The Quite Ordinary and Utterly Unremarkable Guide to Charming Glass

by velvet-sometimes

It is quite a thing, to be the eldest of three. And Sophie Hatter had contented herself with her perfectly 'lovely' and ordinary existence in Market Chipping. But giving in to the temptation of a dusty old tome opens the way to a dangerous journey, where beauty is in the eye of the beholder - and the greatest adventure is learning how to 'see'.

21. Erstwhile

Disclaimer: I don't own Howls Moving Castle (the book or the movie, sadly), no matter how much i do love both versions so. I'm also not making a cent of profit from this; this is a fanbased work, merely for improving my own writing, and playing with themes.

Erstwhile

Sophie paused before her writing desk, fingers hovering over the cover of The Quite Ordinary and Utterly Unremarkable Guide to Charming Glass, before taking a deep, steeling breath and snapping it up into her hands, spinning about with it to present to her companion.

Howl paused as if startled, gazing at the book. "Is that what I think it is?"

"The one and only bane of my existence." she acknowledged, and his own fingertips hovered centimeters from it's pages, almost as if he, too, were frightened of what touching it meant.

It only just occurred to her then that the book clutched in her hands must have almost seemed like a nightmarish memory to the man; an erstwhile possession that haunted dreams and tainted memories of what it what it was like to once actually see the world around him.

And with that realization, she pulled it back to her chest. "I'll hold onto it for now if you don't mind; I just wanted to show you that I indeed still had it."

His smile was grateful. "Yes, of course. Thank you."

Note:Yawn. So. Updates for you all. Enjoy a feast of verbiage and late-night writing.