Ⓐ - Ⓩ ~ Rósa

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.

 Ⓐ - Ⓩ

R is for Rósa from Iceland

I know, I have written in the introduction above, that I am going to tell about some of the lesser known apprentices in this A-Z challenge, Rósa sure is not one of those. But from A to P I have written about 26 of the 41 apprentices. There are almost no lesser known ones left. And I am not going to tell about Susan, Knud, Heidi, Tage or Lis. A bit of figuring is in it's place here: 26 plus those 5 makes  31 apprentices. 31 out of 41 means I have 10 apprentices left, and nine days left to write in, this means, that only one apprentice will be possibly left out - no more siblings! 
  I don't know yet which one will be left out, if any. I have a tough time filling in those last ones - X and Z will be random. I'll be using last names, patronymics and even city names and maybe "X marks the spot", and Zoology or some such.

 - - - - -

But today R for Rósa.

Rósa Sigurdsdottir lives with her father Sigurdur and her mother Lilja in Hella, one hour by car from Reykjavik - the capital of Iceland.  Hella is a nice, small town, and Rósa spends quite a lot of time walking in the surroundings. exploring the nearby caves (now the famous Caves of Hella), and she spends almost every Saturday studying magic at Grani's place together with Kirstin, Grani and his siblings, and a few other children from the neighbourhood.
They mainly learn how to fly, as they can not really make their magic work. Grani's parents have a few, old wands laying around, but never enough to go around, and the wands are growing less and less responsive to the few spells, they have learned to master.
One day, as they practised in Grani's barn, Grani's oldest brother came running: "Mom, someone's here to see you!"
Grani's mother parked the broomstick and ran to the main building with the brother. A bit later the brother returned, looking as if he had seen a ghost. "We're all to come into the living room. It seems the cover is blown."
Rósa landed in front of him: "What do you mean?"
"They know what we're doing. I mean the flying, and everything," the young man said.
Rósa put her broom away and led the others to the main house. Even though she was almost the youngest here, she suddenly looked way older. She spoke: "OK, everybody, in we go. Let's face whatever awaits us as true magicians, with serenity."
In the living room two older people sat at the head of the table. They asked everybody to sit.
The old man at the head of the table asked if everybody was present.
"No," Rósa answered truthfully, "My mom's not here, she's having extra work today. But she'll come soon."
"My father is missing as well," Kirstin said. "One of the mares was about to foal, he stayed with her."
"No-one else?" the man asked. Everybody looked around them, Grani's mother even counted her children, and everybody shook their heads or answered in the negative.
"Fine," the old man continued. "My name is Gylfi [pronounced Gilvi], and this is Thora. We have kept an eye on you for quite some time now. You are doing magic. You're flying. And I don't know which you're doing worse! It's time to learn better!" He stopped at their indrawn breaths and gasping sounds. "Yes," he continued, "we're not here to punish you for doing magic.  Quite the opposite, We're here to give you a chance to learn. To do it right. This summer during the holidays we open a school in Denmark. We'll have to put up some portals until then so that you can go there. There's only one problem. No way we'll be having room for all of you. We have decided to take only apprentices between 11 and 15 years of age. Exceptions will be made as appropriate."
Thora spoke for the first time, and her voice sounded just like everybody's favourite aunt: "You are kindly, but strongly asked to bring wands, cauldrons, books, everything in short you can think of, but no brooms. Brooms will be supplied as will plants and material components. Any questions?"
While the grown ups discussed the nitty gritty details of setting up portals, of the placement of the school and similar points of no interest with Thora and Gylfi, the children started thinking and dreaming. A real school for magic. They would fly broomsticks, run races, brew potions and maybe even have a black cat or a toad for a Familiar. They sat dreaming pleasant dreams, imagining heroic deeds ... those too old or too young of course comforted themselves that they would be the exception.
All apart from Rósa. Wen she realized that she was not old enough, she was only 10, a silent tear ran despite her best effort, and her brave words earlier. Grani realized almost simultaneously that he would probably be the only one in his family to go, at 13 he was good to go, but his younger brothers and sisters were all nine down, and the older ones were 16 and up, he felt happy and sad at the same time.

"Are you crying Rósa?" It was Kirstin, who of course having had her 11th birthday was sure to go off to the wonderful school. Rósa swept the treacherous tear away.  "But why?" Kirstin asked. "It's going to be wonderful."
"I'm too young," Rósa said.
"Nonsense," Kirstin said. "When is your birthday? June, right before the holidays, eh?" A big smile spread over Rósa's face. She was going off to the magic school!

 - - - -  -

Kirstin of course was right. Rósa joined the Unicorn Farm, Nordic school of Magic. She went to the Green team, being good with animals and nature. We meet her the very first day, but in earnest on the second in the chapter on wand measuring. Her wand was from rosewood emitting golden sparks

 Ⓐ - Ⓩ

Monday: S for Selma