Hilda - The Challenge
what I can do for you now. Just make sure you come back again. I want to hit you with the fountain again."
Hilda grinned. "We'll do what we can, King Walt."
He nodded, then waved at the leader of the escort, Captain Lambert, and introduced him to the witch and wizard. "These are the people you will accompany, Captain, take good care of them, they are valuable assets to the kingdom."
The captain nodded. "Our lives for their lives, my king." He bowed, then turned to the valuable assets. "Would you then please board your carriage? We have a long way to travel."
Hilda and William walked back to the carriage and, with a new driver on board, the small convoy rattled away from the castle, towards the kingdom of Lorn.
After many hours and plenty of short breaks, it had already gone dark, the group halted near a large farmhouse annex something William called a hotel. It was equipped as a resting place for travellers, and Walt's messengers had done their work well, rooms were already waiting for them, as were hot baths and meals. The soldiers first wanted to sit apart from the magical couple but they then simply sat among their guards, which made the entire seating arrangement quite easy.
Hilda and William wanted to go for an evening walk, just the two of them, but the king's orders were rather strict. After walking for about ten minutes with twelve guards behind them, they gave up and went to their room.
"I hope you do trust us enough to sleep alone here," William said to the three guards that went along to their bedroom door.
"Oh certainly, honourable wizard," one of the men said. "One of us will just remain here guarding the door. We're taking turns. Sir."
The magical duo sighed. "Alright. Have fun."
They closed the door and prepared for bed. Silently. As they lay next to each other, Hilda whispered: "I don't feel comfortable like this. I don't like having someone standing outside the door."
"I'm afraid their only alternative is that one of them stands in the room."
"Grmbl," said Hilda. She put an arm around William. "Mine to keep," she whispered and kissed him on the cheek.
"Gladly," he whispered back, and smiled.
After a while they fell into a disturbed sleep.
The next morning they awoke early.
"Did you sleep any good?", William asked as Hilda sat up and rubbed her face.
"Horribly. We should have brought our own bed," she yawned. "Would have fit easily."
"Yes, no problem. I have big pockets," William agreed. "Too bad we can't fly back and pick it up."
"Should have brought our brooms," Hilda nodded. "This is a drag. Takes so long..." She dropped herself back on the bed. "Can't we just go home and stay there, and join the soldiers a day later? Flying over is so much better."
As William wanted to respond to that, she put her hand over his mouth. "I don't want to hear it, okay?"
He nodded soundlessly.
"Good. Get up then?"
He nodded again.
They got up and after packing their belongings into the three dice again they went downstairs, where breakfast and the small batallion were waiting for them. Not long after that, the convoy was underway again, crossing the land of Lorn and arriving near the border with Ringeholm in the evening. There was another resting place prepared to cater to their needs, and another night went by with bad sleep and a guard by the door.
The morning brought rain. It followed them into Ringeholm, but the kingdom of Oxfern would have been just as wet.
"So what was it with Ringeholm. No unidentified flying witches, right?", William asked Hilda.
"Indeed. If you want to fly here, you need to go through a mountain of papers. Takes the whole thrill out of the flight, really."
"Or laugh at the rules and get trees thrown at you," William remembered.
"Yup." Hilda giggled as she recalled Bilgar's face, waking up on the broomaran with giant arrows being shot at them. "That was quite a trip, wasn't it, when we went to get Bilgar."
William grinned also. "Yes. That was some form of exciting."
They sat in the carriage, listening to the rain and decided that was not exciting at all.
"I have an idea," said Hilda. "I want to do something about this noise. And help our brave soldiers a bit."
"And that would be?", William asked, very interested in any way to lift the boredom.
Hilda popped out her wand. "You too," she said and explained what she wanted to do.
With the both of them holding their wands, they joined forces and sent out a magical umbrella that reached over all the men and carriages in their caravan. As soon as it was in place, the rain was simply diverted to fall to the sides of the path they were travelling over. It did not take long until Captain Lambert pulled up his horse next to the carriage with the valuable assets, and thanked them for shielding them from the rain.
"It is most unpleasant to ride in," he said, "so thank you, on behalf of the men!"
Hilda grinned. "You're welcome. It gives us something to do."
But the rain left, and the need for an umbrella left along with it, so it was back to sitting and riding.
Hilda leaned out the window and shouted for Captain Lambert, who came riding up to them quickly.
"Is something wrong, honourable witch?", he asked, concern ringing in his voice.
"There certainly is. You are outside in the open air, and we are stuck in this shaking box. I don't want to be in here, so I'll strike you a deal. You find a few men on horseback that want to sit here for a while and we'll ride the horses for that time."
"Oh. Uhm." Captain Lambert was quite unprepared for that request. The king had not given him any orders for situations like this one.
"I am going to stop this carriage otherwise," said Hilda. Her tone made it clear that she was very serious, and Captain Lambert was picking up on that expertly.
"I'll see what I can do for you, honourable witch," he promised and rode off to talk to some of the men. It did not take him long to find two men who wanted to hand over the reins of their horses to the magical people.
The convoy came to a halt, to enable the switch of passengers and riders. As Hilda and William got out of the carriage, the wizard whispered: "Nice plan, but I have never sat on a horse before."
"Don't worry. It is just like flying a broom," said Hilda. Blue sparkles were in her eyes and William knew that mischief was not far. He saw how Hilda swooped herself on the horse, the way she got on a broom. Only difference was that the horse was a bit higher. He followed her example and miraculously ended up on top of the horse.
Hilda smiled widely and as the caravan started to move again, the two horses walked along out of habit. The pace was not fast as the carriages held everyone back.
Hilda looked for Captain Lambert, who was very close to them, to be sure things were fine. "Captain Lambert... is it okay with you if William and I go up and ahead a bit, to look around?"
"Of course not, honourable witch. Peter and I will accompany you," the captain said.
"That is very kind of you, Captain," Hilda said with her sweetest voice, "you can come with us as far as you can, of course."
Captain Lambert warned Peter who was not far behind him, and the two soldiers rode up next to Hilda and William. "Whenever you are ready."
54. Pegasus
Hilda was ready. William was a few moments later, as he had already understood what the wicked witch had in mind. Her mentioning that it would be "just like flying a broom" had said enough.
The witch, more used to riding a horse than William, made hers go faster. William's horse followed, as did the two soldiers. Then Hilda's shrieking laughter made the soldiers cringe and William grin. He sensed how she wielded her magic, her wand in her hand. He flipped up his own wand and cast a spell around the horse he was hovering over, and then two of the four riders calmly lifted off into the skies.
The two soldiers saw it happen and at first they did not really understand what they were seeing. Once the brutal fact had registered with them, they both
started shouting that the two magical honourables should get down again for their own good and safety.
Hilda laughed, as did William. They felt good being out of the cart and in the air, wind in their faces and hair. "We'll be back again, don't worry," Hilda yelled down at Captain Lambert. "Just proceed, we'll catch up with you!"
Captain Lambert and Peter pulled the reins, stopping their horses. The entire caravan behind them came to a halt also as everyone peered at the two shapes on horseback, that flew higher and higher.
"What do we do, Captain?", a few men asked.
"You heard her," their leader sighed, "we'll proceed. And hope and pray that they won't get shot down. And Peter, next time I offer to escort a witch or wizard or so, kick me where it really hurts, okay?"
"My pleasure, sir," grinned Peter. He looked back and waved his hand. "Come on, gang, onwards. They'll come back."
With rattling noises, the small group started moving again.
In the air, Hilda and William flew side by side. Their horses were probably amazed by the difference in level, but they did not comment. They seemed to enjoy their sudden freedom and ran like mad trying to go even faster. To no avail.
"Ooooh, this is good," Hilda cried out, "I was going insane there. Maybe we should go ahead a bit more and- oh crap."
The ground crews that kept watch for unannounced flying visitors were awake and they had seen the two riders in the sky. As a result, a small tree in the shape of an arrow was fired at them. As they were high up and still far away, it missed by several hundred feet, but still the warning was clear.
"Maybe we should