I had ended up spending several hours in Sigrid's company, which was much better than her initial impression would have suggested. But once the initial hurdle was passed she turned out to be pretty nice to hang around with. She's taken me into what I assumed was their living room, which was an experience in of itself due to the size. Hanging out with Hagrid had prepared me for some of it, but in comparison, Hagrid's house was horribly spartan. Sigrid's house looked like I'd walked right into a Viking fantasy home. A large table, probably oak, dominated the room we had entered. I could see that it was probably hand-carved, though it was of excellent quality to my eyes. There was this shield-like carving at each corner of the table with what looked like some vaguely Celtic knotwork carved into the face of it. I noted that the chars that surrounded the table had the same shield carved into the backrest, as did some of the tapestries hanging off the wall.
Some sort of personal crest perhaps?
There was a large writing desk situated by one of the windows with an equally large bookshelf beside it filled sparsely with books. A low cabinet sat on the opposite side of the bookshelf decorated with clay pots filled with flowers flanking a decorative plate on a stand. Opposite the desk, across the room was a large fireplace, though I noted that it wasn't large enough for a half-giant to stand-in. Not connected to the Floo network then. Across the room from the door was a staircase leading up and under that stair was an open door that leads to what looked to be the kitchen.
I noted that there was a soft even rumbling sound drifting through the house and I could detect a barely noticeable tremor in the floor. I wonder if it had something to do with the waterwheels outside.
I decided that I'd skip trying to sit on one of the oversized (for me) chairs and instead sat directly on the tabletop. It was just easier and kept me from feeling like I was five years old again. I asked Sigrid to fetch some paper I could write on which she did without protest. I sighed in relief. I wasn't sure if she would be able to read, apparently, she could, thank god; this could have gotten awkward otherwise. After that, I spent a good two hours teaching her some rudimentary meditation techniques so that she could get started with learning how to focus her mind properly to allow for spell casting. I also wrote it down just in case, as some additional advice that I hoped would be useful.
After that, she offered me some refreshments in the form of pie and freshly squeezed juice and we just chatted a bit. "You live here alone?"
Sigrid shook her head. "No, this is my mom and dad's house."
"Mom and dad," I said in surprise. "That pretty unusual. The giant parent tends to leave once it sees that the kid is small."
Sigrid smiled faintly. "I'm surprised you know that, did Hagrid tell you that?"
"Not so much, he told me his mum left when he was just a tot, his words, but I didn't know it was the rule until I read up on it," I told her truthfully.
"Ah." She said with a thoughtful nod. "It's not really the case here; both my parents are Ettins you see."
Both her parents were half-giants? What was the chance of that happening? "Both are half-giants? Wow, must be some story of how they ended up meeting." I told her with a laugh.
"Not really." She told me with an amused little smirk. "The story is really with my grandma and grandpa on my mother's side, they are both ettins too. Grandma heard that there was supposed to be a giant of a man down in Germany, she was living in Russia at the time, and promptly walked down there the and hunted him down, convinced him to marry her, they moved around some until the Goblins sought them out and offered them a place here as caretakers of the dragon preserve. My grandpa knew of another ettin being born down there just before they up and left so when my mom came around they invited my dad's dad to come up and live here so that my mom could have a playmate, he accepted and the rest I'm sure you can add up yourself."
I couldn't help but smile widely. "Feisty old lady?"
"You have no idea." She muttered dryly.
I chuckled softly. "So it's just you three?"
She took a sip of her tea before answering. "No, Anders, my brother lives here too."
"Older or younger?"
"Older." She said before asking her own question. "You have any siblings?"
I used to have. "No."
"Lucky you." She snarked making me smile.
"You know any more half-giants?"
"No, there are no others around here. "There is supposed to be a community of us somewhere in the Americas, my dad talks of me going there and finding a husband sometimes, and Anders is thinking of going next summer to see if he can find them." She said, not sounding too enthused about the idea of a husband.
"Where are your parents anyway?" I asked curiously.
Sigrid shrugged disinterestedly. "Further up the valley with Anders, some dragon thing, I dunno, I wasn't paying attention when they left."
We fell into an awkward silence for a few moments before I asked. "So… what up with the ettin thing?"
Sigrid smiled, looking faintly embarrassed. "My dad says it what they are supposedly calling themselves over in America." She shrugged. "Sounds better than half-giant." She finished a bit lamely.
"It works. It's not like it's in use since they went extinct around here." I told her reassuringly. "Pretty cool choice even."
"I like it," Sigrid said with a smile. "So…"
Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by the door slamming open hard enough to shake the whole house followed by a boisterous shout. "We are home!! HA HAH HAH!!"
A man that managed to be both taller and broader then Hagrid burst into the house like the fucking cool aid man going through a wall, only with less property damage. Almost made me shit myself on the spot. I could see that his daughter took after him, though his hair was a much lighter shade of red, bordering on bright orange, cut short to the head. He had a short neatly trimmed beard going that worked well with his hair. He was dressed entirely gleaming silver leather that I assumed came from the dragons he tended to.
He was smiling widely as he stepped into the room, that is until he saw me sitting cross-legged on his table. Then he looked something between surprised, shocked and horrified. I'd learn why momentarily as a large blond woman followed him into the room. She was unquestionably beautiful and dressed up much like her husband. She was smiling ruefully and looked to be about to tell her husband off when her eyes landed on me. She wasn't surprised, shocked or horrified. No, she when straight to rage.
"Oh no..." Sigrid sighed.
"What in the hell is one of YOU doing in my HOUSE!?" The woman, the mother, roared furiously. I guess I know where Sigrid got her disgust of wizards from. The dad winced. I decided that it might be a good time to shut the fuck up until this sorted itself. And prepare to blow out a window and fly like a bat out of hell if you came for me.
Sigrid looks horrifically embarrassed at her mother's outburst, despite the fact she had a similar one just a few hours ago. "Mom, calm down, it's not what it looks like!" She shouted pleadingly.
"Not what it looks like!? You let that in! Why would you do that, after everything!?" The mother yelled, momentarily directing her fury towards her daughter.
"Mom calm down!" Sigrid yelled back as she rushed over and grabbed hold of her mother who looked poised to rush over and throw me bodily from the house. The fact that she could likely fastball special me without any problem was not a comforting realization.
Mom wasn't in the mood to listen though and yanked herself out of her daughter's grasp. "Don't tell me to calm down, Sigrid! What were you thinking?"
"Honey…" Husband tried placatingly only to have his wife round on him and shove a finger under his nose.
"Don't you honey me, Affe! This is not right and you know it! They can't just barge in here like this!" She screamed in his face while stabbing her finger into her husband's chest repeatedly.
"Siv, please." The now named Affe tried again.
Sigrid tried for a flanking maneuver and came in from behind. "Mom, please, it's okay."
"Hey what going on?" A new voice intruded as a blond man's head popped out from behind the gathered half-giants, ettins, spotted me and let out a curse. "Oh, crap…"
Not reassuring.
"It's not OK! How can you say that?!" Siv yelled in her daughter's face. "They rejected you, they rejected Anders! They have no business bothering us!"
"Mom, you're embarrassing me!" Sigrid hissed and grabbed hold of her mother and pulled her past me and into the kitchen, she almost threw her mother in before slamming the door shut behind her leaving the room eerily quiet.
I turned my attention from the closed kitchen door to look at the two males in the family, who were incidentally staring at me intently. I gave them a weak smile and a little wave. "Hi. Sorry about that."
"Are you Sig's boyfriend?" Anders asked gleefully.
"Anders!" Affe snapped and took a swipe at the grinning man causing his son to duck out of the door with a laugh.
"I'm kidding!" He shouted from inside.
Affe grunted. "You need to work on your sense of humor!" he called back before turning his attention back to me. "Well, I didn't see this coming'."
I laughed uncomfortably. "Yeah, wish Sigrid had given me some warning."
"I apologize for my wife since she won't do it herself, she's the passionate sort. Cares deeply for all of us and gets rightfully angry when our children get ill-treated." By my kind was left unsaid. It wasn't too hard to puzzle out what might have happened. And unfortunately entirely expected, when I thought about it.
"It's fine," I assured him. "Sigrid reacted much the same when I showed up. She apologized. End of story."
"I see…" He said with a thoughtful frown. "You know my daughter long?"
I shook my head vigorously. "Oh no, I just met her a few hours ago."
Affe reached up and scratched at the side of his face and eyed me for a moment. "Alright, that what are you doing here then?"
"I just stopped here on my way through to get a look at the gates of Nidavellir," I informed him. "I thought it might be best to let you guys know I was around so I wouldn't be stepping on any toes, or wings as it might be."
"That was kind of you." He told me with a smile before frowning. "Nidavellir you say? I got to tell you, the goblins don't much like strangers sniffing around their property, you might want to reconsider." He told me gravely and then flinched a bit when a shout came from the kitchen.
"That's impossible. Can't you see he's lying to you!" Siv's voice echoed through the room.
"Mom! I saw him do it with my own eyes!" Sigrid yelled back just as loud.
Affe eyed the kitchen door for a moment before looking over at me again. "You mind telling me what that is about?"
I rubbed at the back of my head uncomfortably and gave him a weak little laugh. "If I'd hazard a guess its probably that I offered to teach her wandless magic."
Affe's eyes widened in surprise and he just stood there gaping for a few moments before visibly gathering himself. "Wandless magic?" he asked astonished.
"Yeah," I said and conjured a ball of fire and set it to dance around the room before letting it burst into a little fireworks display. "See."
Affe looked in shock at where the fireball had disappeared before slowly turning back to me. "Well… isn't that just something. You must be damn powerful to do something like that, kid."
"It's not really about power, sir. It's about effort." I told him frankly. "It's not like using a wand, you have to actually practice hard to get anywhere at first. It gets easier later, once you get a hang of it. But it's like trying to break down a wall with your head starting out. But anyone can do it if they stick with it."
Affe nodded thoughtfully. "And you will tutor her in this then?"
"No. I've taught her what she needs to get started. But I did tell her the name of my other student. He's really talented; he'll be able to help her just as well as I could." I said, making sure to toss in some praise for Hagrid in there.
Affe looked at me intently before asking another question. "And who might this person be?"
I had to suppress the urge to laugh. I guess fathers are alike no matter where they might be from. "Rubius Hagrid. He's the keeper of keys and groundskeeper at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. He's a nice guy, and a half-giant like you." I said with a smile.
"Ettin." A voice from behind corrected me, making me jump. Siv.
Dunno how someone that big could manage to get behind me without me noticing, but she did. I gave her a little wave. "Ma'am."
She looked at me for a few moments before grunting and then turned and stalked up the stairs to the floor above. Moments later I heard a door slam. "Not happy with me is she?"
"She'll come around," Sigrid told me as she sat down by the table. "Sorry about that."
I sighed. "It's fine."