Transformation Test

I'm not at all satisfied with the story or my writing skills. But I want to tell this story! Bits and pieces are missing. This whole chapter is in for a solid re-write before making it into the book. But I still want to tell it, so here we go.

 The transformation prize was the talk of the day for the apprentices. Jon and Taavi had gathered them all in the yellow room under the roof. Then they had announced the transformation test - with a prize. The apprentices stood in small groups in the yard, trying to find out more about the test. Heidi was unperturbed. "I'm sure you're going to win," Susan said, "Or are we competing free for all, it seems a bit unfair. Some of the older Icelandic apprentices have been using their magic for so much longer than the rest of us. And the older ones like Tage and Lis, too, It's kind of unfair."
"Tage and Lis are actually only one year older than you," Heidi said, defending her elder siblings, "But Sif and Elvin, they're old."
"And Helge and Harald, the two Swedes!" Susan said.
"Yes, but they're not in the purple group either," Heidi said. "My worst competitor will be Ingrid, she's good and have lots of practise. She's more than half Saami, and almost as old as Sif and Elvin. Even if they're Icelandic both of them, they are not that good at transformation."

The smell of delicious food reached them and the lunch-bell rang. All apprentices streamed into the barn and waited for the professors to come along.
For some time only munching and soft whispers asking for this and that was heard. Magic was hungry work and the Nisser were great cooks all of them. But as appetites were stilled, the transformation test once again surfaced.
"Are vegetables still alive, when they're not growing any more?" Susan asked, looking at the left over lettuce leaf on her plate. "I mean could we be asked to transform a lettuce leaf like this one into say a match or a paper umbrella."
"I'm sure we could,"Lis answered, while Tage, still chewing, just nodded.
"I'm sure I'm going to fail the test," Susan said despondently.
"So am I" Veronika said. "It would be easier to find a paper umbrella than transforming one."
"Yes, and even easier to call a mouse or two to then eat that lettuce leaf for me," Susan added.
"You're making a mountain out of a molehill," Lis said. "the test is not a big issue, even if I would be happy to win, of course."
"What is the prize?" Fiona asked. "Does anybody know?"
Nobody did and Jon rose and clapped his hands.

***

"Now listen everybody!" Jon said. This was totally not necessary as everybody were already all ears. He held up four bags, one red, one yellow, one blue and one green. "In these bags there's one jigsaw piece for each of you apprentices. When I'm done talking, one from each team come forth and get their bag. Then you go to your classroom and there you each pick a jigsaw piece from the bag. In the bags you'll find seemingly random objects as well. You'll have to think, you'll have to work together, to do your best and to do what you're best at to solve the riddle and transform the right things into what's relevant for the completion of the task. You'll have until tomorrow just before lunch to complete the task. Tents have been put up in the meadows, and all your parents have been informed. No outside help allowed, don't ask the teachers. Don't send out letters - we'll know. And don't even think of asking the Nisser for help. Now Sif, Helge, Ingrid and Knud, come here and get the bags." Sif got the yellow bag, Helge the blue one, Ingrid purple and Knud the green one. The green team all followed Knud up the stairs and into their room. "Why was Knud chosen?" Hilde asked as soon as  the door closed behind her, "I'm better at transformation than he is."
"So are most of you," Knud answered. "But I'm the oldest of the green team, as is Sif, Helge, and Ingrid of their teams."
"I wonder if that's a clue," Kirstin said, jumping up and almost overturning table where Knud had placed the bag. "Sorry," she said, shaking her head so that all her black curls began dancing. "It just so exiting. Look, there's a piece of paper tied to the drawstring. Susan, you read it aloud. Jon told us to do what we're best at."
Susan smiled and carefully plucked the paper from the string. The paper unfolded and letters grew on it. Susan read: "Congratulations. You began the right way. Now all in order of descending age pick a jigsaw piece from the bag without looking. But first; place this paper at an empty table."  Susan quickly placed the paper at the table near the window. The paper folded itself together, shrivelled up and caught fire. "Oof!" Susan said and jumped away from the table with the burning paper.
"You begin, Knud" Hilde said, "you're the oldest."
"I know," Knud said placatingly and put his hand into the bag. He did not say a word, but his face contorted. He pulled his hand back out of the bag and looked at the piece. I featured half a red jewel.
"Terje, you're next!" Hilde said.
"Yes," Terje said and without further ado jammed his hand into the bag. "Yuck!" he said and pulled out his hand very fast, but clutching a piece too. It had some white petals on it.
"And now it's my turn!" Hilde said and with a smirch thrust her hand into the bag. Her smile diminished and turned to a frown, but she too pulled a jigsaw piece from the green bag.
She pulled herself together and looked at her hand. Her piece shoved like the others' a green backside she turned it over and looked at the fluffy ear on her piece.
"It's a teddy bear!" Kirstin said.
"No, a koala, I think." Kalle said, his blond hair almost glowing in a stray ray of sun.
"Now who's next?" Hilde asked. "Most of us are 12  just like me, But I was sure I was the oldest, as I'm going to turn 13 in a few days."
 My birthday is in November, Veronika said.
"Oh, then I'm older, than you," Susan said. "My birthday is September 23."
"Mine is January first," Rósa said.
"That's a cool day," Kalle said, "And exactly a month before mine."
"Josta?" Hilde said and looked quizzically at the younger of the Birch sisters.
"March 23, I'm the youngest."
"Ooh!" Kirstin said, "same day as me, only you're a year older than me, no two years, I'll turn 11 the day you turn 13."
"And I won't turn 11 until almost a year from now. June 14." Marja said.
"Then you're the youngest of us," Anna said. "I was born in December, also the 14th."
Susan, your turn!" Hilde said, and Susan put her hand into the green bag. The fabric was soft and sleek, cool to the touch, but inside it ... it felt like cold porridge or mashed jellyfish. Cold, slimy and clinging. Susan's questing fingers touched an oblong object, a round stone maybe a jumbo-marble, and something wooden and slim before they finally closed upon a jigsaw piece. She clasped it and as fast as possible pulled her hand out from the bag. She looked at her hand. It looked normal, clean, or as clean as it had been when she put it into the bag. She slowly turned her hand over. Not a trace of the slimy substance adhered to it. Her jigsaw piece also had an ear on the front side.
"Does it fit Hilde's piece?" Kalle asked.
"Not now," Hilde said impatiently, "let's all get a piece before we try to fit them together."
First Veronika, then Rósa and after her Kalle, Josta, Kirstin, Anna and Marja all put their hands into the bags, and with varying expressions of displeasure pulled a jigsaw piece out of the bag.  
"What was in that bag?" Marja asked. "It was yucky!"
"Yes it was like mashed jellyfish or cold porridge," Susan said.
"More like goo or old glue," Kalle said. "Like what you use when sticking up wallpaper."
"Cold, but fresh cow pies!" Hilde said. "But no smell, and nothing clings to our hands. I bet it's some magic. Knud, please shake out what's left in the bag. Jon said there was more in it."
Knud shook the bag, and first came a small wooden object formed almost like a letter V, but with round edges and smooth, rounded ends, then a stone, looking a bi like a giant marble, all brownish grey but not totally smooth like a marble. A couple of slender, long leaves followed and then two small, carved statues. Susan picked up one of them. "Someone is making fun of us!" she said. "Look at this one. I never saw such an animal. It has a bill like Donald Duck, a tail like a beaver, giant paws and a body that's otter-like."  
Hilde had picked up the other statue,"It's the one with the ears from your piece," Kalle said. I told you it was a Koala!"
"A koala?" Marja asked. "What is that?"
"It's an animal living in trees in Australia," Kalle said, "It's a marsupial, like the kangaroos and they are totally cool and eat loads of leaves."

***

"Now shouldn't we try and solve the puzzle?" Anna asked, juggling her piece and jumping from foot to foot. "I have some of a white flower, some petals, that is.
They all placed their pieces at the table. Anna's flower petal fit in with Terje's piece, Knud's red jewel fit with Kirstin's piece featuring a bit of a multicoloured thing, maybe a ainbow. Susan and Hilde's ears clearly came from the same animal, a koala most probably, but some pieces were missing, and they were not equally thick.

"A puzzle with only eleven pieces is not much," Josta said. he looked at his piece, more of the koala, he was sure,  and then to the items at the table. "There's one more of them notes. Susan you read it!"
Susan gingerly unfolded the note, ready to throw it far away at the first sign of spontaneous combustion. She read aloud:

"Eleven pieces to a puzzle.
Exercise your magic muscle.
To make the pieces fit,
Try thinking, just a bit!"

Susan threw the paper across the room, but it did not burn, instead it turned into a huge drop of water, drenching Terje, who tried to catch it.
"Ugh!" he exclaimed.
"Fire, water," Rosa said what's next?
"Earth or air," Knud said.
"Earth is here," Hilde said reaching for the stone.  
"It's too light for it's size," she said amazed.
"Shake it? Is it hollow?" Knud suggested. Hilde shook the tone, and everybody heard the muted, rattling sound.
"Hollow indeed," Hilde said.
"We need to find out more about those carved figurines too," Susan said, still intrigued over the composite animal.
"And do something about the missing pieces. And why are the pieces we do have, not the same thickness? That's a bit stupid."
"Maybe there's more inside," Kirstin said. She turned her piece, featuring blue water and yellow sand over and over again, her black curls keeping time to the turning of the piece. "No, there's more underneath. It's a stack of pieces, actually!" She now held two pieces in each of her hands.
Soon all the apprentices were peeling off puzzle pieces and they ended up with 72 wafer thin pieces.
"I love jigsaw puzzles! Let me have a go!" Surprisingly this was Terje, the big, slow Swede. He gathered in all the pieces, carefully and started sorting them, and almost by themselves the pieces began attaching to one another.
"Do, what you're best at,"  Knud said. "It seems Terje is best at puzzles.What do the rest of us do?"

"I'm off for the library," Susan said. "The koala is an Australian animal, Kalle told us. And I'll try and see if a book can help me find out about that puzzled-together animal as well."
"Good thinking," Hilde said.  "Off you go!"

***

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.

***

After dinner they were ordered to stop thinking more of the test. A big fire was made in the meadows between the beach and the small forest and they sat around the fire watching the setting sun. It turned cool, and  the mosquitoes came out trying to get a bite off of them, but the fire was warm and the smoke kept the mosquitoes mostly at bay.  Torben got his guitar, and they sang new and old songs, Swedish, Danish, English and even a Finnish song, When Torben became tired of playing, Fiona and Veronika gave it a try. Then Susan timidly asked to take over and played some of the songs of Shu-bi-dua. A very popular Danish band, singing contagious, nonsensical texts. She even braved some of the tracks from their brand new album "Shu-bi-dua 4". Everybody sang along, and thankfully did not notice or at least did not come with any critical comment on her errors. These songs were tough to play, fast and with eternal shift in tempo and keys. The fire burned down low and the apprentices got into the sleeping sacs in the eight big tents, two for each team, one for boys and one for girls. The boys from the green team, Knud, Kalle and Terje felt a bit lonely in their big, green tent until they found out that the yellow team also only had three boys, Then they simply invited them over. This invitation was thankfully accepted by Elvin the oldest of the yellow boys, Elvin's compatriot Josh, and the Norwegian Bjørn of roughly the same age.

As the teachers were also sleeping in tents or gypsy-like caravans down in the meadow, the apprentices mostly slept.
Still it was late before the sun set, and it rose early next morning as the sun do in summer time in Denmark.   Strong coffee and hot tea were brought by the nisser and hot buns too.
While they still ate and drank, Thora distributed the mail. Some of the apprentices had letters, but most had not. Much to her surprise Susan had a letter. It had foreign stamps and was addressed to Ms. Susan Olsen, The Unicorn Farm, Unicorn Island, 4700 Naestved, Denmark.

***

"Most Mimsy were the Borogoves" Sif began.
"Oh, no," her brother Elvin said in a rather bitter tone. "Whenever she puts on that dress, she feels like Alice and just have to show us all that she knows all the verses by heart."
"Thyme is to try me, Gillyflowers are for gentleness ..." Lis started with her best, mad voice and expression.
"You are all as crazy as a loon in a boom!" Tage said very loud. "What is the general idea behind this outbreak of  citation madness?"
"We're trying to hit upon the right password for this chest," Heidi said with a smile, "but it quickly degenerated into a citation contest instead."
"What chest ... Ooh, I see," Tage said, as he noticed the diminutive turquoise green chest on the table. "Who gave you this task?"
"Jon did, surprisingly," Heidi answered.
"Bah," Tage said, "Then there's probably an old dish inside, and the remnants of a nautilus or a squid."
"Not all wrong," Jon said smiling, from where he suddenly stood behind them, "but can you guess the clue?"
Tage turned red all the way from the roots of his hair to where his neck was hidden by his upturned collar . He felt like being anywhere else, even at home helping his mother putting up the embroidery frame - her preferred punishment for trespasses.
"Can we have a clue?" Heidi asked to give Tage time to collect his wits again. "The first letter, genre, bird, fish or in between?"
Jon laughed: "Good one, Heidi. Yes I'll help you. Genre: Children's' silly rhymes. So please tell Ophelia and Alice to stop." And with these words Jon disappeared.

"Ohh, Gosh!" Tage said, "thanks for saving my skin. I forgot how good he was a teleporting."
"Children's' silly rhymes?" Lis said, "well Mimsy were the Borogoves, actually belong there, but he asked "Alice" to scam, so ... younger children maybe ... let's try!"
They tried Itsy bitsy spider, Ring of roses, Jack and Jill fell down a hill, Baah baah black sheep, A sailor went to sea, and many, many other.

Susan loved tongue twisting rhymes, so she began: "Betty Botter bought some butter,But she said this butter's bitter. If I put it in my batter, It will make my batter bitter, But a bit of better butter Will surely make my batter better."  
Lis caught on and intoned: "Bed Spreaders spread spreads on beds. Bread Spreaders spread butter on breads. And that Bed Spreader better watch out how he's spreading, or that Bread Spreader's sure going to butter his bedding."

And huff the chest opened!

***

"What's that letter, Susan? Rósa asked. It's not from your parents or anything."

"No it's not," Susan said, "and why would they send me a letter, I saw them yesterday morning, and I'll see them again this evening. But look at those stamps! A koala! and a opal ... and then even a platypus. This is too strange."

Rósa snatched the letter and looked at the stamps. "That stamp with the koala is quite new, Look it says 'Christmas 1976', but the others look older - and that last one ..." she held the letter so that Veronika could see the stamps. "That's eucalyptus, isn't it?"

"Yes it is," Veronika said. "Susan open that letter, please!"

Susan opened the letter and looked mystified at them. "It has nothing at all to do with our test. Last summer, when we were in Italy, I met an Australian priest. I liked to talk with him. He listened to me, answered my questions and was a nice sort. I wrote him a Christmas letter, asking some more questions, and telling him a bit more about me, my family and life in Denmark. This letter is from the bishop in Melbourne, no not from the bishop himself, but from his office. They tell me that the priest is not among them any more ... strange wording. I cannot tell if he's not a priest any more or if he died. That's sad. I liked the idea of knowing a priest that far away. I feel I owe him something ... a kind of spiritual debt, maybe. But there's nothing I can do." Susan ended.

Knud had been examining the envelope. "Someone glued the address of the Unicorn Farm over your home address," he said.

"Must be my mum," Susan said, "She knows I love having letters from all over the world. And she's good at those kind of things."

"In my impression this letter came on the right day," Veronika said. "Maybe my perception of the big picture is not fantastic, that's what my mum tells me at least, but you get a letter all the way from Australia, on the day we're trying to solve a riddle including Australian elements. It cannot be pure accident."

Let's put the letter with all the other things," Knud suggested. "And what is that last thing?"

"Don't you know?" Hilde asked. "It's a boomerang."

"I don't normally do my grocery shopping in Australia," Knud said, "I do not know everything. Nobody knows everything."

"It is a boomerang," Kirstin said. "Rósa's dad once had one - he's my uncle, you know. And he said it would always return to him when he threw it. But one day he threw it over a lake, and it hit a gull and fell into the lake together with the bird."

"Yes," Rósa continued. "And then he stole a boat and rowed out to retrieve it. and  then the owner of the boat, a tiny, old lady, came running out while he was out there. Me and Kirstin and Jón, that's Kirstin's dad got a scolding from the little lady. Then Jon told about the boomerang all the way from Australia, and after that the little old lady invited us in for tea and tale swapping, as she had been to Australia as well. It ended up well enough."

"It seems that the Australia craze was on its height then, and that little old lady had a passion for all things exotic. I think uncle Sigurd ended up gifting her  the boomerang."
"He did," Rósa said. "He had friends in Security at the airport, and they got him a new one. Not totally legal, I dare bet, but then they knew him. The one he got had been confiscated from a movie star, famous them, but now totally forgotten."
"That's a sample of how much help wealth really is." Rósa said. "Real wealth is friends."

***

"Susan, do you read Cyrilic letters?" My asked. "You're our last hope. The clues for our next part is written in cyrilic letters, and it seems the Mál sameinast only works for spoken languages, and all the boks on foreign alphabets have been removed from the library, and ..."
"Yes," Susan said and My looked at her in consternation. "Yes," Susan repeated, "I do read Cyrilic letters. I taught myself last year after having seen Dr. Zhivago. I do not understand much, if any of what I'm reading, because I do not understand any Russian. But Mál sameinast should help with this."
"You're a darling!" My said and handed her a slip of paper with strangely shaped letters on it. Susan spent quite a while sounding the letters one by one, then slowly she read aloud, and the spell really did translate her faltering Russian into halvways understandable Danish: "Go to the stable and look for a rogue. Then go direction of the perish ... no this word should be Paris, no parish," Susan interrupted her reading, "Under a big stone you'll find the next clue."
"Try reading the first words once again," My asked. "I'm not much into searching for rogues."
"But a rogue needs not be a thieving person, it can also mean a lonely animal away from the herd, often of a sourly disposition," Of course Hilde knew this obscure meaning of the word.
Then Susan added: "I suppose there's a lone cow or horse in a secluded pasture that you can see from the stables. Off you go, we have to be working on our own clues," she said. "You do not happen to know anything on marsupials?"
"Only that a kangaroo is a marsupial, and that they only are found in Australia, but this is obvious, and I suppose not much help." Susan nodded and My thanked her once again before she ran off.

"This riddling is a foolish waste of time," Kalle said. I'd rater be studying Icelandic, or transformation, or even crypto-zoology."
"But you are," Hilde protested. "Only it's not called thus, and we do not have set hours, but we do study! Ypu'll just have to overcome your prejudice that learning always happens like in school. We're at Unicorn Farm. Anything might happen, and sometimes do!"
"Reading secret messages might be your idea of fun and learning," Kalle said sourly. "But it's not mine."
"Do tell me," Susan interrupted, " Did you know before My came in with this piece of paper that our language spell do not work on words written in an alphabet you do not know? Because it's totally new to me. We've been reading German, Icelandic, Finnish you name it books from the library - I even read something in Hungarian. If you had asked me this morning, I'd have said that Russian would be 'translated' by Mál sameinast as well. But it's not so!"

Kalle looked at Susan. "You're right. I did not know. I think my brain needs new orders. Let's go for a walk to clear our minds."

***

An arrow came through the window.
"Air!" Kirstin cried and plucked the arrow from the door frame. Around the shaft a blue slip of paper was tied Kirstin untied the knot and handed it to Susan, who looked at it and said: "Jon's scribblings once again."

"Please read!" Hilde commanded and Susan obliged: "I have a dozen questions for you!" she read on, unconsciously aping Jon's diction. "Some of them are irrelevant, some of them stupid and some are the right ones. Which is what? You have to find out.
1. Are there any tigers in Australia?
2. Are marsupials and mammals a sign of creativity or redundancy?
3. How long is a mile?
4. Can you confuse Ayer's Rock with a giant Opal?
5. When is Summer equinox in Australia?
6. The highest mountain of Australia is Mount Kosciuszko - true or false?
7. It is in the Snowy Mountains. Do you know this mountain range from somewhere else?
8. Is a treaty valid without a royal signature?" Susan quickly placed the paper in the middle of the tables, this time it just evaporated.

"I have a suspicion that the one with the treaty is a trick question," Hilde said.

"This needs some strategic investigation," Knud said and Susan nodded agreement: "We have to go to the library to shed some light over these questions."

***

The humdrum process of reading through pages and pages of encyclopedias on mammals, marsupials and other animals in Australia, was interrupted at regular intervals by someone reading aloud when they found a relevant passage.
"Tigers!" Kalle said, "There is an Australian tiger." He paused looking down into the book again: "The Thy-la-cine, wow hope I said this right - is an extinct, or possibly extinct - this means died out, doesn't it?" Knud nodded and Kalle read on: "a carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or the Tasmanian wolf. The Tasmanian tiger was relatively shy and nocturnal, with the general appearance of a medium-to-large-size canid." He stopped. "What's that?"
"Canid?" Hilde said, Kalle nodded his blonde head and Hilde continued. "Canid is the adjective to canine, meaning as or of a dog. That means dog-like, or a member of the dog-family!"
"Thanks," Kalle said and went on: "This then means that it looks like a medium sized dog except for its stiff tail and abdominal pouch similar to that of a kangaroo."
He drew a deep breath: "The Tasmanian tiger was an expert predator; but exactly how large its prey animals were is disputed. Its closest living relatives are the other members of Da-sy-u-ro-mor-phi - another of those big words," Kalle said with  sigh "including the Tasmanian devil - good old Taz!"

"Are they extinct or are they not?" Hilde asked impatiently.

"The last hapless specimen, a male, died in a zoo in 1936. Since then people claim to have seen some, but none have been photographed or caught."

They read on in silence.

"When was our deadline?" Kirstin suddenly asked.

"I know!" Hilde said with a righteous mien. "Today, just before lunch!"

"We're in deep trouble," Kirstin answered. "Lunch is at one o'clock as always. Now it's almost eleven. Two hours to solve this. Our puny magic is not up to this!"

"Earth!" Knud exclaimed. "That was what was troubling me. We're missing the last clue from Jon, the last element!"

"You sure have a quirky mind," Susan said.

"You're right," Hilde said to Knud and at the same time a stone came in through the window. Kirstin looked out, but she could only see the empty yard below and the branches criss-crossing overhead.

***

"It fits!" Knud was jubilant. His transformed puzzle piece featuring Ayer's Rock fit perfectly into the surrounding pieces.
"Well done!"Jon said. All the other apprentices were already done with their test and were now crowding into the green room, cheering on the green team in their ordeal. Susan could see My's ginger locks above the rows behind, she mus be using the floating spell to see anything a all.
Rósa had picked up the boomerang and it's edges caught the sun. "I'm next," she said, "but I need to shrink, and then transform this to make it fit - even more so than Knud."
"Come on, you can do it!" they cheered her on,and Rósa closed her eyes in concentration, opened them again, looked at the boomerang, swung her wand and murmured: "Minnka þu!"  The boomerang  shrank somewhat, but it was still too big to comfortably fit in.
"Once again, Rósa!" Veronika said, "and Kalle and Anna, pull back a little, you're crowding her." Anna and Kalle obeyed and Rósa, now given space to swing her wand freely, shrunk the boomerang. "Phew," she said. "And now for the transforming part. Let me see, blanks on top, and to the left, and tabs bottom and right to fit the hole there. Sandy background, as we're in a desert: "Boomerang, vertu að bita púsluspils!" The boomerang shifted, shimmered and finally turned into a jigsaw piece.
"Yes!" Kalle cheered. "You did it!"
Rósa sank to the nearest chair, spent, and greedily gulped the water someone handed her.

"Now you," Hilde said and pointed at Susan. "your platypus should fit in there, next to those beachcombing aboriginals. You can see its nest."
"Yes, Hilde," Susan said with a sigh. "We agreed that this is where it would fit. But I still think that  changing the stamp from my letter would be easier. It's roughly the right size, and admitted, I'd be sad to transform that small figurine."
"Have you forgotten that they will eventually change back, maybe?" Hilde asked, the triumph clear from stance and voice.
"Yes I forgot," Susan said. "But still the stamp would be the easier way." Susan continued, now a bit stubborn.
"It would," Jon said, "but the easiest solution is not always the best."
Confronted with these words from Jon, Susan had no choice left. She looked at the hole, and looked once again. "Oh," she said, "but there's two empty spaces next to one another down there. Not only one. I'll need to transform both."
She then took the small, beautifully carved wooden platypus in her hand, swung the wand just so and imagining a piece fitting half the hole and blending into the surrounding pieces, and said the words. She felt more than saw the figurine transform and placed it into the left part of the hole. The she freed the stamp from the envelope, leaving behind a smudge of glue. I was easier this time. Susan was happy over all the hours spent together with Heidi and the twins practising transformation, they paid off now. The incident with the clothes peg and the swallow had been a key experience for her, what Gilvi called her Rosetta moment.

In rapid succession Hilde, then Kirstin, Josta, Kalle and Anna did their transformations, pieces with charcoal shadows, emerald green grasses and woollen sheep filled the holes in the puzzle. Marja had some trouble transforming the flowers into a piece, she had to be told that 'a toga' was a Roman dress and  'taiga' the Russian word for steppes before finally hitting the right wording for her spell.
"You need to be more attentive in the Icelandic lessons," Jon admonished her. "I know it's harder for you, coming from Finland, as Icelandic and Finnish are two different language families. But don't make a hole into an abyss. You can learn!"
"I will," Marja said. "But, oh, how I wish I could do my magic in Finnish as Tähti and Taavi do."

"I can smell the coffee," Hilde said. "Lunch will be soon."
"You'll make it," Jon said, "only missing two pieces now, and you have ten minutes to go!"
Veronika picked up the leaves, and cheered on by the atmosphere in the room she transformed them into a piece to fill in the next to last hole in the puzzle.
"Terje, you did the whole puzzle," Jon said. "It's an honour to fill the last hole.
His confidence bolstered by Jon's kind words made Terje smile broadly while picking up the tiny white leaves. Slowly and distinctly he spoke the words enlarging them, and just as painstakingly slow he said the words and waved his wand to make them into a puzzle piece.Nobody drew a breath, nobody said a word as Terje's big hand  placed the piece in the very last hole.
Then a lot of things happened at once.The puzzle glowed, shifted and turned into a big, big map of Australia with a zillion teeny tiny details. Everybody let out their breath in jubilant sounds or cheers, only a single cat-call was heard, but stopped before anyone discovered the source. The big bell in the belfry stroke one. The time was up.
"We made it!"  Susan said loudly.

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