Hilda - Lycadea (2 page)

Onyx Grimalkin and Obsidian Shadow found safe
havens between the legs of their humans. The humans looked at each
other for a moment, after which their eyes were pulled to the open
door again. All the sailors' eyes were on it too as a shape
appeared from it. It was huge, if not downright enormous. It had
big feet which it dragged from what had to be a staircase, and
manoeuvred itself into a normal standing posture.

William's eyes almost popped out of his head.
"That is the most incredible robot I have ever seen," he said. This
of course was easy; the robots he had seen could be counted on the
fingers of one hand.

"A what?" asked Hilda. She stared at a huge
metal man with its oversized tin head, red blinking eyes and round
mouth.

"Well, well, what do we have here," the voice
echoed. It had to come from inside the metal hulk. The metal
apparition raised one of its arms, a massive cylinder that hung
from its broad shoulders, and pointed at the witch and the wizard.
The sound reverberated inside the round and big body. It look like
a elongated barrel standing on two overdone legs with wide thick
feet.

Krrr... bong.... krrr.... bong.... The krrr
happened as a chain, retracting into the metal belly where it came
from, pulled up a leg. The gleaming, coppery body leaned forward a
bit and the chain released. The foot bonged onto the deck, sending
tremors through the black wood. Then the other leg was krrr'd up
with the inevitable bong to follow. The thing moved forward
sluggishly, but it looked as if not much would be able to stop
it.

"Right, William, you seem to know this kind
of thing. What should we do now?" Hilda popped up her wand as she
spoke and was ready to use it. Before William could reply, the tin
man on steroids stopped its advance. A rattling noise rang inside
it. A small cloud of steamy air puffed from the thing's head,
accompanied by a merry hiss, and the entire machine seemed to sag
where it stood.

"Wait, wait," a concerned voice said. Its
owner had to be inside the robot-shape. "I'm coming out..."

As a precaution, William also made his wand
appear. A hushed whisper went through the lines of sailors, much to
the annoyance of the witch. She had popped up her wand first, after
all.

Something squeaked. It was a sound so
unexpected that it drew Hilda away from her upcoming grumblings. A
few clunks and screeches later a man in a long red coat stepped
around the metal hulk. "Bon giorno, dear people."

Hilda reached for William's sleeve and held
it. "Suck an elf... what is that?"

The man they saw brushed his shoulder-length
black hair back and made a bow. His hair fell forward again of
course. As he raised himself up again, leaning heavily on the sword
at this belt, he introduced himself as the captain of the 'Mimosa'.
"My name," he said with an Italian accent, "is Doctor Maurizio
Blunt."

"Doctor who?" William asked.

"No, not him," Maurizio Blunt said, "Doctor
Maurizio Blunt." The man raised both hands and stared at them with
the eye that did not have an eye patch over it. He shook his head
and then scratched his head. "I am sorry, the hook has not long
gone. You may understand my confusion."

The magical couple almost needed supports for
their jaws. "When are they going to do something about that stick
under your knee?" Hilda managed.

Maurizio looked down and laughed. "Oh, that,
the wooden leg. Oh no, signora, I like that. It adds something to
the appearance, do you think not? Now, may I have the honour of
knowing your names? One of my people told me that you were flying
on a... scopa? Broom? Like a real witch?"

Hilda planted her left hand on her hip and
pointed her wand at the man in the red coat. "A real witch. Yes.
You got that right. I'm Grimhilda the witch and this is William.
He's a wizard. Now you know us and you can tell us why your ship is
in this lake. And how it got here. And what's that?!" She added the
last question in amazement as a colourful bird flew from the
darkness behind the door and landed on Maurizio's shoulder.

William laughed out loud. "That, Hilda, is a
parrot. And that's a very pretty one too, Mr. Blunt."

The colourful captain did not respond to
William immediately. He turned to the men that were grouped behind
him. "Hey, ragazzi, don't you have things to do?"

"Nope," one of the men said, crossing his
arms over his massive chest. He seemed entertained by the
goings-on.

"I see," said Maurizio. "Carry on anyway." He
shrugged as he turned back to Hilda and William.

The parrot was not pleased with that. "Watch
it!" it screamed, regaining its balance.

"Shut up, Polly," Maurizio snapped. William
collapsed with laughter as he heard the name. Hilda frowned at him,
not getting the fun of it.

"Shut up, shut up!" The colourful bird
retorted to the man on whose shoulder it was perched.

"Perdone," Maurizio said, "the bird is like
that sometimes." He lifted the eye patch, rubbed the eye beneath it
and then moved the patch to the other eye. Polly started gnawing
the strap that held the patch in place and snapped at fingers as
the make-belief pirate captain slapped at her.

"Hey," said Hilda, "aren't you forgetting
something? I asked you questions and all you did was get bird poop
on the back of your coat."

Hilda was not about to get her answers. The
new interruption came in the shape of a female voice that yelled
out "Moro!"

Polly flew up from the man's shoulder and
screamed: "Rebel! Rebel!" It found a new place to sit on the head
of one of the sailors, who seemed to be used to that. Maurizio
looked at the magicals in despair. He raised his arms and let them
fall down his sides. "You hear... Rebel." Over his shoulder he
yelled: "On the deck!"

"Easy, Hilda," said William. Through their
bond he sensed that she was quickly getting to boiling point as she
was definitely not in control of the situation. He took her hand
and squeezed it.

"Don't you easy me," she grumbled as she
pulled her hand free. "I'm the witch here and he is trespassing."
Before the wizard could do something she was pacing towards the man
with the eye patch. "Now listen..."

As one, the group of sailors started moving.
At an astounding speed they appeared between Hilda and their
captain, effectively blocking her from getting to him. For the
moment, anyway. She swung her wand, muttered something and the
large men were throw left and right, as if a magical bowling ball
had hit them. The men did not need more encouragement to move away
as far as they could.

Maurizio's neck muscles worked overtime as he
looked left and right, trying to keep an eye on whoever had shouted
at him inside the ship and on Hilda who was still charging at him.
"Madonna," he moaned, looking at William for help that did not
come. William was a wizard, and no fool.

As Hilda approached the man, William noticed
someone else coming from the dark hole who also paced towards the
captain. It had to be the woman whose voice they had heard. She had
short brown hair that stood out as if it was electrically charged.
Sunlight bounced from the many copper-coloured ornaments that were
all over her clothes.

"Now listen," said the witch, who had reached
the captain. "Why are you here and how did you get here? And while
we're at it, when are you leaving again?"

"Mi dispiace, madam Witch," Maurizio said as
he tried to keep looking at the witch, "I am very sorry, but this
was the closest place to land."

"Land? Hello, this is a ship, right?" Hilda
asked.

Before the redcoat could reply, the
copper-covered woman arrived. "Moro, who are these folks, and where
are we?" she demanded to know.

"He's called Maurizio, not Moron," Hilda
announced to the new arrival, "and I was talking to him."

"And who might you be?" the woman, who was
clad in leather underneath all the small copper shields
inquired.

"I am Grimhilda the witch." Hilda stared at
the woman.

As Maurizio tried to step away, both women
grabbed his coat. "Stay," two voices said.

"So you're a witch? Wow. I am impressed." The
voice of the woman in leather made it clear that she thought
something else. "Witches don't exist."

"Oh? And what's this?" Hilda waved her
wand.

"It's a stick. It's just a small wooden
stick."

"Hilda, perhaps we can-" William had come
closer as he saw doom crawling onto the ship. His attempt to rein
in Hilda however was cut short as the witch had already cast a
spell onto the women in leather. The woman flew towards the metal
hulk that Maurizio had climbed from and stuck to it. It was as if
the huge construction was a magnet that attracted the copper
plating on the woman's clothing.

"Everything's under control, sweet wizard,"
Hilda smiled, "and now we have that out of the way I am sure this
man is ready to give us some answers."

Maurizio stood staring at the squirming woman
who hung from the huge robot. "Mama mia, how did you do that?"

"Crappedy crap, don't you ever listen? I told
you I am a witch!"

"Hilda," said William.

"Get me down!" screamed the woman.

"Do that yourself, Rebel!" Maurizio
exclaimed.

"Rebel?" Hilda asked.

"Shut up," said Polly the parrot, who had
returned to Maurizio's shoulder.

The air over the black ship could have been
frozen, were it not for the woman attached to the metal man. She
was flapping her arms and kicking her feet while promising death
and destruction to the world and its vicinity.

"Mrs. Witch," Maurizio Blunt said, "could you
please bring Rebel down?"

Hilda tapped her wand against her leg. "Who
is Rebel?"

The captain pointed at the leather and copper
woman. "She's Rebel. Well, it is not her real name but Rebel fits
her."

"You give me some answers when I let her
go?"

"I promise," said the man.

Hilda nodded. "Hey, Rebel, get ready to
fall," she said. Then she flicked her wand. "Suck an elf," was her
reaction when she saw the woman fall - slowly. The woman, Rebel,
landed on her feet so gently that she wouldn't have crushed the
shell of an egg. "How did she do that?"

William also was very surprised about what he
had seen. He scooped Obsi up and stroked his head, to have
something to do. This, he had already decided, was not a normal
black ship. Normal black ships didn't just appear in lakes, they
didn't have man-carrying robots on board and they usually didn't
have crew that could float towards the deck like a leaf with
self-control.

Maurizio frowned. "Which question, Mrs.
Witch, do you want me to answer first?"

"What do you think?" Hilda did not make it
any easier on him. She kept her eye on Rebel, who had walked up to
Maurizio and stood next to him, hands akimbo.

"I'm Donna Abrahams," the woman said, holding
out a hand. "People call me Rebel. Oh, cute, a cat."

Rebel had noticed Obsi as William had come to
stand next to Hilda; this all was becoming too interesting to miss.
As Hilda ignored the hand offered, the wizard shook it for a
moment. "William the wizard," he said, "and this is Grimhilda the
witch. A real one, as you've noticed."

"Yeah, she's quite a piece of work," said
Rebel.

Hilda raised her eyebrows. "A witch is not 'a
piece of work'," she grumbled. "Now tell us where you came from and
when you're leaving again. You've done nothing but upset the people
in the village and our cats."

As William wondered where the upset cats had
come in, Maurizio looked at his crew. "Go and do something," he
said. The request was partially successful; the men moved about a
bit, found places to sit and continued watching the scene. "Well,
where we came from... is a bit difficult to explain. It is a bit
strange."

"We're used to strange," William tried to
boost the man's confidence.

"Va bene. We just escaped from a meteor
shower." Maurizio's face showed doubt. He expected that the two
people would not believe him.

"A what?" Hilda asked.

"A meteor shower?" William asked at the same
time. "There's not been a meteor shower here in months." And to
Hilda he explained: "Shooting stars."

Hilda nodded. "Yes, most people gave up
shooting them. These stars are either too fast or too far away,
really takes all fun out of the game."

"Eh? Shooting them?" Rebel looked lost. "The
buggers almost took half the ship out. Good thing we came close to
a sun that was powerful enough to fling us away. Which is what took
us here. Wherever here is."

The conversation was amazingly confusing.
Lots of questions were asked and answers were given but not
understood. The most worrying approaches to this came from Hilda
and Maurizio. William decided to break up all conversations.
"Folks! Silence! And that means you too, sweetwitch," he hastily
added as Hilda shot him a look. "I think we have to do some more
constructive talk and explaining, okay?"

Rebel agreed. "About time. I'm getting brain
wrecked here. Can I hold that kitty?"

Obsi meowed and jumped down, seeking safety
with his sister.

Maurizio straightened his back. "Va bene, I
suggest we go down to the lounge and talk over cappucino or
espresso."

"What's that?" Hilda wanted to know. William
quickly explained that it was coffee, which lit up her eyes.

"Xander, can you take that away?" Maurizio
said to one of the sailors, pointing at the metal shape. The man
nodded, and Maurizio asked his guests to follow him. To the
lounge.

Hilda and William carried their cats. The
animals did not seem to mind that one bit; the black heads with the
yellow eyes looked around and seemed to take everything in, as did
their humans. After going through the black door, the sounds of
someone operating the large metal man fading behind them, they went
down a few steps. Maurizio led them through a large iron door and
they came in an immaculate white corridor. From that side, the iron
door was not iron, but just as white as the rest.