Howl's Second Adventure

Chapter One

In Which Howl Meets a Crazy Girl

Howl could not have been happier. Sophie had moved back in with her step-mother for a while, "for propriety's sake," she had said, and he was having the time of his life turning every bit of his charm to wooing the lady whose heart he already held. When he first started courting her, Sophie was terrified. It was well in her mind that when Howl remembered his two hour vanity routine, followed by disappearing to serenade, he was only playing a game. A conversation with Calcifer soon put this fear to rest.

"But Calcifer, you said yourself that he only does that when he's not really in love!" Sophie said, sitting not in her old chair by the fire, but on the floor, glad her joints were again young enough to do so. Howl had gone to see the king and try and officially slither out of the Royal Magician position once and for all. Michael had gone with him to make sure Howl came back in one piece.

"I think he's doing it to make sure you don't feel less special. I mean, he's already proved he loves you. How many people would bring about the last part of a curse on himself to save your life? I think that if you look deep inside yourself, you will find that there are precious few that would do so, especially with a hangover. Howl just wants to make you feel special, and the only way he knows of making a girl feel special is to deafen her with his caterwauling and faun over her with sappy poems and flowers and candy and such. He's not really capable of much beyond that."