She wasn't joking!

A week had gone by since the incident at Star Lake. The castle had moved on, and life for the inhabitants were going as well as they could.

Howl was now lying in bed in a straight jacket and tied with a couple of magic ropes, courtesy of Calcifer.

Howl had made several escape attempts from his sentence of being tied to the bed. Only to be caught by Luna, who had taken it upon herself to guard the restless prisoner, who turned him in to Sophie. Who tied him up to the point that he couldn't even wiggle his toes.

When Howl asked why she was doing all this she replied.

"I always keep my promises. I have never broken one before and I am not starting now!"

He was beginning to wish that she wasn't so honest and honorable when it came to such matters.

Sophie on the other hand was rather enjoying herself. It was rather amusing watching a grown man try to get out of being grounded like a 10 year old, and Luna was a excellent guard.

It looked like she had finally gotten him chained right after his fifteenth attempt to leave the castle. He hasn't made a attempt since then, and today was his last day of being in bed so he shouldn't have to anyway.

Sophie let him out of his chains at dinner time declaring that his sentence of over.

"Finally!" Howl shouted after he was released from his bonds.

"Yes, Yes, free at last!" Sophie said laced thickly with sarcasm.

"Now try not to over excited. I would rather not have to clean up another slimy mess."

"Awe lay off Sophie. It's not like I wanted to be covered in slime. Besides it's your fault it happened, you were the one who messed with my potions."

"Believe what you want Howl. You are the one who is insisting that dyeing your hair is the only thing that makes you beautiful. If you ask me, I think you look better with your natural hair color."

"Really Sophie" asked Howl. He was surprised that Sophie practically admitted that she thought he was handsome.

"Oh yes, you are far more handsome now then when you were pretending to be a dumb blonde!" Sophie said with a smirk.

"SOPHIE!"

Luna was watching the exchange with interest from her spot on Howl's chair. Secretly she thought that Howl didn't have to pretend he was dumb. For no one would ever believe this egotistical, spoiled, poor excuse of a wizard was capable of thought more complicated than 'I am so beautiful, I should stand in front of a mirror all day and admire myself'!

Glancing at Luna, Sophie could pretty much read her cat's mind and agreed with her. Howl didn't have to pretend anything when it came to his intellect.

Howl was still sputtering trying to think of a comeback when Sophie and Luna decided they wasted enough of their time just standing and sitting, talking and listening to him.

Luna jumped onto Sophie's shoulder and the two of them departed Howl's room and headed towards the stairs.

"Hey you can't just leave like that." Howl said trying to catch up with them while trying to pull his clothes on.

"Can't I? I would think that one would prefer his privacy as much as one would prefer not to see a naked man."

With that a red faced Howl was shoved back into his room and had the door slammed into his face by a very smug Sophie.

With a slight smile Sophie went back downstairs with Luna still on her shoulder.

"That was great Sophie!" laughed Calcifer " He will be in there the rest of the day trying to come up with a good comeback."

"Maybe, but I won't be answering him if he does. I got to draw the line somewhere unless I want to end up a turtle if Howl insists on being a duck." Sophie stated.

" What Duck? What Turtle? What do you mean Sophie?" asked Michael who had overheard the conversation as he came down the stairs.

"Oh, I was referring to a very old story."

"Can you tell us it, Sophie? Please." Michael asked.

" Well, a long, long time ago there was a turtle that lived in a small pond with two geese. For a time, the three lived together as friends and were very happy. One day however that all changed, the pond dried up. The animals of the pond would have to find a new place to live. For the geese this was simple for they could fly from one place to another. But for the turtle, who moved so slowly, his chances of finding a new home were very small. The two geese wanted to help their friend, so they devised a plan to take take him with them to their new home. They planned to have the turtle hold onto a stick and they would work together to carry him with them to a new pond. But there was a catch, the turtle couldn't speak at all during the long flight and the turtle just loved to talk, with a heavy sigh the turtle latched onto a mouthful of twig and the three of them began their long journey. Sometime later in the middle of their journey, a duck came across the trio. It thought that a flying turtle was the silliest thing she had ever seen. The duck began to make fun of the turtle and call it all kinds of degrading names. The turtle tried it's hardest not to talk and insult the duck back, but eventually he let his angry rule his actions. He opened his mouth to shout a nasty comeback at the duck and fell from the sky, towards the earth below. The geese could do nothing except watch him fall thinking, why couldn't he have kept the stick in his mouth?"

"Wow! So if the turtle had ignored the duck when it was teasing him. He would have made it to the new pond and lived happily with his friends." Michael asked at the end of the story.

"Yeah, I guess he would have. There is even a part of the story that says that the duck and the turtle met up again as spirits and started getting each other back almost immediately. But because they each thought that they had to be the one that has the last word, they keep insulting each other for the rest of time."

"Thats bad"

"I know. That's why insults are not something that one should do so much, but the occasional light teasing is ok. At least I think so."

Michael and Calcifer laughed at her, but she didn't mind.

'If one can't take being laughed at then they shouldn't laugh at others' she thought.

Finishing her chores, Sophie thought about what she could do for the rest of the day.

Now that they didn't have to watch Howl constantly. Sophie wanted to try exploring one of the dials a bit more. So grabbing a basket and some money, she and Luna went through the green dial to Kingsbury.

Story of the turtle and the two geese is from the Panchatantra of India. I just mixed it up a bit. I own nothing.