CHAPTER 1

 

Artemis was sitting at his computer in his study. It had been two months since the tragic events that caused Comander Julius Root’s death by the hands of Opal Koboi. She was now at this time under lock and Key in the the maximum security prison in new Atlantis. Artemis and Holly had been keeping in close contact since that little adventure. Just before he had returned to Fowl Manner Holly had slipped him a comscreen. Since then she and Mullch had set up their own PI service. It was a job in it’self trying to stop Mulch stealing things himself because of his cleptomainiac past. Artemis was their consultant which meant that whenever they had a problem that they couldn’t solve they phoned him for advice and usually afterwards a bill.

Holly had recently called to inform Artemis that there was a thief on the loose who was known to hide out on the surface in the rockier areas of Scotland.

Artemis was searching for trace elements of magic which the people even if stripped of their magic leave behind. He was picking up magic but there was something different about it. It was not the trace elements that foaly had told him existed but a consintrated area which seemed to hold enouph magic for at least one hundred worlocks casting powerful spells. This was very strange, he knew it couldn’t be the equipment because Foaly had given it to him when Holly told him in confidential about what she had done. He had agreed to suply Artemis with some faity sensoring technology to make his job of asisting Holly that much easier. Fairy technology, best under the world. Artemis decided that this had to be reported to foaly but since he couldn’t contact the centaur he took the Comscreen off the side table where it lay and contacted Holly.

Haven Central the lower elements

Holly was sitting in her livingroom in her apartment just down the road from police plaza. When she had been working there the arrangement had been perfect but now it was terrible. Ark Sule couldn’t resist dropping in every chance he got to gloat. Holly privately thoutht that he should be tossed off the top of a mountain and then what’s left of him thrown intoi a volcanic pit.

She wasn’t all alone however, Foaly was there. It was his day off and he had decided to spend it with Holly. Since Root’s death he had been spending as much time as possible with her. They had been having a very good conversation when the conscren beaped. Holly looked at it and said, “Artemis is contacting me already. I thought he would work fast but not this fast.” She answered it and Artemis’s pale face flashed on the screen.

“Hello Arty,” she said with a slight laugh. She called him this usually. “Did you finish scanning the area already. I thought that it would take you at least half a day. So, found anything yet.”

“I have found something,” he replied. “Would it be possible for me to speak to Foaly.”

“You’re in luck Arty. He’s right here,” said Holy and handed Foaly the Comscreen. Foaly smiled and said, “How’ve you been Fowl. Holly says your helping her out with a little robbery problem she’s been having.”

“That’s right. I’ve been scanning the area Holly Indecated and found something very interesting. According to your scanners there is a massive amount of highly concentrated magic in one area.”

“That’s very strange,” said Foaly rubbing his chin, “I’ve never heard of anything like that. I wonder, could you send me the data and from there I can run some scans.”

“You’ll have to come up to the surface to get the information,” Artemis replied, “I don’t have a compadable system to yours. I’m suprised that your scanners even work on the server I’m using.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” said Holly eagerly. She had been dying to visit the surface since she had resigned from the LEP. She missed the wide open spaces, the water, ground and mountains beneath her when she flew and even the air which didn’t taste like it did down here, like she was enhailing plastic.

“Good idea Holly,” said Foaly, “But there is one problem, if Sule has anything to do with it then we won’t even be able to get on a shuttle let alone get to Fowl mannor. He’ll suspect if I just up and go.”

“Are you kidding Foaly. Sule wouldn’t know something suspicious if it came up and punched him in the face,” retorted Holly a smile on her face. “What I wouldn’t give to be able to knock him into the middle of next week.

“True,” replied Foaly slowly, “And it is my day off. He probably won’t suspect us of doing anyghing strange as long as he dosn’t find out. OK Fowl we’ll catch the next shuttle to the surface we should be there in an hour.” He passed Holly the comscreen.

“You got all that Arty,” Holly said still with a broad grin.

Yes,” replied Artemis a slight scowl on his face, “And don’t call me Arty.”

“Julliet calls you Arty all the time,” Holly retorted.

“There’s a difference, Julliet could knock me into a coma,” replied Artemis.

“Well so could I,” said Holly, “Or have you fergotten the light punch I gave you when I got out of my cell in Fowl Manner.”

“You can’t with Butler around,” said Artemis as if stating the odvious.”

“Niether would Julliet.”

BUtler wouldn’t hit his little sister.”

Good point, See you there we’ll be using some new gadget of Foaly’s so don’t be suprised if you don’t recognise us straight away. It turns us into humans for up to six months at a time depending on the sercumstances.”

Understood, see you here at three o’clock,” said Artemis and signed off.

one hour later

Holly and Foaly had boarded the shuttle with no problems. From the Tara shuttle port they had put up their shields and used wings to get to Fowl manner. Foaly was looking a little peaky, he was not one for flying. He profered to keep his hooves fermly on the ground.

They spotted Fowl Manner from above and landed at the gates still shielded.

Ok, Activate the Ilusion 1000,” foaly said.

“Are yu sure that this is going to work,” Holly replied pushing a few buttoms on a control pad attatched to her arm.

“Positive, after all I designed them myself,” said Foaly in a pompis voice while he did the same thing as Holly.

“Now on the count of three we unshield and look at each other. One, …. Two, …. Three.”

They both unshielded and stared at each other. They were the same hight as Artemis. Their pointed ears had vanished to be replaced with rounded ones. Foaly had two legs instead of four. He was wearing jeans and a white T’shirt. Holly was wearing a mini skirt and a blue blouse with matching high heels. Her chestnut skin had gone slighty pailer so she looked completely normal.

Foaly tried took a few steps and almost fell over.

“This walking on two legs feels real strange.

“You’ll get used to it,” said Holly half laughing. “You don’t know how strange it is to see you on two legs and not nearly as hairy.”

“You should see how wierd you look wearing a skirt and high heels,” retorted Foaly half laughing himself.

“If you ever tell any one that I’m wearing a skirt and high heels your a dead donkey,” said Holly. She pulled out a mirror and looked at hrself.

“Ready,” she enquired tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“Ready,” replied Foaly and with that they opened the gate and walked slowly up to the door.

Artemis had told his parents that he was expecting friends over so they had to switch off the sicurity system at three O’clock. His mother was so happy that Artemis was having Friends over she didn’t even ask their names.

When they reached the door Holly rang the doorbell.

They waited for a minute and then the door opened. It was Angeline and Artemis Fowl the first who answered. Angeline looked so excited at the thought of meeting some of Artemis’s friends.

“You must be little Arty’s friends,” she said smiling brightly. “What’s your names.”

“My name is Holly and this is,” she was cut off by Foaly.”

“My name is Ronan,” said Foaly quickly.

“Come in, come in,” said Angeline quickly ushering them inside.

“Artemis is in his study, we’ll take you up. It’s quite easy to get lost if you don’t know you way around.”

“Thank you Mrs Fowl,” replied Holly trying to be polite, something that didn’t happen often.

Mr and Mrs Fowl led them deeper into Fowl Manor. After a minute Mr Fowl asked

“What are your full names.”

“My full name is Holly Evens Short.”

‘And my full name is Ronan Garrowson,” said Foaly thinking quickly They made their way through many coridors and up many staircases before reaching Artemis’s study.

“Here it is,” Said Angeline. She pushed a button on the wall and said into a mike,

“Arty, your two friends are here.”

The door opened to reveal Artemis standing in front of his desk looking at them. Butler was in the corner, he too was staring.

“Hello Artemis,” said Holly cheerily and smiling at the look on his face.

“I’ll leave you three alone now,” said angeline and went off with Mr Fowl. Once the door was shut Holly Said,

“So Arty, what do you think,”

“I think that I’ve never seen you in a skirt and high heeled shoes,” said Artemis still staring at them. “This is exelent blackmail material you know.” Holly shot him a quick glare.

“From what your used to I’m not suprised that all you can do is stare at us,” said Foaly. He couldn’t help laughing at the look on Artemis’s face. “We don’t look at all like ourselves.”

“You can say that again,” Butler commented, speaking for the first time since Artemis had told him that Holly and Foaly would be stopping by.

“Good to see you Butler,” Said Holly smiling warmly.

“Right, I think It’s time to get down to buisnes. Do you agree Fowl,’said Foaly briskly.

“Very well, I have the data right here.” Foaly strode over, wobbling slightle and peered fixidly down at the screen.

“Well, this is very strange. I haven’t seen anything like it before. I wonder what could possibly cause so much magical energy to build up like that.” Holy strode over and also looked at the screen.

‘I supose,” she said slowly, “The only way we can find out is to go and check it out for ourselves.”

“Agreed,” said Foaly. “But we can’t just make rash choices without thinking things through. What do you think Artemis?”

Artemis was silent for a minute and then said slowly,

“I agree with Foaly. We can’t just go rushing in, we need a plan. Since you look like humans I think that it would be alright if you stay a day or two.”

“I’ve made preperations just in case it came to that,” said Foaly.

‘Before I left I signed off work for two weeks. This job might take a while.

Holly looked very suprised.

“We can’t stay here, true you migh be safe but that idiot Sool will suspect me is I’m missing for two weeks.”

“No he won’t, you said it yourself. Sool wouldn’t know something suspicious it it came up and punched him in the face.” Butler chuckled at this coment. All in the room had at least one thing in comen, they all hated Sool.

“That settles that,” said Artemis Briskly standing up.

“I’ll let mother know that you two are staying for a few nights. It is a good thing that she dosn’t suspect anything but my father is another matter. He is more suspicious than Her.”

‘Relax Arty. I’ve got it under control. I think that we should go and tell your parents now rather than later,” said Foaly.

“Very well, let’s go,” said Artemis and with that the four of them left the study and made their way downstairs.

Mr and Mrs Fowl were in the livingroom. They both looked up when Artemis, Holly, Foaly and Butler walked in.

‘Arty,” said his mother. Foaly couldn’t resist a small grin.

‘Would it be possible for Holly and Ronan to spend a night or two  here.”

Angeline couldn’t have looked happier, she ran up to Artemis and hugged him. Holly and Foaly couldn’t help giggling at the sight of Artemis being hugged by his mother.

“Of course they can stay. I’ve waited such a long time for you to have some friends over,” cooed Angeline.

“They can stay in the rooms just beside yours. Will that be Ok with you too?” she enquired glancing towards Holly and Foaly.

“Yes, thank you,” said Holly, still smiling and trying not to laugh.

“It’s Ok with me too,” said Foaly who was almost colapsing in a fit of silent laughter.

“You three can go back upstairs now if you want. I’ll call you when dinner is served.”

‘Right, ready to go Artemis,” said Holly.

‘Yes,” replied Artemis and they headed back upstairs. Artemis showed Holly to her room first. When Holly entered her room she flopped down on the matris and said,

“This room is huge and this bed is so comfertable. I think I could get used to sleeping on it easily.”

Artemis then showed Foaly to the room on the other side of his. It was also huge and Foaly felt over the covers gently.

“I could get used to this alright.”

“I’m glad you like it, I think we should get back to studying the readouts form the scanners.”

“Agreed, let’s go.”

They went back to Holly’s room and then the three of them went back to the study.

Later on at dinner Artemis, Holly, Foaly, Butler, Julliet and the Fowls were all sitting round the huge diningroom table. It was a good thing for Holly and Foaly that there was not much meat because both of them were vegetarians. They thanked the Fowls and then they went up to the study again with Artemis leading the way.

After a few hours they finally decided that the only way to discover the source of this massive convergence of energy was to go and check it out for themselves.

“This is going to be tricky convincing my parents to let us go to Scotland for at least a week,” said Artemis doughtfully.

“Just leave that to me and Holly. We’ll use the mesmer to convince them, it should only take a minute or two” said Foaly calmly.

“I say we do it tonight. Then we can leave tomorrow,” said Holly eagerly.

“Now would be the ideal time to do it. Any later and my parents might be in a bad mood,” sugested Artemis.

“Right, We’ll tell them that we have some transport lined up and we’re going there because we want to study that area for a prodject in school,” Holly sugested.

“Right, let’s do this,” said Foaly.

 

Hay there. Sorry if this first chapter is a little boring. This is harder then I thought. Don’t worry the next chapter will be a lot better. You won’t want to miss it. Trust me this is gunna be real good.

Some other stories by Arya:

• Animagus choosus
• Moonlight Ritual

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