Hilda - The Challenge

sends messages to everyone that the problem is solved. As if I care."

  As the wicked witch was reading the second message, her jaw stopped chewing. The way she stared at the paper, her face going rather expressionless, worried William, but he felt it would be best to leave her alone with her thoughts for a while. If she wanted to share this with him, he'd hear it.

  Hilda lifted her eyes from the paper, to meet William's. In silence she handed him the message. He instantly recognised the fancy calligraphy, it was without a doubt written by the same person who had sent the original challenge. It read: 'Grimhilda. This is the official second invitation to the challenge. Do not forget about it, you are bound by the magic in your blood to accept this. I am setting the moment for our encounter to the third new moon from now. This will give you more time to become nervous, and allows me more time to enjoy the thought of this. I do hope you bring your false wizard along. Then there are two to witness your downfall.'

  "He sounds like quite an arrogant prick, if you ask me," William said, "but if he is only half as powerful as you say he is, I'm afraid he has every right to be like that." He read the note again. "This really sucks."

  Hilda nodded. "Elves are better," she sighed, slumping back in her chair. Her happy feeling of earlier that morning had left as if it had been an exploding balloon, just the noise missing. "I really have to start working on that, William."

  "We have to," he affirmed. "Babs said so."

  She smiled dimly, admiring his attitude, even if there was nothing he could do. He had no magic, no power to go against someone the likes of Lamador. The things Babs had said still made no sense to her, and although she was prone to believe that witchy sister, there was always a chance Baba Yaga the fearsome was wrong.

  Hilda tossed the paper in the fireplace and then looked at the third note. "Oh, right, now that's more like it."

  William curiously looked at her, across the table.

  Hilda was able to smile at him for real again. "This is a note from a friend. Long time since I saw her, and she asked if I could drop in for a chat today. Does have a bit of a drawback though... she's very much against being crowded, so if I go there, I have to go alone. Would you mind staying here for the morning?"

  "Not at all," William said. "You go make the rounds and see your friend, I have plenty of books here to keep me occupied."

  Hilda felt relieved, and at the same time still burdened. Making the rounds with William was so much fun, he held himself so well on a broom already. But the visit to her friend would take her too far away from home to drop him off first. And would he really be able to stay fine in this house all the time she was gone? Well, there was only one way to find out.

  They finished eating and Hilda ran up the stairs to get changed. William had 'ordered' her to, he'd take care of the cleaning up. She was downstairs again very quickly. Changing, rushing and magic are a very happy combination.

  "Now I'll try to come back as soon as I can," Hilda lectured William who had her broom at the ready for her, "and I'm going to miss you. If someone calls at the door, the house will let you know if it is safe to open the door or not. If nobody answers they'll know I'm out anyway, so that's easy." The witch was standing in front of him, her toes almost against his.

  "Just you do what you have to, Hilda. No need to rush yourself for me, I'm happy here. More perhaps than I can tell or show you at this moment. So go and have your fun. And I'll make sure I'll stay near the crystal ball, okay? I dare say you can call me through that."

  Hilda looked at him with big eyes. "You are smart!" She jumped up and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him wildly and shrieking in his ear for a short yet long enough moment. When she was on her feet again, she took the broom and said: "I'll check in when I am with my friend. It will be so great to do that, with you here." Her face was beaming bigtime and made William smile bigtime in return.

  He pulled her against him for a moment. "Now off you fly, pretty witch. I'm going to watch you take off. And be careful out there, I want you back in one piece."

  "Don't worry," Hilda said, basking in his hug even though the broomstick was poking against her ribs.

  Then he walked her to the door, where she lingered for a moment, to look into his eyes once more. She felt a little bit more confident now, so she stepped outside and mounted her broom. After a short glance back at William, who was standing there, watching her, she kicked off and sped away.

  William closed the door when he could not make out Hilda against the few clouds anymore. At that moment he remembered that he had never asked her to inflate his books!

  "Holy Bejeebus," he called upon his favourite saint. "Don't tell me I am stuck with books on growing witch's herbs and the calming effect of certain mushrooms I have never heard of... If that is so, I'm going to need them!"

  William slowly walked to the staircase and willed the books to be there. "Please let them be there, please please..." He reached the door to his room, pushed it open and saw his books lying on the table. A load worth several stone fell off his heart. "Smart little witch to think of that."

  As he had all the time of the morning to himself, he first treated himself to a nice bath and then took his treasure of books down the stairs, together with his crystal ball.

  Hilda did her round as she usually did, but Lamador's note kept gnawing at her. In a lesser degree it also bugged her that William was alone at her house, but she was sure that by now he would be safe there. He had survived two rounds in the kitchen and that was quite a feat for an ordinary.

  The wicked witch was also surprised that the house had taken so well to him, and that was good. She just would like to know how he had done that, being unmagical.

  As she had visited the castle, the king had not been out. He probably was busy with something. Hilda couldn't, for the life of her, think of anything in that direction, but strange things did happen, anyone knew that.

  The broom swooped over the village. Everything was in order there. She took a moment to check on the mule they had rescued from the thieving clutches of the man who had stolen Gerdundula's veggies, and the animal was happy in its pasture, together with others of its kind.

  Hilda then proceeded to pester the shepherds on the far south mountains, she had kind of neglected them. She had a number of really good moments there, taking the pressure of her mind for a while, but as she was flying further south to the house of her friend Calandra, she became silent again and worrying.

  The south part of the kingdom was a magnificent area. The hills were much lower there, the trees more gentle and green and lush. There were not as many lakes as in the north where Hilda lived, but the area here was almost a labyrinth of meandering rivers and streams. The water came from the kingdom to the far south, from the high mountains where rain fell almost daily. In those mountains lived many witches and wizards that had a fulltime job keeping all that water out of their villages. Hilda was glad she lived in Walt's kingdom. Water was good for baths, not for work.

  The view of the scenery relaxed Hilda. By the time she circled Calandra's house, she felt relatively at ease, and when she saw her friend come out and wave her down, she smiled.

  Calandra was a typical very tall southerner. Short blond hair, pale skin, and very easy going on colours for her clothes. Mostly she'd wear green or brown pants, which Hilda considered very not feminine. Calandra's shirts were all white without a frizzle or frolic or anything joyous. Not even a necklace or so. But she did own loads of pretty thick coats, which was a prerogative for living this far south.

  The two witches hugged and Calandra then all but dragged Hilda into her house.

  "Hey, look at that! Cool puppies, Cal! You redecorated?" Hilda was amazed as she saw the stylish interior with red, white and black. "Really nice, suits you too."

  "Well, you know," Calandra said with her thick southern accent, "sometimes a girl needs to have a change of colours, right?"

  "Yeah, I know. I've been trying to convince my house about that, and g
uess what I get. Same old same old. Would you believe it threatened me to lock me out?!"

  "You are kidding me? Oh, please, go sit down, sweetie, I'm gonna make us a good brew, 'right?"

  Hilda nodded and sat down at the counter-like construction Calandra had put up between the living room and the kitchen instead of having a sensible wall there.

  As Calandra was working in her kitchen, meaning that she stood watching how the kettle filled itself and put itself on a low fire, Hilda's mind drifted off again. Because of that, she missed the question Calandra fired at her. "Sorry, what?"

  "Wake up, sleepyhead! I asked you what y'all had been doing!" The southern witch laughed loudly, making the walls shake and the windows rattle.

  "Well, I've been busy with things, you know. Local rounds, playing catch with the king, bullying the local thieving guild. And lately I have a challenge pinned to my rear again."

  "Yeah, I heard things of that nature," Calandra said as she put a mug the size of a modest soup bowl in front of Hilda. Calandra always liked to think big. "And how are you going to handle that?" The witch's face was serious and worried. Lamador's fame and aspirations were known everywhere.

  "I don't know exactly," Hilda said. "Or better: I exactly don't know."

  "Yeah, sucks, stuff like that. And the rest?", Calandra inquired.

  "Rest? Isn't this bad enough?" Hilda