Chapter Two: China's Library
When they arrived, China was sitting at her desk muttering and cursing as she rummaged through her stuff.
"Where is it, where is it," she was saying followed by a lot of cursing.
"Uh, China?" Valkyrie said uncertainly as she watched China rummage around in her stuff, Valkyrie was keeping a tight grip on the puppy, making sure he couldn't get away.
"Huh?" China looked up. "Oh, hello Valkyrie, Skulduggery, have either of you seen my nail polish?"
"Nail polish?" Skulduggery said uncertainly.
"Yeah I had it this morning when I was painting my nails at my desk and then I- Oh! There it is!"
China knelt down and picked up a small bottle and examined it for any cracks.
When she was satisfied that there was no damage to the bottle she put it down and turned to Valkyrie and Skulduggery.
Skulduggery opened his mouth to talk but was stopped when the puppy burst into flames.
Valkyrie gasped and held out the puppy at arms-length then realized that the flames weren't hurting her.
She looked up, expecting to see the books in flames but there wasn't even a scorch mark.
Valkyrie stared at China who looked surprised to see the puppy then straightened herself.
"I'm guessing you're here to get a book on how to take care of hellhounds?" she said.
"How did you know?" Valkyrie asked.
"Because what other dog can burst into flames?"
"Right."
"Well lucky for you I have just the book. Come." China walked off into the shelves and disappeared.
Skulduggery and Valkyrie followed; Valkyrie holding the puppy at arms-length, afraid that he was going to burst into flames again.
"Hey China," she said hurrying up to walk beside her. "How come the books didn't catch fire?"
"Because I engraved a symbol on each book self so that fire can't harm them or the contents."
"Cool."
China took a book off a shelf and gave it to her. "This is a book about how to train hellhounds. Trust me; you're going to need it. It also has all the information on their species you'll need."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome. Now I need to go find my lipstick I put it down somewhere and I can't find it."
She walked away leaving Valkyrie and Skulduggery with a fire-making puppy and a book bigger than the world dictionary.