Hilda - Cats (6 page)

"I'd almost think that this place was
designed by Gurthreyn," Hilda mumbled.

''Meow,' Grimalkin agreed, making Hilda
wonder how her cat knew about that sorcerer.

"I have not seen moving walls yet," William
remarked.

"Not yet. Just wait," was her answer.

The servant knocked on a door. There was
screaming behind it. "Sounds like they're in," Hilda said as the
servant knocked again. "Hey you, are you new here?"

The servant scowled. "No, honourable witch,
why?"

"To get over those sirens you'll need to
whack the door a lot harder," she clarified. She pushed the man out
of the way and went inside, William and Baba Yaga right behind her.
"Suck an elf..."

Esmee was under the siege of two children,
boys that Hilda and William had not seen before. These had to be
Billy and Dicky. The pink witch stood on a chair, clenching her
skirt between her knees, swatting at the boys with a diaper and
holding on to a curtain to keep her balance. Snow White was holding
back Dinna, who seemed game to join Esmee's tormentors, and a maid
had a hand over Roderick's eyes whilst holding the baby in an
arm.

"Oh, Grimhilda..." Snow White's cheeks were
red. "How nice to see you."

"Are you coping?" Hilda asked.

Before Snow White could answer, Dinna
shrieked. "An ugly witch!"

Roderick tried to fight the maid's hand off,
even attempted to use his teeth for that. Dicky and Billy turned
around and jumped as they beheld Baba Yaga. The two boys, as one,
fled behind the chair that Esmee was standing on, to hide from
Babs. One of them could not resist another attempt to peek under
Esmee's skirt, despite his fright.

The pink witch quickly got down from the
chair and successfully slapped the diaper over one of the
heads.

"Oh, fine, it's nothing special," Snow White
said. Dinna had by then adopted the tactics of her brothers and now
was hiding behind her mother. Baba Yaga's appearance had made quite
an impact.

Babs pointed at Esmee. "Come over here."
Esmee did it because she had to. "You really need a few lessons if
you want to be the witch around here."

"But I am the witch around here!" Esmee
looked at Baba Yaga with a mix of fright and the desire to
flee.

"You are not. A witch does not jump on a
chair when two halfling mice are trying to peek under her skirts. A
witch does this." The speed with which the wand appeared, the
movement happened, the two boys got stuck with their faces to the
wall and the wand was gone again made Esmee stagger backwards. The
two boys were silent, too gobsmacked to understand what had
happened.

"You can't use magic against children," Esmee
said, doubt and satisfaction battling in her voice.

"Sure I can. There hangs your proof."

By then the two boys had started whining that
Mummy should get them off the wall. The astonished maid had let go
of Roderick, who walked over to his brothers and started yanking an
arm. Arm nor brother came off.

"See, that is how we make things calm." A
part of Baba Yaga's face moved, it tried a smile.

In the short silence that fell, Hilda picked
up her cue. "We found a few strange things," she announced. She
held up the cat hair. "This."

Snow White and Esmee came closer. "Hair,"
they said in unison.

"Cat hair," Hilda pointed out, "and we found
this bit on a level that normal cats don't reach unless they
jump."

"Or when they're thrown," Baba Yaga
added.

Obsidian Shadow, perched on William's
shoulder, hissed. Babs was shocked nor shaken.

"So we want to know if you have really large
cats here," Hilda finished, ignoring the interruptions. She raised
a hand to shoulder height. "About this tall."

Esmee reached out and found support on
William's arm while Snow White stared at the hand. "You must be
joking, Grimhilda. Cats of that size... No, we don't have those
here. We would know."

William frowned. Then he looked at the maid
who had been carrying the baby. She had turned around and was
changing the baby's diaper. He fixed the smell. "That's
better."

The princess asked Esmee to keep Roderick
away from his brothers, as the young boy was still trying to remove
them from the wall with increasing force. "I will go and ask Jordan
if he knows of such cats." With that she took Dinna's hand and left
the room with her daughter, leaving the three magical people.

Esmee tried to sweet-talk Roderick into
leaving his brothers alone. Roderick was not up for that; pulling
at his defenseless siblings was much more fun.

"Hey, kid," Hilda said, "cut it out or we'll
stick you to the wall and turn them loose on you." Roderick turned
to Hilda, his eyes large. Then he ran out the door, screaming for
his mother. "See? And no magic," Hilda grinned at the pink
witch.

A servant entered the nursery. "Honourable
witches and wizard, the princess asked me to take you to her and
the prince."

They followed the servant, leaving the two
complaining boys stuck to the wall. As long as they were there, no
harm would come from their side. The two cats were on the shoulders
of their respective magicals as they strode through the halls.

The room where Snow White and Prince Jordan
resided was big and quite crowded. For some obscured reason, King
Walt and his wife Queen Velma, Snow White's father and stepmother,
were there. The others in the room were Roderick, his sister Dinna
and a number of servants.

"Hello, your Royal Highnesses," Hilda said.
Then she looked at the prince. "Good grief, you've become
flabby."

Prince Jordan got up. "I do not want anyone
to strike such a tone to me. Not even a witch," he said. "And where
are my other sons?"

"Don't worry about them, they're safe."
Hilda's look had a challenge in it. She ignored his warning, of
course, because not even a prince should strike a tone like that to
her.

Jordan did not pick up the verbal gauntlet,
he knew he'd never win. "My dear wife asked me about something
strange. Cats as big as a man?"

"Not any man of course," Baba Yaga pitched in
with a silent jab. "Hello your Princeness, I am Baba Yaga, here to
help my friends with this little problem you have here." She
explained about the cat hair they had found. "So we wonder if there
are catty animals of that size."

Jordan thought for a while. "No. Never heard
of that." He looked at Hilda and William. "The only way to get cat
hair up like you described is, I'd say, carry them like you
do."

"Yes. Or toss them," Babs nodded. Grimalkin
and Obsi meowed in unison and protest.

"Hmm. That might be an option, if the cat in
question allows tossing," Queen Velma said. "Most cats don't."

"She is the one that stuck me to the
ceiling," Dinna suddenly announced, pointing at Hilda.

"She what?" Walt, Velma and Jordan looked at
the little princess.

"She stuck me to the ceiling. And he had to
get me down, because Esmee didn't."

Before Jordan could turn to Hilda, Snow White
started explaining what had happened, and how. Dinna did not look
happy as her intended victory over Hilda was reduced to sheer
nothing. Only the fact she had been against the ceiling remained,
and Jordan agreed that had been deserved.

"And if you're looking for the other two,
they're still against the wall of the nursery," Hilda added. "They
were being somewhat of a pest, so we put them away for a while. To
cool off, so to speak."

"Against the wall?" Snow White as well as
Jordan were not prepared for that. "Why don't they come in here
then?"

"Well, they can't get off the wall without
the help of these people," Esmee pitched in her little bit. "The
boys were really somewhat of a nuisance." Her voice still carried
some of her anger about the boys' behaviour. Jordan look as if he
was unable to believe that.

"Cauldron fodder," Baba Yaga added innocently
as Prince Jordan left the room.

Shortly after that a howl penetrated the
room. It was clear that Prince Jordan had found his sons, stuck to
the wall. And getting them off it had proven loudly impossible. The
prince came into the parlour again. "Could someone please get my
sons from that wall? I refuse to speak any more until they are free
again."

"Sounds like a fair trade," Baba Yaga said.
"I'd go for the quiet, Hilda. Not trying to influence you of
course."

Hilda sighed, casting a resigning look at her
friend. She walked out and liberated the twin princes. After that,
Prince Jordan said that there was nothing more he could say.

"Well, at least we know what we wanted to
know," the witch said. "Maybe now is a good moment to say goodbye
and retreat to our rooms, to see what next steps we'll take. I take
it that you have a room for Babs here, right?"

"Oh, certainly," said Snow White. "The one
next to yours is still free, I will see to it that it is
prepared."

"Good good," said Hilda. "We will go and have
a walk." She took William's hand. "Babs, are you coming? And Esmee,
we may need you as well."

Baba Yaga took Esmee's arm. "Come on, no
escaping, no excuses. You're wanted, so you come."

The pink witch didn't even try to resist when
the crone witch dragged her from the room.

Once the magical people had left, Prince
Jordan belched. "I'm sorry."

His wife slapped him. "Next time be sorry
before you do that, Jordan. And otherwise keep it inside you until
the children are gone."

Dicky and Billy were sitting on the couch,
eating chocolates. They both belched.

-=-=-

"Where are we going? We are not going far,
are we? I have other things to do, you know." Esmee was not feeling
comfortable as she was taken along. Her ordeal ended as they had
reached the room of Hilda and William.

"Sit." Esmee sat.

"We're going to scout outside. Tonight."
Hilda sat on the bed. The cats did so too. "I am going to take the
first watch. Esmee, you will take the second one. William does the
third and if nothing happened, we've all lost some good
sleep-time."

Esmee frowned as she worked out the schedule.
"We three? What about Baba Yaga?" The old witch just looked at
Esmee. "Oh. I see." The pink witch frowned again. "We are going to
look for the cat, aren't we?"

"Someone please give that witch a gold star,"
Baba Yaga said. She produced one and handed it to Esmee who stared
at it. "And you will get another one if you catch the cat."

William asked what Hilda had in mind in case
one of them spotted the cat. "We should have something of a cage
ready, I think," he suggested, "and slap the beastie in it with
some magic."

"Excuse me?" Esmee held up her hand. "My
magic is not strong enough to do something like that."

"Sounds like you get a double shift, Willy,"
Baba Yaga giggled. It was an eerie sound. "Unless we pimp this
little witch a bit." The old witch looked at Esmee. "Let's see..."
Esmee's pouch flew into Baba Yaga's hands. "Not strong enough.
Indeed."

Esmee looked aghast. "You cannot-"

"I should not be able to, Esmee," said Baba
Yaga, "but since I can, it looks like you and I have a bit of work
to do before this evening." She became very serious. "We don't know
what we are up against. Since cats this big don't grow on trees, we
can only assume it is something else."

"Indeed," Hilda took over. "And we may be
facing something magical here, since we cannot find any footprints
or paw prints, or something like that. And since we cannot estimate
what it is we're facing, we should make sure everyone of us is up
to level to take it on."

Esmee's lower lip trembled. "But..."

"Don't worry, kid, I'll make sure you are up
to level before the night comes," said Baba Yaga. "Come, be a good
flower witch and show me where your room is. Always works best in a
place where you're most comfortable." She guided Esmee out of the
room.

William looked at them go. "I don't envy
either one of them. And you did not warn Babs about the room."

Hilda shrugged. "She'll find out soon enough.
Come. Let's go and see if we can find enough iron to make a big
cage."

It took them a while and it cost king Louie
several fences, but Hilda and William got the cage the way they
wanted it. "I still think we could have asked someone for iron
somewhere," William said.

"Oh, please, come off that, William. These
fences were hideous and you know that too," Hilda said as she was
in the cage, yanking the bars. "And also, if we're going to catch
something on royal land, we might as well provide a royal cage."
She smiled victoriously.

"You are terrible," William declared.

"I know," Hilda agreed as she slammed the
cage-door shut and shook that a few times. "I think this would
hold, don't you think?"

William tested the door also. "Feels strong,
indeed." Then he grinned. "This is the first time I have you caged,
sweetwitch."

"Enjoy the moment, wizard, it will also be
the last time," Hilda said as she made the lock pop open. With a
satisfied snicker she left the cage.

A loud bang made them look towards the
castle, from where glass flew all around. The glass was followed by
a chair. "I dare guess that Babs has moved on to speed-learning for
Esmee," Hilda commented. "We'll wait with fixing the windows until
they stopped their exercising." A second window blew, underlining
the insight of the witch.

"We should wait a bit further away too,"
William noticed. The glass of this second window almost reached
them.

"You have a point. This one was probably done
by Babs. Nothing like a good example to show-" a third blast took
her words away "- and now would be a good time to see what is going
on there. King Louie won't like it when they break down his castle
just for training."