Ⓐ - Ⓩ ~ X ... Nata and Jouka

This is a series of studies for my long-time-in-the-writings book about the magic in the Nordic countries.
  We are in the 70es on Unicorn Island, an island off the coast of southern Zealand. A handful of teachers have gathered the broken threads of magic once again, trying to revive the magic in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Faroes and partially Greenland.
  Our main protagonist is Susan (me) from Elsinore and her three co-apprentices and friends Heidi, Tage and Lis living at Unicorn Island.
  I grasped the chance to write a little bit about some of the lesser known apprentices in this A-Z challenge.

 Ⓐ - Ⓩ

X for "X marks the spot" ~ Nata Kanerva and Jouka Mustonen. 

Friends, not siblings this time around.

Palm Sunday in the morning, Jouka once again sat on Nata's doorstep, Over his shoulder hung a canvas bag where he had lots of things, a pocket knife, matches, edibles, books, and even a clean shirt. He enjoyed the glorious siunise, then passed the morning reading until Nata woke up and found him there. "Hi Jouka," she said. "Circus going on again at home?"
"Yea," he replied, "Dad's drunk again, the older ones have been out dancing, arriving home all night, more or less noisy, smaller ones crying, getting into everything, ruining my schoolbooks and homework given half a chance, and mom as usual sad, as usual silently scolding. I am just trying to make myself as scarce as possible."
"You know you're always welcome here. Maybe it would be an idea to stash your schoolbooks here? That way they won't be ruined," Nata looked questioning at Jouka. A slow smile spread over his narrow face.
"But first," Nata said, "you need a bath and some breakfast."   
"I second that," Jouka said happily.

After breakfast Nata found her mother and asked if Jouka could have a shelf of his own somewhere.
"I can do better," Her mother said. "That small room in the attic, there's an old cupboard, Jouka could have his stuff in there - there's room for more than books."
"Mom, you're a darling," Nata said, and Jouka thanked her profusely.
"Well," mom said. "It's only right. You and I have so much room, and Jouka so little. If I did not know that his mom and dad would raise hell given a chance, I'd say he could move in, I always wanted a son."
Jouka gave a short, hard laugh. "No, not going to happen," he said. "They need the Lapsilisä (money paid from the state to parents of children under 18) I bring."
"But you still know you're always welcome," Nata's mother said.
"Thanks!" Jouka said simply.

"Now what are we going to do in the holidays?" Jouka asked when Nata's mother had left for work.
"I have an idea," Nata said, rose, and fetched an issue of the paper, Helsingin Sanomat. "There is a an event in the park today, staring off an Easter-treasure hunt with clues for kids. One clue a day and a prize for whomever presents most solved clues Saturday morning"

They went to the park and participated in the event. They had to walk around the beds, finding flowers that were pretty, but poisonous. Together they found Aconite: "Also known as Wolfsbane," Jouka added, Foxgloves and a Daphne tree. They were thn given a bookelet to fill out every day and had their names signed in a list.

Every day the two children met in Nata's house, and every day Jouka's dark head and Nata's blonde were bent over the daily issue of Helsingin Sanomat.

Thursday the clues were very tough and they brought the booklet and the paper to the park, where the clue allegedly should be found.
"A place of dying?" Jouka said. "I have no idea."
"Graveyards are out of bounds, they said so in the first clue," Nata added.
"We have been to many of the famous places in Helsinki," Jouka said, "The Sibelius monument, National museum, Finlandia Hall, The Cathedral, The Mannerheim statue ... what would be missing, if this was a list of places to be seen in Helsinki?"
"The big Hospital?" Nata asked. "At least people die there."
"I do not think the hospital would be happy to be known as the dying place!" Jouka said.
"Fair enough." Nata said, "Missing also: Sveaborg, Old market, Library, Orthodox church, Rock church, Senate ..."
"Yes," Jouka interrupted her "Uspenskij cathedral. Uspenskij means dying, That's it!"
"Let's get there," Nata said.  

When they got near there, two old people asked for their help. "We're a bit lost," the man said."We were looking for the Cathedral, but we can't find it."
"We know where it is," Jouka said, "it's quite close, we were there Wednesday." As they walked with the couple to the Cathedral, they told about the treasure hunt, and their love of solving riddles."
The lady asked Jouka and Nata: "Can you also solve this one.  I have cities, but no houses; forests, but no trees; and water, but no fish. Who am I?"
Jouka and Nata whispered together, and  then Jouka spoke up: "It's a map!"
Then the man said: "A father’s child, a mother’s child, yet no one’s son. Who am I?"
"That's easy," Nata said. "It's me, a daughter."
"And a final one"," the lady said. "I always run but never walk, often murmur, never talk. I have a bed but never sleep; an open mouth but never eat. Who am I?"

Jouka thought long and longer, Nata did the same. They whispered, they repeated the words. "It cannot be alive, Jouka said in the end. If it never eats and never sleeps ... It's not a road either, because roads do not speak or run, even if we say so."
"This one does not speak either, only murmurs," Nata said. "And it run, but does not walk .. Maybe time?"
"No," Jouka said, "Time has no bed." Nata shook her head. "A bed," he said slowly "I know, at least I think I do. A river. Try it out."
"Runs, but never walks; check," Nata said. "Murmurs, I suppose you could say so of the sound from a running river, never talks at least. Have a bed, yup, and never sleeps. An open mouth? ... what's the mouth of a river ... oh yes of course it is a river." The last she said loud enough for the elderly couple to hear.
"True it is a river," the lady said. "We'd like to treat you two to an ice cream here in the park."
"Yes please!" Jouka and Nata said in unison.
As they sat on a bench and table set in the park each eating an ice cream cone, Jouka suddenly said. "You were not lost at all. You live here in Helsinki, same as we."
"True," the man said. "We were testing you."
"Is it a part of the Treasure hunt from the paper?" Nata asked, "and is it true that today's clue is the Uspenskij cathedral?"
"No, sorry," the lady said. "We're magic snoopers."
"You're what?" Nata said. "That sounds like something out of a bad movie."
"No it's true," Josh said.
"You can feel it," The lady said.
"Yes, or maybe ... Don't laugh, sometimes when people are lying, I see some kind of colour over them. Like red, orangish. If on the other hand they tell a truth that seems unlikely - like what you just said. I see a blue or green light over you. No, I'm not crazy, and sorry Nata, I have tried to tell you, but you were not listening very much."
"It's because I see the same," she said, shaking. "Only not so much any more. I once told my mother, and she said to stop doing it. It was evil. Some sort of witchcraft."   
"But it is, some sort of witchcraft, that is, not evil," the man said. "We are wizards, and we're out to find apprentices for our new school, would you like to join? I'm Taavi, and this is Tähti," the lady rose and bowed. Suddenly the children noticed that while she was certainly old, she was in no way weak or senile. She smiled, and her eyes danced with mirth. "You should see yourselves right now," she laughed. "Your brains are whirring, and you're almost tying yourself into knots so as not to believe us."
She pulled out a slender branch and swished it through the air whispering a short command. Then she rose into the air. Taavi also pulled his wand and swished it with a few words. Rose petals began raining gently all over the table and surroundings.
Jouka and Nata sat down, Then Jouka closed his open mouth. "But how, I mean why, I mean I did not think magic really existed. And how did you find us?"
"We have looked for children with magic, as I said we're snoopers, or rather it's a part of our job."
"I'd like to come," Jouka said, but then his face drooped. "But I'll never get my parent's permission. They want me to stay in the school with no payment" - he said this last as if it was one word.
"The school will be in the holidays" Täthi explained. "And your parents need not know where you're going. For that sake, you can tell them you've gotten a job for the holidays."
"But that's lying!" Jouka said.
"Do your parents know when somebody are lying? or  any of your brothers or sisters?"
"No," Jouka almost whispered, "they don't."
"I thought as much," Täthi said. "None of them can do magic, You're the only one."
"And me," Nata said. "I'm fairly free to come and go. Mother always works during the holidays, she says it pays better, gives her goodwill and that I'm bright enough to be able to miss a week here and there for us to travel anyway."
"Smart Mom, and she's even right." Taavi said.
"It's a deal?" Tähti said. Nata and Jouka nodded, and Tähti added: "I'll send you a letter closer to the summer holidays, telling where to go and such. No problems, Jouka, it will look as a working contract for you, and for Nata like an invitation to a 4H course."
"We'll be able to pay you a small salary," Taavi said calmingly to Jouka. "You won't be found out!"
"Now off to the Cathedral of the Dormition you go. That's the technical name for the Uspenkij Catedral. It sure is the rigth clue." Tähti said.

Nata and Jouka found the clue, they also found the Saturday one and each got a big bag of Easter eggs.

At the Unicorn Farm, Nata joined the healing and flying team, eventually flying for the Yellow team in the broom race, and Jouka was one of the only three apprentices taking to Portals major and Discernment magic.

Jouka's wand was made out of maple, and his sparks were bright red and green. Nata's birchen wand emitted yellow sparks. They both died after losing their magic again.

 - - - - -

Tomorrow Y for Finnbogi Yngvasson.


Using the photo and the words Foxglove and Event from the Words for Wednesday.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ ~ Hilde Westvold

This is a series of studies for my long-time-in-the-writings book about the magic in the Nordic countries.
We are in the 70es on Unicorn Island, an island off the coast of southern Zealand. A handful of teachers have gathered the broken threads of magic once again, trying to revive the magic in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Faroes and partially Greenland.
Our main protagonist is Susan (me) from Elsinore and her three co-apprentices and friends Heidi, Tage and Lis living at Unicorn Island.
I grasped the chance to write a little bit about some of the lesser known apprentices in this A-Z challenge.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ

Hilde Westwold from Norway

Hilde lives with her parents far from everything. She herself tells of her life here:
"I am an only child of two magical parents and they home-schooled me, and taught me everything they knew both about magic and the world. We live far away in the country, and we're used to being self reliant and hard working."
  Her appearance is homely in every sense of the word, squat, mousegrey hair, coarse features and manners. Combined with her obvious good brains and memory and having been taught much of what the others are fighting to learn, her aptitude to corect the other apprentices with a mine of "how hard can it be" makes Hilde not generally liked by the other apprentices of her nature team or indeed by any of the other apprentices. One day, not long after the Easter fire that changed this, she tells about growing up and magic.
"It seems that Nature magic is a kind of magic needing almost no wands," Hilde began her tale. "We lived alone, far from any big, or even small cities. We had an old, decrepit car, and once a month - more frequently in Winter and early spring, my father drove to the nearest town. Ther he shopped and sent off his work - to this day I do not know what he did. He worked all winter, rising early, going for a run, and then typing away all day in a small room in the upper floor. He always kept it carefully locked, and after he retired, it was cleared, and everything in there, even the furniture, burned. I suspect som kind of intelligence or espionage. Anyway -- from early spring well into autumn we worked from dawn to dusk, tending plants, feeding our cows, poultry and rabbits, weeding fields, hoisting water from the well, picking, canning, milking, picking seeds for next year, in short making sure to suevive another winter. Father also sold some of our surplus in autumn, and brought home sugar, tea and spices and needles, fabric and such. In winter, when my father wrote, mother and I sewed, wowe baskets, made spoons and containers from wood, we also learned and studied. We had one very old wand for all three of us, It had belonged to my mother's grandmother, it was decrepit, and for every use its magic grew less. So we only used it for real emergencies. But for the growing things, and such ... mom called it blessing magic ... only our hands were needed. We held our hands cupped around a plant or a chicken that was blighted or ill, then we sang, mom and dad taught me all the songs you have been studying here as well, and mostly the plants grew true and the small ones thrived. We also dabbled in potions, but we did not know enough, and we could not find anything to study.
  You can imagine our happines when Jon and Tähti showed up one day in Spring and sung wands for my parents and promised that I could go to school here. Singing of wands seems to have been a forgotten craft until recently, and only a few magic people have travelled far enough, or been lucky enough to find a wand maker in another country."

 - - - - - -

Hilde loses her magic same as all the rest of the magic society in the Nordic countries. Instead of expanding, they had to close down. Gilvi visited all of the parents, grandparents, cousins, friends ... in short all and sundry for whom Tähti or Thora had sung wands in the past three years, making them break their wands, and cast the forgetting spell on themselves, as a preamble to the terrible summer party at Unicorn Farm (not online).

Hilde's wand is made from spruce, emitting kitchen blue sparks. She survived the loss of her magic by efficiently burying herself in her studies to become a nurse. We meet her again as a busy nurse and grandmother in Birch Manor.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ

Tomorrow X for "X marks the spot"

Fredagsfrustration ~ Store bededag

  I dag er det fredag i fjerde uge i påsken. Tidligere var det store bededag denne dag, men i år er det en ganske almindelig hverdag. Ugleungerne er i skole, Skribenten er på vej ud af døren ... og det er overskyet og regnfuldt.
  Så langt jeg husker tilbage, har solen skinnet store bededag - i hvert fald her i Nordsjælland. Men i dag stod vi op til regn, og resten af dagen lover ikke meget bedre. Det er meget passende!

Jeg savner store bededag!

Og jeg citerer mig selv fra sidste år:

      Store Bededag er en fridag, der har betydet meget for mig i de forgangne år. Det er så at sige en "gratis" fridag. Butikkerne er lukkede, så vi kan heller ikke tage på indkøb. Vi får ikke gæster, vi skal ikke i kirke. Kort sagt, vi har bare fri, der er ingen, der forventer noget af os, ingenting vi skal.
     Det kommer jeg i den grad til at savne i de kommende år, det, og så den her lettede, boblende frie fornemmelse, når dagen ender af "Tænk, det er kun lørdag i morgen!"

Today is Friday in the 4th week of  Easter. Until now it was a holiday, Common (or great) prayer day, but this year for the first time it is just another Friday. The Owlets are off to school, the Writer is on his way out of the door as well, and the weather is cloudy and rainy.

So far the weather on this day has always been sunny, cold and windy maybe, but sunny. Today is the first rain on thins day for a long, long time. I woke up to the sound of rain on my window panes, and the rest of today looks the same.

I miss this holiday.

It was so to say a "free" holiday. Nobody expected anything from us, the shops were closed, so no shopping, we were not having any guests, we were not supposed to go to church (this was a Protestant prayer day only 😉). Not a thing in the calendar, and when the day ended, I always have had this light, bubbly feeling: Tomorrow is only Saturday! This feeling - of a week with two Saturdays - I am sorely going to miss in years to come.

Vejret sørger med mig ~ the weather commiserates.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ ~ Sarah fra Vestegnen

This is a series of studies for my long-time-in-the-writings book about the magic in the Nordic countries.
We are in the 70es on Unicorn Island, an island off the coast of southern Zealand. A handful of teachers have gathered the broken threads of magic once again, trying to revive the magic in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Faroes and partially Greenland.
Our main protagonist is Susan (me) from Elsinore and her three co-apprentices and friends Heidi, Tage and Lis living at Unicorn Island.
I grasped the chance to write a little bit about some of the lesser known apprentices in this A-Z challenge.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ

Sarah Poulsen from Denmark

Vestegnen - meaning "the western parts" - is the build up areas west of Copenhagen, characterised by apartment blocks, concrete and steel, and modern architecture. It was not a nice life for many of the children in this modern desert. In some areas almost half of the grown-ups were unemployed, the number of immigrants and families having trouble with the police or social authorities were the highest in al of Denmark. From kindergarten up many children were latch key children, older children vere often sent to the pub to get father home, and many younger were sent shopping for alcohol and cigarettes before school. Many were the children who swore never to touch these things, but as they grew into adulthood and unemployment, the numbing effect of beer became alluring and former promises forgotten.
Despite all this it was in many ways a safe place to be a small child. You could always find someone to play with, always some one to go shopping together with and if your parents were too drunk or away, some other family always took care of you.


In one of the many apartment blocks lived a girl, Sarah, with her parents and two sisters, one older and one younger. Her mother worked as a cleaning woman at a nearby school, working early hours and only returning home after the three sisters had already left for school. Father had been laid off as a caroenter some years ago, he had hurt his back in an accident, and could not find a new job. His bach and his inability to fend for his family hurt him and drove him to drinking. The oldest sister Lone, cared for her smaller sisters, Sarah and Hanne. And this worked fine until  one day Lone found a sweetheart at a local pub. Then she too started drinking and dancing with him in the evenings. Sarah felt betrayed by Lone and began getting behind in school. She also felt excluded in school. She loved reading, she actually liked doing her homework and doing it properly. Sarah got into the habit of staying at the local library every day after school. It was a nice place, and the librarians knew the background of the children, so they were loving, but strict. A mixture that fit Sarah perfectly. One of the first days in the summer holiday Sarah met a strange man at the library. She was fascinated by him and his beard when she noticed him. But he just sat there, reading, same as her, and when she left for the cafeteria, to drink a coke and eat a sandwich - empty bottles earned her quite a nice sum - he did the same. That is, he drank a beer with his sandwich.
When they were all alone in the cafeteria, the tall, bearded man asked Sarah if she would like to help him. Sarah had heard enough of dangerous men to flatly say no to his request. But when she left the library a good deal later than she had planned, he stood outside. "Can I walk you home?" he asked.
Sarah could see nothing wrong in this, she counted on being able to outrun and out escape him if he was up to tricks, and as a gang of older boys had recently begun harassing whomever they found all alone on the walkways, taking their money or slicing them if no money were to be had, she accepted.
On the way home he kept quiet until they were more than halfway. Then he asked how she liked school here. This was what grown-ups always asked for starters, and Sarah answered truthfully that she liked school, that she loved reading, maths, languages ... in short all subjects, only not sewing and P.E.
"What would you like to study if you could choose anything at all?" he asked. Sarah thought for a while, then answered: "I'd like to invent a society where nobody needed to drink, where no pubs and no gangs are allowed. But to do this, I suppose I'd have to do magic."
"Do you think magic would solve all problems?" The man asked
"That's not how I meant it, and you know it," Sarah said. "But to do magic .. that would b nice. Just swish your wand and say a word, and bam, job's done, or mix up a potion to cure someone. Wow, that would be nice. Then I could cure my dad's back, mothers knees, and sister's stomach and ... oh everything. But magic is not real. It's only something you read about in books." Sarah sounded bitter.
"Would you like to learn magic?" the stranger said. "I, or rather we, as I'm not in this alone, can teach you. And we, that's I, have been studying you for some time. I'm sure you can do magic. same as us. Would you like to study real magic?"
"Would I?" Sarah said. "Of course I would. But how can I be sure it is real magic, not just rabbits out of hats?"
"Watch me," Torben answered - this is who it was - and pulled his wand out. He found a wizened bush, broke off a branch and swished his wand over it. Slowly the branch changed shape, turned into a wooden spoon and then into a drumstick.
Then he handed it to Sara. "Hold it," he said, "that way you can be sure, I'm not cheating." While Sarah held onto the branch, Torben turned it into a miniature flagpole and back into a spoon, this time with holes in it. Then he stopped doing anything, and the branch slowly turned back into a branch.
Sarah was convinced. "What do I have to do to learn this?" she asked.
"Follow me to school tomorrow morning, and after this every morning in the summer holidays. Study diligently and do your best. And do not tell anybody where you're going."
"Will do," Sarah said. "Where do we meet tomorrow?"
"What about right here? Then we walk to my portal that will take us to the magic school."
"That's a deal," Sarah said. "See you tomorrow!"

At the Unicorn Farm Sarah is a mediocre apprentice, but thoroughly enjoying her time there. She always had a remark that she herself called realistic, but others described as embittered, to people's motives and behaviour.
Sarah was 13 when she arrived at Unicorn Farm, and we first meet her when wands are sung for everybody. She joined the potions team, with a propensity for everyday magic; her wand was made of oak emitting yellow-greenish sparks.
She survived losing her magic, but turned into an old, embittered and mean drunkard. She is the only original apprentice never to have her magic back after Birch Manor was founded.
Read more here if you like to: Sarah and Her Children.

Ⓐ - Ⓩ

Tomorrow W for Hilde Westvold


Using the word Summer from the Words for Wednesday.

Words for Wednesday :: April 24 :: The Words

 This challenge started a long time ago. Now it has turned into a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator; and the Words are provided by a number of people.

The general idea of this challenge is to make us write. Poems, stories, subtitles, tales, jokes, haiku, crosswords, puns, ... you're the boss.
Use all Words, some Words, one Word, or even none of them if that makes your creative juices flow. Anything goes, only please nothing rude or vulgar.

 It is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true.

So please, remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrive on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.

-- 🏅 --

The Words for the Wednesdays in April are provided by Elephant's Child.

For today we had:

    Foxglove
    Summer
    Missing
    Event
    South

And this photo
   

I have been busy elsewhere and writing the last A-Z chapters - alas these words did not fit today.
I hope to use them in some coming chapters as they sure fit the contents much better than last Wednesday's.