Zelda (2009)
8 - Out coldA sound overhead took precedence over William's thoughts. Hilda also looked up, at what the source of the noise could be. What William already feared was true. And this time indeed, it was the worst kind. A helicopter of a news station flew over the buildings in the street. It flew dangerously low. It also flew very slowly. "Is it okay if I borrow your crappedy crap, Hilda?" Because it was in place. From inside the helicopter a large camera protruded, and it was pointing at them. "We can do something about that," Hilda said. She already raised her wand. "Perhaps it's better if we don't, sweetwitch. They're definitely filming us and if we use magic, we'll attract even more attention than we already do." The next moment, a black flash shot out of a sidestreet and came to a halt in front of the helicopter. It was Zelda. And she was curious. She flew around the helicopter a few times, making the cameraman as well as the pilot rather upset. "William?" "Yes?" "If you want, you can borrow it as often as you need to. Oh crap." Somehow Zelda's attention was pointed to the two people on the ground: she had turned her broom and was coming towards them at an insane speed, wand pointing and spraying sparks. Hilda as well as William cast protection spells around themselves, jumped on their brooms and flew off in opposite directions. William feared that the people in the news helicopter would have the day of their lives. And hopefully it would not be their last one. The building they had been in front of suffered severely from the fireworks that Zelda was spraying around from her wand. She screamed in anger as she saw the two fly off, hesitating as she tried to decide which of them she should chase down first. Hilda and William turned sharply, the air around them seemed to protest against this brutal treatment. Wands drawn, they charged at Zelda, slamming her with magic from both sides. It was not holding the raging witch. Zelda pulled her broom up steeply, swinging her wand wildly. Hilda and William had to retreat as the mad witch was not paying attention to where she was spreading her doom. "Suck an elf," Hilda growled as William had joined her again. "She's really gone bonkers, William." "You can say that again, Hilda." "What would that add to the situation?", she wondered, making William laugh. "I'll explain later. Now, first we have a witch to catch." "Hey, you!", a voice interrupted their talk. It came from a man yelling into a megaphone. He was inside the helicopter that was slowly approaching them. "Not them, not now," William grumbled. "Can't we just fly off and do what we have to?", Hilda proposed. "We want to talk to you!", the amplified voice boomed. "We don't want to talk to you, however," William said, nodded at Hilda, and they flew off. Quickly. "So now we have two problems," Hilda decided. "Zelda's the main one, and these people in that flying machine are the second." "Yup. We can ignore the second for now, as they're not able to keep up with us. But they probably filmed a lot of us, and Zelda. And they're not going to present that as special effects." "Sometimes, William, you still say the weirdest things." They rose up to above the buildings of the town, hoping to catch a glimpse of the runaway witch, but as they had already expected, Zelda had found refuge somewhere. And she had not left a neon sign pointing in her direction. "Oh, shiny," Hilda muttered. "We had her, she had us, and now we're back at the start again. And she knows that we're here." "Indeed. But she has the same problem we have: she doesn't know where we are staying." Hilda looked around. "This village is very large. We're going to have a very interesting time here. And the village will never be the same again after that, I tell you." William nodded. "It's not the same anymore since Zelda got here, so we can only add to the damage." The news-helicopter came after them again. "Hello?", the amplified man said. "I suddenly feel like adding to the damage," said Hilda as she made her wand appear. Before William could react, she swooped to the helicopter and hovered close to it, apparently unaffected by the turbulence of the big rotor-blades. "Hey you," she said to the reporter inside the helicopter. The camera-man was struggling to get the best footage of this strange woman on her broom. "You are making things hard on us. We're here to catch a witch and now you are on our tail all the time. We have enough on our hands without you, so you can either go away by yourself, or I will make you go away. And what's that thing?" She pointed at the camera. "That? Oh, that's nothing," the reporter tried to stall. "Really. If it's nothing, you can do without it." Hilda swung her wand, said some Latin, hit it right the first time, and the camera fell apart in many tiny bits. "Now you can go. There's nothing." The reporter and the camera-man stared at the now worthless expensive camera. "Hey you. I'm waiting. Go before I- Oh, suck an elf. Recidi. Goodbye..." As the witch flew back to the waiting wizard, the helicopter started to descend to the ground. The pilot fought the controls all he could, but there was no way his flying skills were a match for magic. An additional problem he faced was that the rotors were no match for the buildings that were just too close to the helicopter. "What did you tell them?", William asked as the helicopter fell the last few feet to streetlevel. "Oh, just that they should leave before I made them," Hilda shrugged. "Right. They didn't." "Indeed. So I did it for them. Now, where can Zelda be?" They spent a long time looking for the wild witch, but to no avail. "We'll probably have to wait until she makes a move again," said Hilda. "And that sucks. I hate waiting." "We can go find some food," William suggested. "Okay. Let's do that..." -=-=- They did not find a new trace of Zelda that day. After food and cruising over the town for a while, they decided to give up for the day and retreated to the room Bert had made available to them. It was still in one piece, so they assumed Zelda did not know where they stayed. Still, before laying down, they spun a light web of magic around the building that housed the bookstore, so they would be alerted if someone magical came near. "I'm glad you are here with me, William." He held her tight for a moment. "So am I." "I'd go crazy here, alone. Like the first time." Hilda felt safe with William. "To tell you the truth, I feel more at home in your world," said William. "It is uncanny how we are hunted and glared at here." "Told you," said the witch that was lying in his arm. "And we'll go back as soon as this business is taken care of." "That we will, for certain and for sure." The glass of the window broke as a stone flew through it. Hilda stopped the stone and the glass from spreading as they jumped off the bed. William stepped over to the window as fast as he could and, in the darkness, he saw a few figures run away. "Damn it. Probably kids who saw us fly in. Or out. That's not good. Word spreads fast in the streets, and Zelda's bound to hear it faster than we want." "So we have to find a new place to stay," Hilda deducted. "That's nice, in the dark." William already had the brooms in hand. "Don't worry, honourable witch," he said, "we'll find a place." "William..." Hilda stood close to her wizard and took his collar in her hands. "No more calling me that, okay? That's for ordinaries. You are not an ordinary. You are a wizard, and you are my wizard." "Okay, sweetwitch." He kissed her. "Now that you can call me anytime," she grinned. William magicked up a note for Bert, thanking him for the room and put it on the bed. Then they got on their brooms and left the house. William and Hilda first went up, so they would not be seen so quickly. Then they set course towards the outskirts of town, where a few highrises were erected. Using magic, they sought out an apartment that was uninhabited, and using some more magic they gained entry and a nicely equipped bedroom. The night went by without noticeable interruptions. Until... "William. I'm cold." "Whu? Oh. Come here... Holy Bejeebus, it -is- cold... what's wrong here?" William popped out his wand and made some light. The room looked as they had last seen it, but the lower part of the window was strangely white. The room was cold. Very cold. Hilda looked around as well. "William... when we went to sleep, it was not winter, right? So why is there snow against the window?" The couple got up, magicked warmer clothes onto themselves and walked over to the window. As far as they could see in the darkness, there was snow. The sky was clear, stars were visible. The window pushed its cold towards the witch and the wizard, which made it clear that outside was not a nice place to be for people. "I don't recall you mentioning that Zelda is a weather-witch," said William. "She's not. I don't know how she does this, it must cost her a tremendous amount of power to do this." The two looked at each other and then, as one, they went for their brooms. William opened the door from a distance, using magic. A large amount of snow fell into the apartment. "Crappedy crap," said Hilda. A swing of her wand later, the snow was gone and the way out was free for them. Making their clothes even warmer, they closed the door, mounted their brooms and flew up into the icy cold night. William estimated that the layer of snow on the ground was about three feet thick as they flew over the silent town, judging from the occasional car that was still visible in the neighbourhoods that were still untouched by the manic witch. "I sense where this is coming from, William, follow me," said Hilda once they had reached a decent altitude. They crossed the town and then flew towards a large building. "I've got to hand it to her," William grumbled, "she's smart. That's the ice cream factory." "Ice cream? What's that?", Hilda asked.
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