Hilda went to hug her friend. It took William
a little longer to take in the scene and come to grips with it, but
then he grinned and went over to see what Baba Yaga was brewing.
With combined magical efforts, they soon sat and enjoyed their
food. The two servants had found the strength to escape from the
dining room's temporary insanity.
After their meal, the small group undid the
changes to the hall and went looking for their royal clients. After
locating them and waiting for the necessary diaper changes and
such, Hilda reported about their nightly adventures. Jordan looked
somewhat disturbed at the news that one of the people from the
castle had been captured in the cage and demanded that the man be
released.
"Oh, sure, no problem," said Hilda. "We were
planning to let him go anyway. We have no use for him."
"And from what I heard from him, I wonder how
you can have," Baba Yaga added. Hilda had already asked her to
release Morris, something she would gladly do.
"So what are you going to do now?" King Louie
asked, who had joined the conference. "Morris can't be the person
we were looking for, I'm sure."
"Certainly not," William agreed, "and no need
to look for Morris. We know where he is."
Baba Yaga screamed with laughter and slapped
the wizard. The talk was over quite soon after that, and the three
went to the garden where the iron cage holding a very miserable
Morris was waiting for them. Morris jumped up as he saw them come,
clinging to the bars. Then he saw Baba Yaga and all but leapt to
the other side of the cage, his eyes large as he tried to push
himself out through the bars.
Baba Yaga slapped the cage with a hand and a
bolt of magic, making it shake and rattle. "Good cage, Hilda, I
have to say. Sturdy stuff." Then she opened the door. "Hey, you
inside. You're Morris, right?"
It looked like Morris nodded, but it could
also be the shaking of his entire body that he could not
control.
"Good. Get out of this cage. We have better
use for it," Baba Yaga said. Morris did not need more
encouragement: he dashed out of the cage, in plain view of many
people that also worked in the castle. He was unable to go as fast
as he wished to make the blemish as small as possible. Babs waved a
finger. Morris stumbled and made a nose-dive into the dirt. "Sorry,
couldn't resist," the ugly witch grinned to her two friends.
"I don't like what happened, though," Hilda
said, "I had really hoped that this mysterious thing would show up
so we could go home again. It's not the place itself, but the kids
that are getting on my nerves."
Before there was a discussion about children,
a man in official soldier's costume came walking to the team of
magicals. "Excuse me. You are the honourable witches and
wizard?"
"The clothes sort of give that away, don't
they?" Hilda grinned. "We are. Why?"
The man nodded as a courtesy. "I have come to
inform you that the creature has struck again last night. Bare
bones of a rabbit and a peacock have been found near the sheep
field on the other side of the castle grounds."
"Hmm. Never got into the taste of peacocks,"
Baba Yaga commented.
The uniformed man blinked a few times but
kept his face under control. "If you would allow me to show you to
where the creature struck..." The magical people allowed him this.
On horseback and broom they made their way to the crime scene
rather quickly.
They reached a large field. Sheep were
nervously running around, the four people who tried to keep them
calm were no match for the anxious animals. The arrival of three
people on brooms added to the upheaval. Baba Yaga and Hilda quickly
threw a magical barrier around the aggravated sheep to keep them
away from the bones.
The man in uniform, he had introduced himself
as Marshal Bender, walked them to the small shed that was the only
building around. The bones lay in front of it. Some of them had
been kicked around by the sheep. The wool-providers were mainly
responsible for the mass of prints that were in the slightly soggy
ground. There also had been enough people stomping around, so
William was not sure they would find any tracks or prints that
could help them onwards. First they chased everyone away and that
proved to be a good thing. One of the people who had stomped around
the area suddenly yelled out that he had found something.
Hilda was with the man first. He pointed at
the ground, his eyes and mouth wide open. Hilda called out for Baba
Yaga; William had already joined her as he had sensed Hilda's
excitement and surprise through their bond. The thing that made
their surprise was the shape of a cat's paw in the soil. That at
least fit the picture they had of the creature they intended to
catch. The worrying part was the size of the print: it was almost
as long as William's foot, and as twice as wide as Hilda's foot.
"Holy Bejeebus. These paws are almost as large as those of a lion,"
William mumbled.
Baba Yaga silently nodded, and Hilda sized
the paw-print with her hand, to be certain it was as large as it
looked. William and Babs saw magic sparkle around Hilda's fingers
as the witch was touching the earth.
Hilda got up again. She looked confused.
"It's a cat. But not just a cat. It is a woman. And a cat." She
looked at William. "Why are Grim and Obsi not with us?"
William didn't know. The two always were
there, so he had not really paid attention to them. Nor had Hilda.
"Now can you be more specific about the cat and woman?" the wizard
asked.
Babs hoisted herself up again. "No, she
can't. Nor can I. It is confusing, wizard, feel for yourself." The
wizard felt, then joined the confusion club.
Marshal Bender had kept the ordinaries away
for as long as he could, but a few had managed to slip past him.
The two men and a woman stared at the large paw-print. The woman
pressed a hand against her mouth and staggered backwards into one
of the men.
"Now, folks," Baba Yaga took control of the
situation, "we know that this is a bit of a strange size cat, but
it's nothing to worry about, really." Her wand appeared. "Now you
lot, look at the little stick, will you?" She waved her wand,
attracting the attention of all people with it. A small red blip
popped from it and disappeared again. "Now all of you are not going
to talk about this thing. If you do, we will know about it and we
will not hesitate to make you suck elves. Trust me, there are nicer
things to suck."
William wondered how far Baba Yaga's
knowledge of that reached. Regardless of that, Babs' message
reached the people and they slowly walked away, suddenly interested
in the number of sheep in the magical pen, and exchanging mutton
recipes.
"Right. That takes care of that. The king
might lose a few sheep today, though." Baba Yaga grinned. Hilda and
William laughed about the creative way Babs had handled the
situation.
"But we still have to find the woman-cat,"
Hilda then said. "I'd think someone like that should not be hard to
find. With paws like that and covered in the hair we found, you
would not go unnoticed for long."
William agreed. "I'll look around and see if
there are more prints like this one. If we know where the woman-cat
went, we stand a chance of finding her." Hilda and Baba Yaga also
helped looking, and they found four more prints before the trail
ended on a rough stone path that would eventually lead to the
village near the castle. William flew his broom along the path for
some time, but he came back with no new insights.
They returned to the castle, after thanking
Marshal Bender for his help in coming to warn them. The man was
still talking recipes when they left.
Back near the castle the three found a nice
spot in the sunshine and sat down on a large couch that they made
appear. They considered their options and the findings so far.
There was not much to go on. Two plucks of hair, five paw prints of
considerable size and heaps of bones. And of course the confusing
bit about the creature being a cat as well as a woman. As they were
talking, Esmee came outside and walked over to the three.
"Good morning," the blond witch said. There
was some strange change about her: her dress seemed less pink. "My
head hurts." Now there was a surprise. Esmee sat down next to Babs.
"Did I really fly into that cage?"
"You sure did, kiddo," said the ugly witch.
"Spectacular. I don't suppose you want to do it again to show Hilly
and Willy, right?"
Esmee wanted to look daggers at Baba Yaga but
decided against that. "No. I don't. Where were you this morning? I
heard that cook was quite upset about something in the dining hall.
Did you see anything strange?"
The three said they had not seen anything
they had not seen before. Esmee shrugged. "Sometimes they are like
that. People, I mean."
"Ordinaries," Hilda helped.
Esmee nodded. "Yes, them."
Hilda then told the flower witch about the
things they had discovered that morning. Esmee quickly woke up over
that strange news. "No, never heard of a cat that is also a woman
around here. Nor anywhere else, for that matter." Esmee frowned as
she thought about that again, but came up with nothing. "No.
Never."
As Esmee was being brought up to date on the
findings earlier that morning, two people met in a shed. The shed
was not on the castle grounds; it was about a mile from the nearby
village. When the man entered the shed, making sure nobody had
followed him, he found that the woman was already inside and
waiting.
"I thought you would not come," said the
woman.
"Magda, listen, I have many things on my
mind. I have to tell people what to do and such. How did it
go?"
The woman shrugged. "Nothing special. There
is not much progress and something seemed out of control this
night. As if there was a force interfering. I don't know what to
make of that."
The man sat down on a block of wood. "But you
can keep this up, right?"
"Lindolf, look, I know you want to expand
your influence and I am grateful for all the energy you can supply
me with, but I still say we have to take this slowly. All this
changing business is hard work and wearing me out no matter what. I
can keep this up, yes, but not at the rate you want."
"But the 'scaring the people' part? Are you
ready for that soon?" Lindolf leaned over to Magda, as if that
would make a difference.
"Soon. I think so. Once we're more stable,
and that is starting to develop," Magda nodded. "In a few days I
could try something in the village. I will need some small animals
there though, somewhere we agree on in advance. I don't want to
waste time looking all over the place."
Lindolf waved both hands. "No problem,
really, I will have Jock put a crate of chickens wherever you want
them. Just let me know when and where, and things will be
prepared."
"Good." Magda got up and stretched her back.
"Argh, I'm getting old and tired."
"Nonsense," said Lindolf. "You are a young,
wonderful and strong woman!"
"I miss the 'beautiful' in that list,
Lindolf," she laughed, "but you are not looking for a beautiful
woman. Instead you come to me. Because I have what you want." She
laughed even harder now, forgetting for a moment that the meeting
should go unnoticed. "I'll send word to you when I'm ready."
"I'll be waiting," Lindolf said as he got up.
"You should get some sleep, Magda, you look like you were up all
night."
"I should kick you for that, Lindolf," Magda
grumbled, "but I don't feel up to that. Yes. I need to sleep."
Lindolf nodded. "We'll meet again soon,
Magda." Then he left.
Magda waited for a while and then she too
left the shed.
Hilda believed what Esmee had said. A person
that also was a big cat would not go unnoticed. "Right. So bottom
line is that we have only very little to go on. Several handfuls of
bones, some hair and a few paw-prints of uber-cat size. Ideas
anyone?" The assembled magical society remained alarmingly
quiet.
From inside the castle a few children started
wailing. Esmee groaned. "I wish I was not around, Hilda," she said,
"when I am not around I don't have to come to the rescue..."
Hilda frowned. "I thought you like these
kids..."
"I do. But not all the time. And not when
they are in this howling mood..." Esmee stared at the castle and
felt the urge to make her way into it, when Hilda said: "Well, we
may have to make sure you are not around then."
Baba Yaga cackled and summoned her broom.
Hilda's and William's came flying also. Esmee's blue eyes grew
large. "You're not leaving me alone here, are you?" Babs muttered
something about pink and then whispered a spell that made Esmee's
broom fly up to them. The pink witch, surprise all over her, caught
it. Her broom appeared to be chased by two black cats that sat down
and looked up at their magical humans. Clearly they did not want to
miss out on any action. Or the kids were too much for them as
well.
"Up and away, folks," Hilda suggested. Four
broomed shapes, two with furry navigators, flew off from the castle
gardens.
"Where are we going?" Esmee asked.
"Away from the castle," was Hilda's simple
answer. "We're going to snoop around the area a bit, looking for
clues. Maybe go shopping in the villages nearby. You never know who
you run into on nice days like this."
William looked at the sky. It looked like
rain. His witch was incorrigible.
They flew over the forests that lay around
the castle, when Grimalkin suddenly started meowing, her tail
twitching as she stared down. "Stop, people," Hilda said as she did
just that. "What is it, kitty cat? Did you see something to play
with?"
"Marrrrw!" was the response she got. Slowly
the magicals flew back until Grim's tail twitched again, and this
time Obsi joined in, scratching at the bristles of William's broom.
They descended to the ground, where the two cats leapt from the
brooms and ran off. Four brooms were put against a tree and their
owners walked after the cats. Only a few dozen paces into the
forest, the two cats were sniffing at the floor. William brushed
away some ferns and floor-crawling greens.