master Howl," Markl chipped happily.

"Hi," I said, still peeved at him for yesterday.

"Come on, Sophie, you're not still mad, are you?"

"No, I'm just giving you the cold shoulder for no reason at all," I snapped.

"Come on, Soph," Howl said and I immediately prickled at the nickname.

"Soph…Soph…"

"Don't ever call me that," I snapped.

"What?" Howl looked confused and a little hurt but it was for a good reason-it wasn't his fault he didn't know about me or my past, but…

"Don't call me Soph," I glared at him, trying to illustrate my point. "EVER,"

"Fine, I won't," Howl said, knowing better then to ask questions; he noticed Sulliman's dog sitting by my feet, eating what scraps I was giving him. "Is that Sulliman's dog at my table? Why would you let it in, Calcifer?"

"Don't look at me," Calcifer said. "It crashed in here along with Sophie,"

Howl paused for a minute before laughing and walking over to the giant hole in the wall where the couch used to be. "I knew she'd make a good pilot,"

"Shut up," I snapped.

"Easily fixed," Howl mumbled, ignoring me. "It doesn't matter anyway-we're moving!"

"Moving?" I asked.

"Alright!" Markl said. "I'm sick of being stuck in the middle of nowhere,"

"But you have Porthaven and Kingsbury to go to," I said. "Right?"

"Not anymore; Madame Sulliman's hot on our trail because someone couldn't keep her cover-she's going to find out about my other alias and soon they'll be pounding down our door looking for me, so we're going to have to hurry,"

"Someone couldn't keep her cover?" I asked, huffing a little. "Might I ask what that is supposed to mean?"

"We don't have time for your lovey dovey bickering," Calcifer said.

"Our what?" I yelled, but couldn't help but blush…when he said love…I wasn't in love with Howl. I wasn't…

…right?

. . .

Howl finished drawing a white circle with a triangle and a strange symbol in the middle of the triangle while Markl and I sat on the table, Heen sitting in Markl's lap. Howl stood up, shoving the chalk in his pocket. "That should do it," he said and went over to Calcifer-he picked up the iron shovel by the fireplace and used it to pick Calcifer up and carried him over to the center of the drawn circle.

"On my mark," Howl said-he faced forward and lifted one arm up; suddenly, Calcifer grew twice as large and changed colors as the drawn circle Howl was standing on began to glow-

The next thing I knew, the house was beginning to morph in front of my eyes-the ceiling stretched and began to extend, making the room look bigger. Out of nowhere a couch and two chairs landed by the fireplace- I heard a loud pop and saw another room appear next to the front door followed by another pop which created a small bathroom next to the stairs; then it all stopped and the circle Howl was standing on stopped glowing.

"Moving's done," Howl said. "You can get up now,"

"Wow," Markl exclaimed, getting off the table and began to spin around. "This is great, Master Howl; it's huge,"

Then I saw it-out the front window was a giant field with lots of flowers and a small creek that passed through; and not too far away, I saw a familiar town that was probably only a fifteen minute walk to-I was close to Market Chipping…

"This is…" I mumbled.

"I added a bedroom for you, Sophie," Howl said and opened a door-the door led to an exact replica of the room I would sew hats in when I was still working at the hat shop.

"I…I don't understand," I said, trying to wrap my head on the situation.

"Do you like it?" Howl asked.

"Um…sure?"

"Great!" Howl clapped his hands and walked off, me trailing not far behind. Markl and Heen were running throughout the house, marveling at the small changes in the décor and space; when they opened the front door, Markl ran outside.

"Alright, a court yard!" Markl said happily.

"That shop's ours too," Howl said while leaning against the doorjamb.

…shop?

"Heen, come on!" Markl and Heen continued to play and laugh happily while Howl closed the door.

"See the new color on the dial? It means there's a new portal," Howl changed the color dial and opened the door to bright sunshine and lots of flowers; he turned to me while I was stupefied in amazement.

"It's a present for you…" Howl said and held his hand out to me. I couldn't think of what else to do but take it and follow him into the field of wild flowers, every kind of wild flower you could imagine right below my feet. The sky was perfectly blue with puffs of clouds slowly moving on by; not far ahead there was a giant pond with bits of island in the middle and the water was so clear you could look at the water and think you were staring at the sky.

"Did your magic make this place?" I asked.

"A little," Howl said. "Just to help the flowers grow,"

We continued to walk in the field-the place seemed oddly familiar, yet I couldn't place it. It was like I had been there before, but I didn't know how I could have forgotten such a beautiful place. We came over a hill and saw a small cottage with a mill turning water.

"That's kinda cute," I said.

"I came here to be an apprentice to my uncle; you can come whenever you like now," the words were happy, but the way Howl sounded was like he was speaking at a funeral. When he tried to pull me forward to show me the cottage, I let my hand slip out of his. He turned back to look at me, confused. "What's wrong?"

"…are you leaving us or something?" I asked.

Howl didn't say anything and just stared at me.

"Howl, tell me what's going on-Madame Sulliman said you were a monster…is it true?"

Howl turned towards me a little more and smiled at me-but even the smile looked false. I knew it; despite not having known him that long, I knew that fake smile when he tried to convince me to do something and say it wasn't dangerous at all.

"I'm just trying to make sure you all live comfortably," Howl said. "You'll be okay for the rest of your lives-with all the flowers in this field, you could easily start a flower shop; right? I bet you'd be good at it!"

I gave Howl a look. "Why do I get the feeling I'm never going to see you again?"

Howl's fake smile faded as he stared at me, knowing I could see the truth.

"Howl…I want you to know I don't care,"

"What?"

"I don't care if you're a monster," I said. "I know you-you're childish and cowardly sometimes, but you're also caring and easily amused. You're filthier than anyone I've ever met, but you're funny and you're actually braver than you let on,"

Howl looked like he wanted to say something but stopped suddenly-he turned his head to the right and held his hand up to silence my question of what was wrong because I soon found out-not far off, there was a military ship flying through the beautiful valley shattering any peace we had earlier.

"Of all the places to do their stupid raids, they pick here," Howl mumbled venomously.

The ship flew over us and we saw hundreds of black oval shaped objects stuck tightly at the bottom of the ship.

"Oh, hell no," Howl said. "Not in this valley," Howl held up his hand and waved it in front of the ship-a few seconds went by when suddenly the ship's odd shaped wings stopped moving; I could hear loud beeps and people shouting in the ship.

"What'd you do?" I asked. "Is it gonna crash?"

"Nah, just messing with them a little," Howl said, smiling and laughing to himself. "Maybe that wasn't the best idea?"

It was then that I noticed there was some kind of spout thing on the side of the ship that was spitting out tiny balls-the balls extended their wings and turned into monsters and began flying towards us. "You think?" I asked.

"We should go," Howl said and took my hand and we started running. Pretty soon, we were up in the air and even though I couldn't see and it was going by so fast, I swear I saw black wings on Howl's back. Pretty soon I saw the door in the middle of the field and Howl let me go and I flew down and into the castle.

The door opened and Markl and Heen came in to see me on the steps.

"What the hell is wrong with your master, Markl?" I said.

[A/N]: Yes, I know it's been awhile, but I have had horrible writers block when it comes to this story. I promise I'll try to finish it as quickly as I can.