I'm such a bad updater…. Please don't kill me…

Disclaimer: Oh, you're funny. No really, you're making me laugh. Why don't you just cut me to add to the comedy?

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Howl sighed. He took one last glance at the young woman sleeping peacefully in the small dugout hole in the side of the wall, and Calcifer looked at him, a little sympathetically.

"This'll be a tough one. No prophecy book is going to help you foresee this one's outcome. Go get some sleep." Calcifer let the candles stationed around Howl's living room desk blow out, and Howl went upstairs.

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Sophie scrunched her eyes a little as sunlight hit them. Just ten more minutes, and then I'll get up and start the hat shop, she thought, but she knew that it was futile.

She put her arms over her head, and stretched her muscles, making her legs and arms feel taut, and wonderfully fresh. That was unusual as she had a most uncomfortable bed in her small room. Also, the blankets covering her were much softer and not at all scratchy or drafty.

Sophie's mind was still to tired to figure out the reason for this, so she was quite startled when a young man's voice rang out from behind her.

"Glad to see you're awake. Have a nice sleep?"

Sophie shot up, clutching the blanket around her. "Wha… Wha…," but the events of the night before finally swarmed back, leaving her a little less flustered, but more squirmish.

"Would you like to complete that thought, or should I draw my own conclusions?" smirked Howl, obviously amused.

Sophie sighed and let the blanket drop, then froze. She had forgotten that she had stripped to her white shift before she went to sleep, and while it still covered her from ankle to wrist to neck, it fit very tightly. Quite indecent. Grabbing up the blanket again, she scowled at the wizard who was now barely containing his laughter.

"I was going to say, 'What's for breakfast,' but now I say, get out and give me some privacy so I can dress."

Howl held up his hands in defense. "Okay, okay. No problem. I made you a dress. Why don't you try it on? It's not much, but I had to do it quickly." He gestured to a small box as he left the room.

Sophie stayed still a moment longer, trying to adjust to the new place, and gave up. She got up and picked the lid off the box resignedly.

As she held up the dress for inspection, she was quite flabbergasted. The materiel felt a little like silk, but flowed between her fingertips like water. It was a light, misty blue, matching her eyes perfectly, with little red roses embroidered where there would normally be seams. It had a few small, but perfectly placed, frills on the cut-in at the chest and bottom. It caught the light and glittered magnificently.

Slowly, almost reverently, she slipped into the dress, wondering at the quality of the materiel. It fit her closely, except at the waist and below were it billowed out, but gave her a complete freedom of movement, not restricting her at all, feeling like a second skin. It also felt warm and cool at the same time, as if she could go out on the coldest winter night at midnight, or venture out for a game of Kattry at the courts and not be affected by the weather in the least, without any furs or other forms of protection.

She called out to Howl that she was decent. He swept into the room, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her. The sunlight streaming in from the window he had installed the night before glowed on her, almost seeming as if she was the one emitting the light, not the light shining on her. The dress accented her perfectly, and she was easily the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and that included his experiences in mythical beasts, for she surpassed even the most graceful unicorn.

Sophie looked at him oddly, wondering why his eyes ere so big, and why his mouth was moving but no noise was coming out. "Howl?" Why did he look like he might drool?!?

Howl shook himself. "Huh? Oh, um… nothing. In response to your earlier question, breakfast is up to you. I'm sure you're a much better cook than I am."

Shrugging, Sophie walked over to the food pantry and began sorting through it for a good assortment of food for breakfast.

She had just gotten out the last spice when Markl came into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

"Wha's goin' on?" said Markl with some difficulty.

"Well, Sophie is about to prepare us a REAL meal, and then I'm going to check over the Viscile riddle to see if you did it right."

"Uch," responded Markl, with more enthusiasm than Sophie expected, meaning negative 3 on a 1 to 10 scale.

She set the food on the stove, aka Calcifer, and walked off to her cubby to fix her makeshift bed.

Markl suddenly seemed to wake up. "HUH! Oh, what is that smell? Is it already May Day?? Come on Howl, we gotta go! We're gonna miss the first cuts of the feast!"

Howl laughed. "Its just breakfast, Markl. Really, I didn't realize that I was such a bad cook that you would think that anyone else's cooking was May Day food. Still, I did know that Sophie had to have been a better cook than me."

Sophie didn't even hear what he said. She suddenly thought about the situation she was in. She realized that she had consented to work for a heart-eating wizard, and his devil and apprentice. What had she been thinking???

Then again, she remembered what the wizard had said on their ride over here. She couldn't go back. She would bring disaster down on her family and few friends because the Witch of the Waste wanted her.

But she could run away…. Yes, tonight, when Howl went up for his bath and Markl went to work on some devilish spell or another, she could run out the back, run far, maybe to the waste…. If the Witch there wanted Howl, probably to hurt him, maybe she wasn't so bad….

"Sophie!"

Someone was shaking her shoulders, yelling her name.

"Howl, what's wrong with Sophie?"

"MOVE!" Suddenly something wrenched the thing shaking her away. She felt a shadow move across her, and tried to bolt. Arms grabbed her, and she flailed around, screaming.

Another voice boomed, this one sounding from the fireplace. "SHE'S BEEN TOUCHED BY A SPELL OF THE WITCH'S!!! IT'S STRONG!!! IT'S DEFEATING THE WARDS!!!"

"SOPHIE!!! Listen to me, you need to stop, STOP!" She bit down, but the thing didn't loosen its hold. "RAK'KAN!" She felt suddenly calm, as if time had frozen around her and she was in a safe place. She opened her eyes and blurrily saw the outline of someone standing over her.

"Sophie, the Witch of the Waste cast a spell on you. She will kill us all! You need to settle down, and listen to me. I will not hurt you. I send out the evil rumors about myself out, only for protection. I can't let anyone get close to me. I want to, but I can't. That's why people think I'm evil. Please, you need to settle down. Is that the reason you wanted to go? Because you think I'm evil?"

She nodded, noticing that the presence over her really wasn't dark or foreboding, but comforting. "Think back to what you felt. Think back to where you felt it. Can you feel it?" She nodded again, for she seemed to feel something dark and cold wrapped around her mind.

"Reject it. You can make it leave. We aren't bad; we're here to help. It's the Witch of the Waste that is bad. You can push her out. She's trying to hurt you, Markl, Calcifer, me, and your family. You have to push her away!" The voice, calming and urgent at the same time, seemed to be fading, as if slowly being pushed away.

She squinted her eyes, attempting to get a grasp on whatever was covering her mind like a veil, but suddenly felt immensely tired, almost like she head just run one of the Grand Frey marathons like her mother had. Her limbs seemed to be made out of lead, becoming heavier and harder to move.

She was exhausted, and wanted to just lie down, just go to sleep and not ever wake up… just… sleep…

"SOPHIE!!! YOU'RE SISTERS NEED YOU!!!"

Sophie bolted upwards, shocking the presence from her mind in one swift move, and looked about wildly.

"Where are they?? Please tell me quickly, I have to find them!" Her words came out in a nasty crackly sound, but Sophie was too worried to truly notice it.

Howl was staring at her, gaping like a fish, and Sophie didn't know why, nor cared. "TELL ME!!!"

Howl straightened, a look of consternation still on his face. "Sophie, there is no trouble with your sisters, I merely used them to give you a reason to fight the Witch. Now, you have to turn around and look in the mirror behind you, the spell still had an effect on you."

His voice was slow and soothing, and Sophie turned, still a little bit frightened, but mostly angry at Howl, and still not fully understanding where she was, or what was happening.

"Who's that?" Sophie asked, dismayed at the sight of an old, small, portly lady staring back at. Even odder was the fact the lady was wearing the same dress as her…

"You."

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Ok guys, I had to leave the cliffy here. Now I will say a few words about my unacceptable absence.

I'M SORRY! I am a horrible person, who kept you waiting far too long due to an exaggerated writer's block, and hope that at least some of you have not given up on me entirely. I had to read my whole story again in order to get into the right mindset to continue writing, and it was still hard to add the last eight inches to my already mostly completed chapter.

Thanks to Rhea Riley, seethingkitsune, Barley47, tsuki the moon, Faerie Wind (rereading your review was actually the thing that made me continue writing this), LynGreenTea, lilsteves, Purple Empress, o-aki-hoshi, Amethyst Grey, Ferret Love, and miko-demokags for the reviews.

Finally, I would like to say: I LIVE!!!!!!!!