Hilda - The Challenge

hands that held the stick. Again the feeling, the sensory light, was pulsating around him.

  William took a deep breath and held his relaxed posture.

  Hilda, flying on his left, tried not to tense up as she saw how William was slightly shifting. His broom gently moved to the right, creating an opening of almost five yards between them. The wicked witch was ready to throw her magic, but there was no need.

  William had simply willed the broom to move. It had gently done what he wanted- no, what he had requested and hoped for. After the thrill of feeling the broom move to his wish, he looked at Hilda, his face competing with the sun in shining. He saw her smile, sensed a feeling of marvel, and then he closed the gap between them again, his eyes on the broomstick.

  "Hilda..." In his voice sounded a slight wavering.

  "William? Look at me, okay?"

  He looked at her. "How does one land a broom?"

  28. Second nature

  Hilda had taken over the flying from William and had made sure that both reached the ground safely.

  William's knees were shaking as they had gotten to terra firma again, but he was smiling, his face alight with what had happened. His broom was on the ground and Hilda in his arms, who was hoping that he would not break anything inside her.

  When finally he let go of her and she could breathe with ease again, the witch grinned. "I'd almost think you liked this."

  "And I think you are the mistress of understatements today, Hilda," William said. "This was mind-blowing. The feel of it. The awareness, somewhere far away, that I was able to keep a broom and myself into flight."

  "I am glad that it went so well, sweet man." Hilda folded her arms around his neck. "But now we are keeping our feet on the ground again, aren't we? And I have just the thing to do for you to make that easy."

  William was a bit surprised about that, but he followed her as she took his hand and started walking to the back of the house. There, in several neat piles, lay the vegetables, meat and other groceries that the villagers had delivered at Hilda's house. The 'payment'.

  "This stuff all has to go to the storage room under the house," Hilda explained, "and I am so very happy that you volunteered to do that for me."

  "Oh. I did, did I?" William frowned for a moment. Then he grinned, as he saw the sparkles in his witch's eyes. "Indeed. I think I did. If you can show me the way to the storage room, I'll be happy to move the stuff for you, sweetheart."

  "Cool puppies," said Hilda. "Get your wand, you'll need that."

  "Uhm? Oh!" William wiggled his fingers and the wand was there.

  "Very good. Now remember this: scipio reserare cellarius occulum." Hilda had to repeat it for William a few times, until he got it right. "That should work. Now place the tip of your wand here." She pointed to a specific spot on the wall of the house, that looked as if it was scratched. "Then say the spell."

  William did as she told him. Nothing happened. The house chuckled.

  "Oh, shush you," Hilda said to her house, "he's new at this. William, it would help if you put the magic feeling into it a bit."

  He nodded and concentrated on the feeling again, then let it loose and flow. "Scipio reserare cellarius occulum." A slight tremble went through the wand, he barely noticed it, but Hilda said: "That is how I want to see it."

  She had picked up the tremble through their connection.

  William's jaw lowered itself, without any magic, as he saw a part of the wall under the wand slowly dissolve, opening up a door of sorts. "Did I just do that?"

  "Hmmm... did you see me do something?", Hilda asked, waving her empty hands. "Look, no wand."

  "Right. Sorry. Beginner here," he apologised. Then he looked into the opening. There was a short staircase going into the darkness. "Goodness, some light there would be a good idea..." William stepped back instinctively as in the storage room several spots started to light up.

  Hilda chuckled along with the house now. "You're getting better, William, but do pay attention a bit when you say something. Only use the magical intent if you need it. You have to practice switching in and out of it very quickly. It must become a second nature."

  William made a moue. "It took me over thirty years to come up with my first nature. I guess you don't want to wait that long for the second, right?"

  "Indeed, sweet man," Hilda said. She put her arm around his. "I'd say you have little less than three moons to get it under control. I need you, you know that." After that serious moment, which hung around them tangibly, she said: "So if you can now please move our food into the storage and close the wall again, I'm a happy witch."

  William grinned. His wand disappeared and he walked over to the nearest stack of goods.

  "Hey. What do you think you're doing?"

  William turned to her. "Putting the groceries away?"

  "And -how- are you going to do that?"

  William picked up a crate. "Like this?"

  "No."

  William put the crate down. "Oh. I see. You want me to do this the hard way." He made his wand appear. "Any Latin you'd like to share for this?"

  "Nope. I hate Latin. I just keep the wall under it so nobody will be able to steal things from me." Hilda made a chair appear and sat down. "Now, show me that you can do this, William. Work on your second nature."

  William sighed. "Alright..." He pointed his wand at the crate. "Come on, follow the leader..." He turned to the open wall and walked down the stairs. Halfway down he grinned, turned around and was knocked in the head by the crate. "Crap!"

  Hilda all but flew down the stairs. "William! What happened?!" Then she saw her sweet man rubbing his head, the crate still afloat near his head. "Stupid silly man. Never just stop walking when you have something in tow," she warned him a bit too late.

  "Heck," he muttered, "I didn't know that thing was actually following me! Well, as it's here... Just put yourself in that corner then." William pointed with the wand, and the crate slowly slipped to its designated place, going at the same speed as William was pointing his eyes there.

  Hilda clapped her hands. "That was very good! Now let me do something about this..." She waved a hand over the small bloody spot on William's forehead and it disappeared, leaving healed skin. "That is better."

  William was a bit confused about everything, by now. "I don't get it... I was making fun with that crate and it flew behind me."

  Hilda kissed his cheek. "Then you are in for a treat, because there are many more crates and bags. So you go and have fun with them, and I'm going to take a soak in the bath." Quickly she walked up the short stairs. "Oh, before I forget: you close the wall with 'scipio obscuro cellarius occulum.'." A shrieking laugh was all that he got from her as she disappeared from his view.

 

  "Work on your second nature..." William stomped up the stairs and glared at the next crate. "You. Come here." The crate did not feel compelled to listen. "Oh, right. This is supposed to be fun." He walked to the crate and bent down to pick it up.

  "No cheating."

  The wizard in training turned to the house. "So now you are spying on me too, right?"

  "I just follow the orders of the witch," it replied.

  "Great." William walked to the chair that Hilda had left there and sat down on it. He considered that it would indeed be fun to see crates fly. It would save him a lot of walking up and down the stairs, and also prevent him from being whacked in the head again. With a grin he pointed his wand at the crate. "Amuse me... go to the cellar and stand next to the other one..." A few seconds long nothing happened, and wonder was already crawling up his ankles as the crate slowly rose and calmly floated into the cellar. As it had gone out of sight, William got up and checked where it stood. the crate had parked itself exactly where he had wanted it.

  "Hot damn, this really works," he mumbled, staring at the wand. He sat down again, and one by one he made the crates and bags with goods float into the cellar. After managing that, he needed a few retries before h
e got the closing spell right, feeling like Ron Weasly from the Harry Potter books.

  Satisfied and also quite drained again, as his body was not used to magical work, he made the wand disappear, patted the wall of the house and went inside.

  "Honey, I'm home!", he called out.

  "Honey, I'm glad!", he heard Hilda's voice from the top floor. "I am still in the tub. Getting all wrinkly."

  "Oh grand," William said as he went up the stairs, "so I am doing all the hard work and you don't even have lunch ready for me?"

  Her shrieking laughter was not as harsh on his ears as it used to be. He pushed open the door to the bathroom and grinned as he saw the purple bubbles. "Hey, sweetheart. Purple suits you."

  She grinned. "I know!" She blew some bubbles to him, making them run around his head before they popped into oblivion. "The house told me you were really good and did not use your hands to put away the groceries."

  William nodded. "I'm afraid the wand will have muscle-aches tomorrow."

  The witch stared at him, not understanding a word of what he had last said. "Do I have to laugh now? Or worry?"

  William grinned and shook his head. "Neither. Don't worry about it, sweetheart. I'll go and start some lunch. Make yourself pretty for me, will you?" He quickly moved away and closed the door. The piece of soap therefore did not bounce off his head. This time it was his laughter that shook the house up.

  "You really did well, William," Hilda commented on the food they had enjoyed. "How are you feeling?"

  "A bit... I'm not sure. One part