Artemis's POV
When I am aroused, I do not recognize the place in which I awaken. It is dark in the room, and around me I smell incenses and rich prefumes. They give me an overwhelming need to succumb back to sleep, in the deep darkness of numbness. To just sink back into these comfortable quilts. It feels as if I am lying on feathers.
"Artemis, it is time to arise. If you don't get up now, your friends will claim all the glory!"
"Mellach?" My throat is scratchy and my voice hoarse, as I sit up in confusion. I stretch my limbs, and just as my eyes have adjusted to the constant darkness, Mellach pulls the curtains of the many windows making up this room wide open. I sheild my eyes and immediately recognise this place.
It was my bedroom when I stayed with Mellach.
"Your friends are outside the door waiting for you." Mellach sighs, lolling his head back for a moment. "They wonder if you are ready for battle again."
"What happened to me?!" So much is missing! Seconds ago I was fighting invaders clad in black from all our oppressing rival nations. Howl and mhyself forced to fight the King's and Solomon's war . . . Solomon backing us up . . . And it all catches up to me now.
"The Ferocity nearly claimed you as one of it's dead."
"Not your stories again, Mellach, not now."
"Your friends told me evrything, Artemis. Howl brought you and the others here."
Others?
"Rest, some more. Have peace, my girl. They will be allowed to visit you sooner if you finish healing."
How could I refuse, with the potent scent lulling me back into deep sleep?
My sleep was nearly dreamless . . . Well, except for one incident.
It was as if I were invisible, as Solomon and Howl spoke. I could not understand everything they were saying, as if my ears were stuffed with cotton. I heard something about "he is healing . . . She was brought back four times . . . . before heart would keep beating . . . The Ferocity . . . the king's orders . . . "
In all honesty, it was a very disorienting dream. Except that when I woke up again, my Howl and Solomon sat on wooden stools before, bathed in sunlight, and deep conversation.
"He- hey." I choke on my own tongue, trying to spit words out. "What have I missed?"
Howl rushes to my side and plants his butt next to where my head was, mere seconds ago. I suppose it is an open spot now . . .
"You have been out long enough for the king to think the four of us dead."
"Four-?" Ah, Markl. Where is he? "And how long has that been?" Solomon clears her throat and nods in signal for Howl to inform me.
"Three months."
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Howl
FanfictionA fanfiction of Howl's Moving Castle- that doesn't start or end with Sophie and Howl married or having children! What happens when Artemis, a normal girl, runs into Howl and Sophie? Just another girl, right? She could have been, until the accide...
