AnnieRavenclaw707: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you loved it.

JustVildaPotter: You make a good point. Glad you liked the chapter!

Thanks for the support everybody! I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations.

Chapter Eight

"Duncan?" Violet found the journalist leaning against a caravan on the other side of the carnival. Duncan was staring into space, with an blank expression Violet had seen a few times at Prufrock Prep. She knew he was thinking about his brother, Quigley, and the terrible fire that had destroyed his family and home. "Talk to me."

"There's nothing to talk about," Duncan said flatly.

"Then I'll do the talking. You've acted horribly towards your sister. What was so important about those notebooks anyway?"

Across the carnival, Klaus and Isadora were having the same conversation. Olivia had taken Sunny to visit the freaks caravan in order to give the children some privacy.

"You see," said Isadora, "the notebooks were a gift. From our parents."

"Oh." Before Klaus could stop himself, he added: "One of the hidden birthday presents?"

Isadora laughed. "I forgot I mentioned that! I was going to explain, but it slipped my mind. What have you been thinking this whole time?"

Klaus shrugged, a phrase which here means: "moved his shoulders up and down to represent confusion." "Something along the lines of you being spoiled rich kids like Carmelita Spats, with nothing better to do than bother your servants?"

"Just the one servant, actually," Isadora admitted. "A butler. The stereotypical kind, too. Mustache, bow tie. The works."

"And the presents?"

"Quigley's idea, of course. We really did have nothing better to do. Our parents were gone on a work trip and our birthday was at the end of the week." Isadora continued to talk, but it was more to herself than to Klaus. "I guess it wasn't so much a work trip as it was a mission for V.F.D. Father came back with a broken leg. He wouldn't give Quigley a straight answer when he asked about it. They got in a big fight, and..." Isadora's voice trailed off.

Klaus have her a concerned look. "Izzy, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Isadora looked at Klaus as if she was seeing him for the first time, or she had just remembered something. She stood up abruptly. "I've got to find Duncan."

Isadora ran from the fortune-telling tent, straight into her brother. "Hey," she said breathlessly.

"Hey," Duncan said awkwardly.

Violet grinned at both of them. "Happy birthday."

"Will everyone please stop running around and explain what's going on?" said Klaus, stepping out of the fortune-telling tent with an annoyed look on his face.

"It's our fourteenth birthday today," Isadora explained.

"Happy birthday."

"And the anniversary of the Quagmire fire."

Klaus' mouth dropped open.

"Iz, you're supposed to lead with the bad news," said Duncan, ruffling his sister's hair.

"I-I'm sorry," Klaus stammered.

"Don't apologize." Isadora leaned close to Klaus' face and...

"Whoa whoa whoa," Duncan pushed the two apart. Isadora gave him a scathing look. "At least let us leave the room first." Shaking his head, he and Violet entered the fortune-telling tent, leaving their siblings alone together.

"Where were we?" said Klaus awkwardly.

Isadora leaned close to Klaus' face and did something she had been longing to do for a very long time. As the sun began to set in the west, lighting up the shabby tents and caravans of Caligari Carnival, Isadora Quagmire kissed Klaus Baudelaire.

And Klaus didn't mind one bit.

...

"Ahem." Sunny cleared her throat as a way of announcing her presence at the front of the fortune-telling tent, where she found her brother and friend in a lip-lock.

Klaus jumped and pulled himself away from Isadora. "Tell me you haven't been standing there the whole time!"

"Standing here long enough," said Sunny indignantly, placing a tiny hand on her tiny hip.

Violet came out of the fortune-telling tent. "There you are, Sunny!" Sunny made a noise of disgust, which could have been annoyance at being picked up by Violet, or complete horror at walking in on people kissing. Violet took it as the former. "You're still a baby, Sunny. You should be used to being carried." Sunny rolled her eyes.

Klaus and Isadora followed the Baudelaire girls into the tent, where they were filled in on the plan for leaving the carnival. As Olivia explained, Violet had turned one of the old rollercoaster cars into a regular automobile, and the five children would ride that up to the Mortmain Mountains. The orphans were to seek out V.F.D. headquarters in the mountains by way of a coded stain on a map of Olivia's; this placed headquarters in The Valley of the Four Drafts. Olivia would stay behind and stall Count Olaf for as long as possible.

Olivia handed Klaus a box of food, and ushered the children on their way, wishing them good luck on the journey.

"So Izzy," said Duncan as the rollercoaster car set off for the mountains, "what does Klaus' tongue feel like?"

Isadora slapped him in the back of the head with the map.

...

It was a long, hard journey through the Mortmain Mountains. The children had to endure a steep ascent in addition to harsh winds they had not dressed properly for.

The journey was particularly hard for Klaus and Isadora on account of their having to endure their sibling's torture, a phrase which here means: "seemingly endless jokes about kissing." Isadora finally shut Violet and Duncan up by threatening to freeze the two together by the lips if they didn't stop asking awkward questions. Klaus pointed out that the teasing set a bad example for Sunny, but his efforts were small potatoes compared to Isadora's threat.

Eventually, the rollercoaster turned automobile reached the end of its rope, a phrase which here means: "stopped working and left the orphans to travel the mountain range on foot." They trudged through the snow, shivering and thinking the situation couldn't possibly get any worse. Then Sunny asked a question that still sends a shiver down my spine every time I think of it.

"Wrackspurt?"

What does "wrackspurt" mean? Alas, you'll have to wait for the next chapter. I knew this chapter was kind of all over the place, but I really wanted to get them out of Caligari Carnival. We'll be back on track with the plot in the next chapter. See you there and please review!