Chapter 3: The Joys of Procreating

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Sophie and Howl were sitting tensely around the main room of the moving castle, sipping tea nervously. It had been over 12 hours since Martha had gone into labour and there was still no word from Michael, or the midwife who was delivering her.

"Howl?" Sophie asked, twisting a handkerchief nervously between her fingers.

"Yes?" he answered.

"What time is it?"

"About one minute after the last time you asked."

"Oh," Sophie looked down again. "How long has it been? Do you think something's happened? Maybe we should be there. I really don't feel good about staying home." she stood and began to pace the room. "What time is it now?"

"The same time as before. You have to wait a minute for the time to change." Howl stood and took her by the hand, leading her back to the chair. "Things will be fine. Remember how long it took you to give birth to Alis? I certainly do."

Sophie sat with a thump on the chair beside her husband's, entwining her fingers in his own. "Yes." she said, moping. "How long has it been now?"

"Cariad," Howl said firmly, trying as hard as he could to calm the fretful witch down, "-everything will be alright."

Sophie took a deep breath and leaned against his chest. Keeping the gentle movement of her thumb across the back of his hand, Sophie felt her eyelids flutter closed. "Maybe if I just take a quick rest…"

"I think we both deserve a little sleep."

Just as they were drifting off, there came a crash of noise from the front of the room. Michael stumbled in looking dishevelled, and a little tired but altogether overjoyed.

"Howl! Sophie! They're boys! Twin boys! I have sons, I'm a father!"

"Oh Michael, that's wonderful! And is Martha alright?" Sophie jumped up hurriedly from the chair, clapping her hands together in excitement. Any sleepiness she had felt earlier was gone in an instant.

"Yes, she's fine. She's wonderful. They're both so beautiful." Michael exclaimed, running a hand through his hair in the vain attempt to smooth it.

"And I'm guessing the midwife told you to clear off for the night so Martha could get her rest." Sophie said.

Michael nodded sheepishly. Howl, being a father himself, knew what was needed next. "Well I think some drinks are in order. Come on Michael, we're going to the pub."

"I really don't think…" Michael began to protest but he never finished for Howl was already turning the knob on the door to green down.

"Oh, go on." Sophie said comfortingly. "Have a nice time."

A wide grin on his face, Michael followed Howl out the door.

As if as an afterthought, Howl went over to his wife and placed his hand on the back of her neck. "Now you get some sleep. You've been up all night." Howl leaned down to look her in the eye. "I mean it. All this staying up isn't good for you"

Sophie closed her eyes and nodded. Howl pressed his lips against her forehead, and was gone.

Yawning loudly, she made her way up the stairs to her bedroom. She wasn't sure if Michael ever made it home, but she felt Howl slip into bed with her after a couple of hours, wrapping his arm tightly around her waist and burying his face in her shoulder.

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Sophie turned the bacon over in the pan with a wooden spoon and nodded.

"Two healthy boys, and Martha's doing well too. It will be nice to have some more boys around. I feel so sorry for Morgan being the only one," she said excitedly.

"Yes, all we need is more little brats running around the place. It's getting much too crowded with all these offspring you and Howl are producing." the fire demon grumbled, more for the show than anything.

Sophie glanced down rather guiltily at her middle, where both she and Howl knew a new child was growing rapidly.

Just then Howl came down the stairs, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and blinking repeatedly.

"Good morning, dear. Have a pleasant sleep?" Sophie moved the bacon onto an awaiting plate and stood to get the eggs. Before she could move to the kitchen Howl reached over and swept her into his arms, planting a kiss firmly on her lips. Sophie stood in shock, the spoon hanging rather uselessly in her hand.

The pair finally broke away, breathing deeply.

"What was that for?" Sophie asked sternly.

"I'm not allowed to greet my wife on this fine morning?" Howl kissed her again, more lightly this time and for not as long.

Raising a sceptical eyebrow, she went to the workbench and began to cut a loaf of bread for bacon sandwiches.

"I'm going to go down to Porthaven today. Mr. Cooper wanted me to talk to the mast of his boat. He's worried it will crack in two on his next trip." Sophie said. Her powers of talking inanimate objects to life had become ever more popular in the small fishing town. Men would come to her everyday asking her to talk their nets into catching more fish, or tell their hull not to leak.

"Are you really sure that's such a good idea? I wouldn't want you falling. You could hurt yourself." Howl's face snapped quickly from an expression of good-humour to one of nerves and concern.

"Don't be silly, Howl." Sophie said, surprised. "I've worked on Mr. Cooper on his boat several times. Nothing's happened to me before."

"I know, but things are different now. I just don't want you to put yourself at risk."

Calcifer had been looking on confused for several minutes during their conversation. He too knew of the work Sophie did in the fishing town. She had been doing since their second child, Alis, had been born.

The fire demon's eyebrows snapped up in realisation. "That's it!" he cackled, "You're pregnant again, aren't you! You have two children already, isn't that enough?"

If looks could kill, Calcifer would be long gone to fire-demon heaven. Sophie glared at him, threatening to tell his logs to stop burning for him.

"You know I had hoped we could have told everyone at once. Including Calcifer. Thanks to him half of Market Chipping will know by mid-day." she said, turning back to Howl who was starting to look only slightly uncomfortable.

Calcifer cackled in the grate, meaning he didn't deny it at all.

"Alright then. I'll try to keep that in mind next time." he smiled weakly, in a vain attempt to lighten the mood.

"And how do you know there will be a next time?" Sophie picked up a saucepan menacingly and whacked the side of Howl's arm.

Howl looked up with a hurt expression, rubbing the place where a bruise was likely to turn up later that day. "Now that was just uncalled for!" he pouted.

"That's what you get for aggravating the woman who got 5 hours of sleep last night!" she glared at them both.

She swept around gracefully and reached for her hat. "I'm going to Kingsbury. I need to see my new nephews, and we can pick up the children from Ben and Lettie's house on the way back. Coming?"

Howl wiped the crumbs of his fingers and stood. "As long as you stay away from any saucepans." He was still nursing the place where Sophie had hit him moments earlier. "Do you think I should get this examined while we're in town? You could have caused some permanent damage."

"Oh, come on you big baby." Sophie grabbed his sleeve, pulling him to the door. " I could always kiss it better for you."

Calcifer chuckled softly to himself. He wondered what his life would be like if he didn't have those two to keep him entertained