Author's Note

I do not own A Series of Unfortunate Events.


None of the children had anywhere else to go and so they succumbed to the peer pressure of the predicting islanders, are the bland food and drank the sickly sweet coconut cordial, even if it did make them feel rather sick and dizzy afterward.

"I don't like this cordial," said Isadora one day. "Every time I drink it it makes me think of..."

Violet puzzled over the problem and came up with a way to secretly boil water in a small metal pot she found half buried at the side of the island and purify a small amount of water for them. Isadora had the lion's share, which is to say she drank most of it, which the children felt was only fair because she disliked the cordial the most, largely because it brought back bad memories, but Violet would fill Sunny's seashell from it at the start of the day too, because she was the youngest, and the rest of the water would be shared out fairly.

The days passed by, much like they had aboard the self sustaining hot air balloon. At Ishmael's suggestion, Violet helped with the laundry, Klaus stayed with Ishmael to pile clay on his feet and refill his cordial, Duncan helped harvest seaweed, Quigley helped haul in catches of fish, and Isadora helped to gather coconuts for making the cordial she hated so very much. Only Sunny did something she enjoyed, cooking, even if the food was not very interesting.

The days were filled with the same bland routine, but like aboard the Self-sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home, the nights belonged to the children. They would gather, sometimes in the tent they had been assigned that night and sometimes outside it, and whisper sweet nothings to one another, words that cannot be said except between them, words that opened their hearts to one another and bound them, for now and forever. Quigley had heard of all his siblings and the Baudelaires went through from the Daily Punctillio and the volunteers of V.F.D, but hearing it from them here and now was different. They told him how they spent day after day,might after night, locked together in a large herring sculpture with scarcely room to breathe, let alone move, and all they could do was hold each other and cry. He told them how their mother pushed him into the tunnel to escape the manor and he waited and waited for her to return but was forced to leave as it filled with smoke. The Baudelaires told of life with Count Olaf and his troupe, of the bruises they had worn on their skins and under them, and all the children cried and hugged and huddled together.

The island was not exciting. But so far, it seemed far away from all the treachery that had followed them.

Another storm arrived as Ishmael had predicted, and the following day the children all went down with the islanders to scavenge the coastal shelf, as was tradition. Duncan carried Sunny on his shoulders, as she was still too short to wade through the water, and she kept watch for anything that might seem of interest and they could argue not to be taken away by the sheep at Ishmael's suggestion.

"Lacmos," sighed Sunny, which meant 'I don't know if I like it here or not.'

"It's not very exciting, but at least we're safe," replied Duncan. Violet pushed her hair away from her face. Even her ribbon was disapproved of in the colony and all the women wore their hair down, which was very inconvenient for Violet, a word which here means her dark hair, which by now was very long, kept getting in her face and she had nothing to cut it with as the colony also banned sharp objects. Sunny offered to cut it with her very sharp teeth, but they decided that would be unpleasant for all involved.

"Life in the colony does seem quite strict."

Isadora sighed. "Ishmael says he won't force anyone to do anything, but everything seems to be forced anyway. Like teachers who say they won't force you to to do your homework."

Klaus smiled. "Yes! Exactly like that!"

"We could always leave aboard the outrigger," suggested Quigley one night.

"And go where?" asked Violet.

"There is no place for us," said Duncan.

"Look!" squealed Sunny. "What that?"

It was floating on the edge of the coastal shelf, bobbing up and down on the waves. As the children neared it they found it was a large cube of books, bound together with string and rocking on the tide. Hanging over the edge was a bare foot with a tattoo of an eye on the ankle.

"Olaf!" shrieked Sunny, which immediately caused a chain reaction. Isadora screamed and turned to flee the other way, only to trip over Klaus, who was behind her. Duncan tried to grab her, but Sunny was clawing at his hair and shoulders in a panic, and he instinctively flailed back at her, causing him to lose his balance and fall backwards into the water. The youngest Baudelaire thrashed about in the too deep water. Only Violet and Quigley were left to think rationally amidst the chaos, a term which in this situation means that Violet picked Sunny up and hoisted her against her hip like she had not done in a long time while Quigley waded slowly around the cube to look better at it all.

"The foot looks too narrow and clean to be Olaf's," said Violet.

"What if I lift you up, and then you can have a look?" suggested Quigley. Violet passed him Sunny and he did just that, managing to lift Violet high enough for her to grab the edge of the cube and peer over the top, where she found not Count Olaf the infamous villain, but a woman she had only seen for a short while what seemed like a very long time ago now.

"It's Kit Snicket!"

At first she seemed unhurt except the foot hanging over the edge of the cube looked bent in a wrong manner, but then Violet saw the red that clung to her hair and stained the books where her head laid, as though she had lay there for quite some time and the scarlet had had long enough to seep in and stain the pages.

"Is she okay?" asked Quigley.

"I think she's hurt."

By now, other islanders had seen the cube of books and the commotion and come over to join them.

"What is that?" Friday, the young girl who first found them, asked with a point at the huge raft.

"It's a raft made of books," replied Quigley, "and the friend I was hoping might wash up is on it, but she's hurt."

"Then we need to help her!" exclaimed Friday, but a few of the other islanders were shaking their heads.

"We've never had even one book wash up before, let alone so many," said one man.

"They'll only lead to trouble," agreed another. Quigley shook his head and stamped his foot as best he could in the deep water.

"It's not about the books! It's about the injured woman on top of them!"

"She doesn't seem particularly kind, bringing all these books here."

"She's hurt, and she's pregnant, and she needs help!" exclaimed Violet.

"I know! Let's take her and all the detritus to Ishmael, and see what he decides," said another man. A few of the colonists began to push the cube along, and the children saw Kit Snicket's foot bounce up and down with the movement. At last it reached the edge of the coastal shelf and the island, but it turned out the raft of books was too large and much too heavy to be manoeuvred from the coastal shelf onto the island.

"Well, that's that. The island has decided it doesn't want these books," said Friday's mother.

"Aye, that's it. We'll leave them and this unkind woman here."

Quigley's eyes shone with tears. "Please don't!" he cried, but the islanders had made their minds up and gathered the rest of the detritus to take back to the settlement. The six children stayed by the cube of books.

"What do we do now?" asked Isadora.

"We can't leave her here. She's injured, and she would surely die," said Klaus. Violet pulled her ribbon from her pocket and used it to tie back her slightly damp hair.

"If we could just get her down from this raft, we could take her back across the island on the sleigh."

"But how do we get her down?"

"If I had some rope and some metal poles, I could build a pulley to lift her down."

"But we don't have rope, or metal poles."

Violet bit her lip. "Or if we had some wooden planks we could build a ramp and drag her down."

"But we don't have any wooden planks."

Violet folded her arms. "Or if we had something sharp we could-"

"But we don't have anything sharp."

"Do!" said Sunny. The five older children looked at her. She smiled and showed off her very large, very sharp teeth, which were still perfect for biting things even though she was a bit older now and had mostly grown out of that now.

"Bite!"

Violet clapped her hands. "Sunny that's perfect!" She lifted her off Quigley's shoulders. "I need you to bite through the ropes holding the raft together one by one, very carefully. As it comes apart, we'll grab Kit Snicket and pull her onto the island."

"Is that safe?" asked Quigley.

"Do you have a better plan?" asked Klaus.

He did not, so they went with Violet's plan, which went perfectly. Klaus, who had read many books on medical knowledge and first aid, checked Kit Snicket over and found her foot was broken, as was one arm. Most worrying though, was the very large wound on the side of her head, which was sticky with dried blood and sea water and almost seemed to curve her skull inwards when they touched it.

"We shouldn't have moved her," fretted Isadora. "What if we've made everything worse? I don't like her, but I don't want to be responsible for killing her."

None of them did.


Author's Note

Big thank you to Tybalt Silver for the favourite and follow, and to MiraculousFanGirl for the review.