Duncan Quagmire and Violet Baudelaire: A Reunion

Chapter 5 - Duncan Quagmire

Duncan looked warily to his sister as they stepped onto the large ship. The sun has started to shine through the parting clouds and the rays lightened up their brown hair. The wooden deck, a lot more polished and clean gave a thud when the two landed after jumping from the railway. Jemma joined them after a second, "Okay so now Duncan and Isabella..."
"Isadora," Duncan reminded Jemma and she rolled her eyes.
"Duncan and IsaDORA," Jemma enunciated the last four letters very clearly and continued, "I will lead you to your chambers." Jemma got in front of the two and were now striding down the large deck. She started calling in a loud voice- more like shouting names. "Steve, Michael, Jeremy, George..." the list of male names continued on and on.
One by one, a line of men came emerging from a trapdoor that was underneath the deck. All of the men had a plain white shirt and fluorescent work pants, as well as swords on their belt. All of the swords looked dull and blunt, in comparison to Farley's sword which glinted in the sunlight and had a ruby encrusted in the handle. "Men, these are our two, newest recruits, Duncan and Isabella. Ha-ha, I'm joking! This is Isadora." Jemma says after seeing Isadora's exasperated face. "Duncan and Isadora, these are my men, crew" Jemma addressed the Quagmires.
"So you were showing us our bedroom?" Isadora asked, and Jemma nodded, "Right! Off to the chambers and men, start doing morning protocol."

Duncan and Isadora were having trouble keeping up with Jemma through the surprisingly large air-boat. Each corridor was made of yet again, polished wood with ornamental lights attached to the walls. Neat, colourful rugs were placed strategically throughout the corridor which struck Duncan as odd. Why would an air-pirate have such a neat and ornamental boat, what with the lights and the rugs?
Duncan looked at Isadora who had his attention. He nodded towards the rugs and Isadora looked down at them and looked confusingly towards him and so Duncan moved a bit closer to whisper, "the rugs! Why would she need these rugs and these lights? She's a pirate!" His sister looked at him and nodded. Finally, Jemma stopped and turned around. "Okay, so here's your chamber. It will take about three days to get to the City. There are books on the bookshelf, clothes in the wardrobe. You are expected to be at the deck at dusk and I will tell you more then. Good-bye!"
Jemma shut the door behind her as she left, which left Duncan and Isadora in the bedroom by themselves. It was relatively comfortable. There were two windows overlooking the blue skies and white clouds, a large bookshelf filled with books, a dark brown wardrobe with brass handles and one large bed in the center of the room.
The two Quagmires went instantly to the bookshelf and much to Duncan's delight, and Isadora's horror, all of the books were of reptiles, snakes and insects.
"Why are all these books of reptiles, I mean how are they even interesting?" Isadora moped as she flipped the pages of the rusting volumes. Duncan pretended not to hear her snarky comment and took a thick book and lay on his bed and begun to read.
Soon, the ticking minutes became into hours and the atmosphere outside has changed. The sun was soon dipping through the clouds and the sky was starting to change into a baby pink and lilac hues.
Every so often, Isadora would glance at the clock which was hanging above the door, she was clearly not enjoying her book, which was called "Tropical Plants: A Greenhouse Guide," but was the furthest away from the subject of reptiles. The moment the clock's handle reach exactly to the number six, Isadora flapped her book shut and got up from the bed, "right, Duncan, we need to go now it's dusk and Jemma and her crew are surely waiting on the deck." After a moment of silence, Duncan looked up to find his sister waiting for him. He muttered, "Oh right, sorry," closed his book, and left the bedroom with his sister.
Navigating through the endless corridors of the air-ship seemed as much as a problem as well as the crew's leering looks towards the two Quagmires. The men all stood in a line, facing towards the steer, silently waiting for their master to show up. Duncan and Isadora followed the routine and silently joined the line of men.
After what felt like an hour of waiting (actually only four minutes and a half) the sound of boots started to rattle the polished floorboards. The jingling of bangals and necklaces also were heard from a distance but everyone knew it was Jemma as she often covered herself with jewellery and gems. "Good job crew, and Quagmires. I've been watching you for two minutes and if this continues you will have everything you need to become a pirate."
"Now, men, start with evening protocol and start heading further east. Duncan, Isadora, I want you both to stay in your rooms for the rest of the evenings. Dinner will come here in about an hour and I will bring some board games for you to play or of course continue reading my..." Jemma hesitated for a moment until continuing, "my collection of books." Jemma straightened up and started stroking the ruby encrusted in her sword. "For tomorrow, be on the deck half-past-six sharp. We are going to teach you sword fighting.