Alley's pov

This place was huge, just huge. Alley was standing in the middle of the hall, staring at the huge, fancy front door, and then the fancy, huge chandelier and then the huge, fancy rug under her bare feet. She'd run out of words to call this house, or maybe it was a palace, either way, the only things she could think about it were: huge and fancy, fancy and huge.

And the windows, they were big enough to live in. the ceiling was so high, Alley could have flown in this room easy.

"Hello," the boy's voice made Alley jump. Literally. She unfurled her wings and flapped hard, gaining about five feet before she felt the stab of pain from her left wing. Then came the graceless fall. Tears filled her eyes; that had hurt all lot more than she thought it would. It had jolted her stitched up bullet wound.

She swiped the tears out of her eyes with her good hand.

"Are you alright?" the woman from the woods asked.

"Yep, I do that for fun." Alley said sarcastically, getting to her feet. She forced her mouth to smile.

The woman didn't respond, neither did the boy, or the big man. Alley swallowed hard and faced them. The woman looked concerned, so did the big man. The boy looked whitecoat-y, like he wanted scans and blood tests.

Alley tossed her head like she really did do that for fun. "Where is my sister? Nudge?" she asked.

The whitecoat-y look on the boy's face fell away. "She's just in the kitchen, are you sure you're unhurt?"

"Yes. I'm peachy keen, never been better." Alley lied with a huge smile. Her arm hurt again, she was dizzy and her head felt like a sack of lead lumps. And her wing was throbbing. Not to mention the new bruises from the fall that would turn her skin black later. Yep, she was fine, alright!

"Would you like something to eat?" the boy asked, he was talking down to her, like she was a five-year-old! Wait, she was a five-year-old, but she wasn't stupid.

Alley took a big breath. "I am unable to ingest anything at the present time, for I have, regrettably, just consumed nourishment, and have no appetite, but I acknowledge the kindness shown in such an offer." Alley said pompously, only stumbling over the words 'nourishment' and 'acknowledge'. This was the upside to remembering everything. Plus, she knew better than to accept food from strangers.

The woman and big man laughed softly.

"I see," the boy frowned. "Perhaps something to drink?" he didn't have the baby-talk tone anymore; he knew who he was dealing with.

"No, but thank you," Alley frowned right back. Drinks were also a no-no.

"Alley-" the boy started. "Your name is Alley, am I correct?"

"Depends who's asking." Alley said coolly.

"I am Artemis Fowl the second, this is my mother, Angeline Fowl, and this is my old friend, and body guard, Butler." He nodded at the woman and then the big man.

"Uh-hu, I'm Alley." Alley gave up, he had already known her name, so giving a fake would make her look crazy, or at least like she was keeping secrets.

"Alley, would you mind telling me where you got your wings?" Artemis asked calmly.

"Half price at Macy's." Alley smirked. Eat it. She thought.

"Aha, I see," Artemis frowned again. "And how old are you?" he persisted.

Alley took her time counting on her fingers, mumbling, "ten plus twenty-five… minus six, carry the eight… plus nine… and then a little swirly thingy," she looked up at Artemis, "five years, ten months, one week and two days old." She grinned, even though her head was pounding and she was pretty sure she had skipped a week. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen," Artemis said briskly.

"'Kay, and where did you get your eyebrows?" Alley asked quickly.

"Are you sure you're not hungry, dear?" the woman, Angeline saved Artemis from the rapid fire drill Alley was about to start. That was how you dealt with whitecoats; ask more questions than they did.

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you." Alley was getting dizzier. She felt floaty again. She would have rubbed her head, but she knew that showing any sign that she was in pain could be very, very bad. "I wanna talk to Nudge." She added. She could tell Nudge everything, and Nudge could help.

"All right," Artemis said. He led Alley into the huge, fancy kitchen. Nudge was sitting there, staring at the stove like she thought it might start dancing or something.

"Alley!" she jumped out of her chair. "Are you okay?" she hugged Alley tight, and Alley felt a little safer.

"No, I'm scared and dizzy, and everything hurts." Alley whispered in Nudges ear, out loud, she said, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good," Nudge said, "I called Max and left a message, she should call back."

Max's pov

Angel and Iggy weren't joking, or crazy, or anything. There really was an elf. I freaking tripped over an elf. And here I was thinking I'd seen everything. An elf, jeezums! My life is now the weirdest thing ever.

Her name was Caption Holly Short, and she was. She was shorter than Angel.

"I'm part of the fairy police," she was explaining. "The LEPrecon, and I'm here because-"

Gazzy cut her off. "Because someone's after your Lucky Charms?" he asked, his eyes lighting up.

Iggy snickered.

"Um, no," she looked slightly ticked off; someone definitely was after her Lucky Charms. "Because one of the Fairy People's most wanted is on the loose with some very dangerous mud- humans."

"What are mud-humans?" Gazzy asked. "They sound dangerous, do you fight them with soapy water? Are they like snow men?"

"Don't be stupid," Iggy said. "Mud-humans are what you get when you don't shower for a while. Like Max."

"Hey!" I turned on Iggy. "You are so dead-"

"Guys, shut up." Fang said quietly, we all did. "Go on, Caption Short."

"No, wait." Angel, who looked terrified, spoke suddenly. "Jeb and Scott? Oh god. Max, we have to find Alley and Nudge and get out of here."

"What? Why? What do Jeb and Scott have to do with anything?" I said, dreading the answer.

At the same time Holly Short was asking. "Do you know them?"

"Yeah," Fang said softly. "Jeb made us."

[dun-dun-DUN! How exciting! how will Holly react to that statement? what will happen next? what are Opal, Scott and Jeb planing? Why did Holly tell the flock so much? Will Holly's Lucky Charms ever be safe? review if you want to know. just do it. I dare you to, click the button. I double dog dare you! until next time, this is a girl with far too little time on her hands, signing off]