Hilda and Zelda

by Paul Kater

unfolded her fists. Her nails had dug into her palms; blood slowly trickled from the wounds. "I'll get you, you bitch witch," Zelda muttered.

  13. Shedding

  "She was around, William."

  They were taking a large detour back to the apartment. Hilda had sensed Zelda.

  "And we did not do a thing to get her?", William asked.

  "Indeed. Too many people around. Someone as crazy as Zelda can inflict any kind of harm on them. I don't want that to happen. But she was there and not in the building."

  The wizard understood the implication. "She's seen us and knows we're still alive."

  "Yes. So we lost our advantage. And I still wonder how she knew we were planning something," Hilda said as they started back towards their temporary home.

  "Maybe she was planning something as well, and was out for that reason." William shrugged. "Hard to tell without asking her."

  "Seriously... She does like to live big here, though. Perhaps the next place she takes over is a big building also. Any idea what's bigger than the town hall building?"

  "Plenty of choices, I'd say. The library, the cinema, the theatre."

  "Crappedy crap, William, looks like we might need to relocate also..." Hilda stared down at the street they were flying over, where many people were looking up at them. Somehow the news of the witch and wizard living nearby had spread.

  "Do you think Jeff, the neighbour's kid, did not keep his mouth shut?"

  Hilda shook her long grey mane. "Doubt that, sweet man. He was scared enough after being a frog for a few seconds. I'm sure he's not our worry."

  "Then someone must have spotted us flying off," William concluded.

  It seemed the only viable alternative. The closer they came to their part-time home, the thicker the crowd in the streets became. Voices from below came up to greet them as they were lowering their brooms a bit.

  "Crappedy crap."

  The gallery that ran in front of the apartments on the floor where they had taken up residence was littered with people, all looking out for them, pointing, waving, shouting.

  Hilda and William stopped in mid-air. "What do you think they want?"

  "We should ask, I think." William flew his broom closer to the building. "Hey, what're you looking for?"

  "We want to see you!", someone yelled. "And we have some things for you to do with your magic!"

  "And we want a broom like that!", another voice called out.

  The noise from the voices became louder and louder, from the building as well as from the street below.

  William steered his broom back to Hilda and together they rose up high, to get away from the cries. "Looks like we have lost our advantage there also. Is there anything in that apartment we'd need?"

  Hilda shook her head. "No, nothing magical there. We just need a new place to stay, clearly. And that might get tricky. We're known now."

  "Indeed... we should be able to find a way to become unknown though," William said. He started to smile.

  "And you know the way, right?"

  "Follow me." William led Hilda to the outskirts of town, where he knew a few stores. At least, they had been there before he had left this world to end up in Hilda's. For once the torn up streets were in their favour: there were no people able to follow them quickly, as cars were either destroyed or unable to drive along.

  The area was close to deserted. It had always been a miracle for William how enterprises in that part of town managed to stay in business. Things had changed somewhat, but it was still very recognisable for the wizard.

  The place had been a military base of some sort, and after it had been abandoned, the government had agreed that it could be transformed into a business area, for offices, trucking companies and some wholesalers. Most of the fence around the premises had been taken down, but for originality's sake, most buildings had been left the way they were.

  "So, what's here?" Hilda looked over the camp gone commercial as they hovered over the roof of the highest building.

  "Clothes," said William, "and if all things are the way I remember them, a hiding place also. And yes, that sounds wrong."

  "Why is that wrong?"

  "We're here to capture Zelda. And in trying that, we need to hide from the people we're trying to save."

  "As I said, that sounds wrong," Hilda agreed. She popped up her wand as William looked round. "Over there, William." She pointed.

  "Over there what?"

  "Hiding place. Even when it sounds wrong."

  Hilda was pointing towards a small shed that seemed wedged between a giant warehouse on the left and what looked like a garage for trucks on the right. There was no apparent opening, like a door. They saw no windows either. Just a wall of dark brown brick with a roof of something dark grey.

  From the building on the right, a mighty roar emerged. It was followed by thick, black smoke billowing out of the opening.

  "Suck an elf," Hilda muttered. The sound had surprised her. "What monster lives in there? Perhaps the shed isn't such a good idea after all."

  The roar stopped.

  "It's a machine, Hilda. Probably a truck. A big truck."

  "Can we go see the big truck?" A childlike happy expression jumped up to her face and hung on.

  "Sure. Let's find a way to get there withoug being seen."

  Hilda had already figured out the way to go, using her wand, so they soon arrived on the roof of the building that was for certain a workshop for trucks. There were several hatches on the roof, some of them opened for fresh air and an improvised vent for the smoke. Hilda knelt down on the roof and peered into the huge building.

  William sat next to her and saw four men working on a big White Freightliner truck.

  "Doesn't look like your truck, William." Hilda shook her head. "Yours was a lot smaller."

  "Trucks come in many sizes. Small ones like mine, and big ones like that."

  "Oh! Are there even bigger ones?" Hilda's face betrayed that she suddenly was fascinated by this colossus of the road.

  "I'm sure there are, but not here," said William.

  They agreed to have a closer look at the shed, since they were there anyway. They found, looking down from the roof, that the shed was bigger than they had thought. Although it was no more than fifteen feet wide, it was at least fifty feet deep as it ran halfway along the two big buildings. On broomsticks, the magical couple dropped to the ground, into the alleyway that made up the rest of the space that the two buildings left between them.

  "Oh, look!" Hilda pointed at the roof of the long shed. It stuck out several feet from the back wall, so there was some kind of covered open area. And in the back wall of the shed was an opening. Evidently there also had been a door once; the twisted hinges were the silent, rusty evidence of that.

  "This is a nice place, William," the witch conveyed her feelings. "Could do with a bit of paint, but still." She quickly repressed that thought. Suppose this shed would put up as much of a fight about the colours as her own house always did. She was not going there.

  The majestic roar of the truck's engine prevented William from responding, so he just pointed at the opening and went inside the shed, stepping over all kinds of metal and wooden bits that someone had left there. Hilda was on his heels.

  Wands came out, lights came on. Brooms were mounted, and the magical two slowly floated through the shed after magic had cleaned their shoes. The floor of the shed was covered with some sticky stinky gunk. William could only guess what it was and he would probably be wrong.

  Scattered everywhere in the shed were loads of big things. Halfway disassembled engines of trucks, two empty fuel tanks of epic proportions, a huge workbench with an amount of tools on it that would be the envy of the average hardware shop.

  "William, this is a treasure," Hilda whispered, the echo of her voice hissing after them.

  "We can use a lot of it, yes. Let's first mop the floor a bit so we can walk around and organise things he
re."

  Half an hour later they were done. The floor was clean. The gunk was stowed in the large fuel tanks, most of the large objects were shoved to the far end of the shed and some of them had been transformed into simple conveniences, like a bed, a table, some chairs, a small kitchen and a luxury privy.

  "Now. Clothes and food."

  "Food, then clothes," Hilda corrected the wizard. "Fastfood." She swung her wand, and there was food on the table. "Very fast food."

  The food was devoured almost as fast as it had been called into existence. Then the two magical people transformed their magical robes into regular clothes.

  Hilda muttered about that. "I hate doing this. The dress always feels awkward for a while when I change it back."

  "Are you done now?", William asked.

  "Yes. I am. And you know what I am talking about."

  William indeed knew...

  They left their newfound homeshed and walked out the long alley that obscured the shed from view. William had to look around a bit, now they were on the ground. From a broom things looked so much easier. He found his bearings quickly though. Together they circled the immense warehouse.

  "What's in there?", Hilda asked as they went round the huge building.

  "All kinds of metal goods," William remembered. "I've accidentally gone in there once; I was looking for where I could pick up a load of books."

  "Oh. Right. No clothes." Hilda nodded as she kept looking around at the strange place they had arrived at.

  After passing through a few streets, William found what he had been looking for. It was an outlet store for all kinds of items, including clothes. The store, as he had hoped, was