Snow Magic

The shutdown of the old brewery in town was the reason for much gnashing of teeth. Parents went unemployed. Children came late to school, the workers in the shipyard had lost their spirit, in short disorder reigned everywhere.
Susan felt the damp spirit permeating the town as something almost physical. She waited impatiently for school to end. But of course the teachers were affected by the dismal spirit as well and given them a test. Today when the Winter holidays began! Susan felt almost defiant as she marked the wrong words in the text with ease. These old school test were so easy.

She was going to the Unicorn Farm tonight. She could hardly wait. Her parents had reluctantly allowed her to go alone by train to the Farm, little did they know that Susan had no intention of ever using the train ticket, that lay securely tucked away in her purse. She was going to use her portal, of course. Heidi and the twins had been so sure, she would not be allowed to come and stay with them during Winter holiday. She had been nagging her mum forever, and in the end she had given in. Heidi had been so happy, and even the twins sounded their approval. She was missing them.  But then, she was going to meet them tonight.

The teacher came in, carrying a mug of steaming coffee. This brought Susan back from her musings. Hurriedly she gathered her stray hairs back in the hairclip, and filled out the missing words in the second half of the test.
Susan felt tired. All the nagging, bullying and trouble  had taken their toll. She longed for the clean air and open-minded people at Unicorn farm. She was lucky that she was good at the ordinary school subjects, else her notes would have suffered this semester, earning her a solid scolding and maybe even a week of grounding, a worse punishment than any other in Susan's opinion.
The teacher rated their test during the long break, and Susan was as usual in the top five of the class. Now she could relax on that account at least.
She said goodbye to her class mates, wishing them a happy holiday and ran home. She ate lunch all alone, and packed her gear in her small bag. She did not know if the portal could handle a  bike; she did not dare leave it in the old lumber yard for a week in case it could not, so she decided on walking.

Her parents returned home, and Dad bade her go to the grocer's at the end of the street for a crate of beer before she left for Heidi's place. "Might be they closed the brewery in town," Dad said, "but they still make the best beer."
"I'm going to lug a crate of beer all that way," Susan asked.
"Well yes," Dad said, "Those plastic crates are not that heavy. When I was your age the crates were made of wood, and one crate was 50 bottles of beer. Now it's only 30, and you're a big girl, off you go."
Actually Susan did remember the wooden crates, she even remembered carrying one of them for a few steps, they were heavy as lead. They had gotten some empty ones from the beer depot down the street when they went out of use. Susan of course used hers for books and stuff. Linda's were home to an ever expanding collection of horse magazines.
Susan took the money, dressed in her winter clothes, and put her wand in a pocket. She did not want to try and carry one of those heavy buggers all the way without a little bit of magic. She had not forgotten about the DO-NOT rule, but she was not going far, she was not going to use magic on or in front of people. Certainly she was not going to ruin her only joy.
At the grocer's she bought the beer, and also some sherbet powder, mostly lemon and strawberry flavoured, and then one of the new ones. It was supposed to taste like cherries. Susan liked the fizzy, popping feel of sherbet powders, but suspected she would not like the cherry variation.
Then she carried the crate a little way from the grocer's. Pausing between two street lamps, she tasted the new sherbet powder, confirming her suspicion that cherry sherbet tasted nasty. Then, after a quick look around her, she cast a spell to make the crate lighter to carry.
She took care not to show that she could carry the crate with ease now, but walked as fast as she deemed wise in the thickening darkness. She dumped the crate in the back yard, cancelled the spell, and went inside again.
She carefully placed her wand inside the bag again. then she slung the bag over her shoulder. She went to Linda's room, and gave her the rest of the cherry flavoured sherbet, and said goodbye. She quickly hugged her father. She hugged her mother for a longer time, listened to her admonishing, and promised once again to take care, look closely at the time tables before boarding the trains at the central station, eat her sandwiches, mind her manners at Heidi's place, and not speak to strangers (she was not going to obey this one). And yes, she was totally able to walk all alone to the train station. After all it was not even six o'clock, and she knew the way.
She waved goodbye and headed for the railway station. But when she reached the end of the road and was out of sight, she turned left and doubled back via a parallel street. It was only a short detour on her way to the old lumber yard.

***

Susan hurried towards the old Lumber yard. The rain was letting off, but still the inclemency of the weather kept people indoors, helped by the fact that it was dinnertime or just after. Everybody were busy in their homes, and Susan only met one young man hurrying townwards on his bike.
She was more than a bit nervous now, she needed to pee, but now there was no turning back. She had arrived at the lumber yard and after a quick glance behind her, she turned right and was soon swallowed in the shadows. The enormous walnut tree was a massive presence on her right, and she happily let her fingers caress its wet bark. The thick branches stretched skywards over her head, like a gigantic windswept parasol. She wove between bushes and lesser trees, and found the portal with ease. But still she hesitated. It was the first time she was going through it alone.

In the end she closed her eyes, clutched her bag and jumped. She felt the familiar, yet frightening sensation of vertigo.
When the world stopped spinning, she opened her eyes again and was relieved to see the old, crude furniture of the storage room at the Unicorn Farm. For a moment she just stood there, happy that she had arrived in one piece, attentively listening and smelling her surroundings.
Noting happened. She went to the window and looked out. The rain had stopped, it had not rained as much here as  at home, but everything was still dripping wet. Suddenly she felt the loneliness of the place like a physical presence. It was dark, she was far away from home, nobody knew just where she was. Anything could happen ... she felt an urge to get up and run, and quickly she opened the little door. The door to the outside was really low. Like in Grandma's kitchen she had to duck to get through without banging her head on the top frame. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest. The Farm did not even have a phone, There was just no way she could call for help if anything happened ....

Susan closed the door silently and stood with the back to the building. "Take it easy, now!" she said to herself, "there's no reason to panic. If nobody knows you're here, nobody will come for you. And somebody knows you're here, Susan!" she chided herself. Heidi knew she was coming tonight, as did Tue and  Lis, and their parents Sandra and Kai. They were waiting for her at the Magician's Home. She pulled out her wand and made a small ball of greenish light. It soared up over her head and shed its light on the surroundings. Susan drew a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "I'm at the Unicorn Farm," she thought, "I'm an apprentice witch, actually quite a good apprentice witch, Nothing bad can happen here."

She began walking, letting the green light hover a bit behind her, lighting the way, She had to wade through a small stream that had not been here before. All the rain, an the smelting snow must have made it. It ran towards the beach, and Susan made a mental note on exploring where it went, A small waterfall almost had to be at the end, where it met the cliffs. Susan had never seen a real waterfall, so even a small one would be exiting.
She crossed the line of trees separating the Unicorn Farm from the rest of the peninsula and extinguished her light. She did not put the wand back in the bottom of her bag, but kept it handy, she was still not quite at ease in the dark, mostly deserted place. The moon had risen. And even though there was not much left of it, it gave off just enough light to let her find the paths through the stubble fields. This time a year the peninsula had an almost grim air to it. The summerhouses were mostly uninhabited, and the houses where people lived all year round were few and far between.
As she walked on towards the Magician's House she could hear the foghorns in the harbour at the root of the peninsula. Now and then a sporadic answering hoot from a barge rose shrilly over the deeper fog horn notes. This was a sound Susan was used to, coming from a coastal town. It felt reassuringly homelike.
Finally, but in reality only ten minutes after stepping through the portal, she stood in the inviting light falling thorough the many small windows of the door of the yellow house that was the target of her journey. She rang the bell and Sandra and Heidi opened the door. A warm, welcoming chaos overtook her.
"We're having pizza tonight," Heidi said jubilantly, "Father just left to get them at the place near the bridge. It's open all year finally. Not just in summer. And you're going to sleep in my room. Come!"
Susan smiled, and let Heidi lead her up the creaking flight of stairs to her room where a cot had been placed. She put down her bag at a chair and sat on the cot. She felt hungry and happy. It was a wonderful house, and Susan felt at home here.

Kai returned, slamming the door,  and they ran down the stairs to greet him. Kai was for once dressed in inconspicuous clothes, nothing of the magician about him now, just a normal father.
While they ate the pizzas and drank a lot of coke and orange juice they just talked and talked.
"We even were at a burial," Tue said. "Our old aunt Margit, I think you met her last summer, Susan. She died at the first day of the new year. And she was buried at the old cemetery on the mainland." Susan remembered an old, no an ancient lady, with sky blue eyes and wrinkles all over. She had had warm, dry hands and a charming smile as she said hello to Susan, but that was all she remembered.
"She always told us she was going to die on the first day of the new year, but only Mom believed her," Lis added. Susan did not know what to say, and the talk turned to newly plastered streets off the mainland, street lights and schoolwork. Susan just sat and listened, more than half asleep.
 "It's time for bed," Sandra said. You're getting up early tomorrow, and it has been a long day for all of us. Susan was grateful, that Sandra did not mention her, and more than pleased to slip between the crisp, white covers in Heidi's room.
"Tomorrow," she said sleepily.
"Yes, tomorrow," Heidi answered and put out the light.

* * *

Next morning Susan awoke in the dark. It was very early, very cold, and the rain had turned to snow. Susan went to the windows and looked out into a white world. It was snowing; blowing even more than on that infamous day where she braved a blizzard to buy sugar. And that had been on paved roads. Here on the island there were only footpaths through stubble-fields and copses and along the cliff with a sheer drop down to the beach. Clearly it would be sheer foolishness to brave the elements to get to the Unicorn Farm.
"Oy, Susan!" Heidi said from her bed. "Get your chin up. Have you forgotten that we're witches and wizards. Tue and Lis will bring us along, when they 'port there"
Susan's smile was enough to brighten even the darkest day. They woke up the rest of the magician's family with their happy shouts.

Eating breakfast with the whole family was a cosy affair, and suddenly Sandra looked up and exclaimed: "Oh bother. Look at the clock. It's time for you to run."

They quickly put on their scarves, boots, gloves and so on,  and Tue and Lis grabbed one of Susan's and Heidi's hands each. The now-familiar dizziness enclosed Susan and when the fog cleared, they stood behind the big bales at the Unicorn Farm.
They walked quickly into the barn, where they shed all the layers of clothes and dressed in the striped skirts and trousers of the Farm's school uniform.
Here their ways parted, Heidi, Tue and Lis all pulled on the short purple tunics that marked them as members of the transformations team and left the barn with Jon, the black Norwegian, that as always had something of the pirate over him.
Susan found a green tunic in the stacks, and looked around for more of the elements team. She spotted Marja and Josta, the fair haired Finnish sisters. They were soon joined by the tall Veronika, also from Denmark, Swedish Kalle and Anna, also brother and sister and cousins of Helge. Then Kim, alone of all in black tunic, came sauntering from somewhere in the back of the barn. Last came Kirstin and Rósa together with Gilvi and Thora, the professors. They were almost covered in snow. They hurriedly shook out their clothes, but still a fair amount of snow clung to them. When they too had donned the school uniform, Gilvi spoke to them all:  "Well my Elementarian apprentices. Let' get some snow magic on."

***

Susan was about to despair.
 The snow was still swirling, whirling and dancing around her. She was suspended mid-air by ice rings, produced by Gilvi's magic and the snow was relentlessly whipping her all over. All her futile spells had only made her hair go frizzy and wild, impairing her vision and adding to the whipping sensations.
All of a sudden it dawned upon her, she was trying too hard. She relaxed, trying to imagine a small jet of hot air emerging from the tip of her wand, warming her from top to toe, melting the ice rings and letting her free to move again. She looked down through hair and swirling snowflakes, saw green-white swirls beginning to form at the tip of the wand. Smiling she cheered them on, and they grew, caressing her arms, tingeing the swirling snow a gentle green, tickling her just a little bit. First slowly then faster the ice rings that held her melted. Susan pointed her wand downwards, as she had been told to do, and descended, more like a snowflake dancing and swirling than like a human child.
Susan was comfortably hot now in the snow, she danced with the snowflakes in the meadow, over the fences and into the small copse of rowans near the school. This was snow magic! She had been told not to overdo her first trip, and she softly returned and came to rest near the big bales of straw on the other side of the barn. Some of the apprentices already stood there, only clad in the striped shirts or trousers and green tunics. All had small threads of differently tinged snowflakes swirling from their wands, encasing them and keeping them warm. It was an eerie and wonderful sight.
She saw a silver-white shower of snow coming at her over the bales, and My, the slim Norwegian girl, softly descended beside her. They smiled at one another, but kept quiet. Shortly after Rósa landed in a shower of golden snowflakes, and in a massive gust of bluish purple snow Terje alighted beside them. He was not the last one. For once Anna was the last. Her reddish snow was the most violently coloured of all, and she looked very tired. Martine expanded her swirls to encompass Anna as well, as her reddish swirls sputtered and died off. "I think you overdid it." Martine said. "Did you not hear Gilvi's warning?" Anna looked embarrassed, but was spared the pain of answering as Gilvi came up to them, pointing his wand at them.
"That was impressing!" Gilvi's voice rang out. "You all did very well. Now get inside, there's hot cocoa and steaming buns for everybody." As an afterthought he added, "And no panic, Helge, I'll repair that fence!" Helge looked at him, rubbing his backside with a lopsided smile.  

***

During the break where all were treated to hot cocoa and steaming buns.

After the break all the teams met in the barn for a session on languages. "Icelandic," Gilvi began, "is alike to all the other Nordic languages. This makes it possible for you to guess the meaning of many of the words, as soon as you've learnt how to pronounce them, that is," he said smiling. But the grammar is different enough to make it necessary for you to use your brain. Today you'll have to learn how to count. It will be easy for most of you. Sorry Marja, Aamu, Jouka, Nata, and  Josta. You'll just have to work a bit harder."
Gilvi's wand swished rhythmically, and words sprang from the tip, soared over his head and fastened themselves to the blackboard:
Einn - tveir - þrír - fjórir - fimm - sex - sjö - átta - níu - tíu - ellefu - tólf - þrettán - fjórtán - fimmtán - sextán - sautján - átján - nítján - tuttugu.
It was a challenge, and soon all the apprentices knew how to count to twenty in Icelandic.

"And why do you have to learn Icelandic?" Gilvi asked. "Because it is the language Thora and I speak?" he asked with a twinkle; and many of the apprentices laughed. "No, of course not. Icelandic is the key to all other Nordic languages, and furthermore it is one of many vehicles of magic. Latin is another one, ancient Greek, Church Slavonic, Pali or Sanskrit or even Pig Latin and music are some of the other. It is mostly dependent on the tradition in the land you come from. I'm sure Taavi and Tähti can - and do - cast spells in Finnish as well. But we have decided to go with Icelandic."

Susan began thinking. She had always felt attracted to languages like Pig Latin and Robber's Language (Røversprog) She remembered how angry Linda had been when Susan and one of Linda's classmates spent days learning Røversprog and talking faster and faster with one another.
"Susan!" Gilvi's voice woke her from her reveries. "What are you thinking of?"
"Røversprog," she answered. "I became quite good at it some years ago. Would that really be useful for casting of spells?" she asked.
"Yes it would." Gilvi answered soberly. "But before you consider casting and making your own spells, I'd suggest that you learn how to cast the basic ones properly. What was the words for today's snow magic, and how do you explain their meaning?"
Susan had listened closely in the morning, she wanted to learn everything, and she had a good memory for words. "The first half was the spell: 'Létt eins og snjór'," she answered; pronouncing the Icelandic syllables slowly and distinctly. "And this means 'light as snow', thus expressing my wish to flow and soar through the air, like a snowflake driven by the wind. To do this, I have to angle my wand downwards, so that the small jet of air is carrying me upwards. If I happen to point it upwards, I'll fall down, maybe hurting myself. The other half of the snow magic was the heating of the air just around me ..."
"Stop!" Gilvi said. "I am convinced. Would you please pay as good attention always!"
"Yes," Susan said. "I will."

The short winter days were not long enough to allow full program, everybody had to be home by nightfall.
Susan and Heidi left The Farm a bit late. They crossed the magical line of trees, and ran over snowclad fields. Tue and Lis waited for them at the barrier at the end of the road. As they caught up with them, Heidi came up to walk besides Susan instead of following behind her.