Chapter 11: The Ruins
As usual, Kaisa was at the library sorting books and letting people check out other books. Then she was surprised to see and her friends plus Amanda and an adult she hadn't met yet.
"Well this is a surprise." she said. "But I think I know which book you need this time."
She dug into her cape and pulled out a book titled "Rare spells, potions, and other magic" which Frida gladly accepted.
"Thank you. We need to find all that we can on the use of Landvaettir hair." Frida said.
"I know. Word has spread among all witches." Kaisa replied before facing her fellow adult. "Let me guess. You're Hilda's mother?"
"Yes. My name is Johanna." Johanna explained. "I was wondering if I could have a private word with you."
The way she said that, Kaisa knew it was very serious.
"Come with me." she led Johanna away from the group whom was already searching the pages.
Hilda, Frida, David, Amanda, Alfur, and Adeline sat at a table and took turns reading carefully while Twig lied on the floor and waited.
"Here it is!" Adeline said on her turn. "According to this page, Landvaettir hair has been one of several ingredients used to create powerful, but forgotten spells. Unfortunately, that's about all it really says."
"That's it? Nobody knows what to combine it with?" Hilda asked.
"Gondul does." Frida said. "After all, she wanted that hair for a reason. We'll just have to wait for the other witches to find something."
"In that case, I'm gonna see if there are any new horror-AH!" Amanda aura'd straight up and lied flat against the ceiling.
"Huh?" Hilda and the others looked up in confusion.
Amanda made the shush gesture and pointed in a specific direction. The group looked that way and saw a couple of the other marra across the room. Shortly after, they walked out of the library and Amanda came back down.
"Since when are you afraid of your own kind?" David asked.
"I don't think that's it." Hilda said. "Amanda, you don't want them to know what you've been doing lately, do you?"
"You know what we're like, so imagine how they'll treat me if they find out." Amanda retorted.
Frida almost said something, but Hilda put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head.
"I'll be in the horror section." Amanda walked away, but felt a sharp pain in her legs.
"Are you alright?" Hilda asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Amanda walked out of sight and felt her arm shake.
Meanwhile in the first secret room, Kaisa closed the door/bookcase and went down the stairs to talk to Johanna.
"So what's the problem?" she asked.
*Sigh*"Can you find someone for me?" Johanna replied.
"I can't make any promises, especially as one of the weaker witches, but I'll see what I can do. Who are you looking for?"
"Hilda's real family."
"Hildy-I mean Hilda's adopted?" Kaisa took a moment to take in the surprise. "Wait, why come to me?"
"Because I found her in the wilderness and I thought it would be easier this way. Please. Hilda's only known the truth for a month and I owe it to her."
"Hmmm. Maybe if you tell me everything about that day, we might get somewhere."
"Well, for some reason, she was left on a hill with some stone pillars and wrapped in a blanket with her name on it."
"Strange. Is that all?"
"There is one other thing."
The nearest random people from the main library suddenly heard Kaisa shout "YOU FOUND HER WITH WHAT!?"
Once the coast was clear again, Kaisa came back out with a new book followed by Johanna.
"What does it mean?" Johanna asked.
"You'll know soon enough." Kaisa said.
Soon they rejoined Hilda and the others including Amanda who was already back with a horror book.
"Children, would you like to learn something interesting?"
"Sure." Hilda and Frida said.
"When a child is born from one witch parent, half of their hair is a color other than the usual, like mine. But if both parents are witches, then all of their child's hair comes in a unique color."
"Really?" David asked. "Wow. And all this time I thought you were using hair dye."
"What's a hair dye?" Hilda asked.
Everyone was now staring at Hilda who was suddenly confused.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Hilda, have you ever put anything besides shampoo in your hair?" Frida asked.
"No. Why-" suddenly it clicked. "My hair isn't normal, is it?"
"Of course not!" Amanda said. "Nobody else has blue hair!"
"But then... that would mean..." Hilda felt like her brain was broken. "I was supposed to be a witch."
"Exactly." Kaisa said.
Hilda looked at Johanna who knew what she was silently saying.
"Yes, Hilda. We are going to find the family you came from."
"And it might not be as hard as you think." Kaisa opened the book and revealed a map for the whole group to see. "Johanna, show me where you used to live and where you found Hilda."
"Here and here." Johanna pointed as accurately as she could.
"So then we need to search further north. All across the world, there are secret villages for witches unknown even to most other witches. The nearest one to your former home and most likely birthplace of Hilda is near these mountains just past this river."
"That settles it." Johanna said. "Tomorrow we begin our search."
"Can we come too?" Frida asked.
"Only if your parents allow it."
"Before anything else..." Alfur said. "Kaisa, would you care to fill out some paperwork?"
Kaisa was confused until Hilda said "We'll explain as you write."
After most of the signatures were written, Hilda couldn't help asking something out loud.
"Mum, if we find my real parents, do you think they'll be upset that their daughter is a familiar?"
"If they have a problem with that, then they are nobody's parents." Johanna strongly assured. "But I'm sure they'll love you just the way you are."
"Thanks, Mum." Hilda smiled a little, but inside she still had doubts.
The next morning, Hilda, Johanna, Twig, Alfur, and Adeline had breakfast earlier than usual and got ready for the search. They stepped outside with their bags and found Frida, David, Kaisa, and Amanda just as ready as they were. Kaisa took the front seat and Hilda surprised her by becoming an elf so that there would be room for everyone. All three elves sat with Twig who was between Frida and David. Amanda was on Frida's other side and keeping to herself. And so Johanna drove the group out of Trolberg and back to what was once her home. It took a while, but they reached the starting point of the real journey.
"We'll have to get out here." Johanna said. "The wilderness from this point on is too bumpy for cars."
Everybody got out, Hilda changed back, and some of the others were surprised by all the elf houses as well as the one former human home.
"So this is where you used to live." Frida said.
"What happened?" Amanda asked.
"I helped two giants of old reunite and one of them accidentally stepped on our house before they jumped into space." Hilda explained.
Frida and David were already informed before, but Kaisa and Amanda were shocked.
"As much as I enjoy seeing my birth-home, we really should keep going." Alfur said.
"Alfur's right." Hilda said before becoming half deerfox. "Let's go!"
She and Twig ran north while Alfur and Adeline held onto the latter for dear life. That is until Johanna grabbed her tail again which made her fall on her butt once more.
"Sorry for grabbing your tail again, Hilda, but most of us can't keep up with you like that." she said.
"Oops. Sorry." Hilda said before getting back up.
She stayed in that form, but walked with the group. They walked for hours and reached a stone circle. It wasn't what they were looking for, but it caused Hilda to stop.
"I thought we were looking for pillars." David said.
"We are." Hilda said. "It's just that I've never been allowed past this point before."
"It's okay." Johanna said.
Hilda took a step, then another, and after a few more, she was past the stone circle. She felt so free at that moment that it caused her tail to wag like crazy. Then they all continued. As they walked, Hilda's animal instinct started trying to tell her something. She looked around and her instinct grew when she looked at Amanda.
"Huh?"
"You sense it too?" Twig asked.
"Yes, but what is it?" Hilda whispered which confused the elves.
"Something's wrong with Amanda."
Hilda decided to talk to the teen in question.
"Is everything alright, Amanda?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm just not used to this much walking." Amanda said.
That seemed to make perfect sense especially with how tired and sweaty she looked. So Hilda said nothing more. However her animal instinct continued to tell her that something was up. Then she overheard Frida talking.
"So, Kaisa, how are the other witches doing with the whole Gondul problem?"
"They haven't found anything yet." Kaisa said. "But the truth is they're also dealing with another problem."
"Another problem?" Hilda said as everyone looked at Kaisa.
"Knowledge of that place you and Amanda found was supposed to be limited to a handful of witches, and yet Gondul knew of it's existence and about Amma. We've been trying to figure out how. Our most recent theory is that we have a traitor."
"A traitor!?" half the group echoed.
"Yes. But I really hope it's not that."
"Wait a minute." Amanda said. "Doesn't that make you a suspect?"
Everyone looked at Kaisa with shock and suspicion except for Hilda.
"Kaisa would never do that!?" Hilda defended. "Besides, she forgot most of the spells Tildy taught her. Wouldn't Gondul want someone who can do more to help her?"
"Hilda makes a good point." Alfur said.
Still suspicious, Johanna walked up to Kaisa and said "Wand."
Kaisa was about to hand over her wand when Frida intervened.
"Hold it. I just remembered something." Frida pulled out a bottle from her backpack. "Tildy taught me how to make a magic truth serum and had me keep it with me at all times. This must be why."
Kaisa took the bottle and drank it's content without argument.
"Kaisa, are you or have you ever been helping Gondul in any way, shape, or form?" Frida firmly asked.
Everyone awaited an answer.
"No I never have and never will." Kaisa replied. "Also, the commitee already did this with me, but I understand your caution."
So the group continued full of relief. It didn't take much longer though, for in the distance they could see what they were looking for.
"Is that really the place?" Hilda asked.
"It is." Johanna said.
Hilda dashed again, eager as can be. This time nobody had her slow down. She reached the hill and stood among the stone pillars scattered on top. Instead of saying anything, Hilda returned to human form and felt one of the pillars with her hand. Twig arrived next and rubbed Hilda's leg. Soon all of the others came up the hill and looked around.
"Why was I even here?" Hilda asked. "Did my real parents even care about me?"
"Don't jump to conclusions." Johanna said. "Anything is possible now that we know witches are involved."
"Excuse me." Adeline said. "But does this writing mean anything to anyone?"
She pointed to a specific spot near the base of one of the pillars where what looked like gibberish was carved in. Frida and Kaisa got a closer look than the others to examine what it was.
"These are runes." Frida said. "But I have never seen this kind before."
"I have." Kaisa said. "But I need to check the other pillars first."
After slowly searching for and finding runes on all of the pillars, she came to a conclusion.
"Just as I thought. You weren't left here, Hildy. You were sent here with magic."
"I was?" Hilda asked. "Why would they do that?"
"If we find them, we'll ask." Kaisa said. "We should be getting close to that river now."
"I'll check from above." Hilda brought out her wings and flew straight up to see if she could spot the place.
Just like on the map, she saw a river in the distance followed by some mountains near which the village should be.
"I must be too far to see it."
*BOOM!* A loud sound was heard from behind.
*BOOM!* It was a sound Hilda had heard before.
*BOOM!* She turned around and coming her way was a forest giant.
"Oh please don't let it be him." Hilda hoped.
Down below, the others were starting to panic except for one.
"Stay within the pillars!" Kaisa said. "We're safe here!"
Everyone was reluctant, but they obeyed.
"YOU!" the giant shouted.
"Oh no." Hilda said.
"You're that woodman's thieving partner! I don't know how you're flying, but now I can get you for tricking me!"
"Hilda, get down here!" Johanna called. "Kaisa says it's safe here!"
Hilda didn't understand, but she flew down and rejoined the others within the pillars.
"More thieves!? At least I can crush you all in one step!" the giant lifted his leg high and then sent his foot straight down at the hill.
The whole group held on to each other and hoped to survive. Then...
*BVVVVV!* Something deflected the giant's foot. Up above the group and pillars was a colorful dome-shaped shield.
"We're in a barrier?" Frida asked.
"It was mentioned on the runes." Kaisa said.
"Proper giant or not, I will not be humiliated so easily!" the giant stomped again and again with pure rage.
Hilda whispered something into Frida's ear, gestured Amanda to follow her, and flew into the sky again. The two flyers got the giant's attention and dodged his swinging arms. Hilda then switched to a weather spirit and did her best to intimidate him. It worked and the giant stopped attacking.
"Alright, you win." he said. "I didn't think you-huh? What's happening?"
The giant shrunk all the way down to the size of a nisse. He looked up at those who surrounded him including Frida who had her wand pointed at him. Hilda and Amanda came back down and the former returned to human form.
"Please don't hurt me." the giant begged.
"I wasn't planning to." Hilda said. "All I want is for you to listen."
"Sure. Say whatever you want."
Hilda sat down in front of the giant and said what she wanted to say.
"I didn't know the woodman was planning to steal from you. I only found out the whole thing shortly before you did. And to be fair, kidnapping isn't that much different, even if it was part of a bet."
She then opened her satchel and pulled out her favorite food.
"What is that?" the giant asked.
"It's a cucumber sandwich. And a peace offering." Hilda gave the sandwich to the giant who was still confused. "You eat it."
The giant hesitated, but took a bite.
"It's delicious!" he said before eating the rest. "I'm sorry about before. The truth is I was just letting out my anger on account that many people are more interested in the old giants than us forest giants."
"That's okay. I understand being jealous." Hilda looked to her friend Frida. "You can change him back now."
Frida cast the reverse spell and the giant grew back to his true size.
"I can't make any promises for your friend the woodman, but you're all safe now." the giant said before walking back to the forest.
The group simply watched him until he was out of sight not out of fear, but out of wonder.
"We should get moving before anything else happens." Kaisa said.
As they left the hill and kept heading north, Amanda saw something that made her doubletake.
"Hey, weird question. Which one of you is considered the short kid?" she asked.
"I am." Hilda said. "Why?"
"Not anymore."
Everyone stopped and got a good look at Hilda. Even she, Frida, and David compared each other's height. To their shock, Hilda was now at least three inches taller than Frida and David.
"I grew? But how-*GASP!*" Hilda looked back and understood why. "I'm turning into a giant!"
It was clear by the look on her face that Hilda was already enjoying it.
"Should we keep our distance?" David asked.
"Just in case. No offense, Hilda." Johanna said.
"None taken." Hilda said.
Suddenly she grew again and was now Amanda's height.
"Woah. This is exciting." she said.
"Would you like us to start calling you 'Tall Hilda'?" Amanda joked.
"No thank you." Hilda laughed.
As she compared herself to Johanna, she grew once more and became the tallest of the group by an inch.
"And I thought I'd have to wait a few more years to see you like this." Johanna said.
"Very funny." Hilda replied before a thought struck her. "Hey. Why don't we wait until I'm big enough to carry all of you? That way, we'll get there much faster."
She was clearly hoping they'd all agree especially after her fourth growth which placed the adults under her shoulders. The group thought about it and reached an agreement.
"We like it." Kaisa said for everyone.
"Yes!" Hilda said before growing yet again, putting everyone below her waist.
Her ears also changed this time. For a few minutes, they all waited. Hilda's sixth growth brought her knees over everyone and gave her horns, her seventh gave her fur, and her eighth almost reached half the height of an adult giant.
"Climb on." Hilda brought her hands down. "I won't get any bigger until I'm older."
Everyone got on and Hilda brought her hands back up and started walking. As expected, her new long steps saved them a lot of time. Along the way, the rest of her body had changed and her clothes disappeared.
"Sometimes the no clothes part bothers me." Hilda thought.
David stayed in the middle to avoid looking down and Amanda was already used to being in high places, but other than that, everyone in Hilda's hands was amazed by the experience. Soon enough the river was just up ahead. However, so was something else. A single wolf. It noticed Hilda,but stood it's ground and started growling. Hilda wasn't bothered this time for obvious reasons and just walked past both the river and the wolf, continuing her way toward the nearby mountain. But then something unexpected happened. Hilda automatically changed back and everyone fell screaming. Amanda stopped herself and caught David while Kaisa cast a levitation spell with her wand and saved the rest. All of them came down to the ground unharmed.
"Hilda! What did you do that for!?" David asked.
"I don't know!" Hilda was just as confused. "Something's wrong!"
She desperately tried to become a giant again or anything, but she remained the same. Twig came up to her and made whimper sounds.
"Oh no! My powers are gone! I can't even tell what Twig said!"
Then Hilda realized something else. She turned and saw the wolf coming for her and the others. She was scared like most of the others, but not as bad now. Her fear did not go unnoticed by Amanda. Just as the wolf was a couple yards away from attacking, Kaisa magically froze the beast in place.
"We need to go now." she warned. "With my former absence of magic, that spell could break at any moment."
The whole group quickly headed for the mountain, but Hilda was still upset.
"This stinks." she said. "First I get stuck as an elf, then my forms get mixed up, and now I can't change at all."
"I'm going to guess those are all some kind of side effects and since when have you been afraid of wolves?" Amanda asked.
"Yes they are and... since I was younger." Hilda started explaining the origins of her fear as they walked.
As they approached the base of the mountain, they all realized a big problem. There was nothing but an open field of grass between them and said mountain. The village they were looking for wasn't there.
"I thought you said the village would be here." David said.
"I did, but you forget. It's a witch village." Kaisa approached a side almost steep enough to be a wall and merely touched it.
Suddenly a colorful swirl appeared and became an entrance with a stone frame.
"I knew it. It's just like what the trolls can do." Hilda said.
"So only witches can make it open?" Frida checked.
"As far as the books have told me, yes." Kaisa said. "Now let's hurry in."
Hilda was easily the first one in with all the others close behind. With the last one in, the entrance returned to being a piece of the mountain. What the group saw inside was unexpected. There was indeed a village, but the mountain part they were inside of was gone and replaced with a fence that surrounded the whole village. They could see everything that was outside including the sky.
"Woah! I've never seen anything like this before." Hilda said.
"What is this? Some kind of illusion?" David asked.
"Exactly." Kaisa said. "If I had to guess, I'd say it was made with runes on the fence or something in the middle of this village."
"Cool." Amanda said. "But where are the people?"
"Let's find out." Hilda said. "Hello! Is anybody here!?"
As Hilda looked around, the others were starting to get uncomfortable.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Johanna said.
"As do I." Kaisa agreed.
Johanna knocked on a door and waited. Then she opened it and found something that made her gasp.
"Hilda! Get back here right now!" she yelled.
"Why?" Hilda asked.
Her question was soon answered when she turned a corner and saw the same thing. A corpse.
"No." Hilda couldn't believe it.
She looked around and realized that all of the houses were in bad shape from just unused to completely demolished. And what was even worse was that there were more corpses scattered around. Hilda and the rest of the group were standing in ruins.
"They can't be dead. They can't all be dead! IS THERE ANYBODY STILL HERE!?" Hilda ran around the village and checked the houses, getting more desperate by the second.
"Hilda!" Johanna and the others chased after the poor girl.
Hilda wouldn't stop searching for survivors no matter what. Then she opened one more door and saw two more corpses on the floor as well as something else near them. It was a crib. That definitely made her stop. She walked around the room and found a single untouched picture on the wall. It showed a newborn baby with blue hair and on the frame were three words.
OUR DAUGHTER HILDA
Hilda did the only thing she could as a reaction. She cried. The others came in and saw what she saw. Johanna quickly hugged Hilda tight and let her sob on her shoulder. Frida, David, and Twig made it a group hug. Alfur and Adeline patted her where ever they could reach. Amanda didn't know how to handle such a situation, so she joined Kaisa in a moment of silence. Eventually, Hilda stopped crying.
"Do you want to go home?" Johanna asked.
"Not yet." Hilda sniffed. "I want to at least try to find out why they all died."
And that's when she spotted something in one of the corpse's hands. She walked over and reluctantly picked it up. Hilda examined what was apparently a very damaged journal. Most of the pages were too damaged to read, but she found a few near the end. The others gathered around her to listen to her read.
"Day 26: For over a year now, this team has observed the trolls and other users of magic to find anything in common. But alas, they have made little progress even with our help. Many of us still have faith that there is a way to mix witch magic with the magic of other beings.
"Wait, is that possible?"
"As I told these two, no." Kaisa answered.
"We were trying to change you back." Frida explained.
Hilda continued to the next sentence.
"Our leader on magic experiments has just claimed that we may have finally found a way to mix magics. If we succeed, then we might finally be
able to solve our greatest problem. However, I have reason to believe that this could backfire and kill us all. If it does, I have already cast my
emergency translocation spell on my daughter, so at least she will be safe. If I had created this spell years ago instead of recently, I would've been
able to cast it on all of us. The time to test again is near. I hope I'm wrong for all our sakes."
Amanda almost made a smart remark before Frida covered her mouth.
"So my family was killed by their own experiment?" Hild said. "What was even the point of it all?"
"Do you have any idea what the greatest problem is?" Frida asked.
"We witches have come across a lot of serious problems." Kaisa said. "Besides, their problems could've been different from ours."
"Well that was helpfu-" *cough cough!* Amanda started coughing for no reason, almost like she was going to throw up.
"Amanda, what's wrong!?" David asked.
"I-*cough!*-I don't know!" Amanda only got worse by falling to the floor and having a seizure.
"Amanda!" the kids tried to help her.
"Stop!" Kaisa made everyone give Amanda some space. "It should only last a minute or two. Trust me. I've read about this."
After a whole minute, Amanda stopped shaking, but she now seemed too tired to get up. David and Johanna checked on her condition up close.
"She's got a fever." Johanna said.
"And she might throw up at any moment." David added.
"Hmm. These are all symptoms one would have after they stopped taking drugs." Kaisa said. "Have any of you seen her take anything that could be a drug?"
Nobody could think of anything until Frida remembered the night she was with all the marra.
"Fear." she said. "Marra feed off of fear! Literally! I know because I was tricked into getting a taste of it. That stuff was awful."
"Then we'll need information even a doctor can't give. I'll be right back." Kaisa pulled out her wand and with a spell vanished.
"Wait, couldn't she have brought us here by doing that?" Johanna asked.
"Not without having been here before." Frida answered.
Johanna then picked Amanda up, found a bed in another room, and set her on it. David gave the teen a drink of a healing elixir which she managed to swallow. He knew it couldn't help much, but he had to try.
"Can't you do anything, David?" Hilda asked.
"I didn't learn anything about drug problems." David said. "And this is a marra thing. The best I can do is what I just did."
"Amanda, how long have you gone without consuming fear?" Johanna asked.
"A-*cough cough cough!*- a month." Amanda barely said.
"A month!?" Alfur checked a book he had in his bag. "That's exactly when Hilda got her nisse form."
Hilda was shocked, knowing what most likely caused Amanda to stop.
"So this is my fault?"
"Don't say that about yourself!" Johanna said. "I may not know Amanda as well as you do, but I do know that making her change her ways is a good thing. You did nothing wrong. Now let's let Amanda rest. She needs it."
Shortly after the group returned to the first room, Kaisa reappeared with some books. All of them had something to do with marra.
"Did you move her to a bed?" she asked.
"Yes." Johanna confirmed.
"Good. Everyone pick a book and start reading."
And that's what they did. Even the elves worked together with a book. Twig kept an eye on Amanda just in case.
"Here's something." Frida said. "When a human becomes a marra, they retain most of their human traits and limits. We might be able to take her to a doctor after all."
"I'm afraid the book we have mentions a problem." Alfur said. "If a marra stops consuming fear, she enters a state that regular medicine can't counter."
"There's more." Adeline added. "Sometimes the marra does not survive being deprived of fear."
"We have to do something!" Hilda said. "Villages have medicine people, right? Maybe this one has something for marra since they have their own magic."
"You might be right, Hilda." Frida said. "We just have to find the right house."
"I'll have to set this one out." Johanna said. "Someone needs to look after Amanda."
"Then Adeline and I will keep you company." Alfur said.
"We wouldn't be able to do much anyway." Adeline added.
"I suggest we go now." Kaisa said. "Every second counts."
"We'll be back." Hilda said. "Come on, Twig!"
Twig joined the search party who then left the house and started looking.
Hilda, Twig, Frida, David, and Kaisa checked every house they came across four at a time and so far found nothing. The corpses they repeatedly came across did not help any, but David was handling it surprisingly well. Their search led them all the way to the other side of the village.
"I'm starting to think they forgot to bring a medicine person." David said.
"It could still be the last house we pick." Hilda said.
"Or it could be this one." Frida said, pointing to a half broken house.
The group checked both inside what was left and under the rubble thanks to some levitaion magic.
"Hildy, you were right!" Kaisa said as she pulled out a box of labeled canisters. "Let's see. Troll. Elf. Fossegrim. No. No. No. No. No. Ah! Here it is! Marra."
"Let's take as much as we can." Hilda suggested.
There were only five canisters of what they needed, so they each took one except Kaisa who carried two and they made their way back. Along the way, they came across what was clearly the center of an explosion which would've been seen earlier if not for their emergency search.
"So this is what did it." Hilda said.
"Magical explosions can sometimes be more fatal than a bomb." Kaisa said.
There was no big conspiracy, no murderers, no anything. Just an accident from an experiment. Hilda kind of wished there was more. Her thoughts were put to a halt when she heard Twig growling.
"What is it, boy?" she asked.
Suddenly the group was surprised to see two angry looking animals come around the corner. One was a lynx and the other was a brown bear. The group kept their distance and the witches pulled out their wands.
"How did they get in here?" Kaisa said. "This village should only be accessible to witches."
The bear got closer and broke a four-foot rock it happened to step on.
"Bears aren't that strong." Frida said before sending some spell-rings at the beasts.
Her spell was a success, but then the lynx's eyes glowed and the rings disappeared.
"What!? How!?"
"Strength and spell cancelling!?" Hilda's eyes widened upon realization. "They're familiars!"
It was clear that both animals intended to do harm to them.
"Run!" Kaisa shouted.
David shared some speed herbs and the group took off as fast as they could now go. He then summoned a swarm of mosquitoes and they flew at the two chasers, slowing them down. Unfortunately it wasn't enough and the beasts kept on after them. As the group turned a corner, the bear slammed a wall to make the rest of the house fall and trap them. It wasn't fast enough, but some of the house caused Kaisa to lose a canister.
"I hate to say this, but I think we need to split up and meet back up later!" Frida said.
"I wish you were wrong." Kaisa said.
All four humans reluctantly agreed and went in different directions. The bear went after Kaisa and the lynx went after Frida. Since the bear didn't know Kaisa was a witch, she had the upper hand now. So she picked a house and ran inside without closing the door. The bear still followed her all the way to the entrance. Suddenly it was frozen in place by magic as planned. Kaisa then got out through a window and hurried to whomever she could find first.
Hilda and Twig kept running in case they were still being chased. At some point they went into a house and caught their breath.
"I think we lost them." Hilda said. "But what are we going to do about those two?"
Then she and Twig heard cracking beneath them. The floor was weaker than the rest of the ground. They tried to run again, but the floor broke and they fell into the darkness below.
Frida was still having trouble losing the lynx. She might as well have had the same temporary problem Hilda has. She ran into a house and slammed the door shut. Luckily she was in one of the least damaged houses, but the lynx was still trying to get in. Frida needed a plan. Then she saw a chimney and a broken chair which gave her an idea. The lynx can't cancel a spell if it doesn't know one is being cast. So Frida pulled the chair into the fire place, cast the invisibility spell on herself and said chair, and used the levitation spell to ride up. She was successfully out and away from the house, but a piece of the chair fell off and almost made her fall off. She was okay, but she lost the canister she was carrying.
Johanna did the best she could as she sat next to Amanda who had recently barfed. While watching the teen, she felt so sorry for her. As for Alfur and Adeline, they both decided to see if there was anything else in the damaged journal. In the middle of a page turn, the door opened and was quickly shut. They looked up and Johanna heard it too. They were all confused to see only David gasping after a big run.
"David, why are you back alone?" Johanna asked with a serious tone.
"We got the stuff, but then two wild animals with familiar magic came after us." David said. "A lynx and a bear. One of them can undo spells. We had to split up. I tried to meet back up with them. I'm sorry."
Johanna's eyes widened in fear of what could be happening out there.
"You stay here and help Amanda!" she ordered. "I'm going to bring them back!"
Johanna ran out of the house like any true mother would. David summoned as many insects as he could and had them keep watch around the house before tending to Amanda with the canister he had. Fortunately he found some instructions on how to quickly make a remedy. There was just one problem.
"This isn't enough!" he cried out.
"It's okay, David!" Alfur tried to assure. "Hilda and the others will certainly return. Right, Adeline? Adeline?"
Adeline was staring at the journal almost like she saw a ghost.
"I think you might want to see this." she said.
Alfur walked over and read whatever it was that surprised Adeline.
*GASP!*
Hilda and Twig slowly got up and looked around, but it was mostly too dark even with experience of being out at night. They knew calling for help wouldn't work, for anyone could be anywhere. So Twig sniffed around while Hilda tried to see if she had her powers back yet. She started with her flying forms and got nothing. Then those that heightened her senses, but still nothing.
"Please, just give me anything." Hilda begged.
She finally got something, but it wasn't much. The best she could do was turn her right hand into that of a troll. Fortunately it was enough for her to make a pink light. Now she had a better view of her surroundings. As she and Twig walked around to find a way out, they came to a wall with some kind of unexpected drawings.
"What is this?"
The drawings seemed to show several spheres, each a different color and over a different figure. But the most confusing part was the black sphere on the side. It was much bigger than the other ones and there was no figure underneath.
"Does this have to do with their experiments?"
There seemed to be other drawings, but they were all too damaged to make anything out. So Hilda and Twig went back to finding a way out. Soon they came across a pile of rocks at the bottom of a staircase they blocked.
"A way out!" Hilda ran over and started trying to move any of the boulders.
However, her attempt backfired by causing more rocks to fall behind her and Twig, trapping them in a narrow space of five feet wide by six feet long by ten feet high.
"NO!" Hilda tried moving and even hitting the rocks, but to no avail.
She also tried to change again, but was still mostly herself. They were trapped with who knows how much air.
"HELLLLP!" Hilda cried out.
Nobody came. Hilda felt like she was trapped in the stone forest again, only much worse. One of her friends was likely to die and now she and Twig will be joining her. Without any of her forms, there was nothing she could do about it except cry.
"Why? Why couldn't I have just learned magic like Frida or my actual parents? If I wasn't just a familiar, maybe I would've learned something."
It was at that moment that she remembered. She did learn something. From Frida.
"It's like Tildy says. Magic is ninety-nine percent focus and only one percent hocus-pocus."
What if Hilda simply focused on a spell or a form? What should she focus on? What would Frida do?
"I have an idea."
Hilda stood up and concentrated on one thing. Sending a visual message to Frida. With all the focus she could muster, her eyes began to glow.
Frida was still invisible and riding the chair in the air when she spotted two separate people. Kaisa and Johanna. Frida then made herself visible and got their attention. She came down as they both reached the same spot.
"What are you doing out here?" Frida asked.
"David told me what happened." Johanna said. "Where are Hilda and Twig?"
"I wish I knew."
Suddenly her wish was granted when she unexpectedly saw Hilda and Twig between two piles of rocks near a flight of stairs. Kaisa saw her eyes glowing and knew that something was going on.
"Frida, what's happening?" she asked.
Frida snapped out of it and said "Hilda just told me where to look."
She led the way in a random direction with the adults close behind. Thankfully she found the top of the stairs within the next minute.
"There!" Frida ran to the stairs and cast the levitation spell.
This would be the first time she ever did with it so many large objects, but she had to do it. She concentrated on all of the rocks she could see and they all began to glow. Slowly they lifted into the air and moved to the side. By the time Frida ended her spell to catch her breath, Hilda and Twig were climbing out of their prison, the former's hand back to normal.
"Hilda!" Johanna ran and hugged her daughter tight.
"I'm okay, Mum. So is Twig." Hilda said before looking at her friend. "Thank you, Frida."
"You're welcome." Frida said.
"I'm glad you're alive too, but how did you know familiars could contact their witches the same way?" Kaisa asked.
"I didn't." Hilda answered. "Even the book didn't mention it. I just focused and tried it."
"We should hurry back." Johanna said. "David and the others are waiting for us and those beasts are still out there."
"I can make that easier." Kaisa pulled out her wand and cast the translocation spell.
They were now back in the house with the rest of the group.
"You're all back." David said. "Quick! I need your canisters. Mine isn't enough."
"I lost mine." Frida said.
"I didn't. Here." Hilda gave hers over.
"I hope we don't need more than three." Kaisa handed over the remaining canister.
"I can work with these." David got started immediately.
It took a couple minutes to make the remedy needed. He then hurried to Amanda and made her swallow it.
"We're going to have to wait for her to recover."
"In the mean time, we found something in this journal you might want to see, Hilda." Alfur said.
"Really?" Hilda went over and picked up the journal.
But just as she was about to start reading...
"ROOOAAAAARRR!" The group froze in fear for the bear was just outside trying to deal with the swarm.
"We need to leave! Now!" Johanna said.
Kaisa began the spell again, but the lynx broke through a window and tackled her.
"OW!" Kaisa had been bitten on the forearm before Frida spellshot the lynx off.
"My magic!" Kaisa panicked while waving her wand. "I can't use my magic!"
"Is there any magic that can't be neutralized!?" Frida asked.
"Only that of the witch the familiar is connected to." Hilda said. "But it does wear off."
"The swarm is gone!" David cried out as a shadow flew past the windows.
The door broke down along with parts of the wall and in came the bear. And to make things worse, the wolf from before was there too. But the worst part was the fourth animal. It was a hawk most of them recognized.
"Clarice!?" the kids were baffled.
All four animals stood down and Clarice did something strange. Her eyes began to glow and her beak opened wide. Then a voice came out.
"You again?" came the voice of Gondul. "I don't know how you survived, but this is your last chance. Stay out of my way or I will make your deaths my top concern."
"If you're so concerned about murder, then why aren't you here yourself?" Hilda said.
"I would be if I wasn't still recovering from your friend's little pets. Luckily all my familiars can do this for me."
Upon hearing that new information, Frida looked at the wolf and realized something.
"The wolf pack was your doing!" she said. "It was a distraction."
"You are correct." Gondul admitted. "I just needed to know where Clarice was being held. And now that the last of my ingredients has been collected, I can finally give the people of Trolberg what they deserve."
"If anyone deserves something bad, it's you!" Hilda called out.
"Then it looks like your fates are sealed. Kill them." Gondul said before Clarice closed her beak and her eyes stopped glowing.
Without an escape route, the whole group ran to the bedroom and shut the door. The familiars were not far behind. As Johanna tried to get the window open, Amanda began to stir and look around. It didn't take long for the doorway to fall apart, letting the familiars in. Then just as they were about to attack anyone...
A green flash appeared before them and turned into an enraged teen with glowing eyes and green fireballs above her.
"HRAAAIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" Amanda let out a loud demonic shriek, causing the familiars to back a couple steps.
As surprised and happy as the kids were to see Amanda all better, they knew they still needed a way out since the window was stuck. So Hilda tried to see if she had her powers back now. She tried a giant. Nothing. She tried a deerfox. Nothing. She tried a weather spirit. Nothing. She tried a troll. Still only her hand. She tried a thunderbird. Nothing. She tried a lindworm. Nothing. She tried a nisse. A tail sprouted out.
"Everyone grab me!" Hilda said.
The others saw her tail and understood before obeying. That is except for Amanda who started throwing her fireballs at the familiars. Johanna grabbed her just before Hilda went under the bed and pulled them all with her. They all fell and landed on the pink floor. Johanna and Kaisa were both amazed by the room they now stood in.
"So this is what the Nowhere Space looks like." Johanna said.
Amanda snapped out of her angry trance and was taken by surprise when Hilda hugged her.
"It's good to have you back." Hilda said.
Amanda wasn't sure how to respond at first, but then she decided "Ah, what the heck?" and hugged back.
"I take it you got your powers back?" she asked.
"Just a troll hand and my nisse tail." Hilda answered before she put said tail away.
"Any chance we could find a safe way out soon?" David asked while finishing up some bandages he was putting on Kaisa's arm.
"Let's check the different exits." Hilda suggested.
They all looked through a few of the holes and only found dead ends near or within where they just came from.
"We're going to have to make them leave somehow." Frida said.
"How do we do that!?" David asked loudly. "My swarms won't work and that lynx can prevent magic!"
"We'll just have to think of something." Kaisa said.
The whole group sat down and thought hard about what to do. After a couple minutes, David saw a giant scorpion.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed and fell backwards. "Scorpion!"
"What!?" the others saw it too before it vanished.
"What just happened?" Hilda asked.
"That was exactly what I was thinking about." Amanda said, gaining everyone's attention. "I thought maybe David could summon a really big scorpion to scare them away if it counts."
"Do it again." Kaisa said.
Amanda started thinking hard again and summoned the same scorpion. Hilda reached out to touch it and her hand went through.
"It's an illusion." she said.
"So that's what the rumors meant." Amanda said.
"Rumors?"
"Yeah. I've heard from my fellow marra about this. They said 'If a marra can wield the dreams beyond her potential and empty herself of fear, she will be able to scare the awake the same as scaring the asleep'. And I finally did it."
Then an idea struck her, causing a mischievous smile to appear.
"And now I'm going to put it to good use."
The familiars were out of the house and recovering from the fire attacks when something snuck up behind them. They all heard a slight noise and turned around.
"ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!" a five-headed dragon several times all their sizes put together came from nowhere and threatened to eat them all.
All the familiars were too scared to fight so they all retreated. Once they were out of sight, the dragon disappeared and Amanda came out laughing.
"I got them good!" she said.
"Yes you did." Hilda and the others came out soon after.
"It's a good thing my new power awakened, isn't it?" Amanda bragged.
"You could've been killed by your self-deprivation of fear." Kaisa said. "Luckily you have friends who are more than willing to save you."
"What?" Amanda stared at everyone in shock. "You... saved me?"
"Why wouldn't we?" Hilda asked.
"Because I'm not supposed to be worth saving!" Amanda yelled. "I gave two of you nightmares! I left three of you to die! You don't even get anything out of this!"
"You also saved each of us at least once." Frida said. "And we do get something out of it. You."
Amanda looked at David whom she had wronged first.
"Even you? Why would you save me?"
"I told you." David said. "I don't like it when bad things happen to my friends."
"But... No. This is wrong! This can't happen to me!"
Normally Johanna would be ticked off to hear one particular detail, but seeing Amanda's confused behavior wouldn't let her. She then realized part of what was going on.
"Amanda, are you an outcast?" she asked with heartfelt concern.
Amanda could only respond with the look of a scared and lost toddler.
"If she is, then at least she has us now." Hilda said.
Suddenly every awful memory Amanda had to experience flashed before her eyes followed by all the terrible things she has done and all the good that happened to her since the abandoned belltower. All the pain and all the joy was too much for her. She fell to her knees and finally let it all out.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-AH-EH-EH-EH-EH-EH-EH-AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
Never had she looked more broken then at that moment.
"I'm sorry! For... for everything!"
Johanna was surprisingly the first to hug her, but Hilda came just after. Soon the whole group was doing it including Kaisa. It took several minutes for Amanda to empty herself of all the tears she had. Everybody let go and she stood back up with a face that was both happy and sad.
"We should get going now." Johanna suggested.
The group agreed and exited the ruins. As soon as they were out, the fake piece of mountain was visible again. Twig noticed that Hilda was oddly silent.
"Hilda, are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine, Twig." Hilda said before suddenly realizing what she just did. "I just heard you talk! Does this mean...?"
She tested her powers and completely turned into a deerfox. She also tested her lindworm, elf, and thunderbird forms before dancing with joy in her human form.
"WOOHOO! I can change again!" she cheered before turning into a giant. "Come on. I'll carry us home."
Kaisa tested her wand and said "I'm still magicless anyway."
"Just remember to change back at the stone circle!" Alfur requested. "Some of the elf houses are near there!"
Hilda picked everyone up and carried them back south. Along the way, Kaisa was contemplating something.
"I'm going to have to tell the comittee and Tildy about all of this." she said. "Gondul could attack Trolberg at almost any moment now. And now that we know she has at least four familiars, things will be a lot more difficult."
"At least you also know there isn't a traitor." Hilda said.
"What?" half the group was confused.
"We just learned that Gondul has more than one familiar. That means she must have another one hiding in the Witch's Tower somewhere. There are stealth related familiar abilities perfect for that and their telepathic connection can make sending information easy."
"That... makes a lot of sense." Kaisa said.
Soon they reached the stone circle where Hilda put everyone down as promised and returned to human form.
"It's a shame we didn't learn more than what we saw." she said.
"Actually you still haven't read what we found in the journal." Adeline said.
"Oh that's right." Hilda pulled the journal out from her satchel and checked the pages.
She found the mentioned section and read it out loud.
"Day 9: After last week's disaster from yet another failed attempt, I had started making an area that one can automatically translocate to in case anything like that happens again. Right now all I need to do is add a protection spell and it will be ready. We still feel like rookies here, but we're pulling our weight even as busy parents. Sometimes I worry about what we're doing and I especially worry about my wife and my baby girl Hilda who isn't even a week old yet. However we have agreed that our baby should have the spell cast on her first. It will take a while since I invented this spell, but it will be worth it. If something happens to us, I know she will be safe and happy in the hands of-"
Hilda froze in shock and rubbed her eyes in case she misread it. The last word of the paragraph was perfectly clear.
"Johanna!?"
"What!?" Everyone was baffled, especially Johanna who took the book to see for herself.
"This can't be right! I never met any witches! Just-" her eyes then widened upon realization. "I should've known."
"Mum?"
Johanna took a deep breath and explained.
Flashback
Less than a month before I found you, two people came to our old home and asked if they could spend the night. A man named Aki and his wife Moa. And she was pregnant. It was going to rain soon and I couldn't let anyone suffer that, so I naturally let them in. The rain turned out to last longer than we all expected thanks to some weather spirits. For half a week we had to stay indoors, but it was nice to have some company. I did my best to make them comfortable and even bought more food for Moa's extra hunger. They were very thankful and said I would make a great mother. They also told me a little about themselves including something about an experiment. I thought they meant a scientific one. Once the sky was clear, they said goodbye and went north.
"I haven't seen or heard from them ever since. Now I know why."
A tear slid down Johanna's face.
"Alfur, did you know about all this too?" Hilda asked.
"To be honest, we did see three adults at one point, but didn't really care at the time. No offense." Alfur admitted.
Hilda took the book back and looked at it's cover inside and out until she spotted a name. As she expected, it said Aki. Then she saw what appeared to be a secret compartment. She opened it and pulled out some kind of native necklace. It was basically a thick string with a flat rock attached to it and some unrecognizable runes on said rock. There was also a tag on it that read "For Hilda".
"What is this?" she asked.
"Oh my." Kaisa said. "That is a witch-guide. One of the rarest and most difficult items for a witch to make. In fact, less than a handful of us know it's true potential. All I've heard about it is that it's supposed to guide those who are lost. Your father must've meant to give that to you."
"Huh. It must be a magic compass then." Hilda placed the necklace around her neck and under her scarf before looking to the sky. "Thank you, Dad."
One day later, Hilda was in her saltlion form, swimming in one of the little canals of Trolberg while nobody except for Twig was looking. Then she spotted one of her friends on a bridge.
"Hi, Amanda." she said before getting out and changing back.
"Hey, Hilda." Amanda replied. "Got any crazy adventures today?"
"Only the possibly traumatic kind."
"Ooh-hoo-hoo, perfect!"
"Amanda?" came another voice.
The girls and Twig turned and there a few yards away and closing in were three of the other marra, the middle one being Nadine. Twig growled at them before Hilda made him stop.
"Is this why we haven't seen you at night for a month?" Nadine asked. "You were hanging out with that little twerp?"
Amanda looked ashamed and scared at the same time. Hilda was about to say something when Amanda unexpectedly beat her to the punch.
"Her name is Hilda and yes I am."
After a moment of silence, all three marra laughed at her.
"That is the stupidest thing I've ever seen!" the tall one said.
"This has got to be a joke because it's way to funny to be true!" the one with glasses said.
"As if a marra could really be friends with one of her own victims!" Nadine insulted.
"She can and she did!" Hilda yelled, ending the cruel laughter.
"Hilda, I'll handle this." Amanda said before stepping over to the jerks. "I'm out."
All three of them were surprised.
"You're seriously quitting!?" Nadine questioned. "After all we've done for you!?"
"Don't get me wrong. I'm still thankful for what you did for me. Heck, I'm most likely going to miss the times we spent together. But I finally have something that all of you put together couldn't give me."
"And what is that?"
Amanda looked at Hilda who came up next to her along with Twig, then back at Nadine and the others, and answered with "A best friend."
Hilda was surprised by that. Sure she heard David call Frida his best friend once and she personally doesn't pick favorites. But nobody has ever said that about her before.
"Fine, it's your loss." Nadine snarked.
Just as the three marra started to walk away, Hilda looked around to find the coast to be clear and said "Wait!"
They stopped and looked at her.
"Normally I wouldn't do this, but in your case..." Hilda then grew to ten feet tall, scaring the three marra easily. "Don't even think about haunting or bullying anyone I know."
"Got it." all three cowards said before vanishing in their usual marra way.
"Hahahahaha! I can't believe you just did that!" Amanda laughed.
"Me neither." Hilda said as she shrunk back. "But I didn't want them causing any more trouble for us. Did you really mean what you said about me?"
"Of course. After everything you've done, I couldn't find a better pick. I've never been this happy before in my life. Thank you, Hilda."
Then for the first time ever, Amanda hugged first. Hilda was quite surprised, but welcomed the gratitude with her own hug. Twig joined in by rubbing against them. Once they let go, Hilda led the way to a new adventure.
Author's Note: Surprise! I managed to find a way to salvage from a broken fan theory. Just because Hilda doesn't get to be a witch doesn't mean that we can't still use the possible origin of her hair color. It wasn't easy, but I was able to come up with an interesting what if. And I'm certain you'll like what I have planned regarding this later. As for her most recent form, I had a forest giant close to last because having one of those walk around Trolberg could cause some trouble and like the weather spirit, it comes with one of the greater advantages. I wish I could've given the giant form more use in this chapter, but I felt it was necessary to have Hilda lose her powers for a while and go back to how she usually does things. And yes, I purposely gave every third transformation a side effect. Also the location of the namesake of this chapter as well as the hill of stone pillars are based on a map from an info book about the show. Then there's Amanda. As you have read, my unusual idea was based on that scene from the nisse episode. Basically my mind went to drugs the moment Frida started coughing and I eventually decided to take advantage of the similarity. I even used real symptoms that occur when someone stops taking drugs. I also gave Amanda a new power since I've been making her part of the group which has also been getting new tricks and illusions made the most sense for obvious reasons. This chapter ended up longer than I expected, but I hope it pays off. Now that the final season is drawing near, I'm going to see if I can write the last two chapters in time. But in order to do that, I'm gonna have to purposely put my other fanfics on hold until I either succeed or fail. I'm very sorry to those of you who read those as well. I still plan to finish them too. Anyway, I'm looking forward to whatever is going to happen in such an amazing show. (If I had to make any guesses, I'd say the whole season is going to be one big adventure.)