In Which There Is a Lot of Green Goo
Isobel looked up towards the top of the mountainous hill and saw it, the moving castle which houses one of the most powerful magical families in all of Ingary. The inhabitants weren't nearly as imposing as the outside of the castle, except when the witch, Sophie, and wizard, Howl, argued. Isobel shuddered as she recalled the sounds that their magic could make. The black outside contrasted sharply against the light blue sky and white, fluffy clouds. The dark smoke pouring from the numerous chimneys dissipated far overhead. Isobel pulled her shawl closer around her shoulders and started up.
"I hope they don't mind I'm a bit late."
She thought to herself as she walked along the rocky path winding up the hillside.
The wind blew gracefully across the tall green grass, making the hill look like a sea of green dotted with colorful flowers, a few looking unnaturally blue. As Isobel made her way up the trail she came across a small bush of wild roses, she stopped to view the small blooms and appreciate their lovely aroma. Upon stooping farther down she realized there was a rather large spider crawling along the petals at a fast speed directly towards her. Isobel squealed and stumbled back.
"Spiders! Why must it always be spiders?" She said as she stood and brushed off the dirt from her dress.
Isobel carefully made her way up the hill, steering clear of any bushes that looked like prime spider habitats and eventually made it up to the castle itself. As she approached the door to the castle the realized that it was floating above the ground.
"There must be strong magic here to lift such a mass of stone." Isobel thought to herself as she climbed up steps to the door. She was about to knock when the door seemed to open on its own.
Isobel almost gasped aloud at the sight. It was much smaller than she expected but also much messier. There was a transparent green sludge that went from up the stairs to the table, looped around the room, and then back up the stairs.
Isobel cautiously walked in, minding the goo that lay on the floor and almost every surface including the walls. A quarrel and thudding could be heard coming from upstairs, Isobel looked at the ceiling above her and inched closer towards the hearth where a warm, bright fire was glowing.
"This happens a lot. I hope you're ready to take it on" A voice said from behind her.
Isobel squealed and turned quickly to see a small blue flame with orange flaming eyes looking back at her.
"Hello, I'm Calcifer the resident fire demon." It said with a few fiery pops
"H-how do you do? I'm Isobel, the new cleaning lady." Isobel said nervously
"Our last cleaning lady was about 90, Well not really, she was Sophie under a spell but you seem much too young to be a cleaning lady. How old are you anyway? 16?" Calcifer inquired.
"17, your fiery-ness." Isobel said, it couldn't hurt to lay on the flattery with a fire demon.
The quarreling and thudding could still be heard from upstairs.
"You should probably let them know you're here. It can't be good that Sophie and Howl are still at it. The magic explosion of the day already happened and I'm afraid this will escalate into hurling of magic or objects." Calcifer said as he sunk back down into his logs.
Isobel slowly made her way up the slime covered stairs to where the trail ended, at the bathroom door.
She heard a young woman's voice sternly talking to what sounded similar to a man moping like a child. Isobel slowly inched forward and the door opened on its own. In the bathtub was a man with straight blonde hair, piercing green eyes, and quite a handsome face. The woman had long red gold hair braided down her back and a light blue-green dress on.
"Howl will you stop with your moping please?" She said to the man who was sinking lower into the bubbles in the bathtub.
"I don't want a cleaning lady. They mess with my things." He replied.
The door creaked slightly as it opened more and the woman turned to face Isobel.
"Oh hello there! You must be Isobel Folly then."
"Yes ma'am." Isobel replied, standing up straight, she had never met a witch as beautiful as Sophie, nor one expecting a baby.
"I'm Sophie Pendragon." Sophie said as she extended a hand and shook Isobel's
"This is my husband Howl. You'll be properly introduced when he has finished sulking and wallowing in bubbles."
They both walked out of the bathroom and into the hall.
"I'm sorry about the mess, I meant to tidy a bit before you came but I'm not to do too much lifting or magic as you can see why." Sophie said as she gently rested a hand on her stomach.
"Oh no it's fine, I'm used to messes, I have four older brothers and my job was to keep the house tidy." Isobel said with a smile. A soft thudding could still be heard every so often and Sophie noticed Isobel looking up at the ceiling in wonder.
"That's our son Morgan in his room. He's been able to use magic ever since he could talk." Sophie said as they walked down the hall.
"Could you grab that cord please?" Sophie asked as she pointed up to a white cord with a small ring on the end.
Isobel nodded, quickly grabbed it and pulled down. She had to scramble to avoid the stairs that fell and locked into place. Sophie wrapped the cord around a hook and slid the ring on the end into a small slot to lock it.
They climbed up to an attic bedroom strewn with various toys and books.
"Morgan I thought I told you to clean up in here!" Sophie said, exasperated. "All that would need done up here is sweeping and dusting, Morgan tidies his own things, or is supposed to."
A young boy around the age of 6 peeked over the edge of his bed and stood up. He was the spitting image of his father but with Sophie's soft blue green eyes and a tawny hair that resembled Sophie's in a way but not quite as red, more like the red had been replaced with a browner color, almost as if it had been dragged through mud.
"Hi." He said before sitting back down out of sight.
"Normally he's much more shy than this. You're lucky he even showed himself. He likes to hide under his bed." Sophie said as they went back down the stairs and the thudding commenced.
"Would you like to try putting the stairs back into place?" Sophie asked.
"That would be ideal, since I'll be cleaning up there." Isobel replied.
"Then what you'll have to do is take the cord and gently guide the stairs back. While you're doing that I'm going to go get a few things ready for you." Sophie said as she walked up the hall and into a room. When she opened the door the wonderful smell of old books was released into the hall.
"That must be a library full to the ceiling of old and magical books." Isobel thought to herself as she grabbed the white cord.
Isobel deftly completed the task of putting away the stairs and looked up at her work with a smile. The stairs suddenly came down again. Morgan bounded down them and practically galloped past Isobel, leaving her to put the stairs back again. After doing so she walked down the hall past a bedroom with the door open slightly, Isobel's curiosity got the better of her and she peered into a room with papers and books cluttered on a desk. Isobel looked at the bed and gasped at the canopy with dozens of spiders milling across it. She almost jumped when Sophie's voice came from behind her.
"Howl won't let me do anything to harm the spiders. He says they're his friends. They were quite frightening at first because they liked to wander down the bedposts, but now we get along just fine. It also used to look like what's on the desk, but expand it and put it everywhere besides the desk. " Sophie said with a few books in her arms, "I'll be downstairs making sure we have what you'll need."
Isobel continued down the hall alone and came to the bathroom door when it suddenly opened, releasing a steam filled with flowery smells , that could only be described as a meadow in full bloom, along with a man standing in the doorway. His blue and silver jacket hanging on his shoulders, arms crossed on his chest, dangling blue jewels hanging from his ears and black pants cuffed once over his black leather shoes on his long legs.
"I haven't properly introduced myself, I am the Wizard Pendragon," He said with a bow, "you may call me Mr. Pendragon, or Wizard Pendragon, whichever you feel fits, unless I feel that none of those fit, in that case I would suggest Howl."
"I'm Isobel Folly. I tend to go by Isobel." She replied, giving a slight curtsy back to him.
"When you begin cleaning please don't harm the spiders or touch any labeled jars or packets. Sophie used to go on cleaning rampages and that was... Disastrous."
"I'll do my best Wizard Pendragon." Isobel replied, eager to watch the rather intimidating man walk away
As Howl walked down the hall and the stairs Isobel thought of the rumors spread about his terrible power, his terrifying fire demon, and his tendency to eat young girls hearts then steal their souls.
"Now that he's a Royal Wizard, has he stopped doing those things?" She wondered as she followed a ways back from him, still quite wary about him. From the stairs Isobel watched as Howl said goodbye to Sophie for the day, barely dodging Morgan as he scrambled back up the stairs. The stairs to his room suddenly clattered down to Isobel's amazement and he clambered up them before they closed as quickly as they had come down.
"I must be off, my dear. I have business in Wales today and won't be home till late." Howl said to Sophie as he held her hands then leaned down and gave her a gentle kiss.
"Alright then, I'll save you some dinner." Sophie replied with a smile on her face before Howl turned the knob so a small black dab of paint pointed down and stepped into a black nothingness.
Isobel caught a glimpse of Howl walking through for a short time before disappearing completely.
"Ah, there you are Isobel. I asked Howl to clean his mess as much as he could before he left and he was able to clean the goop on the walls, and he was able to do the shelves too. Everything you'll need is over here." Sophie said as she walked over to a small closet.
"A bucket and a mop are in here as well a few cleaning spells are written on parchment beside the sink."
"Thank you Mrs. Pendragon." Isobel said as she walked over to where the bucket was and saw numerous bottles of various cleaning potions.
"Please, call me Sophie." She said with a gentle smile. "If you need anything just come and get me from upstairs, or even ask Calcifer, he knows quite a bit more about magic than I do, just don't let him talk you into doing anything other than what you want to do, and don't let him bully you, if he tries to just threaten him by taking a log from him."
"Alright Mrs- I mean Sophie"
Isobel quickly got to work filling the bucket with various things Calcifer told her worked well together to clean magical goop after Sophie had gone upstairs.
"Speaking of things going well together," Isobel said as she poured two very different looking bottles into her bucket, "how do Howl and Sophie make their relationship work? I thought they were always quarreling, every time I saw them in Market Chipping they would be in a spat of some kind."
Isobel looked into the bucket and watched as the two liquids mixed and bubbled slightly and mumbled a spell over it.
"I don't know honestly. Howl isn't the kind of person who someone would marry, but then again Sophie never thought she would marry. They're quite a strange match but they make it work. Maybe it's magic, maybe Sophie just knows how to keep him in line, or maybe it's just love."
"I was surprised to see that so soon after they had argued that Howl was being so sweet."
"They've made it a rule that neither is allowed to leave before some sort of apology is made."
"Howl was quite gentle with her."
"Howl knows that he cant lose his temper. He really does care for Sophie. You didn't think Howl had a tender side did you?" Calcifer said as he pulled himself up through his logs a bit more.
"Not really. I thought he ate girls' hearts because he was lacking in one himself." Isobel said as she began to mop up the green goo.
"Well now you know the truth about the Wizard Howl. He's a big softie when he's not being an arrogant peacock."
"And when does that happen?" Isobel noticed that as soon as the potion-filled water touched the goo it started to dizzolve quickly.
"Good point. He is doing better now that he has Sophie though. And despite how often it happens, he really doesn't like to quarrel with people."
"Well that's probably for the best. I can't imagine a quarrel with a man such as Howl."
"When he does it can get rather frightening, but Sophie can hold her own against Howl."
Isobel finished cleaning the goop from the floors quickly and easily with the brew Calcifer had instructed her to make.
"Well that went quickly." She said, looking around at the floor. "Now to do the stairs."
Isobel lugged the bucket and mop over the the stairs leading up the the hall and began mopping the goo off the wooden steps. This, too went quickly so Isobel finished within ten minutes. After she begun the short distance from the stairs to the bathroom Sophie came out of the library room.
"You're almost finished already? That was quick. I suppose those potions and spells helped, didn't they?"
"Oh yes. I thought it would take ages but I've only been working at for half an hour total at most." Isobel said, holding the mop handle with both hands.
"Well you've done a great job so far. Nothing else really needs to be done today actually, besides maybe a little dusting in the library if you're up for it." Sophie said.
"Really? I expected more things to clean today."
"Quite frankly I did too but it seems Howl cleaned because he dust want a cleaning lady. Once he saw that didn't work he threw the goo tantrum." Sophie said the last part with a sigh and a slight shake of the head.
"Well I'm glad he left me something to do." Isobel said with a smile, "I'll dust right after this and if you think of anything else I can do it."
"Thank you Isobel. There's a duster in the closet the mop and bucket came from." Sophie said as she walked downstairs and through what would've been the perfect spot for a broom closet.
Isobel deftly mopped up the last of the green goop and emptied the bucket into the sink downstairs. Calcifer looked up from his logs at her and watched as she put the mop and bucket away then grabbed the duster from a shelf.
"Have you ever used magic before?" Calcifer asked, crackling as he spoke.
"Nothing more than what I just did." Isobel said.
"Hmm. Interesting." He sank back down into his pile of logs and began to mumble a song.
Isobel caught the word "saucepan" multiple times.
Isobel went up the stairs yet again and opened the door to the library. She gasped aloud at the sight before her. The shelves alone shouldn't have fit in the room let alone the large hearth between them where a blue fire glowed, a ladder on each shelf rolled on tracks smoothly and with a satisfying sound you'd imagine an old library ladder to make. Isobel climbed the one on the left and began dusting. The uppermost shelves containing books with strange markings and words were coated with a thick dust so Isobel pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and tied it to cover her nose and mouth before using a rag she had kept in her apron to get rid of the large amounts of dust.
"I'd be careful up there if I were you." Calcifer's voice echoed through the room, effectively startling Isobel.
She looked down to the hearth and saw Calcifer's face elongated in the flames.
"How are you there?" Isobel wondered.
"Howl set up a flue system that I can travel through. I was getting bored staying in one fireplace for days on end."
"Well that was nice of him."
"He's actually quite generous and kind most of the time. Many people don't know that because he's a bit hard to approach."
Isobel pulled herself along the track on the ladder, making her way through the top shelves and working her way down.
"Where are these books from Cal?" Isobel asked as she pulled out a red leather bound book with the "VERNE" written in gold on the side and "JULES VERNE" the cover from a group of books with multiple names she never heard of before.
"They're Howl's. I don't know exactly what they're about or where he got them, but I do know they're special to him."
"They look like they're in our language but, like the authors were drunk."
"Well Howl doesn't come from around here. They're probably from his home"
Isobel finished dusting the shelves and threw Calcifer the dust ridden rag to burn, it was covered in a thick, grey coat and Isobel didn't want to deal with washing it out. As Calcifer burnt it he began to cough out little bits of dusty smoke and crackle.
"You alright?" Isobel asked him.
"Yeah I'm fine, I'm just not used to burning dusty rags."
Isobel walked downstairs to see Sophie sitting at the kitchen table reading a book from her stack.
"I've finished for today Sophie, unless there's something else you'd like me to do."
"Not that I can think of." Sophie said as she looked up. "And before you go," Sophie stood and went to the hearth where Calcifer was returning and pulled a loose brick up to reveal a secret storage space with a bundle of notes and coins.
"Now, I can pay you weekly or daily, and you can come any day you'd like as long as you come at least thrice a week. Just try to space out your visits if you come just the three times."
"Weekly is fine Sophie. I'll be back day after tomorrow for cleaning, make sure Howl doesn't clean anything so I have something to do."
Sophie smiled, "in all of our time being married I've tried to get him to clean up after himself and now he decides to clean the whole house but I'm not supposed to let him do anything. I'll do what I can. Thank you Isobel, I'll see you in a few days."
"Goodbye Sophie." Isobel said as she walked to the door.
"Goodbye Isobel!" Sophie said as Isobel walked out.
Isobel walked out and looked back up at the towering castle.
"What a peculiar place. This job will be quite the adventure." Isobel thought to herself as she started back down the hill.