Howl and the Soulmate Stone

Part Thirteen : Prince Justin and the Fake Princess Sophie

Trumpets blared, signalling both the start of the ball, and the arrival of Prince Justin and his date. The rest of the royal family were seated on their thrones, craning their necks to watch as Justin walked out of the castle and into the fancy courtyard.

He was dressed in a nice, navy blue jacket and pants, all with gold trimming that brought out the color of his hair.

Beside him was Howl, not so cleverly disguised as the Princess Sophie. He looked stunning in the blue dress, slathered with makeup. No one noticed anything out of the ordinary, and as the couple walked onto the dance floor guests oohed and ahed at how wonderful they looked.

Only Soliman, who had been seated near the King, squinted and leaned forward in her seat to stare at them, Howl in particular. It only took her a few moments to realize exactly what the two boys were doing and a look of horror crossed her face at once.

She leaned over to the king, and above the classical music pouring from the instruments situated to one side of the room, Justin could hear her say: "Your Majesty, that is not the Princess Sophie! I have met her and her hair is white as snow! This girl, why, I believe she is actually the wizard Howl!"

The King tilted his head back and let out a boisterous laugh. "How very silly you are tonight, Soliman. The wizard Howl! How absurd! And that is quite clearly a girl, look at that elegant way of walking, I've never met a man who walked with such grace."

Soliman looked like he'd just told her that magic wasn't real and glared at the two boys.

Justin smothered his giggles in the crook of his arm as he pretended to cough, then turned back to Howl with a large smile on his face. "So, my lady, would you care to dance?"

Howl's hands curled into fists, but he forced a smile. "Why of course, my... prince..." he muttered, turning towards the other boy and hesitantly placing his hand in his. "I'll admit I've never had to dance the women's part of the waltz."

The prince grinned and began to guide them to through the dance. "Admitting you don't know something! That's a first for you, I believe."

"Shut up," Howl scouled. But as the two whirled around through the other dancers he admitted that he didn't entirely mind how the dress swirled around him, the way he didn't have to think about his motions when he could just follow Justin's steps, or the feeling of their connected hands.

Justin's grey eyes met Howl's and held them, so the two boys were gazing almost dreamily at each other while they danced under the stars.

It was all going fine until they reached the portion of the dance where the men dipped their partners. Justin dipped Howl backwards, as he was supposed to, but Howl was unprepared to go horizontal and floundered his arms like a fish out of water. "AH! Turnip put me back at once!" he shouted, one of his flailing limbs accidentally ruining his fancy hairdo so all the black locks came flowing back down around his shoulders.

Justin pulled him back up quickly, but the damage was done. The eyes of everyone in the room were not on them, and with his hair down, calling Justin Turnip with a rather unfeminine voice for a stereotypical princess, it was now quite obvious that this was not in fact Princess Sophie.

The two boys winced and looked around slowly.

The band had stopped playing to stare, and the mouths of the guests had dropped to the floor. Slowly the King got to his feet. "My son, what is the meaning of this?" he asked.

Howl and Justin looked at him, then at each other, then back to the king. Justin opened and closed his mouth. The boys looked back at each other and coming to a silent agreement, both spun around and made a break for the exit from the courtyard back into the castle.