Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO Zara vaulted on to her unicorn, Moonbeam. The others followed her lead and soon they were all cantering out of the stable yard and past Sparkle Lake. The fountain in the middle of the lake brought magical water up from the centre of the earth that then flowed all around Unicorn Island. The water made the crops and animals on the island flourish, and when the unicorns drank it, it strengthened their powers. When students of the academy graduated, they became guardians of the island and helped protect its magical waters. Aisha planned to be a composer or a musician, but she loved knowing that she and Silver would also work together, protecting their beautiful island. Near the meadows, the girls passed their riding teacher, Ms Tulip. She was heading for the stables with Mr Longnose, a school inspector. He was a tall, gangly man with a pointed nose and sharp eyes and he always seemed to think he knew best. She felt sorry for Ms Tulip, having to listen to him ramble on as they walked. Poor Ms Tulip! "Let's not go near Mr Nosey Parker," muttered Phoebe. "He'll only ask where we're going!" "I don't trust him one bit," said Zara darkly. Giving Mr Longnose and Ms Tulip a wide berth, they cantered into the meadow. They dismounted next to a sparkling stream and the girls sat down on some nearby tree stumps while the unicorns splashed into the icy water, whinnying and kicking it at each other. Silver loved to play, and he

第二章扎拉跳上她的独角兽“月光”。 其他人跟着她，很快他们都跑出了马厩的院子，经过了闪闪湖。 湖中央的喷泉把地球中心的神奇之水引上来，然后围绕着独角兽岛流动。 水使岛上的庄稼和动物茁壮成长，当独角兽喝下它时，它会增强他们的力量。 当学院的学生毕业后，他们成为了该岛的守护者，帮助保护其神奇的水域。 艾莎计划成为一名作曲家或音乐家，但她很高兴知道她和西尔弗也将一起工作，保护他们美丽的岛屿。 在草地附近，女孩们经过了她们的骑马老师郁金香女士。 她正和学校督学朗鼻先生一起去马厩。 他个子又高又瘦，鼻子尖，眼睛锐利，似乎总觉得自己知道得最多。 她为郁金香女士感到难过，因为她不得不听着他一边走一边絮絮叨叨。 可怜的郁金香小姐！“我们不要靠近诺西·帕克先生，”菲比嘟囔着。 “他只会问我们要去哪儿！”“我一点也不相信他，”扎拉阴郁地说。 他们把长鼻子先生和郁金香小姐远远地甩在后面，向草地走去。 他们在一条波光粼粼的小溪旁下马，女孩们坐在附近的一些树桩上，独角兽们扑通扑通地跳进冰冷的水里，呜咽着，互相踢着水。 西尔弗喜欢玩，他

stamped his hooves harder than anyone, laughing when he soaked the others. Aisha grinned. She loved Silver so much. He was so confident and cheerful. "Right, Amethyst dorm, down to business!" said Zara, pulling a pen and notebook out of her pocket. "I think someone is making these

他比谁都卖力地跺脚，在把别人踩湿的时候大笑。 艾莎咧嘴一笑。她是那么爱西尔弗。 他是那么的自信和开朗。 “好了，紫水晶宿舍，开始谈正事吧！”扎拉说着，从口袋里掏出一支笔和一个笔记本。 “我认为有人在制造这些东西

hailstorms happen and I suspect it's the same mystery person who's caused all the other problems this year–the tornadoes, the tidal wave and the drought. If we want Unicorn Academy to stay open, we need to work out who is responsible and stop them." She opened her notebook. "Let's examine what we know." "The person doing these things is a man," Lily put in. "We've heard him speak every time there's been a weather disaster." "You cannot stop me," said Phoebe, making her voice sound deep and spooky, just like the voice they had heard in the aftermath of the weather disasters. Aisha grinned. "That's a perfect impression, Phoebs!" Phoebe looked pleased. She loved to act. "Moonbeam has also seen visions of a man," said Zara. Moonbeam, her unicorn, had magic that gave her glimpses of the future and helped her foresee danger. "He's tall and skinny and wears a cloak. Because of the types of disasters, we can also conclude that our suspect is someone who knows a lot about the weather." "Mr Longnose!" said Lily. "He's tall and thin and he studied weather and geology before he became an inspector. He's also been sneaking round the school using secret tunnels!" "And he was with us when the tidal wave hit the coast," said Phoebe. "Remember how he insisted we went camping at that exact spot! He dragged us into danger!" "Also, we found a book in his tent with notes about how to cause purple tornadoes, volcanic eruptions and droughts," said Zara triumphantly. "That's real evidence!" Aisha frowned. "But when we showed the notebook to Ms Nettles, she told us that it wasn't Mr Longnose's handwriting and that the initials inside it were 'LT'. Mr Longnose's name is Ivor. His initials are IL. He can't have written the notes in that book, but it is odd he had it in his tent." "The man's voice didn't sound anything like Mr Longnose's either," said Phoebe. "It was much deeper." Zara tapped her pen against her mouth. "OK, how about this theory? What if Mr Longnose is working with the LT who wrote the notes in that book?"

冰雹发生了，我怀疑是同一个神秘的人造成了今年所有其他的问题——龙卷风、海啸和干旱。 如果我们想让独角兽学院继续开放，我们需要找出谁应该对此负责，并阻止他们。” 她打开笔记本。“让我们检查一下我们所知道的。” “做这些事的人是个男人，”莉莉插嘴说。 “每次有天气灾害时，我们都会听到他的讲话。” “你阻止不了我。”菲比说，声音低沉而诡异，就像他们在天气灾难后听到的声音一样。 艾莎咧嘴一笑。“你的模仿真完美，菲比！”菲比看上去很高兴。 她喜欢表演。“月光也看到了一个男人的幻象，”扎拉说。 她的独角兽“月光”拥有魔力，能让她瞥见未来，并帮助她预见危险。 “他又高又瘦，穿着一件斗篷。 由于灾难的类型，我们也可以得出结论，我们的嫌疑人是一个非常了解天气的人。” “长鼻子先生！”莉莉说。“他又高又瘦，在当巡视员之前，他学过气象和地质学。 他还通过秘密通道在学校里鬼鬼祟祟！”“当海啸袭击海岸时，他和我们在一起，”菲比说。 “还记得他坚持要我们在那个地方露营吗？”他把我们拖进了危险！”扎拉得意地说：“我们还在他的帐篷里发现了一本书，里面有关于如何引发紫色龙卷风、火山爆发和干旱的笔记。” “这是真正的证据！”艾莎皱起了眉头。 “但是当我们把笔记本拿给奈特尔斯女士看时，她告诉我们那不是朗鼻先生的笔迹，里面的首字母是‘LT’。” 朗鼻先生的名字叫艾弗。 他的首字母是IL。他不可能在那本书上写笔记，但奇怪的是，他把它放在了帐篷里。” “那人的声音听起来也一点也不像Longnose先生的。”菲比说。 “要深刻得多。”扎拉用笔轻敲自己的嘴。 “好吧，那么这个理论呢？ 如果Longnose先生是和写笔记的LT合作的呢？”

"LT!" shrieked Phoebe, leaping to her feet. "Ms Tulip's name is Larissa so her initials are LT! She and Mr Longnose are always hanging round together at the moment. Maybe they're in league!" "Phoebe, no! Ms Tulip is lovely. She wouldn't want to hurt the island or the unicorns," protested Lily. "The voice in the storm definitely wasn't Ms Tulip's voice," Aisha added. Phoebe huffed. "Oh, this is all so confusing. It's making my head ache." Zara frowned. "The main thing is that we suspect Mr Longnose is involved somehow. He may very well be working in league with someone. I propose we do some serious spying on him. Agreed?" "Agreed!" everyone cried. Zara shut her notebook with a snap. "Good. I declare this meeting closed. Now, crossnet time!"

“我！”菲比尖叫着跳了起来。 “Tulip女士的名字是Larissa，所以她的首字母缩写是LT！她和长鼻子先生现在总是在一起。 也许他们是一伙的！”“菲比,不!郁金香老师很可爱。 她不会想伤害小岛和独角兽的。”莉莉抗议道。 “暴风雨中的声音绝对不是郁金香女士的声音，”艾莎补充道。 菲比怒喝道。“哦，这太令人困惑了。 这让我头疼。” Zara皱起了眉头。“主要是我们怀疑Longnose先生与此事有关。 他很可能与某人串通一气。 我建议我们好好监视一下他。 同意吗?”“同意！” 扎拉啪的一声合上了笔记本。 “很好。我宣布本次会议结束。 现在，上网时间到了！”

They jumped up. The crossnet pitch was next to the meadow. While the other girls gathered the unicorns, Phoebe ran to the little hut beside the pitch and took out crossnet sticks–wooden poles with nets at the top–and the crossnet ball. Soon the four friends and their unicorns were racing up and down the pitch. Zara and Phoebe were on one team and Lily and Aisha on the other. There were two hoops on the edges of the pitch, suspended from trees. The ball had to be thrown from person to person using the sticks and when a team threw it into their hoop, they scored a point. Magic wasn't allowed, but everyone knew it was more fun if that rule was broken. "Yay!" Phoebe caught the ball but, just as she aimed for the goal, the ball rose out of her net and floated away. "Oi!" she yelled indignantly. Lily, giggling, held out her net as Feather brought the ball to them using her moving magic. Seconds before it reached Lily, Zara and Moonbeam galloped in front of them. Zara swung her stick and snatched the ball from the air. "Faster!" Zara urged, as Moonbeam raced towards the goal. She hurled the ball forward and it dropped through the hoop. "Yay! Goal to me and

他们跳了起来。交叉球场紧挨着草地。 当其他女孩把独角兽聚集在一起时，菲比跑到球场旁的小屋里，拿出横梁——一种顶端带网的木杆——和横梁球。 很快，四个朋友和他们的独角兽在球场上跑来跑去。 Zara和Phoebe在一个队，Lily和Aisha在另一个队。 球场边上有两个圆环，挂在树上。 球必须由一个人用球杆扔给另一个人，当一个队把球扔进自己的篮筐时，他们就得一分。 这里不允许使用魔法，但每个人都知道，打破这条规则会更有趣。 “耶!”菲比接住了球，但就在她瞄准球门时，球从她的网里飞了出来，飘走了。 “喂！”她愤怒地喊道。 莉莉咯咯地笑着，伸出她的网，这时羽毛用她的移动魔法把球带给了他们。 就在它到达莉莉面前的几秒钟，扎拉和月光飞奔到他们前面。 扎拉挥动棍棒，从空中把球抢了过来。 “快!”扎拉催促着，月光向球门冲去。 她把球向前一掷，球穿过了篮筐。 “耶!我的目标

Phoebs!" "How did you do that?" spluttered Lily. Zara grinned. "Moonbeam used her magic to see what you were going to do so we stopped you!" Lily scooped the ball up with her net and rode to the centre to start the next point. She threw it to Aisha, who caught it. Silver charged towards their goal, but as Aisha threw it at the hoop, the ball seemed to hit something invisible. Rebounding, it flew straight down the pitch and into Phoebe's waiting net. Phoebe chucked it straight into her and Zara's hoop. "Two-zero!" she whooped. Getting a strong whiff of burnt sugar, Aisha knew Shimmer had used his magic–he could make balls of energy. "It's not fair!" sighed Silver. "I wish I had magic too." "We'll find out what your magic is soon," she said. Silver's ears pricked. "You're right," he said. "I bet I'll discover my powers any day now!" They started to play another point but as Lily scored, Aisha noticed something. "It's getting really dark." They all looked up. The sun had disappeared behind heavy black clouds. Zara looked alarmed. "Those look like hail clouds. We'd better get inside!" They put the equipment away and set off across the meadow at a gallop. They were only just in time. As they dived into the stables, huge hailstones started to fall. They watched from the doorway as the hailstones dropped like stones and splintered into icy shards on the ground.

Phoebs !”“你是怎么做到的？”莉莉气急败坏地说。 Zara咧嘴一笑。“月光用她的魔法看到了你要做什么，所以我们阻止了你！”莉莉用网把球捞起来，骑到中心开始下一个点。 她把球扔给艾莎，艾莎接住了。 西尔弗冲向他们的球门，但当艾莎把球扔向篮筐时，球似乎击中了什么看不见的东西。 反弹后，球径直飞进了菲比的等候网。 菲比直接把它扔进了她和扎拉的圈里。 “20 !”她叫道。艾莎闻到一股强烈的烧焦糖的味道，知道微光施展了他的魔法——他可以制造能量球。 “这不公平！”西尔弗叹道。 “我希望我也会魔法。”“我们很快就会知道你的魔法是什么。”她说。 西尔弗的耳朵一阵刺痛。“你说得对，”他说。 “我敢打赌，我随时都会发现自己的超能力！”他们开始再打一分，但当莉莉得分时，艾莎注意到了一些事情。 “天越来越黑了。” 他们都抬起头来。太阳消失在厚厚的乌云后面了。 扎拉看起来很惊慌。“那些看起来像冰雹云。 我们最好赶快进去！”他们把装备收起来，疾驰着穿过草地。 他们来得正是时候。 当他们钻进马厩时，巨大的冰雹开始落下来。 他们站在门口看着冰雹像石头一样落下，在地上碎成冰片。