Hilda and Zelda

by Paul Kater

Nobblebacks, you know, the ones that..." The witch looked around. "Well, take it from me that they don't fit in your house."

  William grinned. Two Nobblebacks would take up the entire street. And take it apart also.

  Vivian nodded slowly. She did not know and was convinced she did not want to know more about Nobbleback dragons than she had already heard. "And what do you want from me?"

  Hilda sat down again, after grabbing another cookie. "We woud like you to call up your sisterhood of witches." She really tried not to make the last word sound scornful, and almost succeeded. "Once you have explained that we are here, and they are okay with that-" here she looked at William, who had been adamant about this, "-we may come up with a plan to get Zelda. It looks like we need to combine forces, and with whom better than witches."

  "You want us to help you catch a real witch?" Vivian had no idea how large her eyes were.

  "Exactly."

  "But isn't that dangerous?"

  "It is." Hilda had a real talent to make people feel uncomfortable with just simple words.

  Vivian sat back, her face showing that she was working through all kinds of emotions. Many of them were not pleasant ones. "So you are serious about this, yes?"

  "Of course. Zelda has to be stopped," Hilda said, nodding, as she peeked in a silver box that was on the table. It contained sugar cubes. She took one. "Oh. Nice." She took another one.

  As the witch was crunching up sugar cubes, William looked at Vivian. "We really need your help. Zelda does not belong here, and we have to take her back. But for that, we need to have her. And we can't seen to get her by ourselves."

  Vivian did not want to nod but did it anyway. "I'll get on the phone and try to get some people to come over."

  20. Recruits

  Vivian put down the phone after the sixth call. "Four of them are trying to get here," she announced.

  Hilda was poking around in the now empty box, looking disappointed as all the sugar cubes had 'disappeared'.

  William nodded. "Thank you for getting in touch with your witch friends."

  Vivian sat back, still feeling an unease. "I must be insane," she muttered, just loud enough. "It will take them a while to make it over," she then said, at a conversational level. With slight worry she watched Hilda get up and display an interest in the large fish tank that was against one wall of the room.

  William followed her glance. "Hilda, don't play with the fish, okay?"

  "Oh, of course not. They have pretty colours! Do you paint them by hand?" the witch asked as she tapped the glass and scared away some of the water-dwellers.

  "Paint by hand?" Shock and disbelief drooped from Vivian's voice. "No way!"

  Hilda nodded, relieved. "You'd be not much of a witch if you have to resort to things like that." She sat down next to William. "Do you think it would help if we go out and collect your friends?" She was fully aware that witches from here did not fly on brooms.

  Vivian shook her head. "I don't think that would be a good idea."

  Hilda let out a grumping sound and so they waited...

  Less than an hour later though, the four ladies had reached Vivian's house. Somewhere along the way they had found each other and as they were in the hall, William and Hilda heard excited chatter coming from it. As the four ladies came in, they stopped as one and stared at the magical couple.

  Vivian eased them to chairs and took care of introductions. The four were Cornelia, Tory, Jennifer and Gladys. "These are Hilda the witch and William the wizard. The brooms in the hall are theirs."

  The four women responded with silence. Tory then giggled. "Really?"

  Hilda looked at William. "Maybe this was not a good idea."

  Cornelia looked at the witch. "What do you mean by that?"

  "We came here to catch Zelda. The witch who is responsible for all the mess in your town. The men of the law try to capture us, hindering us in our efforts. Now we thought we could request help from the witches of this world, and we are facing four giggling women who don't seem to have a clue about witchcraft." Hilda was calm, her arms hanging down, her voice peaceful. "We came here because of the words in your newspaper."

  William waved the newspaper. "This one," he said as he also got up.

  Vivian was on her feet quickly too. "You have to believe me, girls, they are real."

  Tory laughed again. "Sure. You have us all shaking, Viv."

  Hilda sighed. Wearily she shook her head. "Okay, okay, demonstration time again then. We have to get something going, either with or without these people." She held out her hand and called her broom. It flew in and landed in her hand.

  William did the same thing, then put his broom against the fish tank.

  The four women fell silent, their eyes almost popping from their heads.

  "Now the pop the wand trick. Do watch with care, we are not at a fair here," Hilda said as she made her wand appear. "Anyone care to be a frog for a while?"

  Tory, still not convinced that Vivian was serious, got up. "Of course. Why not."

  "Of course," said Hilda. She pointed her wand at Tory and said: "Ranunculus." The spell took effect immediately, and Tory's clothes fell to the ground, covering the green toad that protested against the load coming down on it.

  Jennifer fainted, Gladys stared and Cornelia uttered an indecent word. Tory croaked her best froggish and scurried around until Hilda picked her up.

  "Anyone else?" the witch asked, holding up Tory.

  "Ribbit," said Tory, indicating that this had been enough of an example.

  Hilda nodded, understanding. She picked up Tory's clothes and took those, with the frog, to the hall. She closed the door, turned the woman back into herself and gave her time to get dressed again. When they returned, Tory was deeply convinced that Hilda was a proper witch.

  "I am glad we have that clear now." Hilda sat down. As the alarm outside started wailing, she jumped up again. "Suck an elf, what's that?!"

  Vivian and her friends ran to the window to see what was going on. William, followed by Hilda, ran to the front door and went outside.

  A few streets away, something was on fire. Large black blots of thick smoke billowed upwards, slowly as if they were mocking gravity and the bit of wind that was around. The alarm clearly came from there also. More people appeared in the street from the safety of their homes.

  William went back inside. "What's over there?" he asked Vivian.

  "A gas station," she said, her face pale. "What if it blows up?"

  "Then there will be even more smoke," William said dryly. He grabbed the brooms and ran out again. From inside the house, five women saw how the two strange people took off into the sky. On brooms.

  Hilda was in the lead, eager to get her hands on whoever had done this. She knew it had been Zelda, and the fire in the gas station fueled her anger towards the bad witch.

  Fiery tongues licked upwards at the magical couple as they hovered over the sea of flames that had once been a gas station. With wands drawn, they quickly extinguished the blaze beneath them while keeping a protective bubble around themselves. The heat that hit up to them was terrifying.

  "She was here, I feel it in my bones," said Hilda as she watched William wipe out the last flames. "The bitch witch did it again. I hate her." Then she froze on her broom. "Oh crap. Don't tell me."

  Without another word she turned around and raced off. William sensed her fear and sped after her. They returned to the house where they had just been, talking to the witches of this world. To their tremendous relief, the five women were still there.

  "Why did you rush off like that?" Cornelia asked as Hilda and William came in again.

  "You may have noticed that the fire's out," Hilda said, rubbing her nose. William knew that meant she was slightly annoyed.

  "Uhm. Oh. Yes." Cornelia blushed as she looked out the window again.

  Vivian saved the situation by making fresh tea for everyone.

  "We came back
here so quickly," the witch explained, "because I was scared Zelda was pulling a stunt to attract us and get to you. You can never tell with her. She's full of tricks."

  The women sat in silence. There was fear in all the eyes that were on Hilda.

  "It was clearly a Zelda thing, this fire," William added, "and I am sure she did that to find out if we are near."

  "Does that mean we are in danger?" Tory asked, full of respect for the two magical people.

  "Only a little more," Hilda said lightly. "With Zelda around, everyone is in danger. At least there are no dragons here that she can chase onto us." She eyed William. "Right?"

  William nodded. "Right. Unless there have been dragons imported since I left."

  The talk about dragons made the women shift uneasily in their seats. After all they had witnessed in the short time they'd known the two, there was not a shadow of a doubt that they were talking real dragons.

  Hilda frowned, tapping her chin. "I have an idea... but I'll tell you about that later." She then turned to the assembled witches. "First we have something to talk to you about."

  It took the two a while to explain their plans and ideas to the five women. Hilda and William did not try to make the whole affair less pretty or less dangerous than it was, as the group had to know what they would be getting into. Slowly though, smiles appeared on the faces of the five.

  "I am sure that we can get Andy to join us also," Gladys said, as the plan was clear to them. "I'll try and get in touch with him once I am home again."

  Vivian and Jennifer nodded. "Yeah, he'll love this. He's crazy enough for that."

  "Do make sure he