PLEASE ENJOY!

Warning: Definitely has some OOC character!

Disclaimer: I do not own Howl's Moving Castle! Nu-uh! But I own my OC!

Memories/Flashback

'...' Thought

"..." Normal Talks

Chapter 3:

Sophie immediately began work as soon as breakfast was over. She put a cloth over her gray braid and another over her nose and mouth, hanging up her shawl and tying her dress so it wouldn't get in her way. she started off with sweeping the roof angrily before moving back to the floor. "Bugs, you'd better scurry away or I'll sweep you out!" She hissed as every bugs ran across the room, trying to escape the angered woman. "Every last one of you, mocking me" she grumbled.

Rika who's upstairs, inside of her room, smiled slightly as she heard the old woman continue to grumble. She sat on the couch which Holw provided for her along with a ton of books for her to read, so she didn't have to go outside. After hours of reading she felt something was wrong, so she went downstairs, towards the concrete fire place.

She saw Calcifer was already removed from the hearth and was struggling to stay on a piece of wood suspended over a metal container. He was whimpering for help and then fell into the metal container as the cork he was holding onto crumbled into pieces. Without thinking any further, Rika calmly picked up the metal container and threw two logs onto the grate. She turned the metal container over in her hand, revealing a blue flame pulsing around the object that had been weighting Calcifer down.

As she blow softly on the pulsing flame until it grew to burn red, she saw a starry night sky, it was blurry, but she was able to see billions of stars streaked across the sky and fell to the ground. The place seemed so familiar, yet she can't remember the detail. Suddenly, she felt herself sank underwater and everything went dark.

"Rika!" A strong voice called pulling her out of her thought

Her eyes shot open and found herself staring into a cerulean sea orbs which belonged to Howl. Rika blinked a few times before looking into her hands, but Calcifer was no longer in her hands. Her eyes landed on the growing fire that had been returned to his rightful place.

She sighed in relief and her legs decided to gave up as she let herself to fall, Howl quickly reached out to grab her and looked at her with worry

"Careful" He breathed out as he helped her to stand up "Can you stand?"

Rika who's dumbfounded, nodded at him "Yes, I'm sorry"

"How did you touch Calcifer without burning your hands?" he questioned "And how did you retrieved him?"

"I-" Rika frowned as she tried to remember how did she do that "I guess... I just did?"

Nobody but him could remove Calcifer from the fireplace, let alone touch the flame with their bare fingers. It also confused Rika to the end. The sound of footsteps coming up from the front door interrupted them. Howl dropped his hand from Rika's shoulder and double checked her for any injuries before looking towards the front entrance.

"Try not to torment my friend" Howl told Sophie when he see her came back in with Markl behind her. Sophie and Markl shifted out of the way as he stalked towards the door.

"Master Howl, are you going out now?" the young boy asked as Howl closed the door and switched the dial to black.

"Markl, make sure the cleaning lady doesn't get carried away while I'm gone" Howl instructed "And Rika"

Rika looked up in surprise as she looked towards him "Yes?"

"Go get some rest and don't go outside while I'm gone" this time his voice was demanding

"Alright" Rika nodded as he returned the nod before opening the door and flying off into a world of darkness and flames. The door slammed behind him and automatically switched back to Porthaven.

"Sophie, what did you do now?" Markl asked and Sophie shrugged.

"She abused me!" Calcifer yelled " If it wasn't for Rika, who knows what would have happened. If I die, Howl dies too, I hope you know"

"I'm the cleaning lady. It's my job to clean" Sophie exerted hotly as the fire demon shrank back. Sophie proceeded towards the stairs only to be stopped by Markl who rushed in front of her, throwing his arm out to block her path.

"Wait, you can't come up here!" He cried out

"If I were you, I'd put your precious things away in a hurry" She advised, trying to hide a smirk on her face.

Markl gasped, looking back upstairs then said hurriedly "Save my room for last, okay?"

Before Sophie could reply, he already running upstairs panicked.

Sophie chuckled "These little outbursts seem to be giving me some energy" she muttered before continuing up the stairs.

"Rika" Calcifer called as soon as Sophie was out of sight

"Yes?" she replied softly as she looked at him

"Are you alright? You seem a bit tired" Calcifer said with a look of worry on his face.

"Yeah... I'm alright" she smiled "How about you? Are you sure you're alright, Cal?"

"Yeah, I'm fine now" he chuckled "Thanks to you"

"I'm glad" Rika smiled and stared down at her hands. There were so many questions left unanswered. Her mind was wondering about the vision she saw earlier when she touched Calcifer. She slowly took a deep breath and let it all out

"What are you frustrated about?" Calcifer asked, knowing that if she do that, it means she was in deep frustration. Rika bit her lip and pulled a chair to sat in front of him

"I think the curse is getting worse day by days. You nearly died today, maybe it was a warning. What if next time, I'm won't be there to save you?" Rika muttered as hot tears building up on her violet eyes "I don't think I can break the curse..."

"Okay stop" Calcifer interrupted her "First, I won't die and I refuse to die"

"You can't actually choose, Cal" Rika replied with a small weak smile

Completely ignoring her, Calcifer continued "Second, I know we can break the spell because we've got you! I mean you're the smart ones in here! I believe you would find something sooner or later! I can guarantee that you will be the one to break this curse!"

"How can you be so sure?" Rika questioned

"I don't know... I just did" he shrugged as Rika giggled

"You're weird Cal" she smiled

"Rika-san! Oh god! Come over here!" Sophie's voice rang from upstairs as Rika blinked and nodded to Calcifer before making her way up to the old woman. She see Sophie was standing out on the balcony. The old woman waved the towards the girl to come closer.

Rika hesitated before she stepped out to the balcony. Her eyes sparkled wondrously in the sunlight, staring in awe at the scenery."It's beautiful" she muttered

"I know, right?" Sophie breathed out. Rika quickly went to the stairs

"Calcifer!" she called out to him over and over again "Cal!"

"God! Rika, what happened? You gave me a heart attack!" Calcifer said as soon as the girl stood in front of him

"You're magic is incredible! It's a first class magic!" Rika laughed cheerfully as Calcifer blushed

"You think so?!" he asked in a happy tone before he paused "Wait, you went outside?"

"Just to the balcony" she explained

Calcifer paused before he looked at her "Well, you look fine and more energetic... so maybe you could go outside... But! With Sophie or Markl okay?!"

"Okay, thanks Cal"