Hilda - The Challenge (8 page)

The shape's speed did not get slowed down by
it, the impact also took William down, but the whack had definitely
significance. After several yards the shape also tumbled down and
remained motionless.

William got up and saw that Hilda was on her
feet again also. "You okay?", he asked, rubbing his fist.

"Yeah." The wicked witch all but jumped on
top of the brown shape that lay face-down on the path. She groaned
as she pushed hard to turn it around. "Oh crap."

The man in blue joined her and looked at the
face that his hand had had contact with. "What the hell is
that?"

The creature that lay knocked out was some
five feet tall. It was dressed in what looked like second-hand bear
skin. This would make sense, as a bear would have been the previous
owner. The face of the thing was crowned with dirty short black
hair. It had big ears that stood from the wide tanned face as sails
on a sailboat. The creature had a flat wide nose and a remarkably
small mouth, around which there was hardly a trace of lips.

The lying victim was broadshouldered. It
reminded William of the Incredible Hulk, but then in a miniaturised
version. It was barefoot, its feet incredibly dirty with mud and
sand.

"This is a Grizble. It is made. Nothing
natural or normal about it." Hilda magicked a rope around the
Grizble, immobilising it.

"And what, if you allow the question, is a
Grizble?"

Hilda sighed, sat down on a garden stone and
looked up at William. "It is like a cross between a baby troll and
a leprechaun. Mean as you can think it up, they have some low-level
magical abilities, and they are strong. So how it is possible that
you managed to knock it out is beyond me."

"My hand agrees with you," William nodded as
he sat down next to her.

"Grizbles are the messengers and bell-hops
for Lamador."

William remembered the name. It was the
sorcerer that Hilda was scared of. He looked at her and recognised
traces of worry on the witchy face. In an impulse he put an arm
around her and gently pulled her against him.

Hilda let him, as she rested her head against
his shoulder. She sighed, closing her eyes. Then her eyes flew
open, as she pushed him away and got to her feet quickly. "What do
you think you're doing?!", she asked him sharply.

"Being friendly and supportive," William
replied as he got up from the ground that her push had landed him
on, "but it looks as if that doesn't agree with you very well." He
patted his cloak, to free it from sand.

"Hmmf," Hilda retorted, unsure what to do
about this.

The Grizble relieved her from the task of
thinking about it further. It started to wiggle and grunt and tried
to get the rope off. The latter did not work, though, as Hilda's
magic had supplied a rope that was Grizble-safe.

"Well, well, look here," she said, standing
over the dark creature. "I am sure you want to tell me why you are
here."

The Grizble uttered some inexplicable sounds,
it screamed and howled, as William came close to witness the whole
thing.

"Never mind that," Hilda told him, her
earlier anger forgotten again, "they always act like that in the
beginning. Some design flaw in them, I think, as they never fail to
calm down and get sensible after a while."

The Grizble tried to bite their legs a few
times, screamed and wriggled some more, until it lay panting at
their feet. "Turn me loose and no one gets hurt," it then
threatened from its harmless position.

"Sure, but first you will tell me why you are
here. And where Gerdundula is. You know, I'd love to kick him," she
elaborated to William, "but it's the troll body that isn't
inviting. It's rock hard and only hurts me." She turned to the
grizble again. "Well, done thinking?"

The Grizble pointed it fiery red eyes at her.
"Lamador is stronger than ever. He has the witch and will use her.
And you will-"

They would never know what the creature was
going to add to that, as its head exploded and its body went limp
inside the rope.

"Is that a design flaw also?", William
asked.

"No. This is seriously bad. Lamador listened
in, I am sure, and did this. Crap."

"HAH!" A loud booming voice almost blew them
over. A giant shape formed in the middle of a number of flowerbeds.
It was twenty feet tall. It was a collosal man, wearing a blue robe
and a purple hood. That was all that was visible of him. "YOU WILL
DIE THIS TIME, GRIMHILDA. MY POWER IS BEYOND REACH NOW."

Hilda put her hands on her hips and looked up
at the shape. "Get off it, Lamador. You are not making a good
impression with all that showing off."

William stared at the giant apparition. He
was not as bold as Hilda, but then he lacked her experience. And
her attitude.

"AND WHO IS THIS UNMAGICAL WIZARD WITH
YOU?"

That would be William, they both understood.
Lamador was wizard enough to sense that there was no magic
whatsoever present in the book salesman.

"This is a wizard from far away," Hilda
persisted, "and his magic is unnoticeable to the likes of you."

"HA HA HA HA HA!" As the laughter rolled over
the gardens and bounced off the illusionary metal wall, the giant
shape evaporated, the sound of his laughing going hollow and
vanishing with him.

"Holy Bejeebus...", William said.

"Yeah." Hilda agreed. "He's gotten
scary."

They stood together, getting over the
aftershock of it all, until Hilda turned and announced that she was
going to have a look inside the hut of Gerdundula. William followed
her. He did not want to get caught by that giant alone out
there.

Gerdundula's hut did not make them much
smarter. It bore signs of a fierce struggle, as just about
everything inside was smashed to pieces.

"I told you she's kind of possessive," Hilda
remarked as she went through the remains, looking for
something.

William had looked around the hut also. It
looked as if two tornadoes had been partying in there. Furniture
had been reduced to less than their original components, whatever
there had been of glassware and pottery was irretrievable as such.
The floor was covered in shards and fragments. Also, and this broke
his bookloving heart, he saw that there had been many books in the
hut, now nothing more than scraps of paper in varying degrees of
being burnt.

"Crappy damn." Hilda had found what she had
looking for. In her hands she held two small pieces of wood,
painted red with thin white spirals over them. They obviously had
been connected once. "This is her wand. Or was."

"Can you fix it?", William asked, ignorant on
the subject of wands.

"Fix it. A wand. I don't think so. Here." She
pushed the two pieces in his hand. "Give it a try if you feel like
it, and do let me know if you succeed." The wicked witch looked
around the hut one more time. "I guess that's it then. This place
is ravaged. Lost for witchdom too, all the magic's been taken from
it. This sucks..."

Dragging her feet, she walked outside,
leaving William behind in the devastation that had been the home of
a witch called Gerdundula.

He watched her go and felt sorry for her.
There was very much that she got on her shoulders all of a sudden.
The challenge of this sorcerer, Lamador. His own appearance in this
bizarre world. The fact that now Lamador had begun harvesting
witches, to shake Hilda up.

William walked outside as he stuck the two
pieces of wood in a pocket he had discovered in his blue robe, and
closed the door of the hut behind him. Hilda was sitting on the
large stone again, staring at something only she could see. The
book salesman remained silent, giving her some space to cope with
this all.

Hilda worried. She worried like she had never
worried before. Lamador had taken Gerdundula, and it was obvious
that he would extract all her magic from her and use that to build
up his own. She dreaded to think what that would do to Gerdundula,
beyond the fact that she would have lost all her magical abilities.
A cold shudder ran down her spine. It was so very present that she
physically had to shake it off.

Hilda looked at William, who had kneeled down
to look at a plant that had attracted his attention. "No touching,"
she said. "It is dangerous. Best not to touch anything here." Hilda
did not add what she suspected. Lamador was someone who would have
left quite a bundle of nasty surprises here and there.

William rose and nodded. "Thank you for
warning me." He walked over to Hilda and held out his hand.

Puzzled she looked at it and then at his
face. "I have nothing for you."

William smiled briefly and then kneeled down
before her, looking her in the eye. "You really don't get it, do
you, Grimhilda? I just offer my hand to help you up. To show you
that I want to do what little I can to help you, support you. You
are apparently not used to that, which is fine. Maybe you'll get
the hang of it."

Hilda's amazement grew with each word he
said. "You are such an incomprehensive creature, William
Connoley!", she exclaimed as she got up from the stone and looked
down at him. "I can stand up when I want. I don't need support from
you for that. This is my land, my world, I know what goes on here,
and I say that we get out of here now. Okay? Now get up from the
dirt, that is not a way to behave for someone in a wizard's dress.
Act to your appearance, man."

William was overbluffed for a few moments,
her change being so drastic, from helpless to appearing fully in
control. He was even more surprised as she held out her hand to
him, her face calm and unmoving. With a smile he took her hand and
got up.

The witch felt his hand in hers. The strong
hand. She saw his friendly face, the smile. A soft sigh fought its
way from her lips and for a moment she felt- and then the moment
was gone.

Her hand slipped from his and she turned.
"Come. Time to go home and get something to eat. And this time I'm
making it."

Women here were as incomprehensible here as
they had been at home, William thought. He shook his head,
suppressed his laughter about the realisation and walked after
Hilda who was striding along with large steps.

They came to the illusionary metal wall. It
was different, less solid. They both noticed it.

"See, the magic is already dissipating. In a
day there will be nothing of it left." Hilda stepped through it,
and William could see a faint shadow of her on the other side as
she walked to where the brooms were waiting. Quickly he followed
her, and moments later they were airborn, heading back to Hilda's
house.

They were coming close to the house when
Hilda hit the brakes. Both brooms hovered over the trees William
had seen from his bedroom, the ones that looked normal and strange
without being able to tell what was odd about them.

"Something's different there," said Hilda,
"you stay here." She dropped to just over the treetops and slowly
moved her broom towards the house.

"As if I have a choice," William grinned to
himself as he watched how the witch worked her way towards her
house. He was extremely impressed with her ability to handle the
two brooms, keeping him where he was and also flying her own, her
mind obviously geared to what would be the matter at her house.

To pass the time, he took the two pieces of
the wand from his pocket and tried to fit them together. The two
pieces remained two pieces, but at one of his attempts the broom he
was on shuddered. Not sure if this was something he had done, he
thought it best to put away the wood and watch Hilda's actions
instead.

Hilda was as close to her house as she could
without being seen. There was a broom outside the door. And it was
not one of hers, which was unheard of. No witch would leave a broom
like that near the door of another witch's house. She was in doubt
what to do now. Facing another witch was not the problem. But
leaving William where he was was not a solid plan then, as her
attention would become to widespread, and he'd have an ungentle
encounter with the earth. And it might also break the broom.

"You'd better be holding on," she muttered,
as she made the other broom slowly move downwards and glide to
where she was.

William remained silent, despite the slight
startle he'd had when his transportation device suddenly started
moving. As his broom pulled up next to the one of Hilda, she looked
at him and put a finger on her lips. He nodded, and they gently
went down to the earth. Hilda handed him her broom and pointed to
the trees. He had to hide there, with the brooms. He nodded a
confirmation and went to where she wanted him, doubting that his
blue and black attire would keep him out of sight adequately.

Hilda did not seem to worry about that. She
straightened her back, popped up her wand and marched towards her
house. William felt sorry for the person inside that would have to
answer to her. Hilda was in battle-mode.

The witch stopped at the door and looked at
the broomstick that was so casually leaning against the wall. She
grinned. "Damn you. I should have known. You are so frickin'
curious."

"Hello, Hilda," said the house, "we have a
visitor."

"I know," she said, her smile widening. The
door opened and she went in.

"BABS!!", she screamed at the top of her
lungs.

"HILLY!", Baba Yaga screamed at the same
volume.

A cacaphony of cackling laughter followed,
which for the uninitiated translated into an awful sound resembling
death, destruction and the downfall of anything sacred. The two
witches danced around, their shrieking seemingly endless until the
welcoming ceremony these two had thought up so long ago was
complete, leaving the area in an eerie silence.

William bravely stood behind his tree, hands
over his ears to block out the worst of the audible havoc. As the
pressure on his eardrums suddenly subsided he dared to breathe
again and take his hands off his ears. He did keep them raised, in
case the sound would happen again. It didn't. The next thing he saw
happen was that Hilda came out of her house and beckoned him to
come over, after which she quickly went into the house again.