ASOUE: The Riveting Romance

Very Lovely Indeed - Quiglet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Violet and Quigley walked carefully across the frozen pool until they reached the bottom of the waterfall. "Good luck!" Klaus called, from the archway of the ruined library. He was polishing his glasses, as he often did before embarking on serious research.

"Good luck to you!" Violet replied, shouting over the rush of the mountain winds, and as she looked at her brother, she remembered when the two siblings were trying to stop the caravan as it hurtled down the mountain. Klaus had wanted to say something to her, in case the drag chute and sticky substances hadn't worked. Violet had the same feeling now, as she prepared to climb the frozen waterfall and leave her brother behind at the ashy remains of the V.F.D headquarters. "Klaus-" she said.

Klaus put his glasses on and gave his sister his bravest smile. "Whatever you're thinking of saying," he said, "say it when you return." Violet nodded, and tapped the candelabra against a spot on the ice. She heard a deep thunk!, as if she were tapping something very solid. "We'll start here," she said to Quigley. "Are you ready?" she asked him nervously. "If we wait until we're ready-" "-we'll be waiting the rest of our lives." she finished for him as they turned to look at each other and then began their climb up the frozen waterfall of Mount Fraught.

It took Violet and Quigley almost no time at all to work her invention properly, and to push the forks into the ice just far enough to hold them there, but not so far that they would be permanently stuck, and once both of them were in position, Violet had to reach up as far as she could and tap the candelabra on the ice above them to find the next solid place to climb. For the first few steps, it seemed like ascending the icy slope in this manner would be impossible, but as time went on, and the two volunteers grew more and more skillful with the fork-tipped climbing shoes and the candelabra ice tester, it became clear that once again Violet's inventing skills would carry the day, a phrase which here means "enable Violet Baudelaire and Quigley Quagmire to climb up a frozen waterfall after bracing themselves for the journey".

However, before long, they were both starting to grow very tired and were having trouble keeping their eyes open with the cold mountain winds blowing on their faces. "We should rest," called Quigley down to Violet, who was regaining her footing after almost slipping, "I see a ledge. It's not much further." he said as they continued climbing before Quigley made his way up to the ledge before he helped Violet up. "Here, I got you," he said as he pulled her up and started blushing. "This ledge is solid. We should sit here to get our strength back," he said.

Violet nodded. "Good idea. You're an excellent climber," she said to him as she smiled. "You're an excellent inventor," he said as he smiled back at her. "Thanks, but let's not celebrate yet. There's still a long way to go."

"Celebrate when you're half done,

And the finish won't be quite as fun."  recited Quigley as a sad look formed on his face. "My sister wrote that." 

"Once we find Sunny, we'll search for Duncan and Isadora. Speaking of which, she is a good poet and her couplets have come in handy more than once. When we were at the Village of Fowl Devotees, she led us to their location by hiding a secret message in a series of couplets." she said fondly, as she smiled at the memory of her, Klaus and Sunny reuniting with Isadora and Duncan before they tried to escape in the Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home with Hector, and sighed sadly.

Quigley chuckled. "That does sound like something Izzie would do. I wonder if that's a code she learned from V.F.D, or if she made it up herself." Violet smiled thoughtfully. "I don't know. She and Duncan were the first ones to tell us about V.F.D, but it never occurred to me that they might already be members. When I think about it, however, the code she used was similar to the one our Aunt Josephine used. They both hid a secret location within a note, or notes in Izzie's case, and waited for us to discover the message. Maybe they were all volunteers. Maybe all our guardians have been members of V.F.D, on one side or the other of the schism," she said with a curious look in her eyes.