"So this goes here then?" I asked Lys as I held up what I think my vertically challenged friend had called a lock rod to another piece of machinery while studying the three-dimensional schematic of what we were building that Lys had made.
Lys craned her head around and looked over from where she was laying on her back working on another section of this horribly complex-looking machine we were both working on. The product of several years of work on both our parts, though, admittedly this part was all Lys' doing.
"Aye! But don't forget to put in a spacer or it will jam." She called back. "And put a sticking charm on the lugnut so it doesn't work itself out."
I took another look at the magical hologram to assure myself before I started to try to fit things into place. Lys was the one that had figured out that one could use my new invention for more than just playing memories. Or. well, it was more that she pointed out that everything eventually became a memory, even our own thoughts. Ever imagined something? Put an image together in your head over the span of days until you are done? You remember doing that. You have a memory of that? Lys figured that it should be possible to image something that wasn't an event, and as it turned out she'd been right.
Implementing had proven a bit convoluted but doable. One imagination didn't produce something as clear as an event, but we found that just putting the imagined memory into the crystal and watching it and then putting that memory into the crystal enhanced the image. Rinse and repeat and eventually, the image was refined enough to work off. I wonder if I could use it as a book, a place to store knowledge.
"Don't tighten that nut too much!" Lys called, interrupting my musings.
"Yeah, yeah. I hear ya!" I grumbled.
"And don't forget the sticking charm!"
"You told me already! I can remember something for longer than five minutes!" I growled and zapped the nut with a sticking charm.
"Like ye remembered the shield charm the last time ye were mucking about with yer spell creation. How long were ye in the hospital wing again?" She teased me.
"A couple of broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder is nothing to get excited about!" I called back unrepentantly. "And I only had to spend the night while the skale-gro did its thing." And hadn't that been an uncomfortable night. The itching and the burning. Ugh! Better than having broken ribs for however long that sort of thing took to heal the normal way, but not by much. The books never told you that it felt like there was stuff moving inside of you.
I suppose it was good motivation not to get careless again.
I rolled over and reached for the next part that had been carefully placed in the order they needed to be assembled before rolling back over and took a look at the diagram until I found the part I was holding. Let's see. I needed to attach it to the lock rod and then swing it up and attached it to the cog above it and secure it with another nut. No spacer this time. Simple enough.
I had to admit, while I didn't have much talent for machinery like this, putting it together like that did cause me to feel a certain sense of profound accomplishment. Machines like this one are why humanity ruled the Earth, even in a world with wizards and dragons. A good reminder that while magic was wonderful, technology would likely take humanity further faster. But maybe magic could help pave the way - make things easier.
Lys might just manage that... eventually.
I smiled to myself. Now that was something to look forward to.
"Don't put that there!" Lys interrupted my thoughts again. "That part goes to the left, the next part is the one that goes there to the right - note the teeth along the outer edges, they are there so they can interact with that small cog up there. Ye see it?"
I squinted and moved the part over to where Lys had indicated and saw that there was a small cog that it might interact with as the larger cog rotated around. "Okay, I see it, thanks."
"Pay attention, or this little experiment of yers is gonna blow up in yer face." Lys grumped and went back to her part.
"We can't all by mechanical savants, Shortstack."
"Ye don't need to be a genius to follow simple instructions." Lys retorted irritably.
I took another look at the horribly complex-looking schematics floating in the air between us. "I don't think we have the same definition of "simple", Shortstack."
"I'm surprised you know what definition is." Lys snarked.
"Did you just imply you think I'm stupid."
"What I think is that your brain is full of crazy squirrels - focus!" She reprimanded me.
I chuckled, "Suppose I can't disagree with that."
"Hey, what's this?" A squeaky voice interrupted.
Me and Lys snapped around, as much as we could, at the unexpected but familiar voice. And there, standing amongst the machinery was Puck, my resident fairy experiment and all-around pain in the butt. He was holding one of the components that I'd just attached, inspecting it curiously. I didn't bother trying to figure out how he'd gotten in here, he had a disturbing ability to appear where he shouldn't, despite him not having anything resembling wizard magic. Paddy had told me that he hadn't noticed him popping either, so it wasn't that.
Puck himself had proven himself to be intelligent and creative, and he'd already leveraged his eidetic memory to learn a lot of practical skills in a very short amount of time. Then he'd use those skills to play pranks on the residents of the castle, myself included. Finding yourself sown into your own bed was an interesting experience. The fact that he was able to do it under the watch of Paddy was downright impressive. I hadn't even been angry.
The little shit was living up to his name a bit too well. Eventually, I'd decided to bribe the little bugger to exclude me from his pranks. What kind of bribe? A dollhouse. Fully furnished and enchanted by yours truly with all the comforts of home. The damn thing even had running water and a working fridge and freezer, and not to mention a functioning stove. Lys' handywork, her bribe.
It worked, for the most part, he didn't play pranks on us, but that didn't prevent him from being a nuisance on occasion. Being curious and easily bored would do that to a person. So he could be a pain in the ass occasionally, like now.
"Don't touch that ye little vermin!" Lys snapped.
"Rude!" Puck complained, and fliting around and trough the machinery. "You are rude! Maybe I should be rude back! Maybe I should mess up your thingies!"
"And maybe I should stick a needle in yer chest and put you into an insect exhibit!" Lys snapped and waved a spanner threateningly at the little fairy.
"Big. Slow. You would not catch me." Puck proclaimed arrogantly. "Your magic do not hold me."
"No messing with my stuff, Puck," I told him absently as I tried to fit another piece into this giant jigsaw puzzle we were trying to build. I saw Puck flit over to me and give me a pint-sized glare.
"Rude! Stupid! Should be punished. I will-erk!?"
I had the hand-eye coordination to snatch flies out of the air, a fairy wasn't much harder. I brought the now struggling fairy over to my face and used my thumb to press his head backward so I had his full undivided attention. For extra effect I made my eyes glow balefully.
"Listen here you overgrown fruitfly. If you mess this up for me I'll turn you into a toilet in the boy's bathroom for a week. Your peculiar mind would likely remain conscious in that state so that you can fully enjoy the experience!" I growled threateningly.
Puck paled dramatically before he laughed weakly. "Was joke... Very not funny joke! Would never!"
Lys snorted.
"Right. Good." I said, smiling toothily. "Now, you eater help out or get out, I don't care which."
Puck laughed nervously. "Will... help?"
I shrugged, as much as I could laying down and let the little fairy go. Puck immediately put some distance between us, still shooting me a nervous look. Lys snorted again, which caused Puck's attention to snap to her with a glare, which she returned with gusto while pointing her spanner at him. I sighed and suppressed a smile as I refocused on my own tasks.
It was nice when your friends liked each other.
---
Later in the day, the evening really, found me wandering slowly towards Hagrid's cozy big-little house. I'd not had the time to visit him in a few weeks, having been busy with one thing or another, and I felt it was well past due that I rectified that. To my surprise I found the two occupants outside, sitting around a large round table that was situated on a small (for a half-giant) patio that hadn't been there the last time I'd come around. And they had a guest.
It was a woman, a big woman, so definitely an Ettin. She had chocolate dark skin and straight black hair fashioned into a bob cut. She looked vaguely greek I thought, or at least middle eastern. She had on a nice open-backed dress with some gold accents. But that was where the definition of "normal" ended for the woman. The first thing to note was that she had a pair of very large black feathered wings protruding from her back. She also had a long sinuous black-furred tail swishing about behind her. Her forearms and hands were covered in dense black fur and terminated in some wicked-looking claws. When Sigrid brought attention to my approached and she turned towards me I could see her yellow cat-like eyes and when she smiled her open mouth revealed way too many sharp teeth to be entirely human.
Spoiler: Guest
"Ey ther Drew. Awent seen ya in a while!" Hagrid called out as I came up to the patio. "What brings ya by?"
I shrugged my shoulders with a self-deprecating smile. "Sorry about that good buddy. Got a bit caught up in my own stuff, you know how it goes." I told him before I turned my attention over to the newcomer. "I see you have a guest. Hello. Like the giant teddy bear said, the names Drew. And you are?"
The mystery woman gave me a terrifyingly sharp smile before she stood up and moved over to where I was standing and offered me her hand, which was about three times the size of my own and still managed to look dainty. Wow, those claws looked sharp. I bravely put my hand in her for a shake.
"So you are Drew. My grandfather told me about you." She purred in a dark throaty voice that just went straight to my balls. Good gravy, a voice shouldn't be that sexy! I felt heat slowly crawl up my neck. "My name is Isis, it is a pleasure to finally meet you."
"A-ah. Uh, likewise." I said intelligently while cursing up a storm. Head in the game Drew, she's not the first sexy lady you've seen! "Grandfather?"
"Hymir, the Jarl of Utgard." She told me.
Oh. My brain did a little hiccup and then switched onto a new track. I hadn't noticed the American accent, but in hindsight, it was pretty clear. She was the Hymir granddaughter, which meant she was the daughter of his weirdo of a son who had that cowgirl for a daughter as well. That he'd gotten by fucking a magic cow. I immediately tried to determine what kind of creature had produced this prodigious specimen of womanhood. She had characteristics of both bird and feline but looked mostly human despite that. Aud had been humanoid but had taken more from her mother's side of the family, Isis seemed to be the flipside.
"You are wondering what my father fucked to produce me, don't you?" She purred with a wide sharp grin.
I blushed. Fuck me was it that obvious? I usually had a pretty good poker face. Is she reading my mind? No, my shields are fine. "Ah... well... eh."
Isis laughed gaily at my bumbling, "It's fine, I don't mind. Curiosity is nothing to get pissy about." She proclaimed, "My mother is a sphinx."
"A sphinx?" I asked incredulously and then winced as a picture of what that would entail popped into my mind. "Wow, that's a mental image I could have lived happily without," I complained.
Isis laughed again and gave me a smile that left me weak in the kees for several reasons. "My fathead of a father has that effect on people."
"Not a fan?" I asked before I could catch myself.
"Seeing as I have to wander around the world and pick up his byblows whenever he gets the urge to do something disgusting, no I can't say that I am."
Byblows, did she mean there was more. I had to know, "Exactly how many ... "siblings" do you have?"
"Twelve by the last count." Was her prompt reply.
"Oh." Well... that was surely something.