Disclaimer: not mine...not mine....Howl and Morgan are not mine....
A/n: Yes, another chapter done! This one includes a lot of description and long winded conversations, so bear with me, okay? Before I forget, I want to say a BIG thank you to ChocolateEclar for teaching me (some time ago) how to make the words come out in bold and italics. This chapter is for you!!
Caudex: Request granted! There's a Howl and Sophie bit in here especially for you! Thanks for that really encouraging review!
ChocolateEclar: Glad to hear you like Morgan! This chapter is dedicated to you!
Black Jaguar12: updated! Hope you like it!
BlackPanther901: Thank you! New chapter here!
Calcifersgrl: I assure you, Kate won't turn out to be a super powerful mega witch or something! (I feel that's way too predictable). Who is the donkey? Read and find out!
Chapter 4: In which Kate meets a fire demon, the rest of Morgan's big family and a Talking donkey.
If it wasn't for the self assured way Morgan turned the knob of the old, shack, Kate would have thought that he had gotten the wrong house. There was no way a Royal Wizard lived in such a old, almost crumbling place. To her surprise, the shack had a stone floor, a stairway that lead upstairs and a queer, crackling blue fire blazing in the grate. In fact, it was rather like a small, cramped castle.
As they came in, the blue fire blazed up suddenly. "Where have you been?" it demanded. "You leave at the crack of dawn on the account of 'urgent business' and..." the fire trailed off as it saw Kate, who jumped back a few steps. That was one bit of witchcraft she was not prepared for. The fire leaned out of the grate and sneered at her. "Good job Morgan, where did you pick her up from?" Kate looked at the flame. It had a thin blue face, and a nose that stuck out like a poker. It's bushy eyebrows of flame bristled and orange eyes narrowed, as it leaned out of the grate a little more. "Chip off the old block. You're getting as bad as your father nowadays," it said, laughing unpleasantly, and exhibiting sharp pointed blue teeth as it did.
"Shut up you old fraud," a voice behind Kate said. "Morgan's nothing like me."
The voice came from a palomino donkey that had just trotted into the castle with a self-righteous look on it's donkey face. Kate gasped and took a step away from the donkey. That was another thing she was not prepared for. To her horror, the donkey stopped in front of her and scrutinized Kate, who promptly stepped back warily. She had never seen a talking donkey before.
"We're back!" a loud voice called out. This was followed by two clicks at the doorknob, and a middle aged women with ginger hair and three small children (in which two of them looked like miniature versions of Morgan and one fiercely ginger haired) came trooping in, lugging baskets of food. "Wait till I get my hands on Shelby," she said somewhat threateningly. "I needed her to help me look after these three and she just slithers out of it. I swear, Howl, that girl's becoming more and more like you– " she broke of as they noticed Kate. "Who is this, Morgan? Is she a friend of yours?"
"I don't slither out," a voice said. A young girl in her late teens stepped out of a broom closet. She looked like the ginger haired woman. "I was trying for a second sight spell and was close to wrapping it up until you called. She stopped and inspected Kate. "Is this Morgan's girlfriend?" she asked. "If it is, I'm forced to admit he actually has good taste.
"She is not my girlfriend!" Morgan seethed back.
There was a moment of general pandemonium, as Morgan tried to explain who Kate was, and ended up quarreling with Shelby. Morgan's mother was reprimanding the three small toddlers who showed a sudden interest in playing around Kate's skirt, and the fiery face in the grate shouting on the top of is voice, "Morgan's picking up Howl's old ways now isn't he?" Kate found herself backing towards the door, and tripped over a three legged stool. She fell down with a crash.
Heads swivelled towards her direction, as Kate got up, rather red-faced. "Oh shut up, will you now," the ginger haired woman suddenly shouted, which made Kate start. "The poor child's confused." She leaned towards Kate and smiled comfortingly at her. "I'm Sophie, Morgan's mother." Sophie whipped around towards the donkey and gave it a sharp look. "For heaven's sake, can't you behave decently? Imagine! A donkey in the house! And I just cleaned the floor not too long ago!"
"Is that your familiar?" Kate whispered to Morgan as she got up slowly. She knew that witches and wizards had familiars that helped them with the spells and enchantments. "I thought familiars were mostly cats or birds." Morgan let out an series of snorts and finally broke out into gales of unchecked laughter. The donkey turned around to give Kate an agonizingly hurt look (was facial expressions possible on a donkey? she wondered.)
"On the contrary," it said. "I'm not a familiar." the donkey reared up, with a strong flare of light, and it turned into a tall, blonde, good looking man, even though he looked as if he was in his early fifties. Kate jumped back with surprise at his transformation. He bowed elaborately. "I'm the Wizard Howl, who happens to be Morgan's father. And contrary to what you think, Mrs. Nose, I was in Kingsbury trying to turn one of the royal tax collectors back to his true form. The fool made a crone furious and resulted in him turning into a fine spotted donkey."
"What's that got to do with you changing into a donkey?" Sophie demanded back.
"Where were you, anyway, Morgan? Calcifer said you had something important to do," he said, ignoring Sophie.
"Slithering out again aren't you? Fine. Don't answer that," Sophie grumbled irately. "That cacophonic fire there happens to be our fire demon, Calcifer, (at this point Calcifer just gave Kate a wicked leer)" Sophie turned back to Kate and went on as if nothing had happened. "That is Shelby and the triplets, Owen, Dylan and Gwen (the newest addition to our family). Do tell us who might you be?"
Sophie's down to earth demeanor make Kate feel calmer, albeit the fact that she almost seemed to enjoy bickering with her husband. She told everyone, about her coming to Ingary, but ran away from Morton. It didn't take too long for Kate to discover that Morgan had inherited his strong-mindedness from his mother. Every time Morgan tried to add his two cents worth about all that happened, Sophie cast him a stern look, that made him shut up. When she was finally done, everyone were having sympathetic looks on their faces.
"That was a rotten thing to happen to anyone," Sophie said, outraged. "Someone ought to lock that Morton Maxwell up! Imagine! After the incident at Market Chipping–"
The Wizard Howl laughed. "There goes Sophie and her idealistic plans to banish the deceitful crooks of Ingary." Sophie glared at him pointedly. "At least I'm trying, not like some people who slithers out of the King's duties," she retorted.
"Me? Slither out? My dear Sophie, you don't do me justice," Howl said with a wounded expression. Sophie snorted loudly and started hustling the triplets (who were exploring around Kate's skirts once more) away, and telling them to behave themselves. Kate felt awkward as she had never encountered people's parents acting in that fashion.
"Don't bother, they're always like that," Morgan whispered to her when he noticed her awkwardness.
The door clicked open and a pretty rosy girl with raven hair came in. "Hello everybody!" she called out. "Especially to you," she told Morgan. "I came over earlier, but Calcifer told me that you went out. Where did you go? I thought..." she trailed off when she saw Kate. Kate was sure that the girl was Morgan's Sweetheart, with the way she spoke to him and all that, until Morgan spoke to her.
"Er, this is my cousin Meryl Suliman," he said. "Meryl, that's Kate Baker from Strangia."
"Kate's Morgan's girlfriend," Shelby had sauntered up and told Meryl confidentially. Kate blushed unhappily once more, and Morgan growled. "She's not my girlfriend! Get that straight can't you!" Shelby retorted with some rude line to Morgan, and the two of them were off like fireworks.
"Sibling rivalry," Meryl explained to Kate. "They're always at each other like cats and dogs. Just watching them makes me feel grateful for being the only child." She turned to the Wizard Howl. "Uncle Howl, dad just got back from High Norland and wants a word with you, if you don't mind. It's about the new watering spell for the King."
"And I was expecting a quiet day. Such are the trials of a great wizard," Howl said dramatically. Sophie snorted loudly and attended to stocking the newly bought foodstuffs in the larder.
"Shut up you old fool," Calcifer told him. "You'd be nothing great without me here."
"Sometimes," Howl said long sufferingly. "I wonder what on earth did I ever do to deserve all this."
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Sophie insisted that Kate should stay the night with them. She was so determined to make Kate feel welcome, she actually decided to host a dinner for her. Kate kept telling her in an embarrassed sort of way she needn't make such a big fuss about her, but it was in vain. Once Sophie set her mind down to something, it was very difficult to do anything to change that.
"Yes, some ham would be good," Sophie said thoughtfully as she stared at the larder. "Drat it, we're out of fruits though."
"You needn't go through all this trouble," Kate began once more, in an attempt to convince Sophie that she needn't go through such hassle. It was useless of course. She waved her aside dismissively.
"It's alright, Kate. But then again...some cherries would be good. Could you be a dear and go ask Howl to conjure up some candles as well. I'm confoundedly busy here."
Kate had no other choice, but to do as Sophie asked. It was it almost possible to reason with her. She also didn't know why did Sophie act the way she did towards the Wizard. They seemed almost like children, bickering about almost everything. She kept accusing the Wizard of slithering out, and he insisted that she was a busybody. What were thay thinking when they decided to get married? Kate couldn't help wondering.
The Wizard Howl was just lounging on the steps that lead upstairs, in full sight. She wondered why couldn't Sophie just asked him about the candles. The wizard obligingly conjured them from a few splinters of wood.
"Tell Mrs. Nose over there these will do," he told her as he handed her the newly formed candles. Kate noticed that he had a somewhat pensive look on his face as he glanced over at Sophie.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
The Wizard Howl shrugged. "That's one of the things I like about her," he said wistfully looking at Sophie. "It's amazing, that I manage to find her captivating, with all I have to put up with."
Kate wasn't sure if she heard correctly. "What?"
"Sometimes I do wish, that we'd stop all this quibbling nonsense. It can get very nerve grating," he said, as if he was answering her earlier question. "But when I think about it sometime later, I wouldn't change anything for all the treasures of Ingary."
"I'm glad you think that way," Kate said hesitatingly. Howl suddenly seemed to have been jolted out of something, and the wistful look had suddenly snapped out of his eyes.
"What did I just tell you?" he asked. "I have a faint recollection of telling you something rather queer just now."
"Just about the candles," Kate lied. It was too embarrassing to tell him that she had been hearing his true opinion of his wife. There was something queer going on about the Wizard Howl, but then again, wizards were a queer lot in general. Kate went off to give the candles to Sophie and scurried away quickly when she was asked to look for Morgan and tell him to get a few bottles of wine.
Morgan showed her that the door knob was actually a charm to help them get to places quicker. The blobs of color meant different places in Ingary. Blue led to Porthaven, where else green would lead to a town called Market Chipping. Black, Morgan told her would lead to a totally different world altogether. They were going to Kingsbury, so the doorknob pointed red.
Kingsbury, Kate concluded was marvelous. She had never been out of Periwinkle hood to see what the world really looked like. Kingsbury had huge houses with gold-tipped towers and courtyards that made them look like palaces. Gilt carriages sped past, drawn by magnificent horses.
"Stop gawping can you," Morgan asked in an irritated, but yet amused voice. "People will think you're a country bumpkin and all with the amount of staring you're currently doing." That annoyed Kate, but she didn't say anything. The wine was bought in due time, and after that, Morgan suggested that they walk around town, in order to let Kate have her first good look at Kingsbury.
A commotion suddenly took place on the street. Morgan and Kate turned to see what the commotion was all about. To her astonishment, it was Morton. Morton and his wagon, looking as if he was going to burst out of his waistcoat, and his moustaches bristling as he went. He had ran his wagon over a puddle, and the water had splashed over a woman holding a parasol who shouted a line of rather rude words to the retreating wagon in return. Morton had not taken the slightest bit of notice, which was fortunate, because if he did, he would have spotted Kate.
"What is he doing here?" she asked aloud. "Didn't we just leave him at Porthaven last night? How did he get here?"
"It's a whole four days journey here from Porthaven, if he went by wagon," Morgan said. "He must have used magic. A speed spell would shorten his time coming."
"But, isn't he a hedge wizard?"
"Uncanny. I wonder..." Morgan trailed off, looking even more strong minded than ever. Kate gave him a side glance. That sounded ominous, she thought as they made their way towards what seemed like an unused stable..