The Moving Castle: Howl's Moving Castle

Chapter 5

When the next morning came rolling in, Sophie was downstairs smoothing out the dress that Howl had used his magic to make prettier. Markl was standing next to Calcifer as they both watched Sophie and Howl. With her back turned away from Howl, Sophie plopped her hat on her head.

"Are you really going to wear that hat, after all the magic I used to make your dress look pretty?" Questioned Howl, who had a large brown blanket over him, while wearing red slippers.

"Hm!" Sophie grunted as she pulled her hat down more.

They were all waiting on Delacy who hadn't left her room. But when Delacy finally did make her way down the stairs, many mouths in the room dropped. Wearing the finest dress she owned, it was a beautiful dress, that most expensive dress Howl had ever purchased for her. Starting off at the shoulders as dark blue that almost rivalled the night sky, but as it went down the body it slowly became lighter until it stopped at a star-light sliver. It was a choker style dress, with ruffled edges on the neckline, the shoulders had Padden and puffed from the shoulders to her biceps, but became skin-tight from her elbows all the way to her wrists. The chest pieced was designed into a half-diamond shape with many little crystals embedded into the material, making it actually look like the night sky. It pulled in at the waist, giving Delacy a much fuller figure. On either side of her hips, were ruffled pieces of fabric, giving volume to her hips and enhancing the shape of her bottom. When it came to her feet, the dress pulled up in the middle, showing the brown leather boots she wore underneath.

Her makeup was much heavier done than what she would usually wear. But it wasn't terrible, it was done in a way that enhanced her features wonderfully. Her lips were painted a rosy pink, her cheeks were highlighted a nice rosy pink colour too. Her brows were filled in and the shape of them was more defined and sharper. Her eye-makeup was simple, the only thing done was that she drew a wing and coated her lashes with more mascara than normal and it made her pale blue eyes stand out. Never had her pale eyes look this beautiful, it reminded Howl of the rare luna flower that would only bloom once every full moon. Even her waist-long hair was styled differently, been braided on the side and tied at the end with a simple pink bow.

In her hand was a beautiful wide-brim bowler hat, with the same colour pink ribbon tied around the band of the hat. Many fake pink roses, with little green leaves, were sewed into the hat, some were cascading off the right side of the hat, covering Delacy's right eye tastefully. Slipping the hat onto her head, Delacy looked at everyone with a raised brow.

"What?" She questioned them. "Is something the matter? Do I look ridiculous?"

"No," Coaked Howl as he stepped forward taking her hand as he led her to where Sophie was standing. "You - you look beautiful."

And Howl wasn't lying, for the first time in five years, Howl loved how her white hair and pale blue eyes looked on her, because for five years, Howl only saw them and her deteriorating health as a constant reminder of what he had done to her and how he was powerless in reversing the curse he had given her. But today, they were the sign of reliance and power, and that was beautiful to Howell Jenkins Pendragon.

Blushing red, Delacy looked at the ground, she was thankful that her foundation was caked because if it wasn't, Howl would've seen the bright red tomato hue that was on her face and neck. Looking up she smiled a shy smile at him, a smile of his own worked on his face. And so the two adults stared at each, both wearing their own charming smiles.

"Called it!" Calcifer spoke with a smirk, which caught the eye of both Markl and Sophie, who gave the fire-demon a questionably look. "Oh, come one! Don't tell me you haven't felt or seen the chemistry between the two? Markl!" Turning back to the couple, who had pulled away after hearing Calcifer's words, wearing blushes of their own, Delacy moved towards the front door with Sophie. "Oh, don't stop because of me! Continue!"