Shadows and Bones

One hundred Skulduggery Pleasant drabbles.

Nothing is owned by me.

Soundtrack for this chapter is Green Grass, by I Am Arrows

Look out! Some extremely pre-series stuff going on here!

Chapter thirty-four-Family

...

Bijan Decanter hardly recognized his little brother when he saw him.

Bijan and Skulduggery hadn't seen each other for two years. Bijan and his family had stayed to protect their household, while Skulduggery had gone to fight in the wars. Bijan knew that the military changed a man, having been in it himself, but he simply did not expect the Skulduggery he saw walking up the road.

His brother looked like he had been through hell and back. He was far too thin, for one, his eyes and cheeks hollow, his hair muddy and matted. His skin was ashen and bruised, and his face was covered in recent cuts. He looked exhausted, his normal energy sapped.

Skulduggery approached the house, and looked up at it, as if contemplating whether he should go in or not. Bijan, somewhat exasperated, made the choice for him by simply walking out to greet him.

He called his brother's name happily and waved, trying to mask his dismay at Skulduggery's poor state.

Skulduggery smiled tightly and answered "H'lo, Bijan." he sounded much quieter than he usually did, though Bijan could probably chalk that up to tiredness.

Bijan wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulders. Skulduggery stiffened slightly, but Bijan didn't let go. He'd found that the best thing to do was to just keep hanging on when his brother got into a mood. When Skulduggery was upset, he tended to pull away from people, but conversely, expected them to come after him.

"How was th' army?" asked Bijan, as they began to walk towards the house. Skulduggery gave him a look. "Tha' bad, then?" Bijan said, wincing.

"No. 't were perfectly lovely. We did naught but skip 'round in daisy fields." Skulduggery deadpanned. "What do ye think, Bijan?"

Bijan sighed. "Awright, awright, I'll stop askin'. Cain't blame me f'r tryin', though."

"Yes. Yes I can."

At the door of the house, Bijan showed Skulduggery the right combination of symbols to press to make the doors open, as they'd changed since he'd been home. Their father, Dywel Octavious, changed the combination every few months out of what Skulduggery saw as good sense and Bijan just saw as madness.

Skulduggery dropped his pack in the front hall, looking vastly relieved that it was off his back. He was considerably more careful with his boots, which Bijan understood, as they looked expensive.

"C'mon, let's go an' see if'n Enitan's got something t'eat." said Bijan, attempting to drag Skulduggery towards the kitchen.

"Sorry, I'm not p'rticularly 'n the mood f'r anythin' Enitan can cook." drawled Skulduggery. "Th' last thing I ate of hers tried t'eat me back."

"No, she got a lot better since ye left. She won' poison ye now. 'm pretty sure she won', anyway."

Skulduggery sighed, but followed his brother to the kitchen anyway. Their house, being the home of a very old mage family, was quite large, having not only a kitchen and more than two bedrooms, but a library and an attic as well. Though he didn't let it show, Skulduggery was secretly glad to be back at his old home for precisely this reason. At least he might get some peace and quiet here.

Upon entering the kitchen, Enitan Firefish, one of their younger sisters, let out a loud shriek and threw herself on Skulduggery.

Skulduggery, who looked profoundly stunned, patted her awkwardly on the back as she hugged him. He didn't get it, they'd never liked each other that much when they were younger.

Enitan stepped back and said "I din' know ye'd be back t'day! I would'a had somethin' decen' ready if'n I knew!"

Skulduggery delicately removed her hands from her shoulder and replied "It's fine. I didn' think I'd be back by now either."

"Well, lemme put somethin' nice on fer dinner, an' in th' meantime ye can tell me'n Bijan what ye've been up to."

Skulduggery found himself shoved into a seat with a cup of tea in his hand before he could protest, and Enitan busied herself at the fire. Bijan just smirked at his brother and sat down as well. Skulduggery glared at him, and Bijan shrugged, still smiling.

"So, how've things been here?" asked Skulduggery.

"Oh, fine," said Bijan airily, waving a hand. "Mam's just as absen' as always, Pa don't ever seem to care about naught but th' house, Creirwy's doin' whatever Creirwy does, Tamarin an' Shaelyn are bein' idiots as always."

"They're not idiots!" protested Enitan from the opposite side of the room. "Well-Tamarin, mebbe, but Shaelyn is fine." she paused. "Well, fine fer her, 'nyway. She hasn't got herself kilt yet, so tha's somethin'."

"So, at least Shaelyn's stopped wi' her habit of jumpin' off roofs or whatever she was doin'?" asked Skulduggery.

"Well, she moved on to magical research. 'Ceptin it's not really research, 's more of an excuse t'mix dangerous chemicals." chuckled Bijan.
Enitan sighed. "'S true."

"I hope you threw her out've th' house, at least," said Skulduggery, eyebrows raised.

"We did," said a new voice, coming from the entryway. Creirwy Alit, the youngest daughter of Skulduggery's family, came drifting into the kitchen. "Now she mostly lives inna shed near the woods. She comes in t'sleep an' t'leech off've Enitan."

"Creirwy, she don' 'leech' offa me, she's family, I have to give 'er food. Not like anyone else is gonna." Enitan said, agast.

"H'lo, Skulduggery," said Creirwy, ignoring her sister. "Did ye see anythin' interestin' while ye were away?"

Skulduggery shrugged. "Not really. I lost my stutter, though." Creirwy nodded sagely.

"I wasn' gonna say anythin'," said Bijan. "But I was wonderin' about tha'."

"I don't know. All I know is that bein' around all the soldiers made me lose it pretty quick for some reason."

"Huh."

Creirwy drifted out of the kitchen after that, and Enitan busied herself with cooking. Bijan could tell that Skulduggery wasn't too keen on talking, and so they sat together in companionable silence. Tamarin turned up at one point, only to mumble a quick greeting to Skulduggery and grab a cup of tea before rushing off again. Shaelyn didn't turn up at all, not until the next morning.

Skulduggery wasn't sure what he thought about being back home. The only thing that was certain was that it was better than the army.

...

the idea here being that Skulduggery had to have taken a break every once in a while from Mevolent fighting. This would be very early days, probably before the Dead Men were formed, and before Skulduggery had ever met Machination. So, this is before Skulman is any kind of big player. He's around thirty or forty here, still very young. Very smart, but very young.

Real quick, Skulduggery has one older brother and four younger siblings.

Feel free to correct me if anything seems wrong. The thing is, there's so little detail about this part of his life that it's really hard to write about.