Chapter 4

The question caught the young genius by surprise. What did he really want? He was surprised to discover that nothing popped immediately into his mind. Surely there was something, there had to have been sometimes during the day when he wished for something he did not have. But at that moment, he couldn’t think of anything.

If he had been asked this question when he was younger, there was no doubt in his mind, he would have asked for a fatter bank account, or several bars of solid gold. If he had been a normal child, who blindly put faith in fanciful stories like Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny, he would have wished for his mother’s health and his father’s safe return home.

But he hadn’t been that sort of child. If he desired something, he went out and manipulated events until he received it. That’s just the way he was. It had been him who healed his mother, him who brought his father home, not some myth told to children who had no idea how the real world worked.

“Arty?’ His mother asked, her voice betraying concern for his silence.

Perhaps he had caught a cold. Oh, she knew it was a bad idea for her children to go outside in the snow! Before Artemis could stop her, she reached across the table and placed a hand on his forehead.

“Are you feeling cold, dear?” she asked, eyes wide. He did feel a little warm. “Do you need to lie down?”

“I’m fine, Mother.” he replied, startled by her concern. He resisted the urge to lean back, out of her reach. He didn’t want her to think that didn’t appreciate her concern. “I was just…thinking.”

“If you’re sure, Arty” Angeline said, settling back in her seat. “But tell me the minute you feel faint or need to go home.”

“You always think.” Myles said, annoyed. He turned to his twin who was busy trying to get a spoon to stick to his nose and failing horribly. “Right Beckett?

Beckett nodded, and the spoon fell off his nose again. “Thinking is bad for you. Too much will make you slow.”

“What?” Fowl Sr. asked, bemused by this revelation.

“Like if you stand in the middle of the street, and a car comes.” Myles said, in a knowable tone of voice. “If you don’t think, you run away and the car don’t hit you. But if you think, splat! Roadside pancake.”

Artemis looked at his brothers, torn between annoyance and amusement, as his parents attempted to hide their smiles.

“If you had thought beforehand,” he told them, “you would not be standing in the middle of the road in the first place.”

Before the twins could retort, Fowl Sr. quickly steered the conversation back to the previous topic.

“You never told us what you want, Artemis.”

Artemis blinked. That’s right, he hadn’t.

“Anything is fine.” he said, finally.

“Are you sure?” Both of his parents said at the same time.

“I can’t even remember the last present I gave you that you were truly appreciate of.” his mother added.

Artemis could. The best present she had ever given him was waking up and being herself again. Nothing could beat that.

San D’Klaus. 

He picked up his menu and studied its contents as though it was the most fainting thing on earth. Suddenly, he was feeling very embarrassed with the attention, he was barely able to keep a blush from coloring his pale cheeks.Though he would never admit it, he had his family (even the Terror two were welcome, despite their many faults), a few treasured friends, and several stuffed bank accounts. He was content for the time being.

Fowl Sr. looked at his son curiously, but didn’t push the subject. If Artemis wanted to tell them why he was attempting to hide behind the menu, then he would. There was no need to pressure him into it. He turned to the twins, who had grown bored of the conversation some time before and were mixing as many packets of pepper as they could get their hands on into Myles’s glass.

“What about you two? What would you like?”

Myles answer first, just a split second quicker than his twin. “I know what I want!”

“No fair! Me first!” Beckett said, glaring at his twin.

“No, I’m first! I‘m older!”

“Are not!”

“Am too!”

“Not!”

“Too!”

Artemis seriously considered strangling the two, or at moving tables so that none of annoyed people glaring at their table would think he was related to those two.

His parents, however, merely smiled at their youngest children’s antics.

“I’m first times infinity!” Myles screeched, looking as though he was about to jump on top of the table.

“I’m first times infinity plus one!” Beckett replied, in the same tone of voice.

Simultaneously, they turned towards Artemis with identical puppy-dog eyes.

“Arty! Who’s first!” they demanded.

Caught by surprise, Artemis didn’t answer immediately. If he chose one twin, the other would be sure to get revenge in some embarrassing and juvenile manner. Should he risk it? No way.

“Myles, why don’t you go first?” Angeline said, smiling.

“Ha!” Myles said, sticking his tongue out at Beckett who slid down in his seat, sticking out his lower lip.

“No fair,” he grumbled.

Myles grinned at his parents. “What was the question?”

Artemis just barely managed to stop himself from banging his head on the table. Just barely.

“What would you like as a present, dear?” Angeline replied with patience that only a mother has. Even Fowl Sr. was looking a bit annoyed.

“What do I want?” Myles said, leaning back in his chair, apparently in deep thought, despite his previous dislike of thinking.

“I know what I want.” muttered his twin.

I know what you’ll get if you don’t cease with your immature behavior, Artemis thought before his realized exactly what it was that he had thought. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it. The twin’s behavior seemed to be infective. Still a bit surprised by what he had thought, he absently picked up the glass that was closest to him, which was Myles.

“I want…” Myles paused for dramatic effect. Artemis raised the glass up to his lips, about to take a sip.

“To be just like Arty!”

The pepper hit his taste buds at the exact same second as his brain processed Myles words.

What!

Some other stories by Moonlite Knight:

• Update to Secert World
• The End of the World
• If I Told You I Loved You...
• Boredom is a Powerful Weapon
• I Don't Like Lollipops

Skip to chapter: 1, 2, 3, 4,