by Paul Kater
I am carrying you inside. And sit still."
Hilda kept quiet and sat still in his arms, closing her eyes and biting away the pain that started to shoot through her. Silently she was grateful she did not have to walk the few steps.
William sat her down on a chair. "Put your arms on the table, sweetwitch, so you are stable." Each word told her how much he worried. He had his wand in his hand already and was working on fixing her shoulder and back. Quickly he created warmth in the shed and removed the clothes from her back. It did not look horrible, as he had managed to do a lot of healing already, but still there was quite some damage.
Hilda felt how hard William was working to make her all well again.
He was careful while wielding magic, repairing her skin and bones and the ruptures in the tissue under all that. Once he was done, she put her clothes back on after repairing them. The rocks had torn those up pretty severely also.
William sat down next to her. "How are you feeling, Hilda?" His hand was over both of hers.
"I'm okay, William. Thank you for taking care of me. I was stupid to let her get to me like that. Even these two Nobblebacks were not able to do that."
"Shush, you," William said, putting a finger over her lips.
After biting him, she said: "That's my line, William, remember that."
William rubbed his finger and grinned. "So what was that thing you sent after Zelda? It did not look like a rat anymore."
Hilda grinned, feeling like a million bucks again. "I did modify it a bit, indeed. I turned it into a strange thing I once saw somewhere far away. It's something that can fly, it's immensely strong and can withstand a lot of magic. Scary thing. It also spits fire and acid."
"Nice little bugger," William commented as he made two large plates of hot food appear.
"What's wrong with our nice little kitchen?", Hilda asked as she pointed at it.
"Forgot to go grocery shopping," William grinned.
16. Thanks for the fish
After eating, they decided that this had been a fairly lost day. Lots of action and damage again, another encounter with Zelda, and still no clue where she lived now. It did not feel satisfying.
The couple retreated to their bed, making some light using a wand that floated over them. Hilda had made sure that the door was closed and the few small windows were blinded, so no security guard would notice their presence and make a fuss about it.
"When do we declare this a lost case and go home?" Hilda asked the question without expecting an answer. She knew that William was as determined to get Zelda as she was.
"We'll get that witch." William pulled her close to him and enjoyed the feeling of his witch close to her. "Are you feeling okay?"
Hilda nodded. "Yes. No more pain. You healed me well, William. Thank you for that." She took down the wand and made the light go out...
-=-=-
The morning came with a groan. In fact, the morning came on its own, the groan came courtesy of a sore witch.
"Hilda? What's wrong?" William sat up immediately as he heard her uttering of discomfort.
"I'm not sure. My back is so stiff, it feels as if someone tied a broom to my spine."
"Oh. Right. Turn on your stomach then," William said.
"Why's that?" Hilda did not jump to every command. Well, any command.
"I am going to give your back a massage to loosen it up. You probably feel this way because of the stoning you had yesterday."
"Oh. Did I tell you," Hilda said as she rolled onto her stomach, "that this is an insane world?"
"Not today," the wizard grinned as he gently started rubbing her back.
Ooohs and aaahs were mixed with "if you ever do that again"s and "oh, do that one more time"s. After the backrub and massage however, Hilda hugged William and thanked him for the care he had bestowed upon her. Her back was all fine again, thanks to his "untying the broom from her spine".
After breakfast they went outside, holding their brooms. There was a lot of business going about, which made it a bit difficult to get out of sight for a good take-off, but magic and some good old-fashioned luck were with them. Once in the air, Hilda told William about a plan.
"I've been thinking how we can piss off Zelda, and I think it is very simple for starters. We're going to fix what she tore apart. The streets and all that, for instance."
William would have raised his hat to her if he had one. "That is some witchy thinking, my witch!"
"Why thank you, my wizard! Now we have to find a place to change first."
"Change? Into what?" William was puzzled by her remark.
"Magical clothes, William. I have them with me. Makes for good looks if we dress normal while we do the cleaning up."
William shook his head, amazed once again by the insight this lovely funny woman had. He thought for a moment, then directed them to a place that would offer them a proper spot to change into their magicals' outfits. Thus dressed, they flew up again and headed for the parts of town where Zelda had done her demolishing best. Calmly, hovering over the streets high enough so no ordinary could reach them with a flung stone or rock, they started to lift the remains of cars from under the rubble and flatten the roads.
They did not make the roads as nice and flat as they had originally been, but at least they were traversable again by the cars that still ran, as well as the odd cyclist that might be found. And of course the tanks of the military.
Steadily they worked on, rebuilding street after street, much to the surprise of the natives of the town. Silently each of them wondered when Zelda would learn about them doing this, and how that evil one would make herself known to them.
It was already well into the afternoon and there still had not been a sign of Zelda. William started to wonder if the evil witch was around. After all, Hilda and he had not tried to be invisible doing their reconstructions.
"I think we did enough for the day," Hilda said, turning to her wizard. "It's hard work, all this street stuff."
They had restored fourteen streets so far and William agreed that this should do it for that day. "Maybe-" he started to say, when Zelda introduced herself.
It was not so much a personal introduction, as a show of force. The street that Hilda and William had just restored erupted underneath them, throwing rubble all around, shattering windows in all the houses on either side and making protection kick in. Safe from the flying street-parts, Hilda and William flew upwards, immediately on high alert and scanning for the evil witch.
The first thing they noticed of Zelda was a shrieking laugh, loud and able to shatter the few remaining windows in the street. "So, Grimhilda, you are playing the good witch of the east now?"
"Show yourself, Griselda!"
"With pleasure, sister in magic," Zelda said as she swooped upwards from somewhere unseen. She had her wand drawn and aimed it at Hilda as she apparently did not see much danger in William. "Why are you interfering here, Grimhilda. Take your fly-boy and go back home where you can do what you are supposed to do."
"Forget that, Griselda," said Hilda, her wand at the ready also. "You are coming along with us and paying for what you've done. You crossed borders, you brought danger to people in this world and you are meddling in affairs that are not yours."
"So ask me if I care!" Zelda slammed down a bolt of fire that set a house ablaze.
William reacted by putting out the fire an instant later, leaving only a blackened front on the house that otherwise had burnt down completely in the fierce flames.
Zelda stared at William. "You insolent. How dare you?"
"Oh, that's easy," William said.
"William, be careful, she's-"
Before Hilda could end her sentence, William had shot a spell at Zelda's broom, making it break up into a hundred pieces.
A hundred pieces of broom proved to be far less effective than a whole broom: Zelda started falling towards the ground, screaming and throwing magic wildly around herself. Afterwards, H
ilda and William did not know how the evil witch pulled it off, but on her way down she managed to summon all the pieces of her broom and formed a whole broom of them again. The broom was near her and Zelda got on it, only several feet over the ground.
Hilda and William intensified their protection and not a second too soon: the barrage of nastiness Zelda shot at them was overwhelming.
"She's good," William said as they warded off the stones, fire, tar and dirt that was flung at them.
"You weren't bad yourself," Hilda said as she tried to slam the remains of a car into Zelda. The evil witch however was too fast for that and the car only hit a house. "Nice try to break up her broom. Next time-" she flung herself and William aside as half a car came up to them "-make sure the broom-bits burn."
Hilda grabbed the car-parts and diverted their course so they could fall down somewhere without hurting people.
William in that time tried to hit Zelda again, a stream of fish heads and dirty water flowing from his wand in her direction.
Hilda joined his efforts, effectively washing down fish parts on the evil witch in such a way that Zelda could not even see them anymore. Loudly screaming, Zelda flew off, and as the magical couple stopped their fish-rain, they were certain that they saw Zelda was drenched.
"Well, I think that we have just scored a point, William," Hilda smiled.
"Yup, I firmly believe so too," the wizard said.
"Might be nice if we clean up the fish down there," the witch said. "You seem to have a natural affection for fish entrails, don't you?"
William burst out laughing as