(Serious) Author's Note: Thanks to krikanalo for reviewing the last chapter! :)

I know that the first couple of paragraphs call back to a point raised by Lemony Snicket in 'The Ersatz Elevator', but hopefully it fits in to Violet's situation well enough to be used.

I hope that you all enjoy the chapter :)

Chapter Ten

Violet was nervous.

Well, Violet was partly nervous, and partly anxious.

You see, in my many years of conversing with hundreds and thousands of people around the world as I go about my unusual job, slaving away to chronicle the plight of the Baudelaires and those who knew them, I have noticed that many of the world's population are unable to distinguish between the words "nervous" and "anxious", and often use on in place of the other. On this particular evening in October, Violet was both nervous and anxious.

Violet was nervous - a word which means she was negatively anticipating a known event - because she was not looking forward to spending a night on Blade Ridge without an adult present. At the same time, the eldest Baudelaire child was also anxious - a word which describes a negative emotion caused by a fear of the unknown - as she was worried about what she might observe from the ridge last night, as she knew that if something extremely important occurred, then the Snickets wouldn't find out for many hours, which may cause a problem for the three men - and young men, I may add - back at the camp, who were busy planning their disguises.

But as the evening drew in and Violet and Arlo continued their climb, she could see in the twilight that little was going on in the castle. Hopefully, it would be an eventless night.

"Come on," Arlo said, noticing that Violet was slacking behind him as they reached the summit of the hill. "I'd like to be on the ridge before the sun sets." Violet knew that Arlo was exaggerating - the walk along the ridge was ten minutes long at most, and there was still a good half-hour of sunlight left in the day - but she still made an effort to quicken her walk, reaching the summit of the hill quickly.

"Nice view," Arlo said, looking back along the road away from the castle and into the woods as he waited for Violet to catch up. It was a clear evening, which had been a rarity since the volunteers' arrival, and Violet couldn't help but be amazed at the sight before her. The sky was lit in shades of purple and pink as the sun set over a sea of oranges and yellows caused by the autumn leaves. It seemed oddly peaceful,and that was when Violet noticed that the brutal winds that she had grown used to atop the hills was no longer an issue.

There had been a time not that long before when Violet had never quite understood why so many people spent time gazing at the sunset, although it was times like these that made her think otherwise. She could only think of one other time that she had felt the same childish sense of amazement, and that was in the Hinterlands that summer with Klaus on the day that the siblings last saw Sunny and their mother. Thinking back to that day, Violet knew that so much had changed in the three months since then, and for a moment she allowed herself to forget her troubles and feel like a young child again, staring out at the sunset. She almost forgot that she was looking down over the site of her family's imprisonment.

As Arlo beckoned Violet on, beginning the walk along Blade Ridge to their now routine spying spot, Violet allowed her mind to wander and think back to all the things that had happened to her over the course of that summer. Along with the rest of her family, she had been left homeless after a terrible fire destroyed the Baudelaire Mansion. After recent events, she presumed that the fire had been started by the villainous Firestarter separatist faction of V.F.D., although this had never been confirmed to her in the months since the tragic event. A good reason for this would be that so many other tragic events had occurred to Violet and her brother Klaus since then that nobody had had the time to sit them down properly and explain everything. Even now that they found themselves in the secret organisation best known as V.F.D., they found so much of their time to be taken up by training that they had no time for asking questions. And even so, many of the adults that she asked refused to tell her specific details. Maybe she was genuinely too young to be entrusted with such information, but it still didn't seem fair to Violet to keep her in the dark after everything that she had been through.

Of course, there had been some good times in the three months following the fire that destroyed the Baudelaire home, but they were few and far between. Even so, Violet looked back fondly on her brief time in the Verdant Valley, where she had first met Arlo. Since then she hadn't quite felt at peace, and although she had achieved a sense of belonging at the V.F.D. Headquarters in the Mortmain Mountains, she never looked back as fondly on those first few weeks with V.F.D. as she did her time in the Verdant Valley. Despite all that had happened to her, she found herself able to forget her worries in such an isolate place, with good company and a great capacity to entertain her inventing mind. And of course, there was Arlo.

Violet had loved those first few days with him, as much as any others that they had shared together in the months that followed, as the two were able to exercise their passion for inventing together. Violet had at one stage had a great many friends, but all of them had fallen by the wayside since the fire, but she found that she no longer minded when she was with Arlo, because he was a person who always seemed able to entertain her, either in conversation or with some idea that sprung from the back of his quick mind.

And so it was that when Violet and Arlo sat down together in their usual spot for their routine night-time activities that Violet began the conversation.

"Do you remember," Violet asked quietly, because she was scared that her voice might carry without the noise of the wind atop Blade Ridge that evening. "When Klaus and I first arrived at your home in Verdant Valley?"

"Yes and no," Arlo smiled. "From what I remember, I missed your arrival. I was out testing model gliders in the valley."

"That sounds about right," Violet replied. "I remember you running in on us when we were talking to your father."

"I try not to remember that," Arlo said, blushing slightly. "I think I came charging in from the valley, not knowing you were there. It was quite embarrassing, really."

"That sounds about right to me," Violet confirmed.

"Not the best first impression, eh?" Arlo joked.

"That didn't matter," Violet said. "At that time, it was your glider, not you, that had my attention."

"Once an inventor, always an inventor," Arlo said. "I was impressed when you knew what you were doing."

"So you doubted me for a while?" Violet asked.

"Well, no," Arlo said. "But I had no idea who you were at the time. I was pleased when I found out that we had something in common. My family tried to support my interest for inventing, but it's not the same unless they have a passion for it, too."

"I understand," Violet said, and she really did. "My parent always tried to be accommodating and help me whenever they could, but they always had their own interests elsewhere."

"Well, I guess it was good for both of us when we met, wasn't it?"

"I guess," Violet replied. "Although if you'd never have met me, you wouldn't have been dragged into so much trouble."

"Eh, well," Arlo said. "Life in the Verdant Valley was good, but it grew boring over time. I was glad of the change. After all, what's life without a little risk?"

Violet smiled as Arlo mentioned a phrase which at times seemed to be his personal philosophy. Of course, it wasn't always helpful to take a gamble, but Arlo always seemed to get a thrill out of it. Along with his distinguished looks and his passion for inventing, his penchant for risk-taking seemed to be one of his stand-out features, in Violet's eyes.

"So, you're glad we ended up in a helicopter crash?" Violet teased Arlo about one of his risk-taking ideas.

"Well, it was certainly a memorable experience," Arlo replied, laughing, which made Violet roll her eyes in mock annoyance. "I'm amazed you can put up with me at times," he added, seeing Violet's reaction.

"It seems strange to think that we've been through so much already," Violet said, "and we're not even full members of V.F.D. yet."

"From what I know, all members get a fair amount of experience from an early age. A couple of weeks back, I remember Lemony telling me about his many missions from his own apprenticeship. It sounds like he was dong things as dangerous as what we are at a far younger age."

"How young?" Violet asked.

"Twelve?" Arlo guessed, shrugging. "Maybe thirteen. Around Klaus' age."

Violet struggled to imagine Klaus performing dangerous tasks for the organisation at his age, but found it near impossible. Klaus was a researcher, not an operative; an agent.

"Lemony has certainly changed a lot, then," Violet said eventually.

"He's led a troubled life," Arlo said. "There are events in his past that many people would scarcely believe."

"Like what?" Violet asked, but Arlo merely shook his head.

"I don't think it is my place to say," Arlo replied. "After all, if our own parents won't let us know of their past, why should we know the past of a relative stranger? Of course, we know some of it, but I'm sure there are certain events that he wouldn't want anyone to know about."

"What do you mean when you say that our parents won't tell us?" Violet asked after a long pause. "Don't you know much about your family's past?"

"No," Arlo replied slowly, shaking his head. "Before my mum died, she might have tried to tell us, but I was too young to either care or understand," he said sadly. "But now that I am older, it seems like my father has drawn a line in his memories. He never speaks of anything that happened before she died, even when the event has nothing to do with my mother."

"It's the same with my parents," Violet admitted. "I imagine that if they were apprenticed in V.F.D. as I believe they were, they would probably have been in our shoes thirty years ago."

"That would seem likely," Arlo replied. "I know that both my parents were apprenticed in V.F.D., although sadly not much else."

After that, the conversation grew quiet for a moment as both teenagers sat on Blade Ridge, alone in their thoughts.

"Do you reckon," Arlo said slowly, breaking the silence. "That our parents first met each other on a mission like this?"

This question surprised Violet, firstly because she had never really given a second thought to her parents had met before, as she considered that to be something personal to them, and she was also surprised because of the way that Arlo asked the question. There was something in his tone of voice that made the question seem... loaded. As though there was an obvious answer, but also deeper meaning. What was Arlo implying. Violet looked across to Arlo but she saw that he had turned his face away from her, looking down towards Bladeridge Castle and beyond. Of course, Arlo was asking whether Bertrand and Beatrice had grown together through missions and hardships such as the ones that Violet had recently experienced herself. But to Violet, it felt as though Arlo was asking her whether they would grow together on such a mission.

Glancing up Arlo again, Violet looked past Arlo the friend and saw a different Arlo for the first time. In the first light of the moon that night, Violet could see that Arlo was clearly very handsome, in a rugged, rogueish sort of way. She'd be the first to admit that he was a looker. On that night, there was something almost angelic about the way that the moonlight seemed to accentuate all the right features, his pale face half-covered by his scraggly black hair as he looked down over the valley. Past his looks, Arlo was genuinely a nice person, extroverted, active and generally amusing most of the time, but Violet knew that there was a sensitive side to the boy from the Verdant Valley. The boy who had felt so strongly about losing his mother when he first told Violet months ago in the Hinterlands, on a night not unlike that one on Blade Ridge.

And so as Violet looked across at Arlo in the moonlight on Blade Ridge that night, she realised for the first time that she wouldn't mind if Arlo and herself did grow together, after all.

At this point in the narrative, I must inform you that it is imperative that I move the narrative forward from that night that Violet and Arlo shared on Blade Ridge, for a variety of reasons. One is that this chapter is nearly over, and we are yet to encounter Klaus Baudelaire and the Snicket siblings so far in the tenth chapter of The Frightening Fortress. The second, and arguably most important reason, is that with all the torrid events that occur to both Violet Baudelaire and Arlo Thursday during their teenage years, I am sure that both of them would appreciate it if I left some of their happier moments for themselves, and so I shall give Violet and Arlo privacy for the remainder of their night on Blade Ridge together. However, I shall leave you with the knowledge that the two trained volunteers were lucky that it was an eventless night, as they managed to complete very little of the task set for them by Lemony Snicket the evening before, and that both Violet and Arlo returned to camp the next morning feeling better than they had done for weeks.

I shall now pick up the narrative two days later, on a cloudy morning on which the Snicket brother's plan was ready for action. With Klaus' help, the two had managed to put together two uniforms, which made them look somewhere between a delivery man and a postman, as they wore black shoes, black trousers, a light blue shirt and a black cap, which had a long peak that they angled downwards, covering half of their faces and concealing their identities. All in all, it wasn't too different from the uniforms of the local postal service, but was equally close to the uniform of men working for parcel delivery companies. They each had a large black bag over one shoulder, and Lemony had a walkie-talkie stuffed into one of his trouser pockets. In case anything went wrong, even with the help of the three children who would be watching from above at Blade Ridge, both men were carrying small knives. They never intended to use them, but thought that they would serve as good deterrents if they were to run into trouble.

And so it was in this manner that Lemony and Jacques said their goodbyes to the three trainee volunteers as all five of them left their camp together; the two adults taking the dusty road to Bladeridge Castle, the three children taking the now well-worn route up the hill to Blade Ridge itself.

For the Snicket brothers, it was a short walk along the road, and found that they could walk right up to the drawbridge without even being questioned. They crossed the wooden drawbridge over the ditch in front of the castle walls cautiously, looking up at the fortifications. Once inside, the walls would have Lemony and Jacques penned inside. Looking past the walls, Lemony could see the darkening sky beyond. There was a storm coming, and it only gave the mission a sense of foreboding, as though nature itself knew that something was about to go horribly, catastrophically wrong.

At the far side of the drawbridge was the entrance to the castle through the gatehouse, and standing guard at the gates was a tall, bald man with a long nose, who was holding the same harpoon gun that he had used to injure Bertrand Baudelaire almost three months before. He was leaning against the walls of the gatehouse, fast asleep and snoring loudly.

"Excuse me," Jacques said cautiously, trying to wake the bald man carefully. Unfortunately, he was a light sleeper, a phrase which here means that he wake with a start, fumbling for his harpoon gun as he struggled to readjust to his surroundings.

"What do you want?" he barked grumpily, pointing his harpoon gun at both Jacques and Lemony in turn.

"We mean no harm, sir," Jacques continued apologetically. "We are here to deliver a package."

The bald man raised an eyebrow, but did not lower his harpoon gun. "You look different," he said suspiciously.

"I'm sure we do," Lemony said quickly. "We used to work as delivery people in the city, but we recently moved out here," he lied, showing far more confidence than Jacques that could only have come from a large amount of experience in disguising himself. "In fact, this is only our second day on our new round."

"Is that so?" the bald man asked, lowering his harpoon gun slightly.

"Yes," Lemony continued cautiously. "We've never even been here before," he lied.

"Alright," the bald man said, lowering his harpoon gun. "I believe you. What's this delivery, then?"

"It's for a Mr. Olaf," Jacques said, pulling out an empty cardboard box from his bag that Lemony had addressed to Olaf the previous evening. "Does he reside here?"

"Yes, he does," the bald man said, reaching for the box. "I'm sure I can see to it that he receives the package from here."

Jacques quickly moved the parcel from the bald man's reach, much to his surprise. "I'm sorry," Lemony explained. "But apparently the package is very valuable, although we don't know for sure. However, our boss told us to only give you the package if Mr. Olaf signed for it himself."

"Well then," the bald man said sternly. "That's not going to happen. The boss is busy at the moment, as he has some rather pressing matters in his line of delivery," the bald man explained.

"Well, I guess we'll have to return it to its sender, then," Jacques said disappointedly, putting the box back in his bag, and for the first time, he wasn't faking his emotions. They had been unable to infiltrate the castle. "Good-bye," Jacques said, and the two Snicket brothers turned to walk away, annoyed and frustrated at their failed plan.

But when they were half way across the wooden drawbridge, Lemony suddenly had an idea.

"The boss won't be pleased," he said to Jacques in a voice that he was sure the bald man with the long nose would overhear. "That thing," he said, gesturing to the package in Jacques bag, "has to go all the way back to the Mortmain Mountains!"

Jacques suddenly picked up on Lemony's idea, and replied in an equally loud voice. "I know, but-"

"Stop!"

The third voice was that of the bald man, and the Snicket brothers turned to see him hurrying across the drawbridge towards them. "Wait!" he added for no reason, as the Snickets had already stopped walking. "Did you say that the package was from the Mortmain Mountains?"

"Yes," Jacques said. "That's where it was posted from."

The bald man's expression suddenly changed as he continued speaking, far more excitedly. "This has all been a big misunderstanding," he said slightly nervously. "You'd better come in. Olaf is waiting."

(Serious) Author's Note: This chapter seemed especially enjoyable to write, and so I hope it turns out to be especially enjoyable to read. If you did enjoy it, please let me know by review! As ever, constructive criticism is welcomed :)