Holly Short was feeling stressed. The usually calm, vaguely cocky elf was gone, in her place was an incredibly frustrated one who was on the brink of collapse. Of all the days to oversleep, of all the days to leave everything imaginable until the last moment, it would be today. With a gleam of desperation in one eye, she pounded down the small flight of stairs and into the lounge. This was the only place she hadn’t looked, the presents had to be here, they had to be. Throwing herself to the ground, Holly’s hands searched blindly under an artificial fir tree for anything solid. Nothing. She rose and arced a gaze around the room; the drawers!
Holly had gone festive shopping weeks ago, as she did most years, although this had been the first occasion on which Mulch Diggums had joined her. Buying gifts early just seemed the sensible thing to do to her; there would be no crowds, and you knew all the shops would have masses of stock left, preparing for the festive rush. Looking back now however, it seemed as though her current situation would be no different if she had shopped last night. Presents did not simply dissapear, in theory. The fairy festival of Yule had been celebrated for as far back as the history books went; gift giving was traditional, and the mud-man holday of Christmas was of course derived from this.
Finally, after a good six minutes of rooting in the drawer, Holly raised a couple of small boxes in triumph, but she wasn’t out of the woods just yet. Reluctantly, she turned to face the bomb-site of a room that now awaited her. Oh dear. In her haste to find the gifts, the room had been transformed, so much so that it was now indistinguishable from Mulch’s accomodation. She checked her moon-o-meter, three minutes before her guests arrived; this was going to be close. She did the esentials, hiding or removing anything embarrasing, picking up every scrap of paper and re-arranging the sofa. After a rapid general tidy-up, Holly brushed herself off and observed the room. So long as she didn’t allow the guests anywhere but the hallway and here, she should be O.K. And then, inevitably, the doorbell rang.
Getting permission for an underground visit had been the easy part, it was arranging transport that had been tricky. Fowl was a face recoginzed by all fairies, acknowleged by most as a firend, but bribing Foaly into sending a shuttle was no walk in the park. Nevertheless, she had obtained a special 24 hour access pass for the now teenager and his bodygaurd. For her, it had either been spend the holidays alone, with her human friends or with angry hairy dwarves in a bar with Mulch. She made her mind up quickly enough.
Pulling on a T-shirt over her pyjamma top, opened the door with a smile.
“Artemis!” She wrapped her arms around the skinny youth and pulled him inside, out of the generated cold. After being embaced tightly for several seconds, Artemis smiled politely and unwrapped his scarf.
“It’s good to see you Holly, and season’s greetings.” Holly grinned at this and raised an eyebrow.
“Always so formal. Here, give me your coat and sit down in there.” She hung his jacket on the banister and followed him into the lounge.
After taking opposite seats, there was an awkward moment where neither of them made eye contact. It was Holly who broke the silence;
“So?”
“Excuse me?”
“Where is he?”
“Ah.” A strange expression came across Artemis’ face, almost like nerves and guilt at the same time. “The thing is, Butler can’t be here.” He said, looking at the floor ashamedly. He knew the ammount of trouble Holly had been to in order to get them both down here.
“Oh, how come?” Holly asked, trying to sound curious but not being able to hide her disappointment. Artemis took on an odd, fluctuating tone of voice;
“This morning,” He replied, “there was an incident. The christmas tree fell on top of one of the twins.” Holly felt slightly alarmed on hearing this.
“Oh my.”
“Yes. Well, someone had to take the child to the hospital, which means my parents obviousy, and so Butler had to drive them and both twins there. I couldn’t well miss the shuttle, so I’ve left an explanatory note for him.” He finished. Holly couldn’t hold back a giggle.
“He’s not going to take that well.” She said, composing herself. Artemis smiled and laughed.
“Yes, don’t remind me.” He sighed, and sitting back into his chair, he breathed a deep breath. The pair sat silently for a moment, both happy to be in each other’s presence. As Holly shifted in her chair she felt a lump in her pocket; after the frantic searching, she had nearly forgotten.
She jumped at her realisation; “Oooh! I have something for you, just a second.” And began digging it out. Artemis looked genuinely surprised when she handed him the small box.
“For me?” He whispered, taken aback. “Well, I really don’t… Thankyou Holly.” Turning it over in his hands, he felt it’s small weight before opening it. Inside, a small silver bracelet was revealed, which seemed to glitter when it was looked at, becoming a physical piece of light. Lifting it with two fingers, Artemis was absorbed by it’s beauty. “Holly, this is… I mean, well,” He stumbled over his words as Holly watched at him gladly.
“Read the engraving.” She said, grinning at his open mouth and wide eyes. Artemis found the words, they had been delicately cut into the flat part of the bracelet. He read aloud;
“Some things are worth more than gold.” Smiling quietly, he looked up to Holly. “I’m a little lost for words…” He said, his voice sincere and quiet. “No one has ever got me a present before except my parents and Butler. So, that makes it only right…” Now Artemis reached into his own pocket, bringing out a box simarlar in size to the one he had recieved. “I thought this would be, well.” He said, passing the box to her. Holly’s face lit up with joy, and then changed abruptly when she observed the box. It appeared to be covered in at least two full rolls of human wrapping paper. She raised an eyebrow and looked at Artemis quizzically.
“Did you wrap this?” She asked. Artemis looked away, embarrased.
“It wouldn’t cooperate, it’s difficult with so much paper.” Artemis found himself blushing as Holly smiled and proceeded to dismantle the vast ammount of wrapping to reveal the package underneath. This she opened to find inside a small acorn that appeared to be made of solid gold.
“Wow, Artemis this is beautiful.” She gasped, wondering if he had thought of this himself. Artemis breathed deeply with relief, and after a moment saw Holly rise out of her chair. Briskly, she said;
“Well, get your coat back on. If we’re lucky we’ll be able to see the big switch-on of the Haven Lights.” At this Artemis smiled duefully, looking puzzled.
“Lights?” He asked. Holly shot a look over her shoulder at him while putting on her coat.
“What, you thought you were just visiting? You’re going to see Haven at Yule!” She laughed at his expression freely now. “What are you waiting for?” Artemis leapt towards the door.
Five minutes later, the two were strolling down Haven City’s main street together, both wrapped up tightly to avoid the penetrating cold that was brought on by the cities season generator. Inevitably, heads of locals were turned at the sight of a human just strolling down city centre, and more so when it was realized just who this human was. Artemis Fowl, just as much an exploiter of the people as their savior. Nobody seemed to ask for an autograph or hurl abuse though, why would they when he was a good two feet taller than most of them? For the most part, the fairies used logic. He must be there with permission and for a reason, so leave it alone and get on with life as normal.
By the time Holly and Artemis had reached the city centre, they were still heavily engrossed in conversation. Having not seen each other face to face for months and only speaking fleetingly on the phone a couple of times, they found they had a lot to catch up on. While Artemis was giving Holly a description of what it’s like to have twin three-year-old brothers (which she found hilarious to Artemis’ displeasure), they almost walked into the mass of fairies that was stretching out before them as one large formation. Silencing himself quickly, Artemis gazed in half wonder, half terror at what the crowd was stood before. A fir tree had been erected in the centre of the square, a fir tree that put every building Artemis could recall to shame. It was around two hundred feet tall, it’s branches stretched out like the arms of some incredible creature, and it was bestowed with decorations the like of which had never been seen before by human eyes. What they were Artemis couldn’t tell, but it would have defied description anyway. Huge multi-coloured balls of light raced around the tree’s entire structure, giving the impression that it was spinning with phenomenal speed. Every now and again, a bulb of colour would fly off from the tree and soar over the heads of spectators, only to explode after a matter of seconds and release beautifuly dazzling colours all over the city. Artemis could think of nothing to do, or say that would make any sense in the light of this wonder, his mouth hung open and his eyes were glazed with awe.
“Artemis?”
“Wha, hmmmm…” Still dazzled and amazed, Artemis could barely hear the sound of Holly’s voice. She nudged him slightly and nodded to indicate the space between them both. Holly said to him gently;
“Do you think I could have my hand back, please?” And snapping back to reality with obscene haste, Artemis looked in shock from the grin on Holly’s face to her hand that was clasped tightly in his own. He promptly let go, then turned scarlet and straightened his coat collar, refusing to give the elf eye contact.
“This is, erm, really impressive Holly. Do they decorate like this every year?” He asked briskly. Holly felt inclined to give Artemis his dignity by not grinning at him triumphantly any longer, after all, dignity seemed to be the only thing keeping that skinny frame upright all the time.
“Yeah.” She said. “It’s traditional for the stupidly rich to finnance it and then have all their money back and more by the time the Yule bills have been paid off.” They both laughed, the tension shattered like a mirror.
After a few more minutes admiring the decorations, Artemis and Holly set off back accross the square to get to Mulch’s, to make sure he would get the chance to give a festive welcome. That’s probably all he’d be giving however, having bought gifts only for himself on the shopping trip, insisting to Holly that self indulgence was ‘theraputic’.
They made it to the picket fence that kept the seasonal stalls inside the square separate from the cities main retail centre; the exit was an archway that was large even by human standards. At eight feet tall, it was constructed from a smooth white wood that twisted round itself to form a glittering band that was decked with festive plants and decorations. Just as the pair were passing under, Holly stopped and kneeled to pick something up she had spotted while they were walking. She got up and stood to face Artemis, handing him the object. Looking at it, he initially thought it was a white, soft, bauble, but upon closer examination he found it to have a small stem like a cherry. Looking up, he located the berry’s source at the top of the archway, a large wreath of mistletoe. Mistletoe. The colour returned to Artemis’ face faster than he would have believed biologically possible. Looking down, he was briefly surprised to see Holly’s face at level with his own, and at a closer range than usual. Artemis looked further down, towards his feet, where the world seemed simpler and safe. He observed that Holly was stood on a thick volume that he had seen in the snow before, possibly a fairy version of the Yellow Pages. Just as he was beginning to believe that this was a dream, and that he would wake up in his bed at Fowl Manor any second, Artemis felt Holly’s soft hands clasp his own. At this he gave up, this was a dream. He looked up to Holly, a look in her eyes he had never seen the likes of before. As she leaned towards him, her mouth half open and eyes half shut, Artemis made the decision to close his eyes. In a world where nothing made sense anymore, it was the only thing that made sense. As he felt a light touch on his lips, he was mentally debating what it meant and whether it was happening. It was.

Fin