The prompts will be at
Elephant's Child's this month but are provided by
Margaret Adamson, and her friend Sue Fulton. They may also include photographs taken by Margaret's friend
Bill Dodds. Once again I wrote a small chapter from my autobiography and once again I took up the additional challenge of using the prompts in the order they were given.
1. Precipitation
2. Lanky
3. Grotesque
4. Clockwork
5. Still
6. Transporting.
And
/
or
7. Eskimo
8. Cyclone
9. Cassowary
10. Waitress
11. Cleaning
12. Auditorium
The barn was gloomy with the
precipitation as they jokingly called it falling outside. All the witches and wizards to-be had fun using long, and old fashioned words. One of the professors, the
lanky, black pirate, Jon from Norway, stood by the window, casting
grotesque shadows every time lightening struck. The quills and feathers went like
clockwork across as many papers and pieces of parchment despite the gloom. They
still had to sit their exams on the
transporting system in the Scandinavian wizarding community, come hell or high water. Or a thunderstorm.
Next day the skies were clear and ordinary classes resumed. The orphan of the storm, an
Eskimo, caught in a
cyclone when trying to teleport home, now was in the sick room.
Susan thought that the Eskimos' battered face under the dressings and his hair standing up in a blue-black mohawk gave him an uncanny likeness to the
Cassowary. This bird was among today's subjects in the lessons on exotic animals' properties and values as pets. Thora, the gentle Icelandic witch teaching cryptozoology and -botany, was telling the attentive apprentices about her sojourn in New Guinea, where a game of magic Mah-jong was totally ruined by Cassowaries in heat. Thora said that she would strongly advise against the use of the highly territorial, aggressive and solitary species as a pet. Unless of course you were rich enough to have a
waitress cleaning the room every time they felt threatened or felt like mating.
Thora left the
auditorium as the bell in the steeple struck 12, and the apprentices all hurried to the barn, where the dinner tables now stood ready.
- - 💜 - - og så på dansk
Laden var dyster i den faldende nedbør, som de spøgende kaldte det. Alle hekse- og troldmandseleverne synes at det var sjovt at bruge lange og gammeldags ord. En af lærerne, den ranglede, sorte pirat, Jon fra Norge, stod ved vinduet og kastede groteske skygger hver gang et lyn for over himlen. Fyldepenne og fjerpenne fløj stadig som urværker over lige så mange papirer og stykker af pergament trods tusmørket. De var stadig nødt til at skrive deres eksamenesopgaver om transportsystemet i det skandinaviske magikersamfund, hvordan end vejret så var.
Næste dag var himmelen klar og almindelig undervisning blev genoptaget. Stormens offer, en eskimo, der var blevet fanget i en hvirvelvind, da han forsøgte at teleportere hjem, lå nu i sygestuen.
Susan syntes at Eskimos forslåede ansigt under forbindingerne og hans hår der stod op i en blå-sort hanekam, gav ham en uhyggelig lighed med en kasuar. Denne fugl var blandt dagens emner i eksotiske dyrs egenskaber og værdier som kæledyr. Thora, den blide islandske heks, der underviste i kryptozoologi og -botanik, fortalte de opmærksomme lærlinge om sit ophold i New Guinea, hvor et spil magisk Mah-jong blev totalt ødelagt af parringslystne kasuarer. Thora sagde, at hun stærkt ville fraråde brugen af den meget territoriale og aggressive art som husdyr. Medmindre man var rig nok til at have nogen til at rydde op, hver gang fuglen måtte føle sig truet.
Thora forlod auditoriet, da klokken i tårnet slog 12, og lærlingene skyndte sig hen til laden, hvor middagsmaden stod klar.
