Words for Wednesday -- Á Íslandi - 12

Wow I have written a long, long story this time. And I lost track of which words I used or not.
The prompts come from here:  C. Lee McKenzie's blog.

This post was also meant to be an entry in the WEP challenge for February, but the word limit is 1,000 words. This post ended up totalling over 4,400 words - far too long!

Further information about the Words for Wednesday challenge can be read over at Elephant's Child's blog.

The general idea is to make us write and read what others wrote, and cheer along the other participants.

  This is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true, therefore: Please, remember to follow their links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.  

the prompts, we were given, are:
Sweetheart    
Succotash    
Semi-stable    
Solace    
Singularly    
Solution   
     and/or
Married
Lately
Diet
Denied
Squash
Urban

I continue from here. And there's more yet to come.

  Marit and Susan hurried along in silence. Marit paid the bus fare and they got off near the portal. It was in a back corner of a public park, and now, in the inclement weather it was deserted as Susan had hoped. Susan took Marit's hand and pulled her towards the portal: "This one leads to Birch Manor, our home and hopefully coming school for witchcraft."
When she once again was able to speak without shaking, Susan asked how Marit was doing. "I'm OK," Marit answered through clenched teeth. "It gets better with practise," Susan said, mimicking Jon. Marit laughed and said: "I sure hope so. It is too long since I last did this. At the Unicorn Farm it did get better actually. I went by portal there and home every day, and after the second year I almost did not feel a thing. The dizziness caught me by surprise."
They climbed into Susan's car and she drove them the short distance to Sandra's home, while explaining what was to expect there. "There's going to be quite a lot of people you know gathered here. Susan said. "Sandra of course - you did not know her that well, did you?" Marit shook her head no. "I'm afraid you're in for a shock." Susan continued: "She is bedridden, very weak, almost translucent. We don not know what ails her. The doctors pooh-pooh and mumble something about her being old. Of course she is old, but she's fading. We think it's something magical. Heidi, Lis and Tage will be there of course, and their spouses, they married all three of them, and their children as well, 6 all in all. And Fiona, Knud, Rósa, Finnbogi and Hilde and maybe some of her children and grandchildren."
"That's a lot of people!" Marit said a bit awed. "Have you been meeting this much normally?"  
"No," Susan answered, "At least not that many at one time, but we have been meeting regularly all of us living in Denmark. And we were going to expand - that's why we have been making portals all winter. Oh, and one last thing: Martine will be there as well. Do promise not to stare. She is doing fine without legs, she can still fly a broomstick better than any of us. Well, I suspect you'll be better once you get a bit of practise."
"Do you have broomsticks?" Marit asked pleasantly surprised.
"Oh yes we do. Didn't My tell you?"
"I don't think she did," Marit said shaking her head. "It's still a bit unreal to me, it'll take some getting used to."
"Now, here we are," Susan said, parking the car outside a small, but cosy looking house in the outskirts of a village.
Knud saw them trough the windows in the door and opened before they reached it "Do get inside," he said. "things are getting crowded, and a bit crazy. But we need you, Marit."
Inside Fiona came running: "Marit, come with me, I need a second opinion. Oh hello Susan, I'm so happy you brought Marit here." Fiona walked upstairs, with Marit following her. Marit looked back at Susan and Knud, who both gave her a thumbs up and smiled at her.

"I feel a bit supernumerary," Knud said to Susan. "Actually Let's go find the kitchen. When there's a lot of people, it's never long before someone begins talking about tea."
"Fine with me, I could use some peace and quiet and a mug of tea after all that teleporting." Susan said with a fond smile.
They were not to have any peace and quiet. They found the kitchen and put on the kettle, but then mayhem broke out. Hilde, who had been outside looking for herbs and things in the well stocked garden, came storming into the kitchen. She looked at her cell phone as if it had bitten her: "Rasmus just phoned me. Liisa is at home. He found her in the garden, unconscious. He has called an ambulance. I wonder what happened."
Knud and Susan looked at her in wonder. "But she was on the plane," Susan said. "Going to Copenhagen. She should land, no, have landed ten minutes ago," she said after looking at the clock on the wall.
"She teleported ..." Knud said. "At least I suspect that's what she did. The police stood all ready to search the plane for her when it landed in Copenhagen. And then she escaped. No-one ever told her that you have to practise long and hard to teleport distances like Copenhagen - Tromsø. She'll be out for days! I wonder if she'll be normal again when or if she comes to."
"I think you're right." Hilde said. "I panicked a bit when he rang. I'll call him and ask him to take all her things and come here. He can book a plane now."
"No, it's better if you go and get him - and the rest of your children too." Susan said. "Get everyone to Birch Manor, we have to meet and talk. And ... You would tell him to get on a plane, you never told Rasmus about being a wizard, did you?"
"No, I did not. It seemed the most kind thing not to. He has no magic, as neither Roseanne nor Mary has. But it has been hard. Keeping this a secret from them with all the other grand-kids and children slowly getting better and better at it, learning the ropes. But we agreed it was the best solution. And his wife a witch, you say. I wonder why none of the children show it."
Susan answered: "Yes we tested the children, but not thoroughly so. Finnbogi will help us get a clearer picture once we all meet again. Some come late to magic, some need a little nudging. You never know!" And on a second thought she added: "Are you sure he's not a wizard after all? Did you ever test him any further?"
"No I did not." Hilde said. "I followed the path of least resistance. It was easier not to mess it up any more."
"I think Knud and I have to go with you and get them all here!" Susan said, and I'm going to bring some of Martine's brain teasers to test Rasmus a bit more first thing I meet him again. I'm still not satisfied he's not a wizard. Let's get moving."
Knud went and asked Fiona to borrow her big car. "I's almost as big as yours, Hilde," Susan said in a half serious tone. You might be able to drive it. Our car is the second, biggest. we'll have room enough for everyone."
"Couldn't we teleport?" Knud asked. "Or, no, we need our energy for this and our wits about us. Driving is wiser today."
Knud told Rósa and Finnbogi the gist of what had happened. "And you, Finnbogi, we need you to look-see at Rasmus and the girls when they all arrive. Martine's gizmos are good, but you're better."
"Thanks for the confidence," Finnbogi said smiling timidly. "I'm not use to that kind of work, but I'll do my best."

While Knud and Susan organized their transportation, Hilde went outside and 'phoned her children. She told them to get to her house, as it was the closest to the Tromsø portal. She furthermore told them to bring bedding and clothes and to call sick at work and school for a couple of days.

"What about your husband," Knud asked Hilde, when she looked to be done phoning.
"He's out fishing as I told you earlier. It's a tradition, his annual time out," Hilde answered. "He and a couple of friends go to a place without any modern comforts, and this includes phone connexions. He'll be back the day after tomorrow. I'll have to leave him a note. And yes he knows of the witchcraft in the family, he sorely regrets it, but he has not got one drop of magic in him. I or one of you have to go and get him when he calls me."

They parked the two big cars at Birch Manor, Susan fetched a bag full of Martine's special brain teasers. and then they went through the portal together. When their heads had cleared. and Susan thought it was already a bit easier, at least she was the first one to open her eyes, she asked "What now?"
"My car is over there," Hilde moaned. "Just a sec."
A short while later they were on their way, they discussed how to explain the evacuation, and agreed to go with Hilde's plan. "And then I tell Rasmus the truth."
"Hilde," Susan said. "I think the better solution would be if me and Knud talk to Rasmus once we're settled at Birch Manor. He might take the explanation better from relative strangers."
 "I think you're right," Hilde agreed, "but first we eat."
Susan began protesting, but Hilde overrode her: "You look pale, stretched, You'd be no help fainting in the middle of your explanations. I have a humongous stash of Succotash in the fridge for emergencies. It'll heat up in the microwave in a jiffy and with some bread, it's an ample late lunch.

The lunch was a wonderfully normal, chaotic family affair. Knud cast the Mál sameinast spell and everybody ate and generally had fun. Only Rasmus and his two daughters were subdued. Mary and Roseanne kept to themselves and spoke only little.

When everybody had stopped eating, Hilde rose and clapped her hand: "Please listen everybody. Liisa, Rasmus' wife and mother to Mary and Roseanne met with an accident today. Rasmus was working from home, and heard a strange noise, like a thunderclap, from the garden. He saw something out there, and went to look. There he found Liisa. First he thought she was dead, but then he found out she was breathing. Now she's in hospital, and hopefully the doctors can cure her. There's nothing we can do for her now, except for one thing. Take good care of ourselves. And maybe something is out to get us, as it got her. That's why I asked you all to come here now. In a short while we go through a secret passage to a hideout. There we stay for a couple of days and plan what to do."

The children were exited and soon they were all once again piled into Hilde's and Hans' cars. They parked and dragged all their luggage to the shelter. Knud took Paul and Synne, Hans' two oldest in his hands and swore them to silence. Together they went through the portal. Hans and his wife took their youngest and all the luggage and went through, Hilde stood at the portal and whispered a quick warning to them, Nana and his husband each took a child of theirs in each hand, all had stuffed backpacks strapped to their backs. Hilde whispered to them and sent them through and extended her hands towards Roseanne and Mary. "Come on you two. Daddy and Susan guard our backs while we step through the wormhole." And then Susan and Rasmus were left alone in front of the faintly glowing opening. "Come on, Rasmus." Susan said, "Take my hand and let's get to safety."
"But what about Liisa? Should we leave her behind?" "There's nothing we can do here," Susan said. "And much to be done where we're going, Come on." Susan took his hand, and firmly but gently pulled him through the portal.
"Did they get me?" was his first words when he stopped clutching Susan's hands and making strange, strangled noises.  
"No, they did not, and we're safe here. You can open your eyes now."

He looked dizzy, ill at ease and generally maltreated by life; Susan felt sorry for him and squeezed his hand gently. "Relax, it'll all work out in the end," she said to him.
"That's easy for you to say, my wife is in hospital, almost dead, and the girls, they feel marginalised by the others, and they say that Hilde and my brother and sister do not like Liisa. That they are enemies, even," he said, trying hard not to look too sad.
"I know," Susan said. "It is hard. Please do as I say a little while yet."
"I trust you," Rasmus said, looking to the ground. "You have girls of your own, and grand-kids. They are nice to my girls."
"Yes, they are," Susan said. Your two girls are hard not to like, and I'm sure little Susan, my grand-kid, is showing off her newest rabbit to them right now. Come and see."
"Where are we?" Rasmus asked amazed, as he saw Birch Manor and all Susan's and Hilde's grand-kids, and his own two playing in the sunshine in front of the big, sprawling house. "If I did not know better, I'd say we were in Heaven."
"We're not, but this is our haven, our secret place. Here we can be at ease.  I'd like you to trust me a bit further."
Mary and Roseanne waved at their dad. Little Susan was indeed showing off her rabbits, and had many of the smaller ones as a rapt audience.
"She's good at it," Rasmus said. I always liked rabbits.
"Did you ever have any?" Susan asked, pulling Rasmus to a small door leading to a sunroom looking over fields and a small clump of trees.
"Yes, and rats, and snakes and oh lots of animals, but I liked the rabbits best," Rasmus said with a longing smile. "Liisa never found pets a good idea. They were messy, and we lived in the city in the beginning. After we moved to our semi-rural house pets somehow never surfaced again."
"Did you bring all her clothes and so on, as Hilde asked you to?" Susan asked.
"Yes, It's all in this bag, including some strange bric-a-brac, Hilde found in Liisa's bedstand."
"Great. Could I ask you to sit here and solve one of these puzzles," Susan asked, and placed Martine's brainteasers at the table in front of him. "We have a friend who's an expert in stress and such matters, and he says that these are singularly well suited to relieve tensions and stress."
"Oh, well, OK. Let me have a go then. I suppose I need de-stressing," Rasmus almost smiled and reached for a red puzzle. Susan took a green one and sat quietly solving the well worn loops and rings, listening at Rasmus.
He sat quietly murmuring: "Now this is a tough nut ... This ring goes here - and then, no, not like that. There! And then through here ... And a loop, and back ... Yes! I have it!" He looked up at Susan. "Strange, I felt like ..." He stopped and Susan looked interested at him and nodded. "It sounds a bit crazy, but it was kind of telling me how it wanted to be solved. Am I getting mad or something?"
Instead of answering, Susan gave him a pink and orange store-bought one. "Here, try this one." Susan scrambled the green one all the while still listening to Rasmus getting more and more frustrated. In the end he dropped it on the table in disgust: "That one is not good for my ease of mind. It's clearly not made to be solved, not soothing at all."
Nodding and smiling comfortingly, Susan gave him a purple one of Martine's.
After a short while he looked up. "This one's better, but the red one was very nice."
"I have another red one, but it's quite hard," Susan said, trying hard to keep the excitement out of her voice.
"Let me have it," Rasmus said and almost snatched it from Susan's fingers.
He leant back in the chair with a satisfied sound and fingered the toy fondly. The he began solving it. Susan forgot about pretending to solve another green one and just looked fascinated at his hands working. He worked concentrated, in silence, until with a sound, somewhere between pleasure and disappointment he pulled the ring free of the strings and sticks.
"You did it!" Susan said. "I do not know how to continue from here. We owe you an explanation. But I want to show you, not just tell. Stay put and close your eyes. I need some help!"

Susan opened the door and called Hilde, Knud and Finnbogi over. She consulted with them in whispers, and soon the entered the room. Hilde gave Susan her wand, the one Liisa had stolen, and some branches, she had taken from a tree outside the door. Susan extended her hand towards Knud and Finnbogi, and they placed their wands in her hand. Then she added her own to the bundle.
"Rasmus!" she said. "I have invited your Mum, Knud and Finnbogi from Iceland to come and help me. I have a general idea of how to proceed, but I need your collaboration." Knud and Finnbogi sat across the table from Rasmus, leaving the places next to him free. Susan asked Hilde to sit in one of them and stood in the last place herself
"This sounds phony," Rasmus almost laughed. "Like some Freemason ceremony or something."
"Not at all a bad comparison," Susan said. "Keep your eyes closed. Now I give you  two sticks. Tell me all you can about them." She placed a branch from the bushes in his right hand and Hilde's wand in his left.
"Branches," Rasmus said, "but you know that. I can't feel from which tree. Can't I please open my eyes now? I feel strange keeping them closed."
"Susan looked out and saw Ben, Paul, Synne and two of Nanas children on broomsticks outside. "Finnbogi, please close the curtains." Finnbogi did and Knud lit the light in the ceiling. "Now you can open your eyes," Susan said
"Well, this one is an evergreen, probably pine," he said raising his left hand, "and this one is forsythia, I think."
"And the pine one feels ... alive?" He looked at his mother and the at the other three. Susan nodded encouragingly. "It's nice. It reminds me of Mum, sorry Mum, but it does."
"Fine." Finnbogi said, and Susan handed her her own and Finnbogi's wands. "We're not interested in what kinds of wood or shrub," Susan said kindly, "more in the feel of them."
Rasmus sat touching and weighing the wands for a little while. "These feel almost the same as the pine one, alive, friendly, but subtly different."
"And these two?" Susan said, handing Rasmus a branch from another bush and Liisa's stolen wand.
Again Rasmus touched both branches inquiringly, but did not do much with the newly pitcked one. "Another one that feels like the forsythia one. I think it's oak. But that was not what you asked The second one ... I do not like it. It feels -- not evil, but deceptive, slithery." He put the wand down and looked at them all: "What are you doing to me?"
"Trying to make the truth more edible to you," Susan said kindly. "Do you believe in magic?"
"Magic?" Rasmus said astonished. "Do you mean rabbits out of hats, and such," Susan shook her head. "Then I don't know" Rasmus said. "Witches are something that belong to the Middle ages, and yet ..."
"Yes, Rasmus," Susan said, speaking as softly and gently as she could. "Witches and wizards do exist, still today here. You are at the Nordic school for witchcraft and wizardry. The branch you said reminded you of your mother, no wonder, it is her wand. Give it back to her."
Without hesitating, almost robot like, Rasmus picked up the wand and gave it to Hilde, who swished it through the air, making pot blue sparks fly.
"And the other ones," Susan said. "Which one is mine?"
"This one," he said without hesitating and plucked Susan's wand from the table. She took it and let her green sparks join Hilde's blue ones."
"This one belongs to one of the men," Rasmus said, picking up Finnbogi's wand. He let his hands touch the rest of the branches on the table. "And this one," he said picking Knud's wand, "to the other one."
"Too right, that's my wand," Knud said. He accepted it as Rasmus extended it and let his reddish sparks join the show.
Rasmus gave Finnbogi his wand and soon deep red sparks joined the others.
"Yes I see. Witches and wizards are real. That explains a lot. And I'm one, too," he said in a wondering voice. Then he turned sober and his eyes went to the table.
"Then there's this last wand," he said slowly, once again picking it up. "It feels odd, young and old at once, male ad female. And as I said deceptive, creepy."
"Does it remind you of anyone you know." Susan asked. "You need not say whom, just yes or no."
"Yes it does," he whispered. "and as you probably know, it reminds me of Liisa, my wife." He shut up, and looked up at them with eyes bright from fright and tears.
"Yes," Hilde said. "I found this wand next to where Liisa crashed."
"She stole it from the museum of wizardry and Witchcraft in Iceland - that's where I work," Finnbogi said.
Rasmus began laughing, a laughter, that turned into crying. They let him cry, Susan found a box of Kleenex and and Knud went after tea and cake.
While they ate and drank, Hilde told the story of Unicorn Farm, Torben and Tristan, Teresa and Liisa and Finnbogi supplied the story of the stolen wands and things. "I think we found it all in her bedstand"
"But why? I simply do not understand?" Rasmus said.
"We think the motive is revenge," Hilde said. "Somehow Liisa has gotten into her head that the teachers from Unicorn Farm and some of the parents were to blame for anything bad that has ever happened to her, from her mother's dead onwards."
"But, that's madness!" Rasmus said. I always told her that all you need is love, but she wanted more. She was a very ambitious woman. What will happen to her?"
"The short answer is: We don't know. Nobody has ever teleported that far without hard and extensive training. She might die, she might live and be a vegetable, she might return to normal, we do not know. But she's a cunning witch. If she awakens, we'll have to do something about her."
"And this makes me think," Finnbogi said hurriedly swallowing his cake. "The girls, do you want to check their magic potentials? You are as good as I am, and you are, like me, one of the very few red wizards, able to recognize magic in other people, and the alignment of it for lack of better word. All of us can feel if a thing is magic or not -- that means differentiate a wand from a branch, and a spell from a newspaper clipping --  but only us  red ones can feel good or bad vibes, or tell which wand belongs to whom. And we can make portals."
"Portals?"
"Yes!" Susan said laughing. "The thing we escaped through. It was what almost 'got you'. And it gets us all in the same way. You are in Denmark, now by the way. And you need a wand. I'm a wandsinger, I'll make you one."
"Mahogany?" Rasmus said with a lopsided smile. "I always felt attracted to that tree. And I feel stunned, and up to here with news and knowledge," he said and held his hand to his head level with his eyebrows
"I'll have to visit a nursery or a saw mill then," Susan said. "We have no mahogany growing here."
"No," Rasmus said, now laughing in earnest. "It's a tropical species. I have some at home, I intended to learn woodturning and ... but now it could be used for my wand." He smiled warmly.
"Yes. But not today. Tomorrow. I've had enough of portals for one day!" Susan said.

Hilde went to the door and called for Mary and Roseanne. Knud pulled the curtains back, and Rasmus rose, looking at the children and Martine soaring through the air on broomsticks.
 Mary and Roseanne came in.
"Hi dad." It's boring out there. All the others are off to some secret place, and we're left with only the babies and Susan and her boring rabbits."
"Don't ever let little Susan hear that you find her rabbits boring," Susan said, "I'm afraid she would not take that kindly."
"No she would spank me, she already said so," Mary chimed in.
Mary came over to Rasmus and was lifted to his lap. He placed his hand on her head like he had done with the wands.
"Hey dad, stop tickling me," Mary said squirming.
"Tickling?" Rasmus said.
"Yes ticking, like, inside my head." Mary insisted.
"Finnbogi, come over here, please," Rasmus said.
Finnbogi placed a hand on Mary's head, tousling her hair. "Am I tickling you as well?" he asked, and Mary nodded.
"Rosy, Could you come here? I know you're a big girl, but I want to see if I can tickle you as well."
Roseanne dutifully came over to her father, but it was easy to see that public shows of affection was beneath her.
"You ARE tickling!" she said. "Mary's right. It feels like an itch inside my head."
"OK, you two do you want some cake?" Susan asked, and that was obviously better than dad's affection, because they came running to her.
Meanwhile Rasmus placed his hands on Finnbogi's head: "Do I tickle your brain as well?" Rasmus asked.
"Nope, no tickling. I can feel your hands on the outside of course, and a bit of warmth on the inside. but no tickling."
"Maybe this tickling is a family thing. Mum come over here and have your brains tickled by your prodigal son!" Rasmus called.
But: "Nope, no tickling, same as Finnbogi," Hilde declared.
"You are a good midwife," Rasmus said, surprised. "Babies love you, and want to come to you. That's what I feel when touching you. Finnbogi feels -- well like a brother I never knew. Kind of like a vault of information or an archive with everything in its right place. Man this is tiring," he added. "So much new to learn, so much time lost."
Finnbogi meanwhile had been touching and tickling Mary and Roseanne's brains a bit more. "Strange," he said. "There's something in there. It feels like magic to me, but it's like tied into a knot or locked away."

... to be continued