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“What was that?”
“What was what?”
Valkyrie stood there, having almost run into Skulduggery, who had abruptly stopped dead in his tracks. Now he was standing there, head tilted a little upwards and looked as if waiting for something. It was so quiet, Valkyrie swore that she could hear the snow landing on the ground. Whoever had decided to go out even though the temperature was below zero degrees deserved to be punched in the face.
Oh right.
She didn’t want to complain to him, at first Valkyrie had actually believed Skulduggery, that this was going to be nice. But now, almost an hour later she could feel the cold, wet snow through her boots. Her fingers were stiff and seeing her breath as icy fog in front of her wasn’t as entertaining as she had found it to be at the age of seven.
Could skeletons even be cold? It sounded, even in her head, like a dumb question. Of course they were not able to, or at least any normal, non-living, skeleton couldn’t. But for him, she wasn’t so sure. Still, while Valkyrie was growing weary of the cold, Skulduggery appeared to be completely unbothered by it. Maybe this was his favorite season after all?
She had asked him once, more out of boredom than anything. Winter. It had taken Skulduggery so long to answer, Valkyrie decided that he had to be lying. Or he just didn’t know.
“I have no idea what you heard, but I’m sure it’s nothing. Could we just keep walking. If you haven’t noticed, I’m freezing.”
“I really don’t know what you have against the cold.”
“Skulduggery.”
“I always liked the snow.”
Valkyrie would have loved to answer but she was interrupted.
Skulduggery turned around to her.
“What?”
“There again.”
And again, Valkyrie didn’t catch what he meant and just shrugged.
“Oh, come on Valkyrie, you are the one with the actual ears here.”
Except.
“Skulduggery-”
“So, you did hear it!” He turned his skull to the side, and as much as she could tell, he seemed just a tad bit upset. But so was she as well.
Did he really believe she was purposefully acting like she didn’t hear? For a skeleton of his age, she would have expected him to be above that level of immaturity.
“Skulduggery!”
“Yes, Valkyrie?”
“I sneezed.”
He moved his skull to the other side, confusion, Valkyrie thought.
“Pardon?”
“What you heard was just me, sneezing.”
“People still do that?”
“What.”
Valkyrie would have liked to continue moving. As much as she disliked being out here, in some forest while it snowed, standing around and freezing was worse than walking around and freezing.
“Of course, they still do that! Why wouldn’t they?”
“Seems like such an outdated thing to do… but I always liked to sneeze.”
Instead of following her, Skulduggery stayed where he was.
“Yeah, and you know why people do that? Because they are cold. Because they are in an environment where it’s cold and they should rather be at home. Where it’s warm and nice!”
Valkyrie turned back around to him, and since she still had a face, it must have been clear to Skulduggery that she was upset.
“And I am cold, because we are out here, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s snowing.”
“I know.”
“So?”
“We’ll continue on.” Valkyrie didn’t know what she should have expected. Maybe she had hoped for Skulduggery to suddenly decide that it was time to head back to the Bentley. But he walked past her, the snow that had been gathering on his hat whilst he’d been standing there, slowly falling off.
He didn’t stop so all Valkyrie could do was head after him, snow crunching under her boots.
Except, she could actually do something else. The snow was cold and powdery. At least she had been mindful enough to wear gloves. Ones she had already worn last winter. Before she knew that magic was a thing. They didn’t really fit her outfit. It was obvious that they weren’t made by Ghastly. He was still a statue. The thought weakened the smile forming on her face a little. Asking him to make her fitting gloves, if when he came back, was definitely not the first thing she would do.
“Valkyrie.”
“Yes, Skulduggery?”
“Did you just throw a snowball at me?”
Hiding her hands behind her back, Valkyrie put up her best innocent face.
“I don’t know what you mean-”
Skulduggery curled up his right hand. Snow was flying towards his gloved fist, it gathered and slowly formed a perfect round ball. Valkyrie supposed that he could have done it a lot quicker but just wanted to show off. It was impressive. And it hit her regardless.
“Hey! You can’t just throw a snowball at me. Didn’t you learn that there could be rocks in them?”
“I think you’re overreacting.”
“Skulduggery, you’re unbelievable sometimes.”
“You were the first to throw a snowball.”
“And I will throw a second!”