Chapter 2:
She had just appeared there. She most definitely was not there before. But now here was this girl, standing right in front of her.
Her hair was a sort of reddish pink - sort of like the orb from her dream. It was short - the hair, not the orb - with long side bangs. She wore a dark red top with white stitches and a dark purple skirt. She also seemed to wear what her Mum had once told her was called a 'scale mail' shirt and short underneath her outer clothes.
Hilda stared at her in shock.
"Who are you?"
The girl rolled her eyes.
"I said 'the name's Nimona'"
So this was her name.
Hilda took a second to analyse the voice she was hearing. It sounded familiar. It was the voice from her dream.
"Alfur"She turned to her shoulder and lowered her voice to a whisper "She sounds like the voice from my dream."
"I can still hear you, ya know?" Nimona tilted her head in confusion. Who was this blue haired girl talking to?
"Sorry. I was just talking to Alfur. He's an elf so you need to sign some paperwork to see him."
Nimona nodded her head in what seemed like approval (H9ilda wasn't quite sure though).
"Are you - new around here? I've never seen you before."
She looked a bit zoned out for a second as she spoke.
"I've been here before. I know it. But there was no Trollberg when I was here" She sighed " It was better back then."
What? She had to be lying. Hilda had read in the library that Trollberg was almost 300 years old! Nimona was probably sixteen ,at the most.
"But enough of that! So, Hilda, what plans do we have to overthrow the government?"
"What?"
"You know, the safety patrol. I've been dying to start sidekick-ing again. Life's so boring when there's no corrupt institution to battle."
Hilda looked at her warily. She knew as much as Nimona how bad the safety patrol were at their job (especially with Ahlberg back in charge again), but this girl seemed all that bit more eager, like she was looking for trouble.
Hilda sensed that there was something … different about Nimona, but decided to be friendly anyway. She felt like this girl had to be good.
"So, I take it that you have some experience in being a sidekick?"
"Oh yeah! You are looking at the one and only ex-sidekick of Ballister Boldheart! We crushed the institute over in our kingdom"
"O-kay. If you don't mind my asking, what happened to this 'Ballister Boldheart'?"
"He died."
"Oh cruddlestiks! I didn't mean to put my foot in!" Hilda exclaimed, feeling immediately guilty.
"Ha!"Nimona chuckled "You should see your face! Don't be so gullible."
Hilda frowned, and then looked thoughtful. That was what the orb had said.
"So, what did happen to him?"
"Hm? Oh, stuff. But enough about me, I've been waiting forever for you to meet me. LIke I said, enough about me, tell me your plans to overthrow safety patrol!"
"You're the orb in my dream, aren't you?" Hilda decided to find out if her suspicions were correct.
"Guilty as charged! Oh look, it's your Mum"
Hilda turned around, wondering how Nimona knew Johanna and also worrying that she would be in trouble.
"Hilda, I was worried sick! Where were you?"Johanna said the phrase that she realised she had to use a lot with Hilda.
"Just over here, with Nim-"But she stopped halfway through her name, because when she turned around Nimona was nowhere to be seen.
"Just ,uh, found some baby rock troll that I used to know from when I turned into a troll. Yup, Nim the rock troll!" She said picking up the pebble she had kicked earlier. Hilda clearly knew this wasn't a rock troll but she hoped she could fool her Mum. If Johanna thought Hilda had been seeing things, she'd be worried sick and who knows where that would go.
"Well then, let's go meet Abigail and her kids."
Johanna took her daughter's hand and led her off. Hilda turned her head around and she could swear she saw a reddish pinkish mouse sitting on a tree branch. But when she blinked, it vanished.