Words for Wednesday - May 18 ...

This Wednesday WiseWebWoman gave us following words:
Withdrawal - Pollution - Embrace - Prosecution - Year - Represent - Cottage - Overwhelm
And a photo

And this is a The more, the merrier kind of endeavour, so Please, remember to follow the links, go and read other peoples' stories.
And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement.
We ALL need encouragement.


I am continuing the story of the mysterious examination in transformation. I used a couple of the prompts, but then the story took off. Bits and pieces are missing. This whole chapter is in for a solid re-write before making it into the book. But as I can't just leave out a bit of the story, here you are:

With Susan's withdrawal to the library it became clear to the other apprentices that just watching Terje solving the puzzle was not going to help them find out what was the answer to the many questions.
They slowly drifted back to the two pushed together tables, where Knud had emptied the green bag. Knud picked up the strange hollow stone, Hilde had dropped and examined it.
"This might be an opal," he said. "I once read about them, they are formed inside rocks, from silica, I think, and the pretty colours come from pollution with other substances such as iron or copper. I might be off to the library as well." Knud left, clutching the stone.
Veronika picked up the two leaves, they were long and slender. She sniffed them. "Wow what a smell! And they have that exact waxy green colour of the crayon we always fought over in the lower grades. I wonder what tree they came from, and if they have any healing or magical properties. I think I might be off to the library as well."
Hilde looked at her and Rósa, Josta and Marja laughed at her words.
"What's left now?" Hilde said, "a strange wooden thingy and some flowers."
"Those are the same as in the puzzle, Marja said. I think they are jasmine. They look like the one on mother's teabags."
"You are right, Marja" her sister Josta said, "I was sure I had seen such a flower before. That's it."

...

Susan, Knud and Veronika returned laden with books form the library. All of them books on Australia, Animals of Australia, Australian gemmology, Marsupials and Mammals, Healing herbs and magic spices, secrets of the Australian bushes, and many other titles.

"I found that animal, Susan said triumphantly. "It's NOT a joke, but a real live animal. It's called the  duck-billed platypus, and it had grown up researchers thinking them a joke, or the aborigines pulling their leg as well. It is odd all the way through. It is an egg-laying mammal, it builds nests of mud and incubates like a bird. It gives milk to the babies by just exuding milk through fissures in the furry skin, no udder or teats. They hunt by electricity like a shark, closing eyes, ears and nose while diving in. And it captures its prey underwater, but eat at the surface. It lives in and out of the water, it's even poisonous as one of the only mammals to be so. And of course they only live in a small part of Australia."

"Australia seems to be our code word," Veronika said. "Those leaves are eucalyptus leaves. I found them in the chapter on koalas in one of the books. Koalas eat them, and they have healing properties for common cold. Also their leaves pick up gold from the underground! I dare bet this is why some texts say they are good for arthritis while other say they do not help."

"You can't tell me gold is a medicine,"   Kalle said. "It's a metal. Metals ain't medicines."
"Oh yes they are," Veronika said. "Gold has been used since forever for rheumatoid arthritis, and old Hippocrates knew about the antibacterial function of silver."
"Gosh! We're turning into a terrible bunch of nerdy know-alls," Kalle said with a deep sigh.
"And I'm loving it!" Veronika said with a big smile.
Kalle threw his pencil at her and the room erupted in a free for all rumpus. Before anyone or anything was hurt or broken the dinner bell rang. They all got to their feet, brushed off knees and elbows, set clothes straight and hurried down into the barn.

... to be continued.