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Chapter 7
In which Sophie takes a trip: part 1
The twelve year old Sophie sat alone in the large house, waiting for Michael or Howl to return home. Both had gone out for separate reasons, leaving Sophie to care for herself until they returned. She waited quietly; Calcifer was asleep so she didn't have anyone to talk to. She was laying on her back in the center of the room on the wood floor, her arms and legs spread out like she was making a snow angle, her dress spread everywhere, along with her long silver hair.
"…so bored…" she mumbled, her head rolling to the side to see if Calcifer was at all awake. He wasn't. So Sophie got up and wandered around the room. She went to the door and examined the colors of the dial. She knew the green one went to her little hideout, and the black one went to Howls secret place…but she didn't know where the other two went to.
She turned it to blue and opened the door. She looked out and saw she was in a sea port town, off in the distance was a beautiful sea, the sun's light reflecting it beautifully as it set. Sophie looked around and a smile formed.
"…I'll only be gone for a minute, I'll be right back." she thought. Before she left she went to Calcifer.
"CALCIFER WAKE UP!!" she said loudly. Calcifer came up in a bright flame, surprise written all over his fiery face.
"What do you want this time?" he asked rudely.
"Tell Howl or Michael that I went out to the town for a few minutes, ok?" she said to the already half asleep Calcifer.
"Yeah…whatever…I'm going back to sleep." Calcifer said lazily, his eyes drooping as he lowered again. Sophie smiled and ran out the door.
"Oh wow!" she said as she skipped around the street, looking at every stand she passed that caught her attention. She wandered around aimlessly, but she was having too much fun to care where she was going.
"…free haircuts?" she read off a sign in a window of a store. She didn't like her hair that long, so she went inside. When she came back out it was shoulder length, but still a silver color. There was a thin red ribbon in her hair by then and it had a nice little bow at the top. She kept going and eventually found a stand that had toys in it.
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"Sophie, I'm back!" Michael called as he walked back in the room. He looked around and saw a stunning lack of twelve year olds.
"Sophie?" he called, running up the stairs to see if she was up there. When he came back down the door opened again as Howl came back.
"…huh? Where's Sophie?" Howl asked when he noticed she wasn't there to greet him. Michael shrugged and walked over to him.
"Not sure. She's wasn't here when I got back." he said with a worried voice. Howl walked over to Calcifer to see that he was asleep.
"CALCIFER WAKE UP!!" he yelled, startling the fire demon.
"So that's where she gets it." The demon mumbled. Howl looked at him funny, then shook his head and leaned in.
"Hey, you little gas ball, you wouldn't happen to know where Sophie is, would you?" he asked in a low, hissing/threatening voice. Calcifer thought for a moment before responding.
"Uh…I think she said that she went into town for a minute." He said, lowering among the logs again. Howl and Michael looked at each other and ran to the door. They opened it and both tried to get through at the same time, ending up getting stuck, shoulder to shoulder in the frames of the door. Howl elbowed Michael back and ran through.
"Who knows what kind of trouble a twelve year old could get into while alone?" Howl said angrily, looking around wildly as he did.
"Uh, by this time, she's probably thirteen." Michael mumbled. Once Howl heard that he groaned loudly and ran down the road.
"You go the other way!" he called, pointing behind him. Michael nodded and ran off.
"SOPHIE WHERE ARE YOU?!" Howl called as he ran; worried sick for her.
dun, dun, DUN! Will she be found? Review and find out.