"Is this the house? Valkyrie asked squinting through the fogged up glass to see a little house on its own, no neighbours for miles around.
"Only one way to see" Skulduggery murmured, "Valkyrie get the doll"
Valkyrie jumped out of the Bentley, quickly creating a bubble of air around her to stop the rain getting her wet.
"I keep telling you, you have to start practising to repel the water, not to control the air," Skulduggery yelled at the front door of the shack, Valkyrie grumbled as she shifted the box under one arm and stomped towards the shack trying to avoid any puddles that looked deep enough to make her( it happened before, Skulduggery still teases her about it).
Skulduggery raised his gloved and knocked on the door, no answer, he continued to knock in a repetitive motion. The door flew open
Ok, ok! I got the message, answer the door! Look I am here I have answered the door? Are you happy? I have answered the…. Skeleton…" There stood the person that must have been Brandon Gust, with eyes about to pop out of his head.
"Hello, I'm Skulduggery I am sure you have heard of me"
"The Skulduggery Pleasant?" he asked his voice slowly raising,
"Oh my! Oh, you are a real skeleton I know every one says that you are a skeleton but you actually are one! Your suit! It is so fine! Impeccable tailoring! Just like they said! You must have the best tailor, who is he? Maybe I should go get my suit's done by him! Your hat, it is slanted on the perfect angle giving you that 1940's private eye look! You're incredible! Your clothes are incredible! Have I ever told you I am a big fan of you? I know there are a few, no, lots of people out there that don't like you but let me tell you that I like you, if you need any help at all I will help y-"
"Surprising that you have not ran out of air yet," Valkyrie growled,
"Now please let us in it is cold out here I see you have a nice fire in there and you have given me a headache with that voice of yours!" Valkyrie said, as she walked through the door, not waiting for the response of an invite in.
"Who is she sir? Is she irritating you? If she I will get rid of her!" Brandon Gust murmured looking up to Skullduggery with adoring eyes, Brandon was small three inches smaller than Valkyrie maybe even less. His head was balding and the remaining hair on his head ginger and his eyebrows were two bushy caterpillars, he had a slight beard forming, but most of it was just patches of fluff.
Valkyrie raised an eyebrow
"Am I irritating him? Get rid of me?!" Valkyrie started to laugh,
"your kidding me right? Seriously? Do you know me? I am Skulduggery's partner…. …." Valkyrie left the sentence hanging waiting for Brandon to fill it in. He just stared at her, head tilted slightly, looking quite like a bird.
"I will get rid of her sir! " he murmured, he looked up to Skulduggery, who had been chuckling slightly all the way through the encounter.
"No, no this is Valkyrie my trusty sidekick, please don't get rid of her, I do enjoy her stupidity," Valkyrie chocked and mouthed the word stupidity,
"and I think you have hurt her ego, saying that you don't know her, anyhow you do now know who she is." Skulduggery paused tilting his head as he surveyed Brandon.
" Could you help us with a case we are working on?" Skullduggery asked,
"Yes anything! Is it detective work? I have always wanted to be a detective!"
"Valkyrie, show him the doll" Valkyrie muttered as she got the doll out of the box and passed it into the eagerly waiting hands of Brandon. This was the first time that Valkyrie got to have a proper look at the doll, blond hair that tumbled everywhere a ribbon that tried to keep the hair out of the porclines face, the face had a fine nose with a splash of freckles over it, the eyes were strange one green and one blue.
"Interesting I can feel the magic laced through this…" Brandon murmured as he lifted the doll up to his eye's so he could see into the dolls eyes.
"I got to take this doll to the tool room… you can follow if you want…" Brandon murmured in a daze,
"This is such a fascinating doll…" he continued to murmur as he walked out of the room and down the stars to the basement.
"umm… I think we will stay here!" Valkyrie yelled at his retreating figure. She turned and smirked when Brandon was out of hearing range.
"Well, well, would you look at that? Somebody has their own fan club!"
"It just shows how important I am"
"Well if yo-" before Valkyrie had time to finish her quite witty remark screaming started down stairs, with smashing and voices down stairs, lots of voices.
Valkyrie raised her eyebrows at skullduggery, he nodded his head, and they started to sprint down the stairs to the basement.