The Frights of Fiji by Sunayna Prasad (books to read for self improvement .txt) 📕

“The Microchant Store,” said Simon. “Anyway, I rented a tracking app on it, which is only legal during emergencies. Once this is over, I’ll have to return it.”

“So that’s how you’re going to track down Master Beau?” Isabelle asked.

“Yup,” said Simon. “It’ll actually show me videos of what he’s doing. There’s a camera signal in the app.”

“That’s great.” Isabelle nodded. “So does anyone want breakfast?”

Alyssa giggled. “I think it’s lunchtime for me.”

“Isabelle, why don’t you give her the Chronocurrent potion?” asked Mathias.

“What’s that?” Alyssa referred to the potion.

“It’s a potion that adjusts your mind to the time zone you’re in,” said Mathias.

“So I won’t be jetlagged after drinking it?”

“Nope,” replied Mathias.

“I’ll show you where it is,” Isabelle said.

Alyssa followed her to the closet next to the bathroom. Cardboard boxes of small plastic bottles sat at the bottom. Alyssa noticed the liquids’ various colors and textures. “Are these the potions, Isabelle?”

“Yup. My parents used to work in a potion store, and after they retired, they gave me all of their unsold potions.”

“Neat,” Alyssa said.

Isabelle bent down and pulled out a plastic bottle filled with a gooey white potion. Alyssa screwed up her face since that potion looked like glue.

“Okay, Alyssa, here you go.” Isabelle handed it to her.

She took it, and her stomach twisted. Pressing her lips on the bottle spout, she let the liquid fall into her mouth. But a sugary sensation and creamy texture filled her mouth. The potion tasted like . . . vanilla.

After finishing the last bits, Alyssa removed the spout from her mouth and exhaled. “That was actually really good.”

“I’m glad.” Isabelle smiled. “Why don’t you go throw that away?”

Alyssa nodded and tossed it into the kitchen garbage. Isabelle gave her water and gathered Mathias and Simon into the kitchen for breakfast. Alyssa’s mind rewound into morning mode. Thoughts of drinking orange juice and eating eggs, bacon, and French toast meandered into her mind.

She told Isabelle what she wanted to eat. Instead of standing up, Isabelle remained sitting, pointing her wand at Alyssa’s side of the table. Not only did the colors solidify, but the scents also grew stronger. Scents of the French toast and orange juice’s sweetness as well as the bacon’s aroma floated into Alyssa’s nostrils.

Once the food had reached full solidity, Alyssa dug in. While she ate, Isabelle also created some porridge for Simon, an omelet for Mathias, and stuffed French toast for herself.

“I didn’t know you could also create food with magic,” said Alyssa. “It’s too bad people like me can’t do as much as wizards.”

“We’re actually not even supposed to expose magical cooking or technology to ordinary people,” Isabelle said. “The wizarding government thinks that it can cause envy and even violence.”

“But you showed it to me,” Alyssa said.

“That’s because you’re only one person,” said Isabelle. “But we couldn’t advertise the WiPhone at a mall. And when you go home, please don’t tell anyone about our technology.”

“I won’t,” said Alyssa.

“Thank you,” said Isabelle.

During breakfast, Alyssa had learned a lot about wizarding culture from Isabelle and Mathias. Before a wizard could learn magic, they had to let out uncontrollable magic at least three times, which normally started at six years old. Once a child turned nine, his or her parents could hire a tutor to teach the child magic at home. By the age of sixteen, a wizard was expected to know most kinds of magic, and by age eighteen, he or she was expected to know all that could be learned.

Young wizards aged nine to fifteen were forbidden to use magic outside of their homes at any time for any reason. They had too little experience and could cause harm without realizing. Wizards aged sixteen and seventeen could only perform magic outside of their homes under the supervision of adults over twenty-one. When wizards turned eighteen, they could use sorcery outside of their homes by themselves.

Alyssa changed into denim shorts and a U-neck olive shirt. She left the bathroom and strode over to Simon. “Simon, can we see what Master Beau is doing?”

“Sure.” Simon took out his tablet and pressed it a few times.

Alyssa sat next to him and leaned toward the tablet screen. A light-blue background showed a dot with the name Beau Duchamp over it. Simon slid his finger from the side, which brought out a list of choices. He pressed View by Video, and a window popped up.

Master Beau stood in a gray room next to a desktop computer with no plug. He walked toward a wire attached to the system unit. The wire led to a suction cup, which led to a . . . snake. The snake had a gray body and a light-orange belly. It stayed still with its eyes shut.

A timer went off on the computer’s monitor. Master Beau pressed a button on the keyboard, and it stopped. Someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Master Beau said.

The door opened to reveal David.

“Is that the ash-breathing adder?”

“Yep. How’d you know?”

“I read a lot.”

“Well, this is going to find Alyssa, that girl I captured, and kill her. And no matter where she goes or hides, it’ll find her and bite her till she dies.”

“Very well.”

Master Beau took the suction cup off the snake. It opened its glimmering red eyes.

“You can go now,” Master Beau said to it.

The snake nodded and disappeared.

Simon closed the app.

“I hate snakes,” groaned Alyssa. Snakes had frightened her ever since she was little. Even in pet stores, she’d always avoided them.

“We can look up ways to defeat it,” Isabelle told her.

“But the snake is impervious to wand and potion magic, like most magical creatures,” said Simon.

“So then how is Master Beau—”

“He has something called a brain-domination computer, Mathias,” said Simon. “That was what we saw. It’s a computer that has a suction cup to hook up magical creatures to make them loyal to whoever bought the computer. That’s the only exception for where they can’t resist the magic. Isabelle and Mathias, I suggest you look up what the snake eats and what kills it. I don’t want Alyssa near anything dangerous.”

“Okay,” said Isabelle.

After spending a few minutes on their MagBook Dragon and Pegasus (the magical equivalents to the MacBook Pro and Air), Isabelle and Mathias looked up at Alyssa, who watched them.

“Okay, what’d you find out?” Alyssa asked.

“The snake eats rainbow-patched white mice and gets killed by metallic fronds,” said Isabelle.

“We’ll find them in the rainforest,” said Mathias.

“What are we going to keep the mice in though?” asked Isabelle.

“I have an old hamster cage in my house,” Mathias said.

“You’re going to use that?” Isabelle closed her laptop.

“Yeah,” said Mathias. “It’s still fine.”

“How are you going to capture the mice?” Alyssa asked.

“There’s a spell for it,” Mathias stood up. “I’ll be back, guys.” He held out his arms and disappeared.

About a half hour had gone by, and footsteps thumped down the stairs. Alyssa figured out that Mathias had returned via his flying tube since Isabelle had said that he owned one too. Alyssa turned to the staircase and watched him carry a small cage with about six or seven mice. They had white fur with patches of green, purple, red, and blue. Mathias also carried a bag of silver, gold, copper, metallic green, red, and blue fronds.

He entered the living room and sat on one of the couch chairs. He placed the cage on the carpet. But Isabelle bent her eyebrows. “Mathias, don’t put them on the carpet. They’re going to—”

“Isabelle, it’s okay. They’re in a cage.”

“Still, they’re filthy wild animals, and they could get my clean carpet dirty.”

“Oh, Isabelle, stop being such a neat freak,” said Mathias.

“No.” Isabelle turned to Simon, who sat on the other couch chair and listened to his WiPod. “Simon, can you track the snake, please?”

Simon took out his earbuds. “What did you want me to track? I didn’t get that.”

Isabelle repeated herself, and Simon made his tablet appear. Alyssa watched him press it; he probably programmed a way to track the snake.

“Simon, how far away is the snake?” asked Alyssa.

“Erm . . . about a hundred feet away,” he replied.

“Oh my god,” moaned Alyssa.

“Let’s go,” said Isabelle.

Alyssa’s stomach hardened as she walked up the stairs. She could even feel her heart throb through her throat. She hurried her breathing and followed everyone else out of the tent.

Alyssa stepped onto the sand and saw something move. She gasped, her muscles constricting to her bones. Her hands shook and cooled down despite the burning sun. Tingles spread through her toes and fingers and expanded to the rest of her body. She whined through her contracted throat. She wished that what she saw was just a mirage. But the smell of the ash hanging in the air revealed to her that she didn’t just see things—the snake drew nearer.

It opened its jaw, exhaling light gray ash. It stuck out its pointy black tongue and pushed its head toward Alyssa, and she coughed. But it sped up its slithering. Alyssa screamed and spun around. She dashed along the beach, and her feet sped up, thus kicking the backs of her legs.

“Alyssa, get back here!” yelled Mathias. “I can’t disappear holding the cage or mice! It’s impossible doing both!”

But Alyssa continued to sprint across the beach. Sand streamed into her sneakers. Sweat even trickled into the neckline of her shirt and her legs.

Something scaly slapped her legs. She flew into the air and screamed. Her body fought against the direction of the breeze, and she landed on her butt.

She moaned and quickened up breaths through her gritted teeth. The snake continued to slither and release ash. Shrieking, Alyssa bolted up and turned around. She headed into the rainforest.

Facing vines, twigs, trees, bushes, and fronds, Alyssa found her way around them. Her legs ached from all the different movements she made. She ran sideways from a tree, jumped over a couple of twigs and vines, and zigzagged around trees and bushes. A trail even lay in front of her.

Alyssa’s thin legs and body kept her energy going, but her legs felt like they’d been clogged with broken cobblestones. The snake kept chasing her, though.

Alyssa hastened down the trail, inhaling and exhaling. Her throat had dried up, making her cough along the way. The ash the snake breathed increased her coughing. She stopped but opened her eyes.

About seven or ten feet below her stood a brownish-green pond. A waterfall sound made her eyes drift to where it came from. It poured water into it and not far from where she stood.

Turning around, Alyssa saw the snake slither only a couple of feet away, sticking its tongue out at her. Gasping, she backed away, and her heel stepped off the cliff. The ball of her foot slid off too, and she screamed as she fell into the water.

She landed with a splash and sank into the freezing water while holding her breath. Kicking her feet, Alyssa struck toward the surface and fought the pressure.

Poking her head out of the water, Alyssa gasped. Water vapor clouded her face, revealing to her that she’d come close to the waterfall. Swimming away