Hilda - Cats

by Paul Kater

Published by the author at Smashwords - Copyright 2011 Paul Kater

License Notes, Smashwords Edition:

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Contents:

1. Messages

2. Zelda's house

3. Follow that stork

4. Meet the family

5. Reading the bones

6. Princes and Princesses

7. Royalty

8. Cat hunt

9. Confusion

10. A strange meeting

11. A village trip

12. Now listen

13. Watch where you're going

14. A chat with Jordan

15. To be a frog

16. Alarm

17. Frog

18. Night watch

19. Under attack

20. Boots

21. Shed

22. Talks

23. Scratches

24. Lindolf

25. Prince Jordan

26. The four

27. Cat woman

28. A close call

29. Is that Esmee?

30. The tough get going

31. Charge of the light brigade

32. It's over

About the author

Books I published

1. Messages

Upon their return from William's wonky world, the magical couple had found the big wooden pole near the house littered with arrows carrying messages for the honourable witch and wizard. The two honourables had collected all the messages and dropped the arrows in a basket outside the door. That way the message archers could fetch their arrows without disturbing the peace of the magical ones.

The messages had remained untouched on the table for a considerable time, while Hilda and William took long baths, slept, ate and got reacquainted in the relative tranquility of their own many walls.

When finally they returned to the living room, the house was very much displeased. "I know that it is not my position to complain," it said, "but these two black animals you have brought back... are they going to stay here?"

Hilda stared at the two cats who had found their home in the home on the highest bookshelf. "Seems so. And you're right. You are here to be a house, not to complain." Then she turned to William, who had arranged for a few cups of tea and a plate of cookies. "What do we do with these beasts?"

As William came close to the table, both cats jumped to the ground and calmly trotted over to him. It looked as if they owned the place. It made him grin. He put the tea and the cookies on the table. "I think it is neat to have a few cats around. As long as they don't make a mess I'd say we keep them around."

"I'm still not convinced," said Hilda. She reached down and picked up the cat nearest to her. She put it in her lap and started stroking the soft fur. "I mean, we don't do a thing with them. We don't know what they're good for, and if all they do is sit on the shelf..."

William watched his witch for a few moments. Then he shook his head. "Here's your tea. And don't drop your cat while you drink it."

"Drop my- oh..." Hilda looked a bit lost as she noticed what she was doing.

William smiled. He sat down and the other cat jumped, landing in the wizard's lap. "So what's your peeve with the cats, house?"

"They are hairy. Cats are hairy, and they shed their hair everywhere," the house announced.

"And what is your problem with that?" William asked. The cats had not left any hair lying around since they had gotten home. He just had gathered something for them so they could eat and drink, and that was all. Hilda had arranged for a magical litter box that cleaned itself, so that was also taken care of.

The house was silent, as if it was thinking about a good answer. "There is no problem. Yet. I just want to draw your attention to this before a problem does arise," it said.

"I doubt there will be a problem, house," Hilda said as she picked up her tea.

Her cat calmly got onto the table and carefully walked over to the stack of messages. She sat down with it and sniffed the papers one by one. The magical couple watched the animal as she took her time to inspect each and every snippet. Then, apparently satisfied, she walked back over the table and reclaimed her position on Hilda again.

"We still don't know where they came from, do we?" William did not expect an answer on that question. The cats had appeared from nowhere as they had gone in for the final confrontation with Zelda the witch, and the two had not left them after that. "I like them."

Hilda slowly nodded as she tried to feed her cat a piece of her cookie. The cat was not set on cookies though. "Meowwww..." the animal complained after Hilda's second attempt. Easily she slipped from under the witch's arm, and soon she was on the top bookshelf again, from where she had a perfect view over the entire room.

William's cat peacefully stayed where he was. The wizard's hand made him purr gently.

Hilda looked at the scene and smiled. "They're beautiful, aren't they? I wonder if they have names."

William grinned. "If they do, they are not going to tell us, sweetwitch." The cat in his lap looked up at him, the two bright yellow eyes shining as if they came from a- "Shadow. That's it. I'm going to call this cat Shadow."

"Shadow What?"

"How do you mean that? Shadow what?"

"Cats of people like us have a double name, William. They also have a short, simple name for when we're alone with them. So you pick Shadow, but something has to go with it. Before or after, but just Shadow won't do." Hilda reached for another cookie.

A soft purr came from the bookshelf. The couple looked up at the cat that had taken up station there. "Black as Onyx," William remarked.

"Yes, you are right. Her fur shines like onyx, indeed. How good of you, William." Hilda got up, touched the wizard's hand and then slowly walked to the bookshelves, her eyes on the cat. "Would you like to be called Onyx, black cat?" she asked, calmly reaching up and waiting. "Onyx?"

The cat on the shelf seemed to contemplate the waiting hand. Then lazily she reached out a paw and touched Hilda's hand a few times. "Mworrr..." was the cattish comment.

"Yes. You are an Onyx cat, aren't you? Come here, Onyx cat," Hilda said. She held up both her hands. The cat got up, looked around the room from her high post once more time and then lightly jumped from the shelf, full of trust. She landed in Hilda's hands. "I think you and I will be good friends, Onyx," said the witch as she turned and beamed a smile at the wizard.

"You need to add something to that name, Hilda. Just Onyx doesn't do it."

"Oh, hush you. What do you know?" Hilda walked to the table and sat down. "Only the things that I tell you." She frowned. "Hmm. Those are good things. Hmm." The witch sipped some tea. Then she looked at the cat in her lap. "Do you think you are a Grimalkin?"

Immediately the black head turned and the yellow eyes stared at Hilda.

"Crappedy crap, she really reacts to that name. Grimalkin." As she said the name, the cat's stare intensified for a moment.

William watched the scene and noticed the reaction of Onyx cat as Hilda said the name. "She does, Hilda. She reacts to Grimalkin." He had barely said it when Onyx's head turned to him. "I think you found her name."

Hilda picked up the cat with both hands and looked at the small face. "Very good, you. And your familiar name will be Grim. Like mine. Grimhilda. Grimalkin. You are Grim."

William, watching her, had stopped stroking his cat. Shadow did not seem to like that, it jumped up, knocking William's chin with his head. "Ouch, that hurt!" the wizard muttered. "That animal has a head hard as rock."

"Obsidian," Hilda said. "He's black, so it should be obsidian. Obsidian is hard as well."

"Obsidian, eh?" William said, as he rubbed his chin. "That sounds pretty nice. Obsidian Shadow." It was more his hand touching the cat than the name, that made Shadow lie down and relax again, but the name had a good ring to it. "And the short name will be... Obsi?"

"Obsi?" Hilda stared at her wizard. "What kind of name is that? Obsi. Obsi."

"Now, then explain Grim to me. Sounds grim enough, you know." Obsidian Shadow looked up at William. "Muwhhh," he said. "See? He agrees. Obsi agrees." William grinned.

Then Grim and Obsi both looked away, to the same spot. A moment later, Hilda's large crystal ball started making its pinging noise, which told them that someone was trying to talk to them.

Hilda frowned. Onyx jumped on the ground as the witch got up to walk to the ball. "It's Babs!" She waved over the ball. "Hello Babsi baby!"

"Hilda!! You are there, finally! Where have you and your wizard been for so long? I heard all kinds of rumours about that strange person Griselda having disappeared, and that you are somehow involved in that?" The ugly witch sounded concerned about the wellbeing of her friend.

"You would not believe what we have been through, Babs," Hilda said. She told her friend all the things that had happened, what they had endured, and how glad they were to finally be back home again. As Hilda was talking, William was walking around, cleaning some things up.

Babs kept peeking as she saw the wizard walk along and suddenly had to interrupt Hilda's flow of words. "Hilly baby, now you have to tell me something. I see your wizard walking around, but what is that dark thing on his neck?"

"Huh?" Hilda looked at William, who had Obsidian Shadow draped over his shoulders. The cat lay there are calmly as if it was on a cushion in front of a fireplace. "Oh. That's Obsi."

Baba Yaga frowned. "Obsi? What's an obsi?"

"It's William's cat. We ended up bringing two black cats back here," Hilda explained. "His cat is Obsidian Shadow. And mine is called Onyx Grimalkin. Grim, come here, girl, and say hello to Babs."

Grim leapt up into Hilda's arms and was presented to the ugly witch, who stared at the black animal for a while. "Grimhilda has a cat. Now that is scary," Baba Yaga finally stated.

"There is nothing scary about having a cat, Babs," Hilda lectured, "cats are very nice and clean animals, and they are a witch's best familiar."

"Yeah, sure. I've come along without one fine for all my life," Babs cackled, "but you go be happy with your cats, Hilda. But now that Zelda has ended up somewhere in the hands of a strange creature that took her into a mirror, what are you going to do about her house?"

"Her house?" Hilda wondered what she had to do with Zelda's house.

"Yes. Someone has to release the magic from the house and dissipate it. Or take it in. If you leave it there, anything can happen. Do you want to take the risk that some lone wizard or magician comes along, assimilates the magic from the place and turns into a second Lamador?"

Hilda swallowed. That name still gave her a shiver. The powerful sorcerer that once had served King Herald was dead and gone now, but the fight she and William had had to put up for that was etched in her memory. "You're right. We have to do something about that. Quickly."

"Good girl," Baba Yaga said with a nod. "Stay in touch, Hilda. No running off and making your oldest and bestest friend worry where you are, can we agree on that?"

"I promise," said Hilda. "Unless there is an emergency."

"If there is an emergency, you have to let me know. Don't keep all the fun for yourself!" With that, Baba Yaga's face disappeared from the crystal ball.

"Does this sound like we are going out?" William asked.

"Yes, that is how it sounds," said Hilda as she draped Grim over her shoulders.

Her cat calmly got onto the table and carefully walked over to the stack of messages. She sat down with it and sniffed the papers one by one. The magical couple watched the animal as she took her time to inspect each and every snippet. Then, apparently satisfied, she walked back over the table and reclaimed her position on Hilda again.

"We still don't know where they came from, do we?" William did not expect an answer on that question. The cats had appeared from nowhere as they had gone in for the final confrontation with Zelda the witch, and the two had not left them after that. "I like them."

Hilda slowly nodded as she tried to feed her cat a piece of her cookie. The cat was not set on cookies though. "Meowwww..." the animal complained after Hilda's second attempt. Easily she slipped from under the witch's arm, and soon she was on the top bookshelf again, from where she had a perfect view over the entire room.

William's cat peacefully stayed where he was. The wizard's hand made him purr gently.

Hilda looked at the scene and smiled. "They're beautiful, aren't they? I wonder if they have names."

William grinned. "If they do, they are not going to tell us, sweetwitch." The cat in his lap looked up at him, the two bright yellow eyes shining as if they came from a- "Shadow. That's it. I'm going to call this cat Shadow."

"Shadow What?"

"How do you mean that? Shadow what?"

"Cats of people like us have a double name, William. They also have a short, simple name for when we're alone with them. So you pick Shadow, but something has to go with it. Before or after, but just Shadow won't do." Hilda reached for another cookie.

A soft purr came from the bookshelf. The couple looked up at the cat that had taken up station there. "Black as Onyx," William remarked.

"Yes, you are right. Her fur shines like onyx, indeed. How good of you, William." Hilda got up, touched the wizard's hand and then slowly walked to the bookshelves, her eyes on the cat. "Would you like to be called Onyx, black cat?" she asked, calmly reaching up and waiting. "Onyx?"

The cat on the shelf seemed to contemplate the waiting hand. Then lazily she reached out a paw and touched Hilda's hand a few times. "Mworrr..." was the cattish comment.

"Yes. You are an Onyx cat, aren't you? Come here, Onyx cat," Hilda said. She held up both her hands. The cat got up, looked around the room from her high post once more time and then lightly jumped from the shelf, full of trust. She landed in Hilda's hands. "I think you and I will be good friends, Onyx," said the witch as she turned and beamed a smile at the wizard.

"You need to add something to that name, Hilda. Just Onyx doesn't do it."

"Oh, hush you. What do you know?" Hilda walked to the table and sat down. "Only the things that I tell you." She frowned. "Hmm. Those are good things. Hmm." The witch sipped some tea. Then she looked at the cat in her lap. "Do you think you are a Grimalkin?"

Immediately the black head turned and the yellow eyes stared at Hilda.

"Crappedy crap, she really reacts to that name. Grimalkin." As she said the name, the cat's stare intensified for a moment.

William watched the scene and noticed the reaction of Onyx cat as Hilda said the name. "She does, Hilda. She reacts to Grimalkin." He had barely said it when Onyx's head turned to him. "I think you found her name."

Hilda picked up the cat with both hands and looked at the small face. "Very good, you. And your familiar name will be Grim. Like mine. Grimhilda. Grimalkin. You are Grim."

William, watching her, had stopped stroking his cat. Shadow did not seem to like that, it jumped up, knocking William's chin with his head. "Ouch, that hurt!" the wizard muttered. "That animal has a head hard as rock."

"Obsidian," Hilda said. "He's black, so it should be obsidian. Obsidian is hard as well."

"Obsidian, eh?" William said, as he rubbed his chin. "That sounds pretty nice. Obsidian Shadow." It was more his hand touching the cat than the name, that made Shadow lie down and relax again, but the name had a good ring to it. "And the short name will be... Obsi?"

"Obsi?" Hilda stared at her wizard. "What kind of name is that? Obsi. Obsi."

"Now, then explain Grim to me. Sounds grim enough, you know." Obsidian Shadow looked up at William. "Muwhhh," he said. "See? He agrees. Obsi agrees." William grinned.

Then Grim and Obsi both looked away, to the same spot. A moment later, Hilda's large crystal ball started making its pinging noise, which told them that someone was trying to talk to them.

Hilda frowned. Onyx jumped on the ground as the witch got up to walk to the ball. "It's Babs!" She waved over the ball. "Hello Babsi baby!"

"Hilda!! You are there, finally! Where have you and your wizard been for so long? I heard all kinds of rumours about that strange person Griselda having disappeared, and that you are somehow involved in that?" The ugly witch sounded concerned about the wellbeing of her friend.

"You would not believe what we have been through, Babs," Hilda said. She told her friend all the things that had happened, what they had endured, and how glad they were to finally be back home again. As Hilda was talking, William was walking around, cleaning some things up.

Babs kept peeking as she saw the wizard walk along and suddenly had to interrupt Hilda's flow of words. "Hilly baby, now you have to tell me something. I see your wizard walking around, but what is that dark thing on his neck?"

"Huh?" Hilda looked at William, who had Obsidian Shadow draped over his shoulders. The cat lay there are calmly as if it was on a cushion in front of a fireplace. "Oh. That's Obsi."

Baba Yaga frowned. "Obsi? What's an obsi?"

"It's William's cat. We ended up bringing two black cats back here," Hilda explained. "His cat is Obsidian Shadow. And mine is called Onyx Grimalkin. Grim, come here, girl, and say hello to Babs."

Grim leapt up into Hilda's arms and was presented to the ugly witch, who stared at the black animal for a while. "Grimhilda has a cat. Now that is scary," Baba Yaga finally stated.

"There is nothing scary about having a cat, Babs," Hilda lectured, "cats are very nice and clean animals, and they are a witch's best familiar."

"Yeah, sure. I've come along without one fine for all my life," Babs cackled, "but you go be happy with your cats, Hilda. But now that Zelda has ended up somewhere in the hands of a strange creature that took her into a mirror, what are you going to do about her house?"

"Her house?" Hilda wondered what she had to do with Zelda's house.

"Yes. Someone has to release the magic from the house and dissipate it. Or take it in. If you leave it there, anything can happen. Do you want to take the risk that some lone wizard or magician comes along, assimilates the magic from the place and turns into a second Lamador?"

Hilda swallowed. That name still gave her a shiver. The powerful sorcerer that once had served King Herald was dead and gone now, but the fight she and William had had to put up for that was etched in her memory. "You're right. We have to do something about that. Quickly."

"Good girl," Baba Yaga said with a nod. "Stay in touch, Hilda. No running off and making your oldest and bestest friend worry where you are, can we agree on that?"

"I promise," said Hilda. "Unless there is an emergency."

"If there is an emergency, you have to let me know. Don't keep all the fun for yourself!" With that, Baba Yaga's face disappeared from the crystal ball.

"Does this sound like we are going out?" William asked.

"Yes, that is how it sounds," said Hilda as she draped Grim over her shoulders.

2. Zelda's house

As they were in the air, William kept wondering why the cats wanted to ride along sitting in front of them, on the bristles of the brooms.

"I would not worry about that, William," said Hilda in her usual approach. "At least this way we can keep an eye on them."

Grim, the cat on Hilda's broom, looked at the witch and did a soft meow. Then she looked ahead again. "I wonder what that was all about," Hilda muttered. "At least we're almost there."

Not much flight time later, they descended towards and touched down in front of Zelda's house.

"Hey house, have you heard already?" Hilda asked.

"Alas, yes. I have heard. News travels rapidly these days," the house said in its Italian manner of speech. "You were the last one that saw her, aren't you?"

"William and me, both, indeed. Sorry for the loss, I assume," said the witch, "but you may understand that I cannot put my heart in this. She did try to kill us a few times too many."

"Tried, eh? She never was very good at those things," the house commented. "A real softy, deep down inside."

"I wouldn't go that far," William frowned. He recalled large pieces of concrete flying at them. And big Nobbleback dragons. And humongous plants trying to eat them. Not really the work of a softy.

"Now, house, you're going to open up for us. You know Zelda's a goner, you know we had a hand in her going, so..."

"I am not sure if that is the way things go, madam Witch," said the house. "Are you certain that all legal implications have been considered- Oh..." The house was surprised as William opened the door. From the inside, just like the first time they had been there.

"No protection on the roof and the chimney, remember?" he said as he let Hilda and the cats in.

The house fell silent. It had no defense against this kind of intrusion. No offense either, which was a good thing, as Zelda's house was littered with all kinds of objects. Grim and Obsi carefully walked through the rooms, sniffing here and there, avoiding some places as if there was ice of fire. Hilda and William slowly walked around also, not certain what they were going to do when they found what they were looking for. And that was something they didn't know exactly either.

"I've never done this before," Hilda said, "so give me some time, okay?"

"What is it we're supposed to be doing?" William wondered as he picked up a small statue of what looked like a tree nymph. "This is pretty."

"Better put it down again quickly. They bite," said Hilda.

William was not quick enough: the statue suddenly moved, quickly, and the small figure bit him in the finger. "Holy Bejeebus!" He almost dropped the object. It took a slap on the small head before the miniature nymph let go of William's finger, after which she was quickly placed back on the shelf she'd come from. She growled at him for a while as he rubbed his finger. "Really something for a softy," he commented to no one in particular.

"William, I found it!" Hilda called out from a small room that Zelda obviously had used as a storage room.

"Good grief, what a mess," William precisely defined it as he came in. The two cats had trailed along after him, and sat down right outside the room, their tails neatly curled around their paws. "And what did you find here?" He looked around and saw nothing that would entice him to stay here long.

"In here is her source of magic. Can't you feel it?"

William held out his hands. "No. Nothing. I just think it smells very strange here. But that's not it, right?"

The witch glared at him. "You're not born magical. It's in things like this that it shows, William."

"And in the fact that witches and wizards don't sense my magic," William confirmed. "I know. So please, what is it that you sense here?"

"Magic. Big fat magic. This is her source."

"Oh. I uhm... don't see."

"I'll explain later. Now we have to absorb her magic. It is rightfully ours, as we defeated her."

"Right. And how do we go about that?" William asked.

"I'm not sure. I've never beaten a witch in such a way before, so I am pretty new at this too," Hilda reminded him. "I told you."

Onyx Grimalkin and Obsidian Shadow tiptoed into the room and jumped up, into the arms of their unsuspecting magical humans.

William stared at Hilda who was staring at him. "Now what's that supposed to mean?" As they looked at each other, the two cats meowed, then purred. The next thing William and Hilda were aware of was that they both were on the ground. Without their cats, but with a very tingling feeling all over. "Now what's that supposed to mean?" Maybe this time he got an answer.

Hilda pushed her hair from her face. "Wow." She got up and waved a hand around. "It's gone."

William got to his feet. "What's gone? The magic?"

"Yes. Here, nothing left!" Again the witch waved her hand.

"So where'd it go?" He knew that was a stupid question.

"Tell me how you feel."

"I knew that was a stupid question." William looked at the two black animals that were sitting just outside the smelly room again, as if they had not moved. Four yellow eyes, bright as if there were little lights burning inside them, looked up at the two people. Grim then meowed. The cats got up and walked off.

"Something tells me we should follow them, William," Hilda said as she took his hand and pulled him out of the room. They followed the two cats, who directly walked out of the open door and away from the house. As the magical couple stepped outside, they instinctively grabbed their brooms and stood where the cats sat.

It was as if the house had waited for them to get out. Slowly, almost thoughtfully, the roof started to cave in. As that was going, the door fell out of the walls falling down. It took a few minutes for everything to collapse. After all the falling had completed, Hilda, William and the cats had turned grey by the dust clouds washing over them.

"Now that was weird," William said, rearranging the grey matter on his face with his hands.

"The magic held it together. We took the magic, so..." Hilda slapped her dress, making dust dance around her.

William nodded. The pieces of the puzzle did fit, with some force applied. As a try he flipped out his wand. "Sheesh." It was there faster, more swiftly than usual. "Did you see that?"

"What?" Hilda had been paying attention to Grim and Obsi, who were sauntering towards the destroyed house again.

"Pop your wand, Hilda."

She did. "Suck an elf. That's... different." The witch stared at William and his wand. "This will take some getting used to, William. We'd better be careful for a while, until we know what else happened to us."

"Do you think we should clean this up?" William pointed at the house. "It looks nasty if we go home and leave this place as the mess it is."

Hilda shook her head. "Not to worry, sweet wizard. The people in the nearby villages will come here soon enough, and use the remains of the house for building material. They'd be offended if we were to do something about it."

William nodded. It made sense. He chuckled as he realised that he was adjusting to this world just fine. Crazy things here made more sense than normal things in his old world. "What do you think they are doing?" He was referring to the two cats who were patrolling the area of the collapsed house.

"I don't know," said Hilda, "but I do think we should be going home now. There's nothing more for us to do, I'd say."

William agreed. They called their cats as they mounted their brooms. Hilda and William both grinned as they saw how quickly and gracefully their pets came and leapt on their front row seats. Swiftly the magical ones made the brooms rise up into the air and started on their way back home.

"It feels different," said William as they were flying.

"It does." Hilda had noticed it also. The change was slight, but present. As if there was one hundred and five percent of magic inside her. "It feels just strong enough to make me feel drunk."

William laughed, making Obsi look at him for a moment. "That does not take much, sweet witch."

"Oh, hush you." She wanted to say something snappier, but then she pointed downward. "Look, there."

William looked. "A stork. That is so neat. I don't recall seeing one here before."

"You haven't. They are very special." Hilda looked closely where the stork was flying to.

"Really? Why's that? Do they bring babies?" William grinned.

"Yes." Hilda was serious.

William stopped grinning. "You're kidding me, right?" He knew she wasn't. Their link told him so.

"No. I am not. And I want to know where that bird flies to. Come, let's follow it."

They changed course and went after the stork.

3. Follow that stork

"What's so special about storks here, Hilda?" William asked. "In the other world there are stories about storks delivering babies, but those are just that. Stories."

"Well, they're not here. If you see a stork, that means a woman is pregnant. And not just any woman. A witch."

"Oh. That's serious."

"Precisely. That is why I want to know where the bird's going to."

The stork dove down to a small village in a field, merely a gathering of some fifteen houses. The houses looked as if they had been tossed into a meadow more than that someone had given some thought to where they should be.

"Oh no." Hilda did not elaborate on that. William suspected he would hear more soon enough, so he did not ask.

They swooped down after the baby-bringer, which they found perched on the roof of the house that lay somewhat away from the other houses. That had to be where the witch lived. The house was painted bright yellow. It had dark brown beams around the windows, and from them hung jolly colourful flower baskets. The roof was pitch black which made the bird stand out clearly. An oval red door completed the first impression of the house.

"Lorelei?" Hilda called out as they had landed.

After some moments the door of the house opened. A belly came outside, followed by a woman who clearly had problems keeping her balance. She had curly short brown hair, brown eyes, and was dressed in what could best be described as a gipsy's dress. "Suck an elf. It's Hilda. And her wizard."

"Suck your own elf, Lorelei! How did that happen?" Hilda pointed at the immense belly the witch sported.

"I am sure you know how that happens, silly witch," Lorelei grinned. "Do you want to come in? I have problems standing lately."

That was not a big surprise. The two who had just flown in entered the house, and were sat down on a large orange couch. There Hilda introduced William and Lorelei to each other. The two cats had slipped inside and vanished.

"We saw this stork flying and decided to follow it. Crappedy crap, Lori, who did that to you?"

The pregnant witched grinned. "I have asked that myself a few times, and I am still not sure. That is why I decided to first get the child and then see if it looks like someone I know."

William was not prepared for this liberal an approach to things. It was either the additional magic he'd received, or the simple fact that he bit his tongue, but he managed not to appear too surprised.

Hilda nodded. "Best way to go about it, indeed. Would be good if the Dad is a magical one. That would make for a more balanced kid."

Lorelei nodded. "Yes, indeed. I think there's fair chance of that though. But I am such a lousy hostess. Can I magic you up some tea or wine or so?"

"Wine might not be a good idea," William said, "we still have to fly home."

Lorelei studied William's face for a moment. "Oh. Right. Hilda and wine. I remember." She waved her hand and then there was tea for everyone. "Cookies?" There were cookies. "Pickles? Or pie?" Those appeared also, together with roasted chicken legs and and bowl with raspberries.

Hilda reached for a chicken leg and a pickle. "Oh, that smells good," she grinned. William frowned at his witch for a moment as he worried about her choice of food.

Lorelei went for the same snacks. William was happy with a piece of pie and the sudden appearance of Obsidian Shadow in his lap.

"Oh, what a cute kitty!" Lorelei chimed. "Where did you get that from?"

As Hilda and William told her about the adventures in William's world, Onyx Grimalkin also showed herself. She even allowed Lorelei to scratch her head.

"My, you two get around, don't you," Lorelei said as she went for a cookie. "First all that with Lamador and the Labyrinth of Gurthreyn, and now this." As Hilda looked a bit surprised, Lorelei explained that Baba Yaga had told all about the problems with the magician of King Herald.

"I didn't know Babs was part of the local gossip circuit," William showed his surprise.

The two witches grinned. "We all are. It is how news gets around, William."

"It's just that some spread the news, and others usually are the news," Lorelei added, winking.

Grim squeezed herself onto Hilda's lap, almost disappearing from view against the black clothes except for two bright yellow eyes that kept watching everything.

Lorelei asked why Hilda and William were in the neighbourhood. They told her about the magic they had taken in from the house. "Oh. Yes. I've heard of that. So that really works? How does it feel?"

"Nothing special, once the tingling has gone," Hilda explained. "It does come as a bit of a shock."

"Well, you still look good, so the shock did not leave any marks on you." Lorelei grinned as she popped a few raspberries in her mouth and reached for a pickle.

"So when is your child due?" William tried to pitch in.

"Don't really know," Lorelei shrugged, "when it's ready I guess. Never had one before, and they're all different. I know from my mother that I took little over a year."

Hilda stared at the other witch. "Crappedy crap. You were slow! I was out in seven months or so!"

William almost regretted bringing up the subject. The things he heard were unnerving to say the least. "So you mean that a witch's pregnancy can vary in time?"

"Yes, of course. Depends what kind of magical bun is in the oven. Usually the time inside gives a pretty good indication of how powerful the kid is also."

"Meaning that the longer..." William guessed.

"No, William. It does not work that way. I'm five months in now. If the kid comes out now, it would be a mage. Six months is a mage also but a less powerful one. Seven months is a witch or a wizard, and one that's pretty good too."

William heard the witch explain a whole series and soon was lost. He just nodded politely and took a few deep breaths when the witch was done. The fact that a pregnancy could take up to eighteen months was dreadful even to him. What woman would be able to stand something like that, he wondered.

After all the bits of gossip were exchanged and all cookies and pickles had gone, Hilda and William said goodbye to Lorelei. As they were in the air again, cats and all, William asked Hilda if all witches were so liberal in their sexual encounters.

"No, not really. Lorelei is quite special though. An interesting person, don't you think?"

"She's special alright," William admitted. "I'm still convinced you are more special though, Hilda."

"Awww, you're so sweet." She kissed her wizard in full flight.

They reached the house and were greeted with a complaint: "There is an arrow with a message for you." Usually this would be just an announcement. This time it sounded as a complaint.

William looked at the wooden board he had put up for arrows of messaging archers. "No, there isn't."

"Yes. There is." It was uncanny but the house seemed to sigh. "It is sticking in the wooden window frame of the bedroom."

Hilda looked up. "Yes, there is an arrow there, William." Flying up on her broom she quickly took the arrow down. "Must have been an amateur or a student who did that."

"Or a blind person," the house commented. "And the arrow chipped the new paint too."

"Oh, hush you, we'll fix that soon," Hilda said as she unrolled the little piece of paper that had been tied to the arrow.

"And how long will 'soon' take this time? Twenty years again?"

Hilda didn't hear the house. She walked inside, Grim following her.

William looked at Obsi. "Looks like it's you and me, fellow," he grinned. On broom they went up. Obsi sniffed at the paint for a moment. Then William fixed the paint with a simple spell.

"Thank you. I've never been repaired faster," the house commented.

"Don't mention it," said the wizard as he touched down again.

"Very well. I won't."

William scowled, then shrugged. "Come on, cat, we're going in for food." Obsidian Shadow ran ahead. Inside, they found Hilda sitting at the table, staring at the note.

"Hello there, sweetwitch, what's with the troubled face?" William asked.

"Snow White," Hilda replied.

"What?" William was not certain if he had heard that correctly. "Snow White? From the seven dwarfs you mean?"

"Yes, very same one, apple and all."

"And the glass coffin?"

"Was there too, yes. Stupid thing. It didn't survive. I took care of that alright."

William sat down and looked at the witch. "Want to tell me about it?"

"No. Read this instead." Hilda pushed the piece of paper over to William..

He picked the small bit up and read the itty-bitty handwriting. "Dear Grimhilda, please, help, problem, hurry, SW." He frowned. "SW must be Snow White, right?" He was not extremely impressed with the lack of words, but he sensed that Hilda was. "Trip coming up, right?"

"Yes. We should go there quickly too. Snow White is not the kind to write like that, so there must be something very strange going on."

"And their local witches?"

"Pshaw... They're lucky to find one there that can tell the ends of a broom apart."

"That sounds bad," William agreed.

"It's even worse," Hilda said. "Come, we'll pack some things, swing by the castle of Walt and go see her. I hope you like children." She left the table, leaving William wondering about that last remark.

He also got up and went after her, to pack some things. He was followed up the stairs by two black shadows that then sat in a corner, watching as the couple packed up some things they wanted to take with them. Hilda did the shrink trick, William stuck the small cubes in a pocket, and they were ready to leave.

Hilda stared at the house as they were outside. "Say, house, do you think we have to do the thing with the chains again?"

"You never asked that before," the house remarked. "I must admit that not having chains is liberating, but on the other hand: the chains do provide security."

"Right then," Hilda nodded. She waved her wand, mumbled her spell, and the small mountain of chains was around the house. She hopped on her broom, stroked Grimalkin over the head and looked at William. "Ready?"

"I was born ready," he replied. Obsi was already in place.

"William... sometimes, you know, sometimes you still say the strangest things..." Then they flew off.

4. Meet the family

Hilda and William made their pass along King Walt's castle, but there was no sign of him. One of the servants came running out to tell them that the royal couple were out of the castle, and the date of their return was as yet unclear. "They are off to see their daughter," the man informed them.

"How interesting," Hilda said, "we were on our way to see the girl ourselves. I guess we'll meet up with the king there then." The brooms took to the skies again and their riders started the journey to the kingdom where prince Jordan and his beloved Snow White lived. On the way there, William tried to coax Hilda into telling more about her previous encounter with Snow White, but the witch said nothing.

As they landed for a break and a bite, in a village that lay halfway, William grinned. "Look at that."

The black cat who had claimed the brushy part of her broom was lying there, sleeping as if it was in the relative safety of a lap. Hilda snickered as she saw it. Onyx Grimalkin then awoke and looked up at the two people as if she wanted to know what was so funny.

The magicals as well as the cats found something very edible in the local tavern, and then they pursued their journey, as the landscape beneath them slowly changed. The trees became taller and darker, the roads became narrower and twistier. Even the grass here did not seem as green as it was at home.

"We're almost there, William," said Hilda. In the distance a castle became visible. It's colour made it hard to see from further away, as it blended in very well with the mountains that it was close to.

"Hey, Obsi, wake up," William said, gently prodding the black cat. "Look, there, that's where we're going!" Obsi meowed, opened one eye for one moment and decided that more was not worth the bother. He remained asleep until the two brooms were almost over the wall that surrounded the castle. Then suddenly he sat up and observed where they were going quite closely.

"I'll never understand that cat," William remarked. Obsidian Shadow waved his tail, as if he was proud of that compliment. The magicals waited over the wall, to see what would happen. A few guards had seen them already and one had gone inside the building.

"Ah, there is the welcoming committee," Hilda observed.

A shape on a broom came up to where they were floating. The shape was suspiciously pink, and as it came closer, the reason was obvious: the witch wore a pink dress. And a pink hat with ditto flowers. Even her broomstick was pink. "Hello," the woman chimed with a high-pitched voice, "I am Esmee. I do the witching around here. Who are you?"

Hilda stared at the blond hair of the mostly pink apparition, and then at the blue eyes. "Hello, Esmee. I am Grimhilda. This is William, and these are our cats. We got a note from Snow White that there is some problem that she needs help with."

"Oh! Yes! You are the witch and the wizard she mentioned!"

Hilda looked at William for mental support. He understood her reaction. Esmee seemed quite an airhead and probably needed the hat to keep things together beneath the blond curls.

"Yes," Hilda said, "we are the witch and the wizard. I hope there were not more people on brooms coming over this way lately."

"No, you are the first ones in years!" Esmee cheered.

Through the bond William felt Hilda groan. He knew so well why.

"I think you want to see the princess, yes?" Esmee asked with a hopeful twinkle in her voice. Yes, a twinkle. That was the only way Hilda and William could call it.

"Would be an idea, yeah, as we came all the way over for her," Hilda said, not holding much hope for Esmee.

The pink witch nodded. "Come, follow me. I know where to go!" She swooped her broom downwards.

"I hope so, really," Hilda muttered as they followed the resident witch to the ground.

-=-=-

Hilda insisted on taking her broom with her into the castle. With an airhead like that around, she thought, you never know where magic might flutter about and do silly things.

Esmee took them to the wing of the castle where the prince and princess had their chambers. As soon as they reached the actual wing, the cats jumped up on the shoulders of the magical couple, which they had learnt to interpret as an omen. A few moments later a door was flung open and two children, a boy and a girl, no older than four or five, came running from the room. The boy swung a wooden sword and the girl had a collection of small gold and silver crowns hanging from her arm.

"Dinna, I want my crown back!" the boy screamed as he waved the wooden sword around. The girl did not bother with his words. She just uttered a shrill laugh and ran on.

"Dinna, Roderick, stop that!" Esmee really did her best to sound convincing. It sounded rather pathetic instead. "Sorry about that, they are very active children," she apologised to Hilda. The pink witch led them on to the next room, where she went in without knocking. "Nursery," she quickly mentioned.

Hilda and William followed the resident pink cloud.

Snow White looked up at the visitors. "Grimhilda!" Her face lit up as she quickly walked over to the grey haired witch. She nearly thrust the baby she carried in Esmee's arms ("hold her please") and hugged the witch that had saved her from the wrath of her evil stepmother. "I am so glad to see you!"

"Hello Snow White. You look... healthy." Hilda had already noticed the swollen belly of the princess. "Another royal bun in the oven?"

Snow White nodded as she looked at William. "I am not sure if we ever had the pleasure..."

William introduced himself, staring at the woman as little as possible. He had seen and accepted a terrible lot here already, but the fact that he was now face to face with Snow White was a bit more than he could handle out of the pink. Blue.

"Oh, a witch and a wizard, married and all, how beautiful," said Snow White, who took the baby-bundle back from Esmee.

"Looks like your prince is making sure that you stay round, doesn't he?" Hilda remarked, pointing at Snow White's belly.

The princess looked very sad and unhappy for a moment. "Indeed. All he can think of is... that. Well, that what causes it, really."

"Well, that is a good reason to call for help," Hilda nodded, "where is he?"

Snow White looked surprise. "Jordan is out riding with Billy and Dicky. But that is not why I sent you the note, Hilda, no. There is something else."

Hilda looked at the princess in disbelief. "Billy. Dicky. There were two kids out there. You have one in your arms, and one in there?"

"Yes. Billy and Dicky are twins, they are very cute," Snow White said. She seemed proud of her children. "Let me put Sandy in bed, then we can go and talk. And I can pretend to be a proper hostess."

Hilda and William were taken to what originally must have been a magnificent room. Now it was full with play pens, boxes with children's toys and other doubtful joys of parental life. Hilda gasped when she saw all the objects.

Snow White herself cleared out a couch, so the two could sit. Esmee helped to make some seating space for the princess and herself. Then a servant was sent to bring tea and cookies. Finally things were so far in order that Snow White could speak.

"There are strange things going on," she started to say. Her face became serious. "All kinds of small animals are going missing. All we find back are the bones."

"And that is a problem?" Hilda asked. She really failed to understand the urgency.

"It is a problem when there are four or five missing a day, and we've retrieved over one hundred and fifty sets of bones so far. Chickens, rabbits, geese and ducks, animals like that."

"Oh. Right." Hilda looked at the pink witch. "Have you found out anything about that yet? Esmee?"

"Yes, yes, I did my homework," the blond said, "the animals were all eaten."

"Eaten. Right. And how were they eaten?" Hilda hoped that she asked the right thing.

"Dead. I think." Esmee became a bit pale as she thought of the alternative.

Hilda sighed. Not the right question. As William took her hand and squeezed it, she tried it again. "I mean, were the animals raw? Roasted? And were they eaten by an animal? A human?"

Esmee thought hard. Hilda imagined she could hear it. "They were eaten raw. I am quite sure of that. But I don't know what ate them. Nobody knows."

Then the door flew open. Hilda and William were on their feet, wands in hand. Two black cats stood with arched backs, eyes large and nails in the couch. Their tails were puffed up and ready to dust things.

"Mamma, mamma, Dinna hit me!" Roderick ran into Snow White's arms while her daughter came in carrying the wooden sword.

"Children." Hilda just said the word as she made her wand disappear and sat down, picking up Grimalkin. As William sat down, Esmee looked at them. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Hilda wasn't sure what the pink woman meant.

"The wand thingy?"

"The.. wand... thingy?" Hilda raised her eyebrows. "This?" She popped up her wand, as Snow White performed her maternal privileges in a very skilled manner.

"Yes, that." The pink witch reached in her pouch and took her own wand. "I do it this way. Your way looks a lot better. Can you teach me?"

Hilda's wand disappeared. "Tell me, Esmee. Did you work with flowers before coming to the castle?"

Esmee nodded, smiling happily. "Yes. I still do, by the way."

"Flower witch. I should have known." Hilda fell back against the backrest of the couch and stared at the ceiling for a while and for help that wasn't there.

"Ouch! Dinna, put down the sword!" Snow White's maternal objectives did not seem to connect with her daughter's mischief. Before the little girl could hit her mother again, Hilda had changed the wooden sword into a lead one. Dinna promptly was more than happy to put it down.

"That's how we handle things like that," the wicked witch nodded.

5. Reading the bones

Dinna stared at Hilda. "Did you do that?" She stuck her tiny fists in her side and looked angry.

"Dinna, that is a guest," Snow White tried.

The girl was not even halfway impressed by that. "I am a princess, Mum!"

"And she is a witch, Dinna."

"Hah. Esmee is a witch too, and she doesn't scare me." Dinna stomped her foot on the ground and looked at Hilda again.

The witch was not impressed. She looked at Esmee who clearly was very impressed by the little girl. "So, we should have a look at these bones you found. Do you have some around?" Hilda asked.

Esmee nodded, not taking her eyes off the angry little princess. "There are some outside now, I am sure."

"Good. Let's go and have a look then." Hilda wanted to get up when she found Dinna standing in front of her. "Step aside, kid."

"NO!"

Snow White had calmed down Roderick and tried to get to her daughter, but she could save herself the trouble.

Hilda popped up her wand, waved it, and a few moments later Dinna stuck to the ceiling. "If you have it high up in the head, stay up there for a while." She got up. "Come. Let's see some bones," the witch announced as she picked up Grim and draped the cat over her shoulders.

Snow White looked up at the squirming and screaming girl at the ceiling. "How do I get her down again?"

"Are you in a hurry?" Hilda asked.

"Not really," Snow White admitted.

"Good. I'll get her down after looking at the bones. Give her some time to cool off. She's not going anywhere." A snip of her fingers later Dinna was silently squirming. "Much better, don't you agree?"

Esmee's eyes almost popped out of her head as she got up, staring at Dinna. William took Obsi and got up also, following Esmee and Hilda out the door.

Snow White kept telling Dinna how everything would be alright, while Roderick tried to lift the lead sword.

-=-=-

Esmee seemed frightened of Hilda as they walked through the castle, and through a side door into a small garden. The pink witch kept William between herself and the grey haired witch.

"Something wrong with me?" Hilda asked. "Do I smell bad?"

"No, no... it's just..." Esmee tried to find the right words.

"Oh. You're scared of me. Why don't you say so." Hilda shrugged. "Now stop being scared for a while and show us some bones."

That proved to be very easy. As Esmee walked them along a hedge, they found two carcasses close to it. Bare to the literal bone. "It's getting closer," the flower witch mumbled.

"What's that?"

Esmee pointed at the bones. "We've never found bones so close to the castle. So it gets closer."

Obsi and Grim jumped down and sniffed the remains of a chicken. Hilda picked up one of the larger bones and looked. "Yup. Eaten raw. And here..." She pointed at clear scratch marks. "Someone with a good set of teeth. Weird teeth too." Not clarifying her words, she picked up Grimalkin and looked at the cat's teeth. Then she nodded, putting her cat down again.

"Say sweetwitch, what are you doing?" William asked.

"Look." She almost shoved the chicken bone in his face. "See these scratches? They're fresh. And they look like the marks of cat teeth."

William then understood what was troubling her. The markings did indeed look like cat teeth marks, but they were too large. Hilda picked up a bone from the other carcass, it had been a rabbit. That carried the same scratch marks.

William noticed that some of the larger chicken bones had been snapped in two. "Wow. Must have been some cat to do that..." He looked at the ground for marks of a large cat, but the floor was laid in with tiles. Tiles did not hold marks.

Esmee turned pale. "Do you mean there is a really big cat out there somewhere?" She clutched her pink pouch at the risk of breaking her wand.

"Are you going to wet yourself, Esmee?" Hilda asked.

The blond stared at Hilda. "No. I think not."

Hilda looked at William. There was pain in her gaze. "Esmee. Can I use your crystal ball? You do have a working crystal ball, right?"

"Uh, yes, I do." There was more nervous fumble and clutch.

"Take us to it. Please. And you do not have to worry about a big cat. There is no big cat, okay? It's all fine." Hilda sounded convincing enough for Esmee, who visibly relaxed. William knew better.

"Yes, yes, of course!" Esmee hurried ahead, glad that she could go back to the safety of the thick walls of the castle. No big cat would be able to follow her in there.

Nothing could have prepared Hilda and William for the room they were entering. There was soft plush on the ground, in red and white concentric circles. The walls were a light shade of pink. The ceiling was plain white. The witch tried to ignore the large colourful vases with large feathery flowers in them.

"I'll go and find the crystal ball," said Esmee. She almost disappeared in one of the closets.

"Find?" Hilda mimed at William. He shrugged and tried to ignore the colours and objects in the room. Not looking at the floor was a prerequisite to survive here, he thought.

It took a while, but finally Esmee came out of the closet, holding a black box. A rather small black box. "Here it is!" Proudly she handed the box to Hilda.

The witch opened it, took the velvet pouch from it and slipped the ball in her hand. She frowned as she looked into it. "A baby ball. When did you use it last?"

Esmee coloured a shade of red that did not go well with the walls. "In class..."

"In... class..." Hilda spoke with a coldness that made each word fall down and shatter on the floor, despite the carpet. "Someone hold me back..."

William put a hand on her shoulder. "Easy, witch. She can't help it."

"I know... I know..." Hilda took a deep breath. "Okay. I will charge this one and use it. No problem. Really. No problem. And William, maybe you can go and pick that obnoxious kid from the ceiling. Esmee will be glad to show you where that is."

Esmee was more than happy to get away from her own room. "Yes, William, come. I am sure that little Dinna will be glad to be on the ground again." She resisted the urge to tug William's sleeve.

Before he left the room, William asked who she was going to call.

"Babs."

"Ah." He nodded. Then he followed Esmee, a smile curling his lips. The pink witch would have another surprise.

Hilda sat down. The two cats lay down near her, their eyes on the ball. She spent a while pumping energy into the ball, until it shone brightly in her hand. "Now let's see if this thing will dial out." She took her wand. Murmured something. And waited.

"Hilda!" the voice of Baba Yaga tore through the room. "How sweet of you to call!"

"Hi Babs. We have a strange creature here, around Snow White's castle. The one of King Louie, remember the place?"

"How could I forget that wedding, Hilly? Didn't we have a scream there?"

"Really." Hilda grinned as she thought back. "Now, there is a house witch here, but there's not much to be done with her."

"Why's that?"

"She wears pink."

"Suck an elf... a flower witch. Did you make her faint already?"

"Yup, flower witch, and no, she's still on her feet because William held me back. Do you have time to pop over here and help look for whatever's going around? I think William and I could do with an extra wand, and the hand to wield it."

"Hilda, I am so honoured. I'm coming over first thing tomorrow if that's soon enough."

"Sure, that's fine. We'll be here, waiting for you. Oh, do you like children?"

"Properly cooked and garnished, yes." Baba Yaga laughed.

"I'm serious, Babs. Snow White already has five and a sixth one on the road."

"Good grief. Sounds like others than you need help too. I'll be seeing you tomorrow, girlfriend."

"Take care, Babs." Hilda grinned as the ball went dark again. Things were looking up.

-=-=-

The next morning Hilda and William were up very early, to patrol the garden. Esmee was with them. They found new bones with the same gnaw-marks. And again, no footprints. As if the creature that had done this was making sure to not leave traces.

"Obviously this visitor comes by in the dark. Looks like we'll have to spend a waking a night. I hope Babs makes it in time."

Esmee peered at her company. Hilda and William had told her about the new witch they had asked to come over and she did not like that one bit.

After the survey of the garden, they went inside, and as they were having breakfast, Hilda suddenly looked up. "Babs is coming!" They left their table and rushed outside.

Esmee the flower witch had enough magic inside her to sense witches and other magical creatures approach. As it was her task, she hopped onto her pink broom and sped upwards to the wrinkly gray and black creature that was approaching on broomstick.

Hilda prodded William. "This will be interesting."

"Hello, stop please?" Esmee was determined to make this a good show.

Baba Yaga stopped. "What? Oh, you're the pink one. That means I'm at the right place. Hilly and Willy are expecting me."

Esmee looked at the old witch in horrified fascination. She looked like a million years old. "There is no one called Hilly or Willy here, so if you could please go away..."

Baba Yaga frowned at the young blond. "Why do I even bother," she muttered. A wand and a flick of the wrist later, Esmee was tied in a magical spell and was dragged along as the old witch had her in tow. "Oh, there they are!" Babs sped up her broom, hardly paying attention to the shaking and swerving that Esmee had to endure. "Hilly! Willy! I'm here! And look what I brought you."

Hilda and William were almost on their knees. Tears of laughter streamed from their faces as they saw how Baba Yaga held up Esmee as if she were a freshly caught fish on a magical line. They took Esmee over from Babs and freed her from the magical sling the old witch had cast around her.

Esmee was very shocked by this treatment. "I do not want to see you anymore today!" she exclaimed, tears in her eyes, and quickly ran inside.

Babs got off her broom. "She doesn't do welcomes very well, does she?"

Hilda shrugged. "She may wisen up yet. At least we'll have our hands free. Do you care for some food?"

After hugging her friends, Baba Yaga appreciated the offer; after all, she had been flying most of the night.

6. Princes and Princesses

Six guards came running into the dining hall, lances at the ready. They positioned themselves around the table where the three magical people were eating.

Hilda raised an eyebrow, William looked up and Baba Yaga muttered: "Not that again" for an unknown reason.

"Make way for the king!" someone shouted. Hilda and William looked at each other. The three of them, the few servants and the guards were the only ones in the dining hall.

Two of the guards shifted somewhat and the king stepped up to the table.

"Hello, King Louie," Hilda said, looking up at the man, "to what do we owe this honour?"

Everything about King Louie was big. Even his hair. His black hair was short, but it came out short in an amazingly big way. His beard was made of the same hair. Short, and big. "Grimhilda. I was alerted that there is an ugly witch in the castle that challenged our house witch."

"Oh." Hilda looked at William. "Have you seen an ugly witch?" William shook his head. "Babs, you?" Baba Yaga also shook her head, sending the thin streaks of her remaining grey hair flopping. "Can't say I did."

King Louie stared at Baba Yaga. "Good grief."

"Oh, you may not know Baba Yaga," Hilda said. "Babs, this is King Louie, King Louie, this is Baba Yaga, our dear friend and my best girlfriend, who came all the way over to help us find out what the problem is with your little animals."

Baba Yaga rose up to her full limited length. "Seriously a pleasure to meet you, your Majesty."

"A dear friend, eh?" the king said, taking in Baba Yaga one more time. "Hmm. In that case I assume it is good that she is around. Welcome to the castle, honourable witch." He nodded an acknowledgement to Babs. After all, even royalty knew how to treat magicals. "I will make sure everyone gets to know you are here. If there is anything we can help with, Prince Jordan or Princess Snow White are the ones you should talk to." The king started to turn, then looked at Hilda and whispered: "And please, don't make our house witch more insecure than she already is." He nodded a goodbye and walked off. After a few moments the guards dropped their aggressive stance and marched out of the dining hall, their armour rattling as they went.

"I hope they don't do that every morning," Baba Yaga commented, "all that metal jerking tends to get on my nerves." William snorted. He was absolutely certain that Baba Yaga was the first person who had abandoned nerves. "So, what's the plan?" the old witch asked.

Hilda told her about the findings of the day. "If you want to see for yourself..." Babs wanted to, so they went outside again. As they walked around in the garden, Esmee looked out the window of her room, which gave her perfect view of the garden and the three magical people.

"It's not fair," the witch in pink complained to the yellow flower in her hand. "I do what I can, I put all my soul in what I do, and they are so... unsophisticated. I am sure they don't appreciate beauty. They are rough. Uncivilised. Wild. I think they are dangerous. They should not be allowed to wield so much magic." Recalling the feeling when Babs had roped her in made her shiver.

A wailing sound from some of the children made her put the flower back in the vase, and quickly she went to Snow White's rescue Yes, the children were wild and rough also, but they were but children. Esmee could handle children. As long as they did not carry wooden swords. Or tried to stab her with the pointy parts of their crowns. Or came on three strong.

-=-=-

Baba Yaga sniffed the air. "Nothing there," she said. "Must have been too long ago." They looked at the bones and not found anything different about them.

"And there is no feel of magic around either," Hilda said. She had been dowsing the area with her wand.

"But there is hair," William pointed. The two witches came closer. The wizard had found a patch of hair stuck in the thorns of a rose bush. The hair was light brown., short and straight.

Hilda lifted the patch from the bush and studied it. "Looks like cat hair."

Babs agreed. "Must have been some cat though, considering where the hair stuck."

"Really," William nodded. "Not many three foot cats around, usually. But we could ask around, maybe they're more common here than at home."

Grimalkin meowed, as she stood up against Hilda's leg. The witch bent down, holding the hair to her nose. Grim took her time sniffing the stuff. Then she sneezed and walked off.

"Don't tell me your cat is allergic to cats," Baba Yaga snickered.

"Not sure," Hilda wondered, "she's not shown signs of that with Obsi around."

Babs looked at her best friend. "Obsi. Grim. Those are really the names you call them by. And they respond. You two are even sillier than I had hoped. Do you think I should have a word with that wizard of yours? Looks to me that this is his doing, as you started going all funny after he arrived."

William grinned a big grin. In some distorted way he could interpret Baba Yaga's words as praise.

Before Hilda could respond, another meow made the witches look around. This meow had sounded very different, almost... calling for attention?

The three magicals walked to where Grim had disappeared to. "What's up, Grimalkin?" Hilda said as she kneeled down with her cat. Grim sat in the middle of a footpath that looked as if it would lead out of the garden. The witch picked up her cat and hugged it, making Baba Yaga shiver. Babs could shiver in an audible way.

"Does she do that often?" she asked William.

"All the time," he confirmed.

"Egads."

William grinned as he kneeled down to have a closer look. There had to be a reason that Grim had warned them. "Oh, look..." He picked another fluff of hair from a bush, this one on a lower branch than the first one they had found. It was the same kind of hair, though. "Looks like it came from the same- uhm- intruder."

Baba Yaga took the hair and slowly rubbed it between her fingers. Her wrinkled face made it impossible to tell if she was actually looking at it. "Yes, I'd say so. It's not from the same day though."

William stared at Babs. "How do you know that?"

The ugly witch turned her head towards the wizard, almost shoving the cat hair in his face. "How is it that you don't?"

"There is only one Baba Yaga," William grinned.

"Bollocks," Babs stated.

"So whoever or whatever it was has been here more than once," Hilda concluded. "Looks like we did not get up early enough then, William."

The wizard nodded. "I foresee a long day. One that will last until next morning." Hilda nodded.

"Good," said Baba Yaga. "If you young folk stay up, I'll go to sleep. You can wake me up when something interesting happens."

William muttered something about old and young as he and Hilda gathered their cats and went back inside, looking for Snow White. They had something to report now.

The trio walked along the corridors and got lost. A servant who responded very well to "hey you" was recruited to take them to the chambers of Princess Snow-White and Prince Jordan.

"I'd almost think that this place was designed by Gurthreyn," Hilda mumbled.

''Meow,' Grimalkin agreed, making Hilda wonder how her cat knew about that sorcerer.

"I have not seen moving walls yet," William remarked.

"Not yet. Just wait," was her answer.

The servant knocked on a door. There was screaming behind it. "Sounds like they're in," Hilda said as the servant knocked again. "Hey you, are you new here?"

The servant scowled. "No, honourable witch, why?"

"To get over those sirens you'll need to whack the door a lot harder," she clarified. She pushed the man out of the way and went inside, William and Baba Yaga right behind her. "Suck an elf..."

Esmee was under the siege of two children, boys that Hilda and William had not seen before. These had to be Billy and Dicky. The pink witch stood on a chair, clenching her skirt between her knees, swatting at the boys with a diaper and holding on to a curtain to keep her balance. Snow White was holding back Dinna, who seemed game to join Esmee's tormentors, and a maid had a hand over Roderick's eyes whilst holding the baby in an arm.

"Oh, Grimhilda..." Snow White's cheeks were red. "How nice to see you."

"Are you coping?" Hilda asked.

Before Snow White could answer, Dinna shrieked. "An ugly witch!"

Roderick tried to fight the maid's hand off, even attempted to use his teeth for that. Dicky and Billy turned around and jumped as they beheld Baba Yaga. The two boys, as one, fled behind the chair that Esmee was standing on, to hide from Babs. One of them could not resist another attempt to peek under Esmee's skirt, despite his fright.

The pink witch quickly got down from the chair and successfully slapped the diaper over one of the heads.

"Oh, fine, it's nothing special," Snow White said. Dinna had by then adopted the tactics of her brothers and now was hiding behind her mother. Baba Yaga's appearance had made quite an impact.

Babs pointed at Esmee. "Come over here." Esmee did it because she had to. "You really need a few lessons if you want to be the witch around here."

"But I am the witch around here!" Esmee looked at Baba Yaga with a mix of fright and the desire to flee.

"You are not. A witch does not jump on a chair when two halfling mice are trying to peek under her skirts. A witch does this." The speed with which the wand appeared, the movement happened, the two boys got stuck with their faces to the wall and the wand was gone again made Esmee stagger backwards. The two boys were silent, too gobsmacked to understand what had happened.

"You can't use magic against children," Esmee said, doubt and satisfaction battling in her voice.

"Sure I can. There hangs your proof."

By then the two boys had started whining that Mummy should get them off the wall. The astonished maid had let go of Roderick, who walked over to his brothers and started yanking an arm. Arm nor brother came off.

"See, that is how we make things calm." A part of Baba Yaga's face moved, it tried a smile.

In the short silence that fell, Hilda picked up her cue. "We found a few strange things," she announced. She held up the cat hair. "This."

Snow White and Esmee came closer. "Hair," they said in unison.

"Cat hair," Hilda pointed out, "and we found this bit on a level that normal cats don't reach unless they jump."

"Or when they're thrown," Baba Yaga added.

Obsidian Shadow, perched on William's shoulder, hissed. Babs was shocked nor shaken.

"So we want to know if you have really large cats here," Hilda finished, ignoring the interruptions. She raised a hand to shoulder height. "About this tall."

Esmee reached out and found support on William's arm while Snow White stared at the hand. "You must be joking, Grimhilda. Cats of that size... No, we don't have those here. We would know."

William frowned. Then he looked at the maid who had been carrying the baby. She had turned around and was changing the baby's diaper. He fixed the smell. "That's better."

The princess asked Esmee to keep Roderick away from his brothers, as the young boy was still trying to remove them from the wall with increasing force. "I will go and ask Jordan if he knows of such cats." With that she took Dinna's hand and left the room with her daughter, leaving the three magical people.

Esmee tried to sweet-talk Roderick into leaving his brothers alone. Roderick was not up for that; pulling at his defenseless siblings was much more fun.

"Hey, kid," Hilda said, "cut it out or we'll stick you to the wall and turn them loose on you." Roderick turned to Hilda, his eyes large. Then he ran out the door, screaming for his mother. "See? And no magic," Hilda grinned at the pink witch.

7. Royalty

A servant entered the nursery. "Honourable witches and wizard, the princess asked me to take you to her and the prince."

They followed the servant, leaving the two complaining boys stuck to the wall. As long as they were there, no harm would come from their side. The two cats were on the shoulders of their respective magicals as they strode through the halls.

The room where Snow White and Prince Jordan resided was big and quite crowded. For some obscured reason, King Walt and his wife Queen Velma, Snow White's father and stepmother, were there. The others in the room were Roderick, his sister Dinna and a number of servants.

"Hello, your Royal Highnesses," Hilda said. Then she looked at the prince. "Good grief, you've become flabby."

Prince Jordan got up. "I do not want anyone to strike such a tone to me. Not even a witch," he said. "And where are my other sons?"

"Don't worry about them, they're safe." Hilda's look had a challenge in it. She ignored his warning, of course, because not even a prince should strike a tone like that to her.

Jordan did not pick up the verbal gauntlet, he knew he'd never win. "My dear wife asked me about something strange. Cats as big as a man?"

"Not any man of course," Baba Yaga pitched in with a silent jab. "Hello your Princeness, I am Baba Yaga, here to help my friends with this little problem you have here." She explained about the cat hair they had found. "So we wonder if there are catty animals of that size."

Jordan thought for a while. "No. Never heard of that." He looked at Hilda and William. "The only way to get cat hair up like you described is, I'd say, carry them like you do."

"Yes. Or toss them," Babs nodded. Grimalkin and Obsi meowed in unison and protest.

"Hmm. That might be an option, if the cat in question allows tossing," Queen Velma said. "Most cats don't."

"She is the one that stuck me to the ceiling," Dinna suddenly announced, pointing at Hilda.

"She what?" Walt, Velma and Jordan looked at the little princess.

"She stuck me to the ceiling. And he had to get me down, because Esmee didn't."

Before Jordan could turn to Hilda, Snow White started explaining what had happened, and how. Dinna did not look happy as her intended victory over Hilda was reduced to sheer nothing. Only the fact she had been against the ceiling remained, and Jordan agreed that had been deserved.

"And if you're looking for the other two, they're still against the wall of the nursery," Hilda added. "They were being somewhat of a pest, so we put them away for a while. To cool off, so to speak."

"Against the wall?" Snow White as well as Jordan were not prepared for that. "Why don't they come in here then?"

"Well, they can't get off the wall without the help of these people," Esmee pitched in her little bit. "The boys were really somewhat of a nuisance." Her voice still carried some of her anger about the boys' behaviour. Jordan look as if he was unable to believe that.

"Cauldron fodder," Baba Yaga added innocently as Prince Jordan left the room.

Shortly after that a howl penetrated the room. It was clear that Prince Jordan had found his sons, stuck to the wall. And getting them off it had proven loudly impossible. The prince came into the parlour again. "Could someone please get my sons from that wall? I refuse to speak any more until they are free again."

"Sounds like a fair trade," Baba Yaga said. "I'd go for the quiet, Hilda. Not trying to influence you of course."

Hilda sighed, casting a resigning look at her friend. She walked out and liberated the twin princes. After that, Prince Jordan said that there was nothing more he could say.

"Well, at least we know what we wanted to know," the witch said. "Maybe now is a good moment to say goodbye and retreat to our rooms, to see what next steps we'll take. I take it that you have a room for Babs here, right?"

"Oh, certainly," said Snow White. "The one next to yours is still free, I will see to it that it is prepared."

"Good good," said Hilda. "We will go and have a walk." She took William's hand. "Babs, are you coming? And Esmee, we may need you as well."

Baba Yaga took Esmee's arm. "Come on, no escaping, no excuses. You're wanted, so you come."

The pink witch didn't even try to resist when the crone witch dragged her from the room.

Once the magical people had left, Prince Jordan belched. "I'm sorry."

His wife slapped him. "Next time be sorry before you do that, Jordan. And otherwise keep it inside you until the children are gone."

Dicky and Billy were sitting on the couch, eating chocolates. They both belched.

-=-=-

"Where are we going? We are not going far, are we? I have other things to do, you know." Esmee was not feeling comfortable as she was taken along. Her ordeal ended as they had reached the room of Hilda and William.

"Sit." Esmee sat.

"We're going to scout outside. Tonight." Hilda sat on the bed. The cats did so too. "I am going to take the first watch. Esmee, you will take the second one. William does the third and if nothing happened, we've all lost some good sleep-time."

Esmee frowned as she worked out the schedule. "We three? What about Baba Yaga?" The old witch just looked at Esmee. "Oh. I see." The pink witch frowned again. "We are going to look for the cat, aren't we?"

"Someone please give that witch a gold star," Baba Yaga said. She produced one and handed it to Esmee who stared at it. "And you will get another one if you catch the cat."

William asked what Hilda had in mind in case one of them spotted the cat. "We should have something of a cage ready, I think," he suggested, "and slap the beastie in it with some magic."

"Excuse me?" Esmee held up her hand. "My magic is not strong enough to do something like that."

"Sounds like you get a double shift, Willy," Baba Yaga giggled. It was an eerie sound. "Unless we pimp this little witch a bit." The old witch looked at Esmee. "Let's see..." Esmee's pouch flew into Baba Yaga's hands. "Not strong enough. Indeed."

Esmee looked aghast. "You cannot-"

"I should not be able to, Esmee," said Baba Yaga, "but since I can, it looks like you and I have a bit of work to do before this evening." She became very serious. "We don't know what we are up against. Since cats this big don't grow on trees, we can only assume it is something else."

"Indeed," Hilda took over. "And we may be facing something magical here, since we cannot find any footprints or paw prints, or something like that. And since we cannot estimate what it is we're facing, we should make sure everyone of us is up to level to take it on."

Esmee's lower lip trembled. "But..."

"Don't worry, kid, I'll make sure you are up to level before the night comes," said Baba Yaga. "Come, be a good flower witch and show me where your room is. Always works best in a place where you're most comfortable." She guided Esmee out of the room.

William looked at them go. "I don't envy either one of them. And you did not warn Babs about the room."

Hilda shrugged. "She'll find out soon enough. Come. Let's go and see if we can find enough iron to make a big cage."

It took them a while and it cost king Louie several fences, but Hilda and William got the cage the way they wanted it. "I still think we could have asked someone for iron somewhere," William said.

"Oh, please, come off that, William. These fences were hideous and you know that too," Hilda said as she was in the cage, yanking the bars. "And also, if we're going to catch something on royal land, we might as well provide a royal cage." She smiled victoriously.

"You are terrible," William declared.

"I know," Hilda agreed as she slammed the cage-door shut and shook that a few times. "I think this would hold, don't you think?"

William tested the door also. "Feels strong, indeed." Then he grinned. "This is the first time I have you caged, sweetwitch."

"Enjoy the moment, wizard, it will also be the last time," Hilda said as she made the lock pop open. With a satisfied snicker she left the cage.

A loud bang made them look towards the castle, from where glass flew all around. The glass was followed by a chair. "I dare guess that Babs has moved on to speed-learning for Esmee," Hilda commented. "We'll wait with fixing the windows until they stopped their exercising." A second window blew, underlining the insight of the witch.

"We should wait a bit further away too," William noticed. The glass of this second window almost reached them.

"You have a point. This one was probably done by Babs. Nothing like a good example to show-" a third blast took her words away "- and now would be a good time to see what is going on there. King Louie won't like it when they break down his castle just for training."

They summoned their brooms and flew high, to be out of the danger zone. When they reached the corridor where Esmee had her room, the full extent of the exercises became clear. Half a wall was gone, as was most of the stuff inside the room of the flower witch. Babs hung over a bedpost, laughing, and Esmee herself lay crumpled in a corner, her blue eyes wide open and a look of fright on her face. Servants were running around, trying to salvage precious paintings and statues there were in the corridor. None of them dared as much as look at the room that was the centre of the devastation.

William picked Esmee from the floor. "Are you okay?"

"Okay... okay..." That was all the now motley looking witch could stammer. She had never been further from okay.

Hilda tried to calm down Baba Yaga who was almost in a laughing stupor. It took Hilda quite a while to calm down her friend, time that William used to put Esmee on a chair, close up the wall and make a bit of order in the room again. He handed Esmee a glass of wine; the pink witch drank it down in a few long gulps and asked for more.

"So, what happened here?" Hilda wanted to know. What followed was quite a hilarious account of things from Baba Yaga, who collapsed with laughter a few more times. She had only stirred up some magic and Esmee had tapped into it, Babs said. And then it was as if Esmee had exploded. That was all.

Esmee was still very much out of it, even after another glass of wine. "I'm not sure if she'll be any use to you tonight," Baba Yaga commented as they put the pink witch in her bed.

The three turned as the door opened. Prince Jordan came in, with one of the twins. He obviously had waited until the dust had gone down. "What happened here?" he asked, eyeing the room.

Hilda gave him the summary version of what Baba Yaga had told them, leaving out the magical bits the prince wouldn't understand anyway. It all made for a three sentence and unrevealing explanation that was in no way representable of the state of the room.

The prince nodded understandingly though. "Will any of you make sure that the hall outside will be presentable again? My mother will be very upset when she sees all the dust out there."

"Surely you are not asking us to use a broom the ordinary way?" Hilda asked him. She would accept a lot, but not that. Not even from a prince.

"Actually, I-" he started. Then he spotted Hilda's expression "-wouldn't dare, Grimhilda. Plenty of people around to handle that. If you could do something about the windows, though, that would be nice. Thank you." Jordan grabbed his son by the hand and left.

8. Cat hunt

Hilda and Babs had taken care of the windows. William had seen to it that Esmee was more like herself again, although Baba Yaga's treatment had certainly had effect already. Esmee cursed at just about everything that could go wrong.

"It is an effect that will diminish," Baba Yaga had assured him. "Things like that can happen when the person in training is - uhm - slightly overwhelmed."

William was certain that Esmee had been overwhelmed. And more than 'slightly'. Four glasses of wine had calmed her down a bit, but the magical ones had decided that they would all share dinner in Esmee's room. It would be better.

"I wonder what stupid moron prepared this," Esmee said as she looked at a chicken leg. "Look at it. Damn, wouldn't feed that to a cat!" Two black specimens of the mentioned kind complained about that; they would not refuse a chicken leg.

The door opened. Snow White came in, not adorned with child this time except for the one that was still on the way. "Are you doing well in here?"

"Of course we're fine, we're witches, dammit," Esmee replied.

"Uhm. Oh. Well, I was wondering-"

"No need for that. If there is smmffff-"

By then William held his hand over Esmee's lips. "Sorry about that, princess. She's not quite herself yet," he apologised. as he felt Esmee's lips part he pulled back his hand and applied some magic. Being bitten by a witch was not very high on his list. Esmee stared at him, not understanding what had happened for a moment. Baba Yaga chuckled.

Hilda explained that they had been training Esmee and that the short-term effect of that could be slightly disconcerting for the children.

"Oh, I see!" Snow White smiled. "Thank you for being so considerate, I really appreciate that. If there is anything you need, just let us know, there will be a servant near at all times."

Hilda thanked the princess. "We'll be fine, I am sure. Just one request: if you can arrange that nobody comes in the gardens this night, that would be good. We're patrolling there tonight, to see if we can catch whatever creature it is that goes for your chickens. We wouldn't want to throw the wrong person into our cage."

Snow White promised she would warn everyone. "Yes. The cage. My father in law asked about that. I assumed it was yours, as sixteen people tried to move it and it would not budge. Do you think it will be there for long? It is somewhat degrading the view of the garden."

"It's ugly as a troll's butt," Baba Yaga agreed, "but we need it. I'm sure Hilly and Willy will remove it as soon as we're done with it."

Snow White frowned at the words, but nodded anyway. "Could you tell me what happened to the fountain that was originally there?"

"We... moved it." Hilda looked as if that was a perfectly sensible answer. "And for your peace of mind, do not ask more, Snow White. Trust me. We'll put it back once we're done. Promise."

Snow White looked at the witch. "I feel that I should worry."

"A bit of worry is fine. Really." Hilda thought of the fountain that was resting on the flower beds in one of the more distant gardens. And the remains of the statue of King Louie that were under it.

The princess accepted it, be it somewhat reluctantly. "Good. Thank you. And all the luck in catching the -uhm- thing."

As the door closed behind her, a loud "Screwing crap" floated through the room. Esmee had discovered that her magic was now powerful enough to undo William's silencing spell.

-=-=-

The remainder of the day slowly changed into evening. The time that the witches and the wizard would start their night watch arrived. Hilda had swapped her turn with that of Esmee. Babs had said that she would do that turn with the pink witch, as she felt responsible for the still unstable woman. "No good in making her go out alone. One hiccup and we all wake up with rose bushes all through the castle."

Hilda snorted. "No need for that. Been there." Babs nodded. William scowled, the surroundings of a fairy tale taking shape in his mind.

"Now you two pretty ones go and catch a hat full of sleep," Baba Yaga said. "And us two pretty ones will wrap up and start our stroll in the garden."

Esmee grinned. She got up and walked over to her wardrobe. She took one of her bright red cloaks. The other magicals watched her as she threw the garment on the bed and looked for her wand. "Amiculum nigerum," Esmee said, slapping the cloak with her wand. It turned black.

Babs looked appreciatively at the blond witch. "We're getting somewhere yet." She went to fetch her own cloak and then she and Esmee headed out to the garden, brooms at the ready.

William and Hilda went to bed. They lay awake, fully dressed. "It is quiet out there," Hilda said. "It worries me."

"Would you prefer noise?" William asked.

"No. That would worry me."

William knew how she felt.

There was a noise outside. Hilda jumped from the bed. "I am worried." She grabbed her broom, magicked open the window and with William right behind her she flew outside.

"Hilly, you there?" It was Baba Yaga who was waving her lit-up wand. "I think my student had a bit of an accident."

William and Hilda landed their brooms. Baba Yaga stood next to the large metal cage. Esmee was near it too, unconscious and in a sloppy heap. "Crappedy crap, what happened?"

"She got slightly carried away, I think," said Baba Yaga. "Flying around faster than she was used to, a bit too much magic in the fingertips or such something. And then there was the cage that did not get out of her way."

"Ouch," said William, "that must have been quite the collision."

"Don't worry, William, the cage is fine," Hilda assured him.

Esmee moved and moaned. "Ohhh, what happened..." She sat up and made sure her head was still where she expected it.

"I am not sure how you did it, but it looked sensational," Baba Yaga tried to cheer her up.

Hilda helped Esmee to her feet. "Are you in one piece?" she asked.

Esmee regretted nodding. "Yes. I think so. My broom..." That was also in one piece.

"Maybe you should lie down, Esmee," said Hilda. "In your bed. I'll take over the rest of this shift, and then William can do the last part."

They all agreed on that plan, so Babs and William took Esmee in and retreated to bed while Hilda surveyed the gardens.

William had actually nodded off when another bout of noise ripped him to full wakedom again. He had left the window open for this. He was outside and locating Hilda. The noise came from the cage. Again. "She didn't," he muttered.

She hadn't. "William," Hilda said, "look what I have here."

William lit up his wand and held it near the cage. In a corner he saw a man, suspiciously dressed as a servant from the castle. "Who are you then?"

The man tried to crawl back even further. "Morris, sir."

"You got yourself a Morris, Hilda."

"Yes. Just a Morris." She sounded displeased. "I saw him going around the kitchen back there, walking over to the chicken coop round the back. Did you see his hair?"

William nodded. Servant Morris was blessed with a tremendous amount of hair. "So Morris, what were you doing out here in the night?"

Morris summoned all his courage. "I came out to see what you were doing. We were all told to stay inside, so something important had to be going on."

"Hair colour doesn't match," Hilda said to William, "he's not what we're looking for. I'm afraid he ruined our chance to get what we're after."

"Can you let me go then?" Morris asked hopefully.

"We can, sure," said Hilda. "But we won't. You wanted to be out here, so we're not going to take that pleasure away from you. Who knows, you could make a nice bait for the monster we want to catch."

"Monster?" Morris' confidence in a happy end dropped several notches.

"Of course," Hilda made the man feel a bit more miserable, "do you think they call for two witches and a wizard for a stray fox?"

Morris was sweating from everywhere. "Let me out? Please?"

Hilda turned to William. "No way the whatever we're looking for will show up after this. I suggest we leave Morris here, to set an example," she whispered.

William nodded. "You go to bed now, witch. I'll take over, just to make sure."

Hilda hugged William. They both ignored Morris, who was pleading once again to be left out of the cage. "I'm going to miss you there, all alone in that big bed," the witch whispered.

"I'll make it up to you," William promised. It was no burden.

"You'd better," Hilda said. She got on her broom and disappeared into the darkness.

"Morris, dear man, you will be silent now," William said to the caged man. "I am not going to stop you from yelling and screaming. That would be too easy. I wonder what your king will tell you if you wake him up with your moaning."

Morris seemed to freeze. William did not want to know what was going through the man's mind at that moment. "I'm going to fly rounds now. You are allowed to shout if something scary happens," the wizard said as he mounted his broom. "I'll leave it up to you to decide what's scary."

"But- but- but," Morris attempted. The wizard ignored him as he flew up and vanished in the dark. Morris was very remorseful about going outside.

William made his rounds until the first light of day appeared. Tired and stiff he got off his broom. "So much for a lost night," he muttered as he went through the corridors. The people who were already up and running to make sure the royal family would be all taken care of did not dare to approach the wizard. His mood was too obvious.

The bed with Hilda in it was the best thing he had seen in hours. He lay down next to her. Close eyes, just a few moments, he thought.

9. Confusion

"William..." Hilda whispered in her wizard's ear. "Wake up, William. Wake up, wake up, wake up..."

"I wasn't sleeping," William claimed. "I just closed my eyes for a few moments."

Hilda sat up. "You must possess awfully big moments then. I've been awake for over an hour now and you haven't moved a muscle. Not many anyway. Snow White and her critters are awake already, maybe we should go see her and that fat prince of hers and tell her about our catch."

"Catch? Oh, right. He's probably eager to be released," William chuckled as the memory returned.

Hilda grinned. "I think we will leave that honour to Babs. She likes things like that."

The two got up and moved through the castle. Soon they heard sounds that did not belong in a castle: Baba Yaga was awake and around also. The sounds came from the dining room, which was slightly remodeled by the witch. In a corner was an open fire. There was a rough metal tripod over it, an iron cauldron hanging down from it on a chain. The flames under the pot were magically restricted in their space of movement: if they flickered sideways they seemed to be chopped off.

"Safety first," Baba Yaga told the two servants who stood as nailed to the wall. "Hilly, Willy, good morning! I am just about to make some decent food, care to join me?"

Hilda went to hug her friend. It took William a little longer to take in the scene and come to grips with it, but then he grinned and went over to see what Baba Yaga was brewing. With combined magical efforts, they soon sat and enjoyed their food. The two servants had found the strength to escape from the dining room's temporary insanity.

After their meal, the small group undid the changes to the hall and went looking for their royal clients. After locating them and waiting for the necessary diaper changes and such, Hilda reported about their nightly adventures. Jordan looked somewhat disturbed at the news that one of the people from the castle had been captured in the cage and demanded that the man be released.

"Oh, sure, no problem," said Hilda. "We were planning to let him go anyway. We have no use for him."

"And from what I heard from him, I wonder how you can have," Baba Yaga added. Hilda had already asked her to release Morris, something she would gladly do.

"So what are you going to do now?" King Louie asked, who had joined the conference. "Morris can't be the person we were looking for, I'm sure."

"Certainly not," William agreed, "and no need to look for Morris. We know where he is."

Baba Yaga screamed with laughter and slapped the wizard. The talk was over quite soon after that, and the three went to the garden where the iron cage holding a very miserable Morris was waiting for them. Morris jumped up as he saw them come, clinging to the bars. Then he saw Baba Yaga and all but leapt to the other side of the cage, his eyes large as he tried to push himself out through the bars.

Baba Yaga slapped the cage with a hand and a bolt of magic, making it shake and rattle. "Good cage, Hilda, I have to say. Sturdy stuff." Then she opened the door. "Hey, you inside. You're Morris, right?"

It looked like Morris nodded, but it could also be the shaking of his entire body that he could not control.

"Good. Get out of this cage. We have better use for it," Baba Yaga said. Morris did not need more encouragement: he dashed out of the cage, in plain view of many people that also worked in the castle. He was unable to go as fast as he wished to make the blemish as small as possible. Babs waved a finger. Morris stumbled and made a nose-dive into the dirt. "Sorry, couldn't resist," the ugly witch grinned to her two friends.

"I don't like what happened, though," Hilda said, "I had really hoped that this mysterious thing would show up so we could go home again. It's not the place itself, but the kids that are getting on my nerves."

Before there was a discussion about children, a man in official soldier's costume came walking to the team of magicals. "Excuse me. You are the honourable witches and wizard?"

"The clothes sort of give that away, don't they?" Hilda grinned. "We are. Why?"

The man nodded as a courtesy. "I have come to inform you that the creature has struck again last night. Bare bones of a rabbit and a peacock have been found near the sheep field on the other side of the castle grounds."

"Hmm. Never got into the taste of peacocks," Baba Yaga commented.

The uniformed man blinked a few times but kept his face under control. "If you would allow me to show you to where the creature struck..." The magical people allowed him this. On horseback and broom they made their way to the crime scene rather quickly.

They reached a large field. Sheep were nervously running around, the four people who tried to keep them calm were no match for the anxious animals. The arrival of three people on brooms added to the upheaval. Baba Yaga and Hilda quickly threw a magical barrier around the aggravated sheep to keep them away from the bones.

The man in uniform, he had introduced himself as Marshal Bender, walked them to the small shed that was the only building around. The bones lay in front of it. Some of them had been kicked around by the sheep. The wool-providers were mainly responsible for the mass of prints that were in the slightly soggy ground. There also had been enough people stomping around, so William was not sure they would find any tracks or prints that could help them onwards. First they chased everyone away and that proved to be a good thing. One of the people who had stomped around the area suddenly yelled out that he had found something.

Hilda was with the man first. He pointed at the ground, his eyes and mouth wide open. Hilda called out for Baba Yaga; William had already joined her as he had sensed Hilda's excitement and surprise through their bond. The thing that made their surprise was the shape of a cat's paw in the soil. That at least fit the picture they had of the creature they intended to catch. The worrying part was the size of the print: it was almost as long as William's foot, and as twice as wide as Hilda's foot. "Holy Bejeebus. These paws are almost as large as those of a lion," William mumbled.

Baba Yaga silently nodded, and Hilda sized the paw-print with her hand, to be certain it was as large as it looked. William and Babs saw magic sparkle around Hilda's fingers as the witch was touching the earth.

Hilda got up again. She looked confused. "It's a cat. But not just a cat. It is a woman. And a cat." She looked at William. "Why are Grim and Obsi not with us?"

William didn't know. The two always were there, so he had not really paid attention to them. Nor had Hilda. "Now can you be more specific about the cat and woman?" the wizard asked.

Babs hoisted herself up again. "No, she can't. Nor can I. It is confusing, wizard, feel for yourself." The wizard felt, then joined the confusion club.

Marshal Bender had kept the ordinaries away for as long as he could, but a few had managed to slip past him. The two men and a woman stared at the large paw-print. The woman pressed a hand against her mouth and staggered backwards into one of the men.

"Now, folks," Baba Yaga took control of the situation, "we know that this is a bit of a strange size cat, but it's nothing to worry about, really." Her wand appeared. "Now you lot, look at the little stick, will you?" She waved her wand, attracting the attention of all people with it. A small red blip popped from it and disappeared again. "Now all of you are not going to talk about this thing. If you do, we will know about it and we will not hesitate to make you suck elves. Trust me, there are nicer things to suck."

William wondered how far Baba Yaga's knowledge of that reached. Regardless of that, Babs' message reached the people and they slowly walked away, suddenly interested in the number of sheep in the magical pen, and exchanging mutton recipes.

"Right. That takes care of that. The king might lose a few sheep today, though." Baba Yaga grinned. Hilda and William laughed about the creative way Babs had handled the situation.

"But we still have to find the woman-cat," Hilda then said. "I'd think someone like that should not be hard to find. With paws like that and covered in the hair we found, you would not go unnoticed for long."

William agreed. "I'll look around and see if there are more prints like this one. If we know where the woman-cat went, we stand a chance of finding her." Hilda and Baba Yaga also helped looking, and they found four more prints before the trail ended on a rough stone path that would eventually lead to the village near the castle. William flew his broom along the path for some time, but he came back with no new insights.

They returned to the castle, after thanking Marshal Bender for his help in coming to warn them. The man was still talking recipes when they left.

Back near the castle the three found a nice spot in the sunshine and sat down on a large couch that they made appear. They considered their options and the findings so far. There was not much to go on. Two plucks of hair, five paw prints of considerable size and heaps of bones. And of course the confusing bit about the creature being a cat as well as a woman. As they were talking, Esmee came outside and walked over to the three.

"Good morning," the blond witch said. There was some strange change about her: her dress seemed less pink. "My head hurts." Now there was a surprise. Esmee sat down next to Babs. "Did I really fly into that cage?"

"You sure did, kiddo," said the ugly witch. "Spectacular. I don't suppose you want to do it again to show Hilly and Willy, right?"

Esmee wanted to look daggers at Baba Yaga but decided against that. "No. I don't. Where were you this morning? I heard that cook was quite upset about something in the dining hall. Did you see anything strange?"

The three said they had not seen anything they had not seen before. Esmee shrugged. "Sometimes they are like that. People, I mean."

"Ordinaries," Hilda helped.

Esmee nodded. "Yes, them."

Hilda then told the flower witch about the things they had discovered that morning. Esmee quickly woke up over that strange news. "No, never heard of a cat that is also a woman around here. Nor anywhere else, for that matter." Esmee frowned as she thought about that again, but came up with nothing. "No. Never."

10. A strange meeting

As Esmee was being brought up to date on the findings earlier that morning, two people met in a shed. The shed was not on the castle grounds; it was about a mile from the nearby village. When the man entered the shed, making sure nobody had followed him, he found that the woman was already inside and waiting.

"I thought you would not come," said the woman.

"Magda, listen, I have many things on my mind. I have to tell people what to do and such. How did it go?"

The woman shrugged. "Nothing special. There is not much progress and something seemed out of control this night. As if there was a force interfering. I don't know what to make of that."

The man sat down on a block of wood. "But you can keep this up, right?"

"Lindolf, look, I know you want to expand your influence and I am grateful for all the energy you can supply me with, but I still say we have to take this slowly. All this changing business is hard work and wearing me out no matter what. I can keep this up, yes, but not at the rate you want."

"But the 'scaring the people' part? Are you ready for that soon?" Lindolf leaned over to Magda, as if that would make a difference.

"Soon. I think so. Once we're more stable, and that is starting to develop," Magda nodded. "In a few days I could try something in the village. I will need some small animals there though, somewhere we agree on in advance. I don't want to waste time looking all over the place."

Lindolf waved both hands. "No problem, really, I will have Jock put a crate of chickens wherever you want them. Just let me know when and where, and things will be prepared."

"Good." Magda got up and stretched her back. "Argh, I'm getting old and tired."

"Nonsense," said Lindolf. "You are a young, wonderful and strong woman!"

"I miss the 'beautiful' in that list, Lindolf," she laughed, "but you are not looking for a beautiful woman. Instead you come to me. Because I have what you want." She laughed even harder now, forgetting for a moment that the meeting should go unnoticed. "I'll send word to you when I'm ready."

"I'll be waiting," Lindolf said as he got up. "You should get some sleep, Magda, you look like you were up all night."

"I should kick you for that, Lindolf," Magda grumbled, "but I don't feel up to that. Yes. I need to sleep."

Lindolf nodded. "We'll meet again soon, Magda." Then he left.

Magda waited for a while and then she too left the shed.

11. A village trip

Hilda believed what Esmee had said. A person that also was a big cat would not go unnoticed. "Right. So bottom line is that we have only very little to go on. Several handfuls of bones, some hair and a few paw-prints of uber-cat size. Ideas anyone?" The assembled magical society remained alarmingly quiet.

From inside the castle a few children started wailing. Esmee groaned. "I wish I was not around, Hilda," she said, "when I am not around I don't have to come to the rescue..."

Hilda frowned. "I thought you like these kids..."

"I do. But not all the time. And not when they are in this howling mood..." Esmee stared at the castle and felt the urge to make her way into it, when Hilda said: "Well, we may have to make sure you are not around then."

Baba Yaga cackled and summoned her broom. Hilda's and William's came flying also. Esmee's blue eyes grew large. "You're not leaving me alone here, are you?" Babs muttered something about pink and then whispered a spell that made Esmee's broom fly up to them. The pink witch, surprise all over her, caught it. Her broom appeared to be chased by two black cats that sat down and looked up at their magical humans. Clearly they did not want to miss out on any action. Or the kids were too much for them as well.

"Up and away, folks," Hilda suggested. Four broomed shapes, two with furry navigators, flew off from the castle gardens.

"Where are we going?" Esmee asked.

"Away from the castle," was Hilda's simple answer. "We're going to snoop around the area a bit, looking for clues. Maybe go shopping in the villages nearby. You never know who you run into on nice days like this."

William looked at the sky. It looked like rain. His witch was incorrigible.

They flew over the forests that lay around the castle, when Grimalkin suddenly started meowing, her tail twitching as she stared down. "Stop, people," Hilda said as she did just that. "What is it, kitty cat? Did you see something to play with?"

"Marrrrw!" was the response she got. Slowly the magicals flew back until Grim's tail twitched again, and this time Obsi joined in, scratching at the bristles of William's broom. They descended to the ground, where the two cats leapt from the brooms and ran off. Four brooms were put against a tree and their owners walked after the cats. Only a few dozen paces into the forest, the two cats were sniffing at the floor. William brushed away some ferns and floor-crawling greens.

"Crappedy crap. Did she see that all the way from up there?" Hilda was truly amazed. The two cats had led them to another paw-print. As they went around the area a bit, they discovered more prints. There was quite a trail of them. It started, for some odd reason, just off a gravel path that according to Esmee was frequented by travelers and salesmen with their carriages. The prints led down into the forest quite far where they suddenly stopped, as if the creature that had made them had flown off or evaporated.

"This has to be the same creature," William said. "If there's a nest of them, then someone should have seen them by now. Especially if it's a flying kind of uber-cat."

"Unless they can become invisible," Baba Yaga pointed out. William had not considered that option.

"Whatever they are, they don't seem to shed their hair easily," Hilda pointed out. She had tried to find more bits of hair, but with no success. "Two scrawny bits of it, both from the castle garden, that's all we have." The four magicals tried to locate more evidence, magical or visible, but there was nothing for them to find.

Hilda picked up Grimalkin and stroked the black head. "Good girl, at least we now know that the creature gets around a bit." That was true; they had gone quite far from the castle already. They walked back to their brooms and soon they were over the trees again. After some cruising and keeping their eyes on the two cats, they decided that this was not going to deliver anything better, so Esmee took the lead and set course towards the village.

"Oh, uhm, please, when we get there, could you try to be a bit calm? The villagers know only me as the witch," Esmee asked them as they approached the spread-out collection of houses that with some imagination could be called a village. Baba Yaga laughed. It made Esmee worry, with reason.

Their appearing in the middle of the village caused moderate commotion. Within half a minute everyone that was in the houses near the village square had come outside and stared at the four. Most of the assembled gapers were women and children, only a few men were there and most of them were old. William and Hilda picked up their cats and put them on a shoulder. Esmee took all their brooms and took them to one of the people in the street. "Would you please take care of them for us, while we are here?"

As the woman she had addressed nodded, Baba Yaga turned to Hilda and William. "We should do something about that too. No respect, I'm telling you."

"Looks to me that our Esmee has plenty of respect for the people here," William couldn't resist. His remark made Baba Yaga laugh so loudly that within fifteen seconds the entire square was empty again, save Esmee who looked back, wondering what was going on. She returned to her three companions, broomless.

"Are you sure our brooms are safe there, Esmee dear?" Baba Yaga asked.

"Oh yes, no need to worry about that. I know these people, they are always very kind to me. At least, until now," Esmee frowned. She hoped her reputation would not suffer too much from the presence of the three that were here with her.

"Now take us to the shops and the good places, girl," Hilda said, patting Esmee on the arm. She was so good in creating a false sense of safety.

Esmee smiled happily, and as she chattered about the wonderful people of the village, the produce they brought forth on their fields and the great things that were available in the shops here, Hilda, William and Babs looked around and hoped to find anything that could be a clue to finding the strange creature. They visited several shops too, one with herbs and spices that had Hilda's interested, and one with fabrics where the owner tried to sell some pink fluff to Esmee. To his surprise she declined and bought something burgundy red, stating that it would look great as a new cloak. Baba Yaga displayed a big and satisfied smile. The shop owner did not interpret it as such and gave Esmee a big discount on the material, hoping they would leave the shop quickly before other customers were scared off.

As they roamed the narrow streets, the cats walking by themselves, Babs stated that they'd get somewhere yet. Hilda and William understood that she meant Esmee, Esmee responded that they'd just have to stay close and no one would get lost. Her comment invoked quite some amusement among the three, and she laughed along. They reached a large area that seemed somewhat lost between several groups of houses. "This is the marketplace," Esmee shared with the others. "We have a market here every week."

"A market. Astonishing. And what do people market here?" Hilda asked.

Esmee worked down a list of vegetables, fruits and meats as if she had studied for it. Or worked in the market for far too long.

"So no large cat creatures, eh?" Baba Yaga.

Esmee stopped and stared at the ugly witch. Her face showed that she was really thinking; then a giant grin was on her face. "Oh no, you almost tricked me, Baba Yaga, but you don't get me that easily!"

Babs laughed. "She's good, she's good," she said, looking at Hilda and William. The two almost died laughing. Magic helped them to keep a straight face.

In the market area, six men were working to load crates on a cart. "Oh, look, there's Jock," Esmee said. "Jock! Hello!' She waved frantically. Her companions frowned and wondered what they were up for now. "Come, I will introduce you to Jock," the mostly pink witch said as she briskly walked off towards the cart.

Jock turned out to be a very simple man who had been forgotten to come in on the day that 'smart' was handed out. Actually, he had been absent most days that beneficial traits were available. It did look as if he spent all that time in the place where muscle was distributed. The man was enormous in size. He seemed to care about Esmee a lot, too. She walked up to him and almost disappeared from view as he wrapped his impressive physique around her. "Esmee," he said slowly but clearly.

Esmee spoke just as slowly as she introduced the people who were with her. Jock nodded as she mentioned their names, then he bent down and petted the two cats, very tenderly. "Cats," the big man stated and he looked up to Esmee, a happy smile on his face. Obsi and Grim allowed the man his time to pet them.

The pink witch then introduced the trio to the other men who had continued loading the cart. Without big Jock's help that went a lot slower. One of the men asked why they were there, and Hilda explained vaguely that they had been called over to help with something at the castle.

"Oh. Something that our witch can't handle then, is it?" The man, only half Jock's size, positioned himself next to Esmee, as if he wanted to protect her from something. He had been introduced as Charles. "Just so you know, our witch is the best witch in the area."

"I am sure," said Baba Yaga, "but sometimes even the best of the best need some help. Look at your man Jock, for instance."

Jock was happily stacking things onto the cart. Charles frowned. "He don't need no help."

"Oh yes, he does," Babs said.

"What do you mean?" Charles did not look at ease all of a sudden.

"Jock is good at what he does, but what he can do is limited, right?"

Charles nodded. "Yeah. He needs us to tell him what- Oh... I see."

Esmee again had the desire to look daggers at Baba Yaga, but held herself back. "I think we need to move on now," she said instead.

Babs looked at Hilda and William and shrugged. They said goodbye to the men, Esmee was hugged by Jock again and then they walked on. Once they were away from the market square and far from any people, Esmee turned to Baba Yaga. "I would appreciate it, Baba Yaga, if you would not make me look like a fool any more. Please?"

"Finally," Baba Yaga said. She popped up her wand and some chairs. "Sit." Esmee sat. "Wrong, get up." Esmee got up. "You don't get it, do you?"

Esmee looked at Hilda and William, her whole face shouting 'HELP'.

12. Now listen

Baba Yaga sat down. "Sit."

"No," Esmee said, her face glowing red as she did so. "I want to know why!" Her lower lip trembled as she realised that she was challenging this ugly but powerful witch.

"Good girl. Now sit down and I will tell you." When Esmee sat, Hilda arranged for some cups of tea, while Baba Yaga started talking. "Esmee, child, you need to smarten up. What is the worst thing you've come across in your life?"

Esmee told them about the children of Snow White and Jordan. About finding frogs in her bed. And about a ghost in a closet that she'd had to remove with magic.

Baba Yaga nodded. "Yes, that all sounds blood-chilling, Esmee. I have bad news for you though; the thing we are looking at now is even worse than all that you just mentioned. We seem to be facing a woman who can turn into a cat of tremendous size. Not something like the kittens we have here." The kittens meowed in protest but were ignored. "So we can't afford to do the nice and pretty thing, Esmee. If that creature comes storming at you, you have to slam it, not ask if it wants some tea."

"But maybe it-" Esmee started. Then she changed her mind. "No, probably not."

"Good girl. Remember the lesson we did earlier? Use your magic when you have to. We'll make sure your magic will be pumped up to something usable and help you to keep that under control. But people have to understand that you are not someone that will be happy with a flower when you need a hammer." Here Baba Yaga wondered for a moment where she was going with that statement. "What I mean to say is that you have to be clear and don't accept just anything from anyone. Not even from me, unless it's clear that the situation calls for it of course."

Esmee stared at Baba Yaga. "Not even from you? But you are..."

"Yeah, I know, I'm big and bad and powerful and all that. I know. But that does not mean that I am always right. We all know things, but only when we toss these things in a cauldron and stir it together, we share that knowledge."

Esmee nodded. "But I see no cauldron," she then said. Hilda and William were convinced that Baba Yaga's eyes would roll now, even when they weren't clearly visible. They braced for a minor explosion. Just before something else could happen, Esmee started laughing and got up. She popped out her wand and made a cauldron appear. It was a tiny one, but it was there. She picked it up and handed it to Babs. "Here is a present for you. I really understand what you mean. Well, at least I think I do."

Baba Yaga held the small cauldron up in her wrinkled hand. The lower part of her face showed what they all knew to be a smile. "This flower witch may actually learn something after all," was all she said, but Hilda and William understood the significance of her words. Then it started to rain. William slapped a magical umbrella over them; the two cats ran for cover under it.

"Seems to be a good time to go back," Hilda said as she looked at the skies where more and darker clouds were moving in. As they walked back to the house where their brooms were kept safe, William wondered if they should do another night watch.

"Perhaps we should set some magical wards in the most obvious places," Hilda suggested, "I'm sure Esmee will know the places where the creature struck most often."

Once on their brooms again, Esmee detailed the best places where the safeties could be put up, and she was very interested in how to make things like that. Baba Yaga said that she would see to it that Esmee was trained on the job. Hilda thought that a great idea.

They reached the castle grounds. Rain was pouring down in streams. Some overzealous gardeners were still trying to do something nice for the plant life they were responsible for. The men stared as the small squadron of brooms came in to land near the large cage.

"Oy, honourable witches," one of the gardeners said, "how long do you reckon that metal box has to stay here in the garden? It's pretty much an eyesore, you should know, the king said so himself."

Hilda nodded understandingly. "Would it be terribly offensive to make the king temporarily blind?" Esmee and William said that it would be, Baba Yaga was tempted to take Hilda's side.

"Let's first get these wards up, folks," Baba Yaga decided, "we'll have time to ponder the king's eyesight in a dry environment." Everyone agreed with that. Staying on broomstick, as the paths had all turned into mud, they followed Esmee to the places where most of the times bones had been found.

Hilda and William, who had been charged with additional magic from Zelda's place, helped Baba Yaga in supplying magical power for Esmee as the flower witch was trained in setting wards. The first one was an absolute disaster, as all three had expected already.

"Listen, wench," said Babs, "I can't do this for you, I can only explain what you have to do. So you'd better listen carefully and do it well. This rain, even when Willy here makes it fall somewhere else, is not good for my old bones. So, you envision a web of magic here around the place and you pin it to the place. Let's first get that part done."

Esmee nodded, held out her wand and nothing happened. She shook her wand a few times. "Maybe it got wet..."

"It did not get wet," William was certain. "I don't see a drop on it, nor on your hands. Let me try something." He put his hand on Esmee's shoulder. "Give it another go."

She did. William let some magic flow directly into her. A web appeared where Esmee wanted it, but it was slightly too powerful: a magical explosion meant the end of the web, and four magicals found themselves in the mud. "Oops," said William. "That was a bit too much, wasn't it?"

Baba Yaga laughed so loudly that the palace guards came running to check what bad had happened this time. They dispersed quickly, as a laughing witch was not considered something bad. Little did they know.

The magical muddies got up and mounted their brooms again. Hilda cleaned and dried them all, as William took care of the two cats who looked utterly displeased. When everyone was in some form of order again, Esmee tried building the ward again, this time with support from Hilda, and that seemed to help. The web was clearly visible, looked stable and Baba Yaga approved, which was most important.

"And now you make four lines from the web, one to each of us," Babs said.

"Six," Hilda corrected her, "the cats too. They can alarm us when something happens."

Baba Yaga agreed, watching the two black creatures who seemed unimpressed, even bored with the whole affair. They lay curled up on their part of the brooms. Esmee managed the connections from the web to all the ones who had to be linked to it.

"Good little witch," Baba Yaga encouraged Esmee. The flower witch had a pained expression on her face as this was magic of an entirely different level. "Now, take us to the next spot. We'll each set up some wards so we are inside before it's all dark out here. This rain is bad on my old bones."

They visited six places in the castle grounds and everywhere they left a magical alarm bell, connected to each of them. Esmee set up the last one, and this time it did not take her so long. After that the group repaired to the warm dry spaces of the castle.

As they were in the dining room, where there was a separate table for them, they talked about things of the day, and what they would do when the mysterious large cat woman creature was shaking up any of the wards. Jordan, Snow White and a trail of children came into the dining room then, and they all flocked around the table of the magicals. Some of the children looked for cats to play with, but the cats had spotted the children and had left for safer quarters.

"Have you found out anything?" Snow White wanted to know as Jordan and some maids tried to move the children towards their own table. It looked like herding cats.

The magicals told her about what they had found, which was not very much. "Good thing we got to those tracks before the rain," Hilda said, "when it keeps pouring down they'll be gone quickly."

"And Esmee? Has she been any help?" Snow White asked. The tone in her voice made it clear that she had not much trust in her castle-witch beyond household magic and the improbable taming of children.

"Esmee's been great," Baba Yaga said, surprising Snow White, who kept an eye on Jordan. The old witch shook her head as she saw how he tried to grab the twins who were running around with forks. Esmee seemed surprised at Baba Yaga's words, she had not expected such praise.

"He's not getting them before they get him," Baba Yaga predicted. All heads turned to Prince Jordan and saw her prediction come true: as Jordan grabbed Dicky, Billy approached him from the rear and was ready to stab his father in the rear end with the fork.

Esmee muttered something and had her wand in hand. Billy yelped, and with a proper reason. He shot up to the ceiling where his feet then seemed stuck. The little prince screamed as if he was on a spit, while William magically caught the falling fork before it could hurt someone.

"Dicky," Esmee then said. She attracted the attention of everyone in the dining room, the way her voice was strong and so very un-Esmee. Dicky turned and stared at her. "Put down the fork and sit. Or you can join your brother up there."

Dicky stared up. The fork fell from his hand as he heard his twin brother yelp as he hung from the ceiling. Dinna also saw her brother hanging and started sobbing that she did not want to go up to the ceiling again. Roderick, who had stayed close to Snow White all the while, kept looking from hanging brother to sobbing sister and back up, unsure what to do with the situation.

"I think we should sit down and eat," Snow White suggested. "Would you please be so kind to bring my child down again, Esmee?" There was a sound in her voice that Hilda had never heard before when Snow White talked to the castle witch. It sounded close to respect.

"Sure she can, but since these two don't seem to know what to do with a fork, make them eat with their fingers," the wicked witch suggested, grinning at the prospect of a food fight.

Esmee spoiled her fun by suggesting that she and Hilda would feed the two boys, while their hands were stuck to the chairs. "Crappedy crap."

Billy was brought down from the ceiling. He had fear written all over his face, and the smell of urine rising up from his collar.

Baba Yaga had a ball, watching the feeding scene... William did his best not to look, and not to laugh.

13. Watch where you're going

In the black of the night, two shapes splashed down the muddy trail. Magda tried to find protection from the unrelenting rain under her soaked cloak. Lindolf stared ahead stoically, his garments also soaked. "I wish I had known this before," the man said, "I could have saved myself the trouble of coming here."

"Do you think I enjoy getting all wet and cold?" Magda snapped at him. "I have better things to do too, you know. It is not just my game, you are responsible at least as much." She pushed past some twigs. The curse she heard from the big man as the twigs hit him in the face gave her some satisfaction.

-=-=-

"William?"

"Yes, witch?" the wizard said.

"I am glad you did not laugh this evening." Hilda put an arm around her wizard. "I am not good with children."

"That was rather obvious," said William, "but you handled it just fine, Hilda. Esmee has experience, magicking Dicky's hands to the chair was enough for her. You just did what you could, and I'm proud of you."

Hilda nodded, her cheek against his shoulder. "Billy wouldn't sit still. His own fault that I had to make the iron clamps appear. That way he kept his mouth open and the rest of him unmoving."

"Inventive, and effective," William agreed.

"Was a bad move of Jordan though, to tell the kid that is how it feels when you're in a suit of armour." Hilda snorted. "As if he knows how that feels."

"And do you know, sweetwitch?" the wizard was curious.

"No. I don't need that kind of ordinary stuff." Hilda snuggled closer. "I just need you..."

The morning came on slightly soggy feet, but the skies were clearing. Apparently the rain was set on wetting other areas. Hilda sat up and rubbed her face. Then she pushed William. "I am sure it was your ward that did not work."

"Eh, what?" William wasn't aware of anything that had not worked on his behalf.

"We all set up wards yesterday, in the rain. If you care to remember." Hilda leaned down on him, resting her elbows on his chest. "And we heard nothing this night. I am tempted to bet that the cat woman was where you put up the ward, and that your ward failed to warn us. You have to admit that you are not so skilled in setting wards, William."

The wizard put his arms around her. "Now listen, witch. I watched what you did, and I copied your ward. If you care to remember. So if my ward failed, yours has done too."

"My wards, wizard, do not fail." She sounded very determined.

"So maybe it were Esmee's wards. Or the notification lines she set up to all of us." William harboured a thought for a moment. Only for a moment.

"Don't think that out loud, William. Babs will have you for breakfast," Hilda said.

"Don't say that. It's already banished from my head. Really."

Hilda felt the shudder go through William. She kissed him on the lips. "Come. Breakfast. And then inventory of what happened outside."

Breakfast was a calm affair, even when Baba Yaga joined them. After that they went to find Esmee. They found the pink witch in the room where Snow White and another young woman were discussing tactics on keeping the twins under control.

"Jordan is taking them with him far too often," Snow White complained to the magical trio that joined the talks. "They are learning his way of talking, they eat too much and they don't listen to me."

Baba Yaga agreed. "These two kids are indeed becoming a bit chubby. I am sure we can lend a hand with that too, while we're here."

Snow White seemed to seriously consider the implicit offer of the witch. "How many children have you raised?"

"Children? Raised?" Babs asked. "Are you asking me? And you're feeling well at the same time?"

Snow White did not look at ease all of a sudden. "Maybe I should just talk to Jordan about that, instead of you..."

"Ah, no, really, hardly any trouble," Hilda pitched in, "we'll take care of that for you. You just keep that belly of you where it is, and by the way, your little girl is making a mess of the clean diapers." As Snow White and the young woman stared in terror at the mountain of diapers Dinna had created, William took Esmee by the arm and made her leave the room with them.

"Hey, where are you taking me?" Esmee asked as they sauntered down the long corridor to the exit.

"Away from there. Snow White has plenty of help for her kids," Hilda explained, "and we are going to see what happened outside. None of us woke up last night, so I suspect one of the wards did not work as we planned."

Esmee nodded. "I was a bit surprised about not being woken up also," she admitted.

Once outside, they all got on their brooms and went on a tour around the places they had secured the day before. To their surprise, they found all the wards in perfect order; there was nothing wrong anywhere. There also were no paw-prints, no bits of hair and no piles of bones at any of the places. The latter made no sense, according to Hilda. Esmee confirmed that chicken or rabbit remains had been found every morning.

"Let me tell you something," William then said, staring at the two black animals that had come along. They were neatly curled up on the hovering brooms. "Cats don't like to get wet."

"Everyone knows that, William- Oh, right. It pissed down last night..." Hilda turned to her best friend: "See, Babs, that's why I keep him around. Occasionally he does come in handy." Esmee stared at Hilda and then at William, who winked at her. She grinned without a sound.

Baba Yaga took her wand and prodded the ward they were with. "Still looks good. We'll leave it in place for another night." Esmee was quite surprised and proud. It was one of her wards, and Baba Yaga had said it looked good.

"I vote we go back to the castle and have a cup of tea with something or other," Hilda said. "The rain went on for too long, it still feels moist everywhere."

"And you are going to battle that with taking in wet stuff, aren't you?" Baba Yaga grinned.

"Hot wet stuff. That's different," Hilda grinned as she hopped onto her broom. "Come on, folks, I am not going to wait for you!" Esmee was last in the air, still trying to come to terms with the seemingly random way Hilda's mind hit all kinds of things.

Back in the castle, sitting in one of the many lounges, the four magical ones discussed how they would go about Prince Jordan. More precisely this meant that Hilda and Babs were coming up with one weird plan after the next, while William sat grinning and Esmee became more anxious for them to stop. They frightened her. Hilda seemed to read that from Esmee's face. "I think it is time to finish the tea," the wicked witch said, "and put an end to our talking." Esmee was the first person to agree with that. Poor Esmee.

They finished their tea. Hilda, William and Babs got up. "What are you going to do?" Esmee asked, slight bits of fear making her heart jolt.

"We are going to have a little talk."

"But you said you were putting an end to the talking..." An awareness dawned on Esmee. It was a dawning that cast bad shadows.

"Our talking," Hilda confirmed Esmee's fears, "has indeed come to an end. Now we are going to have the talk with His Princeness."

"Oh." That was the best come-back Esmee mustered. "In that case I'll-"

"-come with us, if you would be so kind, yes," Hilda completed Esmee's sentence in quite a different way than the pink witch had in mind. "Prince Jordan won't feel so outnumbered. He knows you and may take heart from that."

Esmee highly doubted that. Prince Jordan had never been very impressed with her, despite all her efforts to do what she could. She understood however that there was no way she would be escaping from the three that now were looking down at her, waiting until she got up. Lingering, she knew, would only postpone the inevitable, so without suppressing her sigh, she got to her feet.

The flower witch was in the lead, on the way to the chambers of Prince Jordan. As they went along, Baba Yaga commented to Esmee she should start wearing properly coloured clothes. "Some more black would do you good. And that red you got the other day, when are you going to do something with that?"

"Yes, yes, I will do something. Maybe make a nice dress from that," Esmee responded.

"Good. And a black cloak? Want us to fix you one?" Hilda offered. "We make mean cloaks. I can see you in one with shiny black flowers, or cats." Grim and Obsi meowed, objecting to that.

"If it is all the same to you, Hilda, I will see that I get my own cloak," Esmee said. She turned into another corridor and almost bumped into a man. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

"Watch where you're going," the servant grumbled.

"Hey. Yes, you," Baba Yaga said as the servant passed her. "I think we need to talk." Esmee grew pale as she witnessed the scene. Hilda and William looked on with interest.

"What do you want?" the servant asked, taking an eyeful of Babs.

"Well," said the wrinkled witch. "How about you first apologise to the witch there?"

The servant's faced conveyed a year's supply of amazement. "Apologise? To her?"

"Yes. You heard correctly."

"Baba Yaga, please," Esmee started, but something in the stance of Hilda made her keep her mouth shut.

"I'm not apologising to any witch," the servant said, puffing a proud chest. "And certainly not to that one."

"We'll see about that, dear man," said Baba Yaga. "The 'that one' you are so disdainfully are referring to is my protegé. She is a witch, and a damned good one. One with less sense would have turned you into a toad for not watching where you're going."

Esmee stared at Baba Yaga. Protegé? She somehow convinced her lower jaw to stay put.

"The flower witch? She can't even change a diaper quickly," the servant scorned. The scene was attracting more than a fair share of attention by now, most of them servants deciding that their chores could wait.

Baba Yaga looked at her protegé. "Turn him into a toad."

Esmee wanted to say that she did not know how to do that, but the stare that had to come from Babs' eyes made her swallow those words. She popped up her wand, a trick she had learnt by now. Hilda had taken position directly opposite Esmee and slowly moved her lips.

The servant laughed. "See? She's not making much of it. Now, let me pass and don't get in my way again!"

"Ranunculus," said Esmee.

"Ribbit," said what a moment ago had been a servant. Esmee stared at the animal that crawled from the heap of clothes.

"Someone take care of him," said William, "and his work. If you treat him well enough, we'll see about turning him back. Tomorrow or so. Treat him badly and you will face what he's facing now."

Then the four walked on, Esmee still in shock of what had just happened.

14. A chat with Jordan

Esmee, who was kept moving by William's hand in her back, looked confused. "Who did that?" she whispered to the wizard.

"You did. Hilda just helped a bit," he said, "I saw how she worked on the Latin so it would work immediately."

"Latin?" Things did not get easier for Esmee. "And who is going to turn that man back into a man?"

"You will," Baba Yaga informed her, "and we're going to work on that this afternoon, so you know what's waiting for you." Esmee nodded. Somehow this was a relief and a worry at the same time. At least, she gathered, her chances of flying into the large iron cage were low.

They arrived at large double doors, laid in with the official seal of King Louie's household. It was a large blue square with many small yellow crescents. Over a number of them was a large hand that seemed to grab at them. Baba Yaga looked at the seal for a moment. "Someone's been monkeying around with that, it seems," she remarked.

Esmee knocked on one of the doors and pushed it open. Baba Yaga nodded approvingly. Knocking was good, after all this was royalty of a kind, but waiting to go in was not witchy.

They found Prince Jordan on a large couch. Dicky wasn't around, but Billy, the other of the twins, was on a similar, be it smaller version of the couch. Esmee stared in disbelief at the goblet that the kid was holding. She walked over to him and took it, then tasted it. "Your Highness!" she then said, "Billy is drinking wine!"

"Yes. I know," the highness said, "I gave it to him myself. If he's going to be a king someday he should know how to handle wine and such, so I thought it would be a good idea to start the training as soon as possible."

"Where's the other one?" Hilda asked, somewhat less polite and somewhat more herself.

"Dicky? Oh, he ran off, retching. Not so good with wine yet," Prince Jordan said. "Strange too, as he's from the same batch as Billy. I'd expected them to be the same."

"Oh yes, we need to talk about that also." Hilda used magic on a few chairs so they moved themselves closer to the couch.

"Also?" Prince Jordan hoisted himself into a more upright position, knocking over his goblet of wine.

"Yes. Also. Hey, kid, off you go, and do something kid-like. We have to talk to your Dad for a bit and that's not something for small ears," Baba Yaga ordered Billy. As the child complained that he had a right to hear that as he would be king someday, Babs showed him her wand and made a comment about ceilings and how much space there was on them. Billy did not need more encouragement. He left, in search of his brother.

William made sure the double doors would not open until they were done, and sat back to enjoy the show.

"You, Jordan, did not write the book on bringing up children, did you?" Hilda asked the highness.

"You didn't either, witch," he retorted, sitting up even straighter. The topic of the conversation called for that. "I am bringing up my sons the way I see fit. Trying to do a better job than my father did."

"'Trying' being the operative word here," Baba Yaga pitched in. Jordan chose not comment on that.

"I refuse to be spoken to like that!" Prince Jordan now sat upright, appearing genuinely annoyed by what appeared to become an inquisition.

"I'd say you have little choice here, Jordan," Hilda calmly said. "Let's get to the points, and get this over with. Step one, you stop feeding stuff to your children that is not good for them. Step one, you stop feeding yourself with the same stuff. Makes for a bad example."

"Shouldn't that be step two?" Jordan asked. "You have two steps one."

Hilda treated him to a devastating look. "All steps one should be done together. Don't interrupt me. Step one. Stop eating so much. Your belly is already fatter than your father's, and the way he looks is insulting. It's also quite the remedy against love."

Prince Jordan observed the object of attention for a moment. "It's not too bad."

"I recall the time that you could get on a horse alone, Jordan. Somehow I don't see that happen these days." Hilda frowned at the prince. "And please, tell me when I'm wrong."

"It's temporary," Jordan brought to his feeble defense.

"Damned sure it is," Baba Yaga agreed, "we'll see to that. And no worry, it is all part of the service."

Again Prince Jordan ignored the remark of the ugly witch. "It's not my fault Snow White sleeps in a different room lately," he said. Then his face froze. "Tell me I didn't say that."

"You didn't," William assured him. "We all did not hear that."

"Look, Jordan," Hilda said, to Esmee's growing concern, "it's all good and fine that you care to love your little wife inside and out and all that, but man, do give her a bit of a break once in a while. She's not a brooding machine."

"I need heirs, to make sure the kingdom will retain its royalty!" Jordan attempted.

"Sure, you need heirs, but you have a bundle of them running around already, and one more on the way. Do you want to go down in history as the prince who had more kids than regular subjects?"

Prince Jordan looked angry. "Now don't you go put all the blame on me. She's loving it as well, you know."

"As she should," said Hilda. Baba Yaga snorted. Hilda ignored that.

"Jordan," William then said, "listen. Nothing wrong with having your urges and wanting to take the steam off. But perhaps some sensible planning and care on that account is the way to go."

Prince Jordan stared at William. "You can't plan things like that."

"Oh, sure you can. Stay off for a while, for instance. Not like you're not doing that now, is it? Of course, there is another option. That would would require some care, but would take away the need to do some planning."

Prince Jordan was all ears suddenly. "Tell, wizard, what way is that?" Hilda and Esmee looked as if they wanted to know about that too. Baba Yaga did not seem very interested in all that talk.

"Well," said William, "there is a way to make sure you can get all the horizontal exercise you want, and that kids are not a result of that."

"And what might that be?" Hilda asked, cutting off the prince who had the same question.

"Well, it is only a small action that needs doing," the wizard said, wiggling his eyebrows. "Nothing difficult, really."

"Will it hurt?" Prince Jordan asked.

"Yes. Not for long, but it will."

Jordan scowled. "I don't like pain."

"Not many people do, but everything has a price," William said, "and look at it from the bright side: you have to put up with it for a while, but Snow White is pregnant and not sleeping with you anyway. So the timing could not be better, could it?"

The prince saw the reasoning in that. Still, the prospect of pain was not very appealing. "Is there a chance that I could lessen the pain in a way?"

Baba Yaga tossed in that there could be a generous supply of medical alcohol, or some magically induced sleep to make things more bearable. William had to grin; clearly the witch was more interested than she wanted them to know. Prince Jordan was very susceptible to the idea of medicinal alcohol. "But what about the care? You said there would be some care?"

"Yes," William said. "Step one, you will have to lose a considerable amount of weight, otherwise the pain will take longer to go away. And I am talking about months, if not years, young man. If you get that belly off it will be mere days." Prince Jordan nodded. He had just heard another very good reason to reshape his physique. "And point two, after the procedure you will have to refrain from any horizontal activity for a while, to make sure everything's fine down there."

"DOWN THERE?" Prince Jordan had just learnt about a very good reason not to go one with all this.

"Of course," William said, "that's where all the trouble started, right? You always have to yank out trouble by the root."

"YANK OUT?" Another reason to just forget about the whole deal. It also was good for making all blood evacuating from his cheeks, leaving his face a pale mass.

"Figuratively speaking, prince," William reassured the young man. "There won't be any physical yanking."

"Oh. Good." The thought of someone doing anything violent to his 'down there' made the prince's face flush all red: his blood was reclaiming its rightful place. (Royal blood is not blue.)

"So does that mean we have a deal?" Hilda asked.

Prince Jordan asked for some time to think it all over. After all, and everyone understood that, it was quite a decision to make. "I should also talk about that with my wife, the princess," he announced. "Maybe she is opposed to the idea of not having more children."

"Somehow I think you don't have to worry about that, but do talk to her. That is a good thing to do," Hilda advised him. "I'm glad we had this talk, Jordan. Make Snow White proud. And your sons too."

"Uhhuh," Prince Jordan said. He was not yet very convinced of it all, but at least this conversation was over now. He did have a lot to talk about with Snow White.

As the magical people left, and he still couldn't grasp that Esmee was now really one of them, he stared at the tray of food and the bottle of wine. It hurt, but he didn't touch any of it. Better start as soon as possible on that particular step one...

15. To be a frog

Once they were quite far from Prince Jordan's rooms, Esmee stood still. "Tell me that didn't happen."

"It didn't happen," said Hilda. "Why?"

"That's no way to talk to a Prince! That's why!" Esmee bit her lower lip. "I mean, you were talking about his... his..."

"Yes. We were. And he did too. Looks like you are the only one that had a problem with it, Esmee, and it's not even yours," said Hilda as she took the flower witch by the arm and urged her to walk on again. "Jordan sees the benefits of it all. He may not be too happy when it all goes down, but by then it's a done deal anyway."

William grinned just too loudly. "What's your problem, Willy?" Baba Yaga asked. "Something you know that we don't?" William said he'd tell them later, outside, once they were away from the curious ears of servants.

"Why are we going outside?" Esmee wanted to know.

"You still have a frog to turn back, remember?" he reminded her.

"Oh. Yes. I had forgotten."

"That's bad, Esmee. A good witch forgets nothing," Baba Yaga told her protegé.

"Oh? Who told you that?"

"Don't really remember, sort of must have slipped my mind." As it was Baba Yaga who said that, there were no comments or remarks.

Once outside, they looked for a quiet spot in the large gardens. They found one with a nice lawn, some flowerbeds in it, and a marble bench next to it. Baba Yaga sat down on the bench, and together with Hilda she explained to Esmee the trick behind turning people into a frog. And how to turn one back again.

"I wonder if it hurts," said Esmee, after listening intently for a while. Babs said that she had no idea, as nobody had ever succeeded in turning her into a frog. Hilda and William told her that they had never heard anyone complain about it. "But," William added, "that might also be because of the shock after being changed."

Hilda offered Esmee to turn her into a frog, so she would have first hand experience. The pink witch was not very keen to find out, but the three insisted, so finally Esmee accepted to be turned into one. She made them promise to turn her back quickly too.

They left the honour of changing Esmee to Baba Yaga, as she was the self-appointed mentor. Babs popped up her wand and spoke the spell. Esmee's clothes fell into a heap and the frog that had been a pink witch dropped on top of them. "That went well," said Baba Yaga, "I don't get to change many witches."

Hilda and William lay down on the grass and looked at Esmee in her new shape. "She's really small, isn't she?" Hilda said as she prodded the frog. It complained with a sad sound. "I'm actually surprised she the right colour. Not pink or so."

Esmee croaked with indignation.

"Step back, kids, I'll make her herself again," Babs announced. Hilda and William moved to the side, Babs used the counter-spell, and Esmee was Esmee again. Esmee shrieked, because she was naked. A flick of Babs's wand later the pink witch was decent again.

"I was naked!" Esmee exclaimed, her face red, her arms still covering her barely present bosom. This rather loud revelation attracted the unwanted attention of some servants who suddenly were in earshot.

"Keep your voice down, Esmee," Babs calmly said, "and sit down here. You've just been a frog, you may be a bit unsettled still."

Hilda guided Esmee to the bench and they waited for the pink witch to come to grips with herself again. "So, how was it?"

Esmee shook her head, sending her short blond curls dancing. "It was so strange," she said, "everything is the wrong size. I never knew that grass can be so big. And there were beetles and worms and-"

"Eeeeew..." said Hilda. "I lay on worms?"

"Only a few," Esmee said, trying to make it sounds less bad. "And never prod a frog please. It hurts!"

"Oh. Okay, won't do it anymore." Hilda grinned. "Nor any less."

Esmee did not put enough venom in her stare to be impressive.

"So, did it hurt when you were turned?" Baba Yaga asked.

"Well, becoming a frog didn't hurt. The change in view and how I felt was so different that I had no time to think about that. And when I was turned back into me, uhm, the first thing I noticed was that I didn't have my clothes on. I didn't think to feel pain or so."

Hilda nodded. "Right. Seems that we have our answer. It probably doesn't hurt enough, if at all. Given the absence of clothes."

William remarked that perhaps they should find a way to change the reversing spell a bit, to do something with the clothes of the person. Hilda and Babs were strongly against that. "That would take all the fun out of it, William! And while we're talking about fun, wizard, what was the reason for you to grin when we left the castle?"

William grinned again as he thought back to the conversation with Prince Jordan. "Oh, it's just a little thing." That made him burst out laughing, invoking more curiosity with the witches. "We may have to cover Esmee's ears," William then laughed. "Remember when I talked about the little procedure of Jordan's 'down there', and the fact that it would be painful?" The witches nodded. "Well, I am sure it can be done painlessly. The magic is there for it," William explained.

"Right...," said Hilda, "so why did you claim it would be painful if there is no pain?"

"Listen, sweetwitch," William said, "I did not say there was no pain. Without any discomfort to think back to, it won't be a big deal to him. He strikes me as the kind of prince-guy that needs some thing inflicted onto him that is unpleasant, to remind him of what he's done. And why."

Baba Yaga looked at him, no expression on her face. Esmee stared at him in disbelief. Hilda kissed him on the cheek. "That's my wizard."

"He's a natural," Baba Yaga had to admit. "Only wizards and certain witches come up with things like that."

William was proud with all that praise. "Coffee anyone?"

-=-=-

The day got tired of the sunlight and set out to chase the offending heavenly body away. The witches and the wizard mounted their brooms while dusk was still struggling for a foothold. They had agreed to make a sweep over the area before it was completely dark. Perhaps they could find the owner of the large paw prints, and if not then they'd had a nice evening flight.

The forests were still very much alive, with small animals running around and birds tuning their beaks for the next morning. Esmee was falling behind rapidly as they passed over an open field where deer were grazing.

"Hey, come on, we've got more ground to cover," Hilda said who had turned to urge Esmee into moving along.

"Oh, please, let me look at the bambies for a while longer," Esmee begged, as if she were a child. "They're so cute."

Hilda looked down. Her sense of cuteness was severely lacking in the bambi department, she decided. "Tell you what. You stay up here and look at the grass-munchers, while we finish the rounds and come back for you."

"Oh, yes!" Esmee beamed. "I'll wait here for you."

"I'll leave Grimalkin with you. Just in case," Hilda said, as she scooped her cat from the bristles of her broom and pushed the black animal into Esmee's arms. "Don't drop her, or you'll answer to me. Grim will make sure you are not going anywhere without us."

Esmee was still trying to get over the surprise of suddenly being inhabited when Hilda had flown off, in pursuit of Babs and William. "Oh," the flower witch managed to bring out.

"Meow," Grimalkin agreed, clearly as surprised about this treatment as the blond witch was.

The three remaining night-flyers did not find anything out of the ordinary, so they returned to the spot where they had left Esmee and Grimalkin.

Esmee sat very still on her broom when they arrived. Grimalkin lay peacefully on the bristles, as if she had not a care in the world. Hilda and William, illuminating the scene with their wands, wondered what had happened. Esmee's eyes were large, her lips squeezed together in a thin line. And there were dark spots on her dress.

Hilda waved a hand in front of the face of the young witch, as Grim gracefully hopped back on her trusted spot on Hilda's broom. "Hello, Esmee. Are you still in there? Or did the cat get your tongue and the rest of you too?"

"Is it gone?" Esmee asked, still afraid to move.

"Grim? Yes, she's on my broom. Why?"

Esmee carefully relaxed and watched where Onyx Grimalkin had been. Still careful, she let out a sigh. "I flew around a little bit. To see the bambies a little better." The others waited for more. "I think I flew off a bit too far for the cat's liking. It attacked me. It scratched my hands and my face!"

"And so you flew back to this spot, healed yourself and waited for us," Hilda concluded. Esmee nodded. Crappedy crap. Sorry about that, Esmee. Next time I'll be a bit more precise with Grim, telling her what's acceptable." She picked up the cat and pressed its face against Esmee's cheek. "There, kissed and made up. Come, let's go back to the castle. It's getting nippy out here."

William carefully touched Esmee's arm. The flower witch had frozen up again as the black head had been pressed against her cheek. "Come, Esmee. Danger's all gone."

"I wish she would not do that," Esmee hissed quietly. "I just had the fright of my life and then she sticks that beast in my face."

"Just tell her not to do that again then," William shrugged, taking control over Esmee's broom as the witch was not coming along by herself.

"Tell her?" Esmee stared at William as if he had suggested something obscene. "That's Grimhilda. You don't tell her anything."

"Sure you do. How else does she get to know things? I tell her things all the time, in case you did not notice."

"Uhuh," Esmee responded, "but you're different. You're bonded to her." She finally was together enough again to fly her own broom. "She does things I can only dream of!"

"So what are you dreaming of, Esmee? Of being a witch like her?" William asked. "If so, you're on the right track. In case you did not notice, Babs nor Hilda have torn your head of. Instead she leaves her cat with you. She trusts you. And Baba Yaga called you her protegé. Don't underestimate that one either. Babs is quite the awesome witch."

"She's positively scary," Esmee said. "But kind of cool also."

William grinned. He knew he had helped her confidence back in the saddle. "Come, I'll race you to the castle."

She screamed with joy as they sped off.

Later that night, most of the lights in the castle had been extinguished, there was a movement in one of the gardens. Carefully, a shape moved over a lawn. Large, padded feet gently stepped on the grass. It stopped at the large iron cage, eyeing it, sniffing it, touching it. A rumbling sound came from the creature as it moved around the cage and headed towards the large pen where a few rabbits were still scurrying around before falling asleep.

Silent as a falling feather, the shape kneeled down with the rabbits. A grumbling sound accompanied its attempt to take the top of the wooden contraption. It did not open easily. What did happen easily was a signal shooting from the ward on the box to the four magical people, who were savagely yanked out of their sleep.

16. Alarm

"Crappedy crap!" That was all that was said in the bedroom of Hilda and William. They almost fell out of bed, magicked their clothes on and headed for the brooms that they had conveniently located near the already open window.

Esmee just groaned as she felt the jolt from the ward that interrupted her dream. But duty called, she knew. This was what they had set the whole affair up for, so she came from her warm bed, quickly dressed and, with another groan, plunged herself out the window on her broom. Hilda had ordered her to keep the broom in her room for a situation like this.

Baba Yaga... well, suffice to say that she was outside rapidly as well, joining the three others.

The rabbits were all awake now. Light came from four wands, setting the area around their cage in strange colours.

"So where is it?" Hilda asked, voicing the thoughts of everyone. "It can't have gotten away that fast. We were here so quickly, as if we practiced this, and there's nothing here."

"Except rabbits," Esmee pointed out.

Grimalkin and Obsidian sniffed around on the ground and made noises. Baba Yaga and William looked at what the cats were doing. "Step back everyone," said William, "and have a look here."

Babs made two large torches appear so they had ample light. The flames showed several paw prints in the soft sand they had spread around the rabbit cage. Unthinkingly, they had trampled over the evidence-collecting material. Luckily though, there were still three clear, fresh prints.

"Suck an elf. It was here. It was out to get a rabbit casserole," Hilda said.

"Stew, more likely," Baba Yaga commented. "How did the creature get away so quickly? No ordinary animal or human being senses wards. It should have been here for us to grab it. It can't have noticed us, unless..."

Hilda and William nodded. "Unless there is a witch or a wizard involved."

Their discussion was interrupted by the clang of metal, chain mail and swords. Three guards from the castle watch approached them. "Who dat?" one of them eloquently asked.

"Calm down, big boy," said Hilda, "we're witches and a wizard, and we're looking at the rabbits. I don't suppose you saw a giant cat walk by just now, did you?"

"Oh. You're the witches they all talk about. And no. We didn't see that. Should we have?"

"Would've been nice," Baba Yaga said. "We could go to bed again in that case."

One of the guards stared at her in disbelief. "Uh. And how big should that cat be?"

Hilda indicated a height of between five and six feet. "Something like that."

"No. Haven't seen that. I'm pretty sure." The other two agreed, they had not seen anything conspicuous. They promised to keep their eyes open and report anything out of the ordinary.

William sighed. "I doubt they would see a mammoth if one would fall on top of them."

Babs agreed. "I am not sure how they got a job here. They certainly can't attribute it to their intelligence."

Esmee said that she knew the men. "They're friends of Prince Jordan. He got them the job. At the time it seemed a good idea as nothing ever happens in the night, but I am beginning to have second thoughts about that."

Baba Yaga patted the pink witch on the head. "Good girl. You'll be clever before we're leaving. And Jordan should find some friends in higher places. Anything over gutter-level would be a good start."

"So what are we going to do now?" William asked. "Looks like the cat has flown without a trace."

They decided to get back to their respective beds, and as William put an arm around Hilda in that location, his witch asked: "What's a mammoth?" He told her to just go to sleep. "I'll explain that to you someday."

-=-=-

In a small shed in the forest, Magda looked terrible. Simi, the young woman who sat opposite her, holding both Magda's hands, shook her head. "Lindolf, we can't keep this up. This is destroying her."

Before Lindolf could respond, Magda said: "No, it's okay. I had no idea that they would put up this massive energy thing, it surprised me. I'm glad we got away before these witches were there. Just give me a moment or two."

Lindolf, in a sudden notion of awareness, grabbed a bottle of spiced wine and poured a cup. "Here, have some of this. That will help."

Magda took the cup and drank it down in one gulp. "Oh, that's good. I could do with another one." She handed the cup back. She knew she should not drink more. They had their plan B to fall back on, and she needed to be sober for all that.

After a while, Simi took Magda's hands again. "I'm ready," she said. Lindolf sat down again and looked at the two women in fascination. This was always amazing.

Magda closed her eyes and then lowered her hands and those of Simi onto the book that was on her knees. Slowly the book started to glow as Magda drew from Simi's vibrant life-energy...

In the small village everything was quiet. The night was coming to an end, but still everything in the streets and alleys was dark. On padded feet, a creature moved along the cobblestones, keeping to the most silent of streets. The sensitive ears picked up every sound. An instinct that was not sensory warned of someone walking...

The creature suppressed the growl that wanted to escape, pressed its body against the wall and waited for the village watchman to pass by. The man looked like such an easy prey. Only one strike at the lower part of the neck, or dragging a claw over the throat- but that was not allowed. The creature trembled in anticipation and almost moaned. Then the man was out of sight again and the urge eased.

The dark furry shape pressed on, more quickly now, to the market square. There were crates on carts. Swiftly the creature ran across the square to the cart that held the crate with the chickens. A leap, a soft thud as its feet landed on the cart. Then a paw reached out to the crate, in which some of the chickens had woken up. Wood cracked, and a chicken was pulled from the crate.

It did not take long to rip the head off. The creature devoured the chicken, and then ate another one. Feathers were all over and around the cart by the time it had finished. Well fed, it jumped from the cart and ran away from the market square, hiding in the shadows of the streets and disappearing from the village the way it had come.

-=-=-

Four brooms were leaning against a cart in the market place. Four shapes, three in black, one in pink and deep red, were walking around together with the watchman and several people that lived around the square.

Nobody had seen or heard anything. The scratch marks on the crate and the layer of feathers, as well as the bones that were scattered around, were definite proof that the cat-creature had paid the village a visit, though.

"This thing must be magical," Hilda said, as the four of them were sitting in the local tavern, drinking tea. "Can't be that something moves around without being heard of seen, makes such a mess of chickens and gets away unseen too."

"Huh," said Esmee, "I have seen unmagical people make a mess of chickens too."

Hilda counted to ten. "As I said, this creature has to be magical." She held up the bit of hair that they had found on a side of the cart. It was the same colour and kind as what they had found in the castle gardens. "And whatever, or whoever is doing this, has a lot of tricks up some big sleeve. This is amazing trickery."

A man stepped to their table. "Excuse me, honorable witches... Is it safe for me to let my people clean away the mess in the market place? The watchman said you might want to look at it again?"

"And you are?" Baba Yaga asked in the friendliest tone.

"Lindolf Garmackus, humbly at your service, madam."

The man had iron willpower, Hilda noticed. He did not back away.

"And that mess out there is yours?" Babs continued.

"Well, whatever it was that visited my property overnight did make a mess, I must say. It looked in better shape when my man Jock put it there last evening," said Lindolf.

"Oh!" Esmee chimed, "you know Jock? He is such a good man. A nice friend too."

Lindolf looked at the woman in pink and red. "Yes. He often works for me. Honourable witch." It took him some effort to address the blond woman that way, but sacrifices had to be made for the greater good.

Baba Yaga looked at Hilda and William. "Do we need to go over that cart again?"

Hilda shook her head. William also indicated that he saw no point in that. Then Babs looked at Esmee. "Do you agree?"

Esmee looked shocked. "Uh, yes? I think so." She was more than surprised that Babs would seriously ask her opinion about this.

"Good." Baba Yaga turned to Lindolf. "You can clean up the mess. Have fun with it." Then she turned back to the people at the table, leaving Lindolf slightly flabbergasted. He mumbled a "Thank you, goodbye" and left the tavern.

"I wish we had a lead to the person who is behind all this," Esmee sighed. "This is all so difficult..."

Babs turned around and looked out of the window, to where Lindolf was shouting instructions to some people.

Even Esmee noticed that the ugly witch kept that position for longer than regular interest in the goings on. "Baba Yaga? Are you okay? Anything special to see out there?" she asked.

"What? No, of course not. Lindolf is by far not interesting enough to get a twisted neck," Babs said. "Anyone for more tea?"

17. Frog

Hilda kept a straight face. William did also. Esmee's face was forced to it by some magic Hilda carefully applied. "Yes. Some tea would be good," Hilda agreed with Babs.

They had more tea and talked about the things they had discovered. Their final decision from the session in the tavern was that this was not helping them in any way. A ward had gone off, so the creature had been at the castle. They had seen prints to prove that. And the creature had been in the village, where they'd seen bones and feathers to prove that one. But nobody had seen or heard anything.

"The thing is magical. No doubt about it," Baba Yaga insisted as they were flying back to the castle.

"A magical big cat?" William sounded full of disbelief. "I am sorry, Babs, but doesn't that sound a bit far fetched? The idea of a cat that size is already quite hard to grasp, but a magical one?"

"Do you have any better suggestions, Mr. Wizard?" Babs asked him.

Mr. Wizard had to admit that his box of ideas was painfully empty.

"Good. So until we have other ideas or proof, we should assume the big cat is a magical one. That means we have to be extra careful, also when we patrol the gardens."

"Patrol the gardens?" Esmee asked. "We've not patrolled the gardens but once."

"Exactly. I propose we're going to do that more often. Like every night. And someone should take it on himself to scout the village and surroundings at night." Babs looked very smug.

William had not missed the 'himself' in her words and looked hurt. "This is not democratic," he complained.

"Of course it isn't," Hilda said, "it is Baba Yaga."

"And you'd better remember that," said the old witch. "I'm not in the habit of repeating myself."

"What was that?" William asked.

"I'm not in the habit of repeating myself," Baba Yaga repeated herself.

Esmee grinned.

When the group arrived at the castle, Esmee's grin disappeared when Baba Yaga reminded her that there still was a frog to be turned into a man again. "You still remember the spell, don't you?"

Esmee said she did. The group went in search of the person who was taking care of the frog, and found that one in the shape of a cook. As they entered the large kitchen, the smell of food had already waved at them from afar. The cook welcomed them and said they were welcome to have a taste of what was cooking.

"I don't suppose you have frog legs, right?" Hilda asked him.

"Oh, no, honourable witch!" the cook said.

"Good. Didn't look like it, the way you are walking," she grinned. "We're here for the frog."

"Yes, yes, it's here," the cook said. He guided them to a large glass cabinet. Inside it sat a lonely frog surrounded by a few cakes, a glass of wine and some straw. Impossible as it sounds, the frog looked really miserable.

It was Esmee's doubtful honour to grab the frog. She hesitated, her hand hovering over the animal. "Go on, grab it and get it over with, witch," Baba Yaga commented. "It's not like it's going to eat you."

"But it feels so icky!" Esmee countered.

"Have you ever touched a frog or a toad before?" Hilda asked.

"No."

"So how do you know?"

That seemed to encourage Esmee. She picked up the frog. The expression on her face changed. Dramatically. "It feels icky."

"Some do, yes," Baba Yaga confirmed. "So the best thing to do when you handle such an animal, protegé of mine, is to decided where you are going to put it down. Once you've determined that, you focus on what you are going to do." Esmee stared at her mentor, while the frog hung from her fingers. "Then you clear the path from where the frog is to where you want it to go. Next step is that you grab the frog and put it where you want it. Are you still with me?" Esmee nodded, the horror on her face growing the longer she held the frog. "Good, I just want to make sure that we are absolutely clear on this. So, where was I... Oh, yes. You grab the frog, put it down, and you nail it with the spell. That's all there is to it." The old witch nodded to herself. "Best not to hold these things in your hand too long. Really."

Esmee groaned. She lifted the frog from the cabinet, half put and half dropped it on the ground, and popped up her wand. She aimed it at the frog. The other magicals as well as the cook saw her lips move as she rehearsed the spell. Then she spoke it and - nothing happened. Esmee stared at her wand and shook it a few times. Then she spoke the spell again, and the result was identical. The frog remained a frog.

The cook had a death wish "Looks like either you or your spell are malfunctioning, Esmee."

Hilda picked up the frog and looked at it. "Neither. This is a frog."

"Yeah. I can see that," the cook said. "It already was one when they brought it in."

Baba Yaga glared at him. "This should be the man we turned into a frog. Clearly it's not. Where is it?"

The cook had a death wish He picked up a meat cleaver and held it in front of his chest as he said: "I dunno, witch. They brought this here frog into the kitchen yesterday and said I had to take care of it. That you folks would come around and change it into a man. Thought I might as well get it used to a man's food." At least that explained the cakes and the wine. And the miserable expression on the face of the frog.

Hilda looked at the frog again. "You could've fooled me, frog." Then she looked at William. "Do you think we can find the real frogman?" Hilda grabbed Esmee's hand and put the frog in it. "Here, hold that for me."

"I am sure that out cats can find the animal, sweetwitch," William said. Obsidian Shadow looked up at him. "Meow." Then he and his black sister ran from the kitchen. Hilda and William went after them.

Esmee held up the frog. "What am I supposed to do with this?" she asked Baba Yaga.

"Depends. If you're hungry you could ask this cook to turn it into a stew. Otherwise you could go outside and toss it in one of the ponds. I'd opt for the second choice," Babs declared. "It doesn't look that tasty."

Esmee nodded and left the kitchen, holding the frog as far away from her as she could. She left the castle with it, Baba Yaga trailing behind her.

In that time, Hilda and William were still chasing after their cats. First they returned to the corner where the original incident had happened, the servant running into Esmee. As if they were professional search dogs, the cats sniffed the ground, just shorter. Then they took the magical couple for quite a tour around the castle, raising many heads, leaving many questions unanswered. They had no time to answer. They also lacked the proper things to say anyway.

The chase came to a halt when they found one of the people who had witnessed the rude servant being frogified. The woman, she had the face of a mouse, stared at the two cats and the two people, all in black. "What do you want from me?"

"We only want to know what happened to the frog. We know you were there when we changed the man."

The woman looked for a way out, but the cats had her cornered. "I don't know. Did you see the cook? I heard he has a frog."

"Wrong answer. That's a real frog. Esmee is dealing with that. We need the unreal frog." Hilda was getting impatient. William recognised the signs, and they did not bode well for the woman. "So, spit it out."

"I can't. I didn't swallow the frog," the woman tried.

"Taking the stroll down Difficult Lane, are we? Maybe we should give Esmee another one to practice on, William..." A wand appeared.

"No no no no no!!!" The woman surprised William with the speed in which she could say that. "It was one of the men who took the frog." She told them where they could find the man. It was Harko, one of the gardeners. All four in black then proceeded to the garden and gathered all the gardeners together.

"You, with the blond hair. Come here. We need to have a talk with you. About a frog."

The man shuffled towards them, nervous, and no one could blame him. "About the frog..." he started. "Yes. I had it. I gave it to one of the maids."

William got a not-so-good feeling. "Which one? There's a lot of those around."

"It was Lizzy-Belle. She's often taking care of the little pests- I mean the children of Princess Snow White." Harko described the woman, but that was not helping a lot so Hilda and William took him into the castle and spent a lot of time examining maids until they found Lizzy-Belle.

"Frog?" was Hilda's short question.

"Gone," was Lizzy-Belle's equally short answer.

"How?" Hilda wanted to know.

"Dicky," Lizzy-Belle explained.

"Crappedy crap," Hilda broke the monosyllabic conversation.

Lizzy-Belle elaborated then, that she'd taken the servant-frog with her, as Harko the gardener had said he could not take care of it. She'd taken it to the room of the twins, as she had to clean the beds there. The twins had been playing in their toy corner.

"Do I want to know what happened?" Hilda asked.

"Depends on whether you want to know that Dicky stabbed it with his dagger or not."

"Oh." Hilda looked sad. "The servant did not deserve that."

"And who had the bright idea to stick a real frog in the cabinet in the kitchen?" William asked.

"Harko. He said there were enough frogs in the pond."

The gardener tried to back out of the conversation, but a spell suddenly glued his feet to the floor.

"So you think we don't know the difference between normal frogs and abnormal ones, Harko..." Hilda said, walking around the gardener. "I assume we have managed to change your mind about that."

"Yes, honourable witch," Harko mumbled.

"Do any of you know if this servant had a woman and children or so?" William asked. Lizzy-Belle said that the man indeed had a wife and two children. "Right. Then there is an assignment for you two. You two are going to tell them that he's dead. And we're going to send a few guards with you, to make sure the job gets done."

Lizzy-Belle and Harko were not pleased. Their moods deteriorated even more when Hilda went to get the guards and instructed them. She released Harko's feet and then together with William she watched how the guards led the people off.

"That's rough," William said.

Hilda nodded. "Yes. But they should have been more careful with the frog. They knew it was a man's life they were holding in their hands. Literally."

William put an arm around the shoulders of his witch. "Come. Let's find the others and tell them."

Hilda leaned against William. "In a moment. Just hold me for a while, please."

18. Night watch

"We have to hurry." Lindolf paced up and down in the small shed. "I don't know where they got these witches from, but I have the feeling they are onto us."

Magda, dark circles under her eyes, looked up at the restless man. "Hurry? Sure. Go ahead. But then count me out. All this stuff is wearing me out."

"So you need more powerful people to drain? Tell me how many. Two? Five? A dozen? I'll get them for you. Just get the job done."

Simi looked hurt. "I am strong enough to get Magda all the energy she needs, Lindolf."

"Cut it out, both of you. This is hard work for me. It has nothing to do with energy or hurry, it has to do with what I can take, do you understand that? I can't find simpler words for that." Magda sagged deeper in her chair. "These people are good indeed. I was scared shitless when I hit that bout of energy they had set up with the rabbit cage."

"How about a head-on confrontation with one of them? I think the castle witch is the weakest of them. That might be a way to handle the situation," Simi offered.

"How do you see that happen?" Magda asked. "From what Lindolf told, the four of them seem inseparable all the time."

"But not at night when they sleep," Simi grinned. "If you can get inside the castle and give the castle witch a surprise, that would make an impression!"

"Half a good plan," Lindolf said. "How do you think we can get out of the castle again once things are in an uproar? Do you think the whole guards and the other witches and such will just sit back when the castle is going wild?"

Magda also wondered about that, but she was not in the mood to spend more energy than needed.

"The castle witch has a room only one floor up. I am sure that an escape through the window is possible. Our cat has jumped higher places than that," Simi pointed out.

"Yeah," Magda had to put in, "but at what cost. Almost broke something, and some days of pain that we could not explain."

"If we plan this well," Lindolf thought out loud, "we may have something to go with. I know a few people that work in the castle and the stables. If I pull some strings and be quick about it, we could get the surprise out this night, or tomorrow."

"Tomorrow night," Magda said. "We're not doing anything this night. I have to recover. And we should make sure Santera is up for this also. Where is she anyhow? I used the stones on her a few times, she should be here as well."

"Santera is sleeping, outside. You little magical stones worked to call all of us, but she looked very worn out," said Lindolf. "Want me to wake her up and bring her in?"

Magda nodded. "Might be the best thing. We have to make sure everyone knows what we're going to do."

-=-=-

Evening fell. It did so very silently, as usual. Still it woke up Hilda and William. The witch prodded her wizard. "Wake up."

"I am awake," he muttered, "and you know that. So stop prodding me."

Hilda sat up. "But I like prodding you," she said with a fake pout.

"Not impressed," said the wizard as he got up. "I'm going to take a bath."

"Take me too?" Hilda asked with a hopeful look on her face.

William grinned. "Sure. Why not." He grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder, ignoring her shriek of surprise.

When they were at the table, together with Esmee and Babs, the old witch kept staring at the couple. Hilda stared back. "What's up, Babs? I'm not wearing anything of your stuff, right?"

"No, you're not my size. But please wipe that smug smile from your face, Hilly. I don't even want to know what Willy did to you, but it is in our best interest that you don't walk around like an advertisement for it."

"Our interest?" Esmee wondered.

"Yes," said Babs. "If they keep that up, I lose interest, and you are all with me, so there." She was clearly satisfied with the way the other three looked lost, trying to make sense of that explanation. "Having made my point this way, let's focus on this evening." She picked up the leg of a chicken and nibbled it at an astonishing speed. Less than a minute later she put down the clean bones. "We three ladies are going to scout the premises. William will do the forests. I doubt that the village will be targeted twice in row."

Hilda scowled at her bestest girlfriend. "You like being in charge, don't you?"

"Yes." Whatever people could say of Baba Yaga, she was honest. "Oh. Esmee. We have to arrange something for you."

"What would that be, Baba Yaga?" the witch asked.

Babs popped up her wand. "Supparum niger," she said. "That." All of Esmee's pink clothes had turned black. "Makes you look more like one of us. And don't even think of turning it back."

"She loves being in charge," William explained to Esmee, who looked at her dark outfit in terror.

The four of them left the table, picked up their brooms and sauntered over to the table where the assembled royalty was dining. "Hi," Baba Yaga said, "we'll be out and about tonight. Please advise your guards that they should not take shots at us while we're doing what we're doing. Things like that tend to annoy us."

King Louie asked what they were going to do exactly. He frowned as Hilda said that they did not know exactly. "We're going to scout the area. See if we can find the mystery prowler. Since it only strikes at night, being out at night is the best time, we think." The king could see reason in that. He called over a servant and instructed him to instruct the head of the guard to instruct the guard that they should leave the witches alone. And the wizard. As the servant darted off, William thanked the king and then they went on their way.

"Good thinking, Babs," Hilda said as they walked to the castle entrance which doubled as an exit. "Hey, 'Smee, coming? Got a pimple?"

Esmee was standing in front of a large mirror, looking at her new lack of colours. "No, Hilda. But when I look at myself, it is as if something is missing." The three joined Esmee and looked her over.

"Looks fine to me," Babs said. Hilda agreed with her.

"No, I think I know what she means. Let me have a go, Esmee. It won't hurt," said William. With some carefully applied magic he first put thin pink and purple braids in Esmee's hair. He stepped back. "No... not ready yet." More magic was applied. Esmee's thin blond eyebrows turned black. Then a black pattern appeared on the witch's forehead, as if it was a tribal tattoo. Dark red eyelids completed the picture. "You're a Goth witch now," William declared, satisfied with what he'd done. He stepped to the side.

Esmee stared at her new appearance. She touched her forehead and a grin came on her lips. She moved closer to look at her eyes. She mumbled something, and her lips turned black.

"Good grief, William," Baba Yaga muttered, "what is that?"

"Call it a small surprise," William said. "There are people who walk around like that in the world where I came from."

Esmee grinned a big grin now. "I like this, William, thank you." She had changed the inside of her black cloak to blood red. "I'm ready. Let's go outside and do this."

Hilda took William by the arm. "You will never put things like that in my hair, do you hear me? Nor on my face. If you just think about it, I'll know, and I'll do things to you that you will not like. I hope this was clear, sweet wizard."

"Somehow, Hilda, I think that you do not need something like that to boost your witchy personality."

"Oh. Is that what it is? Well, we'll see," she said.

Then, as they had reached the terrace in front of the castle, they mounted their brooms. "Say, where are your hairballs?" Baba Yaga asked, pointing at the empty spots on the brooms.

"Grim and Obsi were sleeping when we came down. We'll leave them," Hilda explained.

"Grim. Obsi." The old witch shook her head. "Think of proper names for them, Hilly. Now let's go."

Four brooms lifted off. Three swerved around the castle. William set course to the forests.

When finally they met up again, the sun was rising and the castle and its surroundings bathing in warm orange light, they had come up with absolutely nothing.

"This was not satisfying," William muttered. "Do you know how dull forests look in the dark? And no matter how often you go over them, it doesn't improve."

Hilda nodded. "Same goes for lawns, fountains and flower beds."

"Suck an elf, people, this was the first time we did it like this," Baba Yaga, "next night will be different."

"Yeah, boring from the very start, I guess," William agreed.

Esmee was the only one that looked something close to pleased. "It's a matter of making things interesting," she stated. "There is one guard who is never going to call me a bat again." With that she strolled off, floating her broom behind her just because she could.

"What was that all about?" William had the feeling he had missed out on something.

"I think changing her clothes and your painting her face changed more than just her appearance, William," said Baba Yaga. "We were flying over the little house where the guards are when they're not out walking around and doing nothing. A few of them were outside, and one of them did call my little protegé a bat."

William shivered. Had Baba Yaga just called Esmee 'her little protegé'?

"So Esmee went down to the man and stared at him. That's basically all," the old witch shrugged.

"Yeah, that and the fact that Esmee plopped a spell on him that changed his ears into bat wings," Hilda added the details that Babs had left out.

"Esmee did that?" William suddenly felt the need to worry. "Any chance we can undo what we did to her?"

"Now why would you want to do that, Willy?" Babs wanted to know. "It's about time that she gets some pepper up her behind. Now let's get some sleep. We'll meet again in the evening. Or afternoon." She walked to the entrance of the large stone building, then turned. "And if you two feel the need to share the bath again, be a bit quieter about it."

Hilda looked at William as he looked at her. "Whoops..."

19. Under attack

Daytime came to the land of King Louie. It had also come to the lands that were not King Louie's, as that was the way daytime did its business. It poked around in every corner of the kingdom, looking for witches and a wizard. Daytime really did its best, it spent all day looking, but in the end it packed its bags and left, probably disappointed.

Two black shapes ran from the castle dining hall. They were followed by four black shapes. The former were of course Onyx Grimalkin and Obsidian Shadow. When their humans finally arrived with the brooms, they were already pacing around, tails twitching.

"Your pooches are impatient," Baba Yaga stated, pointing at the two black cats.

"Dogs are pooches, Babs, these are cats," Hilda said.

"Your pooches are impatient," Baba Yaga stated once more. "We'd better go. Same routine as last night, as we agreed."

"Yes, as you decreed," William said as he hopped onto his broom.

"Looks as if your pooches are staying in again tonight," Baba Yaga said.

"Looks like it, indeed," Hilda had to agree, as the two cats walked off. "They came to see us off, of course."

Babs refrained from comment, and then four brooms took off. William left the formation and swung away towards the village. The witches would take care of the castle grounds again, and also survey part of the forest around them.

"I am curious what we'll find this time," William said to himself. "Maybe there actually is something this time."

Esmee asked Hilda if the tattoo she had put on her face was really overdone. "You commented on that all evening!"

"Yes. The one William did on you yesterday looked nice, in a way. You've gone a few bits too wild, Esmee. I'll tell William to give you some lessons. I don't know where he picked up that tattoo business, but I have to say he has a feel for it."

As the tattoo conversation was taking the witches further and further from the castle, at that very castle a dark shape was moving closer. On soft, padded paws it stole along the thick walls where the flickering lights of candles cast dancing shadows on many of the windows. The large main entrance was unguarded, as usual. The creature stopped short of the entrance, twitching its ears to catch any sound. It sniffed the air for smells that should not be there. And it stared at the opening.

As if urged on from an unseen place, the shape went inside the castle. The hall it entered was empty. There were faint sounds of people talking and laughing. From somewhere there came a wailing sound of a child that did not want to go to sleep. The creature slipped behind one of the large draperies that hung against a wall, and hidden behind that it moved towards the grand staircase that was on the far end of the wall.

The creature emerged from behind the draperies after waiting for a few minutes. Nothing in the hall stirred, no people were about. The creature dashed towards the staircase and ran up, to the next floor, where it hid in a dark niche it found mere steps from the staircase. Again it sniffed the air. No people in the corridor, nose and ears conveyed. The creature tore itself from its hiding place and ran through the corridor without making a sound. It turned around a corner and dashed through the next corridor, coming to a stop in front of a door.

As the creature struggled to open the door, it growled. Its thick paws were not made for this. In the end the door gave in and swung open. The creature went into the room, turned and pushed against the door, which closed with a louder noise than was necessary. Then the creature turned to the bed. It leapt through the room and landed on the soft blanket, tearing at it with sharp claws and ripping at it with its strong teeth. Soon the room was covered with feathers from the pillow and shreds of what had been very nice bed linen.

The creature growled again. The bed had been empty and that was not a part of the plan.

In the shed, Magda sat in her chair, eyes closed, strain showing on her face. Lindolf and Simi were with her, both holding a hand of the woman.

"Things going well?" Lindolf asked, his voice no more than a hush.

"How would I know," Simi hissed, as pearls of perspiration rolled down her cheeks. Magda was draining her energy like crazy, this had to be a good thing. Normally with Santera on the prowl there was hardly any pressure.

The creature jumped from the bed. It slowly looked around in the room. When it saw a mirror, it froze.

The reflecting glass showed a bizarre hybrid of a young woman and a large cat. There was cat hair on her entire body. The beginnings of a tail hung down behind her. The cat-woman moved closer to the mirror, reached out to touch the cold glass. She stared at her image, stared at her paws. Then, with a frenzy, she attacked the rest of the things in the room. Vases smashed on the floor, flowers flew everywhere, dresses were torn up and a chair got smashed. And still there was no sound from anywhere.

Simi got scared. This had been the second surge of energy Magda had drawn from her. "Not going well, we have to snap her out of this," she said.

"We can't," said Lindolf. "Santera's still there. We have to get her back."

"She's killing me," Simi whimpered as another drain of energy happened.

"Let go of Magda and I'll kill you," Lindolf coldly informed her. "Your choice."

The cat-woman, Santera, bolted towards the door, managed to open it and almost fell into the corridor. Magda fought to keep control of the woman.

The cat-woman staggered through the corridors and stumbled down the stairs, not caring about staying out of sight. The heavy sound of a man laughing attracted her attention; she ran to the door from behind where the sound had come and banged into it with all her weight. The door cracked and she crashed into the room.

King Louie, who was in his council chamber with one of his advisors, jumped to his feet as he saw the door collapse. "What-" was all he could say before a furry large creature attacked him. He fell backwards, as the weight on top of him squashed all air from his lungs.

The advisor had fallen from his chair and screamed for help. The man was good at advising, not at physical combat, so he left the king to his own devices with respect to the hairy assailant.

Santera clawed at the king's face and chest, hissing and growling, until suddenly she was knocked over by a swift punch that hit her in the head. As she was rolling to the side, another punch surprised her. She smelled cats. Two of them. She jumped to her feet and turned to where she expected the two, but Obsi and Grim had moved already. Obsi jumped up from Santera's left, clawing at her ear, while Grim pounced on Santera's back, digging her claws deep into the fur.

The cat-woman howled an eerie scream and bashed around herself to beat off the two cats. After succeeding in that, she hurtled out of the room and down the hall, to disappear into the night. Grim and Obsi ran after her for a while, but somehow Santera had managed to go so fast that she was nowhere to be seen any more.

"Crappedy crap," Hilda yelled, "we have to go back, now!" Without a word she yanked her broom around and sped back to the castle.

"What the grey elves is wrong with her," Baba Yaga muttered as she brought her broom to a halt. Esmee turned her broom also. "Let's go after her," Babs said.

William had also sensed the upheaval and raced back towards the castle. When he got there, Hilda had already arrived. It worried him to see that her broom was lying on the floor. This told a tale of something bad.

Babs and Esmee also arrived and the three ran into the castle, to find King Louie being taken care of by his physician, as his wife, Queen Daphne, was making a general nuisance of herself as she tried to arrange things she didn't know anything about. The four learnt what had happened.

"Good grief," William said.

"Suck an elf," Hilda added.

"Interesting," Babs agreed.

"I wonder why nobody saw anything," Esmee thought out loud.

"Looks like security here is an issue," Hilda agreed. She eyed the two cats that had come to King Louie's rescue. "Luckily our familiars were here. So what's the matter with you guys?" she asked the two. As soon as they had Hilda's attention, they made for the staircase and looked at the witch.

"I think we should go with them, William," Hilda said as she walked to where the cats were waiting. William followed, as did the other two witches. They followed the cats up the stairs and down the corridors. As they reached Esmee's room, they were all stunned.

"Crappedy crap."

Back in the shed, Simi had fainted. Too much of her had been used this time. Magda had slumped back into her chair, her eyes staring into a void.

Lindolf was cursing as he had no idea what had happened, and both women were unresponsive to his questions, shouting and prodding. "Damn, damn, damn, why did I get involved with amateurs," he ranted. "These two are down, I have no idea where the cat is and in what state, and I should get the hell out of here." Still there was a sense of responsibility in the man that kept him where he was.

Deep in the forest, somewhere between the castle and the shed, a young naked woman lay shivering on the ground, sobbing and hurting. Blood trickled from wounds on her back and head.

20. Boots

"Either you have friends who threw one hell of a party in your room, or the cat-creature that was here tried something," Hilda said as they had looked around the room. "Anything here that's not broken or ripped to shreds?"

Esmee's face was ashen as she took in the remains of her belongings. "Who did this? And why would they do that?" she asked.

Baba Yaga put a hand on the shoulder of the despairing witch. "We don't know, kiddo, but we're going to find out."

As Babs magicked up a glass of potent spiced wine for Esmee, William examined the scratches on the door and the table. Obsi was on the table and allowed his claws to be compared to the marks in the wood. "Cat alright," the wizard decided. "The marks match, they're just oversized. I am sure that cat-woman was in here. And I hate how it feels like someone is playing a game with us. As if they knew we were out."

Prince Jordan and two guards entered the room. "What happened here?" the prince asked. Hilda told him what they suspected and had discovered. "That's not good," Prince Jordan underestimated the situation. "I will send out men to search the grounds for the cat."

"Have them look in the forest also," Baba Yaga advised him. "It would surprise me if they found her around the castle. Nobody would be so stupid to stay near here when they've created such a mess."

"Unless this is an inside job," William thought out loud. "Never rule out the impossible."

"That's not impossible, wizard, that's just plain crazy," Baba Yaga said.

"So is that," William pointed at the ravaged bed. "I am just staying with that line of thought."

Babs made an undefinable sound and took Esmee out of the room. "Come on, Esmee, we'll find you a place to sleep."

Prince Jordan took the men out of the room while ordering them to follow the orders that the witches and wizard had given.

Snow White came running down the corridor as the guards were on their way. "Jordan, what happened?!" He told her what little he had picked up and then she rushed into the room of the castle witch. "Oh no!"

There was nothing the assembled witchforce could do about the room, so they went back down to talk to the king and his advisor once more, but that too did not bring much more to light. They only got a very clear view of the king's scratches.

"Nobody managed to grab that cat-woman. And nobody knows where she came from, how long she was here and where she went to," Hilda sighed as they all had retreated to the room she and William used. "That gives us so little to go on. We're probably lucky that the cats were here to do something. The cat-woman might have taken the king apart."

-=-=-

In the shed, the situation had improved only marginally. Lindolf was quite worked up. Magda had snapped out of her lethargy and tried to wake up Simi.

"Stop your panic attack, Lindolf," Magda said, "it is not helping. Again, I tell you, go out and find Santera. We don't know where she is."

"But she could still be in the castle," Lindolf ranted, "do you want me to walk in there and ask them if they accidentally saw a cat-woman that slashed up the king? That would go down well. My head in particular!"

"She is not in the castle anymore. I took her to quite far into the forest. Go. Do something. You want this, you do something for it. Discussion closed."

Lindolf grabbed his dark cloak from the chest in the corner and left the shed. Muttering, he put the cloak around his shoulders. He started walking towards the castle, certain he was not going to enjoy this.

The man marched through the forest. His cloak got caught in thorny bushes as he stepped into puddles that were hiding beneath the undergrowth. Evil branches and their offspring, stingy nasty leaves, tapped him on the head and scratched his cheeks and neck. He was surprised how much truth there was in his original feeling about this walk. He did not enjoy it, and the darkness did not improve his mood. He persisted though, enduring the relentless attacks of the forest. Magda was tired now, but he knew she was not someone to cross. She'd remember.

A few times he stopped walking and listened carefully. Once he was certain he had heard the clatter of swords and shield, half expecting that a host of soldiers from the castle was going to fall on top of him from the trees that were still taxing him. "Bollocks," he then cursed himself. Soldiers did not fall from trees. He proved beyond a doubt that men could walk into trees a few times, though.

His face hurt as he had another such encounter. He stopped to wipe the blood from his brow when he caught a sound that was not normal here. It sounded like... sobbing. "Santera!" he whispered as loudly as he dared. "Santera, where are you?"

"Lindolf. Here." It was clearly Santera's voice. It sounded weak and in pain.

"Where is here?" Lindolf asked as he did his best to see something. Once again, the darkness did not help to make him feel better.

"Here," was the obvious and useless answer.

Then he saw a faint pale movement. "I think I see you," Lindolf whispered. He dashed forward and ran into another tree before he reached the naked young woman. After another round of muttering he kneeled down with her. "Are you okay?" The question was totally unnecessary. Lindolf took off his cloak and wrapped Santera in it. He picked her up and prayed that he would be able to return to the shed without running into anything.

As he walked off with the still sobbing woman, he heard a strange thudding sound. He ignored it and just did what he could to get away from there.

The soldier who had fallen from the tree scrambled to his feet. "I thought I saw something," he said as his fellow guards laughed. "But it was gone suddenly. And no laughing!" The man had climbed on a branch to see further, and fallen from it as he had craned his neck and then too much of the rest of him to see more.

"You have seen too much of the castle's ale, my friend," another soldier grinned as he clapped the man on the shoulder. "But don't worry, your secret is safe with us. We'll drown it in some ale when we get back."

"I'm telling you, I saw something. It was white. Well, pale. And then it was gone. As if it was something a witch did. Or a ghost that vanished."

The laughter of the soldiers froze in their throats. Witches was one thing, they'd seen plenty of those. But ghosts... that was not in their job description. "Maybe we should go back and see about that ale," one of them suggested. "We haven't found anything, that's clear."

"Yeah," a third agreed, "and if that pale thing was a real something, it's gone now anyway. Nothing we can do about that now."

The brothers in arms were of one mind and returned to the safety of the castle where there were no ghosts.

-=-=-

"No, honourable witches and wizard, we didn't see anything," the leader of the soldiers said. "Well, of course we saw a lot, but not the cat-woman the prince told us to find because you told him to tell us."

"We didn't really see a lot either, as it was so dark," one of the soldiers pitched in.

Baba Yaga groaned. Hilda stared at the dimwits in mail and armour. William hoped he was dreaming and wanted to wake up.

"I am sure you did your best," Hilda finally dared. "We'll give it a rest for now and have a look tomorrow, when there's light." As the soldiers lingered, she said: "Dismissed." As the soldiers lingered, she said: "That means you can go now." The soldiers no longer lingered.

The witch looked at the wizard. "Bed."

"Bed," he agreed.

Baba Yaga got up and walked off without a word.

-=-=-

The next morning a magical sextet left the castle on brooms. Three witches, a wizard and two cats.

"I hope the soldiers did not trample on too many of the tracks," Hilda grumbled. "They mucked up our night rest, they mucked up the castle's security, I am sure they were hired on that trait." Grim looked back at her witch for a moment and did not comment.

Esmee flew at Baba Yaga's side. The old witch had told her to stay close, without giving a reason for it. Esmee knew that Baba Yaga always had a reason for something.

They hovered over the ground where the path from the garden ended and the forest floor started. "Plenty of footsteps here," Hilda pointed out the obvious. The footsteps made it easy to find where the soldiers had gotten to. "Good thing there was no rain last night."

They soon reached the spot where the soldiers had decided to pursue their tactical retreat. That was where the magicals proceeded on foot. Grim and Obsi disappeared under some bushes, following some plan of their own. William and Hilda quickly located the paw prints that had not been erased by guardly footwear and followed the trail.

"Hey, that's strange. See this?" William pointed at a spot where the paw prints suddenly ended and were replaced by a single set of footprints. "Looks like the cat woman changed- but that would be very strange."

Hilda nodded. "How could a cat woman suddenly change into someone wearing men's boots... That would ask for some very mean magic. Babs?"

Baba Yaga and Esmee as her shadow came to where the couple was looking at the ground. "Oh. Look at that. Nice work, you two. Looks like cat woman changed into- no, that can't be. Hey, protegé, what are you doing down there?"

Esmee was crawling on the ground on all fours, staring at something. "Come and look," she said. The three joined her, as did the two cats. "See this?" the flower witch pointed at a body-shaped imprint. "Someone's been lying here. Perhaps the cat woman."

Hilda crawled around some more. "Yes, I'd believe that," she said. "Look here. The boots came over here and left again. But the coming-here prints are far less deep than the going-away prints. It looks as if the owner of the boots knew that our cat woman was here and came to collect her."

The four got up, magicked their clothes clean and started to follow the trail of the boots. The abundant plant life forced them to continue on foot while their brooms floated along behind them. The trail delivered them a dead end as it hit a pebble path that ran through the forest.

"To the left is to the village, to the right is to the castle," Esmee said. "I am quite sure the man in the boots did not go to the castle." That was a truth if ever there was spoken one. A man carrying a cat woman around would have raised at least a few heads. But the same reason probably was true for the side that led into the village.

"No trail here," William reported from the other side of the path. "Maybe it was a wizard or a sorcerer that had his broom parked here?"

"There'd be a trace of magic here in that case, Willy," said Baba Yaga. "My protegé here would know that, wouldn't you, Esmee?" William and Hilda frowned at the display of affection Babs showed towards Esmee. It was not natural, and definitely not Baba Yaga. Esmee nodded.

The flower witch twitched her lips for a moment. Then she squatted down. "Hey, cats, come here." To the surprise of two magicals, the cats came. Esmee whispered something to them and the two dashed off, one in each direction and quickly were gone from view.

"What was that all about?" Hilda muttered. "They do have names, you know. And they're good ones."

21. Shed

Esmee grinned. "It worked, didn't it?"

Hilda looked at William. "I don't like the influence Babs has on that kid. She's becoming too much a smart-ass."

"Thank you," said Baba Yaga.

Before any further commenting could take place, Grimalkin appeared again, a few hundred feet from where the group was standing. She meowed loudly. Obsi raced past the assembled magicals to his 'sister', the magicals followed at a somewhat more moderate pace.

"That's my cat," Hilda beamed as she saw the imprints of the boot that continued into the forest. "It's all in the name, William."

"Oh sure," he grinned.

"Come on, stop your socialising," Baba Yaga said as she pushed through the wealth of plants. Esmee was right behind her. "Our boot-wearer did not walk this way when he came to the point where found his tracks," Babs informed them, "I only see his footsteps going this way."

"Maybe he is not used to walk through the forests at night," Hilda opted, just before she ran into Esmee. "Hey, what's the wait?"

"We may have found home sweet home of the cat woman, Hilda," Baba Yaga said. She slowly moved ahead, allowing the others to see the shed they had reached.

The shed was squeezed in between two trees. It looked old, but it still was in quite good shape. The long side was about twenty feet long, the side that had a door in it about half that size. There were no windows in it, there was no paint remaining on it, if ever there had been some.

William tried the door, but that was adorned with a chain and a solid padlock.

"William... better step away from that shed for now," Hilda said as she tugged his sleeve. "No messing with it until we know it's safe."

William looked at her, then at the two other witches, and he understood there was something they knew that he missed. Something magical they had a sixth sense for. Carefully he stepped back and let the real witches do their thing.

Babs and Esmee slowly circled the shed, their wands in hand.

"They are trying to find where most magic is coming from," Hilda explained to him. "And then find a way to disarm it, if it is dangerous."

"Uhm... dangerous..." William was not sure what to make of that. "Is there a difference?"

"Oh, yes. There is."

"Nothing dangerous here, Hilly," Baba Yaga reported after they had made the round. "It isn't even proper magic that's used here. I mean, your wizard's a lot better with it than whoever put this magic here."

"My wizard is great with magic," Hilda bragged, "and you know that, girlfriend. You know what he pulled off when Lamador challenged me."

"True," Babs said as she popped the lock open. "Let's see if they have tea here. I could do with some."

As the light of day fell into the shed, it showed dust flying that was rushed into the air by the door opening. They saw a somewhat comfortable chair that had seen better days. Probably better years too. Babs and Hilda stepped inside, wands in hand. They immediately focussed on the chair. That held most of the erratic magical traces.

"No tea," Esmee noticed. "Let's fix that." She stepped out of the shed.

William felt a bit lost. Hilda and Baba Yaga were going around the shed, using their wands as dowsing rods, Esmee was taking care of tea and he just stood and watched.

"There was a book here, Babs," Hilda said as she pointed to a spot on the ground, next to the chair. Babs looked at the same spot and nodded. "Indeed. Old magic. Weird magic also, but too faint to make something decent of it."

"Tea's ready!" Esmee chimed from outside.

"Right out," Babs cackled back, "keep it hot."

Suddenly William moved through the shed and bent down. "Now, what do we have here..." He picked something from the hardwood floor. It was a ball of hair. And it looked very much like the hair they had found in the garden. "Ladies," the wizard announced, "our cat woman has been here at least once."

"And there's some kind of witchcraft involved here too," Baba Yaga added, "this chair did not charge itself magically by itself."

Hilda sat on the floor, her hands touching the wooden floor. "And there was at least one other person here. Someone of power, but not magical," she decided. "But something does not make sense, unless the person who carried the cat woman here was the witchcraft practitioner"

"I doubt that," said Baba Yaga. "The one with the magic was a woman."

"Why would women not wear men's boots?" Hilda asked. "Not that I do, but I mean, think outside the cauldron, Babs."

Baba Yaga stared at William. "Does that happen to everyone who visits that crazy world of yours?"

"Not everyone," he replied, "only the ones that are susceptible to it."

"Just you make sure you are not going to regret that remark," said the witch who still sat on the floor. "I need tea." The two others could do with some also, so they headed outside.

"Ah, there you are!" Esmee smiled at them from a large fluffy couch. It was dark purple. There was another one just like it on the other side of the black table she had conjured. There were a teapot, cups and a saucer with cookies. "It is all ready," Esmee grinned.

William pretended to be the gentle-wizard and poured tea for Hilda, Babs and himself. As he poured he frowned. "That looks weird, Esmee."

The young witch giggled. "That's only half of it, William."

Baba Yaga sat down next to Esmee. "Uhm... Esmee... what is in that tea? You smell somewhat... intoxicated."

William heard that and sniffed the cup he had just poured. "Holy Bejeebus," he said. "I will have to do something about that." The tea that Esmee had prepared was not merely spiked, it was almost pure alcohol with a hint of tea. on second thought he just made a new pot appear, this one with just tea.

"Ah... that's not funny," Esmee complained, giggling more and more. "I thought I had this arranged so nicely."

"She's drunk," Baba Yaga said. "Very drunk. We can count her out for the rest of the day, I'm afraid." Esmee proved her right by flopping to the side and passing out.

"Tea anyone?" William asked. "I'll also get some new cookies. You never know..."

The magical trio that still was awake talked about their find. Finally, they agreed, they had something of a lead that they could work with. Even when the work was limited. They now knew that there were several people involved in this scheme, and at least one of them had witchy capacities.

Baba Yaga looked at the sleeping witch next to her. "I think we're making good progress with her too," she shared with Hilda and William. "Her clothes are improving, and the way she set up this seating stuff isn't bad either. Now, dark purple wouldn't be my choice but at least it's not pink."

"-We- are making good progress?" Hilda frowned. "Excuse me, but you are the one who started corrupting her. Now I have to admit that this is not a bad thing."

"You, witch, have done nothing to discourage me. Nor stop me." Baba Yaga sipped her tea.

"True enough. When has anything or anyone ever stopped you?" Hilda bounced back.

"True enough," Babs admitted.

-=-=-

Lindolf sat in the tavern. He looked at the man who shared his table and who was working on draining the next mug of beer. "I am telling you," Lindolf said, "I have heard very strange things have been going on at the castle."

"Things like what?" asked the man as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The belch waited until the hand was out of sight. "You mean like the attack on the king? And that the guards didn't catch who did it?"

"Yes, exactly," Lindolf nodded. "Things like that. Don't they scare you?"

"Nah," the man grinned, "it's not me that got attacked."

"But what if you were next?" Lindolf insisted. "Suppose that something happens to the king, and after that some unholy army of apparitions comes over the wall and has a go at everyone in the castle?" He had lowered his voice, and not only for drama. He was working on this man, who was a servant in the castle. "Oscar, listen. What would your wife think if you don't come home suddenly, just because that sloppy lame king of ours is not able to protect his servants? Would she like that?" He waved at the serving-wench to bring more beer.

Oscar looked over the table as best he could. Lindolf was not sitting very still from Oscar's point of view. "Ah... beer. Good," he said. Then he remembered Lindolf's question. "Uhm... Well, to be honest, Lindolf, I am not so sure if the wife would feel bad if I wouldn't come home..."

Lindolf snorted at the man's honesty, but that was not the answer he was waiting for. "Of course she'd be devastated, Oscar," he said. "She'd be torn to pieces, like you would be. And that is not what we want, right?"

Oscar tried to recall if Lindolf was married, but that bit of knowledge had been carried away in one of the empty beer-mugs. He decided to nod. Lindolf sounded coherent, so it had to be true. And of course Lindolf was paying for the beer.

"I really think you should talk to your wife about this, Oscar," Lindolf said as he saw the castle servant nod. "This is something of national importance. Something that could have catastrophic consequences for the community at large, if people find out that we can't even protect ourselves and our beloved royalty from some mysterious creature that already had a go at the king."

Oscar's eyes reduced themselves to slits as he tried to follow all the big words Lindolf spoke. It was in vain. Most of the words were lost before he had heard them in full, so he bravely nodded and picked up his mug.

Lindolf decided that he had said enough. Perhaps even too much, as obviously Oscar was not catching on anymore. He raised his own mug. "Tell your wife, Oscar. Tell your wife."

Oscar nodded. "Yes. Tell your wife. I'll do that." He already wondered if he would remember what it was he was supposed to tell, but that was of later worry. "Let's drink to our wives."

Lindolf toasted with Oscar. Maybe this was not such a good person to load this task on after all, he thought as he sipped some of his water.

22. Talks

"Snowy? Do you have a moment?"

Snow White looked over to the door where Prince Jordan stood. She smiled. "It's long ago that you called me Snowy, Jordan. I like it when you say that. What is it that you want to talk about? I assume that's what you want to do."

The prince nodded and came in. "You're done with the kids?" he asked as he took Snow White's hand. "Come, sit down with me. This is concerning kids."

Snow White was very surprised about that. 'Kids' usually was a subject he avoided unless it involved making them. With some difficulty she sat down as her pregnancy was becoming a bother now.

Jordan told her about the talk he'd enjoyed with Hilda and the rest of the magical corps. Of course he emphasised the bit that it would be painful for him, but that he was willing to take that.

Snow White was impressed. Not yet with Jordan, as he had so far just delivered the words, but with Hilda and the gang for getting him so far. She knew she had to play this well. The prospect of no more children was really good. "Would you really do that, my dear prince?" she asked him.

"Yes. I would." Jordan did not feel so brave as his words sounded, but once they were out he knew he would really have to go on with it.

Snow White leaned over their unborn child and kissed him on the cheek. "When do you think it will... happen?"

Jordan grew pale. This was making things real. "Uhm, I'm not sure yet. See, they are so busy catching whatever is killing the animals around here, and it is very hard to talk to them now."

"I understand, Jordan. Perhaps we can see them this evening, at dinner."

"Yes. I guess."

-=-=-

A woman walked through the forest. She wore a skirt that contained as many colours as a rainbow would. It looked hand made, and also hand remade many times. Her long black hair fell halfway down her back, dancing around the red blouse she wore. "Something is not good. Something is very wrong even," she muttered.

She reached the shed. Her black eyes went over the walls, the door, the lock. "Told you," she told no one, "something is not good."

The lock had been opened, she could tell. It hung in a different way. Magda, for that was the woman, always hung the lock in a particular way so she could see if someone had tampered with it. In thought she scratched her pale cheek. "Not good, not good."

She looked around the area, inspecting everything. "Oh no. What's that?" In the ground she saw imprints of what clearly had to be furniture. "It's them witches. I knew it. I am sure of it. Nobody else would put chairs and tables and stuff here. It's the witches. Damn, damn, damn." Magda reached for the bunch of metal objects that hung from her belt. She undid the strap that held the metal together and used the key to open the lock.

Inside she saw the dirty footprints on the floor. That was another sign. She always made sure the floor was swept, so she could see if someone had been inside. "This place is not good anymore," she decided. "I'll have to see Lindolf about this, tell him we don't go here anymore." Magda kicked the tattered chair. "Where will we go..."

With effort she then moved her chair to the side, kneeled down and wriggled a few floor boards until they came loose. Underneath them lay a package, wrapped in a piece of cloth. "We need this. Yes, we need this." Magda kept mumbling to herself as she took the package from the hiding place and walked outside again. She hid her package under a fern, went into the shed again and found the small box with flints in the corner. She took two of the flints and hit them over the overturned chair until it caught fire.

Magda left the shed, collected her package and moved back far enough so she was out of reach of the hungry flames that quickly licked all around the dry wood. When she was certain that nothing usable remained of the shed, she turned and left the place. Of the shed only remained a stack of smoldering wood and a glowing hot chain with a padlock.

-=-=-

Baba Yaga looked up from her musings as a sound emerged from the heap that was Esmee. "Easy, Esmee," Babs said as she got up and went over to the bed. "You've had a severe attack of alcohol. I am glad it's you feeling like you do, not me."

"Am I dead?" Esmee asked.

"You wish, right? Bad news, Esmee. You're alive. Enjoy it while it lasts." Baba Yaga shook her head. "It's about time we make a proper witch of you." She rolled Esmee on her back, causing the hung-over witch to emit a loud groan.

"If I am not dead, this will kill me," Esmee moaned.

"More bad news for you. It won't. Now, where is your wand?" Baba Yaga did feel sorry for the whimpering witch, but this was something Esmee would have to do herself.

"I don't want a wand. I want someone to shoot me," Esmee muttered as she rolled on her side and into a ball on the bed.

"Oh, good news," Babs grinned, "you get to shoot yourself."

"Go away. Please. I can't stand you."

The door opened. "How are things here?" Hilda cheerfully said as she and William came in.

"Gahhh..." Esmee uttered her view on things here.

"Right. That says it all," grinned the witch. "How is she with the wand?"

Baba Yaga shook her head again. "Not much. She wants to be shot, and now she can shoot herself she's not playing."

"Shut up. Please?" Esmee sat up and held her head. "I am in pain and you are just talking."

"And you are not listening," said Baba Yaga to her protegé. "Now whip out that wand and cure yourself."

William felt sorry for the flower witch, the way she looked. Her dress was almost as much a mess as her face was.

Esmee groaned as she popped up her wand. At least she had learnt how to do that. "Now what..."

With some instruction from Babs and Hilda, Esmee discovered how easy it was for a witch to get rid of a hangover.

Esmee jumped from the bed. "Wonderful! What are we going to do now?"

"We're going to think," said Hilda. "Think about our next move. And we'll do that over some coffee."

"Tea," said Babs.

"Water," said Esmee.

"Whatever," said William.

The magicals united, and with cats they went to one of the lounges where they could get tea and water. William made some coffee for Hilda, who claimed she'd had better coffee in her life. He grinned.

"So, what do we have," Baba Yaga said. "We have proof there is a cat-woman going around. The local king has the scratches to prove that."

"And we saw paw prints and we have the hair to prove that," Esmee said, sipping water whilst eyeing Hilda's coffee.

"We also found that shed. More proof, as there was some magic around. Weird and troubled magic, but it counts," Hilda said, offering her cup to Esmee who tried the black stuff.

"Which leads to reason then that things centre around that shed, for some reason." William tried the tea, frowned, and turned it into coffee. "What on Earth did they do to that tea..."

"I don't know," said Babs, "but can you do that trick for me also?" William could and did.

Esmee stared at the cup of coffee she had just drunk from. "This is gory," she decided. She poured herself some tea.

"I vote that we should keep an eye on the shed for a while," Hilda tossed in. "They are going to use that again." The others agreed with her. "We should go and have a look at it again tomorrow, maybe we missed something."

They continued their plan-making until a servant entered the room and announced that dinner was being served.

The witches and the wizard entered the dining room and were greeted enthusiastically by Snow White who waved them over. "Could Jordan and I have a word with you later? After dinner and when we've put the children to bed?"

"Oh, certainly," Hilda said, "no problem. Maybe Esmee can give you a hand, so you're done sooner."

Esmee grumbled but kept a straight face. Until after dinner.

Snow White and Esmee came back quite quickly. Hilda and her comrades in magic were still at their table when the two women joined them. Snow White had her husband in tow; Prince Jordan did not look the happiest man in the realm.

"Here we all are," Snow White said, "tea anyone?"

"I'd vote against that," said William, "but sure."

After the tea was delivered, and half of the cups' contents were changed to William's coffee, Snow White told the witchy assembly about the talk she'd had with Jordan. "We are very curious to learn some more about it," she said, ignoring the expression on hubby's face. Obviously he was not so keen.

"It is nothing big, really," William said, "no reason to blow it up."

"Oh, sometimes it is small indeed, but, uhm... blowing does help," Snow White said, her pale cheeks colouring.

"Dear wife," said Jordan, "maybe we should-"

"Oh, stuff it, prince," Baba Yaga said with her usual sense of diplomacy. "The wizard speaks. Let him talk."

From an adjacent table, a servant who was cleaning it was shocked by the way the old and ugly witch spoke to the heir to the throne.

"What are you looking at?" The unfortunate servant was in the line of sight of Babs. "Hush, scoot, go. This is private."

"Yes, my privates," Jordan confirmed quietly and slightly uncomfortable. "And they're not that small."

"Hush, Jordan, let the wizard speak," said Snow White.

William shrugged. "As I said, it's nothing big. We'll sedate the royal princeness, do the procedure and cross our wands that he's not in too much pain. For too long."

Jordan showed all signs of wanting to run, but somehow he stayed in his seat. "And how long will that be?"

"The procedure? A few moments," said William, making an uneducated guess. "The feeling afterwards... depends on how much you can handle pain. Hard to tell."

"I'm sure a strong, young prince like you is not afraid of a bit of pain when it is for the greater good," Baba Yaga remarked.

Prince Jordan smiled as if he was trying to hide a severe tooth-ache.

23. Scratches

While the united witchcrafters were having a relaxed conversation with royalty, in the village tavern a talk on an entirely different topic was going on. The wife of Oscar the castle servant had been listening to her husband as he told her what Lindolf had told him. She agreed with Lindolf's words and now was repeating her version of those among her friends that had joined them at the table.

"Did you know," she said, "that there has been a small army of dangerous large cats in the castle? It seems that they almost tore up the gut of the king, and he was not able to do anything about them."

"No!" many people exclaimed, hungry for more details and preferably some bloodshed and other forms of sensation.

"Yes!" said Sheila, Oscar's wife. "Even all the witches that are now in the castle were helpless against these animals!" The undivided attention of so many people made her confident that 'improving' the words she'd heard from Oscar would not be too bad. She was not aware that Oscar had done his own share of enhancing himself. Well, maybe she was aware of that. In that case she didn't care.

"Well, as long as they're in the castle, I'm fine," a big man with a red nose and a grey tunic said, as he raised his beer mug. "I'm not such a fan of the king anyway. They can have 'm, and we get to keep the money we now pay in taxes." His words were received with cheers from several sides; the number of people who became interested in what went on at the table increased.

In a dark corner sat a man in a dark cloak, the hood far over his head. Lindolf. He smiled.

"Is it just me," another villager pitched in, "or is it really a coincidence that these cat creatures started going around after these witches and that strange wizard arrived at the castle?" His words brought about a round of talking, yelling and unfounded reasoning.

"No, can't be," someone said, "if they are the reason for the cats to be there, why would they not be able to keep them there?" Nobody seemed to find this statement worth considering.

"What," someone said, "if these giant cats come to the village? And what if they start taking our guts out? Will you be cheering so loudly then?" This gave cause to another discussion, of course. Someone said that the cats would not come as there was nothing to get here; someone else pointed at the big gut of the speaker and told him that the cats would be happy with some of that, and then the inn-keeper had to do all he could, with all his waitresses, to keep the place from being torn apart.

In the dark corner, the man in the cloak and hood smiled again. This, he knew, was very good. Suddenly he grabbed to his pocket, as something started burning in it. He felt the small pebbles that Magda had given him, they were red hot, and tossed them on the table in front of him. She clearly needed to see him. "Blast that witch and her magic," he muttered as the stones cooled down. He swept them into his pocket again, put some coppers on the table and left the tavern.

Magda saw Lindolf come from the tavern. She stepped out of the dark alley where she had been hiding. He walked over to her and asked what she wanted. "We have a problem. The witches found our shed."

"Oh. Shit."

"Yes," Magda agreed.

-=-=-

"Now tell us, Willy, when are you going to do your thingy with Jordan's thingy?" Baba Yaga asked, just a little too eager.

The witches and wizard sat around the large fireplace in Baba Yaga's room, enjoying glasses of wine. Hilda's was severely watered down, as usual.

"The sooner the better, I think," William thought out loud, "he was pretty much pushed into being brave this evening, so we should exploit that."

"He's a bit of a whimp, isn't he?" Hilda put in. "That hasn't changed over the years." As several eyes regarded her, she told them again how she had met Jordan, fighting and crashing into the glass coffin where Snow White lay. That story always was a source of entertainment.

"Tomorrow afternoon, perhaps," William then mused on about Jordan. "Take him by surprise, might be the best way to handle this."

Hilda agreed. Esmee still worried about it all. "Have you done this thing before?" the former flower witch asked.

"No, but I've read books on how it's done. Didn't look too difficult. I'll be fine," William said, certainty all around him.

"It's not you I'm worried about," Esmee told him.

Hilda laughed.

Baba Yaga then asked what they should do as a next step concerning the cat-woman. "Messing with Jordan is all good fun, I'm sure, but that's not what we're here for."

"I say we go and have another look at that shed tomorrow morning," Hilda suggested. "Maybe they have used it again and the magic trail is stronger. We might get a feel for the kind of witch that's involved."

"Good plan," Esmee said. "And once we... I mean you know what witch it is, what then?"

"And what if you can't figure that out?" William challenged his witch.

"Urgh, you are so negative, William. Give me some credit," Hilda grumbled. And to the other two witches she said: "He has been in that strange world of his too long, I keep blaming that. Such a waste. As to what we can do once we know what kind of witch we're up against, I think we should look at that when we actually know."

"Which means you don't have a clue at the moment," William translated her words.

Hilda looked at the wizard. "Yes. You're right. I don't. And that bothers me to no end."

"I know, Hilda," said the wizard. "I can feel that. Now come sit in my lap and listen to me."

"You do not tell me what to do, wizard," Hilda said, her voice threatening and cold as ice cubes Then she got up and sat in his lap. "I planned to do this long before you said it."

Baba Yaga and her protegé stared at what was happening, for different reasons but with equal interest.

William nodded. "We all know that we are walking in the dark and there is reason to believe we are running down a dead-end street. But nobody knows except us. So as long as we appear confident and seem to follow a plan, everyone will be certain we are on to something. And if we manage to make that feeling known everywhere, so that includes the village, then the witch and her partners will hear about that. Because that's how small towns work. You just need to talk to the right people."

"And you know the right people?" Hilda asked.

Babs whispered to Esmee: "I like that boy."

"I heard that," said Hilda, "and I am waiting to hear an answer of this boy."

"Shopkeepers and people working in taverns and on market squares," said the boy.

-=-=-

"I am not doing it." Santera sat in the corner of the room, huddled up under a blanket as if that protected her from Magda and Lindolf.

Simi stood close to the young woman. "We shouldn't, Magda, she's still too hurt from that attach of these wild creatures, can't you see that?"

"Baloney," said Lindolf, "they're only some scratches. Hardly worth mentioning. We have to bring the cat-woman out again tonight, so people will believe the tale that goes around the village now."

The group was in the attic of his house. They had decided that was the best place for them to take residence, now the shed was destroyed. Lindolf had tried to talk sense into the three, but he was outnumbered. There also were no alternative places.

"You just have to walk around a bit, Santera," Lindolf tried. "Scare someone, or eat a chicken or something. People have to know you are real."

"I'm not going to scare someone," Santera said, determination trying to settle on her face and in her voice.

"Okay, okay, wait, how about you just go outside then, go to the market square, you scratch over some doors so the marks are clearly visible and then we bring you back?" Magda offered

Santera looked less opposing already...

Shortly after that, a furry shape moved through the backstreets of the village, silent as a ghost. Santera had given her will to Magda again, allowing the woman to alter her appearance as she tapped into the power that Simi allowed. The cat-woman passed the door of a shop, stopped and slowly dragged her long sharp nails over it, the sound tearing up the silence of the narrow street. The large cat growled and leapt through the street, seeking cover in the darkest shadows while waiting if something would happen.

The night remained quiet though. Santera moved through the streets again, until she arrived at the market square. Crouching down on all fours, she looked around. Her ears turned, catching the slightest sound. There could be someone around, even at this hour. The space in front of her was deserted, save for some carts. Santera ran over to the carts and jumped on top of the first one. It was empty. The next one was too. Leaving a few scratch marks on that, she jumped from the cart again.

"Make her throw something through a window," Lindolf said, even when he had no idea where Santera was. He knew that Magda would hear him. He also knew that if he repeated his wishes often enough, she would make it happen, as long as it was somehow possible.

Santera made her way to one of the houses, picking up a piece of stone between her paw-hands. She flung it towards a window as she came close to it. As glass shattered, she madly scratched the front door of the house and then ran off, as Magda ordered her to come back.

As the cat-woman disappeared in the darkness, lights came on in the house that had been attacked.

24. Lindolf

As Hilda and William entered the dining hall of the castle, they were immediately aware of a hush that went around the servants. They frowned at each other as they sat down. When a young man came to bring them their food, Hilda asked him what was going on.

"Oh, nothing, nothing," the young man said too quickly.

"Right. Now you sit down and you stay on that chair until you told us what's going on," the witch said. "And not on that chair, that's Baba Yaga's spot. She likes keeping things like that simple."

"But I have to-" said the young man as he could not stop himself from sitting down.

"-tell us what's the rumour," William ended his sentence for him. "Come on, we can feel there is something, so just tell us and you can go on with your work."

The young man swallowed hard. "There's a rumour that one of the giant cats who attacked the king was in the village last night."

"One of?" Hilda said. "Who claims there are more?"

"Oh... many people in the village say that. I'm not sure, but some may have seen a few even."

The witch released the young man, who took off in rather a hurry. His exit was the cue for Baba Yaga and Esmee to enter the hall and find a seat at the table. Hilda and William told them what they had just heard from the servant.

"An army of cat-women? I don't believe a word of that," said Babs as she tapped her empty cup and filled it with her favourite tea.

The four magical ones agreed on that, but wondered where the rumour had come from. William did point out that, if this was indeed just a rumour, that proved his point about putting their own rumour in the world. "There is genuine power in that. See how the servants are sweating with the thought of many cat-women?"

"But what if there really are more cat-women?" Esmee asked as she watched his plate of food. "And why don't they bring us food?"

"Uhm, that last bit might be my doing," Hilda said. "Pinning down a servant may have been a bit harsh."

Babs grinned. After a few encouraging waves, someone dared to bring two more plates of food. Over breakfast they discussed options for the day, and then they left the castle. As planned the other day, they headed over to the shed again.

"Well, that takes care of that," Baba Yaga said as they stood close to the ruins of the shed. Obsi and Grim carefully tiptoed around it, sniffing and clearly not appreciating what they found. "Looks like we just found out that someone found out that we found out."

-=-=-

"I don't want to do this anymore!"

Those words came from Santera's lips as she was clawing at Lindolf's face. The young woman was furious and Magda on her own was not capable to remove the furious person from the one that tried to protect his head.

"Get that mad woman off me!" Lindolf yelled.

"I am trying!" Magda screamed as she yanked at Santera's hair, which in the end proved to be effective in that Santera did not claw at Lindolf anymore. Now Magda was the subject of her anger. Lindolf ended that quickly though; once he was free he put his arms around Santera and prevented her from lashing out at the witch. All she now could do was scream. And that she did, until Magda stuffed a rag in Santera's mouth.

"Can't we sedate her?" Lindolf asked. "I can't hold her like this for-aaah!" Santera had kicked one of his kneecaps.

Magda looked at her old book of magic, the one she had saved from the shed before she'd set it on fire. She took the book and whacked Santera on the head. The cat-woman's fighting came to an abrupt end.

"Not magical, but effective," Lindolf said as he lay the limp body on the floor.

Magda inspected the book. It was not damaged. Then she checked Santera; the book was quite heavy. The young woman was fine, just out of action for a while. "This is getting to all of us, Lindolf," she commented as she sat down with her book. "Santera's going mad over all this stuff you make her do."

"You make her do it, Magda," he grinned. "I just make suggestions."

"You are a swine, Lindolf."

The man smiled. "And you are my pearl, Magda. I do agree that Santera is becoming a weak spot in our plan. We have to act quickly."

"What do you have in mind?"

Magda held on to her book as he spoke.

-=-=-

Four brooms landed on the market square in the village. Four magical people and two magical cats got off them.

"So, where do we begin?" Baba Yaga asked. She looked around. The square was remarkably empty. "Not here," Babs replied to herself. "Nothing to do."

William asked Esmee to take them to the tavern, where they would start their spread of rumours and also enjoy a cup of tea.

"The tea there is awful," Esmee whispered to the wizard.

"And we have magic to improve it," the wizard whispered back, "so let's go."

Once away from the market square, they encountered more people again, but none of them seemed very happy to see them. Hilda wondered why that might be. It should be clear that they were here to catch the strange cat-woman, and yet the people looked at them as if they were responsible for the cat-woman to be there in the first place.

Esmee ushered the others into the tavern. Several tables were occupied. As soon as the four magical ones entered, all talks died away as heads turned.

"As usual, your ravishing beauty renders them speechless," William said. He did not go into specifics whose beauty he was referring to, but Babs snorted. "Inn-keeper, we need a table. With four chairs and four tea, and the table should be in a place where we can't be overheard."

Hilda looked at her wizard and wondered if he had gone stark raving mad. The inn-keeper however came galloping along from behind the counter and guided the honourable group to a table close to that very counter. "Not many ears around here, honourable wizard," the man said as he bowed a few times. "Four cups of the best tea for the honourable company, certainly sir-... wizard-... sir wizard."

The four sat down. "Are you sure what you're doing, William?" asked Baba Yaga. "This is not exactly a place to unfold a plan of action, if you ask me."

William grinned. "But that is exactly the beauty of the whole thing, dear Babs. I'm not asking you."

Baba Yaga spread her hands out on the table and looked at the grinning man. "How long did you plan to stay alive?" she asked.

"I will let that remain in the hands of my witch," said William.

Babs pulled her hands back. "You just gave the only acceptable answer, Willy."

The inn-keeper came back with their tea. It looked like ordinary ordinaries' tea. After the inn-keeper had removed himself, Esmee sniffed her cup. "This needs improvement, William..." The wizard winked, wanded and things were well.

"So, where were we," he then said. Two out of three witches stared at him.

Hilda had spent enough time with William to play the game along quickly. "We almost have that cat cornered and caged," she said, "the cage is waiting." At least the last part was true. "And as far as the people who are behind all this..." Hilda looked at Esmee who picked up the cue.

"Yes, we have some of the traces from the woods," the former flower witch said, "and they are all leading to the same place, so it should be clear that is where we have to look." It was not much, but she did what she could, William was satisfied about the attempt.

"I'm just waiting until we can sock 'm," Baba Yaga said. Then she sat back, her cup in hand, indicating that her part in the play was over.

"Someone's going to pay for all this," William said. He magicked up a large sheet of paper which was full of marks, crosses, lines and arrows. The only places that everyone could determine were the village, the forest and the castle. The rest was total nonsense, but as many lines and marks moved over the map by themselves, it took a magical person to understand that.

Several people who had been at the tables suddenly had the need to come to the counter and talk to the inn-keeper or one of the waitresses, whilst also casting hidden glances at the paper that the witches and the wizard were looking at and whispering over all of a sudden.

After a while, William and Hilda had run out quasi-plotting talk, so the group paid for the tea and left the tavern. They went to several shops that Esmee liked to frequent, and dropped some words there about how their net was closing around the people who were responsible for the cat-attacks.

-=-=-

"Lindolf! Lindolf!" The man puffed out the name, as he had been running to get to Lindolf.

"What do you want?" the businessman muttered.

"This is urgent," the man explained.

"It'd better be. Talk."

The man, who had come running from the tavern, told Lindolf that the witches had been talking about closing in on the people who were responsible for the cat.

Lindolf stared at the man. "And why are you coming to me about that? Do you think I have something to do with it?"

"No, of course not. But the animal damaged one of your carts, and killed your chickens. I thought you would like to know about it. I already told the butcher and some farmers."

"Idi- I mean, thank you. I very much appreciate your effort to come to me about this." Lindolf patted the man on the shoulder. "But perhaps you should be careful with that news. People might think the wild beast is almost caught, and if it isn't and something happens, they might turn on the witches or so, you know." An evil plan was already in the scaffolding inside Lindolf's head.

25. Prince Jordan

"Be brave, dear Jordan," said Snow White, the next morning. As a surprise she had shared his bed again for the night, as this day would become interesting.

"I'll be brave, Snowy. Anything for you." Jordan said the words, but his confidence had flown out the window, even though the window was closed. He dreaded getting up, because that meant he would have to face the world in general and a specific part of that in the form of something that the strange wizard was going to do to his privates.

Snow White hugged her husband over her bulging belly. "I know you will be, Jordan. I am so proud of you. Maybe you should get up now. It does not look good if you keep the wizard waiting."

"Uhhuh," was the response of the brave prince. He arranged for another hug (which ended far too quickly) and then squirmed himself to the edge of the bed. How on earth, he wondered, had he let himself be talked into this?

The prince tended to himself and had a personal servant dress him to perfection. If this was going to happen, he'd be looking his best. He couldn't do more anyway.

As he left his room, he heard Snow White say that she'd join them for breakfast soon. Jordan walked down, and suddenly wondered if he was allowed to have breakfast. So often when the royal physician had to perform some surgical thing, Jordan was not allowed to eat all day,

"Good morning, honourable magicals," the prince said as he entered the breakfast room. He actually managed to put some not-felt cheer in his voice. The witches and wizard were already present, as usual. He'd love to know if people like that needed less sleep than normal people.

"Hey Jordan, why don't you come sit here?" Hilda cheered as she made a chair move to their table from somewhere else. The invitee stared at the moving chair for a moment, Esmee never did things like that.

Jordan then said that he would rather have the large table, where all his family could sit. That of course was no problem, so soon Jordan sat at the large table with the witches and the wizard. He was relieved that he was allowed to eat. He had always felt that the royal physician had no reason other than to pester him with the not eating thing.

Snow White joined the group, together with a gaggle of children. Their appearance was the signal for the magical surgeons to retreat to the operating theatre, which usually was a salon.

They took Prince Jordan with them, despite his claim that he had not had eaten properly. Perhaps, the prince thought, they'd been talking to the physician already.

"So how do you think you will go about with this?" Hilda's question did not give Prince Jordan an overwhelming feeling of confidence, but his coughing and waving a hand for attention gave him no attention from the three.

William popped up his wand. "Let's first sedate our patient," he said.

"Do we have to?" Jordan asked.

William pointed that wand at the spot that would be affected. "If you feel up to it, I can do this with you temporarily awake," the wizard commented, "but I am sure you will pass out by yourself. Trust me, my way is far less painful."

"Is it that bad?" Prince Jordan asked.

"Worse," Baba Yaga informed him, even though she did not have a clue what actually was going to happen.

"Oh." The prince grew pale. "In that case..." He lay down on the table that William had made him sit on. Then a thought hit him and he sat up again. "How long will this take?" he wondered.

"Not too long, but you'll be unconscious anyway, so what would it matter?" William said.

"Oh, uhm, I was just curious," Jordan told the wizard.

"Don't be. Curiosity kills cats, except the big ones. And ours. And now..." William said and waved his wand. It was the last word Jordan would hear for a while. Then William did some magic on the prince's testicles and said: "That was that. Tea anyone? Or coffee?"

The three witches stared at him. "What was that? What did you do?"

William explained that he had simply done what he had read in a medical book someday, in his old life. "And that is all there is to it."

Esmee frowned. "And you had to make him sleep for just that?"

Hilda laughed and told her that things could not always be how they really were. "The best magic happens between people's ears, Esmee."

"Exactly," William said, "and while we have something to drink, we can decide on the amount of pain we should inflict on the prince, so he will remember what we did to his ballgame."

"But," Esmee wondered, "wouldn't it be good to make some show of it for the people outside the salon?"

"What people?" Hilda and William asked at the same time.

"This is a castle," Esmee pointed out how well versed she was in castle etiquette. "It something happens here, plenty of people will know about it and there will suddenly be a lot of them who suddenly have business outside the room where the show happens."

"Might as well give them something then," Hilda said as she popped up her wand. The witch looked at the door as a grin spread around her lips. It was a grin William knew all too well, and even Baba Yaga said: "Oh-oh."

First the door started pulsating in blue. She only let that go on for a short while before returning the door to its normal dark brown oak colour. Then she made it go white and icy cold for a while.

Esmee and Baba Yaga arranged the tea, and the four had a very nice time discussing all kinds of ailments to inflict on the prince that was still out, until the topic started to get out of control.

"Okay, okay," said William, "I'll make him hurt for four days. That is a nice amount of time, something not overdone."

"Very good. But first let me," Hilda grinned as she pointed at the door again. Suddenly flames burst out from nowhere, enveloping the door with their fiery tongues. All the ice that had formed on the door did not even have a chance to form drops and fall down: in a hissing steam they evaporated.

With his teacup in hand, William waved his wand and when the magic took hold in the dormant prince, the patient groaned. "Wow, talk about instant success."

Esmee had a certain look on her face, so William asked what she was thinking about. Esmee confessed that she was very curious about the royal 'equipment'. After all, she remarked, he had been able to produce quite a lot of offspring with it.

"Oh. Is that all?" William mumbled a small spell and Jordan's pants moved three feet to the left. "Go feast your eyes, Esmee."

Hilda raised an eyebrow as Esmee got up. "William, something like that is not done, you know."

"And wasn't it you who told me that wizards as a rule don't care about rules? Well, here is your proof. Again." He grinned and toasted her with his teacup.

"Hmmm, that's not much," Esmee commented from her position next to the table. Even though it was not done, Hilda and Baba Yaga got up to check on Esmee's power of judgment.

"Suck an elf," Hilda commented, "that's really pathetic."

-=-=-

While William was playing doctor, in the village a woman was talking in the tavern. The woman was Santera. She was under the spell of Magda, who directed her to talk about cat women and the seeming coincidence that the attacks had become worse once the three unknown magical people had come to the castle.

In an attic, Lindolf was on a small seat next to Magda, whispering in her ear what Santera was going to say. Magda looked awful, as he had pushed her magical abilities to the maximum. Simi, the woman who supplied the energy for Magda to perform her magic, was trembling.

"You know," Santera whispered as she rolled up her sleeves, "I think that the witches are here to take over power of the kingdom. They put the cat people up to all this, and they just have not managed to kill the king yet. They will try again, I am certain of that. And I know there are more people who think like that."

"But why would someone want to kill our king?" a farmer asked. He had always liked the king.

"There are always bad magical people," Santera whispered. "Remember that sorcerer Lamador? The one that put a hold on King Herald?"

Heads bobbed, the tale had run through all the kingdoms.

"And see here, what happened to me as there was the fight with the cat woman," Santera said as she showed the scratches on her arms, the marks that she had gotten from Obsidian Shadow and Onyx Grimalkin.

The marks, still very clear and raw, made the listeners gasp for air.

"There are also marks on my back," Santera informed them, "so you see how dangerous these creatures are."

One of the people around her had also been present at the talk that Oscar's wife had given, about not trusting the king. "So we have a king that is not doing the best for the people and a bunch of witches and the likes that want to get rid of him to take over?"

Santera nodded. "Yes, that sounds about right," she said after a few moments. "And they will probably make things worse for us..."

-=-=-

"Enough show?" Hilda asked Esmee as she had the door blink with false diamonds.

According to the castle witch, this would do.

Hilda returned the door to its normal state as William woke up the prince.

Jordan stared at the absence of pants, with unpleasantness already on his features.

"So, prince, how do you feel?" William asked.

"Painful," the man on the table admitted, his eyes still on his manhood. "Is it me," he then asked, "or is it really... bigger?"

"It may look somewhat bigger," William said, doing his best to keep a straight face. "Sometimes that is a result of the procedure. But it won't give you a problem, I can assure you that."

"Oh. Good." Prince Jordan eyed the ones present. "Was it necessary for everyone to be here?" he then asked. It was especially unnerving to him that Esmee the castle witch had witnessed all his somewhat undersized glory, although now it definitely looked more prominent.

"Yes, it was," William assured the prince, "but don't worry, no one will say a word about the proceedings. That is our code of honour."

"Ah, that's good-OOOWWWW!" Jordan had attempted to hop from the table and the magic for the pain had responded to that. He stood bent over for a while, sweat on his brow.

"Careful, prince," William cautioned the royal man a bit too late. "Here, go slow while you put this on." Baba Yaga had altered the royal pants to something much wider. "This will make sure you won't feel too much pain."

Grateful, Prince Jordan put on the garment. It almost felt to him as if the pain subsided a bit as he pulled the pants up. He'd look ridiculous in this tent, but rather that than the pain.

"So remember, no playing with it," said William.

"I know," Prince Jordan nodded, "I'll go blind then."

"No, it just will hurt insanely," William grinned.

"Are you sure?" Jordan's face showed genuine disbelief.

"Hmm, maybe it is just like that for magical people, so don't take chances."

Hilda muffled away a snort into her teacup. She could not help that some drops of it landed on her face.

26. The four

"Bring her back," Lindolf told Magda. "She is talking too much."

Magda looked in pain now, and Simi was not looking her best either. Their almost constant work to keep Santera under the spell was taking its toll.

When Santera finally returned, Lindolf sedated the young woman with a potion he had once gotten from a peddler from a faraway land. It knocked Santera out immediately, and he carried her to the bed, where he tied her to the chain that was bolted to the wall.

As soon as Santera had passed out, Magda slumped back into the chair and Simi fell over, almost exhausted.

"Now, this evening," Lindolf started, when Magda turned her head towards him. Her gaze told him enough. Nothing would happen that evening.

Without moving, Magda said: "I sometimes wonder why we are doing this for you, Lindolf. The three of us are more and more wasted after each trip we have Santera make, and you are not suffering from anything except more dreams of greatness. Do you understand how much you need us?"

Lindolf sat down and watched the exhausted witch breathe. It was true what she said. He needed these three women. Without them he was nothing but a normal merchant, be it one with a good business going at the moment.

It had all started many months ago, when he had accepted an old book as payment from someone who was severely in Lindolf's debt for simply not being able to pay his bills. The book look old and had a lot of gold print on it. The language in it was impossible to decipher for the merchant, so he had put it up for sale for the highest bidder.

Magda, who occasionally came to clean Lindolf's house, had seen the book and was immediately attracted to it. As she had touched it, it had called out to her. At least that was the way she had explained its effect on her. It seemed to scream at her.

Magda was a half-witch. Her mother had been a true witch, and her father was an ordinary who, after a few months of intense pleasure, had run off with another woman. Magda's mother had born the fruits of that short encounter several moons later, when Magda popped out. Her talents had never really developed; a result of the mixed genes from her parents. The book however had changed everything. Magda had sensed its magic. It was a strange, wild and unruly magic, but it boosted her abilities and she suddenly was able to do amazing things.

At first she had not told Lindolf about it, but when he found out when he had a serious buyer for the book. Luckily, or perhaps it was a wicked twist of fate, Magda had been in the house and had screamed "No!" when Lindolf wanted to close the sale. She had told him about the book after throwing a hysterical fit that drove the buyer away. She also told him that she did not have the energy to sustain the magic, but the book had told her that an adequately strong other person would be good, if this person gave his or her energy willingly.

Lindolf was very interested and had asked Simi, a woman he knew, to help in an experiment with Magda. Simi had been intrigued by the possibilities, and told Lindolf that she was feeling amazingly good after a session with Magda. This amazing new source of power had triggered him to try a few simple things, like putting a few competitors out of business, getting a few others killed and more kid stuff like that. As this had not proved to be a problem, he had conceived his devious plan to remove the king from his position and make the kingdom his own.

That was when Santera had come into the picture. Magda had learnt from the magical book that she could invoke a shapeshifting into someone who was willing to let that happen. Santera had been influenced by Lindolf to participate in the magical play and the cat woman had been born. It all had looked amazingly simple. Santera had gone through the forests catching rabbits and squirrels, and then Lindolf had become bolder and sent her onto the castle grounds to kill chickens and rabbits there.

And then these three other magical people had shown up, crossing his plans with so much vigour that he had started to hate them terribly.

"When can we do some more?" Lindolf wanted to know.

"Not today," Magda said.

"And not tomorrow," Simi added. "You people are killing me. I plan on not helping anymore if you keep this up, Lindolf. I am already a wreck every time I go home, I can't even do my daily chores anymore after something like this."

"But think of the riches we'll have once our plan has succeeded!" Lindolf tried to make the two women enthusiastic again. "The gold and silver and the gems."

"Good luck having fun with those when we're all dead," Magda groaned as she hoisted herself from the chair. She took the book and held it to her chest, as if she was trying to make it a part of herself.

Lindolf did not like that idea. At least not knowing that this happened before his plan was completed. "Okay, I agree, we've been doing a lot lately. We'll give it a while before we send Santera out again. I understand the problems."

"About time," Magda said. She was swaying on her feet a bit and in need of sleep and food, and not particularly in that order. "We need something to eat, Lindolf. Get us something."

The man was not used to be ordered around like that, but for now he had to accept it. He knew that anything stupid would make his plan collapse, so he went down to the kitchen to find the women something to eat and drink.

When he returned, Simi scolded him for putting Santera to sleep. "She needs to eat too, you know."

Lindolf grumbled something, took a small bottle and put a drop of its contents on Santera's upper lip. A few moments later, the young woman's eyes fluttered open. The first thing she noticed was the chain on her wrist.

Santera made a grab for Lindolf's face, hoping to take out an eye or so, but she was too tired and he was too quick. She resorted to cursing him down to the deepest and most painful pit, preferably before he died.

"Calm down," he said, "I woke you up so you can eat something. Promise you won't try to kill me when I bring you something?"

Magda told Santera to accept the food, as she needed it at least as badly as she and Simi did. Santera grudgingly said Lindolf would be safe. Somehow, even while she was chained to the wall, it gave her a feeling of power over this man and his plans.

Lindolf left the three women alone, assuring them that he would come back soon. As soon as he was left, Santera demanded that Simi would take the chain off her. "He treats me like a wild animal," Santera complained, rattling the iron.

"Well, the way you assaulted him, you have given him reason for that," Magda said. "But yes, Simi, you can free Santera."

Soon the three sat eating, Santera on the floor as far from the bed with the chain as she could be. "How long do you think we have to keep doing this?" the young woman asked. "I want out of this. I want my life back, and not spend every night prowling the village as a big cat. It's scary."

"Why is it scary?" Simi asked.

Santera explained that it was becoming harder for her to distinguish what part of her was human and what part was the cat woman "I want to be all human again," she said as she licked her fingers, "and have a husband and children and a normal life."

"Not sure if any of us will be able to have a normal life after this," Magda thought out loud. "Not as long as Lindolf keeps going on with his plan."

"But when we walk out on him, he can do nothing!"

"Wrong. He knows too much about us," said Simi, "and if we walk away, he will have enough ways to make us solely responsible for all that happened. Would you like to be accused of attempting to kill the king?"

Santera's face grew dark. "Then we'll kill Lindolf."

27. Cat woman

The assembled magicals strolled through the castle gardens, trying to come up with a new plan. "I doubt that creature will show here again soon," said Baba Yaga, "it knows it's being hunted now. I suggest we take the cage apart again. It's really an ugly thing."

William did not grin, but to hear Baba Yaga talk about ugly always was a wonderous thing. He did agree, the cage was of no use anymore, so they walked over to it and disassembled it, at first much to the delight and then to the shock of the gardeners. The cage had damaged the lawn considerably.

One of the green-fingered men dared ask if the witches could please repair that damage. Hilda frowned. "Nature will do that, and you can pitch in. Take pride in your craft, man, we have better things to do."

Esmee chuckled at the face of the gardener. "And while you're at it, do remove all those iron bars. They are an eye-sore," she added to Hilda's words.

The four walked on, still unsure of what their next step would be to find that cat woman "It is remarkable that nobody saw her lately. Do you think she is hiding somewhere?" William wondered.

"Maybe," said Hilda, "but I get the feeling that this is not just a cat woman doing things on her own. That shed, burnt down and all, with the strange magic, that is tied into all this. Has to be."

"Do you have evidence?" William wondered.

"No. It's because I say so," Hilda explained. "Cat women don't just appear from out of nowhere."

"Except in Catzachstan," Baba Yaga reminded the wicked witch.

"Yes, true, but that's far away from here, and these women hardly ever leave their country. It's safer for them that way."

William and Esmee exchanged glances, they both had never heard of Catzachstan but it sounded an interesting place. "So if this cat woman is sent by someone, it is obvious that this someone has a plan. What else would be the reason?"

"See, that's why I keep him around," Hilda told Babs. "He thinks at times. Yes. There has to be a plan. And I think I know how to provoke a reaction from the controlling person..."

"Really?"

"Really. And you three are going to help with my little plan."

-=-=-

"That looks amazing, Hilda." William's respect for his little witch grew some more again.

"It's a nice job," Baba Yaga agreed, pleased with what Hilda and she had wrought.

"I'm quite satisfied too," Hilda nodded.

Obsi and Grim lay on the bed, staring at the cat woman that stood in the room. "Mrrowww," said Esmee. It was obvious that she was not so impressed, the more there she had not had any say in deciding who was going to be turned into a cat woman

"Don't try to speak, Esmee," said Hilda, "you can never be sure what you're saying, and it is dangerous to anger other cats." She turned to the two cats. "So what do you think? Will she do?"

Esmee was eyeing herself in the mirror and was impressed as well as abhorred with what she saw. The two witches had turned her into a red haired cat woman, complete with fluffy tail. And the tail responded to what she wanted it to do. Her hands had changed to paws, as had her feet. She could easily stand on her hind legs, but walking gave her some balancing issues. On all fours there was no problem, but from that position the world looked all wrong.

"Right then," Babs said as Grimalkin walked around Esmee and rubbed her head against Esmee's legs, "looks like we did a decent job. Let's turn this cat back into a witch. We'll be able to switch her into cat again this evening, for when she's going out."

Hilda and Baba Yaga did their magic thing, while William held up Esmee's dress, ready to magick it around her as soon as the cat-disguise had gone. It worked quite well.

-=-=-

Esmee felt miserable as she was going through the forest. No pleading had helped her: she was going to walk to the village. As a big cat, not on a broom. And it was raining. The flower witch had never been a big fan of rain, but her catlike appearance brought out the dislike larger than life. She went through the undergrowth for a while, hoping that the rain would not reach her there, but that proved to be a bad idea: she got caught in the dense plant life and had to fight herself free a few times.

Hilda, William and Babs followed Esmee's progress through the revived crystal ball of the flower witch. "She's not doing a really good job, is she?" Babs commented.

"How often have you been a cat to do that?" William asked her, which earnt him a very disapproving look. And coming from Baba Yaga, that made him instantly forget any other smart remark he had up his wizardly sleeve.

Esmee in that time had discovered how to run on all fours. It was a very strange experience: the world was much higher now, as she was not used to it, her head bobbed and made what she saw quite dizzying, but she was going faster than she had ever run before. Also she picked up so many other things; smells, sounds and vibrations she'd never sensed. And rainwater. Soon she reached the village.

Hilda and the others watched how Esmee kept to the dark parts of the streets as she went through the village. It was what they had agreed on, Best for her to get used to being there in her current form for a while.

"What's that shaking she does?" Hilda wondered. William laughed and explained a bit or two about cats and getting wet. "Oh. I see. She will hate us for that, right?" William nodded. "Good."

As soon as Esmee felt more safe, and she had found streets that were deserted (which was easy as it still rained), she got up on her hind legs and walked along the street. Esmee worried as she started her stroll; she felt naked as she was only 'dressed' in cat hair. Also the long tail was giving her fits at times as it got caught between her legs. She had not much experience in twitching it, or keeping it in the air like the two cats of Hilda and William. And holding her tail was no option as she had not hands.

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.

28. A close call

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.

29. Is that Esmee?

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."

Hilda nodded, her hair a tangled mess around both of them. "No matter how much lightning rocks the castle, William, you rock me the best."

Baba Yaga stood in front of the window as the lightning struck. She was blown through Esmee's room and landed on the ground, after a cunning detour against the wall. "Suck an elf," the ugly witch muttered as she somehow managed to stand up again.

The lightning had bounced off the window sill. It had jumped onto the metal stand that had held a few large sunflowers, in the days that Esmee still was a genuine flower witch. After examining the stand, the lightning had decided that the large copper bed with the witch was its final destination, so it had leapt over to that, shocking the bed and its sleeping occupant.

Grimalkin and Obsidian had already located safer quarters as the lightning hit. They were on top of some bookshelves and saw how Esmee was picked up and thrown down on her bed again.

Baba Yaga was on her feet again, but she had not seen how Esmee's body had bolted upwards as the high-powered flash had slammed through the bed. "Suck the proverbial elf," she mumbled as she saw the mess that Esmee's blankets had ended up in. With some magic Babs corrected that. Then she settled into the comfortable chair again to continue her wake. A few minutes later both witches were asleep. The two cats curled up where they were and called it a day also.

-=-=-

The next morning came with a lack of rain. Thunder and lightning had left also, in search of places where their work was more appreciated.

A knock on a door woke a few people inside the room that the door was in.

"What!" Baba Yaga was not on her best this morning.

Carefully the door was opened and a servant peeked around it. "I'm sorry," he started.

"Not nearly as much as when I'm done with you," Babs informed him. "What do you want?"

"Princess Snow White," the man said, "wonders if the witch Esmee is able to come and help with the children."

Baba Yaga pointed to the bed. "Ask her yourself."

The servant cast a glance at the bed and noticed a lack of liveliness from the figure in it. Without a word he closed the door, successfully escaping Baba Yaga's wrath.

"Come to think of it," the ugly witch muttered, "she's very silent." Babs rose from the chair and shuffled over to the bed. "Hey, wake up you." She prodded Esmee for a while, until life seemed to be restored inside the young witch.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch," Esmee groaned. "What happened? Is this a normal feeling after being a cat?"

"I don't know, but you seem to be alive. That's good." Babs brushed the little hair she had to the side. "Maybe an idea to get up and find something to eat. And collect the horny couple. They've shaken up the castle with their humping. A miracle they're still accepted here."

Esmee, feeling as if a train had hit her (had trains existed in her world), crawled from the bed and put on some clothes. Everything about her hurt. "Yes. I can do with some breakfast..." She walked to the door, that swung open, and she went into the corridor.

Baba Yaga frowned as she watched the open door. "Stylish," she mumbled. "A new trick for that kid, but I like it." She headed out after the kid.

William and Hilda were surprised by a knock on the door also.

"If you've had enough of each other, care to join us for breakfast?" a voice rang through the door.

Hilda stared at William. "That sounded like Baba Yaga. And as Esmee."

William nodded. "Maybe it's time to call off Babs's education idea. This is getting scary."

Hilda agreed. They got out of bed and joined the other two in the dining room not much later. Snow White, Jordan and the children were already there, as were King Louie and his wife, Queen Daphne. The magical couple was just in time to catch Esmee saying: "I am the witch, not the nanny, so please let me eat something and take care of the witching around here. I don't do children anymore if that's all the same to you."

-=-=-

"What happened here?" Lindolf felt he was entitled to an answer as he saw the bloody rags and the bandages on Santera's arms.

"Nothing special," Magda said. Simi had left, hoping to get some of her regular work done today. "She went wild and we tried to restrain her."

"Looks as if she had a run-in with knives of something," Lindolf remarked as he saw a cut on Santera's shoulder.

Magda cursed herself for not dressing the young woman properly. Then Lindolf would not have seen those wounds. "You know how she can become. She got to you too, Lindolf."

The man nodded, remembering the attack. "Maybe we should chain her up again."

"You are terrible. She does the hardest work and as a reward you want to chain her to the wall. Be careful, Lindolf, you're walking a thin line lately." Magda stuffed herself with the food the man had brought. "I am going to wake her up, she has to eat also. You should better leave, unless you want to know how Santera reacts when she sees you. She still has not forgiven you, you know."

Lindolf nodded. "Just make sure she's ready to go out again tonight."

"I don't know if Simi will be here. I need her for that too," Magda said.

"If not, I'll send for Mad Jock," Lindolf said lightly.

"Jock is not the same," Magda pointed out. "He doesn't know how to freely give his power."

"Just see to the girl," Lindolf snapped. "We're going to make the big move soon, so I need her ready." Then he turned on his heel and left the room.

"Prick," Magda grumbled as she went to wake up Santera.

-=-=-

Baba Yaga grinned, proud of her protegé. "That's my girl," she mumbled as Esmee dug into her breakfast.

Snow White and Jordan stared at the witch whose attitude had changed so drastically. "I guess we have enough people here to tend to the kids," Snow White then decided. She turned to William. "Dear wizard, can you tell us when Jordan is free of pain again? I feel so sorry for him..."

William chewed a bit of bread, while looking as in thought. Then he looked at the princess and said: "No. I'm sorry. The procedure went well. He knows there would be some pain involved, but there is not much saying how long that will last. Depends on the character of the man, really."

Snow White looked at her husband. "I understand," she then said. "I hope it will be better soon. He's really in pain sometimes."

Jordan blushed as he said that he did keep to the instructions that William had given him.

"I'm sure it will all be fine and dandy soon," William tried to assure Snow White.

"I do hope so, honourable wizard," said Queen Daphne, "it is not done for a royal descendant to walk around like he's been on a horse for too long."

Baba Yaga grinned openly.

"Have you been able to do something about the cat woman?" King Louie asked. "Making my son walk like a duck is one thing, but that is not what you were asked to come over for."

"We're getting there, your royal kingness," said Hilda. "Last evening we were able to establish a form of contact with the cat woman She was in fact cooperative. And we are quite certain that she is not acting on her own."

"Oh. Good, good," the king said. "I am glad you are making progress. Can't have people go scared over something like that, can we?"

Esmee had remained silent during the talk, devouring food as if she had not eaten for a very long time. William had noticed that awkward behaviour of the young witch. "And Esmee has been very instrumental in making the contact, sire," he said. Somehow he felt the need to make Esmee be seen as more than she had been regarded upto now.

"Good, good," the king said again, "I am pleased to hear that."

The rest of breakfast passed by without more interesting things, but Baba Yaga, William and Hilda kept wondering about the strange behaviour of Esmee.

As the four magicals took over a lounge as their conference room, Babs turned to Hilda and William. "Next time you are doing the beast with two backs, make sure your bed is floating or so. It was really obnoxious to have to listen."

"Goodness, was it that bad?" William asked, but Hilda patted him on the arm. "Let it be, William, she's just jealous."

Baba Yaga made a sound that cannot be described. Hence it will remain undescribed.

30. The tough get going

Lindolf had really tried to be calm and friendly when he had come in to explain his plans. The women had not taken it so well though. Magda had chewed his arse because of what he wanted Santera to do so. Simi was very much opposed to the idea; while assisting with all the cat woman magic she had not been able to do her normal things and she started to feel very bad about that. And the young woman, Santera, had once again tried to attack him. All he had left from that was a nasty scratch on his forehead, but still, it was not the way things were meant to go.

-=-=-

"I have a new idea," said Hilda as she jumped to her feet and startled Grimalkin who dropped to the floor.

"If it is another 'make Esmee a cat' idea, I do not want to hear it," the young witch grumbled. "Make yourself a cat and get beaten up, that way you know how much fun it is. And do wait until it rains." She was still offended by that.

William kept silent, he did not want to get caught in this crossfire. Esmee was different since she'd been a cat and he still wasn't sure how different, and why different.

"No, no, don't worry about it," said Hilda. "I do need a volunteer to accompany me to the forest."

"Are you planning something dangerous?" Hilda's best girlfriend asked.

"No, it is so boring that it is nice to have some company. I want to go that burnt-down shed and see if the lock is still there, the one that kept the door closed."

Three pairs of eyes looked at her questioningly.

"I suddenly thought this: if the lock is still there, there is a good chance that the person who owned the key to it still has the key. And we could hex the lock so it will guide us to the key." Hilda looked at her friends, waiting for their thoughts on her plan.

"Now that's a plan I like," said Baba Yaga. "Why don't you two hump-birds fly along and leave me and my protegé here in peace for a while? No need to hurry, either. And please take your furballs with you when you go."

"Babs, I love your diplomatic way of expressing yourself," William said as he picked Obsi from his knees and stood up. He draped the cat over his shoulder and offered Hilda his arm. "Care for a romantic flight over the forest, sweetwitch?"

"Why certainly, sweet wizard," she said as she settled Grimalkin on her own shoulders. Then, arm in arm, the couple walked out the door.

"Do you think we can make it rain?" Esmee asked Baba Yaga after the door had closed.

-=-=-

Magda went to the kitchen of Lindolf's house. "Lindolf, we need to speak. We all think this is going too far. Your plan started quite innocently, but everything you told us now is just insane. You want us to attack the king again!"

"Yes," Lindolf said, feeling very much at ease. "And this time it can't fail. We only have a small team, but that is our strength."

"You can count me out, Lindolf. And Simi is ready to step away also."

The man nodded as he sat down. "Of course. But then you will face charges of theft. There's a certain old book that's been missing for a while, you know."

Magda stared at him. "You can't. You wouldn't. But Simi-"

"Simi," Lindolf interrupted her, "will be seen as an accomplice to the theft. Nobody has seen her for many days, nor have people seen you outside lately. It will be very easy to get a posse on your tails, Magda, and what do you think will happen to thieves that steal a valuable book?"

The half-witch stared at him in horror. "You would do that." She knew he would.

"Of course," Lindolf said as if he had just told her about the weather. "The book so far has only been valuable with you around, as you can do things with it. If you walk away, I will make sure the valuable book will be tied to you and Simi."

"But then Santera will-"

"-will be easily dealt with, an unfortunate last victim of the ferocious cat woman who then mysteriously disappears." Lindolf smiled at the woman. "So I think there is no problem at all."

"I think you forget something," Magda said. "But I will stay."

"Good witch," Lindolf praised her, "and I forgot nothing."

Magda hoped he was wrong.

-=-=-

Hilda and her wizard landed their brooms as close to the burnt-down shed as they could. The last stretch was an easy walk and they found the place exactly as they had left it the last time. Hilda poked through the ashes and soon the lock and the chain were in her hands.

"There is a good start of things," she said, feeling satisfied. "I do hope that this idea is going to work."

"It is a good idea, Hilda. At least it is something we can do. Sitting around and waiting for the others to make their next move is hardly going to get us somewhere."

The two black cats sauntered around the area as if it belonged to them, but came bouncing back to their magical humans as soon as these seemed ready to leave.

"I never thought I'd have a cat," Hilda confided in William.

"Nor have I," the wizard said. "And I had never guessed I'd have a witch."

Hilda's response was: "You do not have a witch. No one has a witch. The witch chooses, my dear wizard. Remember that." She looked him in the eye. "But I am glad you would like to think of me that way, and proud that you dare do that." She knew he did, she sensed it through the bond they shared, but at times it just was a good thing to say.

William looked at the face of the petite grey-haired woman. He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her and gently pulled her close. "Grimhilda, you witch," he then said, "I love you."

"And you have to wait until we are in a forest with two cats watching before you tell me?"

"Want me to do that in front of Babs and Esmee instead?"

"Don't even think about that," Hilda told him as she leaned into him and basked in the hug.

When finally William let her go, they turned their attention to the lock. Hilda worked a lot of magic on the metal, so it would listen to her. "Telling something stupid like a lock to do what you want is difficult," she explained to William. "It's basically just a lump of metal that does nothing without its key." Suddenly the lock seemed to shake on its own, and from inside it came a sorry sounding rattle. "Ah, got you," Hilda said, satisfied. She picked up the lock, handed the chain to William and suggested they'd get on their brooms and see where the lock would take them.

-=-=-

As the witch and the wizard were on their way, flying over the leaves of the trees, underneath these same leaves a small taskforce of two was making its way to the castle, with Lindolf not far behind them.

Jock laboriously paced through the forest, at times staring at the cat woman who was always close to him. Lindolf had told him what to do and Jock was going to do that. Lindolf had always been good to Jock, and that way the vile merchant could count on the help and support of this strong man without a moment of hesitation.

Santera had reluctantly agreed to be turned into the cat woman again. "This will be the last time," Lindolf had said, "and if you cooperate, both women here will still be able to talk to you when it is all over." The sight of the long sharp dagger he'd held had been very convincing. The young woman was glad that Magda was not pushing her to do things. Lindolf had urged Magda to take over Santera's mind completely, but the half-witch had not done that. Lindolf probably did not know that.

The cat woman did not feel confident with Jock around. Lindolf had talked to the man, and Jock had nodded as if he understood everything, but Santera knew that Jock was hard to fathom. With all the understanding he displayed he could just as well forget everything after a minute. Only the fact that he was going in the right direction even when he walked in front of her gave her some feeling that things might actually go well. Even though Santera did not like Lindolf, she was almost glad that he was not far behind them.

They were not far from the castle now. Jock had better stop making so much noise, Santera thought. If he kept that up, the guards would be alarmed while they were more than a mile away.

-=-=-

"Sit down, Esmee. You're making me nervous." Baba Yaga looked at the young witch who was pacing around the room. "What's wrong with you?"

Esmee did not stop going round as she said: "There is something... I don't know. Something restless inside me, and I don't know where it comes from. Nor what I can do to stop it."

"Then park your butt in a chair, have a glass of wine and stop getting on my case. And if you need some help with that, I'll gladly assist." Babs already had her wand at the ready when Esmee suddenly stood still and stared at the window. "Now what?" Esmee's sudden change worried Baba Yaga more than had she kept pacing.

"She's out there," the flower witch gave a puzzling answer.

31. Charge of the light brigade

Hilda and William reached the village. Hilda had the lock in her hand and felt how it pulled more and more. It was almost childplay to follow where it wanted to go.

In the forest, Santera and Jock had reached the castle. They saw the high thick walls with the openings for the archers, the portcullis that had not been used in ages and the drawbridge that probably never would be hoisted up again for the same reason. Jock looked at the cat woman Santera was not certain if he actually wanted to ask her something, or if he was just waiting for her to make the first move. Lindolf had made it clear, at least to her, that Jock should start the 'invasion'. Her sharp hearing told her that Lindolf was still moving forward, he'd be soon with them.

Esmee had walked to the window and looked outside. "She's out there," the young witch said again.

"Who is?" Baba Yaga said as she got up and walked to the window also. She peered out of it and saw nothing out of the ordinary. At that moment things started happening.

Jock and Santera moved to the castle gate, where three guards were wasting their time telling jokes and gaudy stories. As the three were too much entertained by each other, they only noticed the big man and the large cat when they were on top of them. Santera jumped up at one of them, pushing the man to the ground. Jock reached out and simply knocked the heads of the two others together. That was enough for them to impersonate bags of potatoes falling to the floor. Jock then tapped the first fallen guard on the head so that man was out of commission for a while as well.

"There it is," Hilda said. She pointed at a house in one of the quieter streets. The two magical ones dropped down to the ground, as their cats braced themselves for the inevitable sudden stop. "Yes," Hilda confirmed as the lock in her hand was rattling, "here is where we have to be. Lock, come on, let's meet your key." They parked their brooms against the side of the house and William tried the door they were facing. It was locked, but not for long.

"Ladies first," he grinned.

"Oh? Are there ladies here?" Hilda looked around and saw no people. There only was a rust-coloured dog walking through the street that was smart enough not to be interested in the two black cats. The witch shrugged and stepped into the house. "There's magic in use here," she told William.

Esmee pushed the window open.

Babs looked at her: "What's that for? I'm perfectly-" The impossible happened. Baba Yaga was lost for words for a moment as Esmee changed into the cat woman she'd been before. And this time it happened without the assistance of Hilda or Babs. "Now wait up a-" The impossible leaned towards mere improbable as Baba Yaga was again interrupted: Esmee jumped out of the window, landing on all fours in the yard. Baba Yaga leaned out the window and saw how Esmee ran off. "Suck an elf," the old witch muttered, "looks like there's action going on. And how can that flower witch suddenly do such powerful magic on herself?"

She looked down one more time. "Old bones don't jump," Baba Yaga decided as she made her broom pull up. Using that, she left the room as well.

Santera's next assignment was to make her way into the castle and find the king. She was not meant to actually kill him. Lindolf had said: "A few extra scratches would be enough." She ran out to the yard in front of the castle when suddenly she saw the other cat woman coming towards her. Santera looked back to where Jock was standing near the knocked-out guards and hesitated. Then she set course for the entrance of the castle. This was the only way to get rid of Lindolf's crazy ideas, she knew. Santera was much more used to moving like a cat, so there was not much effort in avoiding the other cat woman The door into the castle came closer.

Hilda, with the lock raging in her hand like a berserker, dashed up the stairs two steps at the time. Another door. "Would you be so kind?" she asked William.

He would be. A kick later the door flew open. William did not want to waste magic on something like a door, so he had put it into his foot. He followed his witch into the room and saw a woman sitting in a chair. Another woman was kneeling on the wooden floor in front of the chair and held hands with the sitting woman.

"Stand back, William," Hilda warned him, "they are generating the weird magic I sensed around that shed." Hilda was not certain if she could or should stop what the two women were doing. Then she noticed the book on the knees of the sitting woman and peeked on the page. "Crappedy crap," she said when she understood what it was. "That's very serious magic..."

Esmee darted after the cat woman who had slipped past her and now was about to enter the castle. She could not allow that, but in her cat-shape she had no idea how to cast a spell. Just as the cat woman reached the door, a dark shape shot down.

Baba Yaga had almost thrown herself down to the ground on her broom and assessed the situation as she did so. The large cat that was not Esmee was trying to reach the castle, but Babs prevented that with a swift spell that threw the cat woman to the side. Instead of going into the castle, the creature flew through the air and went into a rose bush. A howl came from the creature as it tried to fight itself free from the stinging stems.

Lindolf had joined Jock and saw the events in the court yard unfold. He uttered a word that was not very nice; things were not going the way he had planned. Frantically he searched his mind for a way to get out of this situation without looking a guilty party. Then he knew it. He pulled his dagger and screaming wildly he ran towards where Santera was almost coming free from the roses. If he could kill her, there would be at least one person less to incriminate him.

Santera rolled over the pebbles and jumped to her feet, still slightly dizzy from the sudden jolt. She saw a witch in black flying on a broom. She also saw the other cat woman who was standing still in the yard. Then a loud noise attracted her attention. Santera looked where it came from and gasped for air. There was Lindolf, coming towards her waving a dagger. Was he coming to her rescue, she wondered. At that moment a nauseating feeling washed through her and she collapsed.

"There we are," Hilda said with a smug expression. William had pulled the kneeling woman to the side, and the one with the book on her knees had slumped forward. "They are not doing anymore tricks. Let's see if we can bring both of them around again, William." A little magic later, Simi and Magda were staring at the two visitors.

"What have you done!" Magda yelled. "We were trying to protect Santera, and now Lindolf is probably killing her!"

"Lindolf? Isn't that the nice guy from the tavern?" Hilda wondered. "And who is Santera?"

Magda wanted to throw the book at Hilda, but she felt to weak to do that. This woman was clearly a real witch, and not a match for someone of her own disposition. She explained that Santera was the cat woman, and that Simi and she had been guiding Santera towards the castle. "Things are going wrong there, I saw it through Santera's eyes," she said as tears rolled over her cheeks, "Lindolf was charging at her with a knife."

"What the crappedy crap are you talking about! Are you two responsible for that cat woman and the attack on the king?"

Magda and Simi started to tell Hilda and William the way how everything was pieced together.

Esmee saw how the other cat woman fell to the ground. As the creature fell, she changed into a young woman. She also noticed how the man (where had she seen him before?) kept running towards the woman, a big knife in hand. Esmee didn't know who the woman was, but somehow she considered her kin, and she could not allow someone to hurt her kin. With a growl she took a few big leaps and landed on top of the man with the knife. He fell, the knife went flying and Esmee was satisfied to find that the man had knocked his head against a block of stone. He lay still. Then she turned and ran towards the young woman.

Baba Yaga in that time had noticed the big man near the gate and directed her broom towards him. "So what are you doing here, big guy?" she asked Jock. The big guy looked at her. His face told Babs that he wasn't exactly sure. "Did you knock these people down?" the witch asked as she pointed at the peaceful guards.

"Yes. I hit them. Lindolf said to hit them," Jock confirmed. He raised an impressive hand. "I did not hit hard."

"Lucky them," Baba Yaga said. If Jock had lashed out with all his force, there would have been funerals. "Come on, big guy, let's go and see what all this is about." Jock just smiled and walked along as Babs flew her broom to the unconscious man.

32. It's over

Esmee sat on the ground with Santera. She had changed herself back into her human shape and magicked some clothes on herself and the young woman. Esmee held Santera in her arms and gently rocked the woman. "It's okay, it's fine," the witch whispered. "It's all over, whatever 'it' is."

Santera heard the voice and moaned. The transition to her normal shape had been so abrupt and unprepared that it had shaken her up badly. "Who are you?" she asked.

Esmee told Santera that she was the castle witch. "I've seen you in the village. You saved my life there. Who are you? What's your name, and how do you know to change into a cat?"

Santera sat up. "I'm Santera. There is a witch in the village who changes me. I don't know..." She held her head as a sharp flash of pain shot through it. "I don't know why they changed me back so suddenly. I wasn't done yet..."

Baba Yaga got off her broom and kneeled down. "How are things here?" she asked Esmee.

"We're fine," Esmee replied. "This is Santera. She's confused, talks of a witch in town that changes her."

Baba Yaga frowned. "Aha. I wouldn't be surprised if Hilly and Willy found that witch..."

Hilda and William had listened to the two women. "Suck an elf. I hope we didn't mess something up with all that," the witch said. "Luckily Babs is there."

"And Esmee," William added.

"Yeah. Not sure how much good that will have done, but let's keep it positive." Hilda then turned to Magda. "You, lady, will no longer play with that book. Much healthier for you and everyone around." Before Magda could react, Hilda had grabbed the book and shrunk it. The remaining parcel found its way into one of the pockets in William's cloak.

"But-" Magda tried, her hand following the parcel for a moment until she understood that her playing witch had come to an end.

"No buts," said Hilda. "I do think we should go back to the castle and see what's happening there. Babs is fine, but the flower child... I still have my doubts about her."

"And what are we doing with these two? I suggest we take them along," William pointed at Magda and Simi. Hilda agreed. That way they'd have everyone in the same place, which would make for an interesting bout of explanations.

Magda and Simi were taken down the stairs. Grim and Obsi were there, guarding the brooms. The two woman stared at the cats; the cats were not impressed at all. They did allow their humans to carry them on their shoulder while they flew back to the castle.

-=-=-

"Fine bunch you are," Babs welcomed them as they landed with their passengers. "Leaving all the fighting to us while you go out on the town."

"Village," William commented as he looked around the yard.

Esmee and Santera were sitting on a bench, talking and gesturing. Jock kept Lindolf under control. A group of three guards kept a safe distance to everyone else. Snow White, Jordan, King Louie and Queen Daphne had all assembled outside as well, as the activities there had not gone unnoticed. Jordan looked less hindered by his privates as he walked over to the guards.

As soon as everyone was allowed to speak their truth, Lindolf was the first one to proclaim loudly that he was innocent of everything and that he just happened to be here.

"Who asked you to shout?" Baba Yaga said as she looked the man over.

"No one, madam, I just thought..."

"Leave the thinking to us. Jock told me all about you, Lindolf."

The merchant stared at the old witch. "Jock is an idiot who can't think. Anyone knows that!" Unfortunately Lindolf had forgotten that Jock's hand was on his shoulder. The big hand moved to his neck and the shouting merchant was lifted off his feet for a few moments, until his suffocating sounds became perilous.

"Good man Jock." Baba Yaga patted the small giant on the arm.

In bits and pieced the whole story came to light. Magda told about the book, which William reproduced. Baba Yaga was impressed with it. Simi added her things, and Santera filled in more missing bits.

Lindolf denied everything, of course, but the fact that Hilda and William had found Magda, Simi and also the book in his house was strongly working against him. King Louie ordered a few guards to arrest Lindolf and stick him in one of the dungeons under the castle, where Lindolf would have to wait until there was a trial.

"What are you going to do with that book?" Queen Daphne asked. "It seems to be a very dangerous book, I would rather see it destroyed."

Hilda shook her head. "Sorry, but that's not going to happen, queen. A book is not dangerous. It's just a danger in the wrong hands. Like a sword is not responsible for the person who uses it to hurt someone. We're going to take that away with us. Babs, would you like to keep it safe for everyone?"

"Of course. Would be my pleasure."

"And what about us?" Simi asked. "Do we have to go to the dungeon also?"

King Louie looked at the two women. "I don't think that's necessary. That man Lindolf tricked you. What work do you normally do?" Magda and Simi told the king, who then nodded. "I think that for Simi it would be best to go back to the village. Pick up your life. Don't meddle with strange things again. If you come across something like that again, come to the castle and let us know."

Simi promised that she'd do that.

"As for Magda... you've been cleaning at Lindolf's house, and he's not going to need a cleaning person for a while. I am sure we can find a position for you here at the castle. If you like."

Magda stared at the royal man and slowly nodded. "I'd be very honoured."

"Very good. You'll be supervised by our castle witch, as you have some magic inside you. Esmee will be able to ensure that you are not playing with that again."

"Her?" Hilda wondered. "Now there's something to be scared of."

Baba Yaga tugged Hilda's sleeve. "Don't say that too loudly. I have a surprise for you concerning that kid."

Hilda and William both looked at the old witch in wonder and had problems concealing their curiosity.

King Louie ordered for a carriage that would take Simi back to the village. Magda would ride along, to collect some of her things. The carriage would then take her back to the castle, where a room would be prepared for her. "And no running off," he warned Magda, "or the combined witches will come after you."

Magda said that he did not have to worry about that. She was far too grateful for this opportunity.

Then the king turned to Santera, who still sat with Esmee. "What to do with this woman..." he wondered out loud. He glanced at his queen, who did not have an answer. Snow White and Jordan pretended to be talking about something important, escaping the king's questioning look that way.

"She's staying with me," Esmee then said, to everyone's surprise.

"Uhm?" Baba Yaga said. "Are you sure? And why is that?"

"Santera saved my life in the village," said Esmee. "She's like me, in a way. We both know what the other feels when we're cats."

Hilda and William didn't understand all of that but waited for the flower witch to finish. Babs after all had said that there was something about Esmee she had to tell them.

"We've been talking, and I think that Santera and I can protect the castle in a very good and special way. We can go around the premises as cats. That way we can get around quickly. We can see well in the dark too then."

"As cats..." The words fell from Hilda's surprised lips.

Before she could say more, Esmee continued: "And we think we love each other." That had as much impact as a witch crashing in the yard.

"Whoa. Stop." Hilda raised both hands. "I think we are missing a few things here. Babs, please tell us what we don't know, because I can't see a cat's tail anymore." Onyx Grimalkin meowed, twitching her tail. "No, not like that, silly animal," Hilda said as she picked up her cat.

Baba Yaga told Hilda and William about Esmee changing herself into a cat and jumping from the window.

"Suck an elf," said Hilda. She stared at Esmee. "Since when do you know how to do that?"

Esmee, holding one of Santera's hands, shrugged. "Since the night of the lightning." She got up, pulling Santera to her feet also. Without the use of a wand, suddenly there were two cat women standing in front of the bench.

"Holy Bejeebus," was all that William could muster.

King Louie stared at what happened. "I'm afraid that we're going to lose a lot more chickens," he said.

"I doubt that," said William. "Santera only ate them because Lindolf wanted to scare everyone. If she gets a few proper meals a day, your feathery animals should be fine.

Esmee changed herself and Santera back to their normal shapes, and was also very quick in getting the two of them dressed again. "See? It's easy."

Baba Yaga scratched her chin. "Yeah. Sure. I think it's time for me to leave now." She did not wait for any response, made her broom jump up and mounted it. "Hilda, William, we'll keep in touch. Good luck. King, queen, good luck too." And then she lifted off, quickly disappearing over the castle wall.

"That's a bit harsh," Queen Daphne said, shaking her head.

"It's not harsh," Hilda said, "it's Baba Yaga."

Then a dark shadow fell over them and Babs landed her broom in the yard again. "Forgot something," she said as she walked to Esmee. To Hilda's terror the old witch hugged Esmee.

"Good job, protegé," Babs said. "Be good and make me proud of you. Keep your crystal ball in shape and we'll talk." Then she was off again.

"Uhm..." Now it was William's turn to say that. "I'm not sure if I want to remember seeing that."

"Calm down, wizard," Hilda said, hugging him.

Later that day there was a huge party in and around the castle. Santera was accepted as partner and assistant of Esmee, Magda had returned to the castle with her belongings, and it wasn't until very late that the witch and the wizard found themselves in bed.

"This was really weird," said William as he wrapped his arms around Hilda.

"Yes. It was. But fun too."

William nodded in the dark. "True. Life with you is never boring, Hilda."

The witch smiled, the wizard not seeing it but sensing it through their bond. "I intend to keep it that way. Boring is no fun."

"Good. I'll remind you of that, if necessary," he grinned.

"You'll be old and senile before you need to remind me, wizard. I don't look for things to happen. They look for me."

William silently agreed as he kissed his witch. "Sleep well, Hilda."

"Sleep well, William. Tomorrow we'll go home. For a few days of peace and quiet. I hope."

###

About the author:

I am an IT consultant who loves reading and writing.

I've been an amateur-author since years, writing SciFi, Fantasy and lately also Steampunk. My home is in the Netherlands.

I hope you liked "Hilda - Cats".

All other books I published so far:

Hilda the wicked Witch series:

Hilda the wicked witch (Smashwords, July 2010)

Hilda - Snow White Revisited (Smashwords, September 2010)

Hilda - The Challenge (Smashwords, December 2010)

Hilda and Zelda (Smashwords, February 2011)

Steampunk:

Aeroparts Factory (Smashwords, December 2010)

Lily Marin, three steampunk short stories (Smashwords, January 2010)

If you want to connect with me online:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pagan_paul

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/paulkater

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/paul.kater

My website: http://www.nlpagan.net