wizard_howell: (soldier)
wizard_howell ([personal profile] wizard_howell) wrote2007-07-29 03:14 pm

(no subject)

The sunrise here to the north is a spectacular affair; it finds him at the edge of a pond, contemplating the water's flow over the rocks. Lesson one is learned: nighttime in Strangia is no time at all to be out and about on one's one. It's more than evident that the country as a whole is not only preparing but almost completely prepared for war: things are locked down tightly and friendly faces are few and far between... even to one dressed in the unmistakable uniform of the Strangian army.

It's all right, though. He's learned far more in this one night than the King of Ingary might have hoped for; the work he and Sophie have been doing certainly is both appropriate and adequate. There are strange magics at work in this land: they're as tangible as the water in the stream at his feet. As much as he'd prefer to be home bickering with Sophie over doing too much work or the merits of cooking on Calcifer, he understands why he's here. If Ingary suffers from one thing, it's a false sense of security. Things are far worse than he (or, he suspects, the King) imagined. Everywhere, there are stockpiles of munitions and canned goods and clothing; storefronts have been turned into military effort workshops; anti-Ingary signs grace every street corner.

He's not quite sure what Ingary has done to incur such hatred, but he'd like to understand it. Unfortunately, he doubts he'll have that luxury: there's movement in the distance and so he takes his rifle in hand and stands tall: watching, waiting, listening.
talkstohats: (young: movie: determined)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-07-30 04:05 am (UTC)(link)
It would have probably been a good idea to check how many leagues it was from Ingary to Strangia.

It would probably have been a better idea to remember that there was an army in the way. Sophie wonders, guiltily, if the highly confused Strangian captain will report the red-bearded stranger who appeared briefly in the midst of a platoon to his superiors. Still, no help for it, she tells herself. Anyways, after a few missteps, and overshooting once or twice, she's found herself squarely behind Strangian lines.

She still hasn't learned how to stop the boots without falling over. But she falls over strategically, and pulls the boots carefully off, tucking them under her cloak (they're heavy) before pulling out the finding spell she'd bullied Michael into hastily preparing.

"Find Howl," she whispers. "Go!"

And now . . . she's here.

Tromping up towards what looks remarkably like a Strangian officer, and hoping desperately that Michael didn't misplace an ingredient along the way.
talkstohats: (young: movie: determined)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-07-30 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
As Sophie gets closer, the identification becomes clear - it's obviously Howl. Trumped up in a Strangian uniform and far too much weaponry, but Howl all the same.

You'd think Howl would recognize his own disguise spell, Sophie thinks in some irritation, over the rush of relief. Unless he's just trying to make life difficult for her, which is thoroughly possible -

- or unless he's being watched. Which, she recognizes belatedly, is also possible.

She coughs, and says, in as gruff a voice as she can manage, "Special messenger with news from, er, from Wales."

She's hoping it sounds convincingly manly.

. . . mostly it just sounds like she has a cold.
talkstohats: (young: movie: bitchface)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-07-30 05:32 am (UTC)(link)
Sophie glares, and attempts to convey, through facial expressions alone, that she is cold, and has not slept in - well, in too long, anyways, and consequently is in no mood to play games, so Howl had best come off it and soon.

Not to mention the fact that she still hasn't forgiven him for coming up here without telling her to begin with.

"I haven't the faintest idea," she snaps. "I'm just the messenger, sir. It clearly isn't my job to be told the finer points of strategy!"
talkstohats: (young: movie: bitchface)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-07-30 05:51 am (UTC)(link)
"That's a trick question!" Sophie says indignantly.

The dog, after all, has no less than three names, and two of them are more than likely extremely dangerous to be throwing around in anything less than vulgar terms in the middle of Strangia.

"I suppose you mean Percival, but it isn't really."
talkstohats: (young: movie: shout)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-07-30 06:03 am (UTC)(link)
"Finding you" Sophie retorts, pulling down the hood of the cloak in one brisk motion to reveal her own much paler and decidedly less bushy face.

"You tell me you're just off to visit the King and I find out the next morning you're in - in the middle of the war zone? And you lied to me about it? As if I was going to sit at home and go on knitting!"

She's full of righteous fury, and getting angrier as she goes on, in large part to cover for the fact that now she's here . . . she's really not sure what she's planning to do next, except have a domestic squabble in the middle of an enemy nation.

This is the trouble with impulse decisions.
talkstohats: (young: movie: determined)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-08-01 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
She wouldn't have lied, Sophie tells herself. She might have lied to Howl in the past, certainly, but she could hardly help it then - she was under a spell, after all.

She might have fibbed. For his own good. But only over small things, slight exaggerations; surely nothing as grave as this.

He could have been killed. And she would never have even known he was in danger.

"If you had only told me what was going on, we could have discussed it," she says, instead of answering his question. "I could have helped - I can help," she goes on, more briskly. "Michael's perfectly capable of keeping the shop for a few days. And I'm good at getting people to tell me things, you know I am.

"And since you're so prone to running off these days, I want to be able to keep an eye on you."

It's not fair to say to him.

But she's still furious. And still frightened.
talkstohats: (young: movie: eh?)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-08-01 05:06 am (UTC)(link)
"I am not slithering," Sophie mutters, glaring up into Howl's green eyes. "And even if I was, one has to learn that sort of thing if one's going to spend much time with you - just in self-defense!"

She huffs, surreptitiously rubbing her hands together under the cloak to keep them warm. "I did bring a disguise. I suppose if you have a spare uniform I could be a Strangian soldier well enough . . . do soldiers wear cloaks?"
talkstohats: (cat: WARY BUT DIGNIFIED)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-08-01 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
Ordinarily, Sophie would protest - but she knows enough magic to know that disturbing a spell of this kind could be problematic.

As soon as it's done, though, she opens her mouth, planning to give Howl a piece of her mind -

- and listens in horror to the sound that comes out.


What.


What.




The hair - fur? - on her back rises up in sharp shock, and she opens her mouth to let out another "MROW!", with which she attempts very hard to convey the fact that she is never ever ever going to forgive Howl for this.

Ever.
talkstohats: (cat: WARY BUT DIGNIFIED)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-08-01 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
[You might have ASKED!] Sophie fumes, even as she stretches four short legs covered in black fur in a dash towards the oak trees. [Just because you chose a disguise too, Howl, that hardly makes us even!]

Why do people always feel compelled to turn her into things? Why her! At least when she was old she only had two legs to deal with, as opposed to trying to maneuver four -

- and as soon as she starts trying to think about how, exactly, to coordinate all four legs, she loses the instinctive knowledge she's had of how to run in her new form and sprawls onto the ground with un-feline grace.

Form imposes certain habits; her next impulse is to sit herself up, lick her paws, and do her very best to pretend that that didn't happen. She represses it, picking her way sourly across the few feet remaining between her and the forest.
talkstohats: (cat: WARY BUT DIGNIFIED)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-08-01 06:11 am (UTC)(link)
[Excuses!] Sophie retorts, with a hiss and a flash of fang for good measure. [You'd been consorting with a southerner for the past ten minutes without it bothering you overmuch. And let me tell you, Howl Pendragon Jenkins What-Have-You, if you'd turned me into a ROACH -]

Well. Words very clearly fail.

She hisses again and jumps ahead over a fallen tree. As most of her mind is taken up with being furious at Howl, she makes the leap with automatic ease, landing neatly on the other side before turning around to add, [Besides, this was rather poorly thought-out! Who ever heard of a cat and a dog walking together voluntarily?]

If they were home, she'd likely be Not Talking to him right now. But they're not at home - and angry as she is, it's more important that they both get home safely.
talkstohats: (cat: WARY BUT DIGNIFIED)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-08-01 09:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's no call for rude language as well.]

She's got lots more to say to him, but he's right in one thing: this isn't the time. Sophie slinks lower in the grass and peers ahead towards the opening of the grove, trying to distinguish the green of the Strangian uniform through the slightly darker green of the oak leaves.

[All right - where do you suggest we go? It won't do any good to run without a direction. Or a destination. What exactly are we meant to be finding out, anyways?]
talkstohats: (cat: WARY BUT DIGNIFIED)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-08-02 02:46 am (UTC)(link)
Sophie listens, head tilted slightly, and watches the dog across from her through slit-pupiled eyes (and how odd it is to see through them, and so close to the ground! When she gets back, she thinks, she'll have to send notes of apology to Prince Justin and Wizard Suliman. She'd never appreciated just what they had to deal with, when they were in dog-shape.)

[If not? We may not know whether they will or won't amass here until it's too late - wouldn't it be far better to start by actively trying to find out what we need to know?]

She rises off her haunches and paces back and forth across the packed earth, whiskers twitching as she thinks.

[Shouldn't we be able to find some way to hear what's going on in the officer's tents? It's the officers who'll know the real plans, after all, not the common soldiers.]
talkstohats: (cat: WARY BUT DIGNIFIED)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-08-02 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
No one can glare like a cat; Sophie's current glare makes it fairly clear that such a plan of action would not meet with her approval.

(Well, it's not as if Sophie is well-versed in the different kinds of uniforms worn by members of the Strangian military.)

[And you think nobody will notice an extra officer wandering around that nobody knows?]
talkstohats: (cat: WARY BUT DIGNIFIED)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-08-02 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
Cats, at least, are smaller and better at sneaking than dogs - at least, dogs the size that Howl has chosen to be.

Sophie gives him a suspicious look all the same. She'd meant what she said, about wanting to keep an eye on him, and she's not entirely sure she trusts him not to sneak off to do something terribly dangerous while she's industriously wandering through the campsite.

On the other hand, he can hardly leave her trapped in cat-shape while he dashes off, can he? Even Howl isn't that slithery.

[I suppose,] she says, with grudging assent, and then pauses.

[How are we to know when an hour's passed? A cat can't keep a pocket-watch.]
talkstohats: (cat: WARY BUT DIGNIFIED)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-08-02 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
[That's sensible,] Sophie allows, holding her head up with haughty feline dignity.

[And, as you asked, and it does make sense, I'm perfectly all right with it.] If her emphasis is a little heavy, well - she feels it's a point that ought to be emphasized.

[As long as you remember to do the same for yourself - I'm counting on you, Howl. I want your word. I'm not having come all the way here just to lose you again.]

She's doing her best to have the sternness entirely cover up her fright - because any way you look at this, it's dangerous.

And more so for Howl than for her. Wizard Howl is a major player, a known power and enemy of Strangia. Witch Hatter is barely a piece on the board - and here, that's an asset.
talkstohats: (cat: WARY BUT DIGNIFIED)

[personal profile] talkstohats 2007-08-02 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
Sophie gives him a narrow glance, but nods before slipping off towards the exit on her assigned path.

She doesn't have to try too hard not to think about the complexities of four legs. After all, she's got something else to focus on - and that is the fact that Howl can say whatever he likes, but the fact of the matter is that she's not leaving him behind anywhere.