Holly Short woke very slowly, as though swimming up from a deep lake beginning in an obscure darkness that slowly lightened. Suddenly conscious enough to hear, she heard nothing but the clicking of laptop keys. The room was dark behind her closed eyes. She dimly remembered the pain of awakening last, and opted to lay still. She felt drowsy, as though still not fully conscious. Her mind slowly began piecing together the events of the past day. She remembered the pain as the metal pole hit her. The vivid red sparks flashed across her eyes and she moaned; a cracked, dry sound. She heard someone else in the room start up. The typing ceased and she heard footsteps quietly walk to her side. She struggled to open her eyes, but a hand gently covered them.
Artemis Fowl had been startled to say the least when he heard Holly moan. It had been silent for so long in the room. He quickly moved to her side. She was struggling to open her eyes, but he put a hand over them. He didn't want her to see the IV fluids and freak out. He laid his other hand on her arm.
"Shh Holly. Please don't move," he pleaded.
She groaned again in reply and struggled to open her eyes against his hand. Stubborn elf. He sighed and moved his hand and allowed her to open her eyes. She did so, but couldn't see immediately because her eyes were unfocused.
Holly knew the voice. She just couldn't figure out who it was. He was obviously concerned about her, but his hand holding her eyes closed was just plain annoying and altogether unhelpful. She groaned again and struggled to get her eyes open. She opened her eyes, and waited for them to focus on the human shape in front of her. She looked up into a pair of mismatched eyes that were looking down on her with concern.
"A-Artemis?" She whispered. "Did you… catch the thing… that did this… to me?" Her voice was strained and almost inaudible.
"What thing?" He asked, confused.
"The thing… that bit my leg."
Artemis didn't reply. He removed the covers from over her legs and rolled the pants legs up. Sure enough, on her left calf, there was a bloodied, swollen imprint of some very sharp, shark-like teeth. She shuddered with pain at his touch.
"Who… what did this to you?!" He exclaimed, anger and fear burning in his mismatched eyes.
She was shaking now, a ragged cough tearing at her body. Bloody foam appeared at the corner of her mouth. She started hoarsely crying out and writhing in pain. Artemis was shocked at her condition. He grabbed a sedative from the nearby table. He managed to hold one of her arms still long enough for him to inject the sedative into a vein. Her movements slowed, became twitching, and eventually stopped. She now breathed ragged breaths, eyes open but unseeing.
"Holly…" Artemis said, almost despairingly. He twisted his communicator on and called Foaly. The centaur didn't bother looking through medical records. Instead, he authorized No.1 and Qwan to teleport to the manor. Artemis was extremely glad they could do this, as Holly's condition was rapidly deteriorating.
"I don't understand how we missed this!" No. 1 exclaimed upon examining the wound. "The magic should have healed it."
"Did the residual curse affect healing all over her body or just in the area it originated in? Artemis asked, thinking hard.
"It spread immediately through her blood stream when the area was pierced. Whatever bit her must have had some sort of infection that it transmitted to her." Qwan stated.
"Is it…" Artemis began, but was interrupted by No. 1.
"No, it's not rabies. The bloody foam was caused by a rib grazing her lung. It must have happened when she was thrashing about just now. That's another reason to keep her still. We will reset her ribs again, but after this, you will have to keep her tied down or heavily sedated. She will heal better if she's kept off of strong drugs, but if you are unable to restrain her, we might have to resort to sedation." The little imp shuffled nervously, knowing Holly's violent capabilities.
"We will also have to keep her from coughing. It is disrupting the healing process. Remember, next time she wakes, don't let her talk. Beg her, bribe her, or get Juliet and Butler to threaten her. Whatever works. We can't have her complicating matters with more internal injuries." Qwan stated. "Go find some sort of tie-downs for her. Make them gentle, but firm. No need for her to think she's been tied up as some sort of hostage."
"But what bit her?" Artemis asked, still puzzled.
"The DNA we took from the wound indicates a wild cat. Maybe a cougar. It evidently saw or smelled her blood and drug her off into the woods for a snack. It must have reached the stream where you found her when it heard you two, so it left her there and ran." Qwan surmised.
"I wish it were that easy," Butler said, walking into the room. "But cougars are not native to Ireland. I'm unaware of any that have been released into the wild. Besides, they stalk and ambush their prey, not scavenge. Holly was only bitten on the leg to be drug off. If it wanted to eat her, it would have killed her first, then drug her off. This is uncharacteristic of their species. It leads me to think it was a trained animal."
"Are you sure it was wild cat DNA? A dog could have done the same sort of damage." Artemis said, concerned that the stories were not matching up. This almost always meant foul play. Oh God. Enough with the bad puns. He admonished himself.
The warlocks nodded.
"I guess that leaves us to see who has imported cougars or other large cats into the country. I'm suspecting that someone is behind this; someone who has access to large cats," Artemis mused. "Somebody must have known she was there and sent the cougar to drag her off. Not an altogether smart move considering we showed up before the cougar could drag her too far."
"Artemis," Butler began. "This…"
"Sounds like a trap. Yes. Or a really stupid villain." Artemis finished for him. "It can't be Koboi. Koboi of the past was sent back to her time, and the present one is locked up still." The boy thought for a moment. "This will have to be looked into, but I think we have time. We need to work on Holly first before we find her attacker." He nodded at Butler who was holding a roll of athletic wrap from the dojo. Qwan inspected it and decided that it would serve their purposes.
Holly had slipped off further into unconsciousness while they talked. The demons examined her leg, prescribed more of the salve, and supervised her restraining. Juliet had come with more of the wrap and systematically, they wrapped her arms to the bars on the sides of the bed, (it was Angeline's old hospital bed) restrained her legs, hips, chest and neck by wrapping the bandage all the way around the bed. The bindings were not too tight, but tight enough to prevent her from moving very far should she start to flail again.
Fortunately there hadn't been a lot of damage to her lung. The demons reset the ribs, and wrapped the bandage tighter, to keep the ribs from moving. This would restrict her breathing and possibly complicate the pneumonia, but in about a weeks time she'd be able to heal herself if she didn't cause any more internal injuries.
"She might have to have an oxygen mask. She will not be able to breathe very deeply with the tighter binding, so she will need more oxygen in each breath she takes. Can you get some?" Qwan asked Artemis.
"Certainly," the boy said. At a look from Artemis, Butler left to buy an oxygen tank and mask. Juliet stayed for the final instructions from the warlocks.
"Another question," Artemis began. "What can she eat? She certainly won't be able to sit up in this condition. She's not dehydrated because I've kept her on this drip, but she hasn't been awake enough to get any food down."
"That's probably just as well. Anything that goes down her throat may irritate it and make her cough. Talk to Foaly about it. I'm sure he has invented something to provide the necessary calories through a drip." No. 1 instructed. "We will discuss this with him when we return."
"Keep in mind though," Qwan stated, "she will not enjoy being helpless like this. You will need to reassure her. Physical touch helps often. Spoken words too. Even if she's unconscious, subconsciously they will relax her mind and body. You and the Butlers must keep this up as often as you can so she doesn't wake up like that again. I will ask Foaly if he can send up a brain-wave monitor, so you can have some kind of forewarning to when she will wake up."
Artemis thanked the warlocks, and they teleported back to Haven. About three minutes later, when Artemis was taking Holly's pulse and temperature, several boxes appeared in the middle of the floor. He opened one of the boxes to find a strange little machine with a few wires running off of it with adhesive pads on the end. He set it up, pressing the sticky pads gently to Holly's temples. He connected it wirelessly with his wrist computer and set an alarm to go off whenever she began to wake.
The other box contained more IV fluids. These were a darker color and were marked IVFR (Intravenous Food Replacement). Very original, Foaly. There were more of the simple liquid ones too. Her latest one was almost empty, so he switched them out. The third box contained some things that made Artemis smile. It was a small pot of earth and an acorn in a vial. She won't even have to get out of bed.
(Thanks to ilex-ferox for telling me that cougars are not native to Ireland. I totally missed that - I must be slipping. That detail fixed on 7-19-09)
-bholley