Chapter One.
Holly Short was flying low across the vast expanse of water in front of her, not noticing the usual thrill she got from above ground flying as she normally did.
Instead, her mind was wandering over to the events that had taken place over the past few weeks.
She had been staying at Fowl Manor every few days, as there was nothing going majorly wrong in the Lower Elements that urgently needed her attention, no goblin rebellions or megalomaniac pixie trying to overthrow the world, and Artemis's parents went on a resort holiday with the twins for a bit over a month.
And as Holly had put it, they never got to hang out.
So recently, they had been doing all sorts of activities together, sometimes accompanied by Mulch Diggums, the kleptomaniac dwarf, and always accompanied by Butler.
But not today.
Today it was just Artemis and Holly, going on a hike in the hills, only a few miles from Fowl Manor.
Normally, Artemis would be completely inept at any activity requiring a minimal amount of physical strain, but recently, during his ventures with Holly, he had been exercising a lot more than just his brain, and had even spent some time on the ridiculous home gymnasium he had purchased after rescuing his father from the Russian Mafia.
Sure, he wouldn't be winning any athletics tournaments any time soon, but he was quite defiantly much more capable of doing more "outdoorsy" stuff.
His ever-pale skin was even getting a touch of colour in it from the time he'd been spending outdoors recently.
Holly smiled through her visor.
Now there is a Mud Boy who is changing.
What suddenly came to mind, was their feelings for each other.
Artemis loved her, and she loved him back, but that was just how close they were, it could be nothing serious, right?
But even at that, an elf being so close to a Mud-Man, the council would never approve, and in fact, they didn't.
Had it not been from the huge influence from the commander, Trouble Kelp, the council would have suspended Holly's above-ground license.
But no need to think about that now, Holly had a Mud-Boy to see.
About half an hour ago, Artemis had sent Holly an e-mail, asking if she would come hiking with him, not far from Fowl Manor.
She was near Finland when she received it, once again on Kraken watch, the same one that had exploded recently, and no sooner had she read it had she patched through to Foaly the centaur, asking permission to take the rest of the day leave.
Of course, she really had to ask commander Kelp, but Foaly insisted that she ask him and he would pass on the message.
He took it as a chance to gloat, or simply sing, "Love is in the Air".
"…In the rising of the sun, love is in the air…"Foaly sang, seemingly to himself.
"Oh shut up you." Holly retorted, not planning to admit any time soon that she probably did have those feelings for him.
"We're just going hiking"
"Surely it can't be that big."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. So are you staying the night again?"
The image in Holly's visor couldn't hide the big grin on his face.
"I don't know yet, I'll wait and see when I get there."
"You are incredibly lucky that you have someone like Trouble Kelp as commander, I don't think anyone else would ever let you go above-ground for "bonding time" imagine what Sool would have said if you asked him. Well you just remember to stay safe."
"Again, we're just going hiking."
"Exactly." Said the centaur, grinning hugely, before cutting the line a second later.
Holly scowled at the place where Foaly image had been only a moment ago, and decided not to think about and continue on with her journey.
When she arrived at the Manor, Artemis Fowl was standing at the front door, looking quite smug in his suit, his bodyguard, Butler standing behind him.
"Good to see you again Arty." She said, giving him a brief, but close embrace.
"No hugs for me then?" Put in the huge manservant.
"Of course." She said, wrapping her small arms around Butler's huge neck.
"Surely you won't be wearing that while hiking." Said Holly, referring to Artemis's finely tailored suit.
"Of course not, I plan on putting on a change of clothes in a moment. Shall we go inside?"
Artemis led Holly to the gest bedroom, which had recently become Holly's temporary room, complete with a wardrobe full of elf-sized clothing.
"You may wish to change into something more suitable also." Artemis said, eyeing her LEP uniform.
Agreeing, she went into her room to change into some human clothes.
When she emerged, wearing a pair of cargo pants, and a simple green top, looking incredibly pretty, she found Butler giving Artemis strict instructions to avoid any people when possible and that if he didn't give him updates every ten minutes, he would come and find them.
Artemis turned to Holly, momentarily blown away by her stunning elfish features, but quickly regained his usual smug look.
"Shall we get going then?" He asked Holly, for he had also changed into something more suitable, a pair on sneakers, some shorts, and a dark blue shirt, sporting the Nike "Swoosh" upon it.
"Ready when you are." She replied.
And with that they embarked for the journey that held more for them than either could have guessed.