Thanks to Lina for being my first reviewer, Moondrop32751 and KalanSlytherin for putting me on the fave list, and to Carowyn for putting me on her alert list.
Here's good ol' chapter 2.
Chapter 2: Not Another DaySophie suddenly spotted a large stick poking out of the ground, halfway to Mrs. Fairfax's. "Oh, I bet Mrs. Fairfax would just love to have such a good looking walking stick." Walking swiftly to it, she reached out and pulled softly, but the stick didn't budge.
She pulled harder, but it wouldn't come out. Finally, she whispered to it, "Get out of there, you piece of firewood!" and it came flying out.
Sophie was so surprised by the stick's sudden cooperation that she fell straight down onto her butt.
Getting up slowly, as she rubbed her rear, she looked around, and couldn't see the stick anywhere. Then she heard an odd thumping noise. Turning around quickly, she nearly fainted as she saw a scarecrow attached to the stick she had been pulling. That in itself didn't scare her. What scared her was that it was hopping up and down behind her, as if it was impatient.
Deciding that fainting would in fact not help her, she laughed softly to her self and said, "Well, I'm sure you do a great job scaring off birds. I have to go now. Bye."
She began walking again, and then noticed that the thumping was continuing at a faster pace. Realizing that she had started out later than she had thought, she sighed. "Oh well." Always the sensible (except for with herself) thinker, she turned back to the hopefully sentient scarecrow, and said clearly and slowly, "I need shelter. Do you know what that is?" The thing gave a positive jump. "Okay, could you find me some? Do you know a good shelter close to here?" It turned off the road, and began jumping as fast as it could to the left.
Sophie shrugged, wondering if that hop had been positive or not. Deciding that stopping wouldn't make her life easier, and having the odd feeling that the thing would find her no matter what, she began walking slowly, almost sauntering, again in the direction of Mrs. Fairfax's.
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The sun was mostly set, and there was still no sign of the scarecrow. Sophie started muttering to herself about manners, but stopped as she heard a soft sound behind her.
She turned around and called out, "Hello? Is anybody ther-," but something jumped out from behind her, and grabbed her wrist, pulling her towards it.
Then a gruff voice whispered in her ear, carrying with it the scent of bad ale, "Wanna come back ter me house, lil' gray mouse? I'll give yer some good cheese."
"Um, no. That's okay. Let go."
"Ah, no. I'm havin' to much fun."
"No really! Let go! I was just going to meet my-,"
"-Sweetheart," came a voice from the left.
"Huh?" both of them said.
Slowly, a handsome young man, with billowing sleeves, a white puffy shirt with lace at the half unbuttoned cut at the chest, a teardrop-shaped dark blue crystal on a translucent gold chain, and colorful poofy pants, stepped into view.
"Honey, we really need to be going. Our carriage is waiting a little ways back. Here. "The odd, but entrancing, young man threw a small bag lined with silver at the burly man. "For making sure she stayed safe. You know how dangerous it is these days, with drunks wandering about."
The burly man next to Sophie seemed about to retort, or attack, but then noticed the weight and jingle of the purse. "Oh, thank you sir, "he said, shaking off the slur and standing a little bit straighter, though still swaying slightly. "I just couldn't let her walk around alone now could I? But, since you're here now, I guess I'll just be going…." And he ran off as fast as he could, though failing to do so in a straight line.
"Come along." The man took up her arm and began to walk nonchalantly down the road, with Sophie following obediently, to shocked to protest.
After a couple minutes, just as Sophie had plucked up the courage to ask who this man was, he said softly, "We're being followed."
Sophie automatically started to turn around, but was prevented by the man tightening his grip. "Act natural," was all he said.
With an increasing sense of foreboding, Sophie did as she was bid, and walked with him. Then came a sickly squishy sound from in front of them, and black things began to ooze out ahead of them on the road.
Sophie also heard he same sound from behind, and could see more coming from both sides. She got more and more apprehensive, and began clutching the man's shirt.
"Hold tight," he said happily.
The things converged on them, wasting no time and coming faster then humanly possible. Sophie shut her eyes and braced herself for the impact against the man's chest. But suddenly, her feet weren't touching the ground.
Opening her eyes wide in dismay, she looked down to find a medium black blob undulating on the ground. Then she realized that those were the things, and she was at least 200 feet in the air, only being held in the air by the man as he seemingly walked nonchalantly through the air, drifting quickly downwards.
"You know, it would be easier if you helped me walk."
"What?" said Sophie, startled out of her reverie.
He repeated what he had said, and Sophie blushed and hesitantly began to walk. She was beyond surprised when her foot hit almost solid ground. Taking another step in time with the man this time, she couldn't figure out what was partially holding them aloft. It felt like she was stepping on wet sand, the surface giving way slightly to let her foot sink in, but still solid enough to give a good footing.
Then she noticed that the world directly beneath her looked blurry. After thanking the fact that she wasn't in the least amount afraid of heights, she realized what was holding them.
Magic.
It all made sense now. The things were sent by magic to capture this man, and he had escaped using magic. The air seemed blurry because of some spell used to hold them.
"Who are you?" she exclaimed, now thoroughly frightened, for the only wizard living anywhere around her village was the horrible Wizard Howl, when he passed through, the one that ate the hearts of all pretty girls. On second thought, said Sophie to herself, that makes me completely safe. He only takes pretty girls. At least it wasn't M
Howl laughed. "Judging from the terrified look on your face, you just realized who I am. Yes," he said with as much of a flourish as he could muster while in midair, "I am the fearsome wizard Howl, destroyer of souls, and eater of hearts. Not a pretty girl safe in my grasp, and not a single man hears my name without a tremble. All shall-," but he cut off as Sophie buried her face in his shirt to smother her giggles. "What?" he asked incredulously.
"Oh, it's just that you put such an air of bravado," she laughed.
"I'll have you know that I myself am quiet fearsome. Entire armies have cried out before me!" he said, now blushing himself. "Why aren't you fearing me? Surely you've heard the tales of my wicked ways."
"Well, you just saved me from those gooey black things…."
"But they were sent to capture me! Maybe by the King and Wizard Sullivan! In fact, I could very well have sent them myself. I could have used them as a mask to warm you up to me." Howl was quickly swelling with indignation.
"And why would you do that? You only take pretty girls, right?"
Howl gave her a fleeting glance, unnoticed by Sophie, and opened his mouth and took a breath as if about to say something, but thought for a second, and decided against it. No need to make her presumptuous.
"Well in that case," he said easily, "you must be my new cleaning lady. Ol' turnip head wouldn't have brought me to you for no reason. I'm sure he's seen plenty of bad things, so it couldn't have just been to save you from a common drunk."
"Turnip head?"
"That living scarecrow." Then, under his breath, he added, "He's under a nasty curse, that one…"
"Then why don't you break it?"
Howl shook his head a little sadly. "Unfortunately, I can't. The whole point of the curse he's under is for somebody to find him, or he them. Only they can break the curse."
"Did you put it on him?"
"Alas, no. I cannot claim that piece of work."
They continued on in silence for a couple minutes, until Sophie realized she didn't recognize the landscape they were in at all. Now a little worried, Sophie said, "Um, Howl? Where are we going?"
Howl seemed bemused. "Tsk, tsk. Sophie, you really need to listen better. I told you that you're my new cleaning lady. Where do you think we're going? Where could we be going other than my castle?"
Sophie was alarmed, for she really hadn't been listening to him until he said turnip head. "Cleaning lady? I'm not a maid, I will not…" but she trailed of as she realized that she was almost a maid, and would probably amount to nothing better. Instead, she said rather lamely, "I was going to see my sister. I didn't ask you to abduct me."
Howl laughed. "Oh yes, I'll set you down right here, and remember next time I see you accosted that that's your idea of a good past time. Besides, I can't let you go, I couldn't even if it were daylight with true officers around, not these idiotic city guards that would be more likely to help 'abduct you' than to stop it."
Sophie had to agree with him on the guards, but this still didn't truly explain anything. "Why couldn't you let me down?"
Howl replied a little sternly, "Because those monsters were almost definitely sent from that old tramp, the Waste of a Witch." Sophie shivered a little at the casual way he insulted the most wicked and powerful witch of the time, only barely held off by Wizard Suliman. "They saw you, and almost definitely reported to her by now. I'm sorry, but you're involved now, and I can't let you make anyone else be. Besides, do you really want to bring disaster down upon your sister?"
They landed softly in a field filled with thick, opaque fog. "Fine, I guess your right," Sophie said grudgingly.
"Good," said Howl happily. "Well, here we are."
Sophie stared at him. "What do you mean? There's nothing there."
Howl sighed, and called out in an irritated voice, "It's okay Calcifer, she's with us. You can let her see."
A flame seemed to flame brightly in response, and a low rumbling reached Sophie's ears. It grew louder and louder, until the fog seemed to lose it's density, and Sophie was able to pick out a faint outline. Then, all at once and startlingly, the sound rose to a crescendo, and the castle came into full view.
It was the oddest castle Sophie had ever seen. The two turrets seemed to form eyes, a large wooden blob seemed to form a working mouth, for it opened and closed like a clam with odd scraps of metal as teeth. The body was odd assortment of balconies, and pieces of houses, making it seem like an artist had taken ideas from different architectures and thrown them around randomly to form a turtle like shell. Strings snaked their way from balcony to balcony, swaying in the wind, with clothes pinned to them with moldy clothe pins. A tall and spindly smokestack wandered around the roof, puffing a steady stream of black and dark blue smoke.
The four legs were the strangest. They were made from some type of metal, and swung haphazardly under the weight of the castle, and Sophie was unable to understand how they supported it and still managed to move at a rapid place. It was no castle like Sophie had ever, not that she got out enough to see many.
It was a wizard castle.
Howl walked her up to the front of it, and the thing lumbered to a stop, and came down agonizingly slowly. When the dust had finally settled from the impact of the castle, the door creaked open, and the two stepped in.
Well, there's chapter two. It's longer than the last one, but still not as long as would have liked it. At least I got over 2000 words in this! O WHOOT!
Tell me what you think, and I don't mind criticism as long as you do it a way that helps me.
Love ya, toodles, and I'll see you next time, in chapter 3!