𝐑𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐳𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐬 || 𝐇𝐨𝐰𝐥'𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞

iii. howl's (& ezekiel's) moving castle

{3}

“That's some spell you're under.”

Granma Sophie blinks, looking half asleep.

“It won't be easy to break.”

She looks in astonishment, “The fire talked.” yeah, no sh*t.

First of all, let's discuss to where we are now, and how did Granma Sophie get here.

After half a day of getting rides from kind strangers and walking up the mountains, Granma Sophie met a kind scarecrow with turnip head, whom she named Turnip Head.

Turnip head-kun, seeing that she has a trouble walking, kindly gave her his cane that he has for some reason; And after being asked by Granma Sophie to find her somewhere place to stay, he does so, and leads her to Howl's castle.

After an intense chase with the house, she got in the house's butthole door, sits herself to a chair directly in front of the fireplace, and goes for a nap. That is promptly interrupted by a voice.

Thus, a conversation between an old lady and a talking fire–began.

“And you can't even tell anyone about it”, the fire continued to talk, not caring (or not bothered) by her reaction.

“You're Howl?”, Granma Sophie asks in doubt, leaning in closer to the fire. I don't think that's a good idea, granny.

“Wrong”, the fire straightforwardly denied. “I'm the fire demon, Calcifer!”, he proudly introduced.

“Well, then, Calcifer, can you break the spell I'm under?”, Granma Sophie swoops in to the opportunity of getting out of the curse.

“Easy.” The fire says, “If you break the spell that chains me to this place, I'll break your spell in a flash.” Doesn't sound easy to me.

“In other words, bargains with a demon”, Granma Sophie concludes. “You sure you can keep than promise?”, she asks with a little smirk on her wrinkly face.

“Demons don't make promises”, Calcifer responds, which quelled Granma Sophie's enthusiasm, slightly.

“I suggest you look elsewhere.”

“But I'm an exploited demon!”, Calcifer exclaimed, waving his little fire arms around. “I'm chained here by a contact with Howl, who works me to death.” He added, “Not to mention, his lov– friend who loves adding heaps of junk in this place already full of it. I'm the one who keeps this castle moving! Not him!”

“My, you've got it rough”, Granma Sophie sleepily commented, no one knows if she's actually listening or not.

“If you figure out the secret contract, the spell will break. If you do that, I'll break your spell,  too”, he bargains.

“Alright. A bargain, eh?”, Granma Sophie finally fell asleep then and there, after a long day of hard work.

“Granny. Granny.” Calcifer calls.

“...snore[1]”

[1] An onomatopoeia

“Boy... I've got my doubts about her.”

.....

The wheel dings as the arrow points to the color black, right besides purple and red, and the door opens.

Howl enters.

Markl took notice of his master coming back, and immediately greets, “Welcome home, Master Howl”, and reports,“You have letters from the king. To Jenkins and Pendragon.”