Butler was worried.
His principal had been spending all hours of the night in his study rarely coming out and eating his meals inside instead of in the dining room. He had had dark bruises under his eyes and his skin previously pale but healthy had looked bleached and pasty. He started making excuses not to havee fun with the twins; now six years old. When ever he walked past the study he could hear the whirring of the computers and the soft cadences and curliques of Mozart, Vivaldi and Chopin. Butler wasn't overly troubled by this, after all Artemis often had phases like these and they usualy passed when he solved his puzzle and revealed his answer often in the form of another invention ready to be patented.
But the weeks stretched to months and still Artemis hadn't finished his project. Still Butler was relatively unconcerned and looking forward to a great invention; a big leap and a huge pay off.
But then four months later the classics were no longer heard drifting from behind the 18th century door.
Most people wouldn't have noticed and even if they did they wouldnt have wasted valuable thinking space on it. Fortunately for the plotline of this story, Butler isn't most people.
When you have protected, fed and cared for someone for their whole lives you get to know them. And Butler is one of those few people who was there since the beginning who stood at Artemis' shoulder the on the long climb to the top; who knew Artemis more than anyone else could.
Artemis has, or had really, a playlist of his favourite songs that he played constantly when he was working on a project. He only ever turned it off when he needed to concentrate hard, and you knew it was somehting difficult when Artemis needed to concentrate, and trust me if Artemis needed to concentrate hard you knew that if you tried to do what he was than you could have had an aneurysm.
So when the speakers stopped playing Butler contacted Commander Holly Short of Section 8 on the specially modified 'web cam' complete with gas screens and ear piece.
"Butler! Long time no see!" said Holly
"Hello to you too Holly. What happenned to your eyes?"
Holly's eyes were no longer the mismatched blue and brown they used to be. They were now both the same brown they used to be.
"Human eyes aren't as sensitive to light as ours so I had an eye transplant."
The screen split into two different parts accomadating the slightly goofy looking features of Foaly the centaur.
"It's because of evolution Butler. Just like how the elves used to have wings, once we moved below we needed better vision to see in the dark. So we all developed greater sensitivity to UV light and just light in general, this led to the rather large eyes that most of us have. There are other characteristics that have entered the gene pool including thicker skin on the soles of the feet, increased brain activity-"
During Folay's rant Butler made eye contact with Holly and she rolled her's slightly.
"Very interesting Foaly but we have slightly more important things to discuss than the evolutionary changes in the People, perhaps some other time, but right now I'm worried about Artemis."
"Why? What's wrong with him? Is he alright? Do you need help? If he thinks I'm coming up there to help him or be a test subject than be prepared to be dissapointed, I have responsibilities too you know! I can't go running around saving his scrawny little butt all the time! Who does he think he is! And if I did get a pass, then I couldn't possibly stay there for more than three days!" said Holly
After ward there was an awkward silence as everyone waited for Holly to recover from her outburst; after all elves are emotional creatures.
"I never asked you to come up here Holly, I never said anything like that." Butler reminded Holly
"Well you can't blame me for jumping to conclusions." she mumbled looking sheepish
"Well there is something I need you to do." Butler admitted "Foaly, could you hack into Artemis' computer for me?"
Both fairies looked at Butler like he had just bet against Mulch in an eating contest
AN! Okay very short I know! But I have this plan okay instead of doing medium/big chapters rarely im gonna do little snippets alot! Like eveyr 2-3 days! So maybe thatll make you guys feel like your getting more out of me
and finally this is like 4 years atfer TTP and also if any of you got the hhint as to my shipping than you get a virtal cookie! Yay! And alos here's a teaser for you to keep you hooked:
TEASER TEASER TEASER TEASER TEASER TEASER TEASER TEASER TEASER
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A MAIN CHARACTER DIES! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
read more to find out who! DUN DUN DUNNNN!