Hilda and Zelda (2 page)

"Hardly. These dragons are too stupid to be
scared. They are basic instinct creatures. Oh... wait... I think I
know something..." Hilda grinned. "I am going to create a dragon,
and I need you to create a copy of it. Change its colours a bit,
but that's all. It has to be an exact copy. We're going to give the
boys a few girlfriends. As soon as they are flying level again,
that is."

William smiled. It was great how Hilda caught
on and made a viable plan from his idea. "Just hope these two are
not gay."

"Oh, shush you."

Their dragon levelled its flight path. Hilda
drew her wand and mumbled a handful of Latin spells. Nothing
happened. "Crappedy crap. I hate Latin... I want a female
Nobbleback dragon. Almost as big as this one. And in heat. And
straight ahead." It took the wand a few seconds to interpret the
magical wish to magical existence.

Several hundred yards ahead, a new megatonne
dragon appeared. It was just as ugly as the one the magical couple
was riding, just not so sadly coloured.

William, wand in hand, said: "I want one like
that, but more red." Nothing happened. "I didn't screw up any
Latin, so what's wrong?"

Hilda shook her head. "Female Nobblebacks
don't come in red. Nor in purple. You can pick yellow, green or
blue. And mine's blue so you pick yellow."

William repeated his request to the wand. A
second dragon appeared, next to the blue one that Hilda had created
and was controlling.

"We have to bring them closer, so the boys
can get a good whiff," said Hilda, "and give me my broom back. As
soon as these boys see the girls, they'll lose interest in us and
head after them, so by then we have to be off this back."

William handed over her broom, thought about
the good whiff, and followed Hilda's lead on bringing their
creations closer.

"Can you please make your dragon fly a bit
more naturally, William?", Hilda asked. "You make it look like a
horse with sore feet."

William grumbled something, looked at the
neighbouring Nobbleback and ported that to his dragonness.

"Now you make it fly like a boy. William,
please, a bit more graceful?"

"Damn, witch, what do I know of graceful
dragon girls? I never thought I'd see a live one in my previous
life and now I've been chasing them, I'm sitting on one and making
one up. Bear with me!"

Hilda grinned. "Sorry. Just couldn't help
myself. You're doing well. Get ready to fly off this boy, William,
the boys are extending their nostrils, and that means- now!"

William sensed the push through the bond
before he heard her words, and was on his broom and over the dragon
already. Hilda joined him.

"Now we have to get the girls to fly
somewhere where our boys do no harm," she said to William. "Maybe
Archibald will like a few more."

"Holy Bejeebus. All the way over there again.
Well, alright. We have to lose them somewhere." William sighed. It
was indeed their best shot.

"Make sure you stay behind the boys,
William," Hilda warned him. "They might get crazy ideas and behind
them is the best spot then. Now, let's set course to Archibald and
his Dragon's Den. And we should try to keep the boys flying as fast
as they can, they'll be nice and tired when they arrive. So let's
speed up our ladies."

William was relieved that Hilda was there to
take control of the situation. After all the adventures in this
really strange land, there were still things popping up from all
sides that blew him out of his wizardly shoes.

They made the lady-dragon imitations go
faster and faster, and the male Nobblebacks kept up with ease. The
insanely large wings did not even move very fast, so it was obvious
that these dragons were able to achieve incredible airspeeds.

"Hilda, I think we should fly lower," William
said. "The turbulence makes it impossible to keep the broom
steady."

"I'm sure that what you say is true, but I'm
going lower because their wings almost blow me away," Hilda replied
and dropped down fifty yards.

"Indeed," William grinned as he followed her.
"That's the same thing."

The trip carried on for several hours, but
finally the rocks of Archibald's lair came into view.

"William. You need to do both girls now. I
have to go ahead and warn Archibald." Hilda stated it and without
more information she shoved the control of her blue dragon into
William's magical hands.

"Holy Bejeebus," he muttered, seeing how
Hilda shot away on her broom. "Right. Easy does it, girls."

"Archibald!" Hilda magically enhanced the
volume of her voice so the giant would hear her from a proper
distance. "We're bringing two Nobblebacks and we need you to store
them for us. They're wild and under a magical spell!"

"Grimhilda, how nice to see you again," the
giant smiled. "Nobblebacks? How nice, I don't have those yet." He
clapped his hands, causing a few three-ton rocks in the mountains
behind him to shift position. "I'm sure I can put them up somewhere
for you, lady witch."

"Great. William is bringing them in with two
fake lady-dragons. If you can point out where the Nobblebacks have
to go, that would be helpful. And the more when you can do that
quickly."

"Oh, certainly, Grimhilda. I'll go and stand
near the opening in the rock where the Nobbles have to fly through
to be tucked in." He took four big steps and was near a tremendous
hole in the rocks. "In here."

"Are you kidding me? That's too small for
these beasts, Archibald!" Hilda saw impending doom

"It will fit, witch, I know that." Archibald
did not like it when his expertise was doubted.

"Right. I'll believe you. I'm going back to
help William. Thanks, Archibald!" Hilda turned her broom and dashed
off again, Archibald waving at her.

"Nobblebacks. How sweet," the giant said to
himself. He looked at the hole. "That's big enough. Sure. Must be.
I certain."

Hilda reached William again. "How are you
holding up?"

"It's hard work, I can tell you. Oh, thank
you." The last bit was because Hilda took 'her' dragonness back.
William could relax somewhat now.

"Archibald has a space for them. He said. You
should put in your lady first, to see if it works. If it doesn't,
I'll direct mine away. Let's try and split the boys up so we have
couples we can manage, okay?"

William nodded. He let his lady dragon sail
off to the left a bit. One of the boy Nobblebacks changed his
course, in pursuit of the one he wanted. The other Nobbleback
howled and hooted as he saw the ladies split up and sailed after
his brother in flight.

"Crap," said Hilda, "they're both after the
same one!"

"Does this mean we have a problem now?",
William asked as he noticed how the two real dragons started a
fight in flight.

The first Nobbleback that had gone after the
yellow girl was not pleased how his partner was also going after
his choice. In an impressive maneuver, he turned sideways and tried
to grab a wing of his now adversary. It was a common technique
among the larger dragons, to disable competition in the air. One
wing, after all, made for miserable flying. The adversary however
knew the trick as well and dropped low, so the grabbing claw only
found air.

As all the aerial acrobatics went on, the two
massive dragons lost their speed as most of their limited attention
span now was moved to the male dominance arena.

"William... slow down... come with me..."
Hilda kept her eyes on the battling dragons and had a feeling what
was going to happen. She looked downward. "Crappedycrap..."

William looked down also. "Yes. The villagers
won't be happy."

"We have to get them apart before they
destroy all people down there," Hilda said. "I'll make my dragon
yellow also, we'll bring them closer and hope that gets them back
in line."

It took them a considerable time to attract
the attention of the battling dragons, but somehow they pulled it
off, and on they went again, the last miles before they reached
Archibald's Den.

William saw the immense gaping hole in the
rock wall. So that was where Archibald wanted the dragons to go.
The wizard wondered if his fake lady would fit through that. Just
before his yellow miss would hit, he made her thinner so the
apparition would go into the darkness. As soon as she was out of
view, William dissolved the image and watched his first boy dive
into the cave as well. Miraculously, the animal fit through the
opening and disappeared from view as well.

Hilda steered her lady dragon into the hole
as well, but something, somewhere went wrong.

The boy she was leading looked around and saw
her and William. Somewhere in its dragon brain magic clicked and it
remembered. In an impossible move for such a heavyweight, it almost
halted its flight and turned around. Then the dragon hit the air
with its wings as it faced Hilda.

"Crap!" Hilda saw the move of the animal and
that it was heading the wrong way.

William also had witnessed the turn in events
and sped towards Hilda, who had turned her broom and was now
heading away from the cave again.

"William. It looks as if we have a
situation," said the witch.

"We're also going the wrong way," William
knew, "and the big beast behind us has too much of an interest in
us."

"We have to split up," Hilda declared. "Maybe
that will confuse it. You go left, I go right. Whoever gets it has
to think fast."

"Hey!", a loud voice yelled from behind them,
"bring me back my dragon!" Archibald scratched his big head, not
understanding the fuss these two were making. After all, it was
just a dragon, be it a decent-sized one.

"Working on it, buddy," William said. "Okay,
split then." He pulled his broom to the left, Hilda went the other
way. They both turned around, so at least they were facing the
right direction.

The Nobbleback reacted as soon as he could,
turned in the air and took up his pursuit again. Hilda was his
chosen one. Of course. He was a boy, and not gay.

William watched how the immense flying bulk
of the dragon chased after Hilda. The bond with his witch also told
him that she was feeling at ease all of a sudden, as if she had a
plan. He wished he knew what she was up to.

Hilda knew the dragon was behind her, of
course, and flew towards the hole in the rock, just fast enough
that the dragon could not get her. Occasionally she dropped speed a
bit, making the dragon come closer, as if to encourage it. "Come
on, boy," she whispered, "you can do it." A grin was on her face as
the immense slab of rock wall came closer and closer.

The witch seemed to tumble downwards, towards
the opening of the cave. The enormous Nobbleback dragon followed
her, mocking gravity every moment of its flight.

Only one hundred feet to the cave... and with
the speed they both had, that distance was crossed in a matter of
mere seconds. The dragon was so close to the witch that its body
took away all possibilities to see her. Archibald as well as
William held their breath as they saw the dragon dive into the
cave. The sound of the dragon hitting the walls as he shot into the
rock made eerie echoes.

"Where's the witch?", Achibald yelled,
without needing to.

"I don't know," William said. "I just know
she's fine." He looked around trying to find Hilda. The bond told
him she was fine, he just couldn't see her.

"Hi guys!", her cheery voice came from up
above. Slowly, in a spiral, Hilda came down.

"Holy Bejeebus, Hilda, what did you do?!"
William was tremendously relieved to see her again, despite the
reassurance through the bond.

"Oh, it was easy. I dove to the opening,
dragon followed me, and just before going into the cave I pulled up
and went straight up along the wall." Hilda quickly set down on the
ground. As her feet touched the soil, she let go of her broom which
fell down in two pieces.

William landed his broom next to her.
"Crikey. You really worked the broom too hard this time."

Hilda stared at the parts. "I know. But it
had to be. And we got the dragon." With a smile she looked at
William. "And we have a happy giant."

Archibald kept his distance from the two tiny
people on the ground. It would make for poor publicity if he were
to accidentally trample his guests after being in the business for
so long. "You did a good job, magical folks," he said. "Thank you
for bringing me those two new ones, they'll look good in the
collection."

"Just be careful for a while, Archibald. They
are under a magic spell, so we don't know how they will react. Do
have fun with them." Hilda waved at the giant. "Now you will have
to take me home on your broomstick, William." She grinned at him,
blue sparkles in her black eyes.

William grinned also, mounted his broom and
had Hilda sit in front of him.

"Bye, Archibald!", they yelled as William
made the broom go up.

"Goodbye, you two!", the giant said.

"Isn't this romantic?", Hilda asked William
as they were flying.

William had an arm around his witch, just
because it felt good. Never before had they shared a broom like
this. "It is," he said, a smile on his face and her long grey hair
also. He could have easily used magic to make that behave
differently, but it felt good.

"Most witches only do this when they're
young," Hilda sighed, leaning back into William. "Stupid kids. They
don't know what they're missing."

After several hours, they reached the house
again. There were a few arrows with messages in the purple board
next to the door; William picked them off it as they went
inside.

"What are you going to do about the broom?",
he asked as he took the pieces of paper off the arrows.

"Get another one," was the simple reply. "Too
bad about the old one, but things happen. What's the news?"