I HATE THE MIDDLE AGES!
Chapter 8: Dwarf engineering
(The two towers)
The group entered the capital and Hermione saw that inside it was no more spectacular than seen from outside, they left the horses at the base of the castle's stairs and climbed these to head for the "golden castle".
The guards forbade the group from entering with weapons and all had to leave them at the entrance, except Gandalf who told them that his magic staff was actually a stick he used to lean on.
“Please guard this dagger carefully, Galadriel, the queen of elves, gave it to me," said Hermione and the guards were impressed.
“What's that thing on your belt?” one of the guards asked when he saw Hermione's wand.
“Vine and dragon, that symbolizes this "signpost", and means the purity and virginity of the maiden who carries it, so you will understand therefore that I cannot let go of this one," she said and the guards let it pass.
“That was a good one," whispered Gimli in her ear.
The interior of the castle was no big deal, as it was dark and sullen, at the end of the main hall was King Théoden, who looked careless and tired, looked so old that Hermione was surprised that he did not fall apart at that very moment.
"Reminds me of the exams I took before I came here," she thought. "In fact they were so old they even met Dumbledore as a child and tested him."
Hermione was drawn from her thoughts as she saw several guards advancing beside her, staring menacingly at them. Grima, serpent's tongue, who was the king's advisor, accused the newcomers of being carriers of bad fortune, but Gandalf ordered him to shut up, with what started a scuffle against the guards who were following them, however, all these men were defeated by the skills of the group including Hermione.
Gandalf tried to help the king, but it was discovered that he was possessed by Saruman.
“I will take you out of the king as the snake's venom is removed from the body," Gandalf said to him, releasing the king from the curse of Saruman.
Lady Eowyn, helped incorporate the king and Hermione was impressed to see the change in this one.
The first thing the king did when he regained his strength was to drive out Grima from his kingdom. Then the king asked Gandalf and the others to come before him and state the reason for their visit.
“Then Saruman betrayed us, but he was the leader of your order Gandalf!” the king complained to him.
“In the end, Saruman yielded to the temptation of power that Sauron offered him, the fool does not know that his master does not yield any power, he will soon discover his error," said Gandalf.
“But before that he will attack us, with a horde of black orcs created by him, orcs immune to the sunlight and of a more brutal nature," said the king.
“Your Majesty, you must shelter your people, this place is not safe," Hermione suggested.
“Women, be quiet!” the king ordered and Hermione felt as if she had been slapped.
"I hate the Middle Ages," she thought humiliated.
The group members began to protest, but the king ordered them to shut up.
“We will discuss the strategy to take, first I must go to see my son's tomb," said the King leaving the place.
“How dare she speak to the king in such a manner," whispered one of the "wise men" of the kingdom.
“An istari woman, must be a deception," said another wise man.
“Sure she is a witch” another "wise" pointed to her for a moment.
“She will dry up our crops and devour our children," said the doctor of the kingdom, who was none other than the barber of the capital and also served as a dentist and head of the gravediggers' house.
Hermione listened to all this white stuff of rage, cursing the Middle Ages over and over again. When she thought she would no longer be able to control herself, a loud voice reprimanded the elders.
“How dare you say such things about the istari. Wicked are your reptilian tongues, which now dare to come out of your jaws. When the grima serpent’ tongue bewitched our lord, you fell silent without even looking up at the traitor. Get out of my sight!” Lady Eowyn shouted to them, who had a strong and haughty stance, similar to a tiger.
“I want you to forgive me noble istari, for the hypocritical words of the wise men of my kingdom," said Eowyn.
“Don't worry, Lady Eowyn," replied a surprised Hermione and Eowyn smiled at her.
Lady Eowyn reminded her of her friends; with Luna's long, wild, blonde hair and Ginny's beautiful face and strong personality.
Lady Éowyn excused herself to go and get changed and assist her uncle the king at her son's farewell, but before that, she ordered the travelers to bring food and wine.
“Thank you Lady Eowyn," Hermione said with a bow.
“Please just call me Eowyn.”
“And you please call me Hermione.”
“I prefer to drink beer and very hot and lumpy," said Gimli, happy at the prospect of eating and drinking. Legolas rolled his eyes and Aragorn smiled for himself.
“Ha-ha, you guys stay with your fine drinks," Gimli said when he saw his two friends. “I prefer a more masculine beverage, more manly, more... Dwarf!”
Hermione and Eowyn exchanged glances and laughed after a long time of suffering.
.
.
The friends after lunch were directed to their rooms to rest. They'd talk to the king the next day.
Hermione sighed as she had to repeat the process of transfiguring the bathroom elements into their modern Earth equivalents.
“I hate the Middle Ages. Since I will stay here, I will make sure to invent the plumbing in this era, or at least bring it to these places.” Corrected herself Hermione, recalling the dark corridors of Moria.
"I'm sure I saw traces of plumbing in the dwarf kingdom, I'd better ask Gimli," she thought and rushed to the dwarfs room.
“One moment!” Gimli cried as he heard someone knock on the door of his room with force.
"Hermione! What happens," said the dwarf as he saw the anxious look on his friend's face.
“Gimli! Do dwarves have bathroom pipes?” Suddenly said to him.
To the girl's surprise, Gimli confirmed that the dwarves had plumbing for the bathroom. As the dwarfs lived in the depths of the earth unlike the other races, they could not afford to heed "nature's call" anywhere, let alone throw waste through windows, as the air would be dampened, despite the remarkable natural and mechanical ventilation systems of the dwarfs.
Hermione learned that it was the dwarf king's duty to provide all his subjects, no matter how poor, with basic sewerage, rain plumbing, toilet facilities and even toilet paper, free of charge.
“Really! Toilet paper!” Hermione said, surprised, and told him about the toilet paper of her world.
“No, the dwarf king does not give his subjects paper rolls, but rather loose sheets, we import them from the distant kingdoms of the east, beyond Middle-earth.”
Hermione recalled that it was the Chinese who invented toilet paper and that it had the same characteristics as dwarf toilet paper.
“Gimli, how are the kingdoms east of the middle earth?”
“Umm, I wouldn't know how to tell you Hermione, I was never interested in the east of Middle Earth, you'd have to ask the dwarf merchants who travel to those places.”
Hermione was very surprised, not even in her home world did they all have basic sewerage services, not only in remote regions, but in the peri-urban areas of cities. The dwarves were more advanced in this respect than the other races or the world of Hermione, in fact no government in the world gave these services free of charge to people, not even toilet paper.
Gimli described the dwarf toilets and Hermione found out that they were the same as his grandparents used, that is, the cement sheet with a hole in the middle and one had to squat. Hermione told him about the modern toilets and Gimli was interested.
“I will tell this to the health engineers of the kingdom, I am sure they will be interested.”
Gimli and Hermione talked about their respective worlds, the dwarf was delighted with the mechanical wonders of their friend's world.
“Hermione, you must go to the dwarf kingdoms, I will be your guide, you can't miss the great annual beer drinkers competition, it's colossal!”
Hermione was always surprised at the superhuman constitution of the participants in this type of events, when she read the stories of this type of competitions as a child, but since the drink of this world had less alcohol than in her world, everything began to fit together.
Hermione went to her room but saw Aragorn sitting in a dark corner, looking at the jewel that Arwen gave her.
“Arwen, you'd better be thinking about poor Aragorn, he really loves you," the girl thought, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel a little envious.
Hermione fantasized that she was with Aragorn and he took her by the hand and waved seductive smiles at her. The witch shook her head to scare away these shameful thoughts and headed to her room to sleep.
TO BE CONTINUE...
Thank you for reading, don't forget to comment please.
ns 15.158.61.54da2
