(With Bronté)
Bronté spent to whole plane journey chained to the wall, it was dark and she was in a cell, she didn't even look up when the door opened, "so, your name is Bronté, that is indeed a rare and beautiful name" said Madame Suliman,
"what do you want from me" whispered Bronté, still not looking up. She heard footsteps and soon after her chin was grabbed and was looking in to the eyes of the witch.
"I want you dead, with you alive then my powers will be weak compared to yours"
"what makes you think that I am more powerful" Suliman sighed,
"you are a 14 year old girl who can produce a wave of water 50 ft in the air, you are probably even more powerful with other elements other than water because my spy said that he heard you say that water was your weak element, but you could still do that. Plus you were born from a father with extremely powerful magic, almost as great as mine, and a mother with a heart as bright as a star, you are special" she said before releasing Bronté's chin.
"Why don't you just kill me now then, like you were planning 14 years ago" Suliman laughed,
"dear child, I told your father before we left that he would watch you die, you will not die today, or maybe even tomorrow, but mark my words, I will watch you drown in your own blood" Suliman glared a Bronté, and Bronté glared back.
"So this is all about being the strongest, you can't face the fact that there is a chance that I am stronger, why do you want to be stronger anyway?"
"I have a department in the royal palace that I own, if the King realises that I am not the strongest magical being, then I will be fired from his court, but taking the fact that I hid it from him, that would be a death sentence"
"so you are going to kill me, to save your own skin. Listen, you can have your department, I want a normal life as a teenager, nothing more, nothing less" Bronté said, but Suliman continued to smiled,
"it doesn't matter what you want, the King will persuade you to do as he pleases, that's what he did to me, I was a replacement for another and the wizard I replaced was murdered, not by me of course, but I don't want that to happen to me"
"so your basically saying that we can't both live in the same world"
"exactly" Suliman said before leaving the cell. Bronté was left again, she could feel tears building up,
"mum, dad, save me!" she whispered to herself and cried.
(With Howl)
Howl was still scrapping his feet along the concrete, his eyes were red but he stopped crying. He then stopped, "wake up Howl, being like this, Bronté will die" he said to himself, slapping himself. Howl started to sprint as fast as he could to the castle door. He barged through to find Sophie in the kitchen,
"welcome home, how was..."she said as she turned around to find just Howl, she gasped,
"now's not the time Sophie, I need your help, Suliman had a spy watching us train, and she took her, I don't know where to, but Suliman did say that we would meet again and that Bronté will die in front of us. I'm so sorry" he said and broke down. Sophie didn't make a sound, she just stared at her husband, she walked over to him and put her hand on his black hair, she then got on her knees and embraced him.
"Like you said Howl, now is not the time, let's get our daughter back and end all this" she said calmly, Howl was shocked, he thought she would be mad at him for losing their daughter, but here she was, embracing and forgiving him. She pulled away and looked into his blue eyes, "let get our daughter back" Howl nodded and got off from the floor and went to the stairs,
"Markl, Witch of the Waste, we're going to need your help" he said. Rumbling came from up stairs and two figures came rushing,
"what is it this time" said Markl,
"Bronté has been taken by Madame Suliman, we need to bring her back, although we don't know where they are, but we know that Suliman won't kill Bronté without us watching" he said, they both nodded.
"I suggest we go to we search the royal palace and go talk to the prince" said the witch, Howl nodded. The last time they saw the prince was about a year ago, they told him of their daughter, so it won't surprise him.
"We'll go to the prince first, that way we can organise more people to help bring down Suliman" said Sophie, they all nodded and walked to the door. Howl changed the dial and opened the door to reveal the town of the prince.
They all walked normally to the palace and was stopped by a guard,
"state your business" he said, it was always the same guard, he should know them by now,
"as always, we are friends of the prince and wish an audience with him" said Howl, but before the guard could reply, the prince came rushing down the steps.
"Howl, Sophie, Markl and the witch of the waste what a surprise to have you all here, come inside" said the prince leading them inside the palace. They came to a living room and the prince sent the guards away and sat down, "I'm surprised, I thought that I would get to see your daughter, you said that you would get her back after 14 years" Sophie looked down,
"actually, that's why we're here" she said, the prince just stared at them confused, "Bronté, our daughter, has been kidnapped by Madame Suliman, this time she is determined to kill her before Bronté can overpower her" the prince gasped and got up.
"I will help you get back your daughter, that is a cruel way to treat a child, for what she has done she will be put to death" he said. Howl shook his head,
"no, there will be no death, if we kill her, we will be as bad as her, I don't want any death" he said. After that said, Sophie clenched her head, suddenly remembering the dream she had while she was still Howl's fiancé, about a girl being attacked and stopped bullets and bombs being fired at her, saying-
"my father never wishes for anyone to die, and I will accept his wish, I will not kill you but you will go back to where you come from and leave me alone, it's not my fault that I am what I am, it's just the way things are" the sudden flashback hurt and she feel to the ground.
"SOPHIE" shouted Howl, he knelt down to the ground and picked up he head and put it on his lap, Sophie was still clenching her head,
"it hurts" she cried,
"what's wrong" said the prince, kneeling down as well, but Howl didn't know.
"Oh, I know what's wrong" said the witch of the waste, everyone, except Sophie who was still screaming in pain, turned to the old woman, "she's having a 'returned sight'"
"what's a 'returned sight'" asked Howl,
"Sophie is experiencing a sight that she saw many years ago, it's very rare and it really does hurt, but don't worry, I have something for it" the witch pulled a vile out of her bag, it had purple liquid in, "give this to her" she said handing it to Howl. Howl turned back to his wife,
"Sophie, drink this" he said, but Sophie shook her head,
"no, last time I tried one of the witch's potions, I was turned into a bouncing head" she cried, Howl sighed, he knew what he would have to do, he would have to force it down her throat. He put the liquid into his mouth, opened Sophie's mouth and kissed her, pouring the liquid into her mouth. Once it was all gone, Howl pulled away and shut Sophie's mouth,
"swallow it" he ordered, Sophie did as she was told and ended up chocking,
"god, that's a horrid taste" she said faintly, and then passed out. Everyone turned to the witch,
"calm down, the sight takes a lot of the persons energy, the best thing is rest" she said, Markl sighed,
"why do you have that potion?" he asked,
"oh, because I get them all the time, it hurts a lot" she said, Markl nodded. Howl put Sophie's unconscious body on the couch, everyone sat back down and sighed in relief. They went back to discussing about going about the rescue. Soon it turned dark and the prince offered everyone a room. Howl carried Sophie to their room and lay her on the bed, she had been asleep for 3 hours, but the witch did say that the pain took a lot of energy and she needed rest. He stroked her starlight hair, this made her shift, Howl gasped and Sophie's eyes slowly opened,
"Sophie!" he said, Sophie moaned and looked at her husband,
"what happened?" she asked,
"you've been asleep for 3 hours, you had a returned sight"
"god, that hurt" she said rubbing her head. Howl smiled and leaned down to kiss his wife, "oh, why did you have to force that potion into my mouth, it was horrible" she whined, Howl laughed,
"it may have been, but if I didn't you would probably still be in pain, I was worried sick Sophie, I thought you were about to have a fit" Sophie sat up and hugged Howl,
"I'm sorry for making you worry, I'm fine now, but I'm still tired, oh what happened after I passed out?" she asked,
"oh, the prince has agreed to help us in getting Bronté back, she will not be killed but locked away or exiled, we will discuss more tomorrow" he said, Sophie nodded and yawned, Howl kissed her again and pushed her down back onto the bed, but Sophie pushed away,
"oh that reminds me, in about 1 month it will be Bronté's 15th birthday and the day that that spell that you put on me to stop having children will wear off" she said, Howl smiled,
"yeah, maybe we could have another, I want to know what it is like being a true father, I would have done anything to watch Bronté say her first words" he said and rested his head on Sophie's chest, Sophie stroked his black hair.
"Yeah me too, but now we need to focus on getting her back and taking down Suliman so that, if we do have another child, they won't have to grow up away from us" Howl nodded and closed his eyes, Sophie did the same and they both prayed that their daughter was okay.
Two in one day, I'm on a roll, let's hope it stays this way, probably not, but anyway. Let hope that they will save Bronté, poor Sophie, she was in so much pain.
Anyway, Until next time