Sophie

She’d been normal once. Just a normal, ordinary girl, with dreams no bigger than owning her own successful hat shop. A simple child, expecting not much out of life, not really, not at all.

Until a witch cursed her, cursed her so she was old and weak and tired despite barely being an adult, and set her life on an entirely different path, one she never could have imagined.

She left home, after the witch cursed her; there was nothing there for her, not when her eyes were too weak to see the hats she was supposed to be making, not when her fingers were too stiff to hold the needles, not when her bones ached and creaked and made her a burden to everyone else. There was nothing to hold her there, no family, no mate, just herself.

So she left. Left and, after a while, ran into Howl the wizard.

He was a vain, arrogant *****, but he took one look at her and saw through her enchantment. And while he never promised to help her with it, he took her under his wing and began to teach her. Teach her about spells and potions, herbs and enchantments, charms and incantations that would do whatever she wanted. He taught her, trained her, and, eventually, fell in love with her.

He loved her first, she later found out. That was why, even after he discovered the cure for her oldness, he kept it to himself. So she wouldn’t leave. So she’d stay with him.

He almost lost an eye when he finally told her, her claws lashing out sharp to graze against his snout from fury. How dare he? She took the cure and left, left the moment her youth had returned to her, though not entirely- her skin remained gray, silver as the starlight, and with her fury to guide her, she left.

It hurt more than she expected, leaving him, but she did. She left and went home, only to remember that there was no home for her. Her old clan hadn’t been able to keep her, and so much had changed, there was nothing to do so now.

So she left once again, and set out to find somewhere new. She sold her herbs and her charms as she went, and eventually found the clan. Where there was more than enough room, both for her and an herb garden, a little place where she could settle and be happy.

Only downside? Howl had found it first.

He begged her to stay, at least for the night- the Queen offered that much, if she so desired it. And because it was late, because it was already dark and getting cold, she accepted. And the next day they sat and talked, until it was, again, too dark and cold for her to begin to leave. And the day after she was given a tour of the clan, and the day after that shown where the herb garden could be, and again and again it was too late, too dark, for her to leave.

Until she gave up the pretense that she wasn’t glad to see him, that it was only happenstance that she had to stay each day, because, in truth, she had found her home. Her home and her love, once again, because she couldn’t deny that she did, truly, love him. Even if he was still an arrogant *****, she loved him.

So she stayed, stayed and grew her herbs and sold her potions, partnering with Yuko and Howl and eventually taking Rapunzel for her apprentice, and she truly was home.

A home she had to fight for, a home she had to save when a mysterious illness, a plague, waltzed through their lair as if it was home itself. She fought, used all of her magic to drive it away, but it had taken so many- part of her wanted to leave, to flee her failure. If she had been better, smarter, a better magician and healer? They would have survived. But she stayed- to leave now, when they needed her the most? She'd truly be a monster.

And how could she leave her home?

(Original Pre-Plague Dragon)