Hilda - The Challenge (16 page)

"Hilda, perhaps that glass is not a good
idea," William tried, not sure if she needed some help to slow down
her intake.

"Are you going to try and stop me?" Her wand
appeared in her free hand. "See, I am not drunk yet. I can still do
my magical trick." She looked at William and saw his worried face.
A smile showed on her face and she put down both the glass and the
wand. Then she turned round so she faced William and took both his
hands in hers.

"I'm sorry, William, I am making a fool of
myself, I know. But they all know about you already, and that
scares me. Why do they all know about you while we are still
getting to know each other?"

By now William had had enough time to add up
the digits. "By they you mean your witch colleagues?"

She nodded. "From what Calandra told me, we
are the big news all over the crystals." Then she quickly put a
hand over her mouth. "I forgot to call you! I'm so sloppy... can
you forgive me?"

The book salesman slowly took her hand from
her mouth and rested it in his. "Don't worry, Hilda. I was sure you
were busy with something. And you had inflated my books, so I had a
good time reading."

The witch kept looking at him, but the
expression on her face changed to one of incomprehensiveness.
"Inflated your books? What do you mean? I had forgotten all about
your books, William."

It was his turn to be surprised. "No, really,
you haven't. See there, on the blanket? Books. My books. Big
books."

Hilda resolutely shook her head. "Impossible.
I have not done that, William."

"But," he then wondered with reason, "if you
didn't... who did it then?"

Hilda frowned. "Did anyone come to the door
while I was out?"

"No. I took a bath and then came down with
the books to read. You can ask the house."

"It is true," the house confirmed. "He was in
the bath. And he was in the room reading."

Hilda picked up her wand. "That's impossible,
I tell you. Only someone with magic can undo the shrinking. They
don't just pop back." She pointed her wand at one of the books.
"Come here, you."

After a hesitation of a few seconds, the book
calmly floated through the room, into Hilda's hand. William was
surprised again. He found it hard to believe that she could
actually hold the heavy book with one hand. But then, Hilda was
magical.

The witch stared at the book, muttering
things William could barely hear, let alone understand. Her hair
fell around her face as she leaned towards the book, her wand
hovering over it. She murmured a few spells, ordering the book to
reveal the magical signature of the person who had undone the
shrinking.

William stroked her head. "I'm going to fix a
simple lunch," he said.

"Oh... right... No, let me," said Hilda. The
wand flashed over the table. The wine disappeared and lunch was
served. It was hardly a simple lunch. "Enjoy," she added as she
kept working on the book that was not easily convinced to give up
the secret.

William stared at the table in much the same
manner as Hilda was staring at the book. He had thought he had
gotten used to her use of magic, but the radical rapid replacement
that happened in the blink of an eye put him back in his place. He
was not sure if he would ever get used to it.

"Uhm... thank you," he said and started to
eat. After a few minutes he peered under Hilda's hair. "Dear little
witch, don't forget to eat, okay?"

"What? Oh. I guess you're right. The book
isn't helping much..." She made it float back to the others, then
got some food herself.

"Did you get anything from it?", William
wondered.

"Yes, there was something. Very faint, hard
to pick up. It also was very strange. I never encountered that
before."

After a while, William asked: "Perhaps it was
a powerful wizard or so that came flying over."

Hilda looked at him, a fork of food coming to
a full stop halfway from the plate. She smiled. "See, that is so
sweet about you. You really don't know about these things."

"Oh. Well, I just thought..." William
blushed. He had been called many things in his life, but sweet was
one of the things that was very very low on that list.

"Thank you for trying to help, William.
You're really a wonderful friend. And.." She did not open up more;
instead she quickly returned to finishing her lunch.

With the mystery of the books unsolved, they
sat together and went over the pro's and cons of the challenge once
more.

"So no outside help from magicians and the
likes," William remembered.

"True. Unless they are invited, but who'd do
that?"

He nodded. It made perfect sense. "And anyone
can send a challenge to another."

"As long as both contestants are equal. So
you could for instance challenge Johan the mirror-maker, or the man
who sells fruit. Those are ordin- I mean, non magical people.
Magical people challenge other magical people."

"Right, that makes sense also. And I don't
mind if you call me an ordinary. If that is what I am."

Hilda then did something William would never
have expected. She got up and pushed his arm to the side, after
which she sat in his lap. "And that is why I am having a problem
calling you that. You are not ordinary to me, William. You are very
special."

Stumped about her action, he had put an arm
around her without consciously noticing.

"Remember when I told you that no one can
live with me, and that I can't have anyone around me in my
house?"

"Oh, very clearly," he nodded.

"Well, it seems that I was wrong. Because I
really like having you here. And if you would tell me that you were
leaving, that would be terrible." She raised a hand and gently
touched his cheek. "I don't know how you feel about it, William.
But when I was gone this morning, I missed you."

He smiled. "You missed me so much that you
forgot to contact me over the crystal ball."

"Oh, shush, you," she grinned, softly patting
him on the cheek. "You just want to play with the crystal
ball."

William then slipped both his arms around her
and pulled her more tightly against him. "If you want to know how I
feel about it, Hilda... I missed you too. It hurt me to see you fly
off alone this morning, in my heart. Even though it was
necessary."

The witch put her head on his shoulder,
brushing her long hair back. "I'd rather have taken you along."
After a few silent moments, she said: "This feels good." A flushing
red travelled over her cheeks, but she was not going to take back
her words, since they were the truth. "William?"

"Yes, Hilda?"

"Could you pretend I'm drunk?"

He didn't answer. Instead he scooped her up,
got up from the chair and went up the stairs.

The house, very considerate, closed the
bedroom door.

It was evening and dark already when two
pairs of feet slowly made their way down the stairs. The owners of
the feet both carried a candle, to light their way.

Once in the living room, the witch in her
long red housecoat quickly made a few additional candles burn. Then
she turned to William, who was wearing the blue robe, and wrapped
her arms around him. "Just tell me when you want to pretend I am
drunk again. My love." She looked at him and smiled, her face
relaxed, calm, beaming.

William looked at her face, feeling happy
deep down in his heart that the worried tension had gone from her,
if only temporary, and falling in love with that relaxed and happy
face. He bent down the few inches that separated their faces and
gently kissed her.

Hilda got all weak in the knees again from
the sensation of their lips touching, the closeness of his skin,
the scent of their lovemaking still on both of them.

"Don't worry, lovely woman, I'll remind you
often enough," William said when they both had come up for air
again.

Hilda slid her hands over his chest and
around his neck. "I must be crazy. Falling in love with...
you."

"An ordinary," he completed her sentence with
a wink.

"Shush, you. I did explain to you that you
are not ordinary to me, so please remember that. No teasing the
resident witch, okay?"

He grinned. "Only a short while ago you did
not seem to mind the teasing, resident witch."

"Argh, that was different!" She shook him by
his shoulders as well as she could, her face showing mock despair.
"Why did I get involved with you..."

Another kiss was more than enough answer for
her. After finishing it, she said: "Are you hungry? I can get us
something to eat."

"Would be nice, Hilda. Do you want me to
help?"

"No. Just make yourself comfortable, I'll be
fine. Witch, witch's kitchen, see the link?" She grinned and waited
for him to let go of her. Then she slowly walked to the kitchen,
from where she looked back at him and winked before disappearing
from William's view.

The salesman looked around. "Right.
Comfortable. I'd say something's missing for that in this room." He
sat down at the table and looked for a piece of paper, but there
was only the quill and the inkpot. "Hmmm..." William got up and
looked in the fireplace. From there he picked one of the notes that
Hilda had thrown in, flattened it and then began to make a crude
drawing, using the quill.

"What are you doing?", Hilda asked as she
arrived at the table carrying stuff that smelled incredible.

"I am trying to draw something," William
said, "a couch. Something comfortable."

"Oh, nice, and what are you going to do with
that?"

"Well, I could hang it on the wall, but that
wouldn't be the proper thing to do. I am not sure if the resident
witch would appreciate that," he grinned, wrapping an arm around
her waist and giving her a hug like that.

Then Hilda sat down and as she started to
eat, she made the paper slide over to her side of the table and
looked at what William had been working on. "Looks nice. What would
it be made of?"

William, to the best of his knowledge,
explained the innards of a couch. The part with springs seemed to
make things quite complicated, so he left those out after a few
attempts and just explained how the seating experience would
be.

"Leather? Would velvet work too?" Hilda
looked at the drawing again.

"Yes, velvet would work."

Hilda looked at William, blue sparkles
flashing in her eyes. William recognised the different pattern in
them. They told of mischief. "Let me try something..." She whipped
up her wand and pointed to a free space in the living room.

In the relative darkness of the room, William
saw a beam of faint light jump from the tip of the wand. It reached
the open space, balled up and seemed to explode. The result was a
couch. Velvet. And purple.

"Something like that?"

"Goodness..." Plate in hand, William walked
over to the couch and touched it. The soft purple velvet was
smooth, inviting to be touched and sat on. The filling of the couch
was perhaps a bit hard, but that, he knew, would only present a
minor detail to Hilda.

Hilda joined him and watched him as he went
around the couch and sat down.

"You magnificent witch," he said, "you are
good. You are really good. Come, sit here."

She did. "Oh, yes. This is very nice. I'm
glad you like it."

"I do. It was also amazing to see how you
made it," William said, thinking of the faint light from the
wand.

"Oh, thank you. Not that difficult when you
know what you're going to do." Hilda sat back in the couch, rubbing
her back against the soft, new piece of furniture.

After finishing their meal, they went back to
bed. And eventually they slept.

The next morning. William had gotten up
scarily early and wandered through the living room, while Hilda
still lay sprawled over the bed, completely zonked out. He'd had
wild and vivid dreams, woken up a few times and in the end had gone
downstairs. He was afraid he'd wake up Hilda with his tossing and
turning. "Perhaps the place is getting to me," he muttered,
standing behind the purple couch, his hands resting on the fabric.
"Really hope this witchcraft magic is not going to drive me mad."
And he hoped he was wrong. After a short struggle with the kitchen
he managed to get a glass of water and drinking that, he was
feeling somewhat better and went back upstairs to join the
witch.

"You went away," Hilda mumbled as she climbed
over him, half asleep still. "You should not go away. You are mine.
For keeps."

"But I came back," he whispered.

"Yeah," she nodded, her smile hidden under
her hair. "Back."

Sleep came again, and this time it stayed
with them for a few more hours.

"Are you awake?", Hilda whispered.

"I am," William whispered back.

"Good." The wicked witch kept whispering. "I
want you to know that I was serious."

"About what?" He stroked her head that rested
against his shoulder.

"About you being mine for keeps. I'm not
letting you go away, William."

"In case you need to hear it from my mouth,
sweet witch: I am not planning on leaving. Unless you come with
me."

"Good. As long as we are in the clear about
that." Hilda made herself a bit more comfortable on William and
together they lay there for a few more minutes.

William then gently patted her behind. "Don't
you have to go do the rounds?"

"You never listen, do you?", Hilda sighed,
"what have I told you about predictability?"

"Oh. Right." And after a while, he added: "I
think you are just too comfortable here and you don't want to get
up."

"Oh, shush you, you know nothing." As he had
to laugh about that comment, she slapped him on the arm: "Lie
still, or you'll bump me off the bed!" And she started laughing
too.