It was a night he had seen for centuries, but never thought would come to pass for him. He was a free star, the galaxy his only limitation. He always flew with his fellow brothers and sisters through the blackness of space granting wishes and fulfilling dreams - and nothing could ever stop them.

Nothing except the Night of Falling Stars.

A thousand years after his emergence in the black sky came his departure from it. It was the night when he and the other ancient stars fell and hurtled toward the Earth. But Calcifer wasn't ready; he wasn't prepared to die.

As he plummeted from the sky, he whispered the one wish he had kept all these years.

I wish to live again.

The fallen stars departed like comets soaring through space. He could feel his speed increasing, his brilliant being moving faster and faster - death so close he didn't have a moment to reflect on anything worthy he had done in his thousand years.

One memory had floated into his mind, however. It was a memory fairly recent - a wish. He had granted so many wishes in the past, it seemed odd that this one stood out.

A young girl crying out from her window, Calcifer carried the sadness in her tears as they sprinkled down her cheeks. He could vaguely see her soul, broken and with little faith left inside such frailty. This wish was her final resort.

Calcifer cried as he fell, remembering her wish and wanting nothing more than to grant it. I wish for true love or no love at all.

He didn't know how it would come true, but somehow he made sure it would.

The night lit up with explosions, brief sparks of starlight contacting the earth. The marsh in the Wastes - if there was a way to die, this was the most painless. The water of the lake quickened the process. Calcifer felt slightly more at ease.

Until he appeared. Seemingly out of nowhere, a young boy walked amongst the massacre, his eyes glowing with wonder. His hair was long and dark, matching the color of the night sky. He was only a child.

Yet Calcifer didn't waste a moment.

"No!" A fellow star shouted. "He's mine!"

"No! I want to live!"

"Pick me!"

Calcifer sped past all of them, his aim amplified with determination. The boy noticed the star's fast approach and stood under him, his palms facing upward to catch him. His hands were soft, reminding Calcifer of an innocence he had long forgotten. If he wasn't so focused on his own life, he may have reconsidered involving a child in this curse.

"Please." The star begged. "Please help me. I can't die yet I-I just can't."

The boy tilted his head. "I'll make a deal with you." Calcifer widened his eyes. The boy was now asking him for something. "I'll save your life if you take my heart."

"Wha-" Calcifer was expecting his eyes, his hair, something less extreme. Taking his heart would not just keep him alive. He'd be bound to him until this boy's death.

"I can drop you and go for another star." The boy separated his hands an inch, frightening Calcifer of what lay below.

"Okay, okay." The star said. "Just don't drop me."

The boy nodded. He lifted the fallen star into his mouth and Calcifer willingly went. He kept repeating to himself that it was worth it; that anything was better than death.

He hoped, at least.

When he reached the heart, Calcifer consumed his entire being around it. He pushed himself and the heart out through the boy's chest, resting in the same soft hands as before.

Though innocence was not the word he would have chosen this time.

"My name is Howl."

Calcifer glowed not with his brilliant starlight, but now with a raging fire. "I'm Calcifer. Thank you for sparing my life."

He couldn't stop running. The thick forest was an endless labyrinth where he could flee and never be found. He was embarrassed; he felt guilty. The only thing that felt right was to leave it all behind.

Even her.

Especially her. When he saw the glass shard strike her face, he was instantly guilt-ridden. He was a terror to them all. It was selfish for him to stay as long as he had. The thought of being a lonely star among the thousands and never having real relationships - he yearned for the company of people.

They just didn't need him.

The raindrops sizzled when they dropped on him, though he ran despite the immense affliction. The thick evergreens caught fire as he passed through and the blaze spread far out into the forest, despite the heavy rainfall. Let it burn, he thought. If his last action destroyed Suliman's precious city, then let it all burn.

Calcifer finally stopped running. A tall concrete wall ended his escape, leaving him in the thunderous downpour in a burning forest. The only thing he could do was wait for the rain to ultimately terminate him.

He wondered how he was able to wield so much power. He had never held that strength before - never as a star, nor with the aid of Howl and Sophie. With Gwenda's hair, her strands of gold so beautifully woven together, he felt real. He had become a walking fire demon, something of which demons like himself could only dream.

Calcifer changed his shape. He shrunk from the terrifying fire beast to that of a person, a real human made of flames. Because of Gwenda, he could form into a human with fiery hands and feet.

For a moment, he actually felt human.

"Well, well." Calcifer heard from behind him. "Aren't we a little spooked by this sudden change?"

Calcifer turned to see a woman he hadn't seen in years. The young and powerful, the heartless soul feared by so many - the Witch of the Wastes.

"That makes two of us." He replied. "Looks like you got what you wanted."

The Witch raised her arms, eyeing her magnificent attire. She concealed herself from the pouring rain, letting it fall around her instead. "Yes, it seems that I did get what I wanted. And now I'm asking you the same."

"The same what?"

"What do you want?"

Calcifer bobbed his fiery head back. "What do I want?" The Witch nodded, though the fire demon merely rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Who cares about what I want? It's always about the people who matter - the real people in this world. I'm not real."

The Witch took a step closer, feeling Calcifer's intense heat even more. "You don't give yourself enough credit, Cal. You have more heart than Howl, Sophie, and Markl put together and you don't even see it."

Calcifer could hardly feel the pain from the rain anymore; at least the Witch was a nice distraction from what was to come. "If only that were true."

The Witch straightened her back. "What do you want, Calcifer?" He shook his head. Nothing he would ever be granted - nothing he ever deserved.

She pressed him further. "What do you want?"

"No..."

"Calcifer, what do you want?"

"I want to be human!" He shouted as the thunder roared with his enraged voice. "I want to do something other than move castles or heat baths or live in a fire pit. That's not living; it's barely surviving."

Calcifer brushed his hand against the wall behind him. An almost real hand. The concrete wouldn't burn, but he felt the roughness of it. For a moment, he thought he shivered from the feeling.

The Witch stayed silent, waiting for him to continue. "I want to hold people; I want to do this-" gesturing to his human embodiment "-walk away from the constraints of a fireplace and actually live. I want to enjoy life."

The Witch noticed his flames turn blue and decrease, though he was prepared to explain himself knowing very well it would be the last thing he ever did. "A fire demon doesn't have a life; a fire demon's purpose is to serve others and make life comfortable for them. My life has been an endless servitude."

The Witch observed him carefully. Even when she was stripped of her magic and had become a frail old woman, she was still highly observant of everyone's actions and reactions. Lately, since their move to Ovela, she started paying more attention to Calcifer.

His attitude had begun to change recently and she started to pick up on subtle hints. When everyone lit up at the baby's kicking, Calcifer never smiled. When anyone would complain about their work - whether it was Markl's newspaper job, Howl's farmwork, or Sophie's housekeeping - Calcifer never shared any words of sympathy. She knew for sure how Calcifer felt when Gwenda was taken. His words rang in her mind on an endless loop.

I hate being a fire demon.

"What makes you deserving of a third life?" The Witch questioned. "You've already lived your thousand years as a star and then nearly two decades as a demon. Why do you deserve to be human?"

Calcifer felt weak from the continuous downpour, so he sat with his back against the wall. He pulled up his knees, rested his elbows on them, and covered his face with his blue hands - things he never expected to do.

"I don't." He said, his voice muffled. "I was selfish for asking Howl to keep me alive in the first place. I was selfish for involving Sophie to break our curse." He could hardly say the last part. "And I was selfish for telling Gwenda about my feelings for her, probably confusing her and ruining her perception of me for good."

There was no winning in a situation like this. He tried forgetting about her when they moved to Ovela. He thought the distance would make it easier to push his irrational feelings behind him. She was only a woman he met briefly in a time of momentous adventure, yet not a day went by where she hadn't crossed his mind. When she and Kenta reunited with the group, his feelings for her grew stronger. With every passing night, every intimate conversation, Calcifer had unknowingly fallen completely in love with her.

It was agonizing - talking to her and never being able to confess what he felt inside. It was a million times worse seeing the look on her face after he did.

Calcifer took in a heavy breath. "None of them deserved anything I did."

The Witch approached his dimming flames and sat across from him. Her talents did not include perceiving into the mind, though it was fairly obvious what captivated the demon's mind. "Do you really love her?"

Calcifer slowly raised his head, his body feeling weak. He had never seen the Witch of the Wastes so compassionate toward anyone. "Of course I love her. She's the only one who makes me feel like I have a purpose in this world. I knew there was something that day we met, something about her that was different from others. She was strong, but she didn't always believe in that strength. She wasn't afraid to fight back or speak her mind."

The Witch nodded. "And?"

Calcifer's eyes drifted from her gaze, his mind replaying every significant moment they had together. "I was mesmerized by her. I didn't realize someone could be so marvelous that just looking at her made me want to give my life for her."

He closed his eyes, Gwenda the only one in sight. He envisioned her grace, the way she walked with confidence and joy. Her hair waved in the breeze and flowed into her face. He saw a smile that could light up even the darkest of nights. And he saw her tell him the three words he was so afraid to tell her before.

When he opened his eyes, she was gone. She no longer had her long hair - he took that away. She no longer smiled around him. She would never say those words to him.

"But I can't live like this anymore." He said. "I'd probably be saving her if I just didn't exist. If I can't be human, I'd rather be dead."

The Witch curved her lips up slightly. "This coming from the star who would take the heart of a child in order to live again."

Calcifer sighed. "I'm not who I was in the past. I've learned from my mistakes and would take them back if I could."

She reached for him and held his hands, but he drew them back thinking he'd burn her. She gestured for his hands and he looked.

They weren't burning.

Calcifer raised them in front of his face, turning them as far as he could to be sure he wasn't seeing things. They were a warm, brown color - a human color. A real, human hand.

Calcifer caught his breath. "How did you... what did-"

"You and I both know that girl whom you adore is powerful, even if she believes herself to be weak because she lacks magic." The Witch helped Calcifer stand, though his legs wobbled from this recent evolution. "And yet, look at what she did for you."

Calcifer couldn't stop using his hands. He touched the rough wall, the spikes of grass and pines on the trees. He felt the coolness of the rain and the heat from the forest fire that still surrounded them. He held the Witch's hands. For the first time, he could touch someone without the fear of hurting them.

"She needs you more than you think she does." The Witch said. "And it is far from your time, Cal. Don't waste your final life."