Nice cliffhanger I did there, eh? -wriggles-

Anyway, I do not own Howl's Moving Castle, or any characters in the series. However, up to this point, everything has been entirely original (except the part about montalbino, of course). I promise, Howl and Sophie in later characters. For now, I'm quite happy with Colin. He's fun. 3

Colin squeaked. He was really going to get it now.. why hadn't he just waited?

Silence resumed as Colin waited for his punishment. Maybe he really was going to end up as shepherd's pie..

However, when the flash of magic hadn't came, Colin just stood there, waiting. He had learned that the longer spells took to set up, the more powerful they ended up as. Maybe he was going to end up as a full five-course buffet for them.

The silence stretched out for what felt like forever, until the other figure spoke, rather annoyed.

"Oh, honestly. I'm not going to eat you. Open your eyes."

Colin relaxed slightly. Maybe he really was getting off the hook.. First checking with one eyelid to make sure, he opened his right eye and saw what he had mistaken to be the 'old hag of the mountains.'

She wasn't.

She was a rather pretty young woman around twenty or so, with fierce black hair down to her sides, and piercing green eyes that studied his own golden-brown ones. There was no malice with those eyes, that rather reminded him of a hidden tiger- waiting for her prey to make the first move. Colin swallowed. Her eyes unnerved him.

The silence stretched on. It really was getting kind of awkward. What do you say to somebody who has just found you hiding in their coat closet?

"H-hi?"

The woman snorted. "Not even a sorry?" She snapped. She obviously had decided he wasn't some kind of spy in disguise, as Colin was still (thankfully) in his own brown haired, golden eyed, small thirteen year old self.

"Sorry?"

The woman seemed to consider this, then nodded. "Apology accepted. Now get into the kitchen and tell me what you were doing there!"

Colin had to grin slightly. She reminded her of his mother at her fierced, and meekly followed her out of the closet and into the kitchen, where, to Colin's interest, actually looked normal. She opened one of the cupboards, extracting to hot mugs of cocoa (even though it was in the midst of summer) and handed one to him, settling down on one of the wooden stools and looked sternly at him.

Colin, nervously, began to speak.

"I'm Colin, and I live down near Mockingbird Valley with my parents.. at least I did until this morning." He swallowed, trying to fight back tears. This was harder than he expected. But he hadn't cried at all since Mother had told him to leave, and he wasn't going to start now. "M-my dad's a Hunter, and he brought home bad meat or something.. a-and the next thing I know, t-they were both sick. Dark brown spots all over their bodies, like the chicken pox, only brown.. Dad was dead within a week but Mum is a healer and witch, but she was still dying.." He swallowed, trying to dislodge the lump rising in his throat. He had abandoned them! Abandoned his mother to die!

The strange woman waited patiently for Colin to calm down and resume his story.

"A-and just this morning, she told me to come in.. and she said sh-she was d-dying." Colin sniffled. He was definitely crying now. The woman started to look slightly concerned, but didn't interrupt. "A-and she told me t-to go find t-the old hag. The old hag of the mountains, we used to call her.. she used to live here, I think.."

He was sobbing louder now, trying to finish his story.

"Don't worry, its okay.." The woman tried to soothe him. It didn't work.

"NO! Its not! I abandoned her! I left her to die! How is that okay?" Colin screamed, wiping his face with his sleeve.

"Er-um its not your fault.. your mother knew that no matter what you did, she would die.." She kept on saying these kind of reassuring things until Colin finally stopped, eyes red. She immediately hopped off her stool and went over to the counter, withdrawing a few hankerchiefs and handing them to Colin awkwardly. She really needed to practice comforting..

Finally swallowing the last of his anger at himself, he told her the last part.

"And she said to tell the hag, when I say her, a phrase."

"What phrase?" The woman looked slightly curious.

"Bed of R-roses." He could barely say his mother's name without breaking down again.

The woman frowned. "Are you sure it was Bed of Roses?" Colin nodded.

"Alright then." She said, taking a deep breath. "So what do you want from the Royal Sorceress of Montalbino, or if you will, the old hag of the mountains. I think I prefer the second better, much less posh.."

Colin immediately forgot his sadness and stared at the woman in surprised. "B-but you're nothing like the old hag! I've seen her before!"

The woman frowned. "You mean you don't see an old woman right now?"

Well, duh. Idiot. said his brain. "Uh, no?" said his mouth.

"Huh.." She gazed off into the distance, mouth settled into a 'thinking frown'. His mother had that look on her face a lot as well. "You must have quite powerful magic, then.."

Colin wasn't quite sure he had heard right. He didn't have magic. It was one of the few things he had let his mother down on- Colin was sure she thought that he would end up like him, a very powerful healer. "Excuse me?"

Her frowned deepened, then spoke. "Well, looks like I'm going to join in on storytime too.."

"I'm Lupine, Royal Sorceress of Montalbino. Many people think I just magically disappeared off into the mountains, but more sensible people actually know I still work for the government.. Your mother was one of those very sensible people. I set up residence here, because I absolutely love the mountains and wildlife- and to get away from people. You don't know how many idiots I have to work with each day.. Anyway, people still somehow managed to find me and beg me for spells. I know other royal wizards do that sometimes, but I don't. I don't need much to live on, and the king gets me anything I need. Besides, I need time to myself, not running after nincompoops. So I enchanted it to look like it was falling apart, spread the story that I hike around the mountains and sold the place to an old hag who hated everybody and told them to go away. Worked like a charm. The only people who can see through it is the king- its quite a powerful spell." She stopped her story to frown at Colin, who squirmed rather uncomfortably under her stare. "That's what confuses me. You must have awful strong magic to see through it. Maybe if I train you well enough, you can take over and I can retire.."

Colin wasn't quite happy with that arrangement, and his face must have shown it too, because Lupine burst out laughing and said, "That was a joke, Colin! But anyway," she said, quieting down. Colin even cracked a small smile. "You do have quite powerful magic."

"Oh- and you're probably wondering about your mother and me?" Colin nodded. "Yes, we were siblings. I was younger, but we both had talent. She might have been a Royal Witch as well, except she had no ambition. Stayed in Mockingbird and started a family. The 'bed of roses' thing was a joke we thought up when we were younger- she would say 'bed of roses' and I would say 'lupine bushes'. Lupines are flowers, too, you know."

Colin was shocked. His aunt just happened to be the Royal Sorceress of the country, and his mother had never told him. But then again.. it made sense that his mother would want him to go to Lupine, and when Colin looked closely like her, she did rather resemble his mother. There was the same look in the eyes, the same way she held herself. Really, he probably should have been more upset, but the poor kid was already as upset as he could be.

"Oh, don't look like that." Lupine rolled his eyes. "I made her. Safety precaution, you know. I had no idea if you were trustworthy enough." When Colin looked rather hurt, she added, "Sorry." Colin didn't think she was that sorry, really.

"Anyway, pack up your stuff. We're going down to Mockingbird."

"Why?" Colin was curious.

"To pick up your mother, of course. You didn't think I would leave my sister there to die, did you? Her magic might not be strong enough when she's sick to cure her, but mine probably is."

Colin was so grateful he burst into tears of joy. Lupine shifted rather uncomfortably again. She hated these kinds of moments.

"Er, right. Come on, let's go."

Bah, a bit short.. I wanted each chapter to be around 2k words..

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