Disclaimer: I don't own Hilda: The Series!
Title: Hunting for feels (and mushrooms, yeah)
Summary: Hilda and Johanna have a talk about magical boundaries.
...
"This one?"
"It's not blue enough, mum."
"Not blue enough?" Johanna repeated. She gestured to the mushroom with her preening sheers. "It's a blue mushroom in a blue river clearing with the blue moon over top of it! How much more blue can it be?"
Hilda shrugged. "Sometimes they're sneaky. Kaisa taught me a trick." Hilda gestured over the patch in a circular motion, collecting a blue light on the palms of her hands. She held them out and chanted: "Stolthet är dina färger, färger är din stolthet. Visa mig ränderna du gömmer."
She set them on the ground and watched as the ring of blue traveled the shrooms, revealing light orange stripes on the one Johanna had almost grabbed. "Aha! A sneaky little fellow. Too bad your tricks won't work on us."
Johanna watched, apprehensive, as she went to pick another, blue-filled one. "I thought you said Familiars didn't really do magic."
"That wasn't magic. Well, I guess it was, but it was more like… politely asking the mushroom to show off."
"That feels a bit like a technicality, but I'll let it slide." Johanna carefully snipped the head of a blue mushroom, tucking it into their basket. "I have to admit, when you told me you were helping Frida learn magic, I was expecting to be a bit more… high-stakes." She paused, smile slipping off her face. "There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"
"What? No." She tilted her head, frowning. "This is it's own kind of adventure, isn't it? We get to find all sorts of neat plants. They turn all sorts of colors and can make you sick if you pick the wrong ones. Then we bring the good ones to Frida, and she can make all sorts of spells with them. Or she can substitute it for squid's ink. Really goes either way."
"These can make you sick?"
"Well, not the mushrooms. It's more the process of grinding them down." She mimed rolling one on its side. "If you aren't careful you'll get spores up your nose and feel like death for a week or so. That's why Tildy likes to do this part herself."
"Hmm," said Johanna, clearly not very comfortable with that. "And what if you fell on them?"
"Well," repeated Hilda. "I suppose we'd have to pick more, then."
"The spores, Hilda."
"I reckon they'd puff out, yeah. But that's why we've got a basket with us."
She took in a deep breath, setting the cutters aside. Johanna set her hands on her knees. "I just… don't know how okay I am with you collecting potentially infectious ingredients. Especially not for two ladies you won't even let me meet."
"Hey," Hilda warned, raising her hands defensively. "Tildy lives a block away from us, and Kaisa's the librarian. I'm not stopping you from meeting anyone. We're just trying to avoid getting you in trouble with the Witches Three. They probably have a portal for mums who meet witches."
"A… portal."
"Yeah. They have one for everything." Hilda flopped the lid closed and stood, slinging it across her shoulder. "Come on, then. Frida says these are best fresh."
Johanna hesitantly stood up, sensing by the abrupt change of topic that she had struck a nerve. "And what of the ingredients not in Trollburg?"
"Oh, Kaisa gets those for us. She knows librarians in other towns. I think they pass bad romance novels around."
"So, you're not leaving the wall?"
Hilda winced and bit her lip. "Not… anymore?"
"Hilda," she said, struggling to keep her frustration at bay.
"I only went once or twice! And I made sure there was plenty of daylight left."
"You could've gotten hurt!"
"I've already gotten hurt! I've gotten rug burn just from picking these things!" Hilda rebuffed. "It's part of being an adventurer."
"That," she said, teeth grit, "doesn't make it okay."
She sighed and nodded. "Yeah, alright, that's fair." Hilda gently plucked the tiger striped mushroom and rolled it between her fingers. "But I can't promise you I'll stop. Frida needs these things for her studies."
"Is being a Familiar really more important to you than your health?"
"Yes," she said, quite emphatically.
Johanna fell silent.
"I know you worry, mum. I wish I could make it so you didn't have to. It's why I started lying. But magic is this amazing, beautiful thing, and it means a lot to Frida. And me." She grabbed her hand and squeezed. "I'll never be a witch, mum. I don't want to be. Every time I use magic, I hurt people. But I do want to be the best Familiar ever." She fixed her a watery smile. "Agree to compromise?"
A common phrase they'd established, as of late. Johanna squeezed back. "Agree to compromise," she said, a tad reluctant. "If you need to get anything outside of the wall, you let me know and we'll go together. And we have to be back before dinner so there's plenty of light. That curfew is on a case by case basis."
Hilda tsked under her breath, but didn't look too put out. "A timed adventure. That oughta be an exciting challenge."
"Speaking of, the mushrooms probably aren't as fresh now."
"Just means we'll have to use more, which means we'll come back sooner," she chirped, bouncing on her tiptoes. "Such is the life of a Familiar."
Author's Note: I have a lot of feels about Hilda's self-sufficience and love for her Familiar job alongside Johanna's increasing concern and the fear of losing her daughter.
-Mandaree1