{1}
The creaks of old machinery, the whiff of murbid smoke in the air, and the black cloud covering the window facing her work desk.
It's a normal day for Sophie so far.
She wake up, starts her job at her mother's hat shop, sit, sew, and got to enjoy yet another day in this war-filled world.
Pretty normal.
As Sophie's finishing another hat, one of her mother's workers(?) knocked on her door, “Miss Sophie, I've closed the shop”, she informed making the said girl smile.
“You should come, too, Sophie”, the lady invited.
“I'll just finish this. Go have fun.” The usual reply the lady receives in every one of her invites.
“Alright, then, I'm off”, and she responded with the same line.
“I'm going”, the lady informed to her comrades in the other room, immediately followed by the “hey, wait!” of her previously gossiping friends, as the three followed the lady in going out.
“Look. It's Howl's castle”, the last girl by the window exclaimed. This immediately made the other girls pause their steps.
“Eh? Howl? Where, where?”
As expected, the other three girls immediately ran back to the window the moment they heard the name "Howl".
“Look at how close it is!” What do you know, even the previously sophisticated lady also ran to take a look. That wizard sure is popular.
“Oh, no.”
“I wonder if Howl's in town...”
If you look far enough through the mountains, you could see a weird machine that looks like a fish with legs, and machinery on it's back, walking towards their town, hidden deep in the clouds.
“It took off.”
“No, it's just hiding from all the soldiers.”
Sophie barely looked at it, before going back on her hat-making.
“Say, did you hear? Remember Martha, from South Haven?.”
And they started gossiping again.
“They say howl took her heart out.”
“How scary...”
“Don't worry, he's not gonna want yours.” They don't know if the last girl is comforting her friend or ridiculing her. It's true, anyhow.
They got out laughing. Of course, not without their mom friend hurrying them.
As sweet giggles and chatters slowly fade away, Sophie is left silently with her hats, in her quiet and peaceful work space.
After a moment of touching it up, it's finally done. Sophie put the hat in a mannequin head, and just wondered on what to do next.
After a little pondering, she heaved a sigh and finally,—after long hours of sitting on that chair— she stoop up. Patting her apron off of possible stains and dirts.
Sophie took off her apron, picked up her hat, looked in the mirror and noted to herself how ugly she is.
She decided to visit her sister, who works at a famous restaurant (?) quite far from her place.
And in her teal dress, leather ankle boots and her iconic hat, off she go.
Walking around the town is pretty mondaine for Sophie. Ignoring the god awful flag and constant smoke getting in her eyes, it's almost relaxing. Almost. If you don't count the war planes buzzing above her head and the literal parade of soldiers she saw while on the bus ride, then yes, it would've been relaxing.
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𝐑𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐳𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐬 || 𝐇𝐨𝐰𝐥'𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞
Fanfiction→𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 𝐱 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐜/𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 "How horrible", he chastised, but it's obvious he's satisfied with the subtle lifting of the side of his lips. "I wonder how she'll react when she found out you're talking like that about he...
