Chapter Seven

DC: I don't own Howl's Moving Castle

Markl woke, but couldn't tell where he was at. He reached out in front of him, but felt nothing. It didn't even feel like he was touching the ground. The room was so dark he couldn't see his hands in front of his face. He tried to move around, but was afraid he might fall into some dark place. He sat there, moving his head, though not seeing anything at all.

"The magic here," he said aloud, not caring if anyone heard him. He crossed his arms, his brow narrowing, as if in deep concentration. "It's dark…it's really different from what I've experienced."

"Interesting, yes?"

Markl shot up. He was on his feet, even if he wobbled. He wasn't going to just sit there and let things talk to him unnoticed. He looked around the darkness, not seeing any sign of life. "Yes…different," he answered.

"Good for young Fisher? Markl, yes, young Markl Fisher. Welcome to the Realm. Have nice stay with master and friend."

The voice seemed to echo as it went past his ears. Markl took a deep breath, pushing away the fear and bringing up any pride he had gathered within him, and moved one foot foreword. His shoes felt the ground, but he wasn't so sure there really was one, it was so hard to see. He placed his foot back, and carefully fell back onto the ground. It was safer that way.

Where am I? He remembered Sophie's voice. She was trying her hardest to get out of the room. There was those shadows…and Howl. He was evil. It couldn't have been him!

"Or is that what you think?" This voice was different. It didn't stumble on its words or make weird sentences. It was smooth like and very deep. Markl looked up. Nothing hovered above him.

"Where am I?" There was no answer to his question. He sighed, folding his arms against his knees and resting his head down on them. He closed his eyes, however, it really didn't make a difference if they were open or closed. Was there no way out of this?

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Sophie dusted, picked things up, cleaned, organized, washed out everything, through everyone's complaints. Howl still worried of her health, Calcifer worried about her state of mind, and Heen whimpered. The Witch slept out of everyone's way. No matter what, though, Sophie still cleaned. It was something to do. Something else for her mind to wander on. Was the kitchen clean? Her and Howl's room had gotten a little disorganized. She stepped past Markl's room, without a seconds glance. He never wanted her to go in there anyway. She moved to the balcony. Wood littered the yard, and she slowly picked them up. She still knew her body needed getting used to.

But the end of the first whole day that Markl was missing, Sophie had worked herself into a bath. She lay in the tub, closing her eyes to rest. The water was soothing, the smell of the soap was refreshing, but when she opened her eyes, she felt the tears roll down her cheeks. She couldn't stop blaming herself for what had happened.

Sighing, she hopped out of the tub and drained the water out of it. There was no point in a relaxing in a bath, if there was no relaxing going on. Unfortunately for her, there was nothing else to clean, nothing else to cook, for Howl was cooking dinner that night, and nothing else to say to anyone. She opened the bathroom door after getting dried and dressed.

On the floor was a mark in front of the door. She stared at it, unsure of what it was or what it meant. Without a moment to lose, she went down the steps to the mess in the kitchen. "Howl! I think I've found something!"

There was an explosion of smoke, and Howl came stumbling out, coughing and waving a hand in front of his face. Sophie opened the door to let all the smoke clear, and even Calcifer took a moment to watch the smoke leave the castle. Howl dusted off the food and ash from his face and clothes, before letting Sophie lead the way upstairs. She led him to the bathroom, and pointed to the floor. Howl bent down to take a look at it.

"Odd." He lifted his hand and held it over the small mark. "It's an insignia of some sort."

It took a moment, but the mark on the floor seemed to melt away, and a note popped up. It scared Sophie just a little. Howl held it, making sure no sort of evil spell lay over it, and then opened it up. He must have read it twice, because Sophie knew it wouldn't have taken him that long to read those few lines.

"It would seem that Markl is safe." Howl handed Sophie the letter. Sophie read it a few times, making sure there were no tricks in its words. There were none, and she let out a sigh of relief. "I don't get why we didn't see this earlier. It was very out of the ordinary," he added.

"I'm just happy," Sophie said, folding the piece of paper up. "I wouldn't have ever known if he was safe or not."

Sophie went back downstairs, Howl behind her. The rooms had cleared of the dark smoke, and Howl went back to cooking. Sophie closed the door, asking Calcifer if anything strange might have popped into the castle.

"No, nothing came into the castle. I didn't see any fake Howl's or shadows either." He poked his head back into the log afterwards, concentrating on making the castle stay into the air.

Sophie sat in a chair, combing her hair, with her fingers, into a knot at the back of her head. She rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath in. She was tired. Working all day to keep her mind off of things made her very sleepy.

Without even knowing it, she was falling asleep in her chair. Howl was shaking her awake moments later, telling her that dinner was ready. Sophie nodded sleepily, and found her way up the steps. She knocked onto the witch's room, and came inside. She was sitting on her bed staring at something.

"Dinner is ready."

"That's nice. I'll be right down."

Sophie then went into her room and grabbed her brush. She took her silver hair down and brushed it into a better bun in the back of her head. The smell of some sort of soup was filling the upstairs, making Sophie realize how hungry she was. Her stomach growled, and that's when she knew she needed something to eat.

As she came down the steps, she heard a yelp. Sophie finished going down the rest of the stairs before finding Heen in the corner, whimpering and staring up at the wizard before him.

"Stay calm you little--"

"What did you do?" Sophie asked, patting the hurt dog on its head. She took a look at him, searching for a source of its pain. It's tail was a little charred and Sophie guessed the rest. She sat up straight, putting her hands on her hips. Howl smiled innocently, backing away from his wife. "Dinner is on the table."

"Yes, okay." Sophie gave him one more punishing glare, before sighing. She patted Heen on the head, once again, and found her way to the table. "Howl, dear, you're going to have to find away to control that…whatever it is."

Howl dished them some soup, nodding his head a little gravely. "Yeah I know," he said, setting her bowl in front of her. The witch came in a few minutes later, serving herself a bowl of the soup. The table was quiet as everyone ate their bread and slurped their soup. Every soul at that table missed the noisiest person at the table, though they were happy he was alive.

"Have you told the nice man yet?" the witch piped up after the fifteen minutes of silence. "You'd think this place would be a little more livelier."

Sophie almost choked. She suddenly got up and fed the rest of her bread to Calcifer. "I've lost my appetite."

Howl watched as Sophie walked up the steps, her pace a little faster than normal. He then turned to the witch, who winked. "What was that all about?"

"She hasn't told you? Oh, my, what a dilemma she has put herself in." The witch took a long draught from her tea that sat beside her. "Although I'd love to tell, I know I'd be in loads of trouble if I did. So be a dear, and go see her."

Howl gave the witch his weirdest look, before following Sophie up the steps. He went to his room, but didn't find her in there. He went to the bathroom, and almost every other room, but couldn't find her. He then went to the balcony, and found her standing looking out into the world as they flew above it.

"It's getting cold out," he said, walking towards her.

Sophie jumped and turned around. She let out a breath, before smiling a little. Howl didn't return the smile but gave her a sad expression. He walked over and turned to her. She wouldn't look him in the eyes. "You're hiding something."

"It's…" She faced the outside. Would he be happy? Or would he be angry? "It's something."

"You can talk to me." Howl leaned over the balcony to twist his body around to face her. "Come on, Sophie. Please?"

Sophie flickered a smile and turned towards him. She wrapped her arms around him, and shoved her face into his chest. Perhaps this way she could scream and no one would hear a sound.

Howl patted her head. "I won't be able to hear you that way."

Sophie looked up, only able to look into his eyes for a moment. "I know I've been hiding something from you. I've been holding it from you for a few days…and I couldn't get the courage to tell you. What with Markl and the whole war thing."

"Are you going to get to the point?" Howl guided her to a chair he made out of thin air. Sophie sat in it, staring at her hands as if she didn't want to go past the point. Howl made his own chair. He sat down in it and waited moments while she tried to prepare herself. "Out with it Sophie."

"I'm pregnant!" Sophie covered her mouth. She wasn't expecting it to be that easy. She quickly uncovered her mouth and watched as Howl just stared on at her.

Sophie wasn't expecting this either. He's angry! I knew it! It was then that tears started to fall, and she shielded them from him. She was so stupid, telling him about this, just like that, in such a bad time. She thought about many ways of telling him before Markl was kidnapped, but after that moment, it all fell around her.

She felt a hand on her back. Sophie sniffled before lifting her head up to look at Howl. He had a pleasant look on his face, which was an understatement, but that's how she saw it, and was lifting her off of the chair. He seemed to float just a little off the ground.

"Are you serious?" he asked. Sophie nodded, which granted Howl permission to lift her off the ground and spin her around. It was if she was as light as a feather. "This is wonderful! This is amazing, great! I don't know how to describe it!"

Howl set her on the ground and started to pace. "We'll have to change our house of course. They'll be things to move, rooms to move, rooms to make! I'll get started on it right away! Or…soon enough…Calcifer! He'll help me, of course. He's basically the castle--" He suddenly interrupted himself, turning to Sophie and putting his hands on her shoulders. "Do you need anything? Water? A good foot rub?"

Sophie laughed and wrapped her arms around him in an embrace. "I'm just happy you're happy."

"Why wouldn't I be!" Howl squeezed her a little. "Did you have any doubts in your mind?"

"Maybe just one," she replied with a laugh.

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Lala Rue here, and you have no idea how sorry I am right now.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! I am deeply sorry for not updating! Life has gotten hard from a point, and I'm trying to get through school on top of it.

I am soo, sooo sorry! Please, people, forgive me.

Please?

I'll update soon...

Love, Lala Rue.