Hilda - Lycadea Read Online Free

of the couch rose up, making a kid of table. Rebel put the
tray on it, grabbed a large latte and sat down in a sack similar to
Maurizio's.
    Maurizio picked up a small cup with extremely
black stuff, took a sip and sat back. "Bene. This ship, you know,
is not the ordinary ship. We travel to places with it." He looked
intensely at Hilda and William. "Strange places."
    "Green Lake is not a strange place. I do
agree that this ship is a weird one," Hilda said, sampling her
cappucino. "Oh, good. Learn to make those, William."
    Maurizio looked at Rebel who treated him to a
mocking grin. "We go to places that are, as they say, out of this
world." He frowned at his own words for a moment and considered
Hilda. "Although I think that this world is also out of... this
world."
    William laughed. "I don't know what world you
come from, but I can relate. I'm not from here either."
    "Looks like you adjusted quite well, though,"
Rebel stated, "with your robes and flying around on a broom."
    "That's just because he's with me," Hilda
said over her coffee cup.
    Maurizio tried to keep the answers going.
"This ship flies through space. It goes to planets and...
dimensions?" He looked at Rebel.
    The woman nodded. "Yeah. I'm not all sure
what and how, but it appears we're thrown through artificially
generated wormholes that not only drift through space, but also
through time and other dimensions." As the two magicals stared at
her blankly, she elaborated: "It basically means that we never know
where we're going."
    Maurizio added: "And often we also do not
know where we came from."
    "I'll take a broom over something like that
anytime," said Hilda. "At least that goes where you want. So where
are you from? You don't sound like you are from near here. Or from
far away here. I've been around, you know, I've heard a lot of
dialects."
    The man with the parrot sat up somewhat
straighter. "I am, as I said, Maurizio Blunt. I am from la bella
Italia. I lived near the Lago di Garda. That was around 1965."
    William nodded slowly. "So you could be from
my world," he said. "I'm from a small town near Pittsburgh."
    "I have heard of Pittsboorgh," Maurizio
displayed his knowledge. "It is in America."
    Rebel put her coffee mug down. "I'm Donna
Abrahams. Call me Rebel and I won't hurt you. I'm from the future,
I guess. I was born in the 924th year after the Great Turnaround,
in the city of greater Darwin in Oz."
    "Oz? Australia?" William asked.
    "Yeah, that's what they used to call it
before the Great Turnaround," Rebel nodded. "More coffee
anyone?"

4. Broom

    During the second round of coffee Hilda and
William told the two strange people who they were and in where they
had arrived. Maurizio and Rebel both did not react too surprised,
they had seen quite a lot of things already, that much was
clear.
    "So you are doing actual flying and witching
and stuff?" Rebel asked. "That must be really cool. Maybe I should
get me a broom also, Moro."
    Maurizio looked at her, despair in his face.
"No. Please. You want to try everything. In every place we arrive
up you pick up some thing or some habit. Now you want to become a
strega? A witch? You are a handful the way you are."
    "Why does she keep calling you moron?" Hilda
asked.
    "Moron?" Rebel burst out laughing. "It's
Moro. Friends can call him Moro, he seems to like that. And so do
I, as it's easier than Maurizio. And faster." William gathered that
sometimes that had to be an advantage, if these people were really
jumping from one strange place to the next.
    "So, when are you people leaving?" Hilda came
back to business. "This is a weird place for a ship. We'll have to
find some explanation for the people in the village, and perhaps
even for King Walt. He's bound to hear about this sometime."
    "You have a real king here?" Maurizio's eyes
twinkled. "Can I see him? Does he have a big palace and a beautiful
wife and guards in armour?"
    Hilda looked at William. "Queen Velma isn't
exactly beautiful, is she?"
    "No, she misses some