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 Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 8:35 pm
Sophie was dead. Dead. There was no spell to wake the dead... Sophie had died in a fire... Howl had gone over this in his head for almost a week. He had gone over the theory that Sophie had somehow survived the fire due to the fact that she was a powerful witch and could have easily told the flames to stop.
...But her father had said she was dead. Dead. And for that week, Howl had done very little. His hair was three colors at once. A faded blonde that had become red, and his natural, wiry brown. The wizard hadn't been taking care of himself, not since he'd learned what had happened. Sophie was gone...
Gone. There was nothing he could do. The wizard helplessly flopped down on a bench, seeming well, not quite content, to stay there. He wiped a tear from his cheek. If it'd been any other situation, he would have marveled at the emotions he felt, while he was lacking a heart. This was Darcy's fault. Darcy had brought Sophie to Gaia... Darcy had said she would be safe with Adrian. Darcy had lied.
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 8:44 pm
Sophie was having a hard time adjusting to being Terra.
It was one thing to pretend to be someone for a while, but to live as a different person? Nearly impossible.
She brushed back strands of strawberry pink hair away from her face. She looked ugly. Ugly and horribly fake. It didn't seem real that someone should have pink hair, and yet, she'd been complimented so often for it. So maybe she was secretly pretty, but she didn't feel it.
Guilt weighed heavily on the witch's heart. Over the past month she had begun to realize exactly how heavily her death had effected everyone. Her family. Her friends. Howl. She shivered, swaying on her heels, coming close to dropping the arm load of magical reference books she'd been carrying. Best to get home and forget it all.
And what a good plan that would have been, if she had not run into a certain someone on her way back 'home'. His appearance and posture had her wanting to run to his side, but logic told he to stay her course. This was supposed to happen, she told herself.
"Why don't you just open up, and drown me, why don't you?" She growled into the sky, and on a whim, the clouds decided to darken, and bits of rain splattered the ground. "Wonderful."
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 8:52 pm
Howl looked up. He had felt a surge of powerful magic; and it didn't help that he was suddenly getting wet. The voice he'd heard had something familar to it...something, but he couldn't put his finger on it. There was something about the style of the spell, too... Sophie.
But no, no. The girl who'd uttered it didn't look the least bit like his Sophie. He slumped in disappointment. The girl was beautiful, yes--but she wasn't Sophie. She wasn't the Sophie he'd been working so hard to prepare a proper proposal for, she wasn't the Sophie he'd gotten a job in order to get a ring for her, either.
Still, mourning though he was, he forced a shakey smile. "Hello," he greeted. "You've a strong gift for magic." Sophie's gift. Sophie's way with words, his mind told him. "I'm Howell Jenkins." He'd no longer go by Howl. He no longer felt he fit that part.
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 8:59 pm
Now that she had no other choice, but to look at him, Sophie couldn't help noticing how horrid his hair looked. It was positively un-Howl to have let it get this bad. She supposed it was his way of showing he was still in mourning, but then, the incident was still rather fresh, wasn't it?
"Hey." She smiled uneasily, all the while looking like a teen put on the spot by a beggar. "Oh, that? I can do waaaayyyy better than that. I don't know what happened there." She shook her head, partly for the role, and mostly for herself. It felt wrong to speak in such a way. "Hey, are you...okay? You look like someone just ran over your cat." While the eloquent vocabulary may have been missing, her frankness remained.
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:11 pm
"Must have a great teacher," Howl muttered, rubbing at a blue eye. "I used to be in the craft too. Was a great wizard, once." No longer. No no, it reminded him of Sophie. She had said he was the greatest wizard anywhere. He couldn't. "You're a witch then?" he asked casually. He wasn't in the least bit interested, but since they had a conversation going--might as well ask questions, he supposed. It was what Sophie would have done, he figured. She'd always been one to stick her nose where it didn't belong.
"My wife died," he said hollowly. "I suppose you can say my cat was run over, too, the same night. I was planning something, something special, and I hadn't seen her in a while--and this happened. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, or to tell her how I much I--" he hesitated and looked down at his feet. "Loved her. But I shouldn't burden you with that. My job's been keeping me busy... I guess I'll be able to quit now. I was going to purchase a ring for her--she's the old fashioned sort, I thought she would prefer that to just summoning one."
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:22 pm
Terra sat beside the befallen wizard on the bench, tossing the books into the air and with a wave of her hand, flung them all open to create an umbrella for the two of them. It was the kind of flashy thing that Sophie hated, but Terra thrived on. "Does that answer your question?" She smiled lightly. "It's a hobby, not a job. Magic just makes living easier now-a-days."
Terra crossed her legs at the ankle, rubbing her capri's against each other as she listened to him. When she pulled her hair behind her ear, two sets of silver hoops could be seen. "Aren't you young to be married?" She questioned, then frowned. "Sorry - not my place. I don't mind giving an ear, but it sounds like you weren't really married at all if you hadn't given her the ring yet."
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:37 pm
Howl shook his head, making a hysterical sound between a laugh and a sob. "I'm from another world," he said. "My wife, too. You probably haven't heard of it; originally I'm from Wales. We came from Ingary. Some witch brought us here, and turned us into children. She ripped us from our home and family. Sophie and I were married for years, before she brought us here. I thought it would be nice...to have a second wedding. Renew our vows and all. I thought maybe if I convinced Darcy to bring Morgan--Morgan's our son, he's almost three, here... We could go back to having our happily ever after."
He slumped forward, propping his head on one arm. "So we were married. I don't know why she had to die. She could have stopped the fire... If I'd known I would have come and gotten her out. Calcifer would have helped. He's my fire demon. He keeps saying Sophie's not dead... But she is. Her father wrote me a letter. I don't know, maybe he's just in denial... Maybe I'm still in it."
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:45 pm
Terra tipped her head back, willing herself not to look at 'Howell'. All she could see through the book covering was swollen clouds with dark, angry marks marring their skin. "That sounds awful," she gasped, forcing herself to be surprised. "I can't imagine what that must have been like; to have a home, and a family onto to have it all taken from you like that. It must have been really traumatic for you both." And it had been. She'd lived it.
"Sometimes people just...die. Even if she could have stopped the fire, whose to say she had the strength? Maybe she was trying to help people get out, or she inhaled smoke? Anything could have happened in there." Even she had to admit that a fire wasn't likely to take her out, but she had to play up Adrian's story. "Calcifer's in denail, you aren't. You're grieving, which is natural."
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:04 pm
"It was," Howl agreed. "Darcy won't bring Morgan...I went and talked to her, at her house. She wasn't... very happy to see me." He sighed. "I didn't know how else to go about it. I wanted Morgan to be able to come to our wedding, and surprise Sophie, but..." another sigh. "I never got the chance to."
He paused, and studied the pink haired girl. He frowned slightly, seemingly confused. "You remind me of her," he said. "Your magic, the way you speak, how kind you are. Your hair's almost like hers--if it were darker. She once dyed my hair pink. Hers is a lovely red gold; but when we were brought here, it turned silver. Like starlight. Calcifer likes telling me she's out there somewhere, with a spell on her. I think he's associating this with how I first met her. The Witch of the Waste put a curse on her, so she was an old lady. Even if Sophie could have somehow survived... She hasn't come to me. I suppose if she is still around, she doesn't want to see me."
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