Megan

by Min Farshaw

Chapter two: In which Sohpie ruins her dress

They had went off to bed, Howl to his depressingly clean room and Sophie back to her depressingly cramped little cubby under the stairs. Somehow Megan's call had soured the entire evening, even if it was nothing more than that horrible Howl deserved. Micheal had returned after walking Martha home (Sophie was sure that it wasn't walking that had taken the pair over two and a half hours to walk the scant few blocks to Cesari's and back). Howl had retreated to his room, and after a brief tantrum, remained there in a kind of kind of pouty stupor. Sophie and Micheal had munched absentmindedly on left-over chicken, both of their minds elsewhere.

So now Sophie lay, staring up at the underside of the stairs, counting the steps over and over again. She decided that if Howl was going to get in a little snit about going to see his sister, then she shouldn't feel sorry for him. She could hear him pacing in his bedroom from where she lay. He was obviously worried, far more worried than Sophie thought he should be. Quickly she turned her mind from this track of thought, determined that she should not feel sorry for Howl. Unfortunately, this brought her mind round again to his words earlier, just before they had been uninterrupted. Did she want him? This opened up all sorts of interesting and unpleasant questions. She really shouldn't stay. She had her youth back, and Fanny really was quite ready to take her in. But that would mean that she would be going back on her insistence to Fanny that she was perfectly fine up here at the Castle. But Howl couldn't really have meant what he said, if he was going to go into a little snit like this. If he was really in love... Sophie absolutely refused to attempt to qualify that statement further. He was rude and selfish, and staying would mean that she would have to look after him and his silly little fits of green slime. Nothing was worth that, was it? Michael would be alright if she left. He had Martha after all.

She made up her mind. She would leave the castle tomorrow, before Howl had a mind to drag her off to Whales to protect him from Megan. She soon fell asleep, the rhythmic pounding of Howl's boots across the floor following her into her dreams.

Sophie awoke the early - very early - the next morning to the sizzling sound of bacon cooking over the fire. Cautiously she poked her nose out of the cubby to see that it was only Micheal nervously handling the frying pan over a doubled up Calcifer.

"Michael, how did you get Calcifer to bend his head?" Sophie yawned curiously as Micheal poked at the bacon with the spatula. He shrugged at her.

" I didn't. Howl did. Then he disappeared into the bathroom about five minutes ago" Micheal told her as scented steam began to roll out from under the door. Sophie sighed. Of course he wasn't in love. She now felt no compunction about leaving. She gathered up her grey silk skirts and began to march out of her room when Howl burst out of the bathroom, smelling faintly of apples. His hair was mused, and she could see that he had forgotten to put on the spell that made it particularly glossy. Michael looked shocked. Cacifer was laughing again, the sound muffled by the cast iron pan. Howl marched up to Sophie and pulled her out of the cubby in a circle, fairly skipping around the room. Sophie began to smile in spite of herself. Howl was grinning that grin again.

" You are awfully chipper this morning!" Sophie exclaimed, " I thought that you would be depressed about seeing your sister today."

" Ah, but Sophie my dear, that is partially why I am so particularly happy. You see, I'm not going to see Megan today."

Sophie frowned.

" And why not Howl Jenkins?" She asked, trying to sound stern. It was so hard when he looked at her like that. " I was under the impression that she would hunt you down and administer unspeakable tortures upon you."

" I have it all worked out" He continued, as if she had not spoken. He was still holding her waist, a fact Sophie took into account. " Megan can't get to me here if she can't find me. I'll disconnect the phone, and Micheal can hold the door shut"

" What!" cried Micheal. Sophie imagined that he had rather wanted to go see Martha again today. Howl continued to speak again, ignoring the protest of his apprentice

" We'll disappear for a few days, where Megan won't think to look. She'll lose interest eventually and then we can come back." He smiled, showing almost all of his teeth. " It's foolproof."

Sophie looked at him doubtfully. Megan did not seem to be the kind of person who would give up so easily.

" Wait a minute. What do you mean 'We' '' Sophie said as she realized what Howl had meant.

" Why you and I, Sophie my dear. You don't think that I'd leave you all alone to face Megan's wrath did you?" She opened and closed her mouth, quite unsure of what to say. Howl frowned suddenly.

" Grey really doesn't suit you. " He said, then whirled away, pounding up the stairs, leaving Sophie still gaping. She blushed furiously. The nerve! She glared at Michael, who quickly turned back to the bacon, which was now beginning to burn quite badly, Yelping, he dragged the pan off Calcifer, juggling the greasy pieces of meat so that they did not stain his new shirt. Calcifer laughed again. That fire demon was in entirely too good of spirits.

" What!" Sophie exclaimed, wishing that her furious blush would go away.

" You look like a fish!" the demon exclaimed. Michael looked like he was showing signs of agreeing with Calcifer. That was it. Howl was still upstairs. Sophie stomped over to the door and turned the knob purple down and stomped out into the place of flowers, slamming the door shut behind her.

Sophie calmed down slightly, now that she was out of the castle. She began to stomp away, starting to feel rather childish. She hadn't even brought supplies! But to go back now would make her look a great fool, so she began to stomp forward once again. Well, she stomped until her foot sank knee deep into a patch of marsh. After that she trod carefully in an angry sort of way.

She must have been there almost ten minutes in the dewy, pre -dawn light (the sun had not yet risen) before she saw something odd on the ground before her. It looked like some kind of garden implement that had not yet been lost in the various boggy pieces of land that surrounded them. She picked it up to look at it curiously.

" Always cleaning up." Howl tutted from behind her. Sophie spun around, holding the tool to her chest. Howl stood there, casually leaning against a flowering crab apple tree. He was holding some kind of spell; a messy tangle of wires, branches and candles. She discarded the hoe, feeling silly. She put her hands on her hips and mustered her best Older Sister glare.

" Where are you going Sophie? We don't need flowers today ; the shop's closed." He said, still leaning in that dashingly causal way. It annoyed Sophie, that he was allowed to do that and do awful things to the way her heart was beating.

" I ..." She faulted, " I'm leaving." She turned an ran, trying not remember the hurt, shocked look that appeared on Howl's face at that moment. She heard the spell clatter to the ground, but she kept running.

But, unfortunately for Sophie's grand escape, Her stick had been burnt to ash. The same stick, in fact, that she used to test the marshy ground with. It was also unfortunate for her that it was still so dark out side. She tripped over an errant log and found herself mired up to the waist in muddy, marshy water. Howl quickly caught up to her, a wild look on his face. He stopped dead when he saw her there, almost in shock as she floundered.

" Sophie..." He said, uncertainly, " Must I always be saving you?" She turned around, surprised to find that tears were pouring down her face. She scrubbed at them with her non - grubby hand and tried to struggle away, her skirts soaking up water like a sponge

" Just. Just Go away Howl. I hate you." Sophie sniffled at him, not really meaning it. Howl became alarmed and plunged into the bog after her as she tried to move through the bog, her skirts getting heavier and heavier. He quickly caught up, sloshing through the murky water

" Sophie wait!" He cried, just as he caught up to her, grabbing her by the arm. The bog took this opportunity to sink Sophie's foot another foot and a half into the mud. The pair went tumbling, face first into the water, arms and legs flying after.

Sophie resurfaced a few moments after Howl, coughing up murky, sulphurous water. She saw him and began coughing even harder ; this time because of laughter. Howl was drenched, his hair plastered to his head and the blue and silver suit dripping water everywhere. There was an errant leaf stuck to his cheek, and for some reason, a tiny frog clinging to the front of his jacket. It was the funniest thing that she had ever seen, and for a moment, she forgot about how horrible Howl really was and how miserable she really was supposed to be. The frog dropped with a small plop into the bog, and Sophie nearly passed out with the hilarity. Howl looked with dismay at the state of his jacket. He looked up at Sophie and a snort of laughter escaped from his lips as well. He reached over and picked four individual pieces of bark out of Sophie's hair. She stopped laughing then, even though Howl still had that leaf stuck to his cheek.

Howl, being the gentleman that he was, got himself out of the bog before helping to drag Sophie's skirts out of the murky water. Water poured off of her in droves as she and Howl struggled to pull her up. The two layers of petticoats were absolutely ruined, and the grey silk had an awful green stain that permeated the fabric. She couldn't take it anymore. Sophie reached up and peeled the little green leaf from Howl's cheek. Howl responded by grabbing her wrist and pulling her gently to him, then kissing her.

This was certainly unexpected, and Sophie's mind drew a complete blank for ten seconds before she figured that thought should enter this process somewhere. By that point, Howl, had stopped kissing her and was looking at her reproachfully, still holding her wrist.

" Howl -" She began before he kissed her again. Sophie concentrated on enjoying it this time before she had to get really angry at him. He tasted like... well, to be honest he tasted like bog water, but his mouth was warm and gentle on hers, and she felt a delicious tingling start to fill her from her toes to the top of her head.

She started to speak again, but Howl put a finger over her lips.

" Please hear me out." He said in that way that let Sophie that was going to be honest again, something that was happening distressingly often of late. She nodded.

" I don't want you to leave, Sophie. No, I need you to stay with me. Who else could keep me in line and chase away all my spiders? I need someone around to rescue from evil witches and get me in trouble and cut up all my clothes."

" You aren't making any sense." Sophie told him.

" I know. Stay with me anyway? Micheal would never forgive you if you left." He had on that dazzling, happy smile again.

" I ..." She began, glancing over his shoulder so that she did not have to look into his wonderfully green eyes. " I... Well, alright Wizard Pendragon, but you better make it worth my while" Sophie replied and Howl lifted her up into the air, laughing with joy and kissed her again. Sophie found that she was happy too, even though her grand escape had been ruined.

They returned to where Howl had dropped the messy looking spell. It looked to be even more hopelessly tangled, with damp candles sticking at odd angles and branches broken off in the center.

" What ever was this suppose to be?" Sophie asked, tilting her head so as to get a better view.

" It's part of my master plan Cariad. It's a transport spell to take us to Wales." This did not make any sense at all to Sophie.

" Howl, I thought that the point of your plan was to avoid Megan. Isn't this counter productive? Either way, why not just turn the knob on the door to black down and go that way?"

" Megan," He said, " Will be watching the front door. I think she's got an inkling of what I'm about, so we have to sneak in another way."

" But why Wales?"

" Because, Megan won't expect that I'll try to slither out her way. She'll be too busy trying to barge back though the door to look for us there. "

Sophie had to admit that this plan made sense in a backwards sort of way. She still dissaproved of sneaking out on Howl's sister, but she was caught up in the moment now, Still heady and giddy from Howl 's kisses.

They ended up fixing the spell just as the sun began to peak over the horizon, sparking off the dew that had settled all over their hair and shoulders. Howl had made an attempt to dry off their clothes, but the grey silk was still left with an awful greenish brown stain. They activated the spell at exactly 5:03 AM.

This turned out to be a colossal mistake.

Sorry about the delay y'all, but you caught me in the middle of my English Portfolio. Or, rather, I caught myself in the middle of it. Thank you all so much for your support in this endevour of mine. I'll try to go back and fix some of my messed up grammar in the first chappie.

No Megan in this chapter, but rest assured that she will get her crack at Howl next chapter. Or will she?

Anyway, review please? It gives me happy feelings and makes me feel obligated to get this out to you quicker. I also know that I make many, many mistakes, so I wouldn't mind if you would point them out to me so I can fix them!

((Edit: Thanks Rowana S. for pointing that out to me. It has now been fixed ))