Read Online Hilda - Cats by Paul Kater - Free Book Online Page A

come to grips with it, but
then he grinned and went over to see what Baba Yaga was brewing.
With combined magical efforts, they soon sat and enjoyed their
food. The two servants had found the strength to escape from the
dining room's temporary insanity.
    After their meal, the small group undid the
changes to the hall and went looking for their royal clients. After
locating them and waiting for the necessary diaper changes and
such, Hilda reported about their nightly adventures. Jordan looked
somewhat disturbed at the news that one of the people from the
castle had been captured in the cage and demanded that the man be
released.
    "Oh, sure, no problem," said Hilda. "We were
planning to let him go anyway. We have no use for him."
    "And from what I heard from him, I wonder how
you can have," Baba Yaga added. Hilda had already asked her to
release Morris, something she would gladly do.
    "So what are you going to do now?" King Louie
asked, who had joined the conference. "Morris can't be the person
we were looking for, I'm sure."
    "Certainly not," William agreed, "and no need
to look for Morris. We know where he is."
    Baba Yaga screamed with laughter and slapped
the wizard. The talk was over quite soon after that, and the three
went to the garden where the iron cage holding a very miserable
Morris was waiting for them. Morris jumped up as he saw them come,
clinging to the bars. Then he saw Baba Yaga and all but leapt to
the other side of the cage, his eyes large as he tried to push
himself out through the bars.
    Baba Yaga slapped the cage with a hand and a
bolt of magic, making it shake and rattle. "Good cage, Hilda, I
have to say. Sturdy stuff." Then she opened the door. "Hey, you
inside. You're Morris, right?"
    It looked like Morris nodded, but it could
also be the shaking of his entire body that he could not
control.
    "Good. Get out of this cage. We have better
use for it," Baba Yaga said. Morris did not need more
encouragement: he dashed out of the cage, in plain view of many
people that also worked in the castle. He was unable to go as fast
as he wished to make the blemish as small as possible. Babs waved a
finger. Morris stumbled and made a nose-dive into the dirt. "Sorry,
couldn't resist," the ugly witch grinned to her two friends.
    "I don't like what happened, though," Hilda
said, "I had really hoped that this mysterious thing would show up
so we could go home again. It's not the place itself, but the kids
that are getting on my nerves."
    Before there was a discussion about children,
a man in official soldier's costume came walking to the team of
magicals. "Excuse me. You are the honourable witches and
wizard?"
    "The clothes sort of give that away, don't
they?" Hilda grinned. "We are. Why?"
    The man nodded as a courtesy. "I have come to
inform you that the creature has struck again last night. Bare
bones of a rabbit and a peacock have been found near the sheep
field on the other side of the castle grounds."
    "Hmm. Never got into the taste of peacocks,"
Baba Yaga commented.
    The uniformed man blinked a few times but
kept his face under control. "If you would allow me to show you to
where the creature struck..." The magical people allowed him this.
On horseback and broom they made their way to the crime scene
rather quickly.
    They reached a large field. Sheep were
nervously running around, the four people who tried to keep them
calm were no match for the anxious animals. The arrival of three
people on brooms added to the upheaval. Baba Yaga and Hilda quickly
threw a magical barrier around the aggravated sheep to keep them
away from the bones.
    The man in uniform, he had introduced himself
as Marshal Bender, walked them to the small shed that was the only
building around. The bones lay in front of it. Some of them had
been kicked around by the sheep. The wool-providers were mainly
responsible for the mass of prints that were in the slightly soggy
ground. There also had been enough people stomping around, so
William was not sure