A is for Alchemy

  On this first day of April, I am ready to join the A-Z challenge. Some letters I have already written and pre-posted, others, I simply have no idea. I am going to publish the letter-posts in the evening my time, not as I normally do around midnight. Partly to make room for Poetry Monday, Words for Wednesday, TUSAL and other MotherOwlish endeavours, partly to give myself a chance to write a post with the relevant letter during the day.
  Only one thing is certain, we're going to meet Susan, her family and the witches, wizards and apprentices from Unicorn Farm. I have a whole lot of loose ends and unfinished tales hanging around, some of them at least will be tied and told here.
  These small vignettes, long and short, magic and mundane mixed, are connective tissue of the story. I hope that you enjoy reading them just half as much as I enjoyed writing them.
  In the end of each story an approximate date and further notes are given if relevant. 

A is for Alchemy:
After the brewing of the Sunshine potion (a story not online), the apprentices on the Green team were not as afraid of alchemy as they had been. And being afraid or not was a key to success or failure. Now they knew that even though they did not excel at alchemy like those on the blue team, they could brew a potion, whip up an antidote or mix an elixir. In the library Susan and her team mates read books with names like Core Compendium of Cordials, Elixirs Explained or Philters for Everyday Use. They all slowly learned to read Tähti and Taavi's sprawling script and the difference between gold and copper, sand and salt and a heap of other ingredients.
  One day they were tested again. They had been on an expedition to the farthest end of the island where Unicorn Farm was situated to meet the unicorns, sea serpents, which were spawns of the Midgard Serpent, the sea horses and other exotic critters hidden there. On the way they had waded through brooks, woodlands and meadows, and somehow many of them had touched the giant poison ivy growing somewhere. The challenge of saving themselves and their team mates from the gruesome rashes that broke out, was a spur to their ingenuity.
  They called on the Stockholmers from the blue team, as Helge and his cousins Harald, Bo, Lukas, and Britta were really good at alchemy. Britta and Lukas were sure the solution was somewhere in the library, and together with Susan, Veronika and Kalle they read through all the aforementioned books on alchemy, only to find the solution in a small insignificantly looking volume aptly called Infamous Shrubs. They returned to the alchemy room in the attic with the book raised in triumph as a standard in front of them, and no antidote was ever brewed faster and with more helping hands than this one. All the afflicted apprentices made sounds of gratitude and ease, as the vividly purple ointment was smeared upon rashes and sores.

Note: This happens somewhen during the first summer at Unicorn Farm, late in the Summer holidays or maybe in the Autumn holidays.