Just a little something I dreamed up...

-

"Howl? Sophie?"

His voice rang clearly through the kitchen. No reply.

"...Markl? HellooooooooooooooooOOOOOOoOOOooooOoOoOoOoooOOOOO...?"

Calcifer experimented with varying sizes of O-shaped mouth, changing the sound that was produced from a low 'ooh' to tenor-style singing.

"What now Calcifer?"

"Howl! Sophie!" he said as they appeared on the staircase. "I thought you'd left me."

"What's wrong?" Asked Howl again, exasperated.

"I'm bored. What can I do?"

Howl sighed.

"Move the castle somewhere nice."

"Already did." Calcifer gestured to the window, through which a snowy mountain range could be seen, bathed in strong sunlight.

"Well I don't know Calcifer. Use your imagination." Howl joked, and proceeded to whisper something apparently amusing to Sophie, as they walked towards the door arm in arm.

"Okay." He was drowned out by Sophie's silvery laughter as he spoke.

Suddenly, Howl stopped, broke arms with Sophie and walked a couple of dizzy steps as his head snapped round to see the empty fireplace.

"Argh!" he struggled, "Calcifer! Get out of my body!" Howl's eyes became unnaturally wide and blank, before blinking and seemingly regaining life.

"Wooohooooooo!" Calcifer's voice boomed along with Howl's.

"Sophie, look! I can make Howl's body do whatever I like!" He jumped about, subjecting Howl to some kind of weird, writhing dance.

"Don't look at me like that," Calcifer protested as he caught Sophie raising a demeaning eyebrow at him, "I was bored. Dangerous and powerful fire demon plus boredom equals-"

"Trouble. Yes, we know." Sophie cut him off.

"Exactly." Calcifer murmured in the background.

Sophie took a step forwards. "Now get out of Howl."

"No! Why should Iiiii- ow, ow, ow, ow, pain, pain, ow, where, what are you, ARGH! I have ears!" Calcifer screeched as Sophie rooted him to the spot by pinching said appendage.

"Very observant, Master Howl!" Markl looked amused as he carried a large pile of dusty books downstairs.

"Calcifer's taken over Howl's body." Sophie explained, temporarily breaking her glare at the fire demon who now resembled her lover.

"OH." Markl realised, "I thought he was just having one of those days." He set the books down on the desk by the stairs and rubbed his hands together to clear the dust from them.

"Hey Calcifer!" He continued, "You wanna know what else hurts?"

The demon gave a quick shout as he fleed Howl's body, and cowered behind two large logs when he reached the fireplace, only his wide eyes and the tip of his flame visible from over them. Howl, meanwhile, was curled up in a ball on the floor, with teeth gritted and short breath as he nursed where he had been kicked.

Sophie, unsure whether to laugh or to rush to Howl's aid, stood awkwardly beside him as he gave out a painful cry.

"MARKL!"