Words for Wednesday - Catch-up December 13 & 20 - Second part.

For December 13th we had the following words:
Gnocchi
Dynamite
Chariot
Bucket
Periwinkle
    And/or
Noticeboard
Blunt
Bockety
Fifty
Shortbread

For December 20th we had the following words:
Smithereens
Arch
Magazine
Outcome
Income
     And/or
Primrose
Cormorant
Boreen
Lucidity
Antagonism

I made it a bit further using up all the words from December 13. Still I'm not totally certain what, if anything is in the locket, and what will happen. This is quite a good chapter for filling in on Unicorn Farm, the language spell, (Mál sameinast), and the apprentices. The locket and this whole story ... not so much. It is up for a total re-write before making it into my book. 

The after dinner lessons were short but intense. The friends quickly agreed to wait with solving the puzzle of the locket until next morning and hurried to the Barn, where Gilvi was just about to end the day. As usual he told of the plans for tomorrow's lessons, and ended by cancelling the Mál Sameinast.

Next morning bright and early saw the ten apprentices meet in the old chambermaids' room under the roof, Our friends had only little trouble understanding one another, as Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are very close to one another. Only My's very Northern Norwegian made Heidi a bit insecure, but Olav and his cousins translated her dialectal words into Bokmål for the Danes. Before they sat down, Lis removed the bockety chair from the table, telling the others of this strange word for worn and unsteady.
Then they got to work on the locket. First Olav cleaned off the barnacles with his pocket knife; He had one of those red ones with many different instruments in it. "My granddad has one with over fifty functions. I'll get a larger one when I turn 15."
"But that one is great," Susan exclaimed. "I always wanted a pocket knife, but my parents did not think it wise. Then I became a girl scout and had a big knife instead."
The others laughed. "Good one, Susan," Olav said, "A knife is an indispensable tool."
"Now I've removed the barnacles, Now what?" Olav asked.
"Try opening the locket," Lis suggested, "don't you think your smallest blade is slim enough to squeeze in there," she said, pointing to a small crack in the seam between the two halves.
All Olav's prying and trying was to no avail. the locket did not give. Then Tage discovered the spidery script along the rim of the locket.
Then the bell in the Belfry struck one time. In a quarter of an hour everyone would gather in the Barn, Gilvi would announce any news, and most important, cast the Mál sameinast, the language spell allowing all professors and apprentices to understand what everybody else said and be understood by everyone. Woe to the latecomers, trying to fumble through Taavi and Tähti's Finnish or Jon's very rural Norwegian, or the two Faroese newcomers strange syllables.
"We have to go down and get dressed," Heidi said.
"Let's meet again in the lunch break," Tage said, "I have an idea."

In the Barn, baskets of cookies, shortbread and small buns stood on the table together with teapots, milk and sugar.
Gilvi spoke: "Today is a feast day. Today, a year ago, we had the first meeting in what was to become the  professor's group at the Unicorn Farm. Today a year ago Unicorn Farm had its name. Today is the birthday of The Unicorn Farm! Let's make some happy noises."
Everybody obeyed, and Hoorays, Yahoos and similar sound filled the air, accompanied by clapping of hands and stomping of feet.

... to be continued