Hilda and Zelda
by Paul Kater
The fourth book in the “Hilda the Wicked
Witch” series.
Published by the author at Smashwords -
Copyright 2011 Paul Kater
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Contents:
attack
Once upon a time there was a witch who, by a
freak coming together of incidents, had been pulled into our world.
After many a strange adventure, she met a man who had a certain
book that enabled the witch to get back to her own world.
Years later, another freak incident brought
that same man to the world of the witch. The man became a wizard
and they formed a magical bond. As a team they fought a battle, a
challenge, in the ominous labyrinth of Gurthreyn. And won.
-=-=-
Hilda watched the giant as he put the last
dragon back in its pen. "And please, next time watch them more
carefully, will you? Ordinaries are not too thrilled when dragons
start trampling over their villages."
"But he did not mean any harm," the giant
tried to make things less bad.
William shook his head. "Go and tell that to
the villagers who are out of a house now."
"Oh, yes, I'll do that!" The giant's face lit
up like a giant christmas tree.
"No, you won't!", Hilda exclaimed. "William,
please remember that giants and sarcasm don't go well
together."
William moved his broom next to Hilda's
again. "Will do. It's so easy to forget."
Hilda grinned. "Yes. I know." And she was not
going to tell why she knew. It was too embarrassing.
The magical couple made a safety tour around
the area, to be certain that all dragons were once again safely
tucked away in their den. Finally they were satisfied. They said
goodbye to Archibald the giant and turned their brooms to their
home.
"I really, really hope things will calm down
a bit," Hilda complained. "We're spending more time on the brooms
than in bed lately and I don't like that development."
William nodded. "I know what you mean. Now it
was the dragon escape. Last month we had the unicorns, and I don't
even want to go back to the fake Pegasi."
"Don't. Please don't. We are going home, we
eat and then we sleep for a year," Hilda agreed with him.
They crossed the village that had been partly
flattened by the dragons
"Maybe we can go and help these people
rebuild some of their buildings," William thought.
"We don't. This is their work. We did our
job, we got the dragons." Hilda was determined, and William sensed
it also through the bond. He was glad she was so clear about
it.
They got home, so tired that they could
hardly see straight. They did not bother with the kitchen; Hilda
magicked up some food and then they headed for bed...
-=-=-
"I don't want to wake up... The year hasn't
passed yet," Hilda complained as she stretched her arms out. It was
inevitable, though. She was awake. "Hey, are you awake too?"
William felt the prods in his side. "What?
Awake? What's that?"
"Good. You're here too. At least I'm not
alone in my misery," Hilda mumbled as she crawled against William
who put an arm around her.
"Go back to sleep. We still have eleven
months and three weeks to go."
"Yeah, sure," Hilda muttered, "and I'm going
to believe that."
They both grinned, but decided on a while
longer in bed.
As they were up finally, Hilda frowned. "This
stupid running around after dragons destroyed my ability to sit and
be relaxed."
"I hope we have some time to get that back,
sweetwitch. Here, more coffee for you." As William said it, the
crystal ball started chiming. "I'll get it..."
Hilda blew him a kiss.
"Oh... hello handsome wizard," a sultry voice
came from the call as he took the call.
Hilda shot from the table to the crystal ball
and pushed William aside. "Mary-Belle, no going after my wizard.
You know we are bonded and you should keep your hormones in your
pocket when you call us."
"Tut, tut," the blue-haired witch said, as
she fanned herself with her fingers. "Touchy? Possessive? PMS? Or
are we having a more general confidence crisis?"
"I just want you to know what I just told
you," Hilda said. "What I always tell you, so I think the problem
is with you, not with me. Now, what do you want?"
"My, we're really touchy today. Well, fine,
have it your way. There's something funny going on with Zelda.
She's not answering her ball, her closer circle has no clue where
she is."
"Zelda? Hmmm. I never have much contact with
her. She's weird. But I guess we can go over to her place today and
have a look." Hilda frowned. "Thanks for letting us know. And bag
those hormones, Mary-Belle, William's mine and I don't share."
Mary-Belle stuck out her tongue and then her
image vanished in a puff of orange smoke.
"Who was that, and who is Zelda?" William
found those very valid questions.
"Mary-Belle is a floozy. She's always after
men and never seems to be able to keep one. Well, with her attitude
that's hardly surprising." Hilda did not elaborate on what attitude
that was. "Zelda... nutcase. Always goes around in black stuff,
pretends to be the most magnificent thing since witchcraft. Oh, she
does good things too, but the way she does them..."
William glanced at his witch. "Care to
clarify that one?"
"Okay, small example if you make me more
coffee. Zelda works a place not too far from here. Once they had an
infestation of rats. Now that's something simple to deal with. She
however turned the rat colony into flying rats, like bats, but
bigger. And they torment the villagers at least twice a night.
Stuff like that. Nasty stuff. But the people in her village don't
complain. It's hard to get a good witch."
"And they are probably scared of her,"
William assumed.
"Yeah. That too. Looks like we have more work
piled on our neck, William. No sleeping for a year." She pulled a
face.
"Let's first finish eating. We can go there
later, I think. If this Zelda person is gone for a while, a few
hours won't make much of a difference." William had refilled
Hilda's coffee cup.
-=-=-
They were on their rounds. Hilda had
suggested to handle that first, and then, instead of annoying the
shepherds, they'd head over to Zelda's home.
William noticed that Hilda was not her
boisterous wild self that morning. There was no teasing King Walt,
no frightening the villagers. "You are tired, Hilda. Are you sure
this trip to Zelda's house is a good idea?"
"We have to, William. Yes, I'm tired, but you
are as well. So don't tell me, okay?" She smiled at her wizard.
"Okay, sweetwitch."
"Crappedy crap." Hilda looked behind them.
"We have company."
William looked back also. "Holy Bejeebus.
Don't tell me Archibald messed up again."
"Archibald messed up again. Dive." In their
quickly reducing wake, two dragons came up on them.
At the moment they dove and split up, the two
dragons were almost on top of them. Luckily for the magical couple,
these dragons were very very large and also very very sluggish in
their aerial movements. They overshot their targets and worked hard
to turn around.
"Suck an elf," Hilda grumbled, "this is
hardly what we need. If I get my hands on that giant, I'm going to
whoop his ass so that he can't sit for a week." She already had her
wand in her hand and hung in the air, waiting for William to join
her and keeping an eye on the dragons.
The two large animals had finally completed
their turn and now were building up speed again.
"William... where are you...", she
mumbled.
"Right here," he said as he swooped up next
to her. "What the hell do these beasts want here? They are not
supposed to be here."
"I know. Split and charge from behind."
Hilda and William fell away sideways, making
room for the dragons to pass them without harm once again. It was
as if an aircraft carrier were rushing by. The magical couple, well
versed in the art of dragon-catching, pulled round and started
following the dragons that were flapping their mighty wings to
turn. The magical people knew that this maneuver was the best
moment to get to the dragons as the animals would not be paying
much attention to their tails. Turning fast in full flight was a
task for these big beasts.
Wands drawn and magic ready, Hilda and
William raced towards the dragons. Bolts of power bounced away from
them, intended to immobilise the dragons and hold them suspended
for transport. They had done that so often in the past weeks, it
had become routine. The problem was now, however, that the dragons
were not keeping their part of the routine. The magic did not seem
to affect them. They completed their turn and looked for their
victims again.
As they had gotten so close to the dragons,
the couple was already behind the animals. Hilda grabbed control of
William's broom and landed them on the back of one of the
dragons.
"Sorry, not a soft landing, but this is safe
for now," she growled, angry that their trick hadn't worked.
They had to hold on to the large knobby bumps
of their carrier, as the two dragons were gaining speed again.
"Good thing these are stupid ones," Hilda
muttered, "they'll be looking for us for a while longer."
"What went wrong?", William asked. He didn't
understand.
"Beats me. Someone did something to these
dragons. Set them up with some kind of magic so ours is not working
on them. Or maybe any other magic. Oh crap!"
The dragons were making another turn. Hilda
and William had to hold on extra tightly to the bumps, otherwise
they'd fall off. William had magically stuck their brooms to his
back, they could not spare the hands to hold onto those as
well.
"Time to think of something," William
said.
"Great plan," Hilda said, "but what? How do
you stop things like these if magic has no effect?"
The dragons were still cruising around, but
it would not take much longer before they understood that their
searching was in vain.
"We can outrun them," William thought out
loud, "but that does not take care of the problem. And if you can't
beat them, join them. Hilda, how good is your knowledge of
dragons?"
"What? What for?" She looked at her wizard
and hoped he had a serious plan. Most of them sounded less than
that.
"Can you magic up something that looks like a
dragon? Flying and big and mean and all the accessories?"
"Dragons have no accessories, William. But I
think I can create a dragon like that. And you should be able too,
my sweet man."
The dragon on which they sat started to tilt
precariously to the left. It was obviously starting a new route to
look for them.
"Okay. Now, if we can make these dragons,
could they be big enough to scare these two?", William asked.