Hilda - The Challenge

with what I can cook. And from that point on I am at a loss."

  William had trouble fighting his laughter about her upfront way of acting. At least, he thought, you always knew what she was thinking: the witch had a charming way of making that clear. "Well, that is a good start. And if you want, I can cook something too. I'm not a bad cook if I say so myself. Just one thing I am curious about."

  "Yeah?" Immediately Hilda was in battle-mode, hands on her hips and chin up in the air.

  "Is there a mister Wicked Witch?"

  Hilda's face went through several emotions as she worked on grasping what this strange person had said. The goldfish almost screamed with laughter, holding on to the cup with all fins they had.

  "You mean if there is another man living in this house." Hilda got it. "Preposterous. Not only would there be no man who could live with me, but also I would be totally unable to have someone around in such a way. People get on my nerves as much as I get on theirs." She started to turn and head for the stairs, then looked back at William. "So don't you get any funny ideas." As she walked to the stairs she said: "Come on, I am not going to carry you."

  William grinned once more and followed her up the stairs. It was a bit unnerving to him that the pictures of the people that were floating along the wall, turned their heads and followed him with their eyes as he passed them.

  Hilda waited for him, in front of a door. It too looked freshly painted. "You can sleep here." She opened the door an entire three inches before it did not want to budge anymore. "Oh. Crap. Vacuus," she muttered and the door opened fully.

  "As I said, you can sleep here." With her wand she made a bed, a small table and a chair appear.

  The bed had fresh sheets and some kind of purple duvet on it. From somewhere William thought to hear a soft moan, as the house reacted to the purple. The table had a stack of candles on it, a small burning stick floated over the table, clearly to light the candles, and there were some books on it. The chair was empty.

  "Anything else you need?"

  William took the dice that had been his weekendbag out of his pocket. "My things, please." A moment later, he held his bag in his hand. "That's neat. I could do with a few tricks like that."

  "Sure," Hilda snorted. "And who's going to teach you? You're not magical, William." Hilda laughed an extra cackling laugh as she walked to the door and into the hallway. "Down there is the bathroom and assorted other stuff. Don't make a mess or you'll be cleaning it with your own clothes. I'm going downstairs and make something to eat. I'll let you know when it's done in case you muck about here for too long."

  The door closed itself. Hilda looked at herself. Perhaps she should change into something else.

  William looked around the room. There were two large windows. No curtains. He looked outside through one of the windows and saw a lot of forest. There was something odd about it, but he could not put his finger on what was off. Well, with the place belonging to a witch, who would be surprised.

  He opened his bag, took out his toiletries and left his room, in search of the bathroom "and assorted other stuff". Down the short hall he found four doors. This in itself was impossible already, as there was no way one could fit four doors in that limited space. Trying to imagine that there were actual rooms behind them, no matter how small, was asking for a headache. William did not ask that.

  He was however not prepared for so many doors. "I wonder which one is the bathroom," he said to himself.

  The house, taking pity on the man who had been tossed into this adventure, opened the right door.

  "Holy Bejeebus," William said. "Thanks, whoever you are."

  "You're welcome."

  William then recognised the voice of the house. "Well, well, a talking house. Nice meeting you."

  "Perhaps," the house said. Conservative as it was, it did keep its distance in the beginning.

  William entered the bathroom.

  White tiles with an occasional goldfish on them. A large white bathtub with two small golden plaques on it. One said "Full", one said "Empty".

  Curious, he touched the Full plaque. Instantly the tub was filled with hot water, a nice scent rising up from the bubbles. "Jeebes," the book salesman took a shortcut. He dropped his clothes and got into the tub, enjoying the soak for a few minutes, and cleaning himself up so he felt decent again.

  Then he climbed out of the tub and looked round for a towel. "Towel... towel..."

  "I assume one is enough?", the house asked, as a thick dark blue towel materialised in William's hand.

  "Oh, yes, by all means," William replied, drying himself as he wondered if the house could actually see him. With a grin he tapped the plaque with 'Empty' on it and the bath was not only empty but also clean and ready for the next customer.

  A slight unease came over the traveller when he could not locate his clothes. "Hello, house? Where are my clothes?"

  "In your room. Cleaned. Wear the others."

  "Others?" William asked out loud but got no clarification, so he did his last bits of making himself presentable and then, with the dark blue towel wrapped around him, he quickly scooted into his guestroom.

  6. Wine and dine

  On the bed lay two stacks with clothes. One of them were his own, William quickly saw, and they were indeed clean. And repaired in some places where they had needed that since a while too. With fascination he looked at the garments on the other stack.

  The thing that attracted most of his attention was a leather jerkin with pompous thicks shoulderpieces along the side. It was an amazing piece of work to see and hold. The stitchwork was unbelievably precise, the garment itself was made of the finest leather in two shades of dark brown leather, one a bit lighter, the other darker and leaning towards blood red.

  Next item was a beige shirt. It had long sleeves and an wide neck that could be tied up with a thin leather strap.

  Then there was a pair of grey-ish velvet pants, with a brown leather belt to keep it in place.

  Next to the bed were his shoes and a pair of ankle-high brown boots, with fringes.

  "Right. So that is 'wear the others'," William understood. "Probably more geared towards local fashion." With a grin he started putting on the exotic-looking attire, after putting on his own underwear. That was very much missing from 'the other' clothes, and he was used to that.

  After he had finished dressing up, he looked around for a mirror. Alas. There was none. As his eyes went around the room for the second time, a soft singing sound reached his ears. He identified it as the sound of the crystal ball. Somehow that little gem had found its way to the table, the light in it dancing frantically.

  William bent over to the shiny object and to his amazement he saw himself reflected in it. Despite the limited size of the ball he saw himself clearly. "Holy Bejeebus, you can do more than relay calls between worlds, can't you?", he grinned. Satisfied with his looks, he opened the door and found his way down the stairs.

  Again the pictures looked at him as he went by. This time he looked back at them.

  "Oh. There you are." Hilda looked at William as he came into the room. "Dinner's busy."

  She had done something to her hair of which she hoped it was good, and wore one of her better burgundy red dresses, made of heavy velvet, with a nice round neck. The dress fell down to her ankles in long flowing lines. A slight touch of magic made it flow just a bit slower than usual, adding a wonderful dramatic effect to the fabric. The dress itself had a fascinating pattern of deep coppery red brocade on it, that appeared to be changing all the time, like a mosaic. She wore her magical necklace too.

  As she sat at the table, William saw she was trying to do something unclear to a small piece of wood that had several holes in it. There was also some smoke coming from a few scorched places on it.

  "Dinner's... busy?" William frowned at the strange combination of 'dinner' and 'busy'.

  "Yup. You can go and watch it if you want, but it's boring. Kitchen's back there." Hilda pointed to an open door.

&nb
sp; He nodded and started towards the kitchen, when Hilda said: "Hey."

  William turned. "What can I do for you?"

  "Nothing. You look good in that." Hilda nodded and went back to damaging the piece of wood. "Better than the silly stuff you wore when you got here."

  Silly stuff. His expensive suit was instantly demoted to silly stuff. Okay, it wasn't Armani as that was over his budget, but... He shrugged. "Thank you," he said. Then, with a grin, he turned and went to have a look at the kitchen where dinner was supposed to be busy.

  Dinner was indeed busy. A modern kitchen with all conveniences could not beat this one, even though there was no electric thing in sight. The stove was covered in pots and pans, spoons stirring the contents. A piece of meat hung over a fire and turned itself, as a wooden spoon kept pouring gravy over it so the meat would not dry out.

  A set of knives were chopping up vegetables and in some places there were other utensils doing things that William had no idea of. He returned to the black table and sat down on a chair opposite Hilda. "Dinner is indeed busy. Very busy."

  She nodded as she peered at the remains of the wood. "I am not used to cooking for more than one person, so I just took some guesses."

  William grinned. It seemed to be about all that he did there. He watched Hilda as the piece of wood incinerated more and more. "What are you doing?"

  "Magic. And it's difficult so shut up."

  William complied with her order and just watched. He noticed the necklace, the one she had