Hilda: The Runaway AU (or The Runaway Hilda AU) is a series of Alternate Universe Fics based on Hilda, written by Pikablob
and Nach0.
The premise of the AU begins similarly to how The Stone Forest began, with Hilda working on getting ingredients for Frida's spell until she is promptly grounded by Johanna, which results in her attempting to use Nowhere Space to get to Frida's.
The divergence begins when, instead of her mother interfering, Hilda succeeds in her efforts and manages to get the ingredients for Frida. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worse when she returns home to an enraged Johanna, causing a massive fight between her and Johanna to ensue.
And so Hilda, ashamed and convinced her mother doesn't want her anymore, decides to run away into the wilderness, causing a series of events that will change the lives of her, her friends, and her mother forever.
The fanfic series consists of the following works:
- To the Hills
- The 5+1 Runaway Hilda AU
- Room for One More
- Full Disclosure
- Two Girls at a Bus Stop Station
- Everything's Changed
- Nothing's the Same
- The House on the Sand
- One Runaway to Another
- The Ones Left Behind
- With You, Always
The Runaway AU contains the following examples:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Kaisa is depicted on the cover art with green hair like in the tie-in novels.
- Adaptational Badass: Johanna joins Safety Patrol to search for Hilda and eventually becomes the head deputy, taking several levels of badass in the process.
- Adaptational Gender Identity: David comes to realize she is a trans girl, unlike in canon.
- Adaptational Karma: Unlike in canon, where he resigns after a Heel Realization, Erik Alhberg is fired by the city council after a fight with Grylla resulted in citizens getting injured and the destruction of the Sonstansil tree.
- Adaptational Name Change: Lucy is revealed to be David's new name after coming out as a trans girl.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Johanna and Gerda end up in a romantic relationship with each other. In the show, their sexualities are not established.
- Anonymous Benefactor: In "The House on the Sand", Hilda comes across a house on the beach and decides to spend the night there, unaware that this is the house where Victoria van Gale settled in following the adventure in "The Windmill". Victoria finds the sleeping Hilda and wants to atone for all the trouble she has caused, but knows how Hilda will likely react to seeing her considering what happened on their last two encounters. So she does not wake Hilda but quietly moves her to a better bed, and fills her backpack with new provisions and a map with directions back to Trolberg. Hilda never finds out it was Victoria who helped her and thinks it was a spirit or Nisse living in the beach house.
- Canon Character All Along: In One Runaway to Another, Trevor mentions a girl named Lucy that he befriends at school. At first, it's implied that Lucy is a new character original to the fanfic, but then in The Ones Left Behind, it's revealed that Lucy is David, who has changed her name to Lucy after coming out as trans.
- Happily Adopted: Frida is legally adopted by Tildy and Ostenfeld after she gets disowned by her parents for using magic and thinking she was the one who tried sacrificing them to Grylla.
- It's All My Fault:
- In Room for One More, Frida blames herself for causing Hilda to run away, since Hilda trying to bring her the last ingredient for her spell was what started the whole ordeal.
- In Nothing's the same, Tontu blames himself for the whole mess since he helped Hilda get to Frida's house after Joanna forbade her from doing so, which led to the argument that ended with Hilda running away.
- Named by the Adaptation:
- The Bellkeeper — who is unnamed in the show — is named "Argus" in this AU.
- Of the members of The Committee of Three, only Abigail (the witch with the long orange/white hair) is named in the series while the other two members remain nameless. This AU names them Avery (the short witch) and Henrietta.
- One-Person Birthday Party: Hilda turns eleven during the time she spend away from home, and thus celebrates it with only Twig for company amongst the ruins of her old home.
- The Runaway:
- The entire premise of the series revolves around Hilda running away from home to live in the wilderness, thinking that Johanna doesn't want her anymore. She ends up being gone for an entire year before properly returning to Trolberg.
- It's revealed in From One Runaway to Another that Trevor had also run away from home due to his abusive mother.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- In the series, Lloyd, the man responsible for opening and closing the Void of No Return, was grabbed by the creature from the void and not seen again, with everything implying he was killed. This AU reveals he somehow survived the ordeal and is still working in Witches Tower, planning to stay there to guard the void after the witches have moved out.
- Victoria van Gale's Nisse; at the end of "The Windmill" he had been reduced to just a skull and seemingly killed. In this AU Victoria managed to rebuild him from that skull.
- What If?: The entire AU is kickstarted by Hilda's attempt to use nowhere space to get to Frida in The Stone Forest succeeding.
- Witch Hunt: Following the incident at Sonstansil, the Safety Patrol begins to outlaw potions and public display of magic. It gets so bad the witches decide to abandon Witches Tower and relocate to outside the city.
