Hilda - Lycadea

by Paul Kater

wood, Hilda. It is real. And I hope you don't mind that I use your words."

  "Not at all, kiddo," the witch said, flattered, and she reached for the door knob. "Let's open this thing and see what -"

  The door swung open and showed the inside of a cave. In the cave were a few beds with people on them, and in a corner a fire crackled.

  "Crappedy crap."

  34. Hilda, William and Kerna

  From one of the beds, a figure jolted upright. "Hilda!"

  The witch stared at the man. "William!"

  A black cat jumped from Kerna's arms and bolted to the bed, jumped on it and curled itself into a ball on the blanket. Obsi got a quick pet on the head, after which William almost fell from the bed and ran to his witch. The other sleepers were sleepers no more by then.

  "I knew it was you!" the wizard said as he hugged his witch, lifting her off her feet. Grimalkin had anticipated being squashed and had found safer grounds, being the same bed as Obsidian had resorted to.

  "I know!" Hilda beamed as she could not help showing her affection and relief to her wizard.

  Rebel and Maurizio stared at what was going on and did not understand.

  Kerna stood in the door with a big grin on her face. She was looking at her feet, where a black animal had settled down. It was a rather awkward animal, with eight legs, a round head with two big red eyes in it. It was covered with something that looked like a mix of feathers, fur and something the defied any comparison.

  As Kerna picked it up, two long ears lined with a soft pink fur moved up and turned as if they wanted to catch every sound. "Where did you come from?" she asked the animal. It stared at her and made a low growling sound

  "And what is it?" Hilda asked, as William had released most of her.

  "It is a stapu," Kerna said, as if that explained everything. Upon the lack of recognition on all other faces, she explained that stapus were something like the cats that Hilda and William owned.

  "Oh. I see. You are wrong though, we don't own them. They just chose to be with us for some reason," Hilda explained. "Cats are like that."

  "What happened to you two?" Maurizio asked as he had gotten out of bed. "We tried to find you and were really worried."

  Kerna and Hilda were sat down on chairs and William made tea while the two told about the strange things they had experienced.

  "And so we came through that doo-" Hilda looked at the rocky wall from where the door had vanished.

  "Crappedy crap," Kerna said, "where did it go?"

  Rebel grinned as she looked at Kerna. "Has Hilda beaten you up over that yet?"

  "No need for that, Rebel," said the witch, as chocolate cakes appeared on the table. "She's free to use that." The witch grinned at Kerna.

  William laughed also. "Really."

  That made the captain and his lover curious.

  Hilda pointed at Kerna, who still had her stapu in her lap. "You are not going to believe this, but she is the witch who is not a witch."

  "What?!"

  Hilda grinned. "We were walking and lost our way. Then Kerna saw some light and when we found it, we came into a large cave with red-glowing walls."

  "And ceiling," Kerna added.

  "And ceiling. Very weird place." Hilda nodded. "She discovered that it reacted to what we thought or wanted, in some way. That was even weirder. And then I made this door appear, that we came in through. Trust me, it was quite unnerving to find that I could do magic without having my magic. And that is what I thought. I thought that it would be cool to have my magic back, and that Kerna would be my magical sister."

  "And that is what happened." Kerna giggled, something no one had ever heard her do. "I just don't know what to do now."

  The three others at the table looked at the two witches. Even William was astounded by all this, but he was glad he now knew why he suddenly sensed the bond with Hilda again.

  "We'll give you some training," Hilda tried to reassure Kerna. "But perhaps first we should get some sleep. I am sure it is quite late by now."

  Maurizio chuckled: "Quite early, rather, as the sky outside is already getting lighter."

  "I don't care what the sky does. I have not slept, so I am going to do that now," Hilda declared, "and my wizard comes with me."

  "I don't feel sleepy at all," Kerna said as she kept petting her stapu. "I'll go and sit outside for a while. Everything looks and feels so different now."

  "Good, but no trying to fly off on your own," Hilda warned the new witch as she took William's hand. "We start lessons after sleep."

  -=-=-

  Several hours later, the entire group was having breakfast. Hilda had woken up Kerna, who had nodded off whilst sitting outside.

  "Scenery was not fascinating enough, was it?" the experienced witch grinned as she showed Kerna how to quickly warm herself using magic. It surprised her how quickly Kerna picked up the trick.

  "You must be a natural," Hilda said. "And perhaps that is a good thing. A witch from these parts should know better how to make things work again, and how to deal with these nincompoops in Pyramid City."

  After explaining to Kerna what nincompoops were, Hilda and William took a few hours to train Kerna. That was all she needed. William had crafted three brooms from a fallen-down tree. Kerna and Hilda were flying around within minutes. Hilda cheered and whooped as she was whole again, and Kerna screamed as she made her broom go crazy and out of control. William was on the ground to take over from her when needed, though, something smart that Hilda had thought of.

  "She's a natural," Hilda repeated for the hundredth or so time, when the lessons were over.

  Kerna was almost bouncing around for joy, her stapu staring at the woman it apparently was bound to.

  "I am going to call you Inaktiko Zuru Matoya," the fresh witch told her pet.

  "That's quite a name," Rebel remarked, "does it mean something?"

  "Yes, it means 'animal without a special name'."

  "Uhhuh." Rebel glanced at Maurizio who shrugged.

  "For short I'll name it Dwey," Kerna decided.

  "But there is no Dwey in the Inak-whatever no name you just said," Rebel tried again.

  "I know. And what about that?"

  Hilda and William screamed with laughter. Witches clearly were the same everywhere. Or perhaps, William thought, it was because Kerna had been exposed to Hilda when they retrieved their magic.

  "I am curious," Maurizio said, leaning on the table and taking in Kerna. "Now we've established that you are the witch for this prophecy, and not Hilda, what are you going to do about this place?"

  Kerna looked at the man in the red coat. "I don't know."

  "I think we'll all be able to help a bit, since we're here," Hilda said, patting Kerna on the arm. "No to worry, Kerna. When we're done, you won't recognise the place."

  Rebel grinned. "I like that prospect. It's too long ago I could wield some serious energy, so the sooner the better. Where do we start?"

  Kerna delivered the same response: "I don't know." She looked at the more experienced witch. "Maybe somewhere a mistake is made. I don't feel up to this task, Hilda."

  "I don't believe in that, Kerna. Come, let's take a walk and think this over. Or perhaps we'll take a flight and think this over." Hilda got to her feet. "William, you stay here?"

  "Sure, you go and have fun. And be careful." The wizard smiled as he sensed a lot of emotion flow to him from Hilda. It was a wonderful feeling, something he, and Hilda too, had missed for far too long.

  "I know you are watching out for me, wizard," the witch grinned, and then she grabbed Kerna by the sleeve. "Leave your what's its name here for now."

  The what's its name landed on the bed next to the two cats and the witches left the cave.

  "Will they be well?" Maurizio asked.

  "Hilda's with her," William said.

  "That's why I worry," the captain said.

  "Trust me, Maurizio. There's nothing to worry about. Hilda can save herself just fine. And Kerna is fine in her care
. They'll be safe."

  A loud crashing sound accompanied by a tremor made three people, two cats and one what's its name jump up and run outside.

  "Safe, you said?" Maurizio asked as they stared.

  Hilda flew high over the trees on one of the brooms, while Kerna still stood on the ground, with a huge rock hovering over her.

  "No. You asked 'well', not 'safe'," William countered. "Hilda, what are you doing?"

  "Hey, it's nothing to do with me, wizard. She wanted to play."

  Kerna looked at William. "I just wanted to know if I could take a piece out of this rock, William."

  Rebel stared at the small woman in the black clothes. "That's freaky."

  "I bet you can do that too," Maurizio said as he put an arm around Rebel's waist.

  "Oh, sure, but I'm born with that. She went from just someone to... her. And that's freaky."

  Kerna seemed satisfied with the rock and made it float back to the mountain it had come from. Then she hopped on the broom she was holding. "We won't be too long. I think."

  William waved as she shot up to Hilda. He understood that Kerna was still very insecure about her new abilities, regardless how amazing the tricks were she could already perform. As he thought that, he sensed how Hilda promised she would take good care of Kerna. As he smiled, the two brooms flew off.

  -=-=-

  "I can see why you are a bit overwhelmed, Kerna," Hilda said. "Having the burden to do something about this planet back in shape is quite something."

  "A bit overwhelmed does not exactly cover how I feel, Hilda."

  "I understand, but let's try to take this one spell at the time. Do you have any idea how this prophecy is supposed to end? What does it mean by 'making right what is wrong'?"

  "If I knew that, I'd be a