The Curiosity Shop

Chapter One: Lleuad Newydd; Curiosity Shop and Wunder Emporium

It's a nice day, a bit warm for Howl's tastes, but bright and sunny with a couple of puffy white clouds drifting through the sky, and just enough of a breeze to make his jacket drift a bit as he walks. The sun reflects off his golden hair, giving him almost a halo effect, he'd be lying if he said that wasn't one of the reasons he liked sunny days. 

Whenever Howl finds himself in a new place he likes to wander around, see what the charming cities and towns have to offer, even go souvenir shopping if something catches his attention. What? How did you think his room got so cluttered? Luckily for both Howl's wallet and his shelf space, it's rare that anything more than a few items displayed in a shop window catches his eye. However on this occasion it isn't a shop window that drew his attention, it's an old sign, attached to the side of a building, shaped like an arm pointing down an alleyway. The sign is black and white, and written vertically on what would have been the limb's forearm are the words "Lleuad Newydd; Curiosity Shop and Wunder Emporium". It looked like the words had once been embellished with gold leaf, but in the years since it's flaked away, leaving only crumbling lines of gold around the edges.

As is not uncommon his curiosity gets the better of him and seemingly without hesitating he turns off the main road and strolls through the alley in the direction the hand was pointing. The alley is far from welcoming. Because these sides of buildings are almost never seen they're rarely maintained by the owners, allowing grime to build up over time. Howl doesn't mind though, he goes to much creepier places on the regular after all.

A few moments later he reaches a door, flanked by two large windows with a large wooden sign hung over the storefront. "Lleuad Newydd; Curiosity Shop and Wunder Emporium", a picture of a tortoise with a bejeweled shell on the sign displayed with the words. He tries to look through the windows to see what's inside, but the windows are cluttered and half covered by large burgundy curtains. What he can see in the windows though shows that the shop really does live up to its name. A large plate with a painting of 3 different types of dancers on it, a large taxidermied lizard, and a typewriter crawling with flowers and vines of what appeared to be exotic plants just to name a few. 

The sign says open so he reaches out and tries to enter, but the door is surprisingly hard to open. It isn't locked, the doorknob turns freely and the door opens a few centimeters before stopping. He considers for a moment that if he tries to force the door open, he could knock something over inside the shop, but then he reconsiders and thinks that nobody would put anything so valuable or fragile in the way of the door. So he pushes harder. It takes a moment but whatever was blocking the door moves another few centimeters slowly before abruptly giving way, almost making Howl fall as the door abruptly swings open.

Upon entering the store the first thing he notices is the music, it's odd, pleasant, but odd. It doesn't sound like someone playing an instrument, and it doesn't sound like a recording being played on a phonograph either. He can hear strings and drums but the tone sounds different from anything he's heard before, he's not at all sure what to make of it.

He glances to his right to see what had been blocking the door and spots a rolling ladder attached to a railing that runs all across the front wall. It had been in front of the door when he tried to open it and when it slid to the side the door gave in.

Suddenly there's a humming-chirping sound, quickly accompanied by an inhuman-voice chirping "Customer!", then some more humming-chirps. Howl steps away from the door and turns back towards it, expecting to see some kind of exotic bird or possibly even some type of voice box. But instead he sucks a startled breath in through his teeth and takes a step back in surprise, entirely caught off guard. Instead of seeing a piece of electronic equipment or a colorful bird, perched upside down right above the doorway, its head turned to look at him, was the biggest moth he had ever seen. The insect was huge. The size of a medium-small dog. Roughly the size of a corgi with a wingspan of at least a meter and a half (about 5.1 feet), if not more.