𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗶𝗿 || 𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗹 𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻 𝘅 {𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗲}𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟯 || 𝗮 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿

" who are you " a child with brown fuzzy looking hair shouted looking straight at sophie, just that was enough to startle me enough to an awake state. as they spoke their words sounded as if they were underwater due to my sudden realization of why this may be so familiar, this was the moving castle from the movie i had loved when i was younger. " hey, wake up you need to eat " the kid i now realize was markl said, snapping his fingers in front of my face. i looked to him and slowly got up begrudgingly dragging myself to the table across the room, Sophie was cooking on top of calcifer using him as a normal fire would be used. " whats for breakfast Mrs Sophie " i said smiling looking at her, it truly was a genuine smile one that i hadn't used in a while. " bacon and eggs " she said. the door suddenly switched to black and a tall man walked through it, he had blond hair and an almost pretty look to him almost more so then the anime had shown. "huh, markl it seems we have guests" he said with a laugh, looking towards Sophie " wow calcifer I have never seen you so submissive " he said looking towards the fire " not by choice! she forced me " the fire said scornfully, " and that is your own fault for giving her leverage" i piped up at the fire. " ah, and you both are? " he said looking back to sophie then at me again. " just call me sophie, im the new cleaning lady " she said, " cleaning lady? " he replied. " calcifer hired me, he was sick of how dirty the castle was. " she said looking towards the fire with a smile seemingly saying ' go along with it or i'll kill you. "and him" howl said looking to me making my breath get caught in my throat i tried to speak my name but instead it came out as a fit of coughing after choking on my own spit. after being able to breathe i stated " i am y/n " with a bright smile. " my son " sophie said replying to my awkward introduction. " well then welcome both of you, here let me take that " howl said pulling the pan from sophie's hand, "can you get me a few more eggs" he said looking back at her. he cracked them one by one feeding calcifer the shells. yawning i walked over curiously, peeking beside howl to look at the eggs and bacon cooking. "he noticed me after a few moments and slightly flinched " i didn't notice you there" he stated with a tone of playfulness in his voice that strangely comforted me. i limped over back to the table and sat again, resting my head across my arms and closing my eyes. " here you go" he said handing me a plate of eggs, bacon and bread, " choose one, the rest are dirty" markl said referring to both me and sophie, naturally i took a fork from the small pile containing only four utensils after all i wasn't ever very good with spoons. upon taking a bite i noticed it tasted amazing, i devoured almost immediately upon contact to my spoon sparing only a few seconds for breath. " well i can see at least two of us love my cooking " he stated looking at me and markl with a toothy smile, markl looked to me both of us with something slightly hanging out of our mouths. both of us burst into a fit of laughter upon realizing that " so, what do you have hidden in your pocket sophie" howl said looking at her, sophie slowly dropped her egg back onto her plate "huh" she let out in confusion, she reached for her pocket and pulled out something that looked like a red slip of paper. "what is this" she questioned aloud, " well wouldnt you know if you had it in your pocket? " i said studying the paper looking thing " i had no knowlage of it" she said. " give it to me " howl said calmly as she passed it over to him. it seemed to shock him as she passed it to him and it fell to the table burning a mark into it. markl gasped "scorch marks! howl can you read them !! "  " that is ancient sorcery quite powerful too "  howl stated much calmer then markl. " its from the witch of the waste? " markl questioned as i continued to slurp down the last of my eggs. " you who swallowed a falling star oh heartless man your heart shall soon belong to me " he said with a pause reading aloud the " marks " as markl refereed to them "that cant be good for the table" he uttered and almost seemed to wipe away the flames. " wow its gone " markl said almost excitedly obviously in awe. "the mark may be gone but the spell is still there" howl replied, " and is there any way to remove it " i asked curious, " im unsure " howl said pulling his jacket slightly further across his chest. " excuse me my friends please continue your meal" he said walking away, he dumped his plate for the fire to eat " calcifer move the castle 60 miles to the west " he spoke with a pause slowly walking up the stairs before continuing " and while your at it, make hot water for my bath ", " fine like moving the castle isnt hard enough " the fire said scornfully as i lightly chuckled at the interaction they had between the two of them. " your not working for the witch of the waste are you" markl questioned sophie " I would never work for that witch !! shes the one who " sophie said and then she slowly began something i could only classify as gibberish, " what shes trying to say is she got cursed by her " i said wiping my mouth after finishing my food.