Hilda - The Challenge

by Paul Kater

  By that time, the noise was over. Hilda looked at him. "Something wrong?"

  "Uhm, no apparently not. I thought, with the noise and all that..."

  "I had told you there could be some noise, William. Everything's fine, really."

  "I guess." He did however not leave his post until she was done cutting the bread and preparing two large plates with everything she had been making. It was better, he thought, to stay here just in case.

  "Well, since you are here, you can help me carry this stuff," she said with a smile, pushing the plates into his hands.

  18. Visits

  At the table, William pointed at three arrows. "Your mail, right? Two from yesterday and one from this morning."

  "Yesterday? I never saw those," Hilda frowned.

  "Hardly surprising, considering the fact that you were nearly in shambles when we came back and on your bed only moments later.

  Hilda nodded, chewing her food. She held up a hand and the three arrows jumped into it. Quickly she untied the small pieces of thread and looked at the message that were brought in by what William considered special delivery.

  The first paper got crumpled into a ball and was then tossed into the fireplace. "The rat idiot now sends messages to everyone that the problem is solved. As if I care."

  As the wicked witch was reading the second message, her jaw stopped chewing. The way she stared at the paper, her face going rather expressionless, worried William, but he felt it would be best to leave her alone with her thoughts for a while. If she wanted to share this with him, he'd hear it.

  Hilda lifted her eyes from the paper, to meet William's. In silence she handed him the message. He instantly recognised the fancy calligraphy, it was without a doubt written by the same person who had sent the original challenge. It read: 'Grimhilda. This is the official second invitation to the challenge. Do not forget about it, you are bound by the magic in your blood to accept this. I am setting the moment for our encounter to the third new moon from now. This will give you more time to become nervous, and allows me more time to enjoy the thought of this. I do hope you bring your false wizard along. Then there are two to witness your downfall.'

  "He sounds like quite an arrogant prick, if you ask me," William said, "but if he is only half as powerful as you say he is, I'm afraid he has every right to be like that." He read the note again. "This really sucks."

  Hilda nodded. "Elves are better," she sighed, slumping back in her chair. Her happy feeling of earlier that morning had left as if it had been an exploding balloon, just the noise missing. "I really have to start working on that, William."

  "We have to," he affirmed. "Babs said so."

  She smiled dimly, admiring his attitude, even if there was nothing he could do. He had no magic, no power to go against someone the likes of Lamador. The things Babs had said still made no sense to her, and although she was prone to believe that witchy sister, there was always a chance Baba Yaga the fearsome was wrong.

  Hilda tossed the paper in the fireplace and then looked at the third note. "Oh, right, now that's more like it."

  William curiously looked at her, across the table.

  Hilda was able to smile at him for real again. "This is a note from a friend. Long time since I saw her, and she asked if I could drop in for a chat today. Does have a bit of a drawback though... she's very much against being crowded, so if I go there, I have to go alone. Would you mind staying here for the morning?"

  "Not at all," William said. "You go make the rounds and see your friend, I have plenty of books here to keep me occupied."

  Hilda felt relieved, and at the same time still burdened. Making the rounds with William was so much fun, he held himself so well on a broom already. But the visit to her friend would take her too far away from home to drop him off first. And would he really be able to stay fine in this house all the time she was gone? Well, there was only one way to find out.

  They finished eating and Hilda ran up the stairs to get changed. William had 'ordered' her to, he'd take care of the cleaning up. She was downstairs again very quickly. Changing, rushing and magic are a very happy combination.

  "Now I'll try to come back as soon as I can," Hilda lectured William who had her broom at the ready for her, "and I'm going to miss you. If someone calls at the door, the house will let you know if it is safe to open the door or not. If nobody answers they'll know I'm out anyway, so that's easy." The witch was standing in front of him, her toes almost against his.

  "Just you do what you have to, Hilda. No need to rush yourself for me, I'm happy here. More perhaps than I can tell or show you at this moment. So go and have your fun. And I'll make sure I'll stay near the crystal ball, okay? I dare say you can call me through that."

  Hilda looked at him with big eyes. "You are smart!" She jumped up and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him wildly and shrieking in his ear for a short yet long enough moment. When she was on her feet again, she took the broom and said: "I'll check in when I am with my friend. It will be so great to do that, with you here." Her face was beaming bigtime and made William smile bigtime in return.

  He pulled her against him for a moment. "Now off you fly, pretty witch. I'm going to watch you take off. And be careful out there, I want you back in one piece."

  "Don't worry," Hilda said, basking in his hug even though the broomstick was poking against her ribs.

  Then he walked her to the door, where she lingered for a moment, to look into his eyes once more. She felt a little bit more confident now, so she stepped outside and mounted her broom. After a short glance back at William, who was standing there, watching her, she kicked off and sped away.

  William closed the door when he could not make out Hilda against the few clouds anymore. At that moment he remembered that he had never asked her to inflate his books!

  "Holy Bejeebus," he called upon his favourite saint. "Don't tell me I am stuck with books on growing witch's herbs and the calming effect of certain mushrooms I have never heard of... If that is so, I'm going to need them!"

  William slowly walked to the staircase and willed the books to be there. "Please let them be there, please please..." He reached the door to his room, pushed it open and saw his books lying on the table. A load worth several stone fell off his heart. "Smart little witch to think of that."

  As he had all the time of the morning to himself, he first treated himself to a nice bath and then took his treasure of books down the stairs, together with his crystal ball.

  Hilda did her round as she usually did, but Lamador's note kept gnawing at her. In a lesser degree it also bugged her that William was alone at her house, but she was sure that by now he would be safe there. He had survived two rounds in the kitchen and that was quite a feat for an ordinary.

  The wicked witch was also surprised that the house had taken so well to him, and that was good. She just would like to know how he had done that, being unmagical.

  As she had visited the castle, the king had not been out. He probably was busy with something. Hilda couldn't, for the life of her, think of anything in that direction, but strange things did happen, anyone knew that.

  The broom swooped over the village. Everything was in order there. She took a moment to check on the mule they had rescued from the thieving clutches of the man who had stolen Gerdundula's veggies, and the animal was happy in its pasture, together with others of its kind.

  Hilda then proceeded to pester the shepherds on the far south mountains, she had kind of neglected them. She had a number of really good moments there, taking the pressure of her mind for a while, but as she was flying further south to the house of her friend Calandra, she became silent again and worrying.

  The south part of the kingdom was a magnificent area. The hills were much lower there, the trees more gentle and green and lush. There were not as many lakes as in the north where Hilda lived, but the area here was almost a labyrinth of meandering rivers and streams. The water came from the kingdom to the far south, from the high mountain
s where rain fell almost daily. In those mountains lived many witches and wizards that had a fulltime job keeping all that water out of their villages. Hilda was glad she lived in Walt's kingdom. Water was good for baths, not for work.

  The view of the scenery relaxed Hilda. By the time she circled Calandra's house, she felt relatively at ease, and when she saw her friend come out and wave her down, she smiled.

  Calandra was a typical very tall southerner. Short blond hair, pale skin, and very easy going on colours for her clothes. Mostly she'd wear green or brown pants, which Hilda considered very not feminine. Calandra's shirts were all white without a frizzle or frolic or anything joyous. Not even a necklace or so. But she did own loads of pretty thick coats, which was a prerogative for living this far south.

  The two witches hugged and Calandra then all but dragged Hilda into her house.

  "Hey, look at that! Cool puppies, Cal! You redecorated?" Hilda was amazed as she saw the stylish interior with red, white and black. "Really nice, suits you too."

  "Well, you know," Calandra said with her thick southern accent, "sometimes a girl needs to have a change of colours, right?"

  "Yeah, I know. I've been trying to convince my house about that, and guess what I get. Same old same old. Would you believe it threatened me to lock me out?!"

  "You are kidding me? Oh, please, go sit down, sweetie, I'm gonna make us a good brew, 'right?"

  Hilda nodded and sat down at the counter-like construction Calandra had put up between the living room and the kitchen instead of having a sensible wall there.

  As Calandra was working in her kitchen, meaning that she stood watching how the kettle filled itself and put itself on a low fire, Hilda's mind drifted off again. Because of that, she missed the question Calandra fired at her. "Sorry, what?"

  "Wake up, sleepyhead! I asked you what y'all had been doing!" The southern witch laughed loudly, making the walls shake and the windows rattle.

  "Well, I've been busy with things, you know. Local rounds, playing catch with the king, bullying the local thieving guild. And lately I have a challenge pinned to my rear again."

  "Yeah, I heard things of that nature," Calandra said as she put a mug the size of a modest soup bowl in front of Hilda. Calandra always liked to think big. "And how are you going to handle that?" The witch's face was serious and worried. Lamador's fame and aspirations were known everywhere.

  "I don't know exactly," Hilda said. "Or better: I exactly don't know."

  "Yeah, sucks, stuff like that. And the rest?", Calandra inquired.

  "Rest? Isn't this bad enough?" Hilda stared at her friend in wonder.

  Calandra sat down opposite Hilda. "Come on girl, don't give me that. I know I am far away down south, but I am connected remember?" She pointed at the insanely large crystal ball in her room. The thing was so large and heavy that only a slab of rock was strong enough to support it.

  "Uhm?" Hilda really did not understand what Calandra was talking about.

  Calandra frowned. "Are you telling me that they've been pinning fancy shit on my sleeve then?"

  Hilda was now lost and had the face to prove it. "Who's said what? I don't have the foggiest idea what you mean, Calandra!"

  Calandra was next in line to be lost. "Okay, so the line's been buzzing that there's nice tall handsome man living in your house. But obviously-"

  "Who told you that?!", Hilda gave it away.

  "Aha!! So it is true! And there you were, playing miss Innocent on me!" Calandra manifested another bout of shaking walls, and this time one of the windows did not survive.

  "It's not... what you think." Hilda was not very pleased with all this.

  "Oh, sure," Calandra snickered, "you find yourself a man for the first time in what is... I lost track of the number of centuries... and then it is not what everyone thinks."

  "Everyone? How many know that William is living with me?", Hilda asked, a mild form of panic jumping at her throat.

  "You'd better ask how many don't yet. If any." The remark of the southern witch did not make Hilda feel much better. "And it's William, is it? How interesting. Where did you find him? How long do you know him? And do you two have plans together?" Calandra leaned over to Hilda, eager to catch every little snip of information the grey-haired witch was willing to share.

  "I am saying nothing. Nothing at all." Hilda folded her arms over her chest and pressed her lips together.

  "Okay, girl, okay, I'm not complaining, you hear me? It's of course always the same problem, that if people don't know the facts, there are always some among the in-crowd that are filling in the details with what they -think- is going on. And then you might be worse off than spilling the word right now..."

  "William is going to help me beat Lamador," Hilda allowed herself to reveal.

  "Lamador? Don't get me wrong, Hilda, but you are not allowed to request magical help on a challenge..." Calandra shook her head, making her hair dance around her head.

  Hilda wanted to be anywhere else. "That's all I am going to say."

  "Okay, girl, that's fair. I heard you make a really neat couple on the brooms too. Blue suits him well, they say. Big wizard stuff, with the silver on the robes too." Calandra nodded appreciatively. "I could fall for a wizard." She winked at Hilda. "Or on one."

  "Hmmpf," Hilda commented. "We did not fall, and he's not flying- oh crap."

  "Now what was that, girl? He's not flying? But he wears the blue!"

  "I gave that to him." Damn, shut up, Hilda, shut up!

  "Oh. Right. Well, you know how safe your secrets are with me," Calandra said with a smile that would take half her head off had it gone just a bit wider.

  "I was afraid of that," muttered the wicked witch, who felt a far cry from wicked at that moment.

  Calandra seemed to understand that she should not pry more than she had already done. She had enough news to put out on the lines, first hand news. And perhaps she could improve its quality slightly before sending it round, but that was something for later. She changed the subject skillfully, babbling about her new interior and the problems that the wizards and witches further south had had with the water.

  The atmosphere in the house of the southern witch improved rapidly, as Calandra maneuvered around the touchy subject to make Hilda feel better. After all, she knew, the wicked witch had quite a heavy load on her shoulders with the challenge from Lamador.

  Hilda looked out a window and noticed that the sun had started its downwards trajectory already. "Cal, I have to go back home again now."

  "Of course, Hilda, I understand. Quite a stiff flight you have ahead of you. Thanks for dropping by, hon, and don't be a stranger, okay?"

  Hilda said goodbye, was forced to take a bag of real southern witch cookies along as Calandra had baked a few hundred too many in her new kitchen, and then finally she was on her way home again. For some reason she pushed her broom to go as fast as possible.

  19. Good old house

  "William, she is coming back."

  "Oh, really? Good! Thank you, house." William pulled his feet under him and got up. He had been reading his books on the blanket that still was in front of the now extinguished fireplace.

  He walked to the door and as he opened it, he saw Hilda slump down on the grassy patch. Not an elegant landing at all, he noticed. It was not far away from an emergency landing.

  Hilda grabbed her broom and almost ran inside, quickly closing the door. Paranoia was creeping, but creeping very quickly. She leaned against the door, as if her weight would keep it closed much more securely.

  "Hey, what's wrong?", William wondered about her strange way of coming in.

  "They know," Hilda told him as if this would mean the world to him.

  "Who knows, and what?" He looked a puzzle.

  "The others. About us."

  "I am sorry, dear witch, but you are talking in shorthand, so bear with me when I try to analyse this," William said. He put his hands on her shoulders, peeled her from the door and steered her to the large
black table. "You are going to sit down, I'll fix you some tea and then-"

  "No tea, I need a drink," Hilda surprised him.

  "Oh dear." William had never heard her say that. She had not touched wine in the daylight before as long as he had been around, so this was worrying. "Okay, I'll go get-"

  "That takes too long," she snapped, snipped her fingers and filled the table with glasses of wine. As she grabbed one (of the diluted ones of course), William held her hand, preventing her to drink it down. He knew he was taking a risk. A big risk.

  "Maybe, before you drink yourself into a stupor, maybe there is something you want to tell me?" He spoke calm and kindly.

  Hilda slapped his hand. "I need a drink, not a babysitter."

  He let her drink and sat down next to her. He took one of the glasses that was not diluted. A quick count of the glasses told him that they both were in for at least five hangovers, if they were going to have a serious go at all that wine.

  Without ceremony Hilda emptied her glass in one large gulp. This earnt her an astounded glance from William.

  "Argh...", she then said. "Do you know you don't taste a thing when you drink wine like that?" She looked at the man sitting next to her, his brown eyes only paying attention to her. With a sigh she sat back in the chair, trying to relax. The alcohol she had just poured into herself started to work, calming her down.

  "Do you want to have another one?", William asked.

  "No! Do you want to get me drunk so you can take advantage of me?" She giggled.

  "What do you think of me?" William asked, his face straight.

  "Not sure, you know, but the idea is sort of exciting." The fast shot of alcohol was really getting to her. She stared at a second glass, picked it up to make sure it would not run away.

  "Hilda, perhaps that glass is not a good idea," William tried, not sure if she needed some help to slow down her intake.

  "Are you going to try and stop me?" Her wand appeared in her free hand. "See, I am not drunk yet. I can still do my magical trick." She looked at William and saw his worried face. A smile showed on her face and she put down both the glass and the wand. Then she turned round so she faced William and took both his hands in hers.