Hilda - The Challenge (23 page)

"I have an idea," she said as they had just
past the village. "I said that flying is basically simple,
remember?"

"I remember, yes." William already had a
feeling of what was coming at him.

"Why don't you try it while I hold you?"

William now had the certainty of what was
coming at him. "I somehow knew you were going to propose that."

"And what exactly should I make of that
reply? Are you afraid, William?" Hilda moved her broom closer to
his, and touched his arm for a few moments. "No need for that,
sweet man. I am here. I won't let you fall."

"I know that, Hilda, but the idea is a bit...
daunting."

"Oh, shush, you. Just get the feel. Like you
did yesterday when you wanted to move the broom left and right.
Only now you want to keep it level and going forward."

William's idea for trying to fly had their
origins a bit nearer to the ground, but Hilda was right. She was
there to catch him. "Okay... I will seriously do this."

"Don't cramp up, William. It is really as
easy as breathing. Or kissing...", she added with a smile. "Try to
feel the magic inside the broom. Feel its life, and feel where it
goes. Where you want to go." She kept talking to him, her voice
being gentle, calm, even seductive in bringing his mind into a
state of peace and attentive calm awareness. That would be a first
step into sensing what he'd need.

William let her voice lead him. His vision
seemed to go a little out of focus and he let his senses take over.
He felt the broom, the air, he saw the house where they were going
in his mind and he felt Hilda close to him. William dared to relax
as he let all that take him over.

The feeling of his magic was faint, but it
was there. He had learnt to notice it by now, although there were
plenty of times that he missed it.

Hilda kept a close eye on the man who was
flying next to her. Her sensation of him told her that he was going
in the right mental direction. William was letting go of the
disbelief and the uncertainty. 'Yes, my dear man, you just need to
will it without pushing,' she thought for him.

The hold she had on him was firm. In fact the
hold she had on her magic was firm, and that did the real work.

She noticed a change in William as his magic
flowed out of his core and into his veins. Almost with baited
breath she watched the metamorphosis in him happen as he took
control of the broom and the flight. She slowly started to let
go.

William discovered and embraced a new
feeling. A tingling sensation that was going through him, and it
seemed to envelope him, Hilda, the brooms. It was as a light that
could not be seen, just felt, he decided, and smiled at the idea.
He felt in control of the situation. He knew where they were going.
And how they were doing it.

Hilda saw William's smile and that something
was happening inside him. She had let go of him completely now, and
he was still flying. Very very slowly she made her broom rise up,
only a few inches. William followed. His smile widened, and the
feeling it gave Hilda made that she started smiling also. She did
not say a word, afraid that she would ruin the state of mind he was
in.

William had noticed Hilda's broom rise and
wanted to stay with her. His broom went up. He turned his head to
look at the pretty witch, whose hair was flying wildly behind her,
just because she wanted it to. "How am I doing? Am I doing
something, should I ask?"

Hilda's smile remained as she replied. "You,
William Connoley... you are flying a broom."

"I know that," he said, his eyes shining,
"but-" It was then that he became aware of the actual meaning that
her words carried.

He was flying a broom. He did it himself.
Slowly he turned his head and looked at the bristles in front of
him. The 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?"

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 he 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 is tired,
one part is all energy and roaring to go."

"At least that part of you is behaving in a
normal way," Hilda said, recalling how she had felt as she was
learning all the magical things.