Hilda - Cats (21 page)

All these things made for slow progress at
first, but Esmee managed to keep her thoughts on what they had
planned. She walked along the main street of the village, turned
left and right to other streets.

Hilda watched Esmee go along as William
popped out of the room to find some things to snack on. Baba Yaga,
in all her wisdom, had located a vacant chair and had un-vacated
that. She sat in it and snored.

"Good going, girl," the wicked witch
commented as she watched Esmee go. "Keep heading towards the centre
of the village, where most of the houses are. The person who is
responsible for that cat woman is most likely to live there."

Santera looked up and growled. Magda and
Simi, who were with her, quickly glanced at each other. "Santera,
what's wrong?"

The original cat woman jumped up and walked
to the window. She could not see anything outside in the darkness
but she was restless suddenly. "Someone like me is out there," she
commented, "you have to change me and get me outside."

"Someone like you? What do you mean?"

"A cat. A big cat. Like me. I feel her.
Change me, Magda, I have to see her!" Santera looked at Magda in a
pleading way. "Please? Not for long, just... I have to."

Magda worried as she heard Santera speak. Too
much changing had happened, and Santera seemed to be losing grip on
who she really was.

Santera slowly walked up to the half-witch,
sparks in her eyes. "You will change me... now..."

Esmee reached the market square. The rain had
stopped falling. In fascination she looked over the area, the
lights and sounds and smells all so clear and different and
abundant compared to usual. Tomorrow there would be open market,
everywhere stalls had been halfway erected already, carts with
goods stood to one side of the square. The cat woman boldly crossed
the open space, waving her way along the stalls and she looked over
the carts.

"What are you going to do, kiddo?" Hilda
wondered as she munched away a chocolate cookie that William had
offered her. There was a tray of them in front of her.

The wizard sat next to Hilda, his fingers
dark brown from molten chocolate, as he watched Esmee in the small
crystal ball. "She is not going to plunder one of these carts, is
she?" he hoped out loud.

Esmee smelled the dried fish that was in a
crate. She dropped to all fours, ran, leapt, and was on the wagon.
The smell was even stronger there and she could already taste the
fish.

Then a rock clattered against the side of the
cart and a scream startled the former flower witch. She lowered
herself, growled and looked over the side, seeing a group of five
people with torches and weaponry like pitchforks approaching her.
Esmee turned and jumped off the other side of the wagon, but on
that side a few doors opened and villagers appeared carrying
candles and nightgowns.

"Crappedy crap, William, I think we overshot
our goal," Hilda said as she stared at the wizard. "We have to get
her out of there before she panicks or gets hurt."

"On it," William said. He dropped his cookie,
grabbed the broom that was next to him and was out of the window
mere seconds later. Hilda turned back to the crystal ball.

Esmee growled and hissed as one of the
villagers threw a stick at her. It was easy enough to evade, but
the thought that these nice people would throw something at her was
not understandable. She wanted to escape as quickly as possible,
but a quick dash around the wagon taught her that the group of five
had grown to over a dozen already, and that number was growing. And
they were out to get her.

One man, a large broad shouldered one
carrying a torch and an old sword, screamed something
inunderstandable and ran forward, aiming to stab Esmee with the
sword. As he was almost upon her, she jumped up, vaulted over him
and ran off, but the villagers had closed their ranks and made her
stop. She could not jump again, as her landing had not been a good
one. An ankle and a wrist hurt.

Simi looked at Magda's face. The half-witch
looked in pain, sweat suddenly pouring from her forehead. Simi
closed her eyes and prepared for the pain that would come from
giving away her energy.

William on his broom raced over the forest as
fast as he could. It would not take him very long to reach the
market square, he knew, but every extra minute he needed would put
Esmee in more danger.

Esmee meowed loudly, trying to tell the
people that she was a good person, not someone to be butchered with
pitchforks and spades, but the villagers did not take that sound
the way she meant it. A handful of them charged towards her, making
her run on her sore ankle, hide under a cart and even forced her to
defend herself by lashing out with her claws. She had already
gotten one man on a leg; he had hobbled off, cursing loudly.

Several dozen were out in the market square
now. It was Esmee's luck that they were not trained fighters; they
were more hindering each other than supporting. Then there was
movement in the back of the group of people. People were thrown
left and right, growling and hissing accompanying their tumbling.
Esmee heard what happened and her heart started pounding. Then her
very sensitive nose caught a scent and she knew.

Santera had run from Lindolf's house, as fast
as she could. She could smell where her strange kin had walked, the
scent was strong and easy to follow. As she reached the market
square, she quickly understood what was happening.

As the group of people was crowding around
the stalls and carriages, Santera had jumped on a stall, then leapt
from one to the other. She knew her sister was in serious danger,
so Santera threw all caution in the wind and crashed her agile
strong cat-body into the crowd. She fought like a mad cat, clawing
her way through the crowd, making people fall over as she went.

"William is already on the way, Babs," said
Hilda after she'd explained the goings on to her bestest
girlfriend.

"No matter what, I am going after him and
help," said the old witch as she made her broom jump to the window.
"We all are in this, I have to go help my protegé." And then she
was out the window, picking up speed as she went in pursuit of the
wizard.

Esmee found courage from somewhere. If the
other cat woman was able to fight her way to Esmee, Esmee should be
able to fight her way out of there as well. Using all four limbs
she fought, clawed an scratched at anything that was in her way.
Her sudden ferocity surprised many a villager and in the wink of an
eye there was some space around the cart she was under. Esmee
crawled away from it and with a strong jump she was on it again.
She let out a terrifying sound. She managed that with ease, as she
was terrified.

Santera was still making her way through the
crowd. To her surprise there was a sudden movement away from her,
as the people seemed to step aside to let her through. On all
fours, her tail lashing, she shot forward. She saw the other cat
woman on the cart.

Esmee felt a sharp pain in her side. Someone
had crawled up to the cart and now was standing, poking her with a
sharp stick. She slapped at the wood, yanking it from the man's
hand. Before she could attack him, he had run off already. Then she
clearly heard someone shout "Down! Down! From cart!" There was an
urgency in the sound that made her react promptly.

Simi felt faint. The amount of energy that
Magda drew from her was beyond belief, Simi could not understand
that either of them were still conscious. Whatever was going on
around Santera, it had to stop soon, or they'd both collapse.

"Come on, flyboy, faster," Baba Yaga yelled
at William as she caught up with him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" William
yelled back, "weren't you sleeping?"

"I was. Now I'm here to help so shut up and
fly!"

Santera saw Esmee part jump, part fall from
the cart. Esmee landed her her feet and looked at Santera. A jolt
of amazement and also of awe flowed through the young witch.

"Suck an elf," Hilda said, "two of them.
That's awesome."

"With me!" Santera meowed. She did not wait
to see if Esmee had understood. Quickly she dove under the cart, to
reappear on the other side. She had noticed that there were fewer
people there, and that group also was less courageous and
bloodthirsty.

Esmee appeared next to her 'sister' and
noticed the least defended part of the square. "There," she
growled, dropped on all fours and started running, Santera almost
literally on her tail.

"Dammit," William cursed as he and Babs
reached the village. They could see the amount of people that was
in the market square from the number of lights.

Hilda almost bit her finger as she had
another chocolate cookie. She considered going out to the village
also.

Two large wild cats leapt towards the people.
That was a sight fearsome enough for most to stand aside. That
created a passage wide enough for Esmee and Santera to go through
and leave the market square, but the people on the other side of
the cart now streamed past it and started the hunt.

Esmee winced almost every time she landed on
her painful wrist or ankle. This race should not take much longer,
or she'd have to give up and be caught by the villagers.

"Esmee!" a familiar voice screamed. It was
Baba Yaga.

"Wait!" Esmee called out to her cat
sister.

"No!" was the reply, but still Santera turned
into a dark alley. There the two cat women hid in the shadows. The
mob had not seen them jump away; the angry people ran past the
alley.

Esmee watched the cat woman next to her, and
saw how she was looked over also. "Who are you?" Esmee asked, "and
why are you scaring people?"

Before Santera could reply, two dark shapes
on brooms plunged down. There was light coming from sticks they
held. One of the two, Santera understood that they had to be real
witches, grabbed the other cat woman The other person, the strong
arm told Santera that it had to be a man, grabbed her round the
waist and then the two lifted off, upwards.

Santera did not want to be taken away like
that. Scared she lashed out to the arm that held her. A surprised
cry escaped from the man's lips as he let her slip. She landed on
her four paws, on top of a roof. Santera knew where she was and
quickly disappeared in the darkness.

"Did you see that?" William asked Baba Yaga
as he healed the deep cuts that the cat woman had left in his arm,
"she scratched me to escape!"

"It's dark, wizard, and I am carrying a cat
woman myself. Sorry that I did not take some time to watch you.
Better luck next time."

-=-=-

Back in the castle, Hilda and Babs undid the
cat-spell on Esmee and fixed the hurting wrist and ankle. They felt
bad that things had gone so pear-shaped, even when Esmee had told
them that it was all fine.

"We were so good together," the young witch
beamed, "jumping and running and clawing and growling! It was
amazing to see her."

The others agreed. Even Hilda, who had only
seen the other cat woman in the crystal ball, had been impressed by
the creature.

"She spoke to me, too," Esmee continued,
"after she saved me and got us out of that. Only a few words, but
she talked."

"No name, I suppose," said Baba Yaga,
something that Esmee confirmed.

"I had just asked her who she was and why she
was doing that when you two came," she said.

"That was you?" William asked surprised. "I
only heard some muffled meows."

"Whatever," Esmee said as she flexed her
fingers to test the healed wrist. "I know she understood me."

-=-=-

Santera came into the room where Magda and
Simi were. As soon as she entered, her catlike appearance fell away
from her, leaving her naked. She was still panting from the fight
and the run. Slowly she walked to the bed and lay down, pulling the
covers over her.

Simi let go of Magda's hands and tumbled to
the ground. "You safe?" she managed to ask. It was a relief to hear
Santera confirm that. "You almost killed us," Simi said, not
expecting an answer.

"We're going to be hurting tomorrow," Magda
moaned, shivering as the magic dissolved around her.

"Tomorrow? Already there," Simi whispered
just before she passed out.

Magda looked at Santera. The young woman was
bleeding from several cuts. The half-witch hoisted herself to her
feet and tended to the wounds as well as she could. "Please, never
do that again," she muttered to the sleeping woman in the bed.
Magda decided that they would not tell Lindolf about this, unless
he noticed the wounds on Santera and started asking questions about
them.

The rain had started falling again when
William and Hilda retreated to their bedroom. Babs had sent them
off; she would sit with Esmee through the night to make sure the
young witch was unaffected by the long time of being a cat woman
Hilda had tried to take Obsi and Grim with them, but the two cats
did not want to leave Esmee's room.

"Do you think Esmee will be fine?" William
asked his witch as she lay down on top of him.

"I can't think that. I can just hope that,
William," she said as he wrapped his arms around her. "I am sure
she's been shaken up by all of this. I know I would be." She gasped
as his hands slid over her bottom. "You always seem to know where
your hands should be, wizard."

Thunder rumbled, and the department of
lightning started to throw bolts around while the magical couple
advanced in their lovemaking. No matter who was on top, the
lightning and thunder always were able to top that, but the climax
came when a large lightning bolt hit the castle, making everything
in it shake for a few intense seconds.

"Crappers, Hilda," William said, as they lay
in each other's arms, "that was the best bang ever."