Words for Wednesday -- December 8

  Please! all reading this go to Elephant's Child's place to find the prompts, read some good stories, and be inspired to write your own.
  This is a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true, therefore: Please, remember to go back, read other peoples' stories there or follow their links back. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction.

I continue my rewriting and supplementing of the Tales from the Unicorn Farm. Today I continue from here, and I took up the additionale challenge of using the words in the order, they were given to us by Elephant's Child.
 
Todays Words are:
Pounded
Pearl
Secret
Tense
Challenge
Human
     And/or
Middle
Taken
Button
Rare
Intelligence
Praise

Taavi is Taavi Kuusisaari, the male Finnish twin professor. He's the one not believing in Lis, Heidi, Tage and Susan's observations of David.

Susan looked at the golden, spidery scrawl on the blackboard, then she meticulously pounded the pearl into a fine dust. After a while Taavi went on adding oral instructions: "The secret to the perfect potion is not being tense while brewing it."

Susan guiltily relaxed her shoulders, they were almost up to her ears with tension.
"This is certainly a challenge for you," Taavi continued, and Susan felt he spoke directly to her. "and a part of being human. Now you all find a middle sized spatula and a jar of clean water. Don't speak a word. Then quietly return to your place."

Susan had taken the right size spatula and was filling up her jar at the water stoup, when she noticed the button on the floor. She bent to pick it up. It was a rare button, made from mother of pearl with an iridescent blue hue. She had seen buttons like this before, but where?

"Now you add the water a few drops at a time," Taavi ordered. "No, Kalle! A few drops I said, not a whole glug of water." He swished his wand and drained the water off of Kalle's bowl. "This time I'll help you out, but next time, you have to start all over." Kalle thanked the professor and carefully added only a few drops of water to the shimmering dust in the bowl. Anna almost tipped over her bowl, and Susan inadvertently stirred the wrong way around. The green team was not too keen on potions, and today Taavi was in a bad mood, and everything went wrong.

Taavi breathed deeply and bade them pause for a minute. "Thoughtfulness, diligence and intelligence," he said loudly, "is what's needed for potion brewing, and what some of you sorely lack. Or may I mend my words. You do not lack said attributes, none of you do. But you do not use that what you have in your heads.  Please now all of you back up two steps and do some limbering exercises."
All apprentices followed his lead, stretching and swaying like reeds. After the short break everything went smoother, not without minor mishaps and glitches, but distinctly better.

At the end of the lesson, Taavi checked the contents of their bowls. "You all deserve praise," he said. "despite adversity and scorn, you continued to the end. Now down your potion, since what you brewed is a tonick, for better health and steadier hands. You'll need this in the afternoon, when you'll all be given the first in a row of tests on teleportations."