Affe turned out to be a fairly good-natured fellow, not that it stopped him from interrogating the shit out of me, he was just nice about it. He was also curious about Hagrid and Olympe, naturally, and as I saw no reason not to tell him what I knew so I filled him in on what I knew about the two. Mostly on Hagrid of course since I didn't know much about the French ettin besides that she was hiding the fact that she was an ettin from her peers and that she was probably teaching at Beauxbaton. Sigrid looked a bit disappointed that Olympe was unlikely to be receptive to getting approached by one of her kind right now. Affe had just scoffed and muttered something unflattering about the French under his breath. I wondered what the story was there. I knew the Brits had a thing about shiting on the Frenshies due to the wars and all, but why would Affe have such a dim view of them?
Anders had appeared not too long ago, having decided that he's been out of sight long enough for his father to forget his earlier misstep, and taken his turn at asking me questions. Oddly enough he was more interested in the normal world, and its technology, than our talk about magic. I found out that he was to blame for the waterwheels and the aqueduct outside and the fact that the whole house had indoor plumbing, including hot and cold water. He had also rebuilt his mother's forge, equipping it with a primitive trip hammer and water-driven bellows, and even installed a millstone, which was the source of the quiet rumbling noise that permeated the house.
It might not sound too impressive from a modern perspective, but considering that he had no formal education of any kind and only had access to stuff he or his mom had made themselves it was pretty darn impressive in my mind. He'd managed to wrangle a promise of some books on basic engineering out of me. It was something I was more than happy to provide, really. If nothing else I was curious what he might come up with if he had a wider knowledge of things, not to mention better tools. I'd have to consider providing him with some muggle stuff and see what he'd make of it. Maybe I could even get Lys involved on a corner, if she didn't decide to be stubborn about it. Oh who was I kidding, of course she would be stubborn about it. I might not have known her for long, but stubborn was practically her middle name, along with pride. Still, it coud be fun, and just imagine, what if they fell in love? Wouldn't that be a sight? The thought almost had me laughing out loud.
During our conversation Siv would come downstairs occasionally and go into the kitchen, throwing me looks I wasn't quite sure how to interpret, before returning back upstairs for a while. Then she'd come down a final time and go into the kitchen and after a few minutes, I could hear the tell-tale sound of metal ringing in that familiar rhythm that I'd gotten used to hearing from Lys when she was working the forge back at school told me she was in the forge working. I considered it for a moment before turning to Affe and asking. "Should I go out there and try to clear the air?"
Anders barked a laugh too with she got glared at by his father. Affe then sighed and gave me a small smile. "That might not be the best idea, kid. Wizards have been a bit of a sour point for her ever since she was little. It got worse when nether Sigrid or Anders were accepted to go to Durmstrang or Beauxbaton for that matter."
I can't say I was surprised that they didn't get into Durmstrang, by all accounts, it was a school filled with giant bags of cheese smelling dicks, and then there were the teachers. Beauxbaton though, they'd taken Olympe, so why wouldn't they take two other half-giants. Besides them not being French of course. But they can't be that petty…could they? Hmm. "I'm surprised Beauxbaton didn't take you, Durmstrang's filled with pricks, so no surprise there, but they already had one ettin there, and lots of Veela and god know what else. Two more shouldn't have been much of a bother."
"Yeah, mum sent 'em a letter asking about that." Anders injected into the conversation. "Never wrote back though."
I think this is what is called a moment of clarity. Okay, so I might be letting my own experiences with the woman color my judgment. "Maybe they are just being French?" I tried lamely.
"Would not surprise me one bit." Affe grumped. "At least now they will have a chance to learn some magic if Hagrid's agrees to it that is." He said in a more positive tone.
"Oh, he'll agree." There really wasn't any chance of him not doing it, for several reasons. Him just wanting to be nice would have been enough. The fact that the people asking were half-giants like him, that would make him eager like nothing else I think. And the fact that its magic, which he loves… yeah, he would be jumping all over this like a five-year-old on cocaine. "He's never met another ettin before, so I bet he'll be excited. He might even show up in person." I'd even put on some money on that happening.
"You really think highly of him, don't you?" Affe asked.
I chuckled. "Hagrid's the best. It's that simple. I don't think I've met a man that is so genuinely good in my life." I told them truthfully before looking out the window. It was getting late. I swung my legs off the table before pushing off and landing on the floor. I dusted myself off before turning towards my audience. "It's getting late. It thinks it's time for me to hit the skies before it gets any darker."
"It ain't gonna get much darker than this." Anders objected. "Sun barely sets around here this time of year."
"Oh right, I'd forgotten about that." I smiled a bit ruefully. It never really got dark around my parts in the summer, even on moonless nights, it was still light enough outside to see clearly. "Still, I think its best I go. Let your mom calm down."
That got me a few chuckles from the gathered ettins and they made to follow me outside. Once there I said my final farewell before jumping into the air, to the astonished gasps of my three onlookers. "Be seeing you!" I called, throwing them a jaunty little salute, and then blasted away before they had a chance to respond. It's always good to make a memorable exit after all. HAH!
I laughed out loud as cleared the treetops and sent course down the valley towards my final destination. I decided to take a bit of a meandering route and see if I could spot some dragons around. And as fortune would have it, it didn't take me long to spot one standing on a rocky outcropping on one of the north faces of the Piellorieppe massif.
It was magnificent. Its slender silver form literally gleamed in the afternoon sun, making it look like it was made of liquid gold rather than silver. I noted that its wings weren't the standard bat-like wings one might expect on a dragon, and while they were still undoubtedly leather they still greatly resembled bird wings, having a shapes that reminded one of the pinions of birds, only ending in little black spikes, which was the same color as all the various horns and spines that protruded from the dragons head and spine. I'd really like some of those horns and spines, I wonder if they shed them like Unicorns does their horns… I'd have to look it up when I got back to school.
I also noted that this one was probably a female, mostly because it had a smaller dragon sitting right beside it. I wondered what you usually called a young dragon. Hatchling? Whelp? Something else? I drifted a little closer to get a better look. Mommy dearest apparently took offense to that and sent a blast of brilliant blue-white flames in my direction. I wasn't anywhere close enough for it to reach me, but I did feel a brief puff of hot air pass me as I floated there.
I drifted off to the side and around to get a better look at the two from behind, with the mom following my every move. I was a bit surprised that it considered me any sort of threat, her whelp was a fair bit larger then I was, about the size of a draft horse I'd say. I bet it was big enough for me to ride. Wouldn't that be something? The welp looked somewhat diffrent then the mom, lacking the silver sheen for one, being instead a dull off-white color with a greenish tint present at the tips of its wings, and the horns and spines looked soft and had lathery skin connecting them, making the whelp look like it would be more suited for a more aquatic existence. I wondered what role the fins served, and why they would be gone in the adults.
After annoying the dragons some more I decided to go on and having seen what I wanted I decided to take a more direct route from now on. It didn't take me more than ten minutes of leisure flying to arrive at the correct location. Even before I'd gotten there I could see the first sign of the great gate of Nidavellir. It wasn't an elaborate affair, just a sizable one. The dwarfs of old had shaped the mountainside around the gate into four tower-like structure that reminded me of skyscrapers, if they'd been made of stone, with two of them on either side of the gate.
As I got closer I could see numerous narrow slits in the formations, murder holes no doubt. The gate itself looked like a gaping black hole from afar, but as I got closer I could see that there were more elaborate structures within the towering arch. Two great dwarves statues stood guard beside the gate and there were intricate murals lovingly carved directly into the walls around them. I angrily noted that most of it had been defaced in some way, parts were missing, others had paints or thick nails driven into parts of them, usually into the head of the people depicted. The great statues were similarly vandalized.
Pettiness, thy name is Goblin.
I suddenly didn't feel like hanging around anymore. Perhaps this had been a bad idea after all.