Hilda - Lycadea (22 page)

Easily said, and also easily done. After
waking the others (phweeeep!!) , they first pulled their tent into
the daylight, so they could see what they were doing without the
help of William's and Rebel's small lighting options. William made
breakfast and after that the beds and tent were shrunk and
disappeared in a few pockets. Then they set off, in search of the
people who had left the crude map and the puzzling message on the
tablet.

Far and increasingly further behind them, the
blob of darkness slowly faded until nothing of it remained.

Hilda and Kerna were studying the tablet,
more specifically the map on it.

"Would be convenient if this thing would show
us where we are," the witch commented. The area they were
travelling over did not give any hint of that, so for her feeling
they were flying blind with seven pairs of eyes wide open. Well,
most of the time. The cats sometimes did the smart thing and closed
theirs.

Kerna silently agreed with the witch. They
had been going for a while already. So far the most significant
change was that the concrete had vanished entirely. It had been
replaced with fine grey sand.

"I think we're getting somewhere," William
announced. "I see something new up ahead."

"Yes, I see it too," Rebel confirmed.

This news made Hilda, Kerna and Maurizio sit
up and try to peek around the two in the pilot positions.

"What do you see?"

"Rocks."

"Grey rocks?"

"How did you guess, sweetwitch?"

"Everything out here is grey," the sweetwitch
muttered, "even dragon's balls are more colourful."

"What colour are those then?" Maurizio
asked.

Hilda shrugged. "Depends on how you paint
them."

The captain was dumbfounded for a moment.
"Paint? The balls of a dragon?"

"No. Dragon's balls," Hilda failed to
enlighten him. She noticed his lack of comprehension. "Dragon's
balls are a kind of rock you can find in the mountains behind the
sea behind the forest, when you go west from where I live. They're
egg-shaped and a lot of fun for children. They paint them in the
most amazing colours."

"Oh. I see." Suddenly painted dragon's balls
were a lot less exciting to Maurizio.

"Of course, the trick is to get to them. You
have to get past the dragons for that."

"Dragons? You mean real dragons, with wings
and snorting fire?" Maurizio was captivated again.

"You didn't get around a lot, did you?" Hilda
asked him. "The fire breathers don't live in the mountains,
Maurizio. The dragon's balls are where the Nobblebacks live, and
the Draco Maximus. That means really big dragon. It also means
really stupid, but not many know that."

"Rebel, did you hear that?" the captain said
as he poked his girlfriend in the back, "she lives where dragons
live!"

"Cut that out, Moro," Rebel snapped, "I'm not
deaf and you're almost shoving me off this thing!"

"Which would be a very bad thing," William
agreed as he brought the rig to slower forward movement. The wizard
pointed down. "No falling off the rig please, that would look very
bad on my resume."

"Crappedy crap!"

Below them, in the sand, a kind of vegetation
had slowly been emerging. At the very moment that Hilda uttered her
well-known words, the green stuff had become quite an impressive
layer of what looked like low cacti. The most ominous about them
were the immense needles that protruded from the stems.

"No shit," Maurizio said, "you could make a
nice sabre from one of those things."

"I think I know where we are," Kerna then
said, pointing at the tablet. Her finger rested on a strip that
showed a wobbly line with some scratches. "I believe that this
ridge of plants is this line."

With the rig moving over the lethal green,
everyone in turn studied the tablet. The general feeling was that
Kerna could be right. She could also be wrong, but that was not so
important. The important thing was that, if the woman was correct,
they were hovering over the last known bit on the map. Outside that
border, there was nothing drawn by the people they were trying to
find.

"So once we crossed this gross stuff, we're
flying into no man's land," Rebel said.

"Look behind you, kid, and convince me that
we just came from man's land," Hilda commented. She had a point
there, and she knew it.

"Let's first get over this stuff," William
suggested. "I don't like the look of a load of daggers beneath us
and us without very much protection."

For a while the vegetation underneath the rig
did not change very much. A few comments were made about how their
contraption was quite open at the bottom, and how large the
possibility was that someone could fall down.

William and Rebel retorted that so far nobody
had fallen out, "so please shut up about that."

The addition of the latter evoked even more
comments, and as the group was debating there came an end to the
green mass of knife-like plant extensions without them even
noticing. The terrain changed into a rough, rocky surface with
crevices in it that contained clear, running water.

Hilda was the first one to notice the change.
"Hey you all, cut out the bickering and look down!"

Her words brought a moment of peace, after
which a careful hooray-feeling took over. William agreed that
putting down the rig here was a good idea, so they could enjoy some
of the fresh water. It felt good to the group to be off the flying
rig and walk around a bit, and the water was very good.

"I wonder when we will find some sign that we
are getting close to the people we're looking for," Rebel said.
"It's been a nice ride so far, but I'm afraid that one more day of
flying around will get a bit boring."

The small group also stuck around for
something to eat, and it was during a break from snacking that
Hilda suddenly noticed some movement in the corner of her eye. She
turned her head and looked, but there was nothing.

"Did you see that?" she asked, wondering why
she did not see what she was sure of she had seen.

"See what?"

"The movement there," the witch pointed.

"Nope, didn't see anything," Rebel said.
Kerna shook her head in silence, and also the men had not seen
something.

Hilda scowled for a moment. Seeing things
that weren't there bothered her more than seeing any of the weird
things she had seen in her life. She picked up a sandwich, checked
it for onions and - there it was again! She jerked her head and -
nothing. "Crappedy crap," she muttered, "I hate this."

"Wassup?" Maurizio wondered between bites. He
knew it was not good to see the witch act like that.

"I saw it again! There!" More than just a tad
annoyed she got up and walked over to where she had clearly spotted
the movement. The fact that there was nothing that actually could
move in that place was circumstantial.

"It was here," she was convinced as she
stomped the rocky surface. The surface did not feel so solid as a
rock as a rock should feel... "It -is- here," she decided
therefore. Another stomp.

William had joined her. "Yes, I see the rocks
move." He stomped the place also.

The surface responded by trembling, making
the magicals jump to the side. A breath later, the rocky
underground became a lump, then a mound and it ended its growth as
a large bulky block of rock.

"Suck an elf," Hilda shared, "I knew I wasn't
losing it."

Then the block of rock opened two large red
eyes.

As the thing stood there, motionless, Hilda
and William slowly stepped back a little. They were used to quite a
bit, and so they knew it paid to be careful.

"Hey, Rocky, can you hear me?" Hilda then
tried.

Rocky did not indicate in any perceivable way
that he had indeed heard the witch.

"Hello? Somebody in there?" Hilda became
braver, as the lump did not move. She stepped up to it and knocked
on it. "This," she decidedly reported then, "is solid rock."

The sound of some pebbles scattering, further
away, made the whole group look at the sound. Another Rocky emerged
from the surface, as immobile and red-eyed as the first one.

"Somehow I have the feeling we stumbled on a
nest of those," Maurizio vented his opinion.

"What are they?" Rebel wondered. "And where
do they come from?"

No one was able to answer her question.
Maurizio, however, seemed to be right. Further away from the second
red-eyed rock, a third one emerged, and as the group watched that
one grow, a fourth one also started to make its way up from the
rocky underground.

"Do you notice that they form a straight
line?" William observed.

"Suck an elf, you're right."

"Maybe we should follow them," Maurizio
suggested.

"Or maybe not," Rebel said. "They may lead us
to a place we don't want to go."

The two looked at Kerna, who looked at Hilda
and William. Kerna was out of her comfort zone since long, she had
put all her trust in the two strange and intriguing people and
their cats.

"What do you think, sweetwitch?" William
asked. "You're the one who'se going to save the planet, so it's
your call."

Hilda rubbed her nose. "Not sure. I'm
still..." She wiggled her fingers, indicating that her magic was
gone. "But..." - a wicked smile appeared on her face - "when did I
ever take the safe route?"

William laughed. "So true. Let's finish up
here, and then make our way along the rocky blobs."

It did not take the group long to pack up and
mount the rig again. As they rose up, not too high this time, they
saw that the line of rocks had grown, extending far beyond where
they could see.

-=-=-

They had flown a considerable distance and
the line of rocks did not show any sign of ending. The surroundings
had taken on a different colour though. Very slowly, small shrubs
and low hedge-like bushes had started to fight themselves a way
through the rocky ground.

"We should put this thing down again,
William," Rebel suggested. "It's getting dark."

"You're right," Hilda agreed. Even Kerna
nodded.

William found a good place to park the rig
and everyone got off it with a sigh of relief. The seats were all
but very comfortable and not made for longer trips.

As the wizard inflated the large tent, Kerna
and Rebel started working on making food, and Hilda and Maurizio
went off for a walk to have a look at the surroundings.

"Don't walk off too far," Rebel warned them,
"we don't plan to take ages making supper."

"And the tent's up already also," said
William, creating some large comfortable chairs from bits of wood
and plants. He sat down in one. "Ohhh, I like this. I will do
something about the seats of the rig before we leave."

Hilda and Maurizio wandered off, agreeing
wholeheartedly with William's latest statement.

"Do you have any idea what we will find?" the
captain asked, as he took his eye patch from a pocket and put it
over his eye.

"Not the faintest," Hilda replied, "and why
do you keep putting that thing on your head when there's nothing
wrong with your eyes?"

"Just preparing," said Maurizio. "Perhaps I
will lose an eye in a battle and then I am used to wearing it.
Proper pirate attire, you know."

"You are weird at times. Did someone ever
tell you that?"

"Rebel does. Almost every day."

"Hello."

The wicked witch and the weird captain spun
around as if a double-stinger wasp had stung them with its double
stingers.

"Crappedy crap."

Hilda and Maurizio stood face to face with
two people, a man and a woman. They looked quite normal compared to
the blue- and purple-haired Lycadeans, but many facial features
told them that these people without a doubt were related to
them.

The faces of the two lit up. The man replied:
"Suck an elf?"

"Only if you have one that was rolled in
honey," Hilda said. "Are you the folks we're looking for?"

"Are you the honoured witch who is not a
witch?" the man asked.

The woman prodded him in the ribs. "She has
to be. She knows the words. Please excuse his behaviour, honoured
witch, he's always like that."

Hilda immediately liked the woman. "You are
the old ones that Kerna mentioned, right?" They had to be, even
though they did not look that old.

"We are the descendants of the Lycadean
people who left the big cities when the technological craze was
becoming too dangerous, if you mean that."

"Sound good enough for me," Hilda nodded.
"Oh, this is Maurizio Blunt. He's a pirate captain, or so he
says."

"We are pleased to meet you, honoured
captain."

"Ah," the honoured captain grinned, "my crew
could take an example from them!"

"So who are they?" a voice asked from behind
Hilda and Maurizio.

Hilda and Maurizio did the quick turn again,
to find Rebel.

"I think they are the ones we're looking
for," the witch explained.

"Really? Awesome. William will be miffed
though." As the witch and Maurizio looked at her, not
understanding, Rebel elaborated: "Not enough food for two extra
mouths."

"Oh, we do not want to dine with you!" the
male stranger exclaimed. "We were just doing our round, as
usual."

Hilda rubbed her nose. "Right. One thing at
the time. First, you seem to know us. Who are you? Next thing: I'm
hungry, so you will come with us and tell us what you're doing here
while we're eating."

The two people did not find anything wrong
with that idea, so as they walked back, the two introduced
themselves. The woman was called Kyru and the man's name was
Sodor.

"We were doing the daily round to see if you
had come," was the simple reason for their presence.