Hilda - Lycadea

by Paul Kater

commanded. He was a slow learner.

  As Hilda and her companions sauntered off to a silent part of the triangular square, a few helpful villagers clung to Tarkan's legs, but their efforts were to no avail so they abandoned their attempts. The fact that their leader was screaming at them to leave him be, despite having asked to be taken down, caused some commotion and chatter. The majority of people then trailed after the witch and her friends.

  "Is it okay with you if I turn a cart into some furniture?" William asked Sodor.

  "Yes, of course," said the man. He cast a careful glance at the dangling leader.

  Moments later, the group sat down. Villagers ran off, to return with stools and small chairs, making themselves comfortable near the travellers.

  Tarkan screamed, until William snipped his fingers. Then a blissful silence spread over the square.

  After everyone around had been supplied with tea (another cart had been sacrificed to make the cups), Hilda asked around if anyone had an idea why the whole of both Lycadean societies were so fixated on her presence. The answer that she would be the witch who would make right what was wrong did not really come as a surprise, but she had hoped for something better, like perhaps how she was supposed to pull that off.

  "Maybe Tarkan knows," a helpful soul offered, but that option was still in the air, and not likely to be supportive soon.

  "Meanwhile I would really like to know if there is a place where we can stay while we're here," Hilda said. "Do you folks have any houses that are free?"

  The assembled villagers shook heads. All the houses in the village were occupied, and there were no spaces available.

  "There are the caves though," someone suggested.

  "Caves. Right. We are people that look like we can be happy in caves." Hilda's stare almost drilled a hole in the eyes of the man who had suggested the caves.

  Maurizio however said: "How far away are these caves? And do you have some things for us to make life somewhat comfortable there?"

  "I'm not going to live in a cave!" Hilda exclaimed. "Their prophecy dragged our asses all over the cosmos and now they want us to live like cave people?"

  "Hilda. Calm down. We'll sort this out." William's voice was calm.

  "Don't you calm down me, wizard," Hilda glared at him. "I'm done with all this."

  William took pity on Hilda. He had a fairly good idea how much she was suffering, lacking her magic. He took her hand. "Come with me. Please?" He knew he had to talk with her for a moment, before she would explode the wrong way.

  With no protest at all, Hilda came with William, and as they walked away from the square, he said: "Sweetwitch, try to keep yourself together, will you? I know you are having a really rough time. This is not easy on anyone, and it must be devastating for you. I am really trying to understand. But we went on this trip, to find these people. You had a major vote in it as well. It would be good if we can all see this through."

  Hilda said nothing as they kept walking. They were already outside the village when she sudden stood still. She looked at William. "I want to go home, William. I don't know how much longer I can take this. I am not even half the person I am. I miss my magic. I miss the link with you. I…"

  William put his arms around the witch and just held her. He had never seen her so helpless and ready to quit, and he knew that this was not really Hilda. There was something he should be able to do about this situation, he thought. Without knowing it, he did the only thing that worked.

  "You must really think I'm an idiot," Hilda's voice came muffled from his shoulder. She had pressed her face against it.

  "I don't. I just try to be there for you."

  "You'd better. Without you I'd have gone crazy long ago." Hilda felt small and helpless for a few never-ending moments.

  "Let's go back and see what we can do about finding a place to sleep," William suggested. "We've weathered a lot together, I am sure we can manage this situation as well."

  "Yes. And not a word, wizard."

  William grinned, as Hilda put her good old self back up.

  Together they walked to the group and said they'd go and have a look at the caves. Sodor and Kyru offered to come along, to guide the way to the mountains.

  "They can be hard to find."

  Hilda wondered how mountains could be hard to find, but the two were right: they had to travel through a part of forest where the trees were growing so close together that it was impossible to know where you were going unless you knew where you were going.

  "And we are supposed to find the way back, right?" Hilda wondered as they rounded yet another group of big high trees.

  "Honestly, honoured witch, we do not know what you are supposed to do," Kyra said. "But we are almost there."

  Grimalkin, hanging over Hilda's shoulder, meowed softly, keeping her big yellow eyes on the people ahead who led the way.

  "I know, sweetie," said Hilda as she petted the black head, "I feel that way too."

  Kerna walked with Rebel and Maurizio. Obsidian had moved to Maurizio's shoulders for a while. Kerna had gotten very tired of carrying the cat and the captain had noticed it. Kerna however did stay close to the man, as if she did not want to be too far away from Obsi.

  Hilda stopped and stared at a big tree. A very big tree. "Crappedy crap, William, look at that. You can make a house inside that thing!"

  Everyone agreed that this was the mother of all trees. The witch and wizard started to walk around it. It took them almost five minutes to complete the round.

  "This is a big tree," Hilda stated. "A really big one."

  Sodor frowned. He was already aware of that fact.

  A few trees later, they were out of the forest.

  "Crappedy crap."

  32. On the rocks

  The view that jumped them warranted that remark. They stood at the start of a wide open area, filled with pebbles in many colours, and red, yellow, blue and white prevailed. Randomly across the pebble plain, small green plants with tiny yellow flowers has sprouted.

  About two hundred feet from where the group stood, a calm river floated along. Beyond the river, mountains rose up. They were not impressively high, but they were covered with shrubs and something that looked like insanely large patches of red and brown moss. Low trees grew at the foot of the mountains.

  The travellers stared at the scene for a while, as the serene beauty overwhelmed them all.

  "This is just plain pretty," Rebel said. She picked up a red pebble and examined it. "Tell you what, folks. This pebble… isn't a pebble." The woman, her leather outfit quite smudged by now, closed her hand around the red rock for a moment. A dim light shone through her fingers for a moment.

  "Look." Rebel held out her hand, and on her palm lay a shiny rough ruby. "The blue ones are probably sapphires, the yellow ones topaz and the white ones-"

  "Diamonds?" Maurizio asked.

  "No. They're real pebbles."

  Kyru looked at Sodor and Kerna. Then she asked: "What is so special about these stones?"

  Four pairs of eyes looked at her. Rebel explained that these 'stones' were considered very valuable in the world they came from.

  "Oh." Kyru did not seem very impressed. "These things are everywhere."

  Sodor suggested they'd move on. He led them to a spot in the river where a wide lane of large rocks was made. The rocks had been flattened, to make crossing the river easy. Water ran through narrow slits that were left between the rocky slabs.

  Hilda marvelled at the sound of the water that ran underneath the stones. "William, look how clear the water is. Just like home. And listen. I never heard water sound like this!"

  As they reached the other side of the river, Kyru pointed at a pair of trees a bit to their left. "That is where we are going. There is a footpath that leads to the entrance of the caves."

  "More walking," Hilda sighed. "Good thing there is enough wood around here to make a broom."

  William took over Grimalkin from the witch, and they set off again.

&n
bsp; The footpath Kyru had mentioned did hardly deserve its name. Hilda accused the woman and Sodor of being hunters who could follow the trail of a flying wasp that had flown close to the ground. "This is not a place where people can walk!"

  Miraculously though, the people walked there, and after a rather steep climb, Sodor pushed aside a curtain of hanging plants, which revealed the entrance to a cave.

  "Welcome home," Hilda grumbled as she stepped into the dark hole. Then: "Suck an elf!"

  William rushed inside, to find out what the witch was so wild about. As he entered the cave, he saw and was amazed as well. "Holy Bejeebus…"

  As Rebel and Maurizio entered the cave as well, followed by Kerna, Sodor and Kyru, they too gasped.

  Instead of cavey darkness, lights were everywhere. The walls, the ceilings, even the floor twinkled with yellow light, making the cave as bright as one would like.

  "How is that possible?" William wondered out loud.

  Sodor and Kyru explained that there were reflecting stones in the rock that guided the outside light into the caves. "The same yellow stones you saw outside and find so precious."

  "I'll be damned," William said, "the mountain's littered with gems."

  Kerna reached out and held on to Hilda.

  "What's wrong, kid?" the witch asked. Kerna was not the touchy kind, so there had to be something.

  "I'm not feeling so well suddenly," the kid replied.

  "Come, I'll take you outside."

  As the two left the cave, William and Rebel looked at each other and wondered.

  "I'll go with them," Kyru said and followed the other two women.

  "So this is the cave," Sodor then said. "It is the best