Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Sophie Enters the Castle and Trades with the Fire Demon

Facing Sophie was a black wall with a black door, and she stepped forward with shambling brisk steps.The closer you get to the castle, the uglier it looks.It is too tall and irregular in shape.Sophie saw in the darkening night that it was built of coal-like stones; and that the stones, like the coals, were of different shapes and sizes.The stone oozes eerie as Sophie approaches, but it doesn't frighten her off in the slightest.Her mind was full of chairs and fire, and she stretched out her hands eagerly towards the door. Her hands couldn't get close.An invisible wall kept her within a foot of the gate.Sophie was so anxious that she poked and poked with her finger.Finding that this didn't work, she poked with a cane.The wall, as high as her crutches could reach, and as low as the heather protruding from the steps, seemed to guard the gate.

"Open the door!" Sophie hissed. The walls were motionless. "Excellent," said Sophie. "I'll go through the back door." Sophie staggered towards the left corner of the castle, which was the closest and the road was a bit downhill.But she couldn't get around the corner.When she reached the same height as the irregular black foundation stone, the invisible wall blocked her way.Seeing this situation, Sophie imitated Martha and cursed a word that old women and girls should not know, and then dragged heavily, walking counterclockwise towards the right corner of the castle uphill.There are no obstacles there.After turning the corner, she staggered and ran eagerly towards the other big black door in the middle on that side.

There was also a barrier in front of that door. Sophie glared. "I think it's very unkind!" she said. Billows of black smoke blew down from the battlements.Sophie coughed.Now she was angry.She was old and weak and cold and aching all over.It was getting darker, and Castle just stopped to blow smoke at her. "I'm going to argue with Hal about this!" she said, going frantically to the next door.There's no barrier there—obviously, you have to go around the castle counterclockwise—and just a little to the side on the other wall, is the third door.This one was much smaller and more worn out.

"Finally the back door!" said Sophie. When Sophie was almost at the back door, the castle started moving again.The earth shook.The walls vibrated and creaked, and the door began to move sideways away from her. "Hey, don't!" cried Sophie.She ran after the door, tapping hard with her cane. "Open the door!" she hissed. The door bounced inward, still running sideways.Sophie limped after her desperately, and managed to get one foot onto the steps.Then she struggled to climb up in one jump, and another.At the same time, the castle moved faster on the rugged hillside, and the big black stones around the door trembled and creaked.Sophie was not surprised that the castle was tilted.Surprisingly, it didn't fall apart on the spot.

"How stupid to treat a building like this!" she gasped as she flung herself through the door.In order not to be shaken down, she had to throw away her crutches and hold on to the open door. When her breathing calmed down, she realized that there was a person standing in front of her, also holding the door.He was a head taller than Sophie, but you could tell he was still a child, only slightly older than Martha.And he seemed to be about to close the door, drive her out of the warm, bright, low-beamed room behind him, drive her back into the night. "Try to throw me out of the house with such audacity, child!" she said.

"I didn't, but you can't close the door like this." He argued, "What do you want?" Sophie looked around behind the boy.Hanging from the beams are many objects that may be magical—bunches of onions, bunches of herbs, and bundles of strange roots; and objects that are definitely magical, like leather-bound books, shaped bottles, and An old grinning brown skull.On the other side of the boy was a fireplace with a small fire burning in the hearth.Compared with the formation of thick smoke outside, the fire was much smaller, but it was obviously just a back room of the castle.More importantly to Sophie, the flames had turned the steps red, small blue flames were dancing on the logs, and a small chair with cushions stood in a warm corner beside it.

Sophie pushed the boy aside and flung himself at the chair. "Ah! My life-saving straw!" She said, sitting comfortably on it.It was bliss.The fire warmed her pain, the chair supported her back, and she knew that if anyone tried to throw her out at this moment, they would have to use top-notch violent magic. The boy closes the door.He picked up Sophie's cane and leaned it politely against the chair.Sophie realized that the castle wasn't going to move to the side of the mountain at all now: not a single rumble, not a sway.too weird! "Tell Wizard Howl," she said to the boy, "that this castle will crumble to pieces if he goes too far."

"The castle is enchanted so it won't fall apart," said the boy, "but Hal isn't here at the moment." This is good news for Sophie. "When will he be back?" she asked a little nervously. "It looks like it won't be until tomorrow," said the boy. "What do you need? Can I help? I'm Mike, Howl's apprentice." This is good news. "I'm afraid only this wizard can help me." Sophie said immediately.This may be true. "I'll wait, if you don't mind." Apparently Mike did.He hovered around Sophie, somewhat helpless.To show that she was never going to be thrown out of the door by a little apprentice, Sophie closed her eyes and pretended to go to sleep. "Tell him my name is Sophie," she murmured.For safety, she added: "Old Sophie."

"Maybe all night," Mike said.Sophie pretended not to be listening, because that was exactly what she expected.In fact, she almost dozed off.Along the way, she was exhausted.After a while Mike left her alone and walked back to the lighted bench to resume his work. She thus had a safe haven all night, Sophie thought drowsily, albeit with a false pretense.Since Hal was such an evil wizard, it was not wrong to fool him like this.But she wanted to get away until Hal came back to protest.She peeped sleepily at the apprentice.He was so kind and polite that she was surprised.After all, she had forced her way in, and Mike hadn't complained at all.Maybe Hal domesticated his subservient servility.But Mike didn't look slavish.He was tall, dark, with a kindly candid face, and well dressed.In fact, if Sophie hadn't seen him at that moment carefully pouring the green liquid from the odd-shaped flask into the crooked glass jar of black powder, she would have taken him for a rich peasant's son.really weird!

Still, it occurred to Sophie that there must be something strange about wizards.This room, whether it was a kitchen or a studio, was really comfortable and peaceful.Sophie did fall asleep and snore.A light flashed, a dull bang enveloped the workbench, and Mike uttered a few foul words, but Sophie didn't wake up.Mike sucked his hot fingers, cast a spell in the night, and took bread and cheese from the cupboard, but Sophie still didn't wake up.Mike leaned over her to add firewood, knocked down the crutches with a clatter, and she was still sound asleep.Mike looked into Sophie's open mouth and said to the fireplace, "The teeth are all there. She's not a Wasteland Witch, is she?"

"If so, I wouldn't have let her in," pleaded Fireplace. Mike shrugged and picked up Sophie's crutch politely again. Then he added a log to the fire with the same courtesy, and went to sleep somewhere on top. In the middle of the night, Sophie was woken up by someone snoring.She sat up, only to find out to her annoyance that it was her own snoring.She thought she had only slept for a few seconds, but in that blink, Mike disappeared and the lights went out.There is no doubt that the wizard's apprentice learns this trick in the first week.The fire in the fireplace was small.It made a nasty hissing, crackling noise.Sophie felt a chill down her back.She remembered that she was in the wizard's castle, and, unpleasantly but clearly, there was a skull on a workbench somewhere behind her. She shivered and twisted her stiff old neck, but it was dark behind her. "How about we brighten it up?" she said.Her hoarse voice did not drown out the crackling of the fire.Sophie was surprised.She had expected the echo to echo throughout the castle through the dome.Fortunately, there was a basket of firewood beside her.With rattling arms she raised a log and added it to the fire, sending blue-green sparks up the chimney.She added a second log and leaned back in her chair, watching nervously back as the blue-violet light of the flames danced on the smooth brown skull.The rooms are small.No one else but Sophie and Skull. "Both of his feet went into the grave, and I only got one." She comforted herself.She turned to face the flames, which flickered blue-green flames now. "There must be salt in the wood," Sophie murmured.She settled into a comfortable sitting position, resting her knuckle-protruding feet on the fender, and curling her head toward the corner of the chair from which she could see the colorful flames, and began to wonder vaguely what she should do in the morning.But her thoughts were disturbed by a false face of flames. "It's a thin blue face," she said to herself, "long and thin, with a thin nose. Those curly tongues of green fire on top should be your hair. What if I'm here when Howl comes back?" Guess the wizard would break the spell. The purple flame tongue near the bottom is like a mouth—you have fierce teeth, man. You have two tufts of green flame tongues for eyebrows..." Amazingly, the only orange flame tongue is in the green eyebrow flame tongue Below, just like the eyes, there was a purple light in the center of each eye, and Sophie felt that they were looking at her like pupils. "On the other hand," Sophie continued, looking at the orange flame, "if the spell is broken, my heart will be eaten before I can turn around." "Don't you want your heart eaten?" Flame asked. It is indeed the flame that speaks.Sophie saw the purple tongue wriggle with the words that came out.His voice was almost as rough as hers, full of the hiss and whine of burning wood. "Of course not," Sophie replied. "What are you?" "Fire Demon." Purple Mouth replied. "I'm bonded to the hearth. I can't leave this place." He said it with a whoosh over a hiss.Then it turned into a light crackle. "What are you?" he asked. "I know you're under a spell." Sophie woke up like a dream when she heard this sentence. "You know!" she exclaimed, "Can you break the spell?" The fire demon's blue face swayed, and his orange eyes looked Sophie up and down. For a moment, there was only a blazing dazzling silent fire. "It's a strong spell," he said at last. "It feels like the Witch of the Waste cast it." "Exactly," said Sophie. "But it's not only that," said the Fire Demon crackling, "I'm aware of two levels. You can't tell people unless they already know." It stared at Sophie for a while. "I'm going to do research," he said. "How long?" Sophie asked. "It may take a while," said the Fire Demon.He changed his persuasive tone, swaying softly, "How about making a deal with me? If you agree to break my contract, I'll lift your spell." Sophie looked warily at the fire demon's thin blue face.He said the proposal with a decidedly sly look.Everything she'd read said that making deals with demons was extremely dangerous.There is no doubt that the one in front of him is indeed extraordinarily evil.Look at those purple tusks. "You promise it's true?" Sophie asked. "Not exactly," the Fire Demon admitted, "but do you want to just die of old age? That spell shortened your lifespan by about sixty years, if I'm right." What a mean question.It was something Sophie had been trying not to think about.The stakes are high. "The contract you obey," she asked, "was with Wizard Howl?" "Of course." Fire Demon replied.His whirring came back a little more. "I'm bound by a bond, I can't move a step. I'm forced to do most of the magic here. I keep the castle running, keep it moving, do all kinds of special effects to scare everyone, and do what Hal tells me Other things. Hal is very heartless." Needless to say, Sophie also knew that Howl was heartless.But having said that, the fire demon may be just as evil, just as evil. "You didn't take advantage of the contract?" Sophie asked. "It's no good, I wouldn't play with him." Fire Demon replied, swaying uncomfortably, "But if I thought about today, I wouldn't make this deal. I was exploited." Although somewhat wary, Sophie was quite sympathetic to the Fire Demon.She thought of making a hat for Fanny and Fanny was out and about. "Okay," she said, "what's the condition of the contract? How do I break it?" The fire demon's purple mouth grinned, and an eager smile spread across the blue face. "Have you agreed to the deal?" "The premise is that you agree to lift the spell for me." Sophie said, with a somewhat tragic feeling of making a major decision. "Deal!" shouted the fire demon, and jumped up the chimney with a long face happily. "You broke my contract, and I will immediately lift your spell!" "Then tell me how to break your contract," Sophie said. Orange eyes blinked at her and looked away. "I can't. The contract stipulates that neither the wizard nor I can name the main terms." Sophie realized she had been tricked.She said to the fire demon that in this case, he could stay in the fireplace until the end of the world. Fire Demon realized that she was serious. "Don't worry!" he crackled. "You'll know if you look carefully. Try it, please. The pact won't do any of us any good in the long run. I mean what I say. I'm stuck here, It is enough to prove that I will keep my promise!" He spoke earnestly, leaping furiously over the firewood.Sophie felt great sympathy again. "But if I need to look carefully, it's like saying I'm staying in Howl's castle," she protested. "Just about a month. Besides, I also want to study your spells." Fire Demon argued. "But what excuse should I have for staying?" she asked. "We'll figure it out. Hal's pretty incompetent at most things. In fact," Fire Demon said, sibilantly hissing, "he's so absorbed in his own world that he doesn't care about the world beyond his nose most of the time." .We can fool him—if you'll stay." "Okay," said Sophie, "I'll stay. Make up an excuse." She sat comfortably in the chair, waiting for the fire demon to think.He made crackling, swaying murmurs as he thought, reminding Sophie of the way she had talked to the crutches on the road.He blazed as he thought, growling with such joy and enthusiasm that Sophie dozed off again.She remembered that the fire demon did think of several ways.She remembered shaking her head against his making her pretend to be Howl's long-lost aunt, against the other two more outrageous proposals, but she couldn't quite remember.Finally, the fire demon hummed a soft song and swayed gently.Sophie didn't understand the language of the song - or so she thought, until she distinctly heard "pan" repeated several times - and it sounded so hypnotic.Sophie fell into a sound sleep, half suspecting that she had been enchanted and coaxed, but it didn't matter to her.She will soon be free from the spell...