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Feb. 21st, 2007 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
talkstohatsWith Howl and his sneezing out of the house, the morning passes in relative peace and quiet. Michael practices spell-work; Calcifer burns logs; Sophie pokes around surreptitiously for whatever suit Howl isn't wearing, with no success. The dog-man wanders around and looks tragic, but as that's his normal occupation nobody pays him much mind - at least, not until he gets hungry. Sophie has just convinced Calcifer to burn some bacon for them all when Howl's voice suddenly rings out of nowhere:
"Brace yourself, Calcifer! She's found me!"
"You'll have to wait!" Calcifer roars to the others, and blazes blindingly up into the fireplace. The saucepan falls across Sophie's knees; she hardly notices, she's so busy staring at Calcifer as he whips from side to side, his blurred face - or faces; sometimes he seems to have multiple ones - pulsing from deep blue to sky blue to almost white, his eyes one minute their normal demonic orange and the next a clear starry silver.
She's never seen or imagined anything like it. She'd gotten used to having Calcifer there in the fireplace, cooking their bacon and burning their leftovers; it's so much of a shock to see how strong he really is that it takes her another moment to notice the booming crashes echoing outside, not to mention all the shaking and clammering going on from various items within the castle itself.
"They're quite near!" Michael says, scurrying for the window, and, more slowly, Sophie tears herself away from Calcifer and follows suit, passing by the skull (yammering), a book (open on the floor, and fanning its pages back and forth), and Howl's guitar (twanging wildly away - of course, horribly out-of-tune.) They open the window and peer outside, but everything is maddeningly out of sight. Michael and Sophie look at each other, and then go to the closet to grab the cloaks of disguise. Sophie can't see herself, but from the style she knows she's grabbed the one that makes her look like a red-bearded man. Michael, on the other hand, now appears to be an extremely worried-looking horse.
Under normal circumstances Sophie might laugh, but there isn't time now; instead, she shoves her way out the door, accompanied by the dog-man - still looking mournful, and profoundly unperturbed by the crashings and shakings. Michael follows, in a clatter of nonexistent hooves, and together they shove their way into the middle of the gaping crowd on the street. Sophie wonders momentarily about the impression made by a horse coming out of the building, but everyone is very clearly far too busy staring up into the sky to worry at all about things like house-trained horses.
And with good reason; an enormous boiling black clowd hovers over the rooftops of Porthaven, with white flashes of light stabbing through it. As soon as Sophie starts to stare at it, it twists itself into wispier shapes like fighting snakes and then tears itself apart, with a noise like the greatest catfight ever seen. Both halves speed out over the sea - one pursuing, one following, both making hideous noises - and a good half the crowd speeds out after them and crowd along the harbor wall to see, sweeping Sophie and Michael along with them. This is the best entertainment that Porthaven's offered in years.
Out on the ocean, the two clouds are still raging at each other, spitting and sending up giant waves - the only two clouds on an otherwise calm blue sea - with what looks like an unfortunate vessel caught between them. This causes great indignation in the crowd, most of whom work along the sea in some fashion or another, and one or two of them start to heckle loudly and demand that the raging sorcerers have a care for the ship.
But then one of the waves crashes against the harbor wall, and most of the crowd hastily press backwards onto the dryer dock-area. The noise is mixed with a high-pitched screaming. Squinting into the wind, Sophie realizes that it comes from a group of wet, slithery-looking ladies with green-brown hair and fishtails who have taken over the vacated harbor wall.
"Confound it!" Sophie says aloud, the realization hitting her. "The mermaids from the curse!"
She looks up at the clouds, and sees Howl kneeling on the nearer one, still dressed in black. He's staring at the mermaids.
Typical! Sophie thinks, with mixed worry and irritation. The Witch clearly knows her business; trust Howl to get distracted by topless ladies in the middle of a fight for his life. The horse beside her puts a hoof up to his mouth and shouts, "Keep your mind on the Witch!" And even as he says it, the Witch appears on the further cloud, in a whirl of flame-colored robe and red hair - and Howl's cloud promptly bursts into flame.
Sophie gasps, feeling her heart give an unpleasant patter, but the horse next to her says, "It's all right!" And, after her initial shock, Sophie can see that Howl - a tiny figure - is now standing and waving cheerily on the ship, to let the Witch know she had missed. The Witch promptly turns into a bird and dives at him, but as soon as she does, the ship vanishes, and the bird, unable to stop, dives deep into the sea.
Everyone in the crowd cheers. "I knew that wasn't a real ship really!" says someone behind Sophie, and Michael-the-horse answers wisely, "Yes, it must have been an illusion. It was too small."
But the battle isn't over yet; a surging wave covers the harbor, and Sophie almost loses her balance before an arm comes out of the horse and hauls her back upright and towards the relative safety of the quay. A confusing ream of illusions follows, monsters upon monsters bounding over the quay and up towards the streets of Porthaven. This proves to be too much for a good three-quarters of the crowd, who have had enough thrills for the day, and have gotten distressingly wet besides. These set off to their houses or to clean up the ships sent into disarray by the waves. The remainder, however, think that the end of the battle will surely be too good to miss and set off through the streets of Porthaven to follow the illusory monsters, and Sophie and the dog-man and the Michael-horse join this group, Sophie's bones protesting creakily as she attempts to keep up.
The monsters retreat further and further into the distance, until they're nothing but specks vanishing into the marsh beyond Porthaven. Nothing happens for a long time. Sophie has to remember to stop holding her breath, but the rest of the crowd, less personally invested, are mumbling with boredom and discontent.
Finally, a rolling ball of fire appears in the distance, and turns into a giant pillar of smoke that dissipates into the distance - and that seems to be all.
"I reckon," says one of the crowd, sounding disappointed, "that they must have done for each other," and, this being the consensus, everyone else goes home.
Sophie and Michael are left staring numbly into the distance, with the dog-man bounding briskly around them. He is, in fact, so very cheerful that Sophie realizes he must surely believe that Howl is dead.
"Brace yourself, Calcifer! She's found me!"
"You'll have to wait!" Calcifer roars to the others, and blazes blindingly up into the fireplace. The saucepan falls across Sophie's knees; she hardly notices, she's so busy staring at Calcifer as he whips from side to side, his blurred face - or faces; sometimes he seems to have multiple ones - pulsing from deep blue to sky blue to almost white, his eyes one minute their normal demonic orange and the next a clear starry silver.
She's never seen or imagined anything like it. She'd gotten used to having Calcifer there in the fireplace, cooking their bacon and burning their leftovers; it's so much of a shock to see how strong he really is that it takes her another moment to notice the booming crashes echoing outside, not to mention all the shaking and clammering going on from various items within the castle itself.
"They're quite near!" Michael says, scurrying for the window, and, more slowly, Sophie tears herself away from Calcifer and follows suit, passing by the skull (yammering), a book (open on the floor, and fanning its pages back and forth), and Howl's guitar (twanging wildly away - of course, horribly out-of-tune.) They open the window and peer outside, but everything is maddeningly out of sight. Michael and Sophie look at each other, and then go to the closet to grab the cloaks of disguise. Sophie can't see herself, but from the style she knows she's grabbed the one that makes her look like a red-bearded man. Michael, on the other hand, now appears to be an extremely worried-looking horse.
Under normal circumstances Sophie might laugh, but there isn't time now; instead, she shoves her way out the door, accompanied by the dog-man - still looking mournful, and profoundly unperturbed by the crashings and shakings. Michael follows, in a clatter of nonexistent hooves, and together they shove their way into the middle of the gaping crowd on the street. Sophie wonders momentarily about the impression made by a horse coming out of the building, but everyone is very clearly far too busy staring up into the sky to worry at all about things like house-trained horses.
And with good reason; an enormous boiling black clowd hovers over the rooftops of Porthaven, with white flashes of light stabbing through it. As soon as Sophie starts to stare at it, it twists itself into wispier shapes like fighting snakes and then tears itself apart, with a noise like the greatest catfight ever seen. Both halves speed out over the sea - one pursuing, one following, both making hideous noises - and a good half the crowd speeds out after them and crowd along the harbor wall to see, sweeping Sophie and Michael along with them. This is the best entertainment that Porthaven's offered in years.
Out on the ocean, the two clouds are still raging at each other, spitting and sending up giant waves - the only two clouds on an otherwise calm blue sea - with what looks like an unfortunate vessel caught between them. This causes great indignation in the crowd, most of whom work along the sea in some fashion or another, and one or two of them start to heckle loudly and demand that the raging sorcerers have a care for the ship.
But then one of the waves crashes against the harbor wall, and most of the crowd hastily press backwards onto the dryer dock-area. The noise is mixed with a high-pitched screaming. Squinting into the wind, Sophie realizes that it comes from a group of wet, slithery-looking ladies with green-brown hair and fishtails who have taken over the vacated harbor wall.
"Confound it!" Sophie says aloud, the realization hitting her. "The mermaids from the curse!"
She looks up at the clouds, and sees Howl kneeling on the nearer one, still dressed in black. He's staring at the mermaids.
Typical! Sophie thinks, with mixed worry and irritation. The Witch clearly knows her business; trust Howl to get distracted by topless ladies in the middle of a fight for his life. The horse beside her puts a hoof up to his mouth and shouts, "Keep your mind on the Witch!" And even as he says it, the Witch appears on the further cloud, in a whirl of flame-colored robe and red hair - and Howl's cloud promptly bursts into flame.
Sophie gasps, feeling her heart give an unpleasant patter, but the horse next to her says, "It's all right!" And, after her initial shock, Sophie can see that Howl - a tiny figure - is now standing and waving cheerily on the ship, to let the Witch know she had missed. The Witch promptly turns into a bird and dives at him, but as soon as she does, the ship vanishes, and the bird, unable to stop, dives deep into the sea.
Everyone in the crowd cheers. "I knew that wasn't a real ship really!" says someone behind Sophie, and Michael-the-horse answers wisely, "Yes, it must have been an illusion. It was too small."
But the battle isn't over yet; a surging wave covers the harbor, and Sophie almost loses her balance before an arm comes out of the horse and hauls her back upright and towards the relative safety of the quay. A confusing ream of illusions follows, monsters upon monsters bounding over the quay and up towards the streets of Porthaven. This proves to be too much for a good three-quarters of the crowd, who have had enough thrills for the day, and have gotten distressingly wet besides. These set off to their houses or to clean up the ships sent into disarray by the waves. The remainder, however, think that the end of the battle will surely be too good to miss and set off through the streets of Porthaven to follow the illusory monsters, and Sophie and the dog-man and the Michael-horse join this group, Sophie's bones protesting creakily as she attempts to keep up.
The monsters retreat further and further into the distance, until they're nothing but specks vanishing into the marsh beyond Porthaven. Nothing happens for a long time. Sophie has to remember to stop holding her breath, but the rest of the crowd, less personally invested, are mumbling with boredom and discontent.
Finally, a rolling ball of fire appears in the distance, and turns into a giant pillar of smoke that dissipates into the distance - and that seems to be all.
"I reckon," says one of the crowd, sounding disappointed, "that they must have done for each other," and, this being the consensus, everyone else goes home.
Sophie and Michael are left staring numbly into the distance, with the dog-man bounding briskly around them. He is, in fact, so very cheerful that Sophie realizes he must surely believe that Howl is dead.
