Author's Notes: Well, this is it. The most beautiful cartoon series I've ever watched has come to an end, and now all there is left to do is write fanfiction. With all the new material I've got to work with, I intend to start fresh, rather than follow the continuity of my previous. But those will still remain up for those who want to read them. I'm NEVER going to delete those; I won't make that mistake again.
Sunrise over Tofoten found Hilda standing over the stove of her Auntie Astrid's kitchen, shoveling freshly-made potato pancakes onto a tray. She'd gotten quite good at cooking since moving here; it helped that she had such a great teacher in Astrid.
David bid her thanks as Hilda set the tray down on the table, eagerly transferring the pancakes to his plate for his second helping.
"Don't hog them all, David," Hilda scolded. "We haven't all had the chance to have our breakfast yet."
"Hmph. You're beginning to sound like Frida," David mocked in reply.
"Well in that case, Frida would be right," Astrid interjected. "The Little One hasn't even come down yet, and I know you wouldn't want her to go hungry!"
"Lydia will be fine. Her breakfast will have gone cold by the time she gets up. You know she likes to sleep in on summer holiday," David reminded her.
"She certainly takes after her father, that one," Astrid remarked.
As if on cue, a soft sound could be heard from the kitchen entrance, causing everyone to look up. At the foot of the stairs, still in her red nightgown, was a freckle-faced little girl with waist-length blue hair, stretching and yawning as she walked into the kitchen. A deerfox bounded down the steps, hot on her heels, eager to make it to the breakfast table before she did.
"Good morning, Lydia!" David greeted, hugging his daughter as she took a seat next to him. "You're up earlier than I would've expected!"
"Mm-hm," Lydia grunted in reply. "I only came down because I smelled mum's pancakes."
"And what are you going to do once you've finished eating?" Hilda asked. "Go back upstairs and lie in bed all day?"
"Oh, Hilda... let her be! It's only her first day off from school!" Astrid implored of her.
"That's no excuse to stay in the house all day long!" Hilda objected, turning back to her daughter. "Lydia, it's a beautiful day out. You should go out an explore with Birch! Play ball, or ride a woff!"
"You could come down and help me at the candy store today, if you'd like!" David suggested. Lydia smiled at this; though she'd inherited Hilda's adventurous side, she also had her father's sweet tooth. It seemed half her time was spent around either David's candy shop, or the local bakery. When she wasn't off adventuring with Birch and her friends.
"I'd like that," Lydia agreed.
Hilda smiled, glad that David would be able to get their daughter out of the house for the day. Lydia had become depressed since her best friends moved to Trolberg a few weeks ago.
In the twelve years since Hilda and David were married, they'd devoted all of their time and money to their daughter, giving her the childhood that Hilda wanted her to have. The childhood Hilda has cherished as a girl, living with her mum in the old cabin in the wilderness... and the childhood her mum had as well, living in this very same house before her parents disappeared, and she herself was sent to live in a boarding school in Trolberg.
Lydia was born nine months to the day after Hilda married David, and was named for Hilda's grandmum. It seemed appropriate, knowing her family history, and how it all began with Lydia, and her secret friendship with Phinium and Astrid.
Hilda and David did everything they loved to do as kids with her. They went camping. They played in the woods, and in the fields, They taught her to ride woffs. Recently, she'd joined the Sparrow Scouts, with Frida as her Raven Leader. Frida was even good enough to pick up Lydia every week and drive her all the way to Trolberg for Sparrow Scout meetings and activities.
Lydia had earned quite a few badges in her first year; Hilda was sure to remind her daughter to turn in all the hard work she'd done for those badges, so she wouldn't feel left out like Hilda was on her first year.
Hilda often consulted her mum for parenting advice. Johanna had moved to Tofoten with them around the time Hilda became pregnant with Lydia, hoping to keep the family together. They'd left their old flat in Trolberg behind them, though Alfur and Tontu were still with them... along with Alfur's bride, Adeline.
Twig was still with them too, having left Hilda for only a short while when she was nineteen, before returning with a mate, whom they called Thistle. Between the two of them, they had a son of their own, Birch, whom Lydia immediately claimed as her companion. Since they were too big to fit in the house, Twig and his partner stayed out in the garden in a small stable that they'd built, though Birch always stayed in Lydia's room.
It was almost perfect. The only one missing was Hilda's dad, Anders, who still lived in Trolberg. Sadly, he didn't get along with Astrid, and he couldn't afford to quit his job in the city. But he seemed to have mended his relationship with her mum (at least partially) and stopped by regularly to visit his granddaughter. It was enough, though Hilda hoped that one day Astrid would forgive him for leaving her and allow him to move in.
"Hilda?' David called out, snapping his wife out of her reverie. "Lydia and I are going soon. Do you want me to bring you anything back?"
"No, thank you," Hilda replied. "I'll stop by the shop this afternoon to see how you're doing."
Just then, Lydia came back down the stairs, having changed out of her nightgown, and was now wearing a red-and-yellow cloak with the hood down. Johanna had knitted it for her as a present on her 10th birthday, having taken inspiration from the cloak her mum made for her when she was a girl. It was remarkable how similar Lydia looked to her grandmother; Astrid often remarked that she was a like a little blue-haired version of Johanna.
"Ready to go, sweetie?" David asked, taking Lydia by the hand.
Lydia looked down to see Birch circling her heels, and nodded.
"Ready," she said. "Can I try one of those new caramel-filled chocolate woffs when we get there?"
"Maybe later, after we've had lunch," David replied. "As it stands, you've just had breakfast... and you're supposed to be helping, not clearing out our entire stock!"
"Oh, cruddlesticks... can't I just have one?" Lydia begged.
"You heard your father," Hilda told her sternly. "Now go on and give your dad a helping hand. I'll see you both later in the afternoon!"
"Okay... bye mum! Bye, Auntie Astrid!" She said, waving them both goodbye as David led her down the road towards the town square.
With her husband and daughter out for the day, Hilda returned to the kitchen to clean up. Astrid helped her to wash all the dishes and put them back in their cupboards. They were still washing everything by hand, ever since David's initial attempt to install a dishwasher had ended in disaster. Hilda wasn't quite sure what had happened, only she came home one day from a book signing in Trolberg to both her husband and daughter in the kitchen, their faces blackened with soot and their hair standing on end, with their new dishwasher appearing to have somehow exploded. The incident left them without power for three days until David could get the fuse box sorted out; from that moment on, Astrid point-blank refused to allow David to install any sort of "newfangled appliances" in her house.
"The Little One will thank you for not having to wait for her eyebrows to grow back all over again," Astrid had said to David when he suggested that they buy a washer and dryer just a few weeks later.
Hilda shook her head. That incident still brought her to tears of laughter whenever she thought about it.
"I must say, it's been a joy to have you and David around the house these past 12 years," Astrid told Hilda while they washed the dishes.
"I'll bet it reminds you of living here with my grandparents, doesn't it?" Hilda suggested.
"It does," Astrid admitted, a few tears slipping down her cheeks. "Those first 10 years we spent together as a family... your mother, Phinium, Lydia, and myself... that was the happiest time of my life."
"When your grandparents left, your mum was all I had," Astrid called. "But by making her forget what really happened, I instilled in her a fear of this place. Of the fairies who live here. I had to send her to Trolberg so that she could grow, make friends, and not have to live in fear anymore."
"But why didn't you just lift the spell?" Hilda inquired. "Why not tell her the truth? She would've understood, and she could've stayed here!"
"I was afraid she would try to sneak into Fairy Country to look for her parents," Astrid explained. "I'd already lost my brother, and my sister-in-law. I didn't want to lose her, too."
"You did what you had to do."
Hilda and Astrid whirled around to find Johanna standing there, having just come out of her art studio upstairs, her hands and smock covered in paint.
"Johanna... how long were you standing there?" Astrid asked.
"Long enough," said Johanna, taking off her smock and stepping up to the sink to wash her hands, and help with the dishes.
"I don't know why you'd still feel guilty about all this, Aunt Astrid," Johanna remarked. "It's been seventeen years. I forgave you long ago."
"I still don't feel right, taking away your childhood like that," Astrid confessed.
"You did what you thought was best," Johanna insisted. "And if you hadn't sent me away... I never would've met Anders-"
"For better or for worse," Astrid remarked sourly.
"True. But then I wouldn't have Hilda, and we wouldn't have... this," Johanna pointed out, peering out the window. They could see Twig and Thistle sleeping in the garden from here, the two deerfoxes having left the shelter of their stable to enjoy the sun and fresh air.
"Everything is exactly as it should be," Hilda told Astrid.
"I suppose you're right..." Astrid agreed.
It didn't take them long to finish cleaning the dishes with her mum's help, leaving Hilda wondering what she ought to do next. for the past few days, she'd been working fervently on her new book, telling the story of her adventure in the Fairy Isle to rescue her dad. She was eager to get it published, as learning about her heritage marked a pivotal moment in her life. It was the first time she came to Tofoten, the first time she felt like she'd had a proper family, and it was the reason she chose to marry David, and have Lydia, and move them out here. Everything good that'd come out of her life could be traced back to that first trip on the train to Tofoten, and she was eager to share it with her readers.
But her mum had other plans.
"Hey... why don't we all get cleaned up, and go visit David at the shop?" Johanna suggested. "I'd like to be sure that my granddaughter isn't pilfering sweets from the storeroom again."
"That only happened once, mum. She's learned her lesson!" Hilda assured her
"It never hurts to be certain," said Astrid.
"Fine, we'll go," Hilda agreed. "Our snack cupboard is empty, anyway."
The three women got dressed, and left the house (ignoring the Pooka's request for a clothes hanger and some string as they stepped outside) taking the cobblestone path to the village proper, where David had his candy store. In the town square, Hilda passed by the bookstore, where she saw a handsome first edition of her very first book, "The Hidden People" displayed in the window, alongside a collection of her other works.
The sight made her think back to how all this began, to when she and her mum still lived in the cabin, and the tiny letters first began appearing on their doorstep. That was just days before she moved to Trolberg. Before she met David and Frida. Before Ahlberg, before Tofoten, before the Fairy Isles... before Lydia. It was surreal, to look back and see how much had changed.
And yet, Hilda's adventures had never ended, and Hilda had no reason to believe they ever would. Even with a husband, a daughter, and a house to take care of, trouble still followed Hilda and her family wherever she went. Lydia was partly responsible, often dragging her parents into whatever wild and weird adventures she managed to get into, but Hilda would be lying if she tried to pin it all on her daughter. Even today, the wilderness still called to her... and Hilda would always be there to answer.
Such was the life of an adventurer.
Author's Notes: I've been feeling depressed since the series ended, and it's only been two days. I had to write something. The finale was amazing... I was so worried that it would end like Amphibia, but thank God, that wasn't the case this time. Just as well; if I could've picked one show to have a perfect ending, it would be Hilda. This series is very dear to my heart, and as sad as I am to see it go, I am both glad and relieved to see it get a proper send-off.
Of course, for those of us who've stuck with the show, the adventure will never truly end. I'll keep writing fanfiction for as long as I can, exploring the world of Hilda after the events of Season 3. I've got plenty more ideas where this one came from. but for now, I wanted to do my own little post-finale one-shot on what Hilda's life might be like in the future... with a healthy dose of Davilda, naturally. I hope you enjoy. Leave me a comment and a kudos if you like the story! And feel free to check out my older fanfics in this series!
