Disclaimer: My life is not mine, take it.

"Calcifer! Who's that?" cried a little boy, standing next to a small, oddly colored fire.

"I don't know," the fire replied reproachfully. "Our Majesty over there neglected to tell me what poor sap followed him home.

Sophie started to have a heart attack, but then remembered that she was in a wizard's house. No, not just a wizard's house, but Wizard Howl's house. Who knew what kind of evil things lurked about in this house? It was probably a demon of some sort.

Deciding that the fire had indeed called her a poor sap, she got a little indignant. "Excuse me? I'm not 'some poor sap'! Your evil wizard over here abducted me!"

The boy laughed. "Evil? Howl's not evil. He's about as evil as, well, um…" The boy was obviously having some trouble finding a good example as the house was dark, dirty, and imposing, and he was standing next to what was most likely a fire demon, the worst kind of demon as far as Sophie knew.

"Oh, but I am evil, Markel. You don't seem to realize just how evil I'm being right now. I've just indentured this nice young woman into our service as a maid by saving her life. What could be worse? I just forced her to live with us."

Howl turned towards the cabinet next to the fire. "I think it's time for some dinner. What do you want, Markel? Eggs, bacon, roast?"

"Ohh, do you have some of that wonderful cake from Lettie? I had some of that the other day and it was sooooo-," the boy apparently named Markel was cut off before he had the chance to ramble on.

"Yes, I have some, and no, you can't have any until after dinner. Although, you can eat it all after dinner if you want."

Markel rolled his eyes and leaned towards the crackling demon. "Sounds like somebody wants an excuse to go back to Lettie."

Sophie felt a wave of dread at hearing this. Was Lettie Howl's next target? Was he going to eat her heart? Always the thinker, Sophie just filed the information away. She couldn't stop him now, but maybe later, or maybe she could warn Lettie somehow.

She was startled out of her reverie by the sound of Howl's voice. "Wha?"

Howl smiled patiently. "I asked what you wanted for dinner."

"Oh," said Sophie, a little startled that he would ask her that, and disarmed by his charming smile. "Um, eggs and bacon, and some toast if you have it."

"Yup. Eggs, bacon, toast, and cake it is!" Howl brought out a dark burnt frying pan, with stains covering it.

Sophie thought for a second, and then sighed. "You know, if I'm going to be your new maid, then I'm going to have to get used to making your meals and doing the work. Here, hand over that pan."

Howl just smiled as he handed her the pan, and swiftly sidestepped her as she went over to the talking fire.

Markel started to stop her. "Wait! Only Howl can-," but Howl laid a silencing hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

Sophie ignored the concerned boy, and came to a stop in front of the cabinet. She squatted down and opened the cabinet. Scrunching up her nose at the smells, and dust, and cobwebs, and moldy looking breads, and the disorganization, and…. Sighing, Sophie began sifting through the junk and extracting the needed foods that seemed to be mostly edible.

She then proceeded to walk over to the sentient fire and started to put the pan down, but the flame jumped up at her and started spitting and hissing. "I only bend my head for Howl." Then in a smaller, whiny tone, "I will not be exploited."

Sophie looked at him for a moment, and then she got an idea. Bending down, she looked him in the flickering eye, and said quietly, "Look, it seems to me that you're already being exploited. I don't think such a handsome and powerful demon should be locked down and forced to do such mundane tasks." She was taking a shot in the dark, only judging by what she half-felt herself, and what she hoped he felt.

Apparently, she had struck her mark, for the demon's supposed chest swelled and he looked at her appraisingly.

She continued, "Well, seeing as I'm going to be around here awhile, maybe I can help you. You do what I want; I help you. Got it?" The flame nodded slowly. "What do you want?"

The demon's eyes glanced quickly at Howl. "To be free. I'm not here of my own consent anymore."

Sophie grinned, though it looked sinister with the only light coming from the jumpy fire. "You do what I want, then I'll do all I can to free you."

Sighing reluctantly, the demon gave in. "Fine, but you better take good care of me. And feed me the leftovers of the meals!" With that the proud demon once again bent its head for a mortal.

Feeling like this had more weight than she realized, she plopped the pan on the demon, cracked open the eggs, attempted to calm the goose-bumps on her arms, and ignored the astonished stare from Markel.

Howl grinned as if in triumph, and said to Markel, "Get out the plates, and after dinner I'll help you with that spell you've been having trouble with."

Markel's face lit up, and he jumped to the task.

As the bacon sizzled on the frying pan, Sophie tried to search the food cabinet, hoping and fearing to find a packet labeled 'powdered heart' or a jar with a pickled heart waiting for use. All she found other than half-rotten foods was spiders, webs, cobwebs, and rats galore.

Finally giving up until she had more time for a thorough inspection, she took the pan of the demon and passed the foods out. Markel ate his with gusto, and smacked his lips. "This is great! Much better than Howl's! He always burns it," he said, slightly conspiratorially.

Howl let out another of his chiming laughs. "If it wasn't for me, you'd still be an urchin, and wouldn't ever have warm food."

"I didn't ask for food that was half on fire and half-maggots though," Markel said good-naturedly, for they were just kidding. For some reason, Sophie felt as if this was more of a family than she and hers was. It was light-hearted banter from the older brother to the little brother, not even a little tension seeming to rise between them. In her house, it had always been business.

Unsure whether to be happy, humored, or depressed, she sat down slightly dejectedly, and picked at her own serving.

"What's wrong?"

Again startled out of yet another reverie, she jumped slightly and looked around for the intruder of her thoughts.

Too find the apprentice of the most evil living wizard looking at her in concern.

"What?" she said, a little thrown off.

"I said what's wrong. As Howl would say, 'You look a little down in the celestial dumps.'"

Sophie blinked.

Heaving an exaggerated sigh, Markel elaborated once again. "You look unhappy and like your thinking about something not entirely pleasant. What is it?"

"Just thinking."

Obviously not having lost that childhood innocence, Markel questioned, "What is it? Are you uncomfortable or something, being around us? Howl isn't actually evil, he made those stories up to keep people away."

"Why would he want to keep people away?"

"For peace." They both looked over at Howl, who apparently was not going to let them talk over his head any longer. "I'm pursued, as you both already know, by the Witch of the Waste, but also by Government Magicians. They wish to enlist me in the war, which I have no intent to do. I fight my own battles for my own cause."

Then he gave a decisive clap, and threw on that smile again. "Enough of these unhappy matters, let's get down to business Markel. Sophie, you can finish your dinner, and make up your bed for the night. I left a small pile of blankets on the table by the door, and you can use the cubbyhole in the wall until we can get more suitable accommodations for you. We need a change of scenery anyway."

Sophie didn't have the remotest idea what he meant, but apparently Markel did, for he let out a squeal and cheered. "YAY! You mean we're gonna get a new door? We should get that one at the old hat shop, the one that's for sale!"

"About time!" Sophie jumped, and looked around.

"You were unusually quiet, Calcifer, throughout that entire meal," said Howl. "Not a single derisive comment or disruptive and rather noise."

"Yeah, I feel kind of mellow now. I doubt you like this anymore than I do." Calcifer had glanced at Sophie during this, but she didn't understand why.

Markel rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's got that move started!"

Howl raised an eyebrow. "Settle down, Markel. We still need to buy that hat shop, and make out the propers1. I was planning to do it in about three days."

Markel blushed and started to sit don, but jumped again. "So? You still promised to give me lessons. Come on!"

"Darn it! I was hoping you had forgotten. Well, let's get started. I think you said you had trouble on the Vescile Riddle?" He pulled out a sheaf of paper as Markel nodded. "Well, let's start with the…"

As they discussed the wizarding arts, Sophie started to get herself situated.

1 This is their term for drawing the diagrams for the move.

Well, there's the chapter.