Chapter 8: in Which the Moving Castle is Cleaned

"While you're here; I might as well put you to work." Howl turned to me at noon. Michael had left to get some ingredients earlier; leaving as he turned that strange knob near the door to red. I nodded confidently, but I was definitely feeling the opposite.

"Alright! I can clean, but is there anywhere you don't want me?" I asked as I already began to gather up all the dishes and stack them. I saw a flash of pain go across Howl's face as I said that. Did I say something wrong? I moved a chair out of my way as I stepped closer and he looked down at me with a smile.

"Simply keep out of my room, and do not touch the bottles in the bathroom. Everything else can be cleaned to your specifications." He replied before heading to the door with his guitar in hand. Then, he left.

"He does that a lot." Calcifer added as he munched on a twig. I stood up and rummaged through my pack for two things.

1: My phone.

2: Speaker.

I sat them on the chair, and I saw the flame look curiously at them before reaching with a flick of flame for a hand out to them. I chuckled and swiped his hand away.

"These things aren't fireproof, Calcifer. And I'd rather have them not in flames." I laughed as he muttered curses under his smoke. I plugged in my phone, and scrolled through my music. Small notes were then played

"Loving can hurt. Loving can hurt sometimes. But it's the only thing that I know. When it gets hard, you know it can get hard sometimes. But it's the only thing that makes us feel alive." I hummed along as I began my work cleaning the table.

~*~

"We keep this love in a photograph. We keep these memories for ourselves, where our eyes are never closing, and hearts are always open.." Howl looked up at his house. The valley grass was calmly being blown by the wind above, and his hair too.

"Who are you, Amelia Starr..?" He mumbled to himself; wondering if the answer himself. He did a little skip, and the eighty-league boots he wore threw him through the air at an incredible speed. Howl placed his hands in his pockets as he landed softly in an alley near Market Chipping. It had been a very long time since he had come here; simply because he could not bear to look at Lottie's face.

Sophie's older sister.

"Two dozen strawberry muffins!" She yelled to the baker in back as she tried to push through the crowd of men. Not a care in the world.

Not knowing that Howl was hurting on the inside.

"Howl!" He heard her whisper as her eyes met his figure. She hurried out to an alleyway with him; still silent. "How are you? Did Amelia reach you castle alright?"

"Yes, the girl is making herself at home nicely." He laughed at how true the sentence was. They fell into a silence thicker than fog as they stared at each other; one face of hurt and the other of sympathy.

"She wouldn't want you to act like this; open up." Lottie finally spoke.

"It that why you directed that woman to me?" Howl snapped back angrily. "She is nothing to me!"

"Then why did you save her? Like it or not, you brought this upon yourself."

~*~

"DAMN DEMON! STAHP MOVING!!" I swore as I tried to place Calcifer into a bucket full of wood to clean the ashes. It's really getting on my nerves; especially when he sneezes and ash flies everywhere. He clung helplessly as I finally got him in the bucket.

"MAY ALL YOUR FINGERS BURN!!" He cursed back, but I heard a chuckle escape his orange-red lips.

"Stop being a drama queen."

"What's that?" He asked, making me laugh harder. When I finally scooped out his small body, I noticed that the flame surrounded something round. So, like a dumb little girl, I started to reach for it, but I could never get close enough. It was like a forcefield or something.

"What's that?" I asked, but Calcifer simply shifted his eyes elsewhere.

"Nothing! Simply the beginning of my flame! Don't touch it." He snapped, and I jumped at his ferocity. Damn! What got on his bad side. I then rolled my eyes and placed him into the bucket before turning back to the piles of ash in the hearth. Then I returned the demon back to his

I bounced my shoulders to my music and kept cleaning. Now for my checklist.

Bathroom? Check.

Kitchen? Check.

Upstairs? Nope.

I looked up the rickety stairs with a broom in hand. I swallowed the lump in my throat, and began to climb until I reached the top. I let out a cry of accomplishment, like I had taken out Saruman the White with a shovel. Then, the ground moved from beneath me, and the creak of metal too.

"What-?!?" I raced to a balcony on the side of the castle, and the wind slapped my face with an icy hand. We were moving!!

MOVING?!?!?! WTF?!?!

"Calcifer!" I raced halfway downstairs to see him. "Are you moving the castle??"

"Yeah, it's not like anybody else does any work around here." He mumbled angrily.

"This is amazing!!" I breathed, "you're amazing!!" I raced back to the balcony to feel the wind once more.

"She thinks I'm amazing!!!!" I heard Calcifer's excited voice and felt the castle lurch forward with a new drive. I couldn't help but laugh at the Sky above me. Blue as the water, and small clouds of cotton fluff flew above. This moment, this second, I want it to always be this way. It wasn't long though until Calcifer placed us in another valley between cherry trees in full blossom.

"It's so beautiful!!" I gasped and raced downstairs and out the door to the pink flowers. Our arrival had the petals slowly falling with the wind to the ground. Twirling, I felt the world blur in brilliant colors as I collapsed to the group giggling.

~*~

"Give her a chance! Let Amelia change your life for the better!" Lottie walked along with Howl, trying to convince him. The streets still dotted with vendors and customers. "She's defenseless without the powers of a wizard! Salazar will come after her again!"

"Enough!" Howl groaned as he slammed open a door to his own home. Calcifer jumped at the quick change of dial to green before Howl made his appearance. "I care not if she lives or dies from Salaza-" Howl wheeled his head around and out the window where he heard Amelia giggling. The anger he felt suddenly vanished as he saw how she spun herself around the piles of cherry petals and fall to the ground once more.

"I know that's not what you're heart is telling you." Lottie quietly climbed up the steps of the strange house and took the wizard's face into her hands, making him look away from Amelia's auburn hair. She acted like a child, but the ferocity in her voice from the other day begged to differ. He couldn't figure her out.

One minute she was an angel,

The next, she was a demon.

"Howl," Calciferol finally spoke up from the log he latched onto. "She's alone. From a different world. You can't leave her now!" Howl did not give a reply, but watched as Amelia twirled like a child at Christmas; throwing her hands into the air every so often to catch a handful of petals. Joy was the emotion she had on her face. Joy was something Howl had not felt in such a long time.

"We are safe! Salazar will not find her here." He mumbled to himself. Why should he care if she's safe already.

~*~

"Oh geez! I'm sorry I didn't get a lot of cleaning done!" I mumbled over and over. I had not checked how long I was outside scouting around the region, that when I came back inside, Howl was there with Michael making dinner.

"No worries." Howl said, absent minded, while Michael jumped up to argue against my statement.

"No! No! It's spotless! You've done such a good job that when I came home, I thought it wasn't ours!" He laughed to himself. I smiled and took the frying pan from him and began to cook over Calcifer's bent head. I heard Howl sigh, and I flashed my eyes to him as he sat in one of the wooden chairs at the table with a conflicted face.

"I'm not hungry." He announced, before carrying a coffee cup and a paper up to his room. I wonder what's gotten into him.

"It's probably another summon from a king." Michael answered my question. Does he read minds? I'll never know.

"Oh." Was all I could say as I stirred the chicken around on the frying pan.

_____________________
Okay, you can kill me.
I'm
Sorry
For
Not
Updating.

School started and with being on the Swim Team, I don't get back to the computer until 7:30. But it's a fun sport, I'll admit!

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~ Saturnthehero.

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