((Open to anyone, and the shop door can be open to wherever you need that they have a shop))

Sophie brushed her bright red hair up on top of her hair as she headed down stairs, grabbing a log and tossing it to Calcifer on her way across the room. She didn't understand why it was still freshly spring, and this room was sweltering. The Castle seemed to be particularly attached to the temperature of Mehrdadstan, or at least that was the only explanation she could think of. Calcifer, small and slowly curling around the fresh log, was certainly no excuse for the heat.

Neither of the other males in the house were up. She knew Micheal would be wandering down soon enough, but Howl was probably going to greatly enjoy his beauty sleep. She snorted, shaking her head. Like he needed it. Oh, that thought was far to complimentary to Howl when she was annoyed with his lazy habits.

Hunter was in the Sleeping Woods again. He had been back in Mehrdadstan for some time since his interesting encounter with Cernunnos, but had been drawn back to the magical woods he'd lived in before he met the queen of the desert kingdom. He wouldn't be gone for long, he'd told her, only a few hours at most. Striding across Pentamerone in his seven league boots got him wherever he wanted to go in record time. So he'd gone to the woods.

He stood beneath the shade of a tree, smelling winter on the air. He held onto the scent, his eyes closing as he focused. Darkness behind his eyelids gave way to a shadowy form, a loping wolf. In his mind's eye, the hunter met the wolf, and the two regarded each other, as equals, as two halves of the same whole. They changed places, the hunter going to stand in the shadows, and the wolf moving forward, where the man had come from, into the light.

( Hunter felt prickles along his skin, but he didn't move. )

Sophie picked her way through the wooded area, trying to be careful, but not managing to escape snags and stumbles as she went. A soft curse would escape her every few minutes as she picked her way into the woods, louder when she felt her skirt ripped. She made a face, yanking it away from the bush, and wondering what she was doing out here yet again.

That's right. They'd need to refill some things. And Howl had told her they'd be out here. And damn him, she'd volunteered to go grab them.

She sighed, leaning against the tree and digging out her list. She was almost done. Then she'd be able to slip home and take a nice warm bath. A very long, very arm bath. In which interruptions would get you killed, or at least seriously maimed. Yes, that sounded nice.

Arthur and Galahad finally got out of the woods.  It was night again, and Arthur made his way back through the now empty streets of Camlann toward "The Wizard Pendragon's" shop.  He was hoping that the scabbard was finished, and was contemplating the strange folk he met with in the woods.  At least now he had an intelligence source.  Now, he needed some peace and quiet. 

It was then that he spied the doorway into the shop, and thereby into the Wizard Howl's castle.  It truly was a marvelous thing, this castle of his.  With it he could travel to the other shops connected to the castle.  What a wonder.  He walked to the door and knocked, hoping that no one saw his face as he did so.  There was no knowing who might be awake now. 

Well, that looked much better. The problem with living in the desert, Sophie had realized quickly, was just about every time the door opened, she had to sweep yet again. Or let the dust build up until someone else swept. Which had happened precisely zero times thus far, before she gave up and swept it out herself.

Setting the broom against the wall, she dusted her skirts off, before flopping down in one of the chairs around Calcifer's fire. She should probably cook something. Howl had been gone sometime now, and a little voice in the back of her head was starting to get more then a touch worried about him, but he could handle himself. He was a big boy.

Then again, maybe that was what she should be worried about.

Pushing herself up, she started to look around the kitchen, looking for dinner for her and Micheal.