Duncan Quagmire and Violet Baudelaire: A Reunion

Chapter 3 - Duncan Quagmire

The morning went by quite slowly. Duncan and Isadora had some breakfast which mainly consisted of toast and jam as well as a glass of orange juice. They spent the time after that reading a book. Duncan read Reptiles: the species and Isadora poured over Theodore and Tabitha.
    After approximately two hours of reading, Duncan placed his Reptile book down and sighed, "what are we going to do when we are back on the ground." At that, Isadora looked up and shrugged, "they'll probably give us a new guardian."
    That was what Duncan was afraid of. Him and his sister has had two guardians in the past and they have both been horrible. The first one, Mrs. Annie, was a rich old lady who cared, but didn't care about the Quagmires. She would make them do so many chores, but would give them a reward. The idea sounded quite fun to the Quagmire's at first but it turned out they even had to clean her bike, re-paint her house to a radiant pink and mend the wooden floorboard for no less than a few sugar-free lollipops. They felt more like servants than children. Soon, Mrs. Annie got too sick, that she had to go to an elderly care centre which left the Quagmires with no guardians.
    The second guardians were Mr. and Mrs. Hiker, and true to their names, they were hikers. They won an award for going for a year-long hike somewhere in the mountains. Everyday, Duncan and Isadora had to do so much sports and walking which was actually like hell to them as they weren't good athletes. By the end of each day, both siblings couldn't feel like walking. Fortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Hiker were going on a three-year hiking expedition so they sent the Quagmires to Prufrock Preperatory School.
    "Duncan?... Duncan! Are you even listening to me?" Isadora snapped her fingers in front of his passive face.
    "What?"
    "We have to do something," Isadora said as she climbed onto Duncan's bed to sit next to him. "We can't keep on having guardians. The last two were dreadful and who knows we can't have more terrible guardians."
    "What about Vi- I mean the Baudelaires?" Duncan was about to say "Violet" but stopped himself at just the right moment. His sister looked at him curiously, "What about them?"
    "Well, the Baudelaires have not had a good history of guardians either. What if, when we land today, we go search for them? For all we know they can be in trouble." Duncan looked hopefully at his sister.
    "Good idea. We can also..." Isadora began but at that very second, Hector yelled from the deck, "Duncan! Isadora! Come up here!" They both got up from the bed and started running out of the door. Duncan's heart started to race. Something in himself told him that whatever was happening, it was bad. The anxiousness in Hector's voice, the loud thud of the deck he heard just at the moment.
    The Quagmires reached the deck to see a large floating ship adjacent to their hot-air balloon. The ship was painted very detailed with more warm shades such as deep red, brown and dark orange. A huge mast hung up with some fine, colourful detailing on it too which shades the entire hot-air balloon. The turbulence from the large floating ship caused Duncan and Isadora's brown hair to whip around and go onto their curious faces. "Hector? What is this?" Duncan yelled from the deck.
    Hector hurried towards them and put his arm protectively around the two Quagmires, "I don't know who they are. Now, go to your rooms, quick!" Duncan and Isadora were about to run across the deck to where they came from but were stopped before they could make a single step.
    An ominous, deep tuba started playing from the direction of the large ship and for no effective reason, Hector, Isadora and Duncan were drawn to it. The single note from the instrument was played alone but it felt like an entire orchestra was playing it. The three of them kept on gazing at the ship until a figure appeared on the deck.
    The sun, now appeared amidst all of the clouds, shined directly to their eyes. The person, more like woman, from her curvy body and curly hair stood as a silhouette, one hand on her hips and the other holding a smaller sword.
    "Well, well, who do we have here?" Her voice was quite deep and had a malicious tone to it, "It could be no other than, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire. I've heard so much about you in the Daily Punctilio." Swiftly, the woman hopped onto the ledge of her ship and made a graceful leap to the hot-balloon home. She caught hold of the ropes attaching itself to the mobile home and slided down until her tall, brown boots landed with a thud on the wooden deck.
    The woman had a mop of black, glossy curly hair which went down to her shoulders. She was wearing mismatched clothes, a plaid orange and blue shirt along with some black leather pants. The woman was tall and had rather sharp cheekbones, which could look quite scary along with her blade by her side. Her blue eyes though seemed familiar to Duncan, who was sure he had seen it before.
    "Wh-who are you?" Isadora trembled. Although they have been kidnapped and held in a fountain, she seemed terrified. The woman stepped forward and cleared her throat, "I am Jemma Farley. Owner of the un-territoried sky's. Former shopkeeper in the City but on a more important note, I know where the Baudelaires are headed to."
    Duncan's face lit up. A new sense of hope emerged him and he tried to resist all of the questions bubbling inside him. "Where are they?"
    "The three Baudelaires are traveling to their new guardians, the Hadley's. They live towards the east of the City." Jemma looked slightly anxious and confused when she said the last two words, the City. It was where the Quagmires lived before their parents and brother, Quigley died in the fire. They had a large house with a gigantic pool and backyard and a grand library and study. It was where Duncan and Isadora's life has been perfect until the fire that destructed them all.
    Isadora turned to Hector, "We can go to the City right?" but Hector sadly looked at her and shook his head, "We aren't going. I want to get away from there as far as possible." Duncan looked sadly at the man, "But the Baudelaires have guardians there! We need to get there as soon as we can before Count Olaf gets there! Remember the news! He got away and I am a 100% sure he's after them!"
    Jemma cleared her throat loudly to grab attention, "If you don't mind, I can take the two to the Baudelaires."
    "What?" Hector spluttered, the idea was absurd to him. He became quite fond of the two and couldn't think of just leaving them with a stranger.
    "Yeah! This way, we could find Violet— and Klaus and Sunny," Duncan said. He looked hopefully at Jemma. "Please take us Jemma, we need to find them before something bad happens!"
    Jemma looks at the two Quagmires, "Yes, I will take you, but in one condition," she paused, "you will tell me everything you know about the V.F.D."