Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hilda was officially keeping secrets from her mum, and had reluctantly enlisted Alfur to aid her in this campaign. But she didn’t think of herself as dishonest, or at least, not as someone who wanted to be. Her secret didn’t mean she couldn’t keep her promises elsewhere, such as the one she’d made to him that she wouldn’t take longer than necessary to get a hold on this watch. And while she hadn’t transformed since that night, she had figured out more about how it worked: she could in fact scroll between forms, and more recently learned how to turn the thing off without having to sit through a change first by holding the button down until the dial releases. That settled it: water had nothing to do with anything.

The next step would be to practice with it more, so she could become familiar with any and all other forms that the watch may have in store. So Hilda waited until the weekend when she wouldn’t be disturbed, so she could leave the walls and practice with the watch. It was fine to bring Twig along, since he wasn’t judgmental and she promised herself that she could be careful, provided she didn’t turn into the flaming one again–that one was benched, indefinitely.

As such, she got up on Saturday morning and had a very quick breakfast. Her mum gave her a little side-eye, but didn’t say anything as she turned back to her daily crossword. “Let’s see–17 across, a word meaning ‘to encourage an increase in speed.’ This feels like it should be easy…”

Turning her mind away from her own problems for a minute, Hilda looked across the table at Tontu finishing his own meal. “Tontu, do you have any ideas?”

The Nisse looked up and answered, without missing a single beat. “Try ‘accelerate.’”

Johanna shook her head. “Couldn’t be. It’s only four letters.”

Tontu approached the page as Hilda got up to take care of her dish, and when she turned around she saw that he’d taken the pencil and written in the aforementioned boxes, though he left the last one blank for reasons he then explained. “See? X-L-R-8. They even left a little 8 in that last space as a clue.” He then looked around the rest of the puzzle, his certainty waning as he realized that the pattern didn’t hold water when one considered the other answers. “That’s…how those little clues work, right? Or do they change based on context, unless…there’s some word I don’t know that starts with ‘27?’”

Johanna rolled her eyes. “Tontu, that’s just lining up with the numbers of the questions–that last one is where 8-down begins, and it has nothing to do with syllables or gramograms. Only the letters are supposed to intersect.” She pulled the paper and pencil away from him. “And next time, ask before helping yourself to my puzzle.”

Hilda noticed that his head hung a little as she erased his work. Overall, he and her mum had been getting along relatively well since moving in, but there was still a period of adjustment to be had. Despite her normally welcoming attitude, she was held back by a latent sourness towards Nisse in general, and Hilda wasn’t sure if she should ask why. What was more important was finding a way to bridge that gap, and she quickly came up with an idea for it. “Tontu, have you ever done a crossword all the way through, before?”

The Nisse shook his head at Hilda. “My old homeowner always finished it herself. I haven’t ever done one, but I wanted to help.”

Johanna’s expression did soften a bit at that, leading Hilda to her next point. “Well, why not ask Mum to show you? She’s a great teacher, and she does the crossword every day, after all.” Tontu looked up at Johanna hopefully…though it was difficult to tell through the fur covering his whole face.

This seemed to have activated some instinct in her mum as she gave a small smile in response. “Alright, I suppose I can spare a little time.” She scooted a little closer to Tontu’s chair and moved the thing back in.

——————————

There were four conventional ways out of Trolberg: the Björg Fjord (if you had a boat), the two archways where the railroad ran through the city, and of course the main gates. The latter was closest to Hilda’s flat and the most convenient choice, so she headed out down the streets towards the famed gates. She was going out there on a personal and important assignment: study the watch, where other people couldn’t see or get hurt.

But at the same time, her mother’s words echoed through her mind: “As long as you’re responsible and get home before dark, it’s not a big deal if you want to go out and stretch your legs once in a while.” This was her first time consciously exercising that privilege, and between intervals of recharging, it might feel good to experience the wilderness properly again for a while, without being distracted…

…but as she approached the main road leading out, she saw that it wasn’t happening, not today. In the distance, Hilda could still see the burnt wreckage in the distance of her accident with the watch from Sunday evening–it had taken them this long to send someone to investigate. And wouldn’t you know it, an entire squadron of Safety Patrol members were parked on the green.

So, this side of Trolberg’s outskirts was a no-go; too many potential onlookers. That left one of the other three. One side of the railway was even closer to the investigation, so that was out of the question. And since Hilda didn’t have a boat, that left the other end of the tracks.

——————————

“The street’s closed all day?” Hilda gazed up at the construction worker in disbelief. Between them stood a series of orange and white road barriers stretching across the entire street. Behind the woman was a patch of ripped-up tarmac, showing a deep tunnel below being filled with soil.

But Hilda knew better that this wasn’t the doing of a Vittra; they were always careful to pack the soil on thick enough as not to disturb objects or similar on the surface, a sort of “live and let live” prospect so that humans would leave them alone. If there was a road destroyed, it was done by the workers themselves, filling in the tunnel from above ground rather than trying to shovel dirt in through the proper entrances.

“Sorry. Orders of Ahlberg and the Safety Patrol.” Retorted the platinum-haired woman. “We have to fill in these Vittra tunnels right away: it’s the only way to secure our city’s borders.” Hilda rolled her eyes, part of her failing to believe that he’d actually followed through on what he’d said on TV. How could even he turn against a structure that had saved his life and hers, not one full week before?

And she knew for a fact that there were more tunnels than just this one. The Gorrill Gardens entrance revealed a number of subtunnels mapped out in a tangled web underground, and if they’d found one that was smack-dab under solid tarmac, then they were probably working on those, too.

“What about the Vittra?” That was her other thought. This was their choice in homes, so how had the city and Safety Patrol convinced them to leave? They likely didn’t, she thought, just rolling over their land and expecting them to flee without a fight. Maybe the trolls of centuries past took their eviction in stride–she wasn’t sure her history class could be taken fully seriously when it came to such a glossed-over subject–but it sounded nothing like the Vittra.

Just then, another worker came stumbling down the way and yelling in terror, as his body was assaulted by no fewer than three Vittra by her count, a familiar voice ringing out from the group. “Get 'em, boys! Go for the ankles!” Just as the group forced him to the ground, one of them leapt off and landed on his stomach, elbow first.

Hilda winced at the sight, not being a particular fan of watching sentient life forms getting hurt for no reason, but the construction worker seemed to be desensitized at this point. “We’re managing.” She then pulled out a map from her pocket. “Look, if you want to avoid the construction and get to the docks, it’s simple.” Hilda hadn’t actually said that, it was just an assumption this woman had made, but given that it had just been rendered her final option, she let her finish. “Just take Kittelsen Road, then follow the wall all the way around…to here.”

“That’s halfway around the city.” Hilda complained. It may be a Saturday, but even so, it was a complete waste of time to walk that far when she wanted to spend time practicing.

“That sounds like a “you” problem. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” The woman finished addressing Hilda and then lifted her shovel up as she charged towards the Vittra. “...hold 'em off, Donnie, I’m coming!”

Hilda felt disturbed about that. How could people dehumanize a fellow lifeform that much, to steal their homes and swat them away with a shovel, no less? Part of her felt like she ought to do something, even feeling herself reaching for her left wrist. Maybe they wouldn’t act so tough while being stared down by something a lot bigger and hairier?

But as she heard the sounds of the little battle turning almost…comically in favor of the Vittra, Hilda quickly decided against it. They were holding their own pretty well, at least until the city sent more people to fill the hole. And her turning into a giant dog creature couldn’t change that fact. It would only start a panic, and being seen next to a Vittra hole a second time–inside the city, like Ahlberg claimed before–would validate the theories of dangerous creatures entering the city. That, and the other incident with the troll on Parent’s Night, in which Hilda and Ms. Hallgrim had agreed to keep a secret. And for good reason…

——————————

Hilda groaned as she began going along the aforementioned path, cutting through a grassy alleyway as a little shortcut. Her only option now was to find a conch shell and catch a ride out into Björg Fjord so that she could reach some unoccupied land nearby. Getting a handle on this freaky watch was of utmost priority, but with as ridiculous as a detour there was, it hardly seemed worth it anymore.

“Ahlberg: he acts like he wants to protect the city, but all he’s doing is causing more problems.” She noted as she looked up at one of his posters, depicting him striking a similar pose as his ancestor by standing atop the head of a severed troll. Her mum worked for the Trolberg Bellmaker’s Corporation, not his PR group–and would never in her right mind make something so gruesome, anyway, which was a small relief.

But Ahlberg wasn’t just causing problems for her, but the Vittra and people, too. Changing into a creature against him would likely create more problems than it would solve, unless one of them was good at mind control or something. One way to find out, she supposed, but he’d gotten in the way of that as well.

And he acted like he was so perfect, too. “I bet he has some secrets…” A thought occurred to her. “...and I know just where to find those. Come on, Twig, let’s go!”

——————————

Secrets–of course!. Hilda had questions about Ahlberg, of course, but she was kicking herself not to have thought until now to ask the Rat King about the watch. Did it belong to Victoria Van Gale after all? What was it doing just laying out in the open? Were there other things it could do that she hadn’t yet discovered?

The answer to that last one, she figured, was obvious: yes. But while the specifics were a mystery, the fact that it was a machine backed up the idea that it was made by Van Gale, or at least by a human. So, if it were human business, then maybe the realm of secret-keeping was the way to go? And the answer to that, lay in the sewers.

An entrance was easy enough for her to find–it wasn’t the first time, after all. Twig followed behind her loyally without sign of fear, though the smell did seem to bother him a bit. But what else was she to do? It was like some other things involving the watch: “Try not to wait longer than necessary.”

And before long, the open space in the sewer’s depths came into view. Hilda and Twig stepped into the center and looked around for signs of the Rat King. And sure enough, a few solitary rats ran along the bricks and pipes, heading towards a cylindrical tunnel in front of her. Twig growled as he anticipated the arrival, but Hilda comforted him as the shadow began to loom.

“Well, well, well!” Just then, an inky swarm of rats came pouring out from the tunnel like a burst faucet. It compressed into a thinner shape as they circled the two visitors, Twig remaining on guard as the looming amalgam voice rang out. “You once again come to the Rat King, seeking secrets.”

At last, the figure loomed over them in its proper state, a conal shape almost resembling one giant rat in itself. Hilda wasn’t scared of rats herself, and Twig only in a cautionary sense–there were hundreds of them, after all. But to ask a question meant a confession of sorts, and she did remember what happened the last time she’d given the Rat King one of her secrets…

But this wouldn’t be like that this time. Who would come asking for this information, since the Marra had been persuaded to leave Hilda and her friends alone? She lifted up her sleeve and showed her watch to the Rat King. “Do you know anything about this watch?”

“Hmm…” A chorus on individual squeaks erupted, almost as if the individual rats were trading signals or something. “...I’m afraid there’s nothing to be said, at least based on appearance alone. Does it have a brand name, designer or something?”

“No, but…it does do this.” Taking in a breath (which was a double-edged sword, considering the stench down here), she activated the watch and turned the dial to someone familiar. The “wild mutt” might be off-putting to a bunch of rodents, so the little one seemed proper for this audience. She pressed it down, and for a split second it seemed as if the world had stilled, before a green flash of light…

…but this was not what she had in mind. Instead of low to the ground, Hilda found herself still eye-level with the Rat King, a little taller even. She looked down at herself and saw that she was now…liquid? Rubber? Molten metal? Whatever it was, it was black and had green lighting across its body in various geometric patterns. The only remnant of her former self was a yellow band across her body at an angle, resembling her scarf and embedded with the watch’s symbol. Behind her, Twig seemed initially startled, before looking up for a few seconds and then calming down.

A startling realization then came upon Hilda. She was certain that she had hit the button for the little frog creature; this one looked nothing like her, and it was two whole dial turns away clockwise. It didn’t seem like she had made a mistake, so did the watch have a malfunction? Does that mean…she could’ve just as easily gotten the flame one, and sent this whole methane-filled tunnel to the moon?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the Rat King. They looked her up and down, letting out another “Hmmmm…” before circling her the rest of the way and speaking, “This is a new one for me. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“It’s not just this one.” Hilda quickly clarified, ignoring the uncanny feeling of this form’s voice, which was very much like hers but like…on a recording. “There are nine others in here, but…” the fear of the flame creature was still very real. “...I don’t know if I should show you.”

For a moment, she worried that she may have offended the Rat King. But this was met instead by a laugh. “Playing hard to get? Fine, be that way.” It circled her again, her gaze now able to follow it around thanks to her apparently strangely-shaped head, which could make a full 360º turn without being hurt, and then just readjust to normal again. The Rat King went on, “You’re a fool to think you won’t use that thing again. Sooner or later, I’ll see your other forms myself. Besides, just having the thing seems to be the juiciest secret.”

Hilda cleared her non-existent throat. “Right. And uh…since I gave you this secret, could you look into it in exchange? Listen in for anyone talking about missing technology, shapeshifting, technology, maybe if Victoria Van Gale had something to do with it–that sort of thing?”

“Very well.” The Rat King moved back in front of her. “There’s now a standing order for anything I overhear about those subjects, anything that may relate to your watch.”

Hilda sighed in relief, as this seemed to be going well. “One more thing; do you know anything about Erik Ahlberg, the new head of the Safety Patrol?”

The Rat King approached her. “Mm, perhaps. But that was not part of our previous arrangement. For that little add-on, I require in exchange…” there was a stirring as the depth of the rats seemed to be interacting. And from the opening, a soggy menu was offered out with this order: “...a Fried Cod Sandwich, from the Salty Maiden!”

That old restaurant down by the docks, she was headed in that direction anyway. And since moving to Trolberg, her mum had made sure that Hilda had pocket money for snacks or the like when she was out on weekends, enough to buy the sandwich if the menu was to be believed. “That’s all?”

“You’ve clearly never tried their cod.” The Rat King commented, more of a retort than an actual secret, since even the rats wouldn’t be following Hilda all day long.

But for the record, Hilda was a vegetarian, so that was actually true. And, she had recently learned a lot of sandwich-based knowledge this past Monday, including suspicions about the Cod that banished any possible urge to make an exception long enough to try it.

Just then, the Rat King spoke up again. “Oh! And make sure it’s a good one. One that’s had time to age properly.” Twig let out a whimper behind her, as if he somehow sensed something amiss. “You can usually find them in the Dumpster out back.”

Hilda narrowed her gaze, realizing now that the Rat King wasn’t in need of finances so much as a delivery girl. Given the construction around the city, it made sense for even a rat to have trouble getting around. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

She began to walk away with Twig in two, balancing herself on two very weird and rubbery legs, as the Rat King called after them. “With extra sauce, if possible! Ooh, sauce…”

Chapter Text

“Alright, so what can you do?” Hilda queried her form as if it could somehow speak to her, stopping before the tunnel corner that led back to above ground. If she remembered the other instances correctly, she still had a few minutes before the watch shut off, so she’d better stay in the shadows for a bit. Maybe a little discovery in here wouldn’t be out of the question.

She could turn her head all the way around, but there was probably more to it than that, she reasoned. She looked down at her hands and tried the same thing, her apparent lack of bones allowing her whole arms to twist around like a screwdriver and then reattached to the shoulders as if nothing happened.

Then, a thought came upon Hilda. The sewers ran throughout the whole city underneath the construction. Granted, the presence of workers and Safety Patrol made it unwise to go out in broad daylight, but…maybe this form find a more creative way through these underground tunnels?

——————————

When Hilda and her friends had first met the Rat King, they had taken an entrance right up against the docks…and admittedly found the chamber by the chamber getting flooded and washing them into the open space. The way they had gone back out the first time, had been her entrance this time. If she wanted a shortcut to the docks…

“Twig, climb on.” Hilda asked, offering an amorphous hand down to him. The deerfox sniffed it and bucked a bit, likely due to it not smelling how she usually did and more like…metal, if she had to guess–she didn’t exactly have a nose right now. But he came around after a second’s hesitation, hopping into her palm and relaxing as she curled her fingers around him, the tips melding in with her wrist like a harness.

With that, Hilda looked up at the small ledge to her right and the horizontal pipeway at the edge of that wall. She stretched her other arm towards the former, her idea working as it was indeed elastic enough to reach. She pulled herself and Twig up slowly to mind him, and then walked over to the pipe.

Taking it one turn at a time, Hilda stretched over the vertical and diagonal twists, testing her form’s limits at the same time, until she made her way back to the entrance leading to the docks. She set Twig down and unharnessed him, before looking down at the watch. How had it been, and how long did it usually take to change back? She hadn’t been keeping count, and wished that it told time like a typical watch did.

Hilda hung out in the tunnel for the remaining minutes, scooting up against the wall when she saw the shadows of dock workers passing by, feeling her body flatten out into a splatter shape as she threw herself against the pipe’s wall. Not exactly what she’d had in mind…or maybe it was? In the wilderness, playing hide-and-seek was partly a matter of the hiding place, but also keeping still–pretending to be part of the tree, or like a stone. So, a quick musing about being flat like paper wasn’t surprising for her…could this form be responding to her thoughts?

But theorizing about it could wait for a less productive time. As the shadows of the workers went away, the siren of precursory beeps began to sound. Hilda quickly unflattened herself to avoid surprises and waited, until a red flash came about and she returned to human form. She wiped the scum from the bottoms of her boots as she stepped onto the wooden docks, glancing out at the blue building just across the way.

“Did you hear something?” A voice came from her right as more dock workers were about, one of them having turned away from her work as she glanced around. “Sounded like something beeped a bunch o’ times.”

It occurred to Hilda too late that she had timed out too closely to the entrance, that she was trying so hard not to be seen that she hadn’t even considered being heard. But as the dock worker’s gaze fell on her, an idea formed and she began to fiddle with her watch in an exaggerated manner, its red dial–which indicated some kind of cooldown period–resulting in it beeping in a similar tempo to when it powered down.

“Stupid digital watches, can’t even handle a sea breeze.” She grunted as she pretended to struggle, slapping her wrist around in pretend frustration before giving up and walking the other way. Such a self-involved explanation seemed to have satisfied the woman’s inquisition, as she shrugged and returned to her work.

——————————

The Salty Maiden was just a quick hop along the railway that led out of northeast Trolberg–ironically, she could’ve just gone that way and done her original plans. But she had already started the quest and promised a cod sandwich to the Rat King in exchange for their little arrangement, so she felt that she ought to see it through.

She came up to the old blue building and parted the old-timey push doors to come inside, letting Twig slide in before letting it swing shut. Part of her wondered if pets were allowed in here, but there was no sign posted in the window that said otherwise like in a lot of places, and this would be a quick visit anyway. Ignoring the tough looking regulars sitting in booths and the like, Hilda looked around for an employee. The only one wearing a name tag was a young man in a hairnet and a white sailing shirt, most likely a style choice in the uniform rather than meaning he literally worked on a boat.

“Excuse me.” Hilda asked, causing the man to turn and look at her. “May I take a look in your Dumpster?” This was met only by an eye roll before he walked away with his bussed dishes in hand–was he dismissing her, ignoring her, or trying to gesture with his eyes?

Looking that way, Hilda did see a door to the right and back behind her, next to the alleyway; whatever the case, that would be the way to go. But just as she began to turn around, her eye caught something else. At the table in that corner beneath the windows, there was a game being played between a bunch of grizzly men in sailing clothes…and, wait. “Wood Man?”

Completely out of the blue, Hilda’s old acquaintance from the wilderness sat at the door-side of the booth, waiting patiently as the biggest and burliest of the sailors rolled six dice across the table. As she got closer, she saw it land on…three red skulls, one red sword, and two white-crossbones. She wasn’t familiar with whatever game this was. Before Wood Man could pick up the dice and get invested in his turn, Hilda let curiosity take the wheel. “Wood Man, what are you doing here? I didn’t know you were in town.”

“That’s because I didn’t tell you.” He replied, his tone just as off-hand as always, as he picked up the dice for his turn. “Last time I was gambling, you proved to be quite distracting.”

Hilda’s brow furrowed. “You lost me on purpose to a giant, so I would help you rob him.” She still liked the Wood Man, but each encounter made her understand a little better why her mum didn’t really trust him.

“We can argue specifics later.” He began to rattle the dice in his wooden hands. “I need to focus; I’m going to leave a winner, even if it takes all night.” He tossed the things to the table as his opponent glared at him, the result being: two red skulls, two red crossbones, and two white dragon-heads.

“Oh, double dragons!” Hilda wasn’t sure if the other dice’s results meant anything, but one of the other sailors practically broke out in tears as another consoled him, while the main one pushed the pile of winnings over to Wood Man: a tiny trident surrounded by various coins and jewels, plus a sailing hat on top. “‘Sticks’ here takes it.”

Wood Man let out a whistle as he slipped the hat onto his head and pulled an orange cloth out from somewhere–maybe it was a napkin someone dropped–and collected the other winnings up in it. “I’m ahead of schedule.” The sailors glared at them as he wrapped it up and placed it at the end of an actual stick, slugging it over his shoulder. “I’ll be going now.”

The table clattered as the main sailor brought his fist down on it. Hilda and Wood Man halted as he spoke in a chillingly-calm-by-comparison tone. “Whoa. It’s bad form to leave a game of Sea Bones after a big win.”

“But very profitable.” The Wood Man retorted.

The sailor raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that?” He looked over to the two others, the crying one having pulled himself together as he stood up with an intimidating scowl, as the other one cracked his knuckles to banish any doubt of what was coming next.

Hilda looked over at Wood Man: sure he could and did mouth off a lot, but she didn’t want to see him get hurt over it. Not that there was any need or desire to dial for help–she could talk his way out of this. “Now, hold on; there’s no need to be uncivil.” She looked the big one right in the eyes, counting on the idea that he’d wouldn’t be as eager to take out his anger on a child rather than the presumably adult Wood Man. “What’s worse form: leaving a game early, or beating up someone who won fair and square?”

The three men shared a look, and the main guy groaned under his breath. “Fine.” He then got up in Hilda’s face–intimidation was another matter. “But if you walk away now, we’re never letting you play again.”

“Oh, yes. That’s more than fair.” She had nothing to lose in that; she’d take Dragon Panic any day over a game whose gambling element had players feeling this sore. She wisely backed away from the group and gestured for Wood Man to leave as well…

…only for him to shoot his mouth off again. “After losing that badly? I’d be scared, too.”

——————————

And before Hilda knew it, the burly man had directed her straight to where she’d wanted to go: the Dumpster. Very hastily, he wasted no time–he practically threw her in. Scratch that: he literally did, to the both of them.

Half-buried in trash, she heard him shout before storming off, “And don’t come back!” But while she was already here, Hilda saw fit to look around for a Cod Sandwich. And sure enough, it didn’t take long: a half-eaten hunk of fish between bread. There was only part of it left, but to her luck it was practically dripping with…tartar or whatever kind of sauce that was, or maybe just some kind of white Dumpster juice?

Whatever the case, the Rat King had specified to get it from here, so for all Hilda knew, they had meant Dumpster juice all along. So that would make up for it being half-eaten. She popped out of the Dumpster with the thing in hand. “Yes, a Cod Sandwich!” She looked down and saw Twig waiting for her on the ground, thankfully having been spared from the man’s wrath. Suppose he was too cute to be given the boot?

“Is Mom not feeding you enough?” Wood Man commented, and she couldn’t tell if he was being witty or had genuine concern, since she was elated to find something like this from the trash.

“Oh, no.” She explained, stuffing the Cod Sandwich into her satchel. “I went to see the Rat King, to get information on Ahlberg and also…” she stopped then, wondering if she should say, before reminding herself that Wood Man’s lack of interest in other people made him good for a secret. “...also about my new–”

“Is this one of your longer stories? I’m on a tight schedule.” Wood Man interrupted, proving more that he wouldn’t be telling her mum about it even if he did know. “I need to leave now if I’m to find the Draugen before sunset.”

Hilda climbed out of the Dumpster and looked to see Wood Man strolling out of the alleyway whistling a tune. “Draugen?” That term didn’t ring a bell with her. It sounded remarkably like “dragon”, so for all she knew, it was another name for the Lindworm. What business did the Wood Man have with a mythical creature, with social anxiety? Did he want to hang out in her private garden? She wasn’t good with people, but she did like exotic plants; where might he come down on that scale?

Whatever the case, Hilda’s curiosity had been piqued. She caught up to Wood Man and asked, “Wait, what is a Draugen, anyway?”

Though self-interested and a tad dismissive, Wood Man had always been a good storyteller. “Draugen, plural, are the spirits of drowned sailors. Doomed to salt on a ghost ship, forever separated from their loved ones…and decent fresh produce.”

Hilda gasped at that. “Those poor souls!” She couldn’t imagine not getting to see other people in the afterlife. The ghosts in Trolberg simply bided their time until their loved ones died as well, and then everyone would be together again; but it sounded like, unless they had been sailing with their families, the Draugen wouldn’t have that luxury.

Hilda ran to catch up with Wood Man again, with Twig at her heels. The Rat King could wait and get their Cod Sandwich later; plus, they could fill the extra time by seeking secrets–the Draugen didn’t even have their personal belongings with them unless it could be carried on a sailing ship, and even that must get old after a while. If Wood Man was going to find them, she wanted to help. “Do you think you can find them?”

“I truly hope so.” Wood Man’s tone sounded wistful all of a sudden–he was an unpredictable person, so maybe the sad tale had gotten to him, too? Not enough to keep him from stopping at the Salty Maiden to gamble first, but then again: unpredictable.

“If you’re going to help the Draugen, then I want to come with you.” Hilda declared, resolution building in her tone. She wasn’t sure how to do that, but Wood Man likely knew. He may be detached, but he for one looked before leaping, in stark contrast to Hilda herself.

“Well, now that you mention it…” He slowly looked up towards the docks and Hilda followed his gaze, her expression widening at the sight. “...I did wonder how I was gonna sail this all by myself.”

A sail boat, red and white in color, with a gangplank and a steering wheel and everything. Tall white sails and a ladder leading up to a crow’s nest…but without the basket, so it was just a small platform. But still a boat: “This is what you won?”

“Do you think they were that angry because I’d won a hat?” Hilda had actually added it up to the thrill of victory and the money they’d lost, but come to think of it, losing one of their ships had to mean a rough time for them, especially if it was part of their livelihood. She made a mental note; after they finish helping the Draugen, she would try and convince Wood Man to return it.

“Now, come on.” Wood Man ordered, perhaps making use of his new hat after all by playing captain. Being in no position to refute, Hilda and Twig began to ascend the gangplank, only for Wood man to halt them. “Not him.”

Twig whined a bit at the rejection, and Hilda scooped him up into her arms. “Sorry, but if Twig doesn’t come, then neither do I.” She wasn’t entirely sure if she was completely bluffing, but she wasn’t going to leave Twig on the docks by himself. If worst came to worst, she’d drop him off at home and use the watch to get into the Björg Fjord; one of her forms looked relatively aquatic, and one or two others looked like they could fly. Or maybe ask a Water Spirit, though it would be kind of a lot to expect them to put up with a potentially hours-long trip into…she didn’t know where, exactly.

Neither choice was a very good plan, but Wood Man needed a first mate, so she was sure that he would back down regardless. And he did, sighing as he reached into his bindle sack. “Fine…” He retrieved a red-blue cloth and tied it around Twig’s neck. “...but he has to wear this scarf.”

“Is it lucky?” Hilda asked.

“No.” Wood Man answered, “But it is adorable.”

Before long, Wood Man had gotten them moving. Pushing off from the docks, he stood at the mast in control of the steering wheel, while Hilda glanced back at the land. As important as their task was, she couldn’t help but get lost in a moment of nostalgia. This was like any one of a bunch of old movies she vaguely remembered seeing, where the characters look back at the shore before heading out to an adventure at sea. There was something appealing about it…

“Tighten the main sheet, ease off the vang.” Wood Man’s voice cut through the spray of saltwater around the boat, bringing Hilda’s idle mind back to reality. She looked back at him, and then around at the contents of the boat, trying to figure out what he was telling her to do, before giggling sheepishly.

Wood Man then rephrased it. “Pull on the big rope, loosen the little one.”

“Aye-aye, Wood Man!”

——————————

The trip through and out of The Björg Fjord was a quaint trip. Other than having to pull and loosen a rope here and there, Hilda was mostly free to gaze out at the fading image of Trolberg behind them. The city itself was nice and had lots of places to explore, but away from the hustle and bustle where it was quiet, natural, where they could be completely free–that was Hilda’s definition of an ideal day. It might be better if David and Frida were here, but the former had to practice for the Warblers and the latter had studying to do; after the incident with the ghost had made her lose confidence in herself, she’d insisted on taking the extra time to reset her organization skills. Such is the life of a leader, Hilda supposed.

Over time, they passed by familiar sights. To their left, Cauldron Island appeared over to the side, ironic since she had just been thinking of the Lindworm not too long ago. But curiously, Hilda also noticed a Safety Patrol vessel parked off to the side. What could they want with her? She hoped that it was just engine trouble and they would be on their way soon.

To their right, however, a Water Spirit came up from the surface and surfed alongside them for a while. That was a happier sight.

Twig stood at the mast, watching as a few Salt Lions jumped out of the water occasionally and did flips before falling back in. Part of Hilda was happy to walk over and join him, but another part of her kept thinking about how small he was, and how close to him those big aquatic carnivores were. “Huh. Is this how it feels to be Mum sometimes?”

Chapter Text

Once the Salt Lions’ activities had relaxed, Hilda was back to reveling in the environment. “Ah! What a lovely day.” If nothing else, this moment would be practically perfect…save for the Cod Sandwich stinking up her satchel.

“I know.” Wood Man’s reflection appeared in the water next to hers. “Awful, isn’t it?”

Hilda’s expression fell. “What do you mean?”

Wood Man stared off into the clear horizon, hands folded behind his back as he explained his reasoning. “Draugen like to appear during storms. We’ll never find them on an annoyingly perfect day like this.”

That made sense, since even the ghosts on land didn’t care for sunlight, it stood to reason that sea ghosts would prefer some sort of dark gloomy environment. But the tragedy was not only that they were trapped out at sea, but appeared only in miserable weather that would scare away live sailors, so there wouldn’t be anyone else to keep them company. And now, it was keeping Hilda and Wood Man from reaching them. If only they could change the weather…

Hilda had a thought then. There might be a way after all; there could be Weather Spirits around here. She stood at the bow and looked around at the surrounding clouds, and sure enough, she could make out the outline of a face on one of them. “I have an idea.”

Although, this spirit was well out of reach. Even as Wood Man caught on and steered underneath the large cloud, Hilda couldn’t seem to wake him up, standing at the stop of the centerpole and calling out, only for her voice not to carry far enough for some reason. Usually while over water, they would float much lower than this; maybe Raven had set a new boundary for them or something?

Whatever the reason was, the spirit remained out of reach. Which left Hilda’s mind running to her backup plan. She didn’t know much about controlling the weather, but she knew for a fact that she had someone with wings. She set down her satchel and activated the watch, noticing a curious gaze from Wood Man, but no verbal objection. She turned the dial to this known shape: a giant bug with large jagged wings…although, there was also someone else. One turn clockwise brought her to the legless silhouette she’d almost chosen when Erik Ahlberg was in trouble. It looked like a ghost–maybe that meant it could float in the air? And that might be fitting, using a ghost form on a ghostly adventure?

“Nah. They might take that the wrong way.” She mumbled to herself. Besides, levitation was just a hunch. One that, if wrong, could leave her stuck in a state for several minutes, no better off than she was as a human. But she knew the other one had wings, so that was her best bet. She turned it back to the bug and pressed the dial down…and then the split second of everything going still…and then the green flash.

Hilda opened her eyes, and found that her vision had been enhanced. The strange horn-shaped things jutting out from this form’s black silhouette, turned out to be eye stalks, four to be precise. She rotated them and got a good look at Wood Man, who showed no signs of alarm or reaction…or maybe that was just because he only ever had the one facial expression. Twig was off to the side, and despite a precursory sniff and a bucking motion, he seemed to have adjusted fully to the sight of Hilda shapeshifting.

Moving on, she then glanced down at herself: she had four legs and two arms, each green in color save for her three-fingered hands being inky black. Her body was wrapped in a red-and-black rubbery suit of sorts, matching her clothes’ pattern save for lacking the skirt, and the scarf, and…hey, wait. She still had the beret. Her reflection didn’t show it simply due to it blending in with the color of her head. Speaking of which, the watch’s symbol was set in the middle of what she assumed was her forehead, and her teeth were oddly…geometric.

All in all, this form wasn’t very easy on the eyes. “Oh, well.” Hilda commented, thinking that this squeaky voice sounded even more ridiculous than the little one’s. “Wings are wings.” She began to beat them furiously and tried to take off into the air.

Which admittedly, took a few tries: suddenly going from no wings to bug wings, ones that beat as fast as helicopter propellers, was a bit jarring. And she fell multiple times, face-planted on the deck as Wood Man watched in disinterest.

But soon enough, she managed to get airborne in one try and keep at it without thinking about it consciously. All the while, she kept calling out. “Hello there! Excuse me!”

Finally she got high enough, and the Weather Spirit finally stirred awake at the sound of her voice. He turned around with a start, bucking a bit at the sight of a giant bug, but then shifting to an offended tone by having been woken up. “Excuse you, indeed!”

“I was just wondering if we could bother you for a change in weather.” Hilda then finally managed to hover in the air, without wobbling to and fro. “A little drop of rain, perhaps?”

The spirit raised an eyebrow in apparent disbelief. “Eh? You, a giant bug flying over the water, desire rain?” He scoffed a bit, puffs of mist coming out of his mouth. “You’re too grand a size to dodge raindrops, and everyone knows that soiled wings cannot fly, so you’ll fall in and get swept away.”

This Weather Spirit seemed to know a surprising amount about bugs, but then again, so did Hilda, living in the wilderness and occasionally following them out of fascination. She wasn’t one to judge. “It’s not for me–we’re meeting people here soon. Draugen, no less, so we need some rain for them. I’ll land on our boat before you start.”

“Well for your information, you putrid dragonfly–or Draugenfly, in this case…” The spirit chuckled a bit before continuing, “I was once happy to squall on cue, in my youth. But I’m an adult now, and long past indulging such banal requests. Especially when it’s for the sake of those paranormal boors you’re trying to meet.”

“Boors?” Hilda raised an eyebrow back…or it felt to her like she did; the upper left eyestalk? “That’s a bit harsh for people who’ve been stuck out here for ages with no relief. All we want is to help them out.”

The Spirit looked her directly in the eyes. “Really?” There was a glimmer of approval appearing in his tone. “You intend to escort those maritime philistines back to the land proper and out of my favorite waters?”

Again, he was being a bit rude. Hilda might’ve chosen to scold this Spirit right then and there, if she hadn’t come to ask for a favor. “That’s…one way to put it, yes.”

“That’s grand! Er, I mean…” In a split second, his good mood seemed to abate, before shifting back into a more intense tone. “Well, it’s about time someone did something about those ectoplasmic plunderers! Those…briney briganders!” All the while, his cloudy body began to expand, vapor flowing from him to block out the sun. “Those…scurvy soul-bidden sailors of stormy seas, showing up every time I release a little pressure…!”

What he’d said before implied that Weather Spirits didn’t need to be angered or excited in order to produce rain, but Hilda concurred that this was a quick way for it on short notice. Either way, it was best that she landed now.

Or she would have, if she’d taken the Spirit’s warning more seriously. A sudden downpour came from the newly-made overcast, rain and wind knocking Hilda from the air. “Gah!” Her vision of the boat was quickly replaced by grey-ish blue, and seconds later, she felt herself being plunged into the water.

Hilda scrambled back up to the surface, which wasn’t easy given her current state: she naturally knew how to swim as a human, but this thing’s body shape wasn’t designed for it; a scramble of insect limbs flailing about, she could barely keep her head above water, no matter how hard she kicked. She finally made it to the haul of the boat and tried to climb up, but the slippery sides rocking in the waves–it was impossible.

Hilda was thrashing and coughing up sea water…until one time, she ejected something more disgusting. An entire glob of phlegm came out of her throat and stuck to the side of the haul. “Yuck! That came out of me?”

“And ruined the varnish, probably.” Wood Man commented. But then he extended a stick down to her, the same he’d used for his bindle. “Yes!” She grabbed it and pulled up with all of her might, and she struggled along with him. As she did, she accidentally touched the phlegm…and found a hand-hold, as it was extremely thick and sticky. Not one to look a gift horse(fly) in the mouth, Hilda used both to haul herself back onto the deck.

She flopped onto her back, panting in exhaustion. “That was deeply traumatic, but…such is the life of…” she still fought to catch her breath as she looked over at Wood Man and Twig; only the latter of whom seemed to be genuinely concerned in her wellbeing. “...ah, you know the rest.”

——————————

Hilda thought about taking off to find the Draugen by air, but by the time the downpour turned to a drizzle, and then into a thick fog hanging over the surface, her time was up. She turned back to normal with a red flash…and Wood Man still didn’t react. Apathetic to her new abilities, or just accustomed to weirdness? Given his full bookshelf on creatures and the like, he may simply be un-fazable at this point.

Hilda pulled herself together and stood up at the bow next to Wood Man. “Did it work?”

“See for yourself.” Hilda followed Wood Man’s gaze out into the fog directly ahead, and sure enough, there was a shape coming towards them. Gradually becoming clearer as the distance closed, it was a large brown sailing ship, massive in size with a thick wooden spar sticking out in front, and a little balcony placed at its base–it looked like it could’ve been a comfortable ship in its day.

But not anymore. Being a ghost ship meant that its crew died at sea, and the cause was quite clear: the haul of this vessel was punctured with holes here and there, the largest being half the starboard side’s haul gone and the wooden inner skeleton exposed for anyone to see. The sailors’ demise wasn’t a peaceful one, for sure. Hilda wondered as to how they should board, whether she should wait until the watch turned on to fly them up, but then the ship stopped alongside theirs, a rope ladder flipping over the side and unrolling down to them.

It was probably better that way; she could save the watch’s battery in case of emergency, and make a better first impression–they were former humans themselves. She scooped up Twig under one arm and ascended the ladder, climbing onto the main deck with Wood Man behind her. The entire thing seemed to be…empty. Were the Draugen gone? Did they need to be formally summoned on top of everything else, like with the chanting and the Rod of Resurrection? Did Wood Man think to bring those things himself, since this was his quest after all?

Or, maybe the Draugen were just elsewhere. There was an entrance to what looked like the captain’s quarters, two swinging doors marked with a skull and crossbones over top. She went to reach for it, but stopped when she heard the sounds of bones rattling.

Glancing back, she saw an eerie green light erupt from the gaps in the boards–the windows, the empty space, anything that wasn’t wooden or alive was glowing.

From the holes in the haul, the massive one on the deck, and the seemingly abandoned crow’s nest up above–came dozens of green blobs flying towards them.

They formed into a group a few feet around the live visitors and took shape. These were ghosts, alright: most of them men, human-shapes made of otherworldly plasma, skulls and a few remaining bones easing the work of maintaining their body shape. Except the ones from the graveyard were blue in color, while these were green; perhaps this was a consequence of not getting laid to rest properly?

The Draugen crowded around Hilda, Wood Man, and Twig. Their mean gazes made them seem displeased at having outsiders on their ship, contrasting the apparent hospitality of sending them a rope ladder. But then the shape of a final Draugen at the back of the group caught Hilda’s eye, a female shape topped with seaweed for hair, slipping on a beaten-up yet pronounced brown coat. She floated closer to them, where Hilda could see that she had a hook…leg? Like, she’d replaced the fibula bone in her right leg with a large fishing hook, instead of doing so with her hand like in the movies.

Speaking of hands, there was something going on; was her left one…a claw, like she’d grafted on a crab’s arm in place of her old one? Or maybe it was once flesh, a deformity she’d had since birth? Or both–Hilda was born with natural blue hair, so was being born with a whole crab hand really out of the question?

Not that it mattered; the group of Draugen parted to let through the one who was obviously their captain. She floated towards them and set her boots down on the deck, looking the three of them over for a few seconds, before announcing in a rustic accent--one that movies often used for sailors from the olden times--“Welcome aboard, swabs!” She broke out into a laugh, in which her entire crew joined in.

Hilda relaxed a bit. It seemed like the whole mean look was apparently just a bluff, as they seemed grateful for the company after all. The Captain then retrieved a tankard from one of her sailors and offered it to Hilda. “Special Draugen grog, to celebrate your arrival. Enjoy!”

Hilda accepted the drink and took a sip, but gagged and spit it out at the familiar taste of brine. “Is this just sea water?” Looking down, she saw that it was true; there was even a small fish swimming around inside.

The Captain explained, “We’ve been out here a while.” She coughed and took back the tankard, given that Hilda didn’t want it. “The actual grog ran out some time ago.” She then tipped it back and dumped the contents into her boney gullet, doing little more than soaking her exposed ribcage, as if cherishing the memory of a time with proper beverages.

Just then, another Draugen broke away from the crowd. “Hold on, is that a deerfox? Oh, it’s bad luck to have a deerfox on board a ship. Everyone knows that.” Hilda crouched down and looked Twig over; while she didn’t know any stories about any deer foxes other than him, he didn’t seem like bad luck, probably just coincidences passed around from person to person.

Which included Wood Man, go figure. “Told you.” Hilda shot him a glare; he could’ve specified that to Hilda before she decided to take him along instead of back home first. Either way, she felt a need to hold onto him now, on the off-chance someone in that crew was taking that tall tale to heart and was now thinking to toss him overboard.

“We’re already dead, Nicholas!” The Captain shouted. “How much worse can our luck get?”

Nicholas cowered away like a timid animal and let out a sigh. “No respect.” Twig then wandered over and sniffed his ghostly leg, causing him to gasp and shy away for a second, before a surprised bark brought him back, learning that the deer fox had no intention to attack–only curiosity and cuteness. “I do like its scarf, though–adorable.”

Wood Man replied, “Thank you.” Hilda fought to control her eye roll, before stepping forwards and clearing her throat.

“We have traveled a long way to find you, and now that we have, we can help finally get you home!” Finally, they could get this show on the road already.

However, the Draugen didn’t share her optimism. They stared at her unenthused, before breaking out in a chorus of laughter. The whole lot of them, cackling harder than Trevor and his gang playing Ring and Run. Had she said something ridiculous? Were they laughing at her?

“Home?” The Captain asked. “We don’t want to go home. Back on dry land, we’d be simply ghosts.” She then flew up into the air and announced. “Out here, we are Draugen!” She flew over to the steering wheel and stood before it, swatting the thing and spinning around. “Free to roam the seas to our once beating hearts’ content! Who’s with me?”

The crew cheered in agreement, and part of Hilda relaxed at the information that it wasn’t her that they doubted–just the idea. Granted she was a child and underestimating her was a common mistake, but the rejection that always came with it, was still very painful for her. But, something still didn’t quite add up. “Wait! If you’re happy out here, then why did Wood Man want to…”

Come to think of it, he had left her side a minute ago. She looked around to see where he’d gone, only to gasp in realization: another Draugen had found him first. The crowd parted as he approached with Wood Man dangling by the leg in his left arm, and his right clutching a small tool of some kind–a telescope screwed onto a protractor? “Caught this one trying to steal our coral sextant.”

“Wood Man!” She wasn’t even surprised at this point, given the game of Sea Bones and the aftermath of Elf Poker, but she was certainly disappointed that he’d gone off-track so quickly. “You said you wanted to help the Draugen!”

“Actually, you said that.” Wood Man rationalized. “I said that I wanted to find them.”

Technically, that was true. But he had let her believe it in order to have help on what was apparently little more than a burglary. “Wood Man…” Just then, there was a clatter of bones as the Captain came down to the deck next to Hilda, casting a smug glare down on him.

“I assume this is the part where you punish us?” Wood Man commented, pretending to be disinterested…or not, Hilda was finding him nearly impossible to read at this point.

This was met only by a rousing cackle from the Captain. “I admire your boldness!” She then shot a glare off to her right. “We could use more of that around here.”

And there was Nicholas over there, looking rather dejected from before. “Well, I’m sorry I respect the rules.” Hilda could’ve sworn there was passive-aggression in his tone; the Captain didn’t keep her ship that tight, apparently.

“We’re not going to punish you.” The Captain turned back towards Hilda and Twig. “We’re going to make you Draug-!” Just then, a small beeping sound cut her off. Hilda’s blood ran cold when she heard the watch on her wrist reactivate, glancing down to see the light having turned green again.

And evidently, it had spiked the interest of the Draugen captain. “What’s that you’ve got there?” One that Hilda was in no hurry to indulge.

“Nothing important!” Hilda impulsively tucked her arm behind her back, a foolish move as it immediately called attention to it, causing one of the other Draugen to seize her wrist and yank her up into the air, so that the Captain could clearly see.

But in her defense, she’d only put a quarter second’s thought into this.

Chapter Text

The Captain floated closer to Hilda as she dangled helplessly. “Let me go!” She kicked her legs in futility and tried to reach the dial to no avail. Twig yapped and nipped at the Draugen’s boney shins, but it was apparently painless to a ghost without flesh, and any intimidating pretense that deer foxes had once held among the crew had been dashed by Nicholas.

Soon, the Captain looked at the watch proper, narrowing her gaze as a smile came across her skull. “What a pretty bracelet! The lasses of the land are really living it up!”

“Wait, it’s not–” Hilda tried to explain, before a cramp cut her off. “Ow!” She fought to keep her focus on the Captain before her. “It’s…not–”

“Not for sale, you mean?” The Captain presumed for her. “Ha! I don’t intend to buy it; I’d rather bargain.”

She gestured to Wood Man, who still dangled from the grip of a Draugen crewmate. “Tell you what; give me that glowing emerald bracelet of yours, and we’ll set you all free! You can even keep the sextant–we already know the Fjord like the backs of our hands!”

This…actually sounded like a fair deal. Hilda still held mixed feelings about the watch; the adventurer in her wanted to stick this out, assuming that she could keep it from hurting her family and friends. But what if she couldn’t? What if she was doomed to mess up again, over and over again no matter how hard she tried? Was it better to unload this thing now and keep them all safe?

But of course, one thing left that dilemma moot. “I, uh…can’t take it off.”

“Why not? What’s stopping you?” The Captain sneered, before adopting a sly expression and a teasing tone, like a parent in some cheesy movie. “Was it a gift of betrothal?”

“NO!” Hilda shot back; she felt disturbed by the details of the Draugen’s very different era of living. “It’s not like that; I literally can’t take it off! It’s stuck on.”

The Draugen holding her up then brought her closer and examined the watch more closely. “Hmm, it does seem to be pretty tight there.”

“Is that so?” The Captain replied. “Well, one way to fix that.” She made a gesture and a barrel floated over to them. It landed on the deck, and Hilda’s wrist was taken in the crewmate’s grip and slammed down on the surface right before the Captain. “Now, don’t you move, lass.”

The claw-shaped hand of hers then came into view, and Hilda’s heart nearly stopped. “Don’t lop my hand off!” She tried to pull herself free, but the Draugen holding her still was bearing down on her arm with every bit of his weight, which wasn’t much due to being just bones and ectoplasm, but to an eleven year old she may as well be shackled to this surface. “Wouldn’t you prefer something else? Wood Man has treasure in his bindle; he’d be happy to part with some of it. It’s back on our ship, just send someone to go fetch it.”

“Don’t speak for me!” Wood Man called out from his perch in the crewmate’s grip.

The Captain gave her an annoyed look. “Relax, will you? I’m not interested in more shiny coins or whatnot; being dead, we know by now how little good it does you.” She rolled her eyes and looked back down at the watch. “This bracelet happened to catch my eye, so I’m just going to loosen the band’s grip a bit and pull it off, hopefully without damaging it too much.” She snapped the claw a few times in demonstration, and then slowly brought it down to the watch. “You can keep the hand; we already have plenty of those to go around.”

It didn’t seem like there was much choice. Mastering the watch was a big “maybe” anyway, and she couldn’t even reach the thing, which left even a clumsy rescue of Wood Man out of the question. Hilda gave into the part of her that felt this might be for the best, holding still as the Draugen Captain lowered her claw to the surface of her hand, and carefully edged it towards the watch. She began twisting the tip of the bone back and forth like a screwdriver, the smug smile abandoning her in a matter of seconds with no avail. “Come on, now!”

Just her luck, the watch was even more stubborn than Hilda expected. The edge of the Captain’s claw seemed to be a weapon that would work wonders in a pinch, and if she were alive and equipped with a proper crab-like shell over top to back it up, then Hilda thought it may have worked. Alas it was ineffective now, the band remaining stuck on her wrist with a bond like industrial glue…or just being fused to her skin, given that the twisting motions were beginning to hurt. “Ow! Easy with that thing!” Hilda gritted her teeth as the sharp bone began poking her a bit.

“Almost…got it.” The Captain grumbled as she worked at it, until at last she wedged her claw under the band, the first step to peeling it from her wrist.

But the watch itself wasn't on board. The green light began to intensify as a series of rapid beeps began to fill the air, less like a warning this time and more like…an alarm? The light grew even larger, until a green bubble of energy formed around her arm, so bright and hot that Hilda had to turn her face away, or else risk going blind.

And then, the sound halted as the light turned white…or that’s how it seemed from Hilda’s angle, before she was suddenly thrown back…but taking the watch with her, as it still remained attached. She slammed against the outside wall of the Captain’s Quarters and slid half a meter down to the deck. “Ow…” This was certainly a painful day for her. She opened her eyes and saw that the barrel had been blown away, as well as the Draugen from before, save for their disembodied bones and the brown coat.

Hilda looked down at the watch. The light was going back to normal, and she grunted as she felt it suddenly tighten, and looked to see the tiny gap created by the Captain disappearing in a second’s time. Once it had reattached, the band relaxed, and Hilda let out a sigh of mixed feelings; the watch was permanent, after all. “That’s that, I guess.”

“An educated guess, I hope.” Wood Man came out from behind the overturned barrel, having wriggled free during the explosion, but Hilda gasped at the sight of him; from head to toe, his entire body had been turned inky black from the burst of energy–was there any scrap of living wood that Hilda wasn’t going to inadvertently burn?

But then, he proceeded to shimmy his entire body, shaking off the black dust and revealing his typical brown exterior. “Just like my educated guess is that this barrel spilled gunpowder on me, so please don’t blow up any more ghosts until we’re off the ship.”

Hilda felt relief at that, but it was very brief; a wave of ectoplasm came over the sides of the ship as the Draugen quickly returned to their bones and stood in formation, the Captain taking an additional second to brush off her coat, which had also gotten some gunpowder on it. “Well, apparently that thing is magical, and it likes your skin enough to stay wedged on.”

She then put her good hand to her chin. “Of course, we wouldn’t have that problem, if you were part of the crew.” Her confident sneer was returning as she made an announcement. “So, we’re going to make you Draugen!”

“Uh…” She was talking to a whole crew of dead sailors, so Hilda already knew the answer to the question she was about to ask. “…how exactly do we become Draugen?”

“Same way as the rest of us.”

——————————

And that’s what led to a coil of rope being wrapped around Hilda, Twig, and Wood Man. Attached to a winch that had likely once held up a lifeboat, hung off the side of the deck, now lowering them to their deaths just below the surface of the water. “See? Deer Fox: bad luck.” Wood Man commented in his typical gall, inciting a growl from Twig.

He was cut off when they were suddenly lowered further, in one big jerking motion followed by a sharp creak. “Sorry.” The Captain called down to them. “We’re also quite short on winch oil–I drank it all!”

She erupted into a fit of laughter as Wood Man responded, “Take your time!”

Hilda glanced over at him and scoffed; she was one to beat herself up for things going wrong, but this time–it was definitely his fault. “I can’t believe you! I thought you wanted to help, but you were just being selfish, again. And I nearly got some of my skin taken off because of it.”

“Is it selfish to steal a magic coral sextant to put in my dining area?” Wood Man replied, acting as though it were a proper rebuttal. “I’m giving it a nautical theme.”

“Yes, absolutely!” But admittedly, his explanation had helped a bit, namely that the mention of “nautical” things had brought something back to Hilda’s mind; she was pretty sure that one of her forms could be useful here. “But if you want to help us now, including yourself, then help me get my arms free.”

“Fine.” They wriggled around a bit as Wood Man went to work, but paused as they saw the crowning ridge of a fin-like collar breaking the surf. They jerked backwards as a hungry Salt Lion leapt up towards them with an open maw, before going back to it.

He managed it after all, holding Hilda’s elbows and giving them each a tug to pull them free. In the little space, she managed to bring her hands up and face the watch; the rope’s knot was within reach, but she knew that dropping into the water as she was would lead them to getting drowned or eaten.

She pressed the button and went ahead to select, which didn’t take long as it was right next to the bug. The Draugen Captain gave her a look, chuckling a bit at their apparent stupidity. “Go ahead! We’re making your deaths slow out of habit, but if you want to set off that ‘bomb bracelet’ of yours again and grant a quicker end for your Wood Folk friend and the Deer Fox, who are we to judge?”

Wood Man looked up at her. “It’s Captain Wood-Folk-Friend to you, and that’s not what she’s doing!” He then turned to Hilda, with genuine concern in his (mono)tone now. “It’s not, right?”

“Just give me a couple more seconds…” With that Salt Lion jumping out at them, and the hole in the haul behind them, Hilda had to time this just right. She saw it skimming the surface again. “...wait for it…and…” It broke through the spray… “Now!” She and Wood Man swung back to miss, just barely making it, as Hilda hit the button. Once more, her scared feeling was given a temporary pause, before the green flash filled the air.

When it dulled, Hilda didn’t stop to observe her new form–there was no time for that. With no choice but to trust that the watch hadn’t malfunctioned, she stuck her legs behind her and caught the bottom end of the haul behind her knees, pulling herself further back. She then addressed the rope; her greater size left the already tight space incredibly cramped, her heart hurting a bit as Twig whimpered in discomfort. She then pushed her arms outwards, glancing down to see that she had gotten what she’d asked for; a big scaly fish-person with sharp claws.

And those claws came in handy, no pun intended: they easily sliced through the already strained rope and freed the trio of adventurers. Hilda brought out her left arm and scooped up Twig and Wood Man before they could plummet out of reach, and used the other to hang onto the inside of the haul. “Well, this turned out well.”

This one’s voice was deep and gruff, like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon–scariness aside, David might appreciate that part if he heard it.

Just then, the spray broke again and the boat shook. Hilda looked up to see two Salt Lion paws on either side of her outstretched arm, its maw dripping with saliva and its brow furrowed aggressively. But its eyes seemed to dart across Hilda and the others, its gaze softening for a split second before it doubled down and roared at her, its teeth bared at them in an act of intimidation, making Twig whimper and nearly jump out of her arm.

Salt Lions were actually habitual creatures and feared the unknown, not unlike humans. Which meant that this was a bluff, so she may as well return the favor; Hilda reaffirmed her grip and popped her jaws open as far as they would go, flashing the Salt Lion with the insides of her boney half-circle of a mouth, and the incredibly large teeth inside that vastly dwarfed the beast’s own–she imagined she must’ve looked like a bear trap from its point of view.

The Salt Lion yelped in surprise and quickly hopped down from the haul, disappearing into the depths without a trace. With that out of the way, Hilda dropped to the bottom of the haul and dove into the water, resurfaced to let Twig and Wood Man breath, and then kicked wildly at the water to swim towards the boat, until she felt a tingling feeling across her lower body.

Hilda looked back to see a line of scales around her waist suddenly extend, wrapping around her legs and merging them together in a tail, equipped with two little fins at the tip. At this point, she was in no position to stop and question things. She simply put it to work, and felt her speed increase dramatically as the wiggle of her tail shot them forwards, ducking under Wood Man’s boat for a split second and resurfacing on the other side.

“Climb on!” She called out as she lifted them up, Wood Man having to help Twig due to his tiny, huggable size…and because the poor thing was busy coughing up sea water, since no warning had come before she dove. “Sorry, boy.”

Besides him being cute and loyal, she was having second thoughts about bringing Twig along; almost nothing had gone right and the watch–cagey as it was–was a lot more effective than him, so was it worth putting him in danger? She would have to give that matter some thought. For now, Hilda had to get them out of there, and the Draugen wouldn’t let that happen. “Seize them!” The Captain screamed, and Hilda looked up to see a swarm of crewmates closing in on them.

“Split up!” Hilda announced before ducking back down, swimming down below to allow Wood Man to pass. It took him a little more time to do it without a first mate, but eventually he shoved off and headed away from the ghost ship.

Hilda followed him in his general direction, but stayed a good ten meters behind at all times in hopes to divert targets. The Captain wanted them both to be Draugen, but since she also wanted to pull the watch from Hilda’s deceased body, the ghosts prioritized her.

However, the pack following her was becoming too large in size, threatening to grab her. She dove further down in the sea to dodge them, able to see thanks to a light at the end of her face (she would’ve noticed if she had a good look at her reflection) but they simply followed anyway; it stood to reason that a sea ghost would be water-proof.

There was only one recourse: Hilda consoled herself in that they didn’t really feel pain, as she leapt out of the water, did a somersault, and swatted the nearest few ghosts away with her tail, landing back in the water with a SPLASH.

——————————

With as fast as Hilda was going, she had a feeling that she could get back to Trolberg on her own.

And…now the ship was flying towards them.

As in, literally flying towards them. The Draugen had retreated to their vessel a moment before without Hilda noticing, and the whole thing was now barrelling towards them at full speed, having lifted out of the water and begun jetting through the air towards Wood Man.

“Oh, no!” She wasn’t sure what to do now. Jump back onto the ship? No, it was going way too fast, and even if that worked, she’d have to fight off an entire crew of Draugen at once. Climb on the boat to help pull ropes? That would only buy a little time.

Unless… “Aha!” The Weather Spirit from before–he was still there. She swam over to him and brushed the fog out of her vision; the rain had cleared but the mist lingered around his darkened body, grumbling to himself–he had been the one to make himself angry, but that didn’t make it much easier. “Lousy Draugen, sullying the experience of this whole fjord…! Why, I ought…”

It became completely incoherent from then on, so Hilda felt no guilt in interrupting. “Hello, excuse me agai–I mean, ag-hast Spirit!” He wouldn’t recognize her like this, and she had no time to explain, so she may as well pretend to be somebody else. He turned around to face the monstrous mermaid as she spoke in her equally horrifying voice, “Are those Draugen causing you as much grief as for me and my friends?”

“You mean that putrid bug and the big-headed wood puppet?” He was getting suddenly excited again. “You’re akin to those champions of chastening those cheeky treasure-chest chasers?”

Hilda didn’t even know if that last one was a real term, probably something harmless he improvised to complete the alliteration. “Sure thing. We’re almost to the point of leading them to shore, but they’re about to capture my friends. Could you give a little breeze to hurry them along?” Which was kind of a lie, as Hilda hadn’t really thought that far ahead. If she met the Spirit afterwards, she’d just say that the job was too much for them…assuming she would even be recognized, which wasn’t likely since she had eight other forms and her base self to use as disguises.

“A breeze? Ha!” His body lightened at that. “Dealing with those nautical knuckleheads has been so salubrious for my mood, that I could exhume a whole jetstream on the spot.”

“Just a little one, a full storm isn’t necessar-Y-YYY!” A sudden gale came from the Weather Spirit and blew Hilda back a ways, shoving underneath the surface of the water and carrying her with the current.

She steadied herself and poked her head back above the surface, glancing over to see that Wood Man was giving the sails a series of necessary adjustments, whichever those happened to be.

——————————

Before long, the outline of the docks came into view. Hilda hadn’t really noticed how much of the day had gone, but between a long commute to the Salty Maiden, a trip through the sewers, and the more leisurely-paced journey into the fjord, she had lost track of time. Now that the stormy haze was clearing up, she could see that the horizon had turned orange already.

The harbor was coming up, and given their lead, she was racing against Wood Man more than The Draugen at this point. She hurried…and hurried…and hurried…

And she won, coming up against the docks and hauling herself onto the wooden planks, flopping on her back and panting in exhaustion from such an effort; even with the windblown current, she’d still hustled in her self-imposed challenge. “That was fun, at least.”

A drop of an object to the floor brought Hilda from her restful state. She sat up and looked behind her, and her stomach dropped at the sight of…what seemed to be the entire population of sailors in Trolberg, tying up for the day only to catch her in the act. And if she didn’t think fast, they may be catching her in their nets soon.

“Um…” Hilda scrambled for a good explanation, before giving up and settling for a semi-humorous one. “Does anyone know where I can find the dentist’s office? I’m due for my six-months cleaning.” She flashed a toothy smile to them, knowing that as small-minded as some Trolbergians could be, the following reaction was still the best case scenario.

They all ran away screaming.

She stopped to laugh it off, but with the same criminal timing, the watch began to power down. Wary to keep her involvement secret, she ducked back into the water and hid far underneath to mask the red light, and then swam back to the ladder and climbed out.

Hilda was met by more dock workers, having returned with nets and harpoons to catch the beast, finding only a small child climbing out and meeting her with a puzzled look. Thinking quickly, Hilda put on an act to cover this up, “Don’t touch that poor creature! It didn't want to hurt anyone, and it swam away already!”

This was met only by eyerolls and dismissive grunts as the group disbanded, a satisfactory outcome in Hilda’s mind. Just then, the sound of breaking surf came from her right, as Wood Man’s boat pulled into the harbor and parked. “Lying to a bunch of adults, scaring the local fauna, drinking grog–have I been a bad influence on you?” He teased.

“That stuff was necessary!” Hilda picked up Twig from the portside and held him gently in her arms. “I got those people to calm down, and frightening the Salt Lion was a non-violent way for us to not get eaten. And what’s the problem with grog?”

“If it weren’t sea water, but the real stuff that sailors like, it would’ve been alcoholic.”

Hilda’s expression fell at that. “What?! The Captain gave me…and you just let me take it from her?! Why didn’t you say anything? You’re the grown-up here!”

Wood Man glanced down at his boat, which he’d conned from a game of Sea Bones. Then at his matching hat, and then the bindle of treasure off to the side.

Now, back to Hilda. “Am I?”

You know, that was a very good question. So much, that Hilda almost didn’t notice the green silhouette of the ghost ship, still following after them and barreling towards the dock at breakneck speed…

Chapter Text

Hilda did end up catching the image of the ghost ship in the corner of her eye, rocketing towards the docks and aiming for the trio of escapees. “They’re not slowing down! Run!”

Hilda and Wood Man took off running with Twig in tow, as the Draugen hit land and skimmed along the road, having miscalculated the angle and part of their ship phasing through the ground, leaving a trail of green ectoplasm in their wake. But soon they lifted up and steadied the boat to levitate properly, all without slowing down.

There were a few people still on the streets at this evening hour, and they took one look at the ominous ghost ship and ran away screaming. The Draugen weren’t after these people and weren’t here to begin snatching them up, so the ship would just pass right through them, at worst leaving behind some ectoplasm. But overfilled with the adrenaline and cortisol of fleeing, it was the prerogative for most to be found unable to think.

But not for Hilda; situations like this often cleared her mind, not cluttered it. The Captain had wanted the watch to pry it off with her claw, and when that failed, turn her into a Draugen just so she wouldn’t have skin anymore, in the hopes that it might slide off of her; of course she would still want it.

Hilda knew what had to be done, so that at least two of them could be safe. She scooped Twig up from her heels and pushed him into Wood Man’s hands. “Find someplace safe to hide! I’ll lead them off.”

Twig let out a whine of protest as Hilda turned away and bolted down the nearest alley, and felt a mixture of fear and relief when she heard a WHOOM behind her, as if a fast and powerful wind suddenly halted and changed direction. A quick glance behind showed the Draugen ship had beared right, confirming her theory that the Captain was prioritizing her. This path was fairly wide as alleyways go, but there was still a gross sound from the large vessel’s haul streaking across the opposing walls.

“That’s right, I’m right in front of you! Try and catch me-e-e!” Hilda announced, cheek reigning in her tone. She had no plan to try and outrun them forever; she only had to keep this up until the watch turned on again. Then she could fly out of the city and make them get lost in the countryside–there were plenty of places in the mountains further south, that bent and twisted like one big labyrinth.

——————————

“Why do you even want the watch?” Hilda shouted as she dashed down nearly empty streets. “It probably won’t work on a ghost! Plus, you wouldn’t like me as a crew member! I get off-task and question grown-ups way too much! Just ask my teacher, or Raven Leader…or–”

“Too late for that!” The Captain shouted, leaning over the railing with a sneer. “Sounds plenty like a scoundrel to me; you’re joining our crew, whether you like it or not.”

Hilda didn’t have much reason to turn back around, but she recognized Nicholas’s voice piping in. “This is highly unorthodox; Draugen are never supposed to set foot back in Trolberg.”

“Oh, Nicholas, come on. I’m trying to conjure a mood here.”

“Wait.” It all made sense; sure, sea ghosts could’ve been from anywhere and died anywhere else. But they would either sail the entire ocean aimlessly or stay near their home port. And the Captain had said that they knew the Fjord like the backs of their hands. “The Draugen were all residents of Trolberg!”

And people wouldn’t come from nothing. Some may be orphans, but someone in the graveyard might be able to talk sense into them; on the night of the ghost wrestling match, she had passed by a few graves whose dates were old enough to put them in this era.

This made sense; Hilda talked to all kinds of creatures by listening to them, but ghosts were former humans, the kind of people often set in their ways. They’d only listen to people who thought and talked like them, so other ghosts from the late 1600s were her best bet. And she was no stranger to raising the dead, but she would need her rod of resurrection and book of chants, which were at home.

Hilda turned a corner and glanced down at her watch, frowning at the dial that still glowed in a soft red. “Come on, you!” As if she could somehow will it to turn on again. So she kept running, trying her best to keep the Draugen ship away from the populated streets. And the construction worker from before, the map she’d been shown with all of the construction zones marked off; she knew exactly where to go. And it was already past five o’clock, so they would’ve gone home for the day. Which left a bunch of banged up roads with no people on them, and jumping over a wide ditch was nothing new to Hilda, since the wilderness was even dicier.

Or, that’s what she thought. In the base of the dirt on the close end, a rock she hadn’t seen brought her run to a halt. Her foot caught on it and sent her down with a yelp, her forehead barely missing the edge of the tarmac on the opposite side where the road continued, instead bumping against the dirt and rolling down into the remains of the Vittra tunnel.

Hilda picked herself up and grimaced in pain–it wasn’t a bad fall, but she was still a little dinged up. But there was no time to worry about that; the Draugen ship was coming for her.

And that’s when things finally went Hilda’s way. The watch on her wrist whirred back to life and she quickly went to work; she risked remaining stationary while there was a fleet of ghost pirates bearing down on her, so it’d better not be the little grey one again, which is where it defaulted. “Where’s the bug again?” She turned it once counterclockwise, revealing a giant humanoid figure with giant shoulders and…did it have four arms?

Probably not smart against a whole crew of ghosts–she’d be a big target against a lot of slimy targets that could fly. She turned it again, and found a familiar face; the dog one from before. “The wild mutt?” Maybe it could outrun them…

Oh, shoot, they were right overhead. She decided that it was good enough and hit the button once more, feeling the world go still for a second…

…and then it happened again; this wasn’t who she chose.

Thankfully, not the grey frog or the flaming one. Someone new again, who she’d only seen as a silhouette before. A dinosaur-like lizard with a hunched back and a large tail, with a long tail and a curved head. But it wasn’t lizard-like at all; her face felt similar to a human; the skull was what was shaped differently. A dense shell was wrapped around her head starting at the base of her neck, almost like a comfortably tight bike helmet. She had three fingers on each hand, but they were rigid and sharp, like the whole thing was a claw instead of just having claws. “Well…” she commented, in a low voice that sounded almost like her flat’s original Nisse if she hurt her throat and her voice was rasped a bit. “...this is different.”

And she had noticed that the silhouette had strange looking feet. Now that she looked at them up close, it turned out that they were…wheels? But they didn’t turn, so it was like she was standing on giant marbles. “How am I supposed to move?”

But there were ghosts descending on her, so Hilda had to try. She climbed out of the ditch as best she could, feet sliding helplessly against the curved dirt until she finally stood up on the road proper, wobbling as she slid around a bit. “I can barely even stand!” She made a move to walk, sliding one foot in front of the other…

…and NOW she hit her head. She moved her foot back and the other forwards, and there was a violent rush of air, and pain flew through her face a split second later. She slid back and groaned in pain, opening her stunned eyes to see the wall of a building. She looked around and gasped in surprise; based on her surroundings, this was the building at the far end of the road, over half a block away. The Draugen ship was still parked down the path, the descended crew members glancing around in confusion.

Hilda looked down the turn in the road. She knew the way home from here, so she just had to focus on using this thing. She squinted down at the path, mapping things out, when her vision suddenly changed, a sudden VRRRRRIII following. Suddenly, her vision was limited, save for a blue screen directly in front of her; she felt along her face and felt something hard had come over top of it; this thing came with a face shield?

Again, no time for questions. Hilda steadied herself and stepped forwards again, feeling a WHOOSH and barely stopping herself from hitting the building at the far end, skidding her legs and pressing them down at an angle in a desperate attempt to stop and avoid another collision. She looked around and saw where the road bent again, and took smaller steps, now only blitzing a little bit forwards before slowing up and drifting aimlessly on her marble feet.

Roller skates, ice skates–try roller blades on ice, that’s how this felt. But her slender body kept her upright, arms waving about and tail bending to shift her weight so that she could regain her balance and run again.

——————————

“That must’ve been awful.” Tontu glanced down at the floor, his mug of tea tilting timidly in his hands. “Having a Nisse like that…I can see why you don’t like me.”

Johanna sighed, readjusting her place on the sofa. “It’s not that I don’t like you. It’s just…I’ve let myself become a bit…one-sided. That cloak meant a lot to me, and she never gave it back, no matter how much I begged and pleaded.” She stirred her own tea in lament. “Auntie Astrid was distraught when I told her, and she tried to help me get it back, but that Nisse left the dormitories before she could.”

Tontu sighed. “And when I did one of your puzzle questions, it brought back the trauma of a Nisse taking something. Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude.”

Johanna looked down at his little figure and gently smiled. “It’s okay. In hindsight, I can see that I overreacted. The pain has weakened over the years, but I still need to be better about recognizing the difference between that other Nisse who stole wantonly and lied through her teeth…” She put a hand to his shoulder and made an effort for eye contact, hard to tell for certain with all that fur. “...and you, the Nisse who saved my daughter from the Black Hound.”

“To be fair, Jellybean was harmless. Just overly excitable, that’s all.”

Johanna chuckled, remembering the relief that’d come over her that day when she realized the beast of the night was little more than an overgrown puppy. “But you didn’t know that. And then after that, when we were about to crash, you saved us all. I still can’t thank you enough for that.”

Tontu shrugged. “Well, Hilda was the only one who believed me when I said I was innocent. And, I dunno…” He kicked his feet aimlessly in the air. “...something about a child in danger, I just…moved. Didn’t even think about it.”

“That’s good.” Johanna gave him an approving look. “There’s obviously some good in you after all.”

“But it’s not just that. It’s like…in that moment, the fact that Hilda is a child…a child in danger, it felt instinctual, like…”

A loud noise cut him off. Their heads jolted up as a clatter came from down the hallway, followed by a suddenly dull WHOOSH. Johanna leapt to her feet and ran towards Hilda’s room; it sounded like it’d come from there.

She hadn’t seen Hilda come home yet, but what if she were wrong? What if something was going wrong in her room? What if she was caught in the middle of it? What if…what if…in those few seconds, her mind was spiraling with possibilities.

Johanna threw open the door and shouted worriedly, “What’s going on?!” The room before her had signs of an intruder; window open, duvet thrown partially on the floor, rug rumpled up from someone crossing it in one big hurry, and…Hilda’s nightstand drawer hanging half-open.

But the room was empty, the culprit long gone already, having escaped into the evening now turning night. Tontu leapt out from Nowhere Space, one hand carrying a rolling pin and the other…a rope? Where would he have gotten a thing like that? “Where’s the trouble?”

Maybe it was Hilda who’d done this. But why come up in the fire escape instead of the front door? Why make a mess for no reason and then leave…at a ridiculously fast pace, that didn’t even seem possible even for her? What kind of hurry must she have been in?

The face of the clock on the shelf then opened, and Alfur cautiously stepped out. He stood at the edge of the shelf and looked around, making eye contact with Johanna, “What just happened!? What did you see?”

“Um…” Johanna looked around for any other clues, but that was it. She wasn’t sure what had happened or what was taken; she wasn’t up-to-date on the contents of that nightstand, since it was Hilda’s business. “...I don’t know.” Whatever it was had gotten in and out in record speed; this didn’t seem human.

——————————

Okay, not Hilda’s best work. Climbing up the fire escape and crossing her room was hard to do on marble feet; opening the window and retrieving her séance kit was even more difficult with rigid, scissor claws for hands. And boy, she was certain she’d made a racket all the time; that wasn’t going to be easy to explain later.

But regardless, she slipped the things into her satchel and headed back down the street. The Draugen Ship was still hovering around downtown Trolberg, headed vaguely in the direction it’d last seen her go, but that was a whole ten seconds ago. She’d gotten what she needed, and now it was time to run.

St. Guglow’s Cemetery was all of the way across town, but Hilda found that the more she practiced dashing and braking, the better she got. The braking process wasn’t so bad once she picked up the rhythm, so she was able to get there in less than a minute. But that led to a different problem; the Draugen hadn’t caught up–in fact, they had barely seen her at all.

So, she quickly ran back and stood directly in front of the ship, her lack of motion causing the mask to slide back up. “Hey, Draugen!” She spoke in a taunting voice. “What’s the matter? Can’t keep up with this old fossil?”

A growl of frustration came from the bow, which she recognized as belonging to the Captain, as well as her shouting, “Seize her already!”

Hilda went back to taking smaller steps, zigzagging from one side of the road to the other to keep pace with the Draugen, staying just out of reach where they could still see her. And this made it easy to lead them across town, until the cemetery was just up ahead.

Of course, that’s when the stupid watch ran out of power. It began to beep wildly, until she dashed straight in and set down her things, in a section with a lot of people with deaths in or shortly after the late 1600s.

Soon the red flash came about, and she gave herself only a second to readjust before pulling out the rune stick; last time they’d done it on the grave of Craigie Williams, since it had just been him they’d wanted to see. But Hilda needed more than one person for this, so she picked a bare spot of grass and began rolling the rod across the grass, calling out the incantation to the population in general: “Deep in the earth, your moldering bones, for posterity lay. But on this night, they stir and moan, when you come out to play.”

As she finished up, she heard the familiar sound of bones and the whooshing of a levitating figure, but it was right behind her, high in number, and too soon to be the graveyard ghosts. She turned around and saw the Captain looming over her, her entire crew having parked the ship and climbed out to secure this little shanghai.

“Update: we had a good hiding place.” Behind the Captain, another Draugen held the captured Wood Man under his left arm, and a struggling Twig under his right. “Until an old friend threw us out the alley door, again.”

He had seriously run back to the Salty Maiden? How was that a good idea?

Hilda looked worriedly at the scene. If somehow this didn’t work, she had just gotten all three of them cornered. But to her luck, the rune stick lifted off of the ground and began to spin rapidly, the ground underneath beginning to bulge with energy. She smirked as the Captain glanced worriedly at the scene of all the graves activating at once. “Wait, what’s happening?”

It made sense that a Draugen, who was never properly buried, wouldn’t automatically be familiar with a séance. Hilda stood up and put a hand to her hip as bones rose from the earth, enveloped in the familiar dull blue veil of a typical ghost, taking on shapes resembling their former human selves. Wood Man looked out at the scene and commented, “I’m behind as well.”

The ghosts glared down at Hilda annoyedly, especially one from the far end of the yard. Tall with broad shoulders, with the outline of a once thick beard–that’s two men like that who she’d faced today. “You!” He floated over to her and began ranting, “Who do you think you are, waking us up all at once like that!”

His gaze then turned to his left, gazing confusedly at the group of green colored ghosts that had entered the graveyard. The Captain gave him an equally clueless look back, until his face suddenly contorted with a gasp, his voice ringing out with sudden familiarity. “Abigail? Is that you?”

The Captain glared at him for a second, as if offended that someone had called her by what seemed to be her real name–not even her right hand Nicholas had done that, the whole time Hilda had been around them. But then she let out a soft gasp of her own: “Dad?”

The graveyard ghosts then began to talk amongst themselves, murmurs of names and ships and dates of setting off, all of which were met by the Draugen taking on disarmed expressions. The one holding Wood Man and Twig even dropped them when he apparently saw someone he knew, the latter landing on his hooves and trotting back to brush against Hilda’s side affectionately…and the former hitting the ground with a grunt.

“Papi!” Hilda looked over to see that even Nicholas had found a familiar face. “It’s me; it’s Nic Nic!” This whole group of savage sea traders, disarmed so easily by the presence of their old friends and family, made her happy on some level–almost making her want to forgive “Abigail” for trying to feed her to the Salt Lions. Was the gambit for the watch just her trying to fill a void she didn’t realize they all had?

The Draugen all met with their kin and began a quick catch-up, while Hilda went to help Wood Man up. “What’s going on?”

Hilda explained her logic. “Well, the first thing you told me about the Draugen, was that they were separated from their loved ones. When Nicholas talked about being back in Trolberg, I realized that they were all from here, and thought of a way to reunite them.” To be honest, she hadn’t been fully confident that it would be enough to calm the Draugen when she did it, given that her “filling the void” theory was little more than a thought at the time. But seeing her mum and friends always made her feel better, so why not them, too?

Abigail stood frozen as her father put a hand to her face, quiet affection present in his tone. “You’ve been gone for three hundred years…” She leaned into the touch, before the hand was suddenly removed as he crossed his arms, and an annoyed tone replaced the old one. “...and you couldn’t be bothered to write?”

Abigail’s commanding presence was practically gone, as well as the edge in her voice. “You know how it is at sea, Dad. You lose track of time.”

“Oh, sure. For a few hours, not three centuries! Ugh!” He threw up his hands dramatically and turned away with his arms crossed again. “This always happens, every time you go out with your sailing buddies!”

And then they all died. Hilda hadn’t really given it much thought, but she wasn’t much different in that regard, with that risk usually small but never completely gone entirely on her adventures. Between this, Twig standing a bit too close to the Salt Lions, and Wood Man being…Wood Man, she was starting to see her mum’s point of view a lot better after today.

“I’m…” her father went on, his frustrations abating now that he’d let them out. “...I’m so happy you’re home.” Abigail’s resolve broke, and she flew into a hug with him.

“Me too, Dad.” Simultaneously, the other ghosts and Draugen alike were finished catching up and hugging. And, Hilda’s eyes widened, the green in the latter’s ectoplasm started to change, matching the dull blue of their kin.

And then both sides turned gold, disappearing into the soil to spend eternity together. Abigail looked up from the hug as her hue changed, and Hilda gave an affirmative nod as the Captain and her father vanished at last. The librarian was right after all; everyone is together again in the afterlife.

Twig looked up at her with a whine; like many things within the supernatural, he probably didn’t understand fully, but he seemed to appreciate the emotion behind it, Hilda thought.

But the moment was ruined when a voice rang out over the empty space, “Keep up, Deputy!” And with that, Erik Ahlberg came running to the scene, stopping alongside the abandoned Draugen ship parked over by the small pathway. “What is going on here?”

But with no more Draugen to sail on it, the ship had no reason to linger. The whole thing glowed brighter as a wave of ectoplasm washed away the shape of the ship, splashing down on the ground, and Ahlberg himself, as he groaned in disgust.

——————————

Deputy Gerda was following after him, as well as a crowd of Trolbergians wanting an explanation for what had just happened. They took a moment to be disgusted by the sight of the ectoplasm, while Wood Man commented. “A bit rude to leave such a mess. Almost as rude as me leaving without saying goodbye.”

“Yeah.” She supposed that would be rude. But, a second of thought brought her back to reality. “Wait, what do you mean–” A-a-a-and, he was gone.

——————————

“Don’t worry, everybody!” Hilda looked over to see that Erik Ahlberg had picked himself up and wiped himself off, as Gerda further examined the scene behind them. “The ghost ship that was haunting our streets has been vanquished. Gerda, get the camera! We’ll need a photoshoot.”

Hilda felt something inside of her snap. She didn’t much care for credit herself, but he certainly didn’t deserve any. “Hey!” His eyes darted down to the familiar child set on ruining his moment. “You can’t take credit for that!”

It looked as if Ahlberg were about to rebut, something to the effect of “why not”, but a loud flapping noise cut him off. The crowd looked up and gasped as a black silhouette passed overhead, producing a shadow from blocking out the moon for a brief second. A voice came from the back of the crowd, “It’s the Great Raven!”

It was him, after all. He landed on the ground behind Hilda and Ahlberg, casting a judgmental look down upon the latter. Erik turned around and turned suddenly sheepish at the sight, “Uh…uhhh…” he scrambled for words, before settling on another lie. “No, I’m not to thank here, despite my…prodigious efforts.” He shook his head. “This victory belongs to Trolberg’s own Great Raven, keeping back the misfortune of the unseen world!”

He was conflating the afterlife with…whatever people around here associated with fortune and outcomes, but the crowd seemed to buy it as they broke out into cheers. Ahlberg shouted over the crowd, “And so does the honor of this photoshoot, two of Trolberg’s finest protectors together, troll hunter and spookum repeller in solidarity and recorded for posterity!” He backed up and stood right before the Raven as Gerda readied the camera.

But right then and there, Hilda could’ve sworn she saw Raven shoot her a look and a mischievous smirk. Right as Gerda went to press the button, to capture Erik’s smug self-satisfaction on film, Raven spread his wings and flew up and away, the gust of wind stunning Ahlberg and ruining his posture. Hilda chuckled at the sight; it probably won’t, she hoped that it would make it into the papers anyway, because she might like a copy.

——————————

Hilda broke off from the group then. She had helped out the Draugen, saved her own skin, and…missed the chance to tell Wood Man off for the sail boat. Beyond that, what was she forgetting?

But then, a rat skittering through the darkness gave her the answer; her nose had tuned it out after a while, but she still had the Cod Sandwich for the Rat King. She reached into her satchel and pulled the thing out. It was even worse now, several hours of sitting in a bag…and underwater at some points, since she still wore it when she transformed. Maybe…the Rat King wouldn’t mind?

There was a drainage pipe on the outside of the cemetery, so Hilda ran back to it and got down on one knee. “Rat King, I know you’re down there!” She set the thing down in the water, as a rat came out to retrieve it quickly. “You’ve got your disgusting sandwich; now, where’s my dirt?”

“Alright.” The group of rats slithered along the walls and towards the opening. “Here's the thing. I dug deep, oh, believe me I did! But even my best sources couldn’t root anything out. Your man’s squeaky clean.”

How was that even possible? Hilda sighed in frustration. “Fine. And, um…the other stuff?”

“Ah, yes. The standing order.” The Rat King approached the bars. “I don’t have much yet, but what I do know so far is that Victoria Van Gale is Trolberg’s most wanted criminal right now!”

“Really?” That came as no surprise to Hilda; kidnapping a baby Weather Spirit and endangering the whole town was certainly deserving. And it wasn’t like the city of Nisse had a lot of burglaries to keep Safety Patrol busy. “But, how did they find out it was her? Most of her stuff was scattered, so I doubt any of her big machines survived.”

“Exactly.” The Rat King went on. “They don’t actually have hard evidence on the other stuff. But some of the inventions that people have found and turned in–hoo, boy! Did she ignore permit laws, and quite possibly the Geneva Convention!” The entire mass seemed to shudder at their own words. “I haven’t yet found anything that ties directly back to that watch of yours, but it does seem like her kind of thing.”

——————————

“Anyways, thanks for the sandwich!” The mass of rats bunched up then and rolled away from the bars, invoking a sigh from Hilda; the reassurance of Victoria’s involvement both validated and worsened her concerns, and the lack of information about Ahlberg was a letdown. “Looks like this is going to be harder than I thought.”

There was a flap of wings above her, familiar in sound but much quieter than before. Hilda looked up to see Raven perched on the hill of land over the drainage pipe, having reduced himself to his smaller and more discreet form. “Yeah, tell me about it. Nepotism hides all kinds of things.”

“Raven!” It was a pleasant surprise to talk with him now. “Long time, no speak! How have you been?”

Raven gave her a concerned look, working to bury the gladness she felt under a pile of new worry. “Helga, I’ve actually been looking for you for a while; every time I come to your window, Sulfur says that you're not home, and today you’ve been all over the place.”

“You mean Alfur? Yeah, I’ve got school during the week, and today was a bit hectic…” Hilda wished she had known sooner; as much fun as Wood Man’s boat was, soaring over the Björg Fjord on the back of a legendary bird was the obvious choice. “...but that would’ve been a lot of fun, to have you around for it.”

And then, another realization came to Hilda. If he’d been watching over her the whole time, then there was a good chance he’d put two and two together when strange unknown creatures were darting around the city. Nervousness tinged her voice at the thought of another person who may know her secret. “How much did you see?”

“Relax, kid. I’m no tattletale, and I’ve seen plenty of weirder…” Raven trailed off a bit as he gave the matter a little bit of thought. “...err, actually…” And then amended himself entirely. “No, not plenty; this is admittedly one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but that’s not why I was looking for you.”

Chapter Text

Johanna didn’t have much faith in Safety Patrol, not much at all. Sure, the Black Hound’s reputation had gotten to her just as much as it did to them, but while she had been willing to change her mind, she could tell right off the bat that those people rarely would. And being run by a clown like Ahlberg didn’t help. Showy, egotistical, little bits of upper-class prejudice showing through the cracks–who was he to imply that housework was a “valid excuse” for a mum? Or to judge who she invited to sit at her dinner table?

Still, Johanna could feel her hand itching to reach for the phone. Some unknown thing had gotten into her home and gone through her daughter’s bedroom for some unknown purpose–their help had to be better than nothing, yes?

But before this impulse could come through, the front door opened with a click and closed seconds after. She looked up from the couch and saw Hilda rushing in, Twig running at her heels and something dark hanging off of her arm. She was home a little later than Johanna would’ve liked, but dinner still had a few minutes left in the oven, so it didn’t really matter.

“Mum, look who stopped by!” Johanna’s focus came over to the thing on Hilda’s arm; the Great Raven, in his discreet form, obviously. A familiar wave of inexplicable concern came over her; the last time he’d come around, Hilda had been saved from a lightning bolt that’d nearly left Safety Patrol’s dirigible dead in the air, but before that she’d ended up stuck in the wilderness overnight. She tried not to let old things like that bother her, especially since it wasn’t even really his fault, and he’d done everything in his power to bring her home, but…seeing him still gave her a bit of dread, like his presence meant something bad was bound to happen…

“Hello there, Raven!” She forced out anxiously, her voice cracking involuntarily mid-sentence, something that Hilda seemed to notice, from the way her expression changed. Johanna quickly covered it up more, “What brings you by? If you’re hoping for another slice of pie, I’m afraid it’s vegetarian Lancashire hotpot tonight. But you’re more than welcome to join us!”

“I’m afraid not.” His voice was oddly grim now. “I just came over to give you guys an FYI.” Johanna felt herself tensing up at the implication. “It’s that…”

“HE’S LEAVING TROLBERG!” Hilda belted out, tone falling at the end as regret took over. And though it made Johanna feel like a monster, part of her was relieved to hear it. For reasons other than just the lack of some immediate danger it had seemed he was about to give–more so, the things you can’t predict…

“Oh, really? Is something wrong?”

Raven shook his head. “No. Well, yes, sort of. It’s just…Trolberg isn’t the only place in the world where I’m famous; fly above the heads of humans enough times, and they all start writing legends about you.” He sighed in disgruntlement. “If it weren’t for my ability to be discreet, I'd be getting hassled into commercials for the World Cup by now.”

“That sounds tough.” Raven apparently wasn’t a fan of a lot of attention–Johanna could relate to that, at least.

“Besides, what bird stays this far north when winter’s on its way? I’ve already stuck around for longer than usual to calm the residual issues of the Weather Spirits. I just came around to say goodbye.”

“Oh, alright.” Johanna finally relaxed a bit, save for that other thing she wanted to talk with Hilda about. “And speaking of issues, Hilda…something strange happened today, in your bedroom.”

Hilda stared blankly at her, giving Raven a confused stare for a moment before an apparent realization came over her. “Oh! Did it get messed up?”

“Yes, how did you know?”

“That was one of Raven’s acquaintances; we had some business with some ghosts that died 300 years ago, so we needed a rune stick to summon them. We were in a hurry, so she came to get it quickly.” She then pursed her lips knowingly. “Did she leave a mess? She’s a bit clumsy.”

Ghosts from the graveyard; Johanna wasn’t overly thrilled with the idea of Hilda using magic after what had happened with the Tide Mice. But talking with some old spirits seemed harmless enough, so she allowed Hilda to hold onto that stuff. And the break-in hadn’t been a break-in after all; just a misunderstanding from Hilda making another new creature friend. “Well, that’s a relief for me.”

“And for me, too.” There was a pink flash from behind Johanna’s work desk as Tontu popped his head out. “I felt a little bad about letting something get past me. But some speed creature who meant no harm, is fair enough.”

“Oh! You two haven’t met.” Hilda walked over and showed off Raven. “Tontu, this is the Great Raven; Raven, this is our new Nisse.”

Tontu looked over at Raven. “Hello.”

“Evening.”

There was a thick silence afterwards as they stared at each other; they clearly didn’t have much to say. The Raven would’ve known about Nisse, and Tontu knew about him, so there wasn’t any raw fascination between the two of them.

Johanna broke the silence, “So, anyway. When exactly will you be leaving?” Trying everything to hide the urgency in her tone, and that some horrible little part of her mind was eager to see him gone.

“Pretty soon, but Helg–HILDA…” The Raven corrected himself. “...insisted that she should invite you all, plus her friends, to come see me off.”

——————————

And that was how Johanna had ended up driving everyone to the edge of the beach of the Björg Fjord, stopping at Frida and David’s houses to see if they’d wanted to come. The latter had gotten back from Warbler’s rehearsal and was happy to come, but Frida was still busy with…whatever, much to Hilda’s chagrin.

But she didn’t let it sully the moment. David waved goodbye affectionately with the rest as Raven rose to his greater size and took off into the sky, out into the Fjörd before making a U-turn and flying south with a final word of departure, “See you in the spring, Tilda!”

And admittedly, that bothered her, too. Johanna had been reminded time and time again just how much Raven cared for Hilda, but that information was swimming upstream in her mind against a current of anxiety, and the fact he could only sort of remember her daughter’s name undermined it. How hard could it really be?

But she held her tongue as she saw Hilda and Alfur picking something up off of the ground, one of Raven’s giant feathers that had fallen off during flight, before shrinking back down to a size fit for one’s pockets. It was irrational, and she knew that. Johanna never wanted to limit her daughter’s freedom or curiosity, so she resolved to double down her efforts not to hold a grudge–between Raven and Tontu, she had to work on some things.