Megan
By Min Farshaw
Chapter four: In which Micheal is the bearer of bad news
They trooped back into the living room. Howl leaped off the couch with a muffled yelp when the cat clawed him.
" Sophie, Sophie, are you alright?" He said, grasping her hands as Megan rolled her eyes, " Megan didn't attack you or anything?"
" I'm fine Howl. I'm fine, it's okay, " Sophie replied calmingly, " It's your back you should be looking out for if anyone's"
Megan uninterrupted then.
" Listen Howell, No more lies. I don't even care if it's stupid or embarrassing. Just tell me the truth for once. I deserve an explanation."
" Why, Megan, Why should you deserve one. All you ever do is yell at me and tell me what a waste I am."
"Because Howell, I'm your sister. Were family, no matter if that means having to put up with an irresponsible Cad like you." Howl said nothing, and Sophie could see that stubborn bratty look on his face.
" Oh For heaven sakes Howell. Alright, When you were six and I was fourteen, I lost you at the park when I was supposed to be watching you. I searched for three hours for you, only to find you at the top of the tallest tree in the park. There was no way you could have climbed this tree Howell, but somehow you got up there." Howl was silent, " Anyway, I yelled at you to get down from there, more scared for you than I have ever been in my entire life. Do you know what you did then Howell? You came down. Not in any ordinary way, but one moment you were up in the tree, and the next moment you were down on the ground, smiling up at me with a gap in your teeth like nothing was wrong."
"Megan..." Howl said weakly, " Megan I, well, You'd never believe me" Howl was interrupted (Perhaps fortunately) by someone knocking at the window. It was Micheal of all people, knocking and looking frantic.
" Micheal!" Sophie exclaimed, running to the window " Micheal what's wrong!"
He tried yelling through the glass, but Sophie couldn't understand what he was saying.
" Oh for goodness sakes, someone let him in!" She cried, running to the front door. Micheal came dashing in, panicked, trying to catch his breath.
"Micheal, what are you doing here! I thought I told you to keep the door shut!" Howl said, only slightly cross.
" The castle... it's falling apart! I don't know what went wrong Master Howl, but Calcifer can't hold it together without you there!"
Howl swore loudly, raking his fingers through his shiny blonde hair.
" Sorry Megan, this is really important, I have to go now. Come on, Sophie, Micheal." They all charged out the front door, and then, in a rather silly maneuver, thought Sophie, turned right back round so Howl could open the front door again, only to find Megan blocking their path. "Megan, please move, I Have to go!" Howl said, a bit of Micheal's panic coming off in his voice.
" Not unless you take me too!"
" No! Besides, what about Neil and Mari? Isn't it a school day?"
" It's saturday Howell, and Gareth can get them up. I'm coming too."
" It won't be pleasant."
" I don't care Howell. I'm not letting you get away that easily." Howl looked at Micheal, who was practically dancing with anxiety. He looked at Megan, who had an extremely stubborn look on her face. " Do you want this castle place, thing, to fall apart Howell?" She asked, probably trying to call his bluff. It worked either way, as Sophie saw Howl's face fall in annoyed defeat.
" Oh bother, Alright you can come. Just don't... Just don't touch anything alright?" he told her, trying to retain at least some form of control over the situation.
" Fine." She moved out of the doorway. Howl closed it firmly, then opened it once more to the familiar room of the castle.
Calcifer leapt out of the grate. " Howl I don't know what's wrong. My magic can't keep the castle together. I don't understand." The whole room rumbled and Calcifer flew back the hearth. The rumble calmed a little, but a bottle rattled off the shelf, setting off a shower of silver sparks that bounced around the room.
" I think I know what's wrong. Stay there Calcifer. Does the Moving castle entrance still work?"
" Yes, most of the time."
" Alright," Howl said, charging back to the door, and then, turning the knob to purple down, "Everyone out." He winced as another bottle rattled off the shelf with another tremble.
" You! Stay on those shelves or I'll be angry !" Sophie yelled a the various wizarding paraphernalia, feeling a bit silly. Nothing else moved though, so she supposed it was worth it. She was about to leave when she saw Howl wasn't coming with her.
" What are you doing! Get out of the Castle Sophie!" He cried, bracing himself against another tremble. Calcifer's face went blue and pale as if he were ill.
" What are you doing Howl! I'm not leaving without you!" He smiled at her.
" I'll be out in a minute Cariad. Don't worry about me." He brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. She jumped on him and hugged him tight, unaware that Megan and Micheal were still watching them.
" Just don't give away your heart again. I don't think I could bear it if you did." She said into his chest, feeling the object in question beat strongly against her cheek.
" I won't, I promise," He said simply, and kissed her forehead, " Now go." She let go of him and jumped out the door as the Castle continued to move erratically around the marshes. The door closed behind her. She ran to where Micheal and Megan were standing, and turned to look at the castle. It appeared to be m
The Castle gave a great shuddering cough and came to an abrupt halt. One of the taller towers cracked and fell away. As it fell, it dissolved into tiny rocks, which pelted them as it fell. Black smoke exited from every possible orifice before the entire thing tilted, and crashed into the ground with a horrendous noise. They had to duck and crouch to avoid the flying debris as it whizzed over their heads amongst the rising clouds of dust.
" Howl!" Sophie cried, not even seeing the looks of horror and shock on the faces of Megan and Micheal. She ran for the castle, holding her skirts and cursing when she almost tripped over pieces of rubble. She climbed over piles of ruined Castle to where she thought the door should be, Megan and Micheal not far behind. It was there, just open a crack and at a forty five degree angle to the vertical, She pushed it open anyway and stepped through,
After an extremely disorienting ten seconds, where her body and brain tried to reconcile the fact that the direction of gravity had changed by forty five degrees, she rushed over to Howl, who had fallen down and was trying to get up, his hand to his head.
" Are you alright" she cried, helping him into a sitting position.
" I'm cough fine Sophie" He said clutching his head again.
" You stupid man! How could you do that to me!" She yelled, punching him in the chest. He fell back down, and she put her hands on either side of his head and continued to yell at him, " Why did you do that! Don't you know how much you worried me!"
" Howell! Howell are you alright?" Megan asked, pushing her way through the door, " What on earth did you do! What is this thing!"
" Howl!" Micheal cried, stumbling his way in as well.
" Does no one care about the Fire demon?" Asked Calcifer helplessly from his place in the hearth.
" Sorry Calcifer." Howl said, taking hold of Sophie's shoulders to calm her down.
" What did you do?" Micheal asked looking around the room. Every single item was still on its shelf, though the rest of the room was trashed, " Why did the Castle crash?"
" I had to destroy Calcifer's connection with the castle completely before reestablishing the link in a way which would still allow him to leave." He coughed and clutched his head again, "But I'm afraid my magic wasn't strong enough to keep both going at the same time.
" Howell, are you going to tell me what happened?"
Howl ignored Megan and struggled up, heavily leaning on Sophie.
" Micheal, take Megan outside and set up a retrieval spell. I need all the bricks of the moving castle together in one place."
" Alright Howl. Standard A or Standard B spell?"
" Ah, B, I think. Calcifer, are all the other entrances still working?"
" They appear to be holding up. You might want to check on the mansion entrance though, the portal is a little unstable. Can I come out of the grate now?"
" Probably, but I'd stay there until we get the castle up again."
" How long will that be?" The fire demon whined.
" Only a few hours."
Just like that, everything became alright again. Howl had taken charge and now everyone had a place to be and something to do. Megan continued to try to get her brother's attention, but he managed to skillfully evade her by turning aside to one magical problem or another, that, sorry Megan he simply had to deal with this. Or he set Micheal (who was starting to look fairly harassed) to distract Megan with something magical, or with some other task. He kept flitting from one place to another, never finishing one project before he started another, going half way before checking back on another spell left half finished and then neglected. As they worked Howl kept stopping to teach Sophie things, random useful bits of magic that were needed to get the castle up, or fix this, or one of a thousand other tasks. Sophie kept trying not to blush as his hands would brush hers as he would correct a failed spell attempt, or he would lean over her, his face dangerously close to her face when he checked her work. But whenever he got too close, Megan would come stomping round the bend and Howl would flutter away again.
Finally, when the sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon, Howl pulled them all back from the pile of rubble that was the castle.
" Anything new you want added on Sophie?" He asked her, about to raise his hands for the spell.
" No... nothing really... Unless you could add on another bedroom or something so I don't have to sleep under the stairs. Howl looked wounded for a moment, then a mischievous glint entered his eye.
" Alright then" He said, and smiled. He yelled at Calcifer, and Calcifer yelled back. Then Howl raised his arms and said several loud, outlandish things, and, right before their eyes, the castle began to pull itself together, brick by sooty brick with loud popping and scraping noises. Charcoal dust fell away in droves, great clouds rising up to obscure the working. Long faces were pulled in wisps from the dust as they swirled around the the castle. A look of great concentration found it's way onto Howl's brow as he conducted the work. For once Megan didn't bother him. She too could feel that big magics were being worked.
Then, with a great Shulp the last brick slid into place. Howl turned to them and mopped a bead or two of sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his jacket, which he had forgotten to turn back in the excitement.
" Well, that wasn't too bad!" He exclaimed. Then collapsed.
Gosh, sorry this stunk so much, I just have massive WB on all of my stories, including this one. As well, I was planning to keep this short, only one or two more chapters more, mainly to see if I'm capable of actually finishing a multi – chaptered story.
So, Thanks for reading, review please if you like, I would really appreciate it. Maybe that's all I need to get going again, I don't know.
-Min
p.s. I suppose somewhere I should put in a ridiculous and unnecessary disclaimer:
I am not the author of any professionally published work
Howl's moving castle is a professionally published work
Therefore, I do not own Howl's moving castle