by Paul Kater
dominance arena.
"William... slow down... come with me..." Hilda kept her eyes on the battling dragons and had a feeling what was going to happen. She looked downward. "Crappedycrap..."
William looked down also. "Yes. The villagers won't be happy."
"We have to get them apart before they destroy all people down there," Hilda said. "I'll make my dragon yellow also, we'll bring them closer and hope that gets them back in line."
It took them a considerable time to attract the attention of the battling dragons, but somehow they pulled it off, and on they went again, the last miles before they reached Archibald's Den.
William saw the immense gaping hole in the rock wall. So that was where Archibald wanted the dragons to go. The wizard wondered if his fake lady would fit through that. Just before his yellow miss would hit, he made her thinner so the apparition would go into the darkness. As soon as she was out of view, William dissolved the image and watched his first boy dive into the cave as well. Miraculously, the animal fit through the opening and disappeared from view as well.
Hilda steered her lady dragon into the hole as well, but something, somewhere went wrong.
The boy she was leading looked around and saw her and William. Somewhere in its dragon brain magic clicked and it remembered. In an impossible move for such a heavyweight, it almost halted its flight and turned around. Then the dragon hit the air with its wings as it faced Hilda.
"Crap!" Hilda saw the move of the animal and that it was heading the wrong way.
William also had witnessed the turn in events and sped towards Hilda, who had turned her broom and was now heading away from the cave again.
"William. It looks as if we have a situation," said the witch.
3. Here, dragon
"We're also going the wrong way," William knew, "and the big beast behind us has too much of an interest in us."
"We have to split up," Hilda declared. "Maybe that will confuse it. You go left, I go right. Whoever gets it has to think fast."
"Hey!", a loud voice yelled from behind them, "bring me back my dragon!" Archibald scratched his big head, not understanding the fuss these two were making. After all, it was just a dragon, be it a decent-sized one.
"Working on it, buddy," William said. "Okay, split then." He pulled his broom to the left, Hilda went the other way. They both turned around, so at least they were facing the right direction.
The Nobbleback reacted as soon as he could, turned in the air and took up his pursuit again. Hilda was his chosen one. Of course. He was a boy, and not gay.
William watched how the immense flying bulk of the dragon chased after Hilda. The bond with his witch also told him that she was feeling at ease all of a sudden, as if she had a plan. He wished he knew what she was up to.
Hilda knew the dragon was behind her, of course, and flew towards the hole in the rock, just fast enough that the dragon could not get her. Occasionally she dropped speed a bit, making the dragon come closer, as if to encourage it. "Come on, boy," she whispered, "you can do it." A grin was on her face as the immense slab of rock wall came closer and closer.
The witch seemed to tumble downwards, towards the opening of the cave. The enormous Nobbleback dragon followed her, mocking gravity every moment of its flight.
Only one hundred feet to the cave... and with the speed they both had, that distance was crossed in a matter of mere seconds. The dragon was so close to the witch that its body took away all possibilities to see her. Archibald as well as William held their breath as they saw the dragon dive into the cave. The sound of the dragon hitting the walls as he shot into the rock made eerie echoes.
"Where's the witch?", Achibald yelled, without needing to.
"I don't know," William said. "I just know she's fine." He looked around trying to find Hilda. The bond told him she was fine, he just couldn't see her.
"Hi guys!", her cheery voice came from up above. Slowly, in a spiral, Hilda came down.
"Holy Bejeebus, Hilda, what did you do?!" William was tremendously relieved to see her again, despite the reassurance through the bond.
"Oh, it was easy. I dove to the opening, dragon followed me, and just before going into the cave I pulled up and went straight up along the wall." Hilda quickly set down on the ground. As her feet touched the soil, she let go of her broom which fell down in two pieces.
William landed his broom next to her. "Crikey. You really worked the broom too hard this time."
Hilda stared at the parts. "I know. But it had to be. And we got the dragon." With a smile she looked at William. "And we have a happy giant."
Archibald kept his distance from the two tiny people on the ground. It would make for poor publicity if he were to accidentally trample his guests after being in the business for so long. "You did a good job, magical folks," he said. "Thank you for bringing me those two new ones, they'll look good in the collection."
"Just be careful for a while, Archibald. They are under a magic spell, so we don't know how they will react. Do have fun with them." Hilda waved at the giant. "Now you will have to take me home on your broomstick, William." She grinned at him, blue sparkles in her black eyes.
William grinned also, mounted his broom and had Hilda sit in front of him.
"Bye, Archibald!", they yelled as William made the broom go up.
"Goodbye, you two!", the giant said.
"Isn't this romantic?", Hilda asked William as they were flying.
William had an arm around his witch, just because it felt good. Never before had they shared a broom like this. "It is," he said, a smile on his face and her long grey hair also. He could have easily used magic to make that behave differently, but it felt good.
"Most witches only do this when they're young," Hilda sighed, leaning back into William. "Stupid kids. They don't know what they're missing."
After several hours, they reached the house again. There were a few arrows with messages in the purple board next to the door; William picked them off it as they went inside.
"What are you going to do about the broom?", he asked as he took the pieces of paper off the arrows.
"Get another one," was the simple reply. "Too bad about the old one, but things happen. What's the news?"
"Nothing really special. A few requests for better soil and stuff like that." William tossed the papers on the table. "No business that can't wait."
"Good. I am in need of food. This dragon stuff was not what we needed. And we haven't seen Zelda's place yet either. We should go there this afternoon." Hilda dropped herself on the couch. "Will you be my sweet wizard and make me food?"
William ruffled her hair. "I'll get you food. And food for me also."
"Hey, no harrassing the resident witch!", Hilda whailed as she slapped at William's hands, but she laughed as she did so.
William made it clear to the kitchen that they were in no mood to wrestle it for food, so he was done remarkably fast, and soon they were happy and filled up.
"I want to go to sleep," Hilda announced. She lay down on the couch, her head in William's lap, curled herself into the most comfortable position and fell asleep. It did not take her a second.
William fell asleep only a few seconds after her.
-=-=-
"William?"
"Hmmm..." His awareness dreaded coming back.
"You were sleeping."
"I know. So were you. You're addictive, also in that way." William worked his way through the nebula's in his head.
"Oh. In that case it's good you were sleeping. But you have to wake up now, sweet wizard. I have strong tea and cookies, and after that we have to go to Zelda's place. Really."
William opened his eyes.
Hilda's face was in front of his, carefully examining him. "You woke up. Good wizard." She planted a kiss on his nose. "Now, tea and cookies. Naps are good." She nodded to her own words, affirming them.
They sipped their tea and the tray with the cookies was reduced t
o a tray with crumbs in no time flat.
Hilda got up, her teacup in hand, and walked over to the corner where her spare brooms were. "Hmm. This one should be good." She picked one from the collection and made it hover. She pushed it from several sides; the broom's response was smooth. "Yup, new broom accomplished. I get more tea for that."
They finished their tea and hauled themselves outside. The rest and food had done miracles; they were airborne quickly, and heading for Zelda's house.
This time there were no interruptions from dragons or other flying objects. It took them less than an hour to reach the village where Zelda had waved her wand. They landed near the house, wands in hand. There was no strong magic around.
"She's been gone for a while already," Hilda told William, "you can feel that too? A witch that's gone away always leaves a sad feeling around her house."
"Grizelda the witch is not at home," the house said, "if you care to leave a message, she will get back to you as soon as she can."
It made William grin.
Hilda shook her head and walked up to the house. "Sloppy. No chains, no locks, no-" Then she flew through the air, landing on a small haystack. "Okay, I take that back. There is protection." She crawled out of the hay, magicked the straws out of her hair and looked at the house. "Okay. Now we certainly have to get in there. Do you have one of your interesting ideas?"
William grinned, then looked at the house again. He prodded towards it with his wand and tried to find out how far he could go before he was thrown away. After he came out of the haystack also, he had a fairly good idea. "Not