by Paul Kater
feel bad." She sat up and rubbed her tummy. "Feels good now. Thank you, wizard." She rewarded William with a quick kiss, then got up and left for the bedroom, to change into more witchy clothes than a pink housecoat. And purple slippers.
"No, you won't! Ever!" Hilda yelled down as she sensed William's thought. "And when you think you understand me, I'll change and do it all over again!"
As the two walked to the door, brooms in hand, the two cats were already sitting and waiting.
"Making a habit of it to come along, are we?" Hilda grinned as she patted Grimalkin on the head, who allowed it without protest.
"Yes, please, take them," the house commented. "It is so nice and quiet when they are gone."
"Meow," Obsi complained and slipped outside as William opened the door.
"See? That is what I mean," the house went on. "When will you be back?"
"Why? What's that to you?"
"It gets so silent after a while when you're all gone..."
Hilda rolled her eyes. William snorted.
-=-=-
"Do you want to visit the castle before we go on to the Mimosa?"
"No, not today," said Hilda, "I want to get my wand on that cook."
William reminded her that Rebel had said they all had done some cooking, but Hilda did not see the problem. "I'll just get them all." Grim looked up at the witch, the tip of her tail twitching.
"At least you have good weather for that," William grinned. He was right: the sun was out in full shine and the sky was fairy-tale blue.
Soon they arrived at the Green Hills, topped them and flew over the Green Lake. The black ship still lay there, anchored in all its non-vibrant lack of glory. Some sailors were busy doing things on deck. Two of them, the curious couple saw, were polishing the large oval crystal on the bow.
The magicals landed on the deck, close to the large array of doors. Hilda flipped up her wand and grinned in a way that made William worry. The witch bent over and tapped her wand on the deck, just lightly. The large ship shuddered; a few of the sailors in their plain striped shirts came running to locate the source of the tremors. The door in the stern also opened, and Rebel flew out. Literally.
"Oh. It's you two," the woman said as she lowered herself to the deck. "You could have just knocked, that works too." She was wearing another leather outfit today, a lot of red and many silvery stars on it.
Hilda poked the woman with the wand. "How'd you do that? And how did you get to the ship so quickly yesterday?"
Rebel shrugged. "Something I can do since I was a kid. I was born with it. Manipulating space isn't that hard for me, I can jump to everywhere that I've been-"
"Hilda and William! Amici!" Maurizio came out of the door, interrupting Rebel and not giving a damn. He hugged both the visitors. "How wonderful to see you again!"
"Shut up," said Polly who sat on the captain as usual. Four cat-eyes looked up at the colourful bird and two tails twitched.
"As I was saying," Rebel tried to continue, but Maurizio had different ideas. He invited the witch and the wizard in for coffee, which they declined, and Hilda then started about her not feeling well in the morning.
"Oh? Did you also have a craving for pickles perhaps?" Maurizio asked.
"Pickles?" Hilda stared at the man, while Rebel and William tried not to laugh. "Crappedy crap, it's Lorelei who's the pregnant witch in these parts, not me!" After an explanation who Lorelei was, Maurizio repeated his coffee invitation, which again was politely declined.
"Moro!" one of the sailors shouted from halfway the deck as he came running towards the small assembly. "The sun, the sun!"
Hilda frowned. "Yeah, it's up there, what's the big deal?"
Rebel looked up, shielding her eyes with a hand. "Looks like it's close, Moro," she said without making sense to the magicals. She grabbed Maurizio and Hilda by the arm. Maurizio put a hand on William's arm and a moment later they were near the crystal.
"Suck an elf," said Hilda as she grabbed William for a hold. "What happened?"
Maurizio started fussing over the crystal while Rebel apologised, explaining that she had teleported them all to the front of the ship as that was faster than walking.
"You tele-whatted us?" Hilda asked as she turned her back to Maurizio. The man was talking too fast and too loud.
"Teleporting. That's what you call what I do with my mind. I can move myself, people and - oh, watch out!"
As Rebel warned everyone, something hit Hilda in the back. "Crappedy crap," the witch said as she turned around to see who was in for it.
Four men were doing something underneath the crystal, turning a large crank which made the crystal rotate. Maurizio was calling out directions. "Turn clockwise! No, go back! No, hold it there! No idiots, turn it some more!"
Hilda looked at the goings on very curiously, the stomp in her back forgotten. She heard William say something to Rebel as one of the large sailors got in the way; she could see nothing that way! The witch quickly jumped backwards, to avoid being stepped on by the same big sailor and then she saw a way to get up on the large wooden casing where the crystal was on. Quickly she climbed over sacks and rolls of rope, holding on to her long dress and keeping her cloak under control.
"Hah," she muttered to herself as she stepped onto the wooden box, "gives me a great spot to look at this crystal thing close up too."
At that point several things happened in rapid succession. Rebel asked William where Hilda was. Maurizio turned around to Rebel and William, ready to say something. One of the sailors pulled the crank one more time, which turned the crystal a little more, something Hilda did not appreciate as that ruined her view of the thing. The crystal caught the sunlight; it seemed to capture it inside itself and juggle the beams through all of its facets at the same time.
"Oh... pretty!" said the witch, watching the crystal in fascination.
"Mrs. Witch!" Maurizio yelled, but before Hilda could look at him, the light jumped from the crystal and slammed into Hilda. Now everyone knows that when light slams into you you just see light. But the light from the crystal was of a different order: as it hit the witch, the witch seemed to jump up a bit and then was thrown off the wooden casing and landed on a roll of ropes as a disorganised heap.
"Hilda!" William pushed himself through the men that were between him and the witch. As he reached her, someone shouted something, but he didn't care. Hilda had fallen and she was unconscious in a terrible way. He could not feel her through the connection anymore, and that scared him. At the moment he took her in his arms and pulled her against his chest, there was a sickening feeling all around him.
A flare like a lightning bolt seemed to jump over the ship, making it shudder and jump- Jump?
A storm swiped over the deck of the Mimosa, as lights in many colours and darkness switched places at a tremendous speed. The storm was accompanied by a low rolling thundery sound that kept a constant pressure on William's eardrums while the wind tugged at his cloak. He didn't care, as long as he had Hilda in as much safety he could give her.
As the tremors slowly left the ship, the wizard sensed a wriggling between his legs and he heard a moaning set of meows. So the cats were safe as well. At least as safe as Hilda and he were.
Then, as sudden as the havoc had started, it ended. Silence fell over the Mimosa as if the ship was shoved into a muffler. William said Hilda's name, but she did not respond. Magically he probed her; she was alive, breathing, she was just knocked out. The wizard picked Hilda up and then rose. He looked over the deck where most of the sailors lay sprawled. Maurizio was holding on to the crank, and Rebel was nowhere to be seen.
"What happened?" William asked.
Maurizio let go of the handle, got up and patted his sleeves. "Looks like we jumped." He looked back and shouted: "Is everyone well? And is everyone there?"
William lost interest in the sailors as Hilda started stirring.
She opened her eyes and looked at him. She smiled. "I am happy to see you, William."
He
put her on her legs again.
"William? Where are we? And where are you?"
7. So, where are we?
William stared at the witch. Where are you, she had asked. "What do you mean 'where are you'?" he asked, more to stall for time than for not understanding. Before he had to say something else, Maurizio scrambled to his feet, a shocked expression on his face.
"Madonna," he said, "you are here also." The captain looked back and up. "Rebel, come down." Hilda and William looked where Maurizio had directed his eyes. In the mast hung Rebel. "She always does that when we jump," the captain offered as an explanation.
Rebel let go of the mast and slowly floated down to the deck. As she was approaching it, she said: "Looks like we're in space again, Moro." It was undecided if this was good new or not.
Hilda leaned towards not. "I don't really care about that. Just get us home and then you can do all you want. We have things to do." She pointed over her shoulder, roughly towards the crystal. "Switch it on again, will you?" She felt hands on her shoulder and quickly turned around. "Oh, it's you," she said, relieved to see that it was William. "I'm... I'll tell you later."
Maurizio was yelling all kinds of things already as he paced along the deck. All along the railing on both sides small lights had come on, and the large sails seemed to shine also, in a very strange way. Rebel popped from one side of the ship to the other as she was looking at all kinds of things.
Hilda turned to William. "I can't sense you, William." She looked worried all of a