Hilda - The Challenge (40 page)

William shivered as he looked down at the
dark, waving mass of branches. It felt to him as if they were
trying to lure him down. It was spooky to see, there more as there
was no wind.

"You have... interesting places here, Babs,"
Hilda commented dryly. The view gave her the shivers. "How do you
get to the floor?"

"Using magic and brute force," the ugly witch
explained. You have to slam an opening somewhere using magic and
then throw yourself through it quickly. The trees here are sentient
and will make it hard for you to land. It's not too bad once you
get the trick down, though." Baba Yaga lowered her broom, staying
just out of reach of the waving branches. With magic she created an
opening somewhere that looked safe.

Hilda and William saw how she simply dopped
herself into the hole that seemed to suck her in and eat her up.
They looked at each other.

"You want to go first?", asked William. "I
yield to seniority."

"You are just a coward," Hilda snorted.

"Yes, I admit to that. This place scares the
willies out of me. But let's do this together. I'll see you down
there."

Hilda nodded. They lowered their brooms,
summoned their wands to be on the safe side, and punched holes in
the foliage. Once the openings appeared, they let themselves fall
through, the way Baba Yaga had done. The trees tried to catch the
two figures, but more from luck than wisdom on the side of the
couple, the trees missed. Only inches from the forest floor, the
brooms came to a halt.

William tumbled from his broom, not prepared
for the strange final of the maneuver. But he had made it.

"Tired already?", asked their guide. "Come
on, Willy, there are sights to see and places to discover."

William got up but fell down again as he had
not seen that a long twig had wrapped itself around one of his
ankles already. "Holy Bejeebus, is this forest out to get us?", he
grumbled as he kicked himself free.

"Yes. Did you notice?"

This message from Baba Yaga made him feel
most unwelcome.

"Mount the brooms, stay off the floor."

"Uhm, Babsy baby, perhaps you missed the bit
that we do not want to use magic in the challenge here?" Hilda
however hopped onto her broom, as there were things trying to crawl
up her legs.

"No, I heard you, but you said 'no magic',
not 'no flying a broom'." Baba Yaga looked at her girlfriend.

William almost fell off his broom as he heard
that. "Babs, you have been in the trade for a bit too long perhaps.
How does one fly a broom without magic?"

"Can I hit him?", Baba Yaga asked Hilda.

"No. He's mine. Get one of your own."

The Russian witch glared at William. "You are
lucky I love this girl as my sister. Otherwise you'd be in
trouble."

They completed their tour around the area
that Baba Yaga had in mind. Most of it was less hostile than the
part where they had landed, as in that it was possible to walk
around there without the need to beat off twigs and shrubs all the
time.

Back in the hut with the chicken legs, Babs
served more tea and more cookies. "So you are happy with the patch.
That's good. I may be able to work out a bit of a preparatory spell
for it while you are gone again. If Lamador can play things dirty,
he's at the right address for more."

"Oh? What are you planning then?" Hilda
nibbled a cookie, stared at it and handed it to William.
"Yours."

Babs watched the strange exchange of the
cookie, then snapped out of it. "Oh, just a little thingy. I think
it would be helpful if the forest calms down a bit when one of you
two is there. In a radius of, let's say, three feet?"

Hilda's eyes sparkled blue. "You have the
most ingenious ideas, Babs. I love you for that. Do you really
think you can pull that off? It's quite an area."

"I said I'd work on it, okay? What was wrong
with that cookie?"

"It was not sweet enough," Hilda said as she
let her finger soar over the plate with cookies.

"They're all the same, Hilly baby..."

"And now they are the same sweet, Babsy
baby..." The two witches laughed, William feeling a bit out of
place at that moment.

In front of him were an ink pot and a stack
of paper. He had asked for that, as he wanted to write down a few
things that he had thought of. He held the quill in his hand,
grinning at the exchange between the two witches.

"Willy, what's that?" Baba Yaga pointed a
boney finger with a long finger nail at his hand.

"Hand. Quill. Why?"

"Why are hand and quill together?", the ugly
witch asked.

"Because I want to write, perhaps?" William
had a suspicion what would come next.

"And while you are magical, why do you write
the ordinary way?"

He carefully put down the quill. "Because
that is the way I have been writing most of my life, Babs."

"Yes, I see. But that life is behind you now,
Willy, so grow up and write like a wizard. No touching the quill,
no dipping the quill into the ink. It's easy. Even I can do that."
Baba Yaga's laughter bounced around the hut again.

Hilda proved to be little help to him too at
that moment, as she turned her chair and sat looking at him, her
face straight and her eyes flashing blue.

"I don't believe this," said William as he
reached for the quill again that moved out of his reached.

"Write like a wizard, William," said Baba
Yaga, who made the feather float in front of him.

William drew in a lot of air and let it out
very audibly. "Witches," he said. He held out a hand, made his wand
appear and started writing with that.

A deadly silence fell in the hut as the two
witches stared at the man writing.

"What...", was all Baba Yaga could bring
up.

"And he always does things like that," Hilda
said, a blissful smile on her face. "You never know what he will do
next. Isn't that sweet?"

"It would drive me wild," Baba Yaga said,
turning her tea into something a lot more potent and downing that
in one go.

"Yes. That happens too," Hilda agreed, "but
the fact that he manages that time and again... I really admire
that."

"Do you, now?" William looked to the side, at
his witch. He winked. Then he looked at his wand, used magic to
clean the tip and made it vanish. "Just for that little revelation
I will make a fool of myself and try to write like a wizard."

Baba Yaga filled her teacup again, with the
same potent drink. "The man is insane. And the woman is not far
behind him."

William grinned and looked at the quill that
still danced in front of his face. Gently he took control of it and
sensed how Baba Yaga let him do so. The quill was very light, it
trembled as he moved it.

Hilda looked at him, as he slowly brought the
feather down to the paper and started scraping the tip over it.
"You need ink, sweet man," she said.

"Yes, it looks that way. So how do I do that,
when it is so simple that even Babs can do it?" He was stumped.

Hilda grinned. "You make ink at the tip,
that's all."

"Oh. Right." William stared at the tip of the
quill. Then he looked at the witch next to him. "I now fully
understand your problem with the engine of my truck."

Baba Yaga frowned, she was obviously missing
a few large chunks of the puzzle, but Hilda almost fell from her
chair laughing. "Finally!", she yelled out.

The Russian witch shook her head. "She's not
behind him anymore. She passed him. She's gone."

Hilda calmed down a bit and then explained to
Babs that William had asked her to fix something in his vehicle.
"And I don't know how that works, so I can't fix it. And now he
discovers that he does not know how to make ink since he doesn't
know what goes in it."

baba Yaga laughed. "He comes to his senses.
Good. That is important. He would be only half a wizard without
that insight. But still he is insane to me."

The two witches explained to William how he
could make ink. The fact that they all shared magic made that a lot
simpler than actually having to work on the ingredients.

After ruining three sheets of paper with
large blots of ink, he sighed and said: "Maybe I have to train this
some more. This is micro-magic."

Babs looked at Hilda and shook her head. She
didn't even need to say it anymore. "You go and work on this
outside, Willy, while us girls talk serious things. I don't need
you messing up my fine table with a small river of ink.
Please?"

That probably was the best thing. William
took his paper outside and grinned as he heard laughter thunder
through the house. "Serious things. Yeah, right."

They spent the evening sitting around a big
fire that floated in the middle of the room. William was stunned by
the abilities of Baba Yaga. She was not a looker, but in the
category of doer she was amazing.

The two witches were telling stories of
things they had seen in their lives, and things they had done.
There were plenty of tales about dragons, and the way the two
witches talked about them made William curious about those beasts,
but at the same time he wished that the first one he saw would be
in a safe distance.

Hilda then told Babs about how they had
travelled to king Herald's kingdom and the whacky way in which they
had brought Bilgar back.

"You did what? You built a carrying thing on
two brooms? And that worked?" The wrinkly witch sounded seriously
impressed.

"Yes. Well, I had to convince Bilgar to lie
still a few times-"

"Hahahaha," Hilda laughed, "you should have
seen that. He punched him and Bilgar went bluh..." Hilda threw
herself back in the chair, sprawled out, her tongue hanging from
her mouth for a moment. "It was so funny to see!"

"Don't tell me that Willy now already has
such control over flying a broom that he pulled that off," said
Babs.

"No, I did not," William said. "Hilda took
over the flying while I silenced Bilgar."

"Silenced. I like that." Babs grinned. "I
really like that."

The chatting went on until late in the night,
and finally they all went to sleep...

Morning came. Hilda slowly woke up. Very
slowly. With her eyes closed, she reached for William. She could
not find him. "William?", she whispered, but that did not bring him
back to her either. She leaned up on an elbow, brushed most of her
hair to the side and looked at the empty spot."William?" A frown
was on her face for a moment. Then she was awake enough to sense
him, through the mysterious link. He was outside. Practicing his
hands-free writing and not making too much ink.

Hilda smiled. "Good boy. But bad boy for
leaving me alone, too." She got out of bed and walked to the window
in the main room, from where she saw William. He sat on one of the
flattened skulls, the paper and the quill floating in front of him,
both objects wobbling tremendously.

"Hold the paper, dumb person, that is so much
easier," Hilda mumbled.

William remained a dumb person for a while
longer. Then he seemed to understand. But even with the paper
steady on his knees, the writing was not working out.

Hilda slipped into her housecoat and walked
out to where William was sitting.

"I'm trying," he said as he saw her approach.
"And good morning."

Hilda kissed his cheek. "Good morning. I
should slap you for leaving me alone."

"Will that help me write better?", William
asked her.

She stared at him. And laughed. And then
said: "Please, never change, no matter how dumb I find you. I love
it when you make me laugh with these remarks."

He grinned, the quill still wobbling in front
of him. "As you see, I am wasting paper."

Hilda examined the stack of paper in his lap
and saw that he spoke the truth. "I can't believe that this is so
difficult for you. It is just like writing with your hand, just
without using your hand."

William stared at the witch the way she had
stared at the paper. "Just like writing with your hand..." He
turned his attention back to the quill, took a fresh sheet of paper
and set himself to writing. Like usual, just without his hand. The
quill lowered to the paper and started moving. At first it was
shaky, as if a drunk spider was trying a waltz on the wrong music,
but after a few lines of rubbish, the writing became more stable,
and at the end of the sheet of paper it was actually legible.

"Did you manage that just because of what I
said?" Hilda was amazed.

"Yes. Once you said that, it dawned on me
that I should feed my feeling of the movement to the magic that
goes to the quill. And then it is - uhm - well, not exactly easy,
but at least it works."

"Yes. That works. And now you got the trick
down, I demand satisfaction. I am cold and you will have to come in
with me and see if you can make me warm again." She held out her
hand, which William gladly took, and they went inside. As the door
of their room closed, the owner of the hut muttered something about
impetuous youths.

Thoroughly warmed up, Hilda stretched
herself, putting one of her arms over William's face. "Oh, I feel
good now. I could do with more, but I'm afraid that Babs would not
appreciate that."

"Hmmffmm," replied William.

"What was that, sweet man?" The wicked witch
leaned on an elbow and looked at him.

"I tried to say that I think you are
right."

"Yes, she is!", a voice came from the other
side of the door, "and you'd better get your lazy parts out of the
bed because there is food and beverage waiting." Baba Yaga stomped
off extra loudly, muttering about young folk making lots of noise
in the middle of the night, straining all four legs of her hut. She
did go on for a while longer, but Hilda and William did not
understand that.