a pleasant world it is part 14

stephanie and china broke out in one attack. china's right hand interlocked with stephanie's left one. the fire in their hands grew imensely and they hurled it at raven. in smacked him backward against the wall. he slumped slightly then glared up at them. valure looked to skulduggery and they exchanged glances. they nodded to each other, as if reading each others thoughts. valure held her whip out, skulduggery snapped his fingers and conjured a flame. he gripped the handle
of the whip ontop of valure's hand. she smiled at him,and he seemed to smile back. he dragged his hand along the whips long, thin conture. as he did, all of the whip in his hands wake, was engulfed in flame. raven tried to stand again and sucseeded, but barely. valure prepared her whip for another defening crack when the prince started squaking. he crowed and screamed in an unhuman voice. he was calling,something, but what? suddenly the doors broke open and flew off the hinges and there stood,a large bird. an eagle to be excact. it had to duck under to get through the small doorway. it let out a horrible cry. the four covered their ears from the noise. valure lifted her flame engulfed whip and cracked in the direction of the bird. it wrapped around its ankle and started burning into its flesh. it squaked in pain and used the other talon to cut it off. valure gasped thinking her weapon was ruined. but it grew back! the whip started growing back and regaining length.the fire had exstinguished but it had done some major damage.
"my pet! how dare you, you filthy ungratefull little sh-"the prince started but valure cut him off
"now now, there are stupid people present!" she interupted motioning her hand toward china. china didn't get the insult and said nothing. the pet bird started coming for them, but its run was delayed by a limp. valure leaped up and landed on the birds shoulder. skulduggery splayed his hands and the air rippled, but did hardly anything to the creature. stephanie helped him this time the tried again. the rivers of rippling air met and doubled, smacking the eagle hard in the chest. it started to woble around while valure despratly tried to hold on.
"hey! i'm still up here!" she shouted down.
"sorry!" skulduggery yelled back. china was drawing something. it was an intricate design on the ground. she had finished and she clapped her hands together. she pressed them down to the circle and it glowed bright blue. the earth started crumbling from under the birds feet. it squacked and cried for help but soon half its body was engulfed in dirt. the glowing stopped and the bird was trapped half way between barried alive, and above ground. valure grabbed hold of the bird's wing, and tightened it. soon the flesh started rotting away. the bird was now, rotting alive. is cried and called out but nothing helped. the wing was decomposing fast and eventualy, it caught up to the rest of the body. the pet was now dead. raven screamed.
"how dare you do that! you shall pay greatfully for this!" skulduggery started checking his pockets then shrugged.
"sorry, not now, i don't have my wallet on me." he said sarcasticly. raven dashed for them screaming. they didn't have time to react. for he was using the celtic signs that covered the floor and room. as he ran, the ground glowed briefly as he stepped. he caught valure and grabbed her.
"valure!" skulduggery called. valure struggled then she did what she could. she planted her hand on the side of his face,and pressed. raven screamed in pain and stopped running imedietly. the flesh rotted away quickly. then valure pulled her hand off his face when half the flesh was gone. she glared down at the still screaming prince.
"that was for screwing with my head and this," she paused and crouched down. she placed both hands on his back "this is for my mother" she said and pressed. the musscle and flesh practicly melted away in seconds. the prince had no time to react and scream. he was dead in a matter of seconds. valure stood up and walked to skulduggery. she felt weak and dizzy. she started to fall but skulduggery caught her. her pulled her into his grip and looked her in the face.
"we did it, no you did it valure. now how about we get out of here?" he asked valure looked dazely toward the throne.
"not before i get my clothes back." she said. then she passed out. skulduggery looked to china. she nodded and jogged over to the throne and came back with the black leather clothes. skulduggery carried valure out in his arms. they tip toed through the virage of dead corpses. they made it out to the bently and climbed in. it was dark outside now and late. skulduggery set valure in the front seat next to him. he got in the driver seat, and off they went, down the mountain. back toward the city.

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"what happened!" the queen screamed. the messenger flinched.
"i-i'm sorry your highness, b-but your son has been-murdered" he said meakly. the harpie queen stood up and screamed out in the bird like screach.
"who are they! who did this to my son!" she screached. the messenger looked up meakly.
"uh, four people. the girl valure who was to be his queen. a woman known as china sorrows. a girl in black known as stephanie edgly, the one who resently lost her uncle. and an amazing detective skeleton, known as skulduggery pleasant." he listed off the names of the people but when it came to skulduggery's name, the queen recednized it.
"ah i see. so skulduggery, you deside to kill my son huh? well, two can play at that game." the queen waved a winged arm motioning for the messenger to leave. the messenger harpie bowwed respectfully and flew off. "i will have revenge, skulduggery" she snarled then let out a screach like evil cackle.

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weeks after the fight with raven, valure and skulduggery would walk through the grave yard every sunday evening to lay flowers at her mother's grave. today, they brought a small, white lily. valure kneeled down, gently layed the lily down and gave a prayer. she stood back up and skulduggery, who was in desguise, and herself linked arms and strolled back out through the graveyard.
"hey skulduggery, i can't help but think, that this isen't the end of the harpies. i mean, it seemed just to easy" she said. skulduggery glanced to her.
"hey, sometimes the easy things are the best" he said wisely. valure giggled and kissed skulduggery on the cheek. they then strolled down the street, arms linked, completely oblivious, that this was only the beggining.

                  END OF A PLEASANT WORLD IT IS. BE LOOKING OUT FOR
                       MY NEXT SERIES "FEATHERS WILL FLY"