Zelda (2009)
22 - Talk-offAs the witch and the wizard worked on cleaning the area, some people dared to come out of the buildings and look at them. From a safe distance, they assumed. William started destroying the machine gun when the square was free of glue. He took pride in that part and turned the weapon into a small statue of a dragon, leaving it on the grass. "William? What are these folks staring at?" Hilda tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned around. "Us." He was certain. "It will also be very easy to scare them, so we should be careful." Hilda nodded. "No shouting, I guess, right?" "You learn so quickly, sweetwitch." William looked at a group of over a dozen people. "Hello, you all!" Mere seconds later the group had disappeared inside, the door slamming shut behind the people. Hilda looked at William. "About time you learn a bit or two about addressing people, sweet wizard." She flashed her sweetest smile at him. "Hmmf. It probably was the wand," William offered a feeble defense, making Hilda burst out in laughter. "I did find something interesting though," the wizard said. He showed Hilda the small hole in the ground. It was where the glue-blob had been that was meant to contain Zelda. "Looks like she simply sunk through the ground and escaped like that." "Bah," Hilda commented. "I didn't know she knew that one." Her face betrayed that she did not know how to do it. "Well, look at it from the bright side. We did get her stuck for a while, and cornered her." William felt good about that. "It's the closest we ever got to nailing her, Hilda." "Yeah. Still it sucks elves that she got away." Hilda leaned into William, who put an arm around her and kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks, William. I needed that." They called for their brooms and then flew off, while many curious yet scared eyes watched them. -=-=- As they were sitting in their homely shed, Hilda said: "It feels good that we got her." William nodded. "Yes, it does. She will know now that she is not as invulnerable as she may have thought." It would also make Zelda more careful, which was the downside of the story, he added for himself. "I hope the witches of this place will pull together," Hilda sighed. "Looks like we're going to need them." William nodded. "Yes. Looks like it indeed." He was not thrilled with the prospect all of a sudden, after meeting the women. They were nice and seemed willing to help them, but there was still the question of how much help they could be when the going was getting tough. Because at some point the going was bound to become just that. "I also suppose Zelda will lie low for a while now. She's been damaged in her pride, I'm sure." A rumble, low and soft, made its way into the shed as Hilda spoke. She looked at William. "Did I speak too soon?" "Let's find out," the wizard replied as they both got up. Not much later they were in the air again. Slipping away from the former military base, with all its business going on, was becoming more and more easy. The magical couple rose up high, to have a clear overview of the town. William did his best to discover what might have rumbled, but there was nothing out of the ordinary from this distance. "It can't have been far away," Hilda said. William agreed, so they focused on the area closest to the camp. It did not take them long to find the source of the sound. A small mall that was near the road from the camp to the town was now even smaller. The entire block that held the shops seemed to have slipped down several feet into the ground. "This doesn't happen by itself," William started to say. "She's around, William," Hilda interrupted him. "She's probably-" The fact that part of the roof of one of the shops shot upwards to them made it clear that Hilda's feelings were right. Zelda was in the shop. She sensed her enemy overhead and attempted to slam the roof into her and the wizard. It was easy for the couple to get out of the way of the roof. At the same time they pulled their protection around them. There was no telling what Zelda was cooking up for them while under the cover of the roof now gone projectile. William pointed to a wall and dropped behind it. Hilda followed him. Sitting there, they would at least be out of sight of the evil witch. In that position they waited. "She's still around," Hilda whispered. "Where?" William whispered back. "Don't know. Back there." Hilda pointed to the wall. "Dragon turds," they then heard. It was spoken loudly and in a highly annoyed tone. "Grimhilda, I know you're here. Show your face, you mouse-head." "Mouse-head?" William said without making a sound. He decided to immediately forget that, after seeing Hilda's expression. Hilda then slowly got up. "Come," she said to William, and as he had risen to his feet, she walked around the wall, William right behind her. The wizard did not understand the reason for this behaviour, but he would stick with Hilda no matter what. Zelda stood next to the roofless building. Her broom hovered next to her. She seemed to be in a mood that did not mean fighting. "So there you are." "Yes. And there you are." Hilda nodded. "This is William," she said, putting her hand on William's arm for a moment. "My wizard." Zelda, her hands on her back, nodded. "I heard. Good for you." She looked at William. "Hello, wizard." "Hello, Griselda." William nodded. "Why don't I sense you?" "I'm not from your world. I'm from here." Zelda frowned. "Wizard. From here." She was clearly working on that one, as she had not encountered witches or wizards in this world herself. "You'd better stop your terror here, Zelda," Hilda said. "You can't win." Zelda smiled. It almost made her look friendly. "I don't use terror. I just use convincing methods. And I don't have to win. I just have to enjoy." William kept silent. He was not at all sure what was going on, with both witches talking to each other in this rather polite way. "Then we will have to do our best to see to it that you do not enjoy," Hilda said. "Oh, but I would really enjoy that, Grimhilda." Zelda magicked up three chairs, so they could all sit down. William was even more stumped and surprised as that happened. He watched Hilda sit down and then followed; he was not certain if the chairs could have been prepared for something funny by the bad witch. "So what's your plan here then?" Hilda asked straight out. "Oh, nothing much. Turn a few places upside down. Get rid of you two annoying pests. Make a group of people my followers. Things like that." Zelda seemed very relaxed about this all. William was more and more lost. How could this witch now be chatting along as if she was with friends, after all her attempts to kill him and Hilda? "I hope," said Hilda, "that you understand that us coming after you is nothing personal." "Of course it isn't. You're just being the good little witch you always are, but you refuse to acknowledge," Zelda said. The tone in her voice held scorn and contempt in a manner William had never encountered before. It was almost a form of art. It probably was magically induced. Hilda wriggled her nose, and the legs of Zelda's chair made a cracking sound. "Good little witch. Pah. Go suck an elf." "Oh, I would, if there were any around. I looked, believe me, and found none." Zelda fortified her chair. William sensed that there was some tension building and sat ready to act, unsure what kind of action would be called for. "So what's with the roof just now? And the building over there sinking?" Zelda looked displeased. "Must be a fault in its construction. I was working on an innocent little spell when the whole thing sunk into the ground." William grinned, earning an angry look from Zelda. Fearlessly he looked her in the eye. "You were working on something with gravity." "You can't know that!" Zelda said, too quickly and too loudly. Now it was Hilda's turn to frown, but she would ask William how he had known that later. "And the roof was just a welcome to you two," Zelda replied to the other part of Hilda's question. William did not believe her. The witch had first messed with something, sinking a whole building into the basement, and then, he was convinced, she had tried something else. Lifting the building up again or so. And doing a botch job on that. He kept his ideas to himself though. No need to provoke Zelda more, she was worked up enough from what he could tell. "I hope we'll find a way to have a fair fight," Hilda said. "We can't allow you to wreck this world." "You have no choice, darling," said Zelda. "I don't fight fair." "We noticed," William commented. He thought back to the Nobbleback dragons they'd had to get rid of. The same beasts that had given Zelda her head start into this world. "Thank you." Zelda seriously seemed to appreciate William's comment, taking it as praise in a distorted way. Hilda got up and made her chair vanish. "I think we had a really nice talk, Griselda. We'll fight again." William got up as well, leaving his chair where it was. "Yes, just go away, you two. And leave me in peace. Go back to the other world, where things are simple and easy, will you? Stay out of my hair and I won't attempt very hard to kill you." Zelda looked up at them, very self-assured. The magical couple summoned their brooms and got onto them. Hovering a few feet off the ground, Hilda said: "Don't count on that. But then, arithmetic never was your strong point." Zelda's face grew dark for a long moment. William sensed that Hilda was about to fly off, through their link. He popped up his wand. Zelda stared at it. "Isn't that Gerdundula's wand?" "It was," William confirmed, "now it's mine." He was aware that he could not affect Zelda's fortified chair. He could, however, do something to the ground beneath it. And he did. As Zelda screamed, falling down a pit with her chair, William said: "Come. Let's go." Hilda's eyes were pouring out admiration for William as they flew off. As they were going, not in the direction of their shed of course, she said: "You were magnificent with that last action, William. I would never have thought of that. It just is not done." "What isn't? Dropping her in that hole?" "Indeed. We were having a witches talk-off, and the people involved in that don't use magic on each other." "And that is a rule?" William wondered if he had violated something he did not know of. "Not a rule. But witches just don't do that." He grinned. "I'm not a witch. I'm a wizard. Maybe that is a valid excuse." Hilda laughed out loud. "That might be the only excuse. Wizards usually treat all rules with contempt. Uhm. I'm sorry, but that is how it is." William looked at Hilda. "Oh. That is nice to know..."
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