Prologue: Father's Day.

It was the third Sunday of June, Hilda's least favourite day of the year. Despite the cloudless blue sky and the Sun beaming down onto the Sparrow Scout Lodge, Trollbergs resident adventurer wore a look similar to the one that graced her face whenever she faced a question about long division in school as she got out of her mother's car. Even her Deerfox, Twig, seemed down despite usually being as eager to face the day as much as his owner, sitting next to Hilda with his ears drooped. Sitting on the painted stumps next to the Lodge, David and Frida shot each other looks as Hilda spoke to Johanna in the driver's seat.

'Have fun, love! I'll see you back here at three, alright?'

'Mm-hmm' Hilda responded, gripping the top of the paper bag that contained her cucumber sandwiches tightly. Johanna studied her for a moment, as always unsure of what to say. She knew why Hilda detested the third Sunday of June, but yet again stopped herself from trying to pry into the reason for her daughter's mood. The last thing she wanted was a shouting match in front of everyone. Hilda stayed for a moment, hoping for the opposite, that her mother would finally get the courage to ask what was wrong. Eventually, she realised that just like all the other Sundays, she was wasting her time hoping.

'Bye' she said simply, shutting the door and walking over to David and Frida with Twig. Johanna watched her in the rear-view mirror, again feeling the massive pang of guilt she always felt whenever she let Hilda down like this, before quietly reversing and leaving the Lodge. Hilda sat down next to her friends, trying her best to make it seem there was nothing wrong, but she failed miserably.

'Are you alright?' David asked, 'Get some bad news?' as Hilda's eyes flitted to the card he was holding in his hands. She shook her head as Frida scratched Twig on the nose, the Deerfox rolling over for a belly rub.

'No, who's the card for?' she asked forcefully, again keeping up the facade that everything was normal and that she wasn't imagining several different lines she could use in an imaginary argument against her mother. David gripped the card awkwardly, looking down at it and then back to Hilda, grinning nervously.

'Oh, it's..uh..a father's day card!' he responded, turning it to face her. Hilda spared it a glance but found its showy font along with the picture of a superhero flying through the air only made her blood boil. David turned the card back around as quickly as he had shown it to her, seeing the disgruntlement quickly turn to a little bit of anger on his friend's face. Frida noticed this too and decided to very quickly move things along. It was obvious now, Hilda despised Father's Day.

'So, will we get down to business?' Frida asked, pulling a binder out from under her arm. Hilda nodded, standing up as Twig nuzzled up to David's hand, sniffing at the card.

'I was wondering why we were sitting around for so long,' Hilda replied wryly, poking fun at the fact that Frida never let them sit down. However, Frida also noticed a slight bit of impatience in her friend's voice, almost as if Hilda wanted the day to be over with as soon as possible.

'Twig's demanding' she said finally, coaxing a laugh from her familiar as the Deerfox licked David's hand impatiently, obviously not satisfied with the scratches he had gotten from Frida, 'We're going to be putting up posters for the Bird Parade, the group that comes back with the most pictures gets this big box of chocolates too!'

'Oh, must have missed that..at least you'll be more motivated, David!' Hilda chuckled, trying to hide her melancholy as they made their way out the front gate. David grinned, but he and Frida exchanged glances as they turned towards the bus stop. Once they reached it, however, they saw that Hilda had faltered behind them.

'..I don't suppose we could walk..?' she suggested once she had caught up again trying very hard to make it seem nothing was wrong.

'Oh, well, all the areas around here have probably been done already..' Frida replied, 'Are you sure you're alright, Hilda? If you want to walk and clear your head about something we can!'

'No no it's fine..' Hilda breathed quickly as a bus came around the corner behind them, exactly on time according to Frida's binder. Hopping on board, Hilda offered David the window seat while holding Twig. Her friend looked at her, surprised as they steadied themselves when the bus began to move.

'I thought you liked seeing the sights?' he asked, taking her offer and sitting down next to the window as Frida sat behind them, studying the back of Hilda's blue head worriedly. Hilda nodded but didn't immediately answer why she had given him the seat, pulling a nail file out of her pocket which Twig noticed immediately and tried squirming over to David.

'Come on boy..you're putting holes in my duvet!' Hilda muttered, holding Twig to her as she went at his antlers, 'I suppose it isn't fair always having the window seat' she then replied, not looking up from her work.

David nodded, again shooting Frida a glance as the bus rolled on through Trollberg. It soon became very obvious why Hilda had offered him the seat; there were ads for Fathers Day plastered all over the city, from shop windows to every bus stop that they pulled over at. Once done with Twig, Hilda's eyes remained firmly on the back of the old woman's head in front of her, before she got off and Hilda was greeted by a large billboard of a family having a meal prepared for the father. At the sight of the family eating happily, Hilda sniffled and Twig licked at the sides of her face.

'Twig..' Hilda muttered, before raising her voice to normal volume quickly as if she had noticed David and Frida looking at her, 'You got a hair in my eye!' she exclaimed, rubbing at them frantically, 'There, it's gone now..' she said before Frida could ask what was wrong. Indeed, they had rounded a corner and the billboard of the family of four was out of sight. After running another gauntlet of ads, the Trio deemed they had gone far enough and Hilda pulled out some Sun Cream for herself and David, squirting some on his hands.

'Thanks..I burn up way too easily..the Summers get so hot now I'm worried I'll melt.' he muttered. While Hilda chuckled, a glumness still clinging to it, Frida stood aside and watched the people coming up and down the road. Hilda's attitude had her noticing things, in particular the families walking about. Some carried beach gear, some didn't, just walking, talking and laughing. But nearly all of them had a Father with them, with a child on their shoulders or holding their hand..

Blinking, Frida noticed Hilda was also watching this, with an increasing despair on her face. Quickly, she pulled a reef of posters from the binder, pushing them into Hilda's hands.

'Alright..How's about we split up? I'll head up this way and you two head down there, then we'll meet in the middle!' Frida suggested. Again, unusually, Hilda and David nodded silently. They would often have their own input, but in David's case there was something more important at hand as Frida's gaze met his.

'Look after her'

So David and Hilda quietly went one way while Frida went the other. As they picked through the lampposts one by one, David tried to make conversation but it slowly became clear that Hilda wasn't in the mood, as Twig hung close to her while they made their way down the street. Still, David didn't back down.

'Do you want to come by my place with Frida later?' David asked, being genuine. Hilda exhaled, stapling another poster to the back and front of a lamppost.

'Won't you be busy?' She said simply, 'With your Dad and all?' but David shook his head at this, coming to one of Trollberg's community billboards.

'No, we..um..usually just have a nice lunch,' he explained, popping open the glass door to put a couple of posters inside. He saw Hilda nod in the reflection behind him, wipe her eyes and move to continue on when she froze.

'What's up?' David asked, looking about to try and see what Hilda had seen, but his friend pushed past him to look at a picture on the billboard. Naturally, it was full of drawings celebrating Father's Day, but one crude drawing had caught Hilda's eye in particular.

It was a picture of a family, but a family of three this time and it also didn't take David long to notice that the creator, aged 5, had coloured in the hair with blue crayon. He quickly looked to Hilda, and saw the glum mask she wore had quickly slipped to reveal just how emotional she was getting. Hilda sniffled and David placed a hand on her shoulder instinctively.

'Hilda..?,' he asked, the girl snapping out of the trance she was in near-instantly.

'It's nothing..,' Hilda muttered bitterly, brushing his hand off her shoulder. As she returned the picture, David was undeterred, but before he could press further, he picked up on a gaggle of voices coming towards them. Voices that he knew all too well.

'Here comes Trevor,' he whispered to Hilda, which caused an ugly scowl to appear as the boy and his posse rounded the corner, laughing. One of his friends, Louis, spied the poster Hilda had just put up and tore it from the lampost, laughing.

'Hey!' Hilda exclaimed, 'We're doing something here, leave us alone!'

'Why would we do that? It would ruin our game!' The boy grinned, thumbing to Olivia, the girl with overgrown sleeves, who held up a bit of paper wickedly.

'We're taking scores! Whoever tears down the most posters wins!' She snickered, marking down Louis' gain as Trevor opened up the notice board and yanked the posters David had put in, which also pulled free the Father's day drawings. Incensed, Hilda stepped forward and trapped Trevors arm in the door, but not pushing hard in case it hurt him. While telling on his group for pulling down posters probably wouldn't do much, being told on for hurting others in Sparrow Scout uniform would probably get her in trouble.

'Oh, what? Have I upset you, weirdo?' Trevor said coldly, trying to tug his arm free with little success. This time, however, Hilda had a come back in store.

'Who says I'm the weirdo? You're the one who talks to birds!' She shot back, hitting him with a smirk. Trevor's gang and David couldn't help but giggle at the remark, the posse never having bought his story about the Raven and Trevor shot Hilda a furious expression. His friends had only just stopped making fun of him for it and now this blue haired freak had gone and pulled it up again.

Glancing aside from Hilda temporarily, Trevor noticed the drawing of the blue haired family and grabbed it from within. Then, with enough force, he managed to get his arm free with the picture in hand, as Hilda was still conscious about getting in trouble for accidentally hurting him.

'What's this?' He asked, a wicked grin on his face as he flipped the picture around to show Hilda and David, who felt his stomach lurch suddenly, as if something was about to happen that he couldn't stop. Up the road, Frida turned from the last lamppost on feeling a..sort of shift, as if something wasn't right. Peering down towards the end of the road, her eyes went wide and she rushed back towards her friends.

'Just a father's day picture, what about it?' Hilda said shortly, hoping her face wasn't showing her emotion. Trevor flipped it around and laughed, nodding towards another of his friends, Ibrahim, the tawny, portly boy with glasses and a white hat.

'Ib shows us your drawings in school, they look just as bad as this one!' Trevor laughed, seeing he had hit a nerve as Hilda's face contorted angrily. Looking at the picture again, he saw it was only three people rather than four and Trevor decided to punch a little deeper, hoping that the more he antagonised Hilda, the more likely she'd do something that would make everyone forget about this stupid bird thing.

'Ha! Maybe you did do this one! After all, who would colour in their family with blue hair except you, weirdo? Do you even have a Dad?' Trevor laughed again and seeing Hilda shake a little, David knew he couldn't stand aside anymore. Hilda was having a bad day as it was, she didn't need to deal with whatever insults Trevor had in store for her.

'Hey! That's low-!' David began when Hilda put an arm across him and got up in Trevor's face, the anger obvious in hers as she jabbed a finger to his chest.

'Shut up! I don't see your Dad around either!' Hilda bit back, taking the argument into personal territory as David turned to see Frida skid to a halt behind them, breathless and a few posters blowing in the breeze behind her.

'Hilda-!' She tried desperately as Trevor pushed Hilda away, an equally emotional anger on his face which he hid quickly, almost as if he had done it before..

'My Dad's a busy guy, he's out of the City a lot! At least I get to see him, unlike you! Your Dad probably saw you come out with blue hair and left, cause who would want to raise a blue haired loser like you!?'

'Stop it! That's enough-!' Frida interjected, trying to get in between them but was stopped momentarily by Louis throwing the crumpled up poster at her, which struck Frida painfully on the side of her head.

'Stay out if it nerd!' He exclaimed, seeming as if he was thoroughly enjoying the scene alongside the others as Trevor went in for another cruel remark, now thoroughly fueled with his own hatred for Hilda.

'Yeah, that's right! Your Dad probably hates you! Hates you and your stupid Mum too!' Trevor sneered. Frida again tried desperately to step in between them, but Hilda acted first before David was able to put a hand on her shoulder to try and stop her.

In an instant, Trevor went from smiling arrogantly to flat on his backside, totally dazed. Hilda had hit him right in the mouth, and already Trevor's lip was swollen and bleeding, a bruise forming right beneath his eye. As the bully struggled to not burst out in tears before his friends, Hilda looked at him, her fist then at her friends before she let out a loud sob and took off up the road, followed by Twig. David and Frida were forced to follow, away from the sounds of angry jeers from Trevor and his Posse.

Hilda had the distance on them though, and once they came to the top of the road, she had vanished alongside Twig. Forced to pause, David and Frida stood catching their breath once they saw that Trevor's gang had disappeared as well. Wiping some sweat from his brow, David rested his head against the brick wall, looking at Frida.

'I..I should've tried to-to get her away..I'm sorry..' David breathed, slumping against the wall.

'It's ok..' Frida breathed, walking over and sitting down next to him, knowing that conflict resolution wasn't exactly David's strong suit, 'I don't think we'll get into trouble with Sparrow Scouts either..knowing Trevor, he won't want anyone knowing a girl did that to him!'

'Yeah..maybe..!' David chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye, 'But Hilda..I'd always noticed her Dad wasn't around b-but I didn't think it hurt that much..'

'I know..Mum sometimes says things about Johanna being single, but I never really noticed myself. Hilda's never brought it up and it's not our business either..'

'It kind of is now..' David muttered, getting to his feet and helping Frida to hers, 'I'd asked if she wanted to come over later..but I don't see that happening now, how about you come by and we can think of an "action plan" to talk about it with her?' David suggested.

A smile fluttered across Frida's face at the idea but was gone instantly as she looked about the roads, as if looking for a glimpse of Hilda. David knew she didn't want to leave Hilda in the state she was in and he felt the same way, but felt it wouldn't do any good to try and track her down.

'I think she needs some privacy Frida..her Mum will be at her place and so will Alfur and Tontu!'

'Yeah..I guess..,' Frida murmured, hugging her binder as herself and David began to drift off elsewhere, 'I'll still call her later, just to see how she's doing, she is my familiar after all!'

'That's an idea..how about we do our best to get that box of chocolates too? Doubt Trevor will be doing much after that experience!'

Frida laughed quietly and nodded, but still looked behind her as they set off for another road. She was still reluctant to leave Hilda behind, as elsewhere the Adventurer tore towards her home, wrought with countless emotions, coughing angrily and tortured by the past she didn't know.