Chapter One: A New Start

Holly walked down a dark alley, all alone. She couldn’t believe she had just turned down a job offer. She didn’t want to work for the LEPrecon police anymore, but she had turned down a job offer. Had she… begun turning human?

No, Holly thought firmly to herself. A fairy or a sprite turning human is impossible.

But then why was there a voice nagging at her? Saying it was possible?

But it was that moment that a dark figure leapt from behind a dumpster. Holly squinted to see who it was.

 

“Well, well, well.” said a familiar voice. “Is it my old nemisis, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon? What’s happened to you, Captain Short? You’re taller, and you don’t look like a fairy.”

 ”Oh my god,” Holly breathed. “I’m turning into a human!”

 ”Maybe you can stop it with a flow of magic?” Artemis asked.

 ”I can’t,” Holly said miserably. “I can feel it. My magic’s already leaking away.”

 ”Use the last bit of it you have, Holly!”

“If I can’t stop it… where am I going to go? What will Commander Root think when I don’t come back?”

 ”It’ll be okay,” Artemis actually felt sympathetic for the small fairy. “It has to be.”

 ”But what if it isn’t?” Holly was trembling now as her feet grew bigger; her fairy suit faded away, revealing a human outfit. “I’m turning into a Mud Girl already!”

Holly’s hair had turned blonde; it was growing to waistlength. Finally, the transformation was complete. She was no longer a member of the People. She could no longer heal wounds. Was this the Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon police that she actually was inside?

Two more familiar faces appeared at the opening in the alley. Butler and his little sister, Juliet.

 ”Artemis, who is this?” Butler asked.

“It’s Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon police. She’s just turned human somehow. She didn’t start it; she couldn’t stop it; and now that she doesn’t have magic anymore, she can’t reverse it.”

“What if the LEPrecon comes looking for her?” Juliet asked timidly. “Wouldn’t they be able to change her back if they believed us?” 

“Commander Root wouldn’t believe us,” she sighed. “He said this kind of thing isn’t possible. Foaly said it was possible, but…”

“But what?” Butler asked.

“But you can’t reverse it, even if any other fairy commanded its magic to turn the used-to-be fairy away from human form. Even then, if it did succeed, it would only half-way succeed: I might be turned into a troll.”

“And everyone knows trolls are dangerous,” Butler said, who had already experienced the pain a troll could cause; nearly losing his sister, being physically injured… He only lived because Holly had saved him, commanding her magic to heal him.

 ”Foaly only said this was possible if the fairy turning into a human had been kind to humans,” Holly said. She couldn’t bear calling humans ‘Mud People’ now that she was a human.

 ”You healed me,” Butler said. “You only used the mesmer on my sister because you had to if you were to escape from the cell that Artemis put you in.”

“Maybe I am too kind to be a fairy,” Holly whispered. Tears were streaming down her face. She tried to summon magic, to stop crying: it was no use.

Artemis insisted upon Holly staying at Fowl Manor until she could find a place to stay. Holly could not argue: Juliet grabbed Holly’s arm and drug her towards Fowl Manor.

I’m praying to God that this is over soon, Holly thought. I used to be against humans; now I’m one of them. Oh, what would Commander Root say if he was here to see this? Then again, he might be here to see this soon…

Some other stories by HollyShort:

• What if Minerva never Existed?
• Path of Life Chapter One: Words of Death
• Never-changing Fear and Responsibility
• Far Away - A Holly + Artemis Song Fiction
• Artemis Fowl meets Naruto characters

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