Disclaimer: I don't own Howl's Moving Castle.

Stroll Through The Sky

Howl nonchantly walked down the narrow alley, keeping a close eye on the brown-haired girl. Planning their first meeting in his head, he decided to start off the meeting with a casual approach.

Walk up to the girl, act as if you're worried about her safely in this unsavoury, dark alleyway, offer to escort her to her destination on the pretence that you were worried about her well-being (she should be unable to resist this handsome, polite man), hold an educated, civilised conversation with her on the way (which would make her think that he was a sensible and well-off gentleman), politely kiss her hand outside her destination and then keep a mental note of the address. It had worked countless of times before and there was no reason why it wouldn't work again.

As Howl reminded himself of his course of action, he felt a tingly intuition on his back, as if he could feel something following him. Confused, he looked back behind him to check. Though there was nothing there, Howl would have had sworn that he saw a dark, flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye.

'There's a parade outside,' he confidently assured himself, trying to ignore the premonition. 'And who'd want to waste their afternoon in the alleyways?'

Howl shook his head and dismissed that ridiculous idea and the lurking fear niggling in the back of his head. It was a pity that he couldn't spend the day out on the main roads, showing himself off like how he usually would have had done during a festivity. After all, he had spent almost two hours in the bathroom that morning.

When he turned his head back around, Howl realised with a spurt of anxiety, that in his momentarily distraction, he had lost that girl. And not only that, he soon discovered, he was completely lost in a confusing maze of alleys in a town which he barely knew.

Howl felt completely dismayed. Not only was that thorough planning of the anticipated meeting was now downright pointless, his afternoon was soon to be wasted by trying to find a way out of this sordid place!

Petulant and dispirited, Howl turned back around and walked up back the way he had come from, trying to recall if he had gone right or left after the second turning. He'd rather return to the castle than spend his time on a wild goose chase after that girl, no matter how familiar she may have had looked.

When he reached a fourth carrefour, Howl stopped, looking around bewilderedly at the unfamiliar surrounding. As he cursed himself for not taking the left turn instead of the right at the last intersection, Howl sensed another flicker of movement to his left. This time, when he turned to look at it directly, he saw glops of a gooey black substance seeping out of the walls and forming into vaguely humanoid shapes on their own accord.

"The Witch's henchmen," he hissed, with a twist of fear in the pit of his stomach as he recognised the characteristic shape.

Howl understood that the Witch was angry at him for jilting her and was festering an unremitted grudge against him, which she planned to satisfy by literally stealing his heart. Howl had put at least ten different confusion, binding, and location spells around each of the castle entrances, just in case the mad beldam might discover where the castle doors were. It was terribly inconsiderate that she had found him on one of the few times of the year when the usually packed streets were completely deserted.

Howl bit his lip. It would be a bad idea to run as that would notify them that he knew about their presence, and then they'll call for more re-enforcements, and Howl doubted that he could deal with so many. With a change of tactics, Howl chose to go the alley in front of him. He languidly strolled down the narrow street, but indistinctly quickened his pace as he sensed the gooey subsistences following him. When he rounded the corner, Howl threw away all precaution into the air and ran.

Alerted that their quarry was getting away from them, more of the glutinous slime was oozing out of the walls and then awkwardly, but swiftly lumbering after him with their unsteady, stumpy legs.

Howl looked over his shoulder and saw the eerie, black creatures pursuing him steadily, with no sign of planning to leave him alone. With grim determination, Howl lengthened his strides and turned all his energy towards fleeing. Though he had no idea where he was going, Howl found himself running down the same street he had been when he had lost that girl with the green dress and brown hair.

With a spurt of speed and ingenious, Howl realised that he needed to find more people; The Witch of the Waste preferred to do all her work discreetly and avoid as much commotion and public knowledge as possible. Generally, the henchmen would hide if the public was there to witness them.

Howl desperately surveyed the towering, red brick buildings that were built along the sides of the street, looking for a place to hide, or, even better, any people. Howl silently cursed himself for not paying more attention in Madame Suliman's classes. He could barely remember the counter-spell she had taught him for this type of magic. It had involved an enlargement spell. Remarkably, he had been more interested with an unattractive red stain on his shirt at the time.

"How old are you anyway? Do you live around here?" asked a mocking, masculine voice. The voice had come from the next street. Howl abruptly stopped running, almost disbelieving his ears. So there were people here.

"Leave me alone!" cried a more feminine with thinly veiled panic. This pathetic show of defiance was answered by unamused snickering.

As Howl turned the corner, he saw the young girl with the long brown plait uncomfortably facing two leering soldiers whom were leaning against a doorway, obviously blocking her way.

"See, your moustache scares all the girls." smirked the first soldier, who was fair-haired and clean shaven, and was standing in, what he thought was, a seductive pose.

"So?" replied the older, brown-haired man, who was indeed sporting a moustache, and was scrutinising her face. "I think she's even cuter when she's scared."

Howl immediately felt indignant on the girl's behalf. 'The henchmen should have had gone by now,' he thought. 'There are people here.'

He took a quick look behind, and, as he had expected, the alley was empty. He hastily checked his dishevelled hair, and then smoothed down his crumpled clothes.

Putting on a calm facade, Howl marched up to them, and put a relaxed but protective arm around the girl's shoulders.

"There you are sweetheart, sorry I'm late. I was looking everywhere for you," he said amiably. He could feel her stiffen up under his arm.

She looked up at him in confusion. "Huh?"

"Hey, we're busy here!" protested the one of the soldiers heatedly.

"Are you really? It looked to me like the two of you were just leaving." Howl said pointedly, casting an inconspicuous spell on the soldiers with a flick of his finger. The brunette watched in astonishment as the soldiers awkwardly staggered away.

Howl looked down at the girl. She was prettier than he first thought. Howl frowned. She did look rather familiar. Maybe all that previous flirtatious planning wasn't all for nothing.

"Don't hold it against them." Howl said to her gently. She looked back up at him. "They're actually not all that bad. Where to? I'll be your escort this evening."

"Oh . . . I'm just going to the bakery." she told him, looking at him with surprised, brown doe-eyes.

'Excellent,' Howl thought. 'I can drop her off and then visit Lettie.'

"Don't get alarmed, but I'm being followed." He leaned closer to both have a better look at her, and for her to be able to hear him more clearly. "Act normal."

Howl took his arm off her shoulders and tucked her arm under his. He casually led her down the street, making it clear to any bystanders, though it was mainly aimed at the sludgy henchmen, that they were just a pair of lovers having an afternoon stroll.

Howl was secretly savouring the triumph of beating the Witch again, knowing that he was subtly provoking her by 'flirting' with a pretty girl.

'They might stay away if I keep her with me.' Howl thought, partly aware of the fact that he was using the girl to ward off the creatures.

For a while, it seemed as though the henchmen were indeed gone. Howl almost began to relax until he heard a loud squelch behind them. The girl gasped and clutched fearfully at his arm as the Witch's henchmen began percolating out of the walls further down the alley and ominously reforming into their planned ranks.

Despite their desperate situation, Howl couldn't help but grin at her trust and dependency of him although he was still a complete stranger. "I'm sorry," he apologised softly. "But it seems like you're involved."

"This way," Howl quickly pulled her down another lane. But the henchmen had expected that move and more of the shadowy figures were assembling up ahead, trapping Howl and the brunette in between, reaching out for them with their floppy, jellied arms. There was no way out. They raced past an intoxicated homeless man who was completely oblivious to the urgent chase occurring in the same street he was asleep in.

"Hold on," Howl murmured into her ear. The henchmen had blocked all the ground exits, leaving him with only one choice.

Howl quickened his pace, put an arm around the girl's waist and called up wind to lift them off the ground, barely missing the groping fingers as the gooey shapes crashed clumsily into each other below them, forming a large heap of black sludge.

The brunette gasped in amazement and alarm as her feet left the ground and rose above the rooftops.

"Now, stretch your legs, and start walking." Howl instructed as he began to stride in the air, using his legs to propel them both forward.

The girl tentatively released her legs from their tight, crouching position and nervously followed his example while gripping his hand fearfully, almost stopping the circulation from reaching his fingers. She gave another gasp of fright as she looked down.

Howl then realised just how terrified she was. 'She must be afraid of heights,' he thought. 'And maybe wizards as well.' He laughed at that latter comment.

"See, not so hard, is it?" he encouraged kindly, bending his head closer to hers. "You are a natural."

She looked up at him and smiled shyly, slightly loosening her vice-like grip. Howl caught his breath. She had a beautiful smile.

The two of them flew over the roofs together in a synchronized, but lopsided gait. From their height, they had a beautiful bird's eye view of Market Chipping, of its Tudor-style buildings with whitewashed walls and wooden balconies. They soared over churches, pinnacles, clotheslines, shops, restaurants, the town clock, and multitudes of celebrating people, looking down upon the festivity below.

Lightly, Howl leapt onto the balustrade of the Cesari bakery, and gently let the girl down. As her feet touched the wooden flooring she gazed up at him in wonder.

"I'll make sure to draw them off." he added, before reluctantly letting go of her hand. "Wait a bit before you go outside."

"'Kay," she said dazedly.

"That's my girl," Without another word, Howl jumped backwards off the balcony and fell back into the crowds, almost knocking over a red-vested waiter who had just finished serving two young women and a fat business man with glasses of champagne.

"May I help you sir?" asked the moustached waiter, quite shaken by the strange man who had just fallen out of the sky.

"No thank you," Howl declined politely, before leaving the traumatized attendant with his empty tray.

Howl doubled back in the direction from which he had flown from, and glanced around for any more of the pursuers. But as he had anticipated, they had gone, probably returning to report to their mistress.

When Howl was sure that the stalkers had indeed left, he hurried back up the road, away from the excited crowds, pondering over the strange girl to notice the curious stares he was receiving from the crowds.

'She didn't seem to be over 19,' Howl reflected. 'Though her hat did look rather ugly.'

'And I didn't even get to ask her for her name!' he added to himself as he entered the packed Cesari shop, eager to see Lettie and to have a proper introduction to that brunette girl again.

Surprisingly, Lettie wasn't serving at the counter, but in her place was another female waitress. This had seemed to have caused an uproar among the irritated male customers, of various as they pined for 'their' beautiful Lettie.

Howl sat down at a vacant table, willing to wait for either girl to come down, twisting the silver ring on his finger to occupy himself.

After twenty minutes of impatient waiting, Howl began to wonder how long it would take for the brunette girl to walk down the stairs.

'What is she doing up there?' Howl wondered, glancing curiously up the wooden staircase situated at the side of the shop.

Howl looked up at the other people in the restaurant. The shop was unusually full, even for a gala day. A throng of men, ranging in age, looks, width, stature and size was sullenly lingering around the counter. Practically all the tables were occupied, and waitresses in yellow frocks were hurriedly running around serving customers.

A few tables from where Howl sat, an officer and a general deep was deep in a serious conversation, with their heads bent gravely together over cups of tea, discussing an issue which seemed to be rather important.

Curious, Howl perked up and listened, pretending to be watching the parade that was passing by outside of the window.

". . . to the Northern Border." finished the general.

"Is it that bad?"

"The High Norlands are aiming in a direct line towards Kingsbury. But Madame Suliman had put a protective spell around the palace to protect it from the bombs. The only problem is that the bombs fall on the towns instead."

"What about the Stranglians?"

"They have a large number of elite battleships. They've been dropping bombs on the villages near the coast."

"All those children," sighed the officer as he took a sip from his cup. "Why won't the King just end this war?"

The general nodded understandingly. "He doesn't seem to want to. He's convinced that every one of his new battle plans would crush the enemy. And the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence can't do anything to change his mind."

"What about Madame Suliman?" asked the officer, "She's close enough to influence the King, isn't she?"

The general dropped his voice to a low undertone. "Yes, but she's got her mind on something involving the Wizard Howl." Howl strained his ears to hear what he was saying. "She's playing some sort of a 'game'. She won't end it until it's over."

"What does she want with him?"

The general shrugged. "Beats me."

Having heard quite enough, Howl stood up and headed for the door, his calculated reunion with either girl completely forgotten.

A/N: Thanks to everyone for putting up with me . . . I'm not very good at this sort of thing. And thanks to Elyssa, Amy and Julia, for helping me . . . I have no idea what I'd do without you girls . . .XD

And another thanks to everyone who read . . . and reviewed . . . but I'm still thanking those people who managed to read through it, cause it was pretty bad . . . LOL. . . you're all incredibly nice XDD.