Hilda - Lycadea (26 page)

Grim and Obsi seemed to know something, as
they both walked along the same line. Until they disappeared.

"Crappedy crap!" two voices exclaimed.

Hilda looked at Kerna. "Fast learner. I like
you."

"Where did they go?" Kerna asked, her eyes
big.

"I am not sure, but I am going after them. I
want my cat back." Hilda started walking to where she had seen the
two animals vanish.

"Wait for me!" Kerna said, and rushed after
the witch.

Together they walked on and then they saw the
cats again.

"Suck an elf," Hilda commented.

Kerna grinned.

The witch turned and didn't see anything out
of the ordinary. That was to say: she saw where they had come from.
Reaching out, she tried to find some kind of magical wall they
might have crossed without noticing, but she sensed nothing.

"This is… strange," Hilda declared, which for
her was quite a statement. She picked up Grimalkin. "And you,
running off like that."

"Meow," Grimalkin commented, as if that
explained everything.

"Uhm, Hilda, is it just me or is it getting
warm in here?" Kerna asked, picking up Obsi.

Hilda stood still, sampling the air. "If it
is just you then it is also just me. It is getting warm in here.
Maybe this is a good moment to see how we can get out of this
place."

Together the women started walking towards
the wall they were nearest too. That was as good a place to start
as any. After careful examination of said wall, they decided that
the red glowing rock was as good as any, except for the colour and
the heat that came from it.

"I want a cooler place," Kerna said.

The wall seemed to radiate more warmth than
it had done before.

"Me too. It is getting too hot here."

Hilda's words had just left her lips when a
blue-white light shone from behind them. They turned and stared at
a column of blue light that stood in the middle of the large
cave.

"That was not there before. I am sure of
that." Hilda rubbed her nose. "What is this place? I would almost
think there is magic going around here." The idea made her heart
jump.

The women walked towards the column, which
emitted not only a cold light, but also physical cold.

Hilda and Kerna walked back and forth a bit,
but it was impossible to find a spot in the cave where the
temperature was pleasant.

"This is insane," Hilda muttered, "I feel
like something is making a fool of us." Out of habit she flipped
her hand, the way she used to do to make her wand appear. "I want a
door, right there, and when we go through it we are back with
William and Rebel and that silly captain of hers."

"Uhhh…" was all that Kerna could say as the
door appeared where Hilda wanted it.

The thing just stood there, and they could
walk around it to admire both sides.

"Suck an elf," Kerna said as she touched the
door. "It is made of 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."

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 lot happier," Kerna
said, frowning as she looked at the older and more experienced
witch. "I assume you never had something like this happen to you,
right?"

"Never. And I don't envy you, but since we're
here, we're going to do what we can to help you. Let's first get
some idea of what we're up against."

Whatever power listened in on the
conversation between the two witches, it made sure they did not
have to wait too long for one of these ideas. Something huge and
triangular, covered in black and brown stripes and soaring high
above the two, changed its course as it noticed the two small
unidentified flying objects. Soundlessly it sailed downward.

"Do you also have the feeling someone's
watching us?" Kerna asked, out of the blue as she looked
around.

"Yes. Since a few moments. You're becoming
good, Kerna." Hilda looked around as well, but her experience in
flying made her look down as well. And up.