Credit goes to StarmanSlayer for his contribution to this chapter.
Hilbert gently shook Hilda, trying to wake her up. "Come on, Hilda! Wake up! I know we've had a rough day, but we can't sleep in the library, the librarian won't let us." he whispered.
Soon enough, Hilda started to open her eyes, and noticed she was lying on the ground while both her friends looked down at her. Hilbert offered her a hand and she took it, pulling herself off the ground.
"OUCH!" cried both Hilda and Hilbert in unison, as their bodies were still painful from the beating they took earlier.
"Yeah, pitchforks will do that to you." said David trying to brighten their mood.
After rubbing their limbs to soothe the pain, they took notice of the two other kids in the room. "Wow, they really look like David and Frida," Hilda said out loud.
At the same time, David and Frida turned to their lookalikes. A lot of emotions could be read on their faces, but mainly surprise or confusion. The two kids were standing a few meters away from the newcomers, silently staring at them, dumbfounded. Finally, Hilbert took it upon himself to end the silence. "Hey, guys! Thank goodness you were here!" he exclaimed as he started limping towards his best friends, before hugging them both.
"I-it's nice to see you too, Hilbert…" the girl responded meekly. "But uhm…" she hesitated before the boy spoke up to finish her sentence.
"What the heck happened to these guys?" he asked David and Frida bluntly.
"They got in trouble with some angry townsfolk." David simply answered with a shrug.
"Okay guys, those are my friends Freddie and Dana. Dana and Freddie, those are your parallel selves David and Frida!" Hilbert turned to Hilda and continued. "Oh, and this is my lookalike named Hilda. Makes sense?" He jokingly asked.
"Not really, no," admitted Dana. "But it's nice to meet you all!" she gave them a shy smile.
Freddie soon took the initiative to greet his counterpart with a handshake. Dana followed his example and shook hands with David.
"So, are you a witch too?" Frida asked.
"A wizard. But yes! I'm studying with Mathew Pilqvist." he explained.
While this was happening, Dana started pointing at David's head. "Uh… you have a-"
David deduced the end of her sentence. "Bug in my hair? I know, just let it be." he confidently said.
Dana took a closer look, before realizing what it really was, she then promptly backed off a few feet away from David. "N-n-nevermind! Not a bug!" she mumbled with a terrified look on her face.
"Then, what is it?" asked David, who was starting to get worried.
"S-spider…" Dana replied faintly. But it was enough to send David into a panic, he started running around while screaming and flailing his arms up and down. He leaped into Dana's arms. Both kids whimpered at the sight of the spider.
"So did you-" Frida's conversation with Freddie was cut short by David and Dana's screaming. "Uh-oh! Well, I think that's our cue." Freddie nodded and let out a small chuckle. The two then ran off to try to calm down the panicked duo.
Hilda laughed at their ordeal, until something caught her eye. It was the lighting from outside, it was slightly brighter than in her world. She got closer to one of the windows to take a good look at the differences. She noticed that the streetlamps here were more orange-tainted, and the moon warmer-colored. Everyone else joined her at the window, prompting Hilda to ask. "Is the moon usually that color? It looks weird."
"Yes, it's always been like that." Freddie responded, before taking another look at the moon. "Although, now that you mention it… the color looks a little off."
"Well, of course it looks off! The moon isn't usually that orange!" Hilbert took notice of the obvious difference, which made him uncomfortable. "Why is it different though?" he wondered.
Frida pondered the question for a few moments before speaking up. "I'm willing to bet this has something to do with us traveling back and forth between worlds." she confidently affirmed.
David gulped before adding "That would make sense unfortunately. Do you think it's like the time you messed with time travel and woke up the Time Worm? Maybe there are consequences for messing with space too!"
Hilbert went to comfort the boy. "Calm down, David. Calm down," he said, patting him on the head. "Just like with the Time Worm, there has to be a way to fix the problem." he affirmed trying to remain calm himself.
Hilda had an idea. "We should try to find the book that talked about the mirror! I'm sure it should have some information on potential consequences."
"Right! The book that started the rumors!" Hilbert slapped his forehead. "We were looking for it, but we found the mirror instead. And then I got sucked into your world. How did I forget about that?" Then it dawned on him. "Oh right… I got tranquilized twice and beaten up for three." he remembered.
"TRANQUILIZED?" shouted Dana "You didn't say anything about that!"
"Must've forgotten." Hilbert shrugged.
"It doesn't matter!" intervened Freddie, bringing everyone back on topic. "While you were in Hilda's world getting your ass handed to you, Dana and I spent the whole day here at the library looking for that book in hope it would give us a way to bring you back. But we never found it, it's a miracle we were close to the mirror at just the right time to pull you in!" he explained.
"I think it might've been lost in nowhere space at this point…" suggested Dana, looking down in disappointment.
"Great, and Tontu won't be awake at this hour!" said Hilbert with a grunt. "I guess we'll just have to wait until morning." He turned towards Hilda gesturing her to follow him. "I'll return the favor by letting you sleep at my place this time."
After the duo wave goodbye to the others, they start walking away from the library and towards Hilbert's apartment.
"Wait, what about us?" asked David.
"Oh, I know! We could spend the night with our respective clones, this will probably make all our parents very confused but what choice do we have? We can't let them sleep on the streets!" Dana proposed.
"Or we could take the one that doesn't look like us to avoid that confusion." said Freddie with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, which made Frida chuckle.
"That works too! I'll take Frida then," replied Dana obliviously.
The group then split up in duos, each one heading to its assigned apartment. Once they enter the flat, they hear a high-pitched voice calling out to them from the kitchen, which to Hilda's dismay is on the left rather than the right. She followed Hilbert and noticed an elf waving at them from the table. "Hilbert! You're finally back! Dad was starting to worry about-" The elf lost track of her sentence when she noticed Hilda standing next to Hilbert.
"What?" Hilbert asked.
She blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, then spoke up. "Who is this girl who looks just like-" once again her sentence was cut short once she realized what state the two kids were in. "Good grief, what the hell happened to you two? Did you get hit by a car?" she asked, both worried and confused.
"Good day to you too, Alice." he said in a frustrated voice. "I'll explain later, okay? Just tell me what you wanted to say!"
Alice was still clearly confused but decided to oblige. "Well, actually I wanted to show you something." she pointed towards Hilbert's old runestone, it was now placed on the table.
"So, you have a runestone too!" Hilda went to inspect the other side of the rune, only to find out that the runes were glowing a bright blue and emitting a fume-like substance. She could feel heat coming from it too.
Hilbert joined her side to assess the situation. "Yeah, that looks bad."
"Indeed," replied Alice. "But that's not all, Dad wrote this note just before going to bed." she said pointing at the small piece of paper she was standing on.
Hilbert picked it up, making the elf fall over in the process, and started reading it.
Dear Hilbert
I don't know when you plan on coming home, I mean you could've told me you were going to spend the night at Dana's again, I wouldn't have stopped you. But that's not the point. I noticed a strange light coming from behind your bedroom door, so I went to investigate, and I noticed your old runestone was glowing and was also getting warm. I decided to put it where it was less likely to start a fire, I don't know what that's all about, but I hope you know what's happening (because I don't).
Dad
"So, what did it say?" asked Hilda.
"Basically, he doesn't know what's causing this, and I guess we don't either." Hilbert responded.
"That's not entirely true," objected Hilda "I'm pretty sure it has something to do with our travels between worlds too!"
"We'll just have to wait until we find that book to know for sure," he said before letting out a yawn. "Oh boy, I need some rest."
Hilda yawned as well. "Today was too eventful, even for us" she said with a chuckle.
The pair headed down the corridor and into Hilbert's bedroom so they could finally get the rest they deserved. After cleaning the floor, Hilbert provided the sleeping bag for his female counterpart. Both Twig and Leaf went up to their respective masters to sleep with them.
"Good night, Hilda." Hilbert yawned.
"Good night, Hilbert," Hilda responded.
The next morning turned out to be something sudden. Both kids were disturbed by the noise of a window getting banged. Hilbert went up to the window to see it was Teressa, the female version of Trevor, who was throwing pebbles at the window.
"Oh, boy," Hilda said sarcastically. "Just what we need: a version of Trevor in this world."
"Hey, Hilbert!" Teressa shouted. "Come out here so we can have a fight!"
"Man, this kid is a huge bother," Hilbert grumbled. "I just wish she just minded her own business."
"Come to think of it, I think I might know how to help you out there." Hilda had an idea as she grabbed her beret. "Let's pay her a little visit."
Meanwhile with David, Frida, and their doubles, they were walking around Trolberg. They were seeing the many locations that were similar but quite different in this world.
"So, you guys made a fourth friend during a Sparrow Scout adventure?" Dana asked.
"Yeah, her name is Louise," David nods. "She's a nice girl. We were worried she wouldn't want to be with us due to our reputation, but she ended up enjoying the day with us. She even planned to turn out normal day into an adventure!"
"Louise is very encouraging," Frida agreed. "She helped me with my magic!"
"We got someone like that," Freddie commented. "His name is Louis. He is curious of the world around him."
"Of course," David smiled.
"Man, you got a Rat King too?" Frida asked.
"Well, it's a Rat Queen around here," Freddie answered. "And she once ate up a kid."
David was disturbed by this. "That is oddly specific."
"You think that's bad? Teressa once gave me a swirlie!" Dana freaked out.
"She even made an entire school kick me thanks to a sign taped on my back." Freddie complained.
"Hold up, hold up. Who is this Teressa kid?" David wondered.
Suddenly, the four kids heard screaming. They turned to see a girl being dragged by a car by her shirt. David and Frida's eyes widened when they recognized the kid.
"Is that Trevor?!" David was flabbergasted.
"Looks like him, but as a girl!" Frida cried.
"For the love of God, help me out of this car!" Teressa cried as she kept being hit by mailboxes, streetlights, signs, and other cars.
Eventually, in a meat market store, a man is standing in front of the food. He looked around for customers, but none were around. Angered, he hit the table with a knife and groaned. His melodrama was interrupted when that same car crashed through the store and ran him over.
"Out of the way, bozo!" the driver yelled.
Hilda and Hilbert soon caught up with their friends. "What did we miss?"
"Did you guys do that?" Frida pointed at the girl being damaged by the car she was attached to.
"Nah, we did something that guaranteed made her insane. Each time Teressa saw one of us, she screamed and panicked around Trolberg," Hilbert explained.
"We were going to reveal ourselves as doubles, but before Teressa can say anything, she got hit by a couple of cars, even an ice cream truck!" Hilda exclaimed.
"Damn," Frida commented. "I don't think Erik Alhberg can survive from that."
"Moving on. How are we going to deal with this Runestone jazz?" Freddie asked.
"I did recall it depends on its color. Things could go from bad to worse if certain actions aren't done," Hilda pondered.
"We should probably get you guys back to your dimension so you would be able to help deal with your Runestone. We can't let Trolberg go into a crisis." Hilbert remembered.
Before the kids started to head to their next destination, rain poured from the sky. Everyone was soon drenched by the rainy weather.
"Ugh. At least things can't get any worse." Hilda mumbled.
In a flash, thunder struck, and all six children were shocked by lighting. They screamed while being electrocuted.
A few hours later, everyone limped to the library. Most of their hair and clothes were torn apart due to the lighting. David also had tire marks on his chest because a car hit him while drifting. Frida lost some teeth due to colliding with a motorcycle.
"So, let me get this straight," Hilda spat out a couple of teeth. "The more we go to each other's worlds, the more changes our worlds go through?"
"Well, it's more likely your Trolberg and ours will merge together," Freddie dusted his clothes. "We have to prevent that from happening."
"How can we stop our homes from crashing into each other?" David wondered before he noticed a wasp on Dana's hair, causing both kids to scream in panic.
"We need to switch the runestones from each other's worlds. That way, we won't have to kiss our homes goodbye." Hilda concluded.
Before anyone else can do anything, a man was walking around close to the kids. Hilda didn't seem to recognize him at first, but Hilbert did. "Oh, crap."
"What's wrong?" Frida wondered.
"It's my dad."
"Damn! What do we do?" Dana asked.
"Might be too late to do something." Freddie muttered.
Jon, known as the male Johanna of this version of Trolberg, walked up to the kids. He greeted everyone normally, but when he came to his son, he was surprised to see there was a female version of him. The man screamed in panic as he started to pull out a bat and started attacking Hilda with it. "Get back, alien! Don't harm my child!"
"AUGH!" Hilda screamed as the male counterpart of her parent chased after her. Hilbert went after Jon to stop him from hurting Hilda as the other four children followed.
"Dad, stop it! Don't hurt her! She is my friend!" Hilbert cried.
"I'm not letting that alien snatch bodies from anyone I care about!"
"Hilbert's dad! She is no threat!" Dana added.
"Yeah! She's a friend!" Frida exclaimed.
Soon, Hilda got cornered by some shelves in the library. She panted as he heard Jon approaching. "Your time has come, alien!"
The girl tried to look for a way out, but she had no luck. Accepting her fate, she squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the blow. Surprisingly, it never did. She opened her eyes to see Hilbert struggling to hold the bat.
"Don't hurt her!" Hilbert clenched his teeth.
Jon was surprised to see his son holding the bat. "What are you doing, son? Can't you see I'm trying to save your life?"
"By endangering someone else's?!" Hilbert was in disbelief.
Suddenly, David and Frida stood next to Hilbert to protect their friend.
"That's enough!" Frida commanded.
"You have to stop this at once!" David demanded.
Jon eventually lost his grip on the bat. He was confused on the appearance of the other kids in front of the girl, but just before he was about to ask what was going on, he got whacked in the face by a crowbar. He fell to the ground.
"Did I get him?" Dana asked.
Everyone facepalmed in response to this action. A few minutes later, Jon woke up on the floor. He opened his eyes to see six children looking at him. He recognized Hilbert and his friends, but Hilda and her friends were a different story. "Son, who is that girl?"
Hilbert sighed as he helped his dad get up. "Dad, this is Hilda. Before you ask, she isn't an alien, she is my friend."
Dana and Freddie nodded in agreement before dusting off Hilbert's dad. Hilda was still covering her head since there were some bruises all over her while David and Frida were trying to heal her. Jon gasped in shock, realizing his mistake. "Oh, sorry about that, kid!"
Hilda stood up as she cracked some bones. "Don't worry, sir. I handled worse," Hilbert helped her up.
"You know, he is not bad looking for a male version of your mother," David commented.
"I'd say," Frida added. "He looks like an average guy."
"Hey!" Jon was offended.
"Dad. I heard about your note," Hilbert cleared his throat. "Me, Hilda, and the others are going to deal with this runestone fiasco."
"Do you happen to know what its status is as of now?"
"All I can say is that me and Hilda must commit some actions before terrible things happen. And we might have a time limit as well." Hilbert explained.
Jon raised an eyebrow. "I assume you have a runestone of your own as well, Hilda?"
"Yes, sir," Hilda said sheepishly.
"Alright then," Jon dusted his hands. "I hope all of you children know what you are doing. Won't be surprised if it brings another animal to live with us."
"Dad!" Hilbert cried in embarrassment.
"Hey, don't pin this on me, Mr. Adventure Guy," Jon teased. "Just do your thing. And make sure there is no destruction involved!"
The kids ushered to the mirror. Their plan was set in motion. Head to each other's world to swap the runestones so this entire ordeal can be settled with. Everyone had to grab the mirror to bring it to Hilbert's apartment. But as they were carrying the mirror, they ended up running to a group of citizens.
"Agh! Bastards!" a girl shouted in the group. "Those blokes broke our statue the other day!"
"Oy!" a teenage boy raised his glasses. "There's more of them!"
"Let's rip them a new one!" a woman yelled as she and the other people pulled out pitchforks, torches, and fire.
The kids all gulped at the sight of that, especially the blue haired kids.
"Hey, I got an idea on what to do about this," Hilbert chuckled.
"What?" David asked.
"RUN!"
The group ran screaming as the angry mob chased down this alternate Trolberg. This lasted for a few hours until midnight. Soon, the kids got back to their destination. Although the mirror was unscathed, the same cannot be said for the group. It was bad enough for Hilda and Hilbert to be beaten up yet again, but now they feel guilty getting their friends involved. Frida has some fire on her hair, Freddie has a bear trap on his head, David has black eyes, and Dana has some teeth missing. Not to mention that everyone has bruises and some blood dripping.
"Holy crap!" Alice cried as he examined the group. "That's an even worse beating than last time!"
"Don't remind us," Hilbert grumbled.
"Oy, this is worse than the beating Teressa gave us!" Dana cried.
"Come on, we got to get to my world to swap the runestones!" Hilda exclaimed as they all limped to place the mirror in the living room. The kids groaned as they all gathered.
"I really hope this pain gets healed…" Frida muttered.
"Let's grab the runestone!" Hilbert exclaimed.
Some of the children grabbed a suitcase and stuffed the runestone in it. They had to be careful with it since it is a crucial element to complete their adventure. Once they had been packed, they made their trek to the mirror.
"You guys ready to enter Hilda's Trolberg?" Hilbert spat out a tooth.
"You betcha!" Freddie let out a thumbs up.
"Let's get going before anything else happens!" Dana trembled.
Right on cue, some thunder crashed outside. The crazy thing was that the sky was clear. Everyone heard that a child got struck by lightning.
"Damn!" Frida cried. We gotta hurry up and swap the runestones before all hell breaks loose!"
"I'm coming as well!" Alice hopped into Hilbert's hair. "It would be interesting to see what Trolberg is like in the other side."
"Fine by me," Hilbert coughed. "Let's move!"
With no time to spare, the group ushered to the mirror. It was a tedious way back, but they got back home.
"Whoa!" Alfur was surprised by the amount of people that showed up. "Looks like we got the party here!"
"I'll say," Alice popped up and jumped on the ground. "You ain't too bad yourself."
Alfur rubbed his eyes. "Ah, a handsome devil you are!"
"I hate to interrupt this meeting," Hilbert winced in pain. "But we have something to settle!"
"Yeah," Hilda panted. "We have to swap the runestones immediately!"
As the group ushered to the table, they were flabbergasted to see Hilda's runestone nowhere in sight.
"What the hell?!" Both blue haired kids cried in disbelief.
"Where did it go?!" Frida asked.
"Some kids must have stolen it!" Alfur explained. "They broke in earlier to loot people of their houses!"
Hilda facepalmed. "Great. Another problem we need to worry about."
"How could they steal that thing?" David wondered. "It would be hot like hell by now!"
"Well, they got their way. But we must hurry up! Trolberg's going through some strange frequencies!"
"What do you mean?" Dana asked.
"The sky becoming purple is one of them," Alfur noted. "Not to mention the vitra going around town and assaulting people! Even the trolls are acting weird."
Hilda was concerned. "Do you know where mum is?"
"Last I heard, she ended up being attacked by some angry birds,"
Hilbert deadpanned. "I assume the Raven had nothing to do with that?"
Alfur inhaled sharply. "He is being pelted with eggs from an angry mob."
Hilda knew there was a lot of conflict to settle. There was no one way she could handle all of it, so she figured out a plan. "We have to split into groups again. David and Freddie will handle the vitra. Frida and Dana will deal with the rancid kids. Me and Hilbert will be able to calm down the trolls."
"I look forward to tackling some vitra," David sneered. "They won't know what will hit them."
"Should be a piece of cake to handle the kids since we can use magic," Frida smirked.
Suddenly, a flaming bottle broke the window. Everyone looked to see that Trolberg was in total chaos.
"We got to act fast! Trolberg is counting on us!" Hilbert cried as he led the others outside the apartment.
Several minutes later, Hilda and Hilbert reached the exterior of Trolberg. They checked around to see if there were any trolls causing mayhem. Just their luck, some of the trolls were rolling around the grass, making grass angels, while others were beatboxing. Both children were flabbergasted.
"What the hell is this?" Hilda asked.
"They look like they are drunk," Hilbert commented.
"We really got to swap the runestones," Hilda shook her head. "Even seeing the trolls like this is too embarrassing."
Just then, Hilbert felt something nudge on his leg. It was a baby troll hugging him. It spoke gibberish.
"He looks familiar…" Hilbert raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, that's Baba!" Hilda kneeled. "You haven't changed a bit!"
Eventually, the two kids heard heavy footsteps. It was a big troll. Hilda smiled as she recognized who it was.
"Mama!" Baba cheered as he ran up to her.
Trylla grinned as she looked up to Hilda. "It's so good to see you again, kid," She also noticed Hilbert. "And I see you managed to have a sibling."
"Actually, I'm her male counterpart. The name's Hilbert," the boy shook the troll's hand as a greeting.
However, their meeting was cut short when they felt the ground rumble. Everyone looked to see another troll approach. However, this was a different one, since it had red eyes.
"What the hell?" Hilbert was confused.
"Uh oh," Hilda felt her stomach drop.
Before anything else happened, the big troll grabbed a car and tossed it at some pedestrians, killing them. The giant trolled pounded its chest as it roared. Hilda and Hilbert can already tell that this guy is bad news. Trylla growled and told Baba to hide in the cave while she grabbed the others. The red eye troll took notice of the two blue haired children and did a slitting noise across its neck, meaning he is planning to kill them.
"We're dead," Hilda felt her shoulders drop.
Trylla started to make a run for it while carrying Hilda and Hilbert. The red-eyed troll roared and started going after them. And so, the chase was on.
To be continued…