The brown mansion, surrounded by beautiful gardens, looked amazing. The statues of snakes had me in awe. I loved snakes. They were so cute. I already had a good feeling about this.
"Hello." A cheery voice greeted us. He had a python around his neck and looked like a warm person.
"Oh, my goodness. Look at you. You must be Violet. Do you remember me? I don't suppose so, you were very little." He shook her hand.
"And Klaus, we've never met. How do you? What a firm grip. Like a Burmese python." He complemented. He was holding Sunny with me close beside him.
"And Sunny, little Sunny. You look so much like your dear mother." He stated.
"Freya Harrington. Wow. I had heard from the Baudelaires of your beauty, but you are stunning aren't you." Never had I known the Baudelaire parents to speak so highly of me.
"Thank you Mr Poe, I'll take it from here." He got our bags and we headed inside. I ignored the conversation and focused on the amount of reptiles in this house. He led us to a reptile room. I didn't listen just stood in awe of it. Uncle Monty looked at my arm, the one with the cut, and ushered me inside. He told the others to go to the Reptile Room after putting their bags in our room, and then he took me to get my wound cleaned up. After my arm felt much better so we went to others to look at the animals.
A case caught my eye. I looked at the glass cabinet to see eggs. One of the eggs began to crack. It was hatching. I blocked out everything and focussed on it. I looked at me and I'm sure it smiled. I slowly opened the door and picked it up. It immediately coiled around my hand and weaved in and out of my fingers. I loved the sensation. My trance like state made me unaware of the fact we were going to Peru or that the incredibly deadly viper was harmless, to me it was just me and my small pet.
"Do you like her?" I turned to see Uncle Monty smiling at me. Klaus, Violet and Sunny had gone to take the suitcases upstairs to our room.
"Very much. She seems to like me to." I smiled at the snake on my hand.
"You know that that is a viper. They don't usually like to be handled. I'm surprised it let you. You must have a magic touch. As did your mother." He stated.
"You knew my mother?" I asked.
"Yes, I did. She was the only other one to hold that species " He explained. I looked at the now sleeping snake.
"You know she needs a name." He implied.
"Sofiya." I smiled. I looked down at my tattered dress.
"Uncle Monty, do you have a sewing machine?" I asked.
"Upstairs, second on the right." He left. I went upstairs and sewed my dress, making it good as new.
KLAUS POV
I entered the living room to only see Uncle Monty staring at me.
"What's wrong Uncle Monty?" I asked. He smiled at me and told me to sit down.
"Now, I know you try to hide it, but tell me, do you like Freya?" He asked me. I stuttered out a no. Uncle Monty raised an eyebrow and I just nodded at him.
"Then why don't you tell her?"
"She doesn't like me like that, it would end a lifetime friendship." I frowned.
"I wouldn't be so sure." He said, holding something back. I was about to ask but Frey came in. Her dress was perfect again.
"What do you think?" She beamed as she stood in front of me.
"Beautiful as always." I smiled and pulled her into a hug, and sat her on my lap.
"Do you like Sofiya?" She questioned while holding up her hand with a viper hugging it tightly. I nodded and buried my head in her neck. I felt her blush. This moment was perfect. However my sisters brought our early dinner in.
FREYA POV
After we had eaten, Uncle Monty was singing a tune. I remembered the tune. It was so familiar.
"Petunia, what have I told you about it. She thinks I'm a tree." He explained. Sofiya was still wrapped around my hand. Uncle Monty had told me she was one of the most ill tempered species of snake he had, but for me, she was fine.
"I think I know that song." I said.
"Me too. I think our parents used to play it for us." Violet agreed.
"They certainly did. As I did mine." Our reply raised more questions than it answered.
"You had children?" Asked Violet. All of us now listened more carefully so we didn't miss a single detail.
"Yes, and a wife and a home. Until the fire." Uncle Monty was stroking petunia as his expression changed form happy to sad. At the mention of a fire, Klaus perked up.
"A fire?" Queried Klaus.
"I may know better than anyone, what you're going through. But it's going to be all right. We'll be among people who are like us, people who understand us, and people who appreciate unique children who read and invent and bite. Not to mention people who can sew and tame aggressive snakes." I smiled at that.
Not many people spoke of me when they were having a conversation with the Baudelaires. Usually I was the other child, but not with Monty. He considered me part of the family.
"Uncle Monty, why are you doing al this for us?" Questioned Violet. We were all wondering it but none of us has asked before her.
"Isn't that what family does?" It was a rhetorical question but I wanted to know something else.
"Uncle Monty, why include me, I'm not part of the family." I said solemnly.
"Freya. I made your mother and father a promise when you were younger. If anything happened to them, you would be with the Baudelaires because of other matters. But if I was ever to have you in my care, I was to treat you like one of my own. So that's what I'm doing, child." That caused more questions, but I sensed now wasn't the time. I just smiled. I looked at Klaus and I could see in his eyes that he was asking the same questions I was. Like what are these other matters? Was it something they had agreed before we were born? As Klaus would say, everything happens for a reason. These questions were not going to be answered for some time.
Because of our early dinner, we were looking around our new home. Then we heard a doorbell. So smiling widely, me, Violet and Klaus approached the front door to answer it. Only our smiles were wiped away when we saw a figure emerge for the shadows that we knew all to well.
