Hilda and Zelda (26 page)

"You close your eyes and hope that this is
just imagination, girl!" the iPod declared. Then it slowly fell
down onto a carcass. The wire of the earbuds got caught in the
ribcage; the player itself gently swung back and forth inside
it.

Everything stood still in the
container-building for neverending seconds. There was no sound, no
movement. All living creatures held their breath. Even Zelda had
fallen silent.

Then the creature turned to the mirror and
jumped. The scream that came from Zelda echoed through the hall and
ended abruptly as the creature took her away, into the mirror. At
that same moment all the soldiers in the army of grave-dwellers
collapsed and all black mirrors shattered.

Hilda and William cast protective shields all
around, to prevent people from getting cut up by the flying
glass.

The clatter of black glass on the ground and
remains of the scary army slowly came to an end. After the echoes
of the last cling and clang had died away, a silence descended over
the battlefield. But not for long.

"Suck an elf." Hilda, still up on her broom,
could not hold back. "Did you all see that?"

William, who had dropped himself to the
ground as had everyone else, slowly sat up. "Yeah. Was hard to
miss, really." Some shards of black glass fell from his clothes and
fell on the person lying next to him. "Oh. Sorry about that."

It took a while, but finally everyone had
gotten to their feet again. William had crunchily walked over
carcasses and opened the door to let in some fresh air and a very
limited amount of light. Most candles had gone out in the blast
that had happened when the mirrors had cracked. He stepped to the
side and breathed deeply a few times, as more and more people
emerged from the metal temple of doom. Everyone was covered in
dust, and dirt of preferably ignored origins.

Hilda was the last person to leave the
strange building; she had made sure nobody had been left behind.
"Everyone accounted for?" she asked, as she floated into the light
on a somewhat damaged broom.

Vivian's group was present, Stephen and
Rodney were looking around and counting their flock and gave the
magical couple the thumbs up.

"Do you know where Zelda went?" William
asked, rubbing his face so the dirt on it was distributed less
evenly.

"No idea. Wherever the grey guy took her, I
guess. A bit of a shame. She was a good witch. Magically, I mean.
She pulled off some pretty mean stunts." Hilda hopped off the
broom.

William nodded.

Hilda sneezed. "I suggest we close this place
down, William," she then said. "Bad place, wrong ground."

The wizard nodded again.

"Hey. I'm talking to you." Hilda waved her
hand in front of William's face.

"What? Oh. Yes. This is not a place to keep
open."

"William, where are you?" Hilda frowned and
wiped some dust from her face.

"I wonder where they're from," the wizard
said, pointing at the two black cats that sauntered out of the
container.

Hilda watched the two animals that walked
over to them. The black pair sat down and looked up at the two
magical people, with bright yellow eyes. "Meoww," one of them
stated.

"Hello, kitties," the witch said. She bent
down to pet the two cats, who allowed that. They even rewarded the
witch with a purr. Then she got up and said: "Right. How will we do
this, William?" She pointed at the stack of containers.

"First we'll get everyone out of here," he
suggested, walking away from the building and looking at it. "Then
we could turn that thing into a big fence and put it around the
area."

Hilda grinned. "I knew I kept you around for
something." She walked off, calling Vivian and Stephen to join her,
and explained their plan.

Stephen was slightly disappointed with it,
but he had to agree that it was the best thing to do. After what
had happened, even he was convinced that relocating was the
smartest thing to do.

It was easy to arrange for transport out of
there. Most of the people that Stephen had called in had come over
by car or bike, so Vivian and the others of the coven were loaded
in and fifteen minutes later the last car was about to leave.

"Hey, person, you are forgetting the
animals," Hilda said as she pointed to the two black cats.

"They're not ours," said the man at the
wheel.

"So what about them then?"

"Dunno. You take them." With that he drove
off.

"Suck an elf..."

"Hilda..."

"What?" She turned to William.

"I was thinking... the cats that charged
Zelda in there..." The wizard kept an eye on the cats. "Do you
think that were these two?"

"Get real, wizard. The ones in there were
big. Mean. Feline ferocity if ever I saw it. These two are just
cute." She kneeled down with the cats again and scratched willing
heads. "See? They won't hurt anyone. I think they were just scared.
Strays or so."

"Hmm." William was not convinced. "Well,
let's put up fences here."

They were halfway through their fencing, when
William suggested something to eat and drink. Hilda agreed with
that.

As they sat at the table they had magicked
up, eating the food they had acquired through the same way, Hilda
said: "You know... about the kitties... there is something strange
about them."

"As what?"

"I just realised that they are remarkably
clean. They were in there, during the battle. Look at you, you're
dusty all over. Hmm, I even have some dust here and there." She
patted her sleeve, making dustclouds jump up. "We should do
something about ourselves," she frowned as she watched the large
puffs float away whilst falling apart. A flick with the wand worked
miracles, or rather magic.

As soon as the couple was cleaned up, the two
cats got up, meow'd peacefully and each one jumped on a lap.

"Now what's this?" Hilda wondered, staring at
the black animal that folded itself comfortably in her lap.

"I have the uncanny feeling that we just got
adopted by a couple of cats, sweetwitch," said the wizard who
started stroking the black cat in his own lap.

"I adopt. I don't get adopted," Hilda
muttered. "Ksh, go." She waved a hand at the cat. It didn't even
look up. A flick of its tail was the only indication it might have
noticed the movement. "And I don't adopt," the witch added to her
statemtent.

"You adopted me," William grinned.

"That's different. Come. You clear away the
table and chairs. I'll go on with the fence thing here." Hilda got
up, wondering what the cat would do. It elegantly dropped to its
paws and wandered off as if this had been planned since a long
time.

William picked up the cat from his lap and
put it on the ground. He watched it walk away to its brother. Or
sister. He grinned.

Almost an hour later they were done. The
large lump of containers was gone and a rather sturdy fence was
around a large area. The wind would take care of the dusty remains
that were still lying around. Hilda and William had agreed not to
deal with those.

"I think we're all set to go," Hilda said.
"Let's go to Vivian and see how things are there."

William agreed. "We'll have to share your
broom, Hilda. Mine is in shambles."

Her's was still in one piece, although it
bore lots of proof from the battle. "I'm sure that we can get away
with this," she nodded. "You fly. I sit in front of you."

William picked up the broom and floated it
beneath him. Hilda hopped on it and smiled as he put an arm around
her. The two cats came running and jumped. One sat in front of
Hilda. The other landed on William's shoulder and made itself
comfortable there.

"Suck an elf," the witch said, her eyes
large. "Make it go away!"

"Slap it yourself," said William. "I knew
someone who owned cats. If they are there to stay, they are there
to stay. I am not going to sacrifice my skin, lady."

Hilda grunted something that sounded like
'coward' and slapped at the cat. "Ouch." She magicked the cat to
the ground, but it was like throwing a rubber ball: it bounced
right back onto the broom. After a few more tries, Hilda resigned.
"Dragon's balls... we'll take them along and leave them with
Vivian. She looks like a person who loves cats."

"Or Gladys," William said as he made the
broom lift off.

"Or Gladys," Hilda nodded.

They flew to the town. As they were over the
streets, there were a lot of people outside, working on making
right again what Zelda had made wrong.

"Looks like the word's spread already," Hilda
said. Her voice was flat. The cat in front of her nudged its head
under her hand, and she slowly stroked it as she gazed down.

William knew what was bothering her. After
all, Zelda had been a witch. One of her kind. He pulled her a
little closer against himself. "It was not what we wanted, but
there was nothing more we could have done, Hilda."

She nodded. "I know. Still sucks elves. It
destroyed magic, and it broke her wand also."

"She did that herself."

"Hmm. I'm glad you are okay, William."

"And I am glad you are okay, Hilda."

"Hey! Up there!" The excited scream came from
below.

The couple looked down and saw a small group
of people looking up at them and pointing. William slowed down.

"Did you really get rid of the witch?"
someone from below shouted up.

"Yes. She's gone." It was Hilda who replied.
The cheer from below made her draw in a deep breath. "She's gone,"
the witch whispered.

William got the cue and made the broom fly up
again, and quickly flew on to Vivian's house. In that street many
people were outside also. He landed the broom in the garden. He was
certain that Hilda could do without many questions now. As they
were almost on the ground, the two cats jumped off.

The sudden absence of a cat-head made Hilda
jolt. "Crappedy crap," she muttered, "that's what I mean." She got
off the broom, hugged William, turned, picked up a cat and went
into the house.

"I'll be damned if I ever understand that
witch," the wizard said to the remaining cat. He put the broom
against the wall and went inside also, the black cat running ahead
of him.

In the living room almost all seats were
taken. Rick and Vivian were there, of course. Andy, Gladys, Tory
and Jessica were sharing the couch. Cornelia sat on a cushion on
the floor, and to William's surprise Buster was sitting next to
her.

"Hey wizard," Hilda cheered from the kitchen
chair she sat on. There was another one next to her, empty, and she
patted it. "Come, sit here."

William sat down. "Everyone looks cleaned
up," he grinned. The cat jumped up in his lap and lay down there.
Only then the wizard noticed that Hilda also had a cat on her
knees.

"Do you want coffee? Or tea?" Vivian asked,
already on her feet.

"Tea please. Lots of it."

"No problem." Rick stood up also and pushed
Vivian back in her chair. "You sit, you've done enough. I'll take
care of this." Many eyes followed him as he made his way to the
kitchen.

"Now there is someone who changed overnight,"
Jennifer commented.

Vivian nodded. "We told him what happened.
Well, most of it. He's -uhm- impressed?"

The magical couple then heard how the return
trip of the coven had gone. As the first cars had reached town, the
people in it had gotten out and proceeded on foot, telling everyone
that the witch who had wreaked havoc on the town for so long had
been defeated.

"Not many wanted to believe us at first,"
Cornelia said.

"Guess that's cuz how we were looking,"
Buster added. "Crap all over, and wearing robes and stuff."

"And tattoos and earrings," Cornelia grinned.
Then, to the surprise of Hilda and William, she hugged the devil
worshipper, and the hug was returned.

"Uhm... 'scuse me?" Hilda wiggled her finger
towards the two on cushions. "Did we miss something interesting or
sleezy?"

Cornelia giggled. Buster shook his head.
"No."

"Oh Goddess, you should have seen them, in
the car," Gladys laughed. "Cornelia was stuck on top of him and he
almost did not dare to hold on to her in corners. She cursed him
for letting her bang into the side of the car, and then he held on
to her-"

"Hey! No need to become specific!" Cornelia
turned red.

The laughter made Rick reappear from the
kitchen. That and the gifts he carried, in the form of hot
beverages, cakes and sandwiches. He was highly appreciated for
it.

As the group was eating and talking about the
sincerely strange events of the day, there was a loud knocking on
the door. Rick looked at Vivian and got up to answer the door. He
came back with two police officers in his wake.

The two men in uniforms did not need long to
state their business: they spotted Hilda and William, walked up to
them and then one of them said: "You two are under arrest."

William raised his eyebrows almost to his
hairline, "I beg your pardon?"

Hilda responded in a slightly more witchy
manner. She flipped out her wand and said: "You're kidding."

One of the policemen drew his gun. He should
not have done that.

"Gravis telum," the witch said, pointing her
wand at the gun that was pointing at her. The weapon dropped to the
floor where it landed with a thud that was far louder than a normal
handgun should make.

"Pick it up!" the other policeman said,
embarrassed that his partner made such a fool of himself. The
subject of this aggravation kneeled down and tried to lift his gun
from the ground.

The room had gone silent. The coven members
stared at policemen, Hilda and William picked up some more
sandwiches and the two cats jumped to the floor and silently walked
off.