by Paul Kater
"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.
16. Alarm
"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. "Lo
oks 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...
In the small village everything was quiet. The night was coming to an end, but still everything in the streets and alleys was dark. On padded feet, a creature moved along the cobblestones, keeping to the most silent of streets. The sensitive ears picked up every sound. An instinct that was not sensory warned of someone walking...
The creature suppressed the growl that wanted to escape, pressed its body against the wall and waited for the village watchman to pass by. The man looked like such an easy prey. Only one strike at the lower part of the neck, or dragging a claw over the throat- but that was not allowed. The creature trembled in anticipation and almost moaned. Then the man was out of sight again and the urge eased.
The dark furry shape pressed on, more quickly now, to the market square. There were crates on carts. Swiftly the creature ran across the square to the cart that held the crate with the chickens. A leap, a soft thud as its feet landed on the cart. Then a paw reached out to the crate, in which some of the chickens had woken up. Wood cracked, and a chicken was pulled from the crate.
It did not take long to rip the head off. The creature devoured the chicken, and then ate another one. Feathers were all over and around the cart by the time it had finished. Well fed, it jumped from the cart and ran away from the market square, hiding in the shadows of the streets and disappearing from the village the way it had come.
-=-=-
Four brooms were leaning against a cart in the market place. Four shapes, three in black, one in pink and deep red, were walking around together with the watchman and several people that lived around the square.
Nobody had seen or heard anything. The scratch marks on the crate and the layer of feathers, as well as the bones that were scattered around, were definite proof that the cat-creature had paid the village a visit, though.
"This thing must be magical," Hilda said, as the four of them were sitting in the local tavern, drinking tea. "Can't be that something moves around without being heard of seen, makes such a mess of chickens and gets away unseen too."
"Huh," said Esmee, "I have seen unmagical people make a mess of chickens too."
Hilda counted to ten. "As I said, this creature has to be magical." She held up the bit of hair that they had found on a side of the cart. It was the same colour and kind as what they had found in the castle gardens. "And whatever, or whoever is doing this, has a lot of tricks up some big sleeve. This is amazing trickery."
A man stepped to their table. "Excuse me, honorable witches... Is it safe for me to let my people clean away the mess in the market place? The watchman said you might want to look at it again?"
"And you are?" Baba Yaga asked in the friendliest tone.
"Lindolf Garmackus, humbly at your service, madam."
The man had iron willpower, Hilda noticed. He did not back away.
"And that mess out there is yours?" Babs continued.
"Well, whatever it was that visited my property overnight did make a mess, I must say. It looked in better shape when my man Jock put it there last evening," said Lindolf.
"Oh!" Esmee chimed, "you know Jock? He is such a good man. A nice friend too."
Lindolf looked at the woman in pink and red. "Yes. He often works for me. Honourable witch." It took him some effort to address the blond woman that way, but sacrifices had to be made for the greater good.
Baba Yaga looked at Hilda and William. "Do we need to go over that cart again?"
Hilda shook her head. William also indicated that he saw no point in that. Then Babs looked at Esmee. "Do you agree?"
Esmee looked shocked. "Uh, yes? I think so." She was more than surprised that Babs would seriously ask her opinion about this.
"Good." Baba Yaga turned to Lindolf. "You can clean up the mess. Have fun with it." Then she turned back to the people at the table, leaving Lindolf slightly flabbergasted. He mumbled a "Thank you, goodbye" and left the tavern.
"I wish we had a lead to the person who is behind all this," Esmee sighed. "This is all so difficult..."
Babs turned around and looked out of the window, to where Lindolf was shouting instructions to some people.
Even Esmee noticed that the ugly witch kept that position for longer than regular interest in the goings on. "Baba Yaga? Are you okay? Anything special to see out there?" she asked.
"What? No, of course not. Lindolf is by far not interesting enough to get a twisted neck," Babs said. "Anyone for more tea?"
17. Frog
Hilda kept a straight face. William did also. Esmee's face was forced to it by some magic Hilda carefully applied. "Yes. Some tea would be good," Hilda agreed with Babs.
They had more tea and talked about the things they had discovered. Their final decision from the session in the tavern was that this was not helping them in any way. A ward had gone off, so the creature had been at the castle. They had seen prints to prove that. And the creature had been in the village, where they'd seen bones and feathers to prove that one. But nobody had seen or heard anything.
"The thing is magical. No doubt about it," Baba Yaga insisted as they were flying back to the castle.
"A magical big cat?" William sounded full of disbelief. "I am sorry, Babs, but doesn't that sound a bit far fetched? The idea of a cat that size is already quite hard to grasp, but a magical one?"
"Do you have any better suggestions, Mr. Wizard?" Babs asked him.
Mr. Wizard had to admit that his box of ideas was painfully empty.
"Good. So until we have other ideas or proof, we should assume the big cat is a magical one. That means we have to be extra careful, also when we patrol the gardens."
"Patrol the gardens?" Esmee asked. "We've not patrolled the gardens but once."
"Exactly. I propose we're going to do that more often. Like every night. And someone should take it on himself to scout the village and surroundings at night." Babs looked very smug.
William had not missed the 'himself' in her words and looked hurt. "This is not democratic," he complained.
"Of course it isn't," Hilda said, "it is Baba Yaga."
"And you'd better remember that," said the old witch. "I'm not in the habit of repeating myself."
"What was that?" William asked.
"I'm not in the habit of repeating myself," Baba Yaga repeated herself.
Esmee grinned.
When the group arrived at the castle, Esmee's grin disappeared when Baba Yaga reminded her that there still was a frog to be turned into a man again. "You still remember the spell, don't you?"
Esmee said she did. The group went in search of the person who was taking care of the frog, and found that one i
n the shape of a cook. As they entered the large kitchen, the smell of food had already waved at them from afar. The cook welcomed them and said they were welcome to have a taste of what was cooking.
"I don't suppose you have frog legs, right?" Hilda asked him.
"Oh, no, honourable witch!" the cook said.
"Good. Didn't look like it, the way you are walking," she grinned. "We're here for the frog."
"Yes, yes, it's here," the cook said. He guided them to a large glass cabinet. Inside it sat a lonely frog surrounded by a few cakes, a glass of wine and some straw. Impossible as it sounds, the frog looked really miserable.