Zelda (2009)
7 - GooThe magical couple, now free of shooting artists, got on their brooms and took to the sky again, where a surprise was waiting for them. William heard it first as he had heard the sound before. "Holy Bejeebus." "What's the matter?", Hilda asked, looking where he was looking. "Suck an elf! What's that?" A helicopter was coming towards them, big search lights shining down on the desecrated streets. "That, Hilda, is one of the ways people in this world fly. And they are coming too close for my taste, so let's go down-" that was the moment the search light hit them. "Crap. Too late." Despite that, they dropped downwards again, the light following them until they were among the buildings. William, still knowing where they were, led Hilda through some of the more narrow streets until the helicopter's search light had certainly lost them. "That thing is called a helicopter. And I hope it was not the helicopter of a news station." William did not like that idea one bit. "We can make it go away, though," said Hilda. "We can. But we won't. We are going to stay away from that thing. If they have cameras on board, they'll film us and then we're screwed. In a major bad way." The helicopter flew over without seeing them. "Damn. This makes the search for Zelda much more difficult," William muttered. Hilda frowned. "But if we just-" A loud shrieking laugh came from somewhere. The two looked at each other and knew who did that. Then there were some raw screeching sounds, where metal was obviously torn from metal and an engine was forced to do things an engine was not supposed to do. Several loud crash-sounds and a heavy thud later, the laugh sounded again. "I think someone just did. But not the nice way," Hilda finished. "She's near. Come." Hilda sped away on her broom, William only inches behind her as they darted through the streets. The people from the town would look after the ones in the helicopter. If there was anything of them left to look after. A few minutes after they had started their chase of Zelda, Hilda stopped the rapid flight. They hovered in front of a large, high building. "I've lost her. Too many big buildings here, I think. At home it's easier. Mad world." Disappointed, they backtracked to where they had seen the helicopter come down. From a safe distance they looked at the group of people who were ignoring the curfew and trying to get the passengers of the machine to freedom. "They don't need us," William decided. "I suggest we go back to the room that Bert allowed us, and rest up a bit. And we should see about some food also." Food was no problem, of course, their magic was more than capable of producing some. "I miss the crazy kitchen," William said as they lay on the bed, staring into the darkness. "It's not crazy, sweet man. It just has an attitude. Like a witch does. It's this world that's crazy." Hilda snuggled up to her wizard. "And there's something else I have to tell you." "Which would be?" "I love you." She pressed her lips against his cheek. -=-=- The next morning came with a loud noise. The couple flew from the bed and looked out of the window. An army tank moved through the street. The machine had problems conquering the debris that was in front of it, but it made progress. Unfortunately, it was going the wrong way, as O'Malley's was down the other side of the street. "Crappedy crap," Hilda muttered, "that's no way to wake up a witch." She was tempted to use her wand on the noise-maker. "Let's wait until they're gone before we go out," William suggested. "No. We have to move now. It must have woken up Zelda too. Provided she was asleep at all." Hilda had a point, so they opened the window and flew out, to the former pub. They climbed high, hoping the people in the tank would not notice them. Around the bar everything was silent. Very silent. Zelda had put up some kind of dampening spell, Hilda told William. "That should mean she's in. Let's pay her a visit." That was easier said than done, though. The spell was obviously intended to keep out more than just sound. "Not one for visitors, is she?", William muttered as they did not get through the shielding. Hilda nodded as she looked up. "Ah. Window. Maybe..." She launched herself with the broom. "Crap." The window was sealed also. William got an idea as he saw Hilda work. He went to the roof of the building and found it was possible to make an opening in there. "Hilda, up here." "Good wizarding, William," she said. William went down the hole first, having more experience with measurements of normal houses. Then Hilda followed, trusting William to catch her as she was coming down. Her trust was not in vain. Once in the attic of the building, Hilda took her wand and scanned if the protection that Zelda had put up was near. Things seemed safe though. Lighting their way with their wands, they found a door that led to a staircase, so down they went. Silence had claimed the building. It was shockingly present everywhere. It seemed to bounce off the walls that they passed and it ran up the stairs to meet them. Hilda looked at William and put a finger on her lips. They had to be silent. Slowly and with the utmost care they walked down the stairs. Hilda knew that she should not try a silencing spell of her own, as that would clash with the thing Zelda had put up. Walking down screaming and stomping would be smarter. As they descended further, the effect of the dampening spell became more prominent as moving became harder. Hilda silently cursed the spell, but persisted. Somewhere there had to be an end to this beast. Through the bond she encouraged William to keep coming down. They had to be close to the exit of the spell, Hilda was certain. After all, Zelda herself had to be able to move freely inside it. Just as she reached the landing on the lower floor, her foot was free of the syrup-like resistance they were pushing themselves through. With care Hilda dragged herself out of the layer that made up the spell and waited for William, notifying him that the ordeal was almost over. William left the invisible tar pit and saw Hilda again holding her finger over her lips. Of course. Now they were in the open, so sound would travel normally again. He nodded. They moved to the staircase that would get them to the ground floor, where Zelda probably was. As Hilda put her foot on the first step, an eerie wailing reached their ears. "She's singing," Hilda whispered, rectifying William's initial idea of the source of the sound. "That's singing?", he whispered back. Hilda nodded. "She probably knows we're here by now. I sense her clearly as well." She progressed downwards, the wizard in her wake, and when she reached the bottom of the stairs, she simply kicked open the door. The interior of the bar had declined even more since their first visit. All the furniture, coloured black now, was piled up in a corner of the large room. In several places large and ferocious-looking plants grew out of the floor. The large brown flower-heads turned towards the magical couple as they came in. They did what probably was the plant-version of drooling. A large bed stood in the middle of the room, black with everything on and around it black. On it lay a person. Dressed in black. The dreadful wailing came from the bed and only stopped as Hilda and William walked over and looked at Zelda. "Oh. It's you," the woman in black said. She had a deadly pale face, long black hair, and black fingernails. One would almost think she was fond of black. "Yes. It's me. And William. And you're coming back with us. You have no business here, in this world." "Hahaha!!" Zelda sat up and laughed at the couple. "But you are so wrong, honey. This place is my business as of now. I like it here, there is so much to play with and so much to get!" Suddenly Zelda had her wand in her hand and flicked it. Hilda and William wanted to jump but the bad witch had taken them by surprise. One of the large plants swung at them and slammed them to the floor, making them roll away from the bed, back towards the door. Another large plant seemed to fall on top of Zelda, sucking her into the large flowery head. It swung away from the bed and put Zelda on her feet close to the exit that led to the street. "Best for you if you go home, Grimhilda. This was a friendly reminder not to mess with me. Next time it will be unpleasant." A flick of the wand later, the plant that had knocked over Hilda and William dropped a load of sticky and foul-smelling goo over them. "Oh. Maybe this time it is unpleasant already." Zelda laughed, took her broom and walked out, lifting the silencing spell for a moment. "Crap." Hilda meant it. "Oh crappedy crap!" Quickly she got her wand out and magicked the goo away from herself and William. "Holy Bejeebus, Hilda, that was just in time," William gasped as the goo disappeared from his face. It had started to crystallise, immobilising them and also doing a fair bit of suffocating. "She's bad news, William. Very bad news. We have to handle her with care." "How on earth do you take on a witch like that? She doesn't seem to know the existence of the word mercy." "Mercy? What's that?" Hilda looked at him in surprise. Then, at his astounded face, she had to laugh. "Sorry, sweet man, I could not resist. Let's go and get our brooms. Good thing we left them on the roof, not the first place she'll look for them, if she does at all." Zelda had left a rather simple spell in place to keep curious people out. It was not a problem for the magical couple, and soon they were outside, in the street. They summoned their brooms that came falling down from the roof and calmly landed in the waiting hands. "Where would she have gone," William wondered. He tried to think of something that could be interesting for a really bad-tempered witch from his new world.
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