The Unlucky One: Part Two

      Ashalyia coughed and waved away the smoke. “How was your book?” she asked.

      “Wonderful if it could be true.” Racon stretched, slid off of the couch, and began to walk towards his bedroom. “And how was yours?”

      Ashalyia jumped down and skipped over to him. “Bubble Sculptures is one of my favorites. I still can't figure out how to make one myself, though.”

      “Then why do you read it?”

      “I love the pictures!” Ashalyia yawned. “I wonder if there's a book that could teach you to be lucky.”

      Racon stopped in his tracks. “A book, to help me be lucky?” He smiled and hugged his sister. “That may just be it! There are tons of books around Neopia; one has to be about being lucky! I'll go ask Dayna!” He turned and was about to run down the hall to Dayna's room when Kanuah's voice stopped him.

      “At this time of night? It can wait till morning, and talk quietly, I can hear you clear across the house.”

      Racon ran into his room and snuggled down into his blankets. Not even a rebuke from his brother could make him feel bad. There had to be a book about luck! He could get rid of this curse!

     He smiled to himself and fell asleep instantly. He may have been excited but he was still tired from the lightening incident earlier. He was so tired he didn't even notice the Ghost Lupe as it glided up to his window, looked in, then floated away.

     ***

     “No, no, maybe, no...” Racon was in the book room. Dayna had bought plenty of books for her pets to read. She preferred them to neovision. He was searching through them trying to find a book that could help him. He had made two piles, books that may have answers and others that wouldn't help at all. He didn't think that Babaa Care would have much information of luck and curses. He looked at the empty bookshelf. “Well, that's all of them. I guess I should start reading.”

      “Racon?” Dayna poked her head around the door. Her green eyes narrowed. “What are you up to?”

      Racon sat down with his first book, The Luckiest Babaa. “I'm trying to see if there's a book that holds the answer to breaking my curse of bad luck. There has to be some book; there's a lot of them that talk about luck, magic, and curses.”

      Dayna scratched her head thoughtfully. “I guess it's as good a place as any to start. I'll pick up some more books on my way home. Sirenia has a big match today in the Stone Dome. All of us are going to go cheer her on; do you want to come?” Dayna asked, hoping he would say no. They didn't need another accident like last time.

      Racon winced at the thought of entering anther Battledome. “No, I'm going to do some research and hopefully I'll find something.”

      Dayna hugged her pet. “I left some breakfast in the oven for you. We'll see you tonight. Neomail me if you need anything and be safe.” She put an emphasis on the last part.

      “I'll try.”

      ***

      “Nothing.” Racon shut the latest book, which disappeared with a cloud of red smoke that added itself to the multicolored cloud resting above Racon's head. Racon sighed and slumped down in the beanbag. In all the books he had read, the neopets had been born with luckiness not given to them by an object or person. None of the curses he read about were like his. They all involved mutants, sicknesses, or warts. Racon sighed and walked over to the stack of books waiting for him to read. “I have to keep reading. I have to make sure that I don't miss anything.”

      He reached for the top book, as he did, he slipped and fell into the tower of books. Racon and the books went crashing down in a jumble of legs and pages. Racon sat up dizzily with Lucky Stars perched on his head. He snatched the book off his head and threw it across the room. “I'm so sick of this curse! Why can't I walk across a room without something bad happening to me?! I want to be able to go somewhere without worrying about thieves, sicknesses, or lightning bolts!”

      Thunder crashed outside.

      “Thank you for proving my point!” Racon yelled out the window.

      He moaned and put his head in his paws. Would it ever stop? He picked up a book that had fallen onto his lap, The Unlucky Blumaroo. “Glad to know I'm not the only one.” He opened up the first page.

      ***

      “Nice job!” Dayna congratulated her Peophin. “I thought he had you with that last attack, but you managed to come up from behind and beat him. I'm very proud of you!”

      “Thank you, it's all thanks to all that time I spent in the training school.” Sirenia polished her winner's trophy with one of her hooves. “I'll take this to Moltara tomorrow and see if Tangor can recycle it into anything useful.”

      Kanuah rolled his eyes. “Did you run out of room on your trophy shelf?”

      Sirenia glared at him. “When you say it like that, it sounds less noble.”

      Dayna opened the door on the fire cloud racer. “Come on, guys. We need to stop at the Lost Desert before we go home. I promised Racon I'd pick up some books for him.”

      Ashalyia was the first to hop in the back seat. “Is he looking up a cure for his unluckiness?”

      “He's trying to.” Dayna closed the door and jumped in the driver seat. “Let's see if we can help him out any.”

      ***

      “3000.”

      “2000.”

      “2750.”

      “2500.”

      “I accept your offer of 2500.” The Nimmo who ran Sutek's Scrolls handed Dayna a scroll.

      “Thank you.” Dayna tucked the scroll Beginner's Curses into her backpack and walked out into the blazing heat. She flicked her long black braid over her shoulder. Now she remembered why she chose to live in Shenkuu. She couldn't stand the hot and dry desert or the bitterly cold Terror Mountain. Shenkuu was cool and had plenty of woods and streams. She loved her home.

      “Can we go yet?” Sirenia lay in the shade of a lone palm tree. She was out of her element in the middle of the desert; she needed water, not sand. “Or at least somewhere cooler.”

      Kanuah's black fur wasn't helping him out much either, but he wasn't one to complain. “We're here to support Racon. He's had a whole life of bad luck; we can suffer in the sun for two hours if it will help him.”

      Sirenia sighed and put her head down on her hooves. “You're right; you always are. Hey, Ash, what are you looking at?”

      Ashalyia was standing on her hind legs, looking at the poster in the Paintbrush Stall that advertised the effects of the Lost Desert Paintbrush. “I like the desert Aisha.”

      Kanuah lopped over to see the poster. “I thought you wanted to be an island Aisha.”

      “I do, but I like this one too.”

      Kanuah looked at the desert Lupe. “I'm glad I'm a shadow Lupe.”

      “You guys ready to go?” Dayna walked up carrying a sack of food.

      The three pets ran over to her. “Yes!”

      ***

      “Ah, cool air!” Sirenia leaned her head over the side of the racer. She inhaled the mountain air of Shenkuu. “How I missed it.”

      Dayna rolled her eyes brushing her black hair back. “We were only in the Lost Desert for an hour, Sirenia.”

      “It felt like a week. The first thing I'm doing when I get home is going for a swim.”

      Dayna steered the racer down onto the landing pad she had built in the front lawn. “Well, get ready to bail for the river 'cause we're home!”

      “Race you to the river, Ash!” Sirenia yelled over her shoulder as she ran for the river.

      Ashalyia leapt out of the racer and ran after her sister. “No fair!”

      Dayna took the sack of food out of the back seat. “You're not going with them, Kanuah?”

      Kanuah pushed open the front door. “I want to make sure Racon didn't burn the house down while we were gone.”

      Dayna laughed as she walked in. “Everything looks like it's still in one piece. Let's go check on him.”

      She walked down the hall to the book room with Kanuah padding after her.

      “Racon?” She tapped on the door. “You alright?”

      She opened the door and jumped back as a multicolored cloud escaped out. “Throw open all the windows, Kanuah, before it chokes us all!”

      Kanuah dashed down the hall to do her bidding as Dayna advanced into the room. Waving the smoke aside, Dayna peered in. “Racon? You still alive?”

      Through the smoke Racon came running up to his owner and threw himself into her arms. “I found the answer!”

To be continued...