Hilda and William lay down on the grass and
looked at Esmee in her new shape. "She's really small, isn't she?"
Hilda said as she prodded the frog. It complained with a sad sound.
"I'm actually surprised she the right colour. Not pink or so."
Esmee croaked with indignation.
"Step back, kids, I'll make her herself
again," Babs announced. Hilda and William moved to the side, Babs
used the counter-spell, and Esmee was Esmee again. Esmee shrieked,
because she was naked. A flick of Babs's wand later the pink witch
was decent again.
"I was naked!" Esmee exclaimed, her face red,
her arms still covering her barely present bosom. This rather loud
revelation attracted the unwanted attention of some servants who
suddenly were in earshot.
"Keep your voice down, Esmee," Babs calmly
said, "and sit down here. You've just been a frog, you may be a bit
unsettled still."
Hilda guided Esmee to the bench and they
waited for the pink witch to come to grips with herself again. "So,
how was it?"
Esmee shook her head, sending her short blond
curls dancing. "It was so strange," she said, "everything is the
wrong size. I never knew that grass can be so big. And there were
beetles and worms and-"
"Eeeeew..." said Hilda. "I lay on worms?"
"Only a few," Esmee said, trying to make it
sounds less bad. "And never prod a frog please. It hurts!"
"Oh. Okay, won't do it anymore." Hilda
grinned. "Nor any less."
Esmee did not put enough venom in her stare
to be impressive.
"So, did it hurt when you were turned?" Baba
Yaga asked.
"Well, becoming a frog didn't hurt. The
change in view and how I felt was so different that I had no time
to think about that. And when I was turned back into me, uhm, the
first thing I noticed was that I didn't have my clothes on. I
didn't think to feel pain or so."
Hilda nodded. "Right. Seems that we have our
answer. It probably doesn't hurt enough, if at all. Given the
absence of clothes."
William remarked that perhaps they should
find a way to change the reversing spell a bit, to do something
with the clothes of the person. Hilda and Babs were strongly
against that. "That would take all the fun out of it, William! And
while we're talking about fun, wizard, what was the reason for you
to grin when we left the castle?"
William grinned again as he thought back to
the conversation with Prince Jordan. "Oh, it's just a little
thing." That made him burst out laughing, invoking more curiosity
with the witches. "We may have to cover Esmee's ears," William then
laughed. "Remember when I talked about the little procedure of
Jordan's 'down there', and the fact that it would be painful?" The
witches nodded. "Well, I am sure it can be done painlessly. The
magic is there for it," William explained.
"Right...," said Hilda, "so why did you claim
it would be painful if there is no pain?"
"Listen, sweetwitch," William said, "I did
not say there was no pain. Without any discomfort to think back to,
it won't be a big deal to him. He strikes me as the kind of
prince-guy that needs some thing inflicted onto him that is
unpleasant, to remind him of what he's done. And why."
Baba Yaga looked at him, no expression on her
face. Esmee stared at him in disbelief. Hilda kissed him on the
cheek. "That's my wizard."
"He's a natural," Baba Yaga had to admit.
"Only wizards and certain witches come up with things like
that."
William was proud with all that praise.
"Coffee anyone?"
-=-=-
The day got tired of the sunlight and set out
to chase the offending heavenly body away. The witches and the
wizard mounted their brooms while dusk was still struggling for a
foothold. They had agreed to make a sweep over the area before it
was completely dark. Perhaps they could find the owner of the large
paw prints, and if not then they'd had a nice evening flight.
The forests were still very much alive, with
small animals running around and birds tuning their beaks for the
next morning. Esmee was falling behind rapidly as they passed over
an open field where deer were grazing.
"Hey, come on, we've got more ground to
cover," Hilda said who had turned to urge Esmee into moving
along.
"Oh, please, let me look at the bambies for a
while longer," Esmee begged, as if she were a child. "They're so
cute."
Hilda looked down. Her sense of cuteness was
severely lacking in the bambi department, she decided. "Tell you
what. You stay up here and look at the grass-munchers, while we
finish the rounds and come back for you."
"Oh, yes!" Esmee beamed. "I'll wait here for
you."
"I'll leave Grimalkin with you. Just in
case," Hilda said, as she scooped her cat from the bristles of her
broom and pushed the black animal into Esmee's arms. "Don't drop
her, or you'll answer to me. Grim will make sure you are not going
anywhere without us."
Esmee was still trying to get over the
surprise of suddenly being inhabited when Hilda had flown off, in
pursuit of Babs and William. "Oh," the flower witch managed to
bring out.
"Meow," Grimalkin agreed, clearly as
surprised about this treatment as the blond witch was.
The three remaining night-flyers did not find
anything out of the ordinary, so they returned to the spot where
they had left Esmee and Grimalkin.
Esmee sat very still on her broom when they
arrived. Grimalkin lay peacefully on the bristles, as if she had
not a care in the world. Hilda and William, illuminating the scene
with their wands, wondered what had happened. Esmee's eyes were
large, her lips squeezed together in a thin line. And there were
dark spots on her dress.
Hilda waved a hand in front of the face of
the young witch, as Grim gracefully hopped back on her trusted spot
on Hilda's broom. "Hello, Esmee. Are you still in there? Or did the
cat get your tongue and the rest of you too?"
"Is it gone?" Esmee asked, still afraid to
move.
"Grim? Yes, she's on my broom. Why?"
Esmee carefully relaxed and watched where
Onyx Grimalkin had been. Still careful, she let out a sigh. "I flew
around a little bit. To see the bambies a little better." The
others waited for more. "I think I flew off a bit too far for the
cat's liking. It attacked me. It scratched my hands and my
face!"
"And so you flew back to this spot, healed
yourself and waited for us," Hilda concluded. Esmee nodded.
Crappedy crap. Sorry about that, Esmee. Next time I'll be a bit
more precise with Grim, telling her what's acceptable." She picked
up the cat and pressed its face against Esmee's cheek. "There,
kissed and made up. Come, let's go back to the castle. It's getting
nippy out here."
William carefully touched Esmee's arm. The
flower witch had frozen up again as the black head had been pressed
against her cheek. "Come, Esmee. Danger's all gone."
"I wish she would not do that," Esmee hissed
quietly. "I just had the fright of my life and then she sticks that
beast in my face."
"Just tell her not to do that again then,"
William shrugged, taking control over Esmee's broom as the witch
was not coming along by herself.
"Tell her?" Esmee stared at William as if he
had suggested something obscene. "That's Grimhilda. You don't tell
her anything."
"Sure you do. How else does she get to know
things? I tell her things all the time, in case you did not
notice."
"Uhuh," Esmee responded, "but you're
different. You're bonded to her." She finally was together enough
again to fly her own broom. "She does things I can only dream
of!"
"So what are you dreaming of, Esmee? Of being
a witch like her?" William asked. "If so, you're on the right
track. In case you did not notice, Babs nor Hilda have torn your
head of. Instead she leaves her cat with you. She trusts you. And
Baba Yaga called you her protegé. Don't underestimate that one
either. Babs is quite the awesome witch."
"She's positively scary," Esmee said. "But
kind of cool also."
William grinned. He knew he had helped her
confidence back in the saddle. "Come, I'll race you to the
castle."
She screamed with joy as they sped off.
Later that night, most of the lights in the
castle had been extinguished, there was a movement in one of the
gardens. Carefully, a shape moved over a lawn. Large, padded feet
gently stepped on the grass. It stopped at the large iron cage,
eyeing it, sniffing it, touching it. A rumbling sound came from the
creature as it moved around the cage and headed towards the large
pen where a few rabbits were still scurrying around before falling
asleep.
Silent as a falling feather, the shape
kneeled down with the rabbits. A grumbling sound accompanied its
attempt to take the top of the wooden contraption. It did not open
easily. What did happen easily was a signal shooting from the ward
on the box to the four magical people, who were savagely yanked out
of their sleep.
"Crappedy crap!" That was all that was said
in the bedroom of Hilda and William. They almost fell out of bed,
magicked their clothes on and headed for the brooms that they had
conveniently located near the already open window.
Esmee just groaned as she felt the jolt from
the ward that interrupted her dream. But duty called, she knew.
This was what they had set the whole affair up for, so she came
from her warm bed, quickly dressed and, with another groan, plunged
herself out the window on her broom. Hilda had ordered her to keep
the broom in her room for a situation like this.
Baba Yaga... well, suffice to say that she
was outside rapidly as well, joining the three others.
The rabbits were all awake now. Light came
from four wands, setting the area around their cage in strange
colours.
"So where is it?" Hilda asked, voicing the
thoughts of everyone. "It can't have gotten away that fast. We were
here so quickly, as if we practiced this, and there's nothing
here."
"Except rabbits," Esmee pointed out.
Grimalkin and Obsidian sniffed around on the
ground and made noises. Baba Yaga and William looked at what the
cats were doing. "Step back everyone," said William, "and have a
look here."
Babs made two large torches appear so they
had ample light. The flames showed several paw prints in the soft
sand they had spread around the rabbit cage. Unthinkingly, they had
trampled over the evidence-collecting material. Luckily though,
there were still three clear, fresh prints.
"Suck an elf. It was here. It was out to get
a rabbit casserole," Hilda said.
"Stew, more likely," Baba Yaga commented.
"How did the creature get away so quickly? No ordinary animal or
human being senses wards. It should have been here for us to grab
it. It can't have noticed us, unless..."
Hilda and William nodded. "Unless there is a
witch or a wizard involved."
Their discussion was interrupted by the clang
of metal, chain mail and swords. Three guards from the castle watch
approached them. "Who dat?" one of them eloquently asked.
"Calm down, big boy," said Hilda, "we're
witches and a wizard, and we're looking at the rabbits. I don't
suppose you saw a giant cat walk by just now, did you?"
"Oh. You're the witches they all talk about.
And no. We didn't see that. Should we have?"
"Would've been nice," Baba Yaga said. "We
could go to bed again in that case."
One of the guards stared at her in disbelief.
"Uh. And how big should that cat be?"
Hilda indicated a height of between five and
six feet. "Something like that."
"No. Haven't seen that. I'm pretty sure." The
other two agreed, they had not seen anything conspicuous. They
promised to keep their eyes open and report anything out of the
ordinary.
William sighed. "I doubt they would see a
mammoth if one would fall on top of them."
Babs agreed. "I am not sure how they got a
job here. They certainly can't attribute it to their
intelligence."
Esmee said that she knew the men. "They're
friends of Prince Jordan. He got them the job. At the time it
seemed a good idea as nothing ever happens in the night, but I am
beginning to have second thoughts about that."
Baba Yaga patted the pink witch on the head.
"Good girl. You'll be clever before we're leaving. And Jordan
should find some friends in higher places. Anything over
gutter-level would be a good start."
"So what are we going to do now?" William
asked. "Looks like the cat has flown without a trace."
They decided to get back to their respective
beds, and as William put an arm around Hilda in that location, his
witch asked: "What's a mammoth?" He told her to just go to sleep.
"I'll explain that to you someday."
-=-=-
In a small shed in the forest, Magda looked
terrible. Simi, the young woman who sat opposite her, holding both
Magda's hands, shook her head. "Lindolf, we can't keep this up.
This is destroying her."
Before Lindolf could respond, Magda said:
"No, it's okay. I had no idea that they would put up this massive
energy thing, it surprised me. I'm glad we got away before these
witches were there. Just give me a moment or two."
Lindolf, in a sudden notion of awareness,
grabbed a bottle of spiced wine and poured a cup. "Here, have some
of this. That will help."
Magda took the cup and drank it down in one
gulp. "Oh, that's good. I could do with another one." She handed
the cup back. She knew she should not drink more. They had their
plan B to fall back on, and she needed to be sober for all
that.
After a while, Simi took Magda's hands again.
"I'm ready," she said. Lindolf sat down again and looked at the two
women in fascination. This was always amazing.
Magda closed her eyes and then lowered her
hands and those of Simi onto the book that was on her knees. Slowly
the book started to glow as Magda drew from Simi's vibrant
life-energy...