Hilda - Cats (3 page)

"Now that was weird," William said,
rearranging the grey matter on his face with his hands.

"The magic held it together. We took the
magic, so..." Hilda slapped her dress, making dust dance around
her.

William nodded. The pieces of the puzzle did
fit, with some force applied. As a try he flipped out his wand.
"Sheesh." It was there faster, more swiftly than usual. "Did you
see that?"

"What?" Hilda had been paying attention to
Grim and Obsi, who were sauntering towards the destroyed house
again.

"Pop your wand, Hilda."

She did. "Suck an elf. That's... different."
The witch stared at William and his wand. "This will take some
getting used to, William. We'd better be careful for a while, until
we know what else happened to us."

"Do you think we should clean this up?"
William pointed at the house. "It looks nasty if we go home and
leave this place as the mess it is."

Hilda shook her head. "Not to worry, sweet
wizard. The people in the nearby villages will come here soon
enough, and use the remains of the house for building material.
They'd be offended if we were to do something about it."

William nodded. It made sense. He chuckled as
he realised that he was adjusting to this world just fine. Crazy
things here made more sense than normal things in his old world.
"What do you think they are doing?" He was referring to the two
cats who were patrolling the area of the collapsed house.

"I don't know," said Hilda, "but I do think
we should be going home now. There's nothing more for us to do, I'd
say."

William agreed. They called their cats as
they mounted their brooms. Hilda and William both grinned as they
saw how quickly and gracefully their pets came and leapt on their
front row seats. Swiftly the magical ones made the brooms rise up
into the air and started on their way back home.

"It feels different," said William as they
were flying.

"It does." Hilda had noticed it also. The
change was slight, but present. As if there was one hundred and
five percent of magic inside her. "It feels just strong enough to
make me feel drunk."

William laughed, making Obsi look at him for
a moment. "That does not take much, sweet witch."

"Oh, hush you." She wanted to say something
snappier, but then she pointed downward. "Look, there."

William looked. "A stork. That is so neat. I
don't recall seeing one here before."

"You haven't. They are very special." Hilda
looked closely where the stork was flying to.

"Really? Why's that? Do they bring babies?"
William grinned.

"Yes." Hilda was serious.

William stopped grinning. "You're kidding me,
right?" He knew she wasn't. Their link told him so.

"No. I am not. And I want to know where that
bird flies to. Come, let's follow it."

They changed course and went after the
stork.

"What's so special about storks here, Hilda?"
William asked. "In the other world there are stories about storks
delivering babies, but those are just that. Stories."

"Well, they're not here. If you see a stork,
that means a woman is pregnant. And not just any woman. A
witch."

"Oh. That's serious."

"Precisely. That is why I want to know where
the bird's going to."

The stork dove down to a small village in a
field, merely a gathering of some fifteen houses. The houses looked
as if they had been tossed into a meadow more than that someone had
given some thought to where they should be.

"Oh no." Hilda did not elaborate on that.
William suspected he would hear more soon enough, so he did not
ask.

They swooped down after the baby-bringer,
which they found perched on the roof of the house that lay somewhat
away from the other houses. That had to be where the witch lived.
The house was painted bright yellow. It had dark brown beams around
the windows, and from them hung jolly colourful flower baskets. The
roof was pitch black which made the bird stand out clearly. An oval
red door completed the first impression of the house.

"Lorelei?" Hilda called out as they had
landed.

After some moments the door of the house
opened. A belly came outside, followed by a woman who clearly had
problems keeping her balance. She had curly short brown hair, brown
eyes, and was dressed in what could best be described as a gipsy's
dress. "Suck an elf. It's Hilda. And her wizard."

"Suck your own elf, Lorelei! How did that
happen?" Hilda pointed at the immense belly the witch sported.

"I am sure you know how that happens, silly
witch," Lorelei grinned. "Do you want to come in? I have problems
standing lately."

That was not a big surprise. The two who had
just flown in entered the house, and were sat down on a large
orange couch. There Hilda introduced William and Lorelei to each
other. The two cats had slipped inside and vanished.

"We saw this stork flying and decided to
follow it. Crappedy crap, Lori, who did that to you?"

The pregnant witched grinned. "I have asked
that myself a few times, and I am still not sure. That is why I
decided to first get the child and then see if it looks like
someone I know."

William was not prepared for this liberal an
approach to things. It was either the additional magic he'd
received, or the simple fact that he bit his tongue, but he managed
not to appear too surprised.

Hilda nodded. "Best way to go about it,
indeed. Would be good if the Dad is a magical one. That would make
for a more balanced kid."

Lorelei nodded. "Yes, indeed. I think there's
fair chance of that though. But I am such a lousy hostess. Can I
magic you up some tea or wine or so?"

"Wine might not be a good idea," William
said, "we still have to fly home."

Lorelei studied William's face for a moment.
"Oh. Right. Hilda and wine. I remember." She waved her hand and
then there was tea for everyone. "Cookies?" There were cookies.
"Pickles? Or pie?" Those appeared also, together with roasted
chicken legs and and bowl with raspberries.

Hilda reached for a chicken leg and a pickle.
"Oh, that smells good," she grinned. William frowned at his witch
for a moment as he worried about her choice of food.

Lorelei went for the same snacks. William was
happy with a piece of pie and the sudden appearance of Obsidian
Shadow in his lap.

"Oh, what a cute kitty!" Lorelei chimed.
"Where did you get that from?"

As Hilda and William told her about the
adventures in William's world, Onyx Grimalkin also showed herself.
She even allowed Lorelei to scratch her head.

"My, you two get around, don't you," Lorelei
said as she went for a cookie. "First all that with Lamador and the
Labyrinth of Gurthreyn, and now this." As Hilda looked a bit
surprised, Lorelei explained that Baba Yaga had told all about the
problems with the magician of King Herald.

"I didn't know Babs was part of the local
gossip circuit," William showed his surprise.

The two witches grinned. "We all are. It is
how news gets around, William."

"It's just that some spread the news, and
others usually are the news," Lorelei added, winking.

Grim squeezed herself onto Hilda's lap,
almost disappearing from view against the black clothes except for
two bright yellow eyes that kept watching everything.

Lorelei asked why Hilda and William were in
the neighbourhood. They told her about the magic they had taken in
from the house. "Oh. Yes. I've heard of that. So that really works?
How does it feel?"

"Nothing special, once the tingling has
gone," Hilda explained. "It does come as a bit of a shock."

"Well, you still look good, so the shock did
not leave any marks on you." Lorelei grinned as she popped a few
raspberries in her mouth and reached for a pickle.

"So when is your child due?" William tried to
pitch in.

"Don't really know," Lorelei shrugged, "when
it's ready I guess. Never had one before, and they're all
different. I know from my mother that I took little over a
year."

Hilda stared at the other witch. "Crappedy
crap. You were slow! I was out in seven months or so!"

William almost regretted bringing up the
subject. The things he heard were unnerving to say the least. "So
you mean that a witch's pregnancy can vary in time?"

"Yes, of course. Depends what kind of magical
bun is in the oven. Usually the time inside gives a pretty good
indication of how powerful the kid is also."

"Meaning that the longer..." William
guessed.

"No, William. It does not work that way. I'm
five months in now. If the kid comes out now, it would be a mage.
Six months is a mage also but a less powerful one. Seven months is
a witch or a wizard, and one that's pretty good too."

William heard the witch explain a whole
series and soon was lost. He just nodded politely and took a few
deep breaths when the witch was done. The fact that a pregnancy
could take up to eighteen months was dreadful even to him. What
woman would be able to stand something like that, he wondered.

After all the bits of gossip were exchanged
and all cookies and pickles had gone, Hilda and William said
goodbye to Lorelei. As they were in the air again, cats and all,
William asked Hilda if all witches were so liberal in their sexual
encounters.

"No, not really. Lorelei is quite special
though. An interesting person, don't you think?"

"She's special alright," William admitted.
"I'm still convinced you are more special though, Hilda."

"Awww, you're so sweet." She kissed her
wizard in full flight.

They reached the house and were greeted with
a complaint: "There is an arrow with a message for you." Usually
this would be just an announcement. This time it sounded as a
complaint.

William looked at the wooden board he had put
up for arrows of messaging archers. "No, there isn't."

"Yes. There is." It was uncanny but the house
seemed to sigh. "It is sticking in the wooden window frame of the
bedroom."

Hilda looked up. "Yes, there is an arrow
there, William." Flying up on her broom she quickly took the arrow
down. "Must have been an amateur or a student who did that."

"Or a blind person," the house commented.
"And the arrow chipped the new paint too."

"Oh, hush you, we'll fix that soon," Hilda
said as she unrolled the little piece of paper that had been tied
to the arrow.

"And how long will 'soon' take this time?
Twenty years again?"

Hilda didn't hear the house. She walked
inside, Grim following her.

William looked at Obsi. "Looks like it's you
and me, fellow," he grinned. On broom they went up. Obsi sniffed at
the paint for a moment. Then William fixed the paint with a simple
spell.

"Thank you. I've never been repaired faster,"
the house commented.

"Don't mention it," said the wizard as he
touched down again.

"Very well. I won't."

William scowled, then shrugged. "Come on,
cat, we're going in for food." Obsidian Shadow ran ahead. Inside,
they found Hilda sitting at the table, staring at the note.

"Hello there, sweetwitch, what's with the
troubled face?" William asked.

"Snow White," Hilda replied.

"What?" William was not certain if he had
heard that correctly. "Snow White? From the seven dwarfs you
mean?"

"Yes, very same one, apple and all."

"And the glass coffin?"

"Was there too, yes. Stupid thing. It didn't
survive. I took care of that alright."

William sat down and looked at the witch.
"Want to tell me about it?"

"No. Read this instead." Hilda pushed the
piece of paper over to William..

He picked the small bit up and read the
itty-bitty handwriting. "Dear Grimhilda, please, help, problem,
hurry, SW." He frowned. "SW must be Snow White, right?" He was not
extremely impressed with the lack of words, but he sensed that
Hilda was. "Trip coming up, right?"

"Yes. We should go there quickly too. Snow
White is not the kind to write like that, so there must be
something very strange going on."

"And their local witches?"

"Pshaw... They're lucky to find one there
that can tell the ends of a broom apart."

"That sounds bad," William agreed.

"It's even worse," Hilda said. "Come, we'll
pack some things, swing by the castle of Walt and go see her. I
hope you like children." She left the table, leaving William
wondering about that last remark.

He also got up and went after her, to pack
some things. He was followed up the stairs by two black shadows
that then sat in a corner, watching as the couple packed up some
things they wanted to take with them. Hilda did the shrink trick,
William stuck the small cubes in a pocket, and they were ready to
leave.

Hilda stared at the house as they were
outside. "Say, house, do you think we have to do the thing with the
chains again?"

"You never asked that before," the house
remarked. "I must admit that not having chains is liberating, but
on the other hand: the chains do provide security."

"Right then," Hilda nodded. She waved her
wand, mumbled her spell, and the small mountain of chains was
around the house. She hopped on her broom, stroked Grimalkin over
the head and looked at William. "Ready?"

"I was born ready," he replied. Obsi was
already in place.

"William... sometimes, you know, sometimes
you still say the strangest things..." Then they flew off.

Hilda and William made their pass along King
Walt's castle, but there was no sign of him. One of the servants
came running out to tell them that the royal couple were out of the
castle, and the date of their return was as yet unclear. "They are
off to see their daughter," the man informed them.