Of course, the kingdom mourned for their missing prince. They mourned for years, in fact. But, with time, people just... moved on. It was terrible that the prince had disappeared, yes, but there was nothing that anyone could do. There was simply no use waiting for a prince who would never come home, and whose dead body was probably rotting in a ditch somewhere.

Eventually, even the king and queen realized that their missing son would probably never come home. So, about 4 years after their first child went missing, two new members were added to the royal family.

The kingdom rejoiced, and so did their parents, but the air lacked the same jovial vibe that had been present during the birth of the first prince. Everyone was on guard, and the king and queen refused to let their children sleep alone until they were at least eight years old. The two boys, the 'Fowl Twins' as people had taken to calling them, grew up within the confines of the castle, always on the inside looking out. Whenever they complained about the rigid rules, they would be sternly reminded of the fate that had befallen their older brother, which never failed to stifle their protests.

Sometimes, they wondered whether things would've been different if their brother hadn't suddenly disappeared into the night. If, perhaps, they wouldn't feel so... so caged all the time. Sure, it was a luxurious cage, and they were surrounded by people who just wanted to keep them safe, but it was a cage nonetheless.

Maybe in another dimension, things could've been different. But, as it was, they were prisoners as much as their older brother.

******Line Break******

The kingdom moved on... but they never forgot.

Every year, the king and queen released thousands of lanterns into the night sky on Artemis' birthday in his honor. No one was sure whether they did it to mourn the supposed death of their missing son, or because they believed that the lanterns would guide him home, while some whispered that they only did it to convince themselves that they hadn't replaced him.

Whatever their motives were, the lantern festival took place every year, and soon, it became simply that: a festival. Not many really cared about why they celebrated it, and to most ,it was just an excuse to party.

But, there was one little boy, in a clearing not far from the palace, to whom the lanterns were very, very important.

Almost 15 years later...

Fourteen year old Artemis Fowl woke up with to see his cat staring at him with wide, intelligent eyes.

He shrieked, almost falling out of his bed in shock, as the cat in question yelped, disturbed from its comfy spot on its owners pillow.

"Minerva!" Artemis chided, once he had managed to regain control of his heartbeat, "Don't scare me like that! I could've woken up on time perfectly fine without that unwelcome burst of adrenalin!"

Minerva, a pure white cat with a lot of attitude, just raised a non-existent eyebrow, giving him the cat equivalent of disbelief.

"Fair point," Artemis conceded, climbing out of bed, "I may possibly have slept in for another few minutes, but that would have been it."

Minerva rolled her eyes, knowing from experience that her human friend would, in fact, not have slept in for only a few minutes.

"Don't give me that look." Artemis grumbled, speaking to the cat as though he could genuinely understand what she was saying. Of course, he had yet to invent a method to communicate verbally with his feline friend, but over the course of the last 10 years or so, the two had become so accustomed to each other's body language and other non-verbal cues, that they didn't need verbal communication. They had the uncanny ability to understand each other perfectly, something which the scientific side of Artemis was constantly trying to explain.

A few minutes later, Artemis was (more or less)up and about, ready to start his(incredibly boring) day.

Artemis was certainly not made for household chores, and more often than not, ended up setting the kitchen on fire while trying to bake something for dinner, or tripping over and spilling a pan full of dust all over the newly swept floor, but his mother certainly wouldn't lift a finger to help, and someone had to do them.

Despite all of his mother's grace and intelligence, Opal could not bake if her life depended on it. She often claimed that she had neither the time nor patience to help out with chores, and 8 year old Artemis, had (foolishly) believed her. He had taken it upon himself to do all of the day's chores by himself, just to make her feel better after a particularly bad day. At the time, Opal had simply patted his cheek fondly and asked him if he could do it again the next day, because she was feeling a bit under the weather. Younger Artemis had agreed, and ever since, his mother simply expected him to get all the chores done by the time she returned, and what had started out as a way to gain his mother's approval turned into an everyday routine.

Artemis now knew that his mother was more than capable of doing physical work, and just didn't want to, but he never pointed it out. He had learnt early on that his mother had a very...reserved way of showing that she cared. Artemis knew that she cared about him, of course, but the older he got, the more he realized how forced her smiles were. He didn't dwell on it for long though. After all, she worked hard everyday, venturing out of the tower into the dangerous world outside just to keep food on their plates. She was allowed to be a bit grumpy every now and then, and her smiles were probably only forced because she was so tired.

Right?

******Line Break******

Artemis had been helping out with 'the family business' since he turned twelve, but he had never been allowed to leave the tower with his mother on business trips. Not that he wanted to, of course. The world was a terrible place after all, and who knew how many horrible things could happen to him if he left?

Artemis could easily be classified as what people would call 'a genius'. He had a knack for tinkering, and had already pushed the boundaries of science more than once. The entire tower was cluttered up with Artemis experiments, and several ropes hung from the ceiling in elaborate pulley systems, designed the either pull someone up, or lower them to the ground. They came in handy while painting the ceilings.

Artemis had recently been focusing on robots. They were metal animals that he had realized could be used to perform certain tasks. He hadn't figured out how to create a fully functioning human robot yet, but the various robotic animals scurrying around the tower were a decent start.

According to his mother, the robotic animals were bringing in a lot of money, which was basically her way of subtly asking him to make more. And so, another thing was added to his routine, and another hobby was turned into a chore.

By the time Artemis finally finished all of his chores, it was past lunchtime.

With a dramatic groan, he collapsed into an armchair.

"This routine is starting to get boring." he grumbled, "Do you think we should mix it up a bit next week, Minerva? Maybe we could do the cooking before the sweeping next time. That would liven things up a bit, right Minerva?" he asked.

Minerva jumped off his lap, and started pulling on his trouser leg.

"What are you- Okay! I'm going, I'm going! Hurry up though, would you? You know that I need to get started on that new robotic cat that mother asked me to make."

His cat just tugged on his trouser even harder, and Artemis hurriedly stood up, afraid that Minerva would rip his new pair of pants as well.

Artemis let Minerva guide him to the other side of the room, and watched as she hopped onto the window sill with ease.

"Meow." she insisted, glancing meaningfully towards the grassy clearing outside the tower.

Artemis scoffed, "You want me to leave the tower? Minerva, we've been over this. I'm perfectly happy here, and so are you." he sighed, turning away from the window, "It's safer in here. You know what mother said. It's for the best." he said softly.

Minerva made a few discontented noises before giving up(for the time being) and following her human back inside.

Artemis stopped in front of a wall, littered with paintings from various stages of Artemis' life. The ones closer to the bottom were messier, and were clearly drawn by a child, whereas the higher ones were more sophisticated, and had only been drawn recently. His eyes drifted upwards to a blank space, one of the only spots not already occupied by some other piece of art.

"You know what?" he said to Minerva, climbing onto his pulley swing and pulling himself higher, "I think I have just enough time to finish one painting before working on that robot."

As Artemis started to paint, he couldn't help but wonder whether Minerva was right. The world just looked so beautiful! How could something so beautiful be so horrible?

Was it possible that mother was wrong?

This wasn't the first time that such a thought had occurred to the young genius, but instead of swatting it away like he usually did, Artemis clung to it. Tomorrow was his birthday, and those floating lights, which he presumed were some sort of lanterns or flying candles, would appear. He'd never suggested going to see them, because he had no doubt that his mother would refuse. She would bring out the same old argument.

'They're just stars, Artemis. Don't be ridiculous.' she would say, 'Besides, you wouldn't survive a day out there.' then her expression would darken, 'The world is a dangerous place, darling. We stay in this tower to keep you safe. Don't go and jeopardize your life chasing after some silly stars.'

But would be turning fifteen tomorrow, and he was already so good at taking care of himself! Maybe mother was wrong. She was barely ever around anyway. She had no way of knowing whether he was ready or not.

Maybe, just maybe, it was about time for him to take matters into his own hands.

He smiled his famous vampire grin, which was known for frightening even his mother.

He was a genius, after all. Planning a secret trip to see the lights would be a piece of cake.

A.N:

For clarification purposes, this story isn't set in the same time period as the Tangled movie. It's set a bit later, explaining the robots. I know that that's probably not scientifically accurate at all, but it seemed like a cool idea at the time. Also, by robots, I mean pretty crude mechanical animals, like the sort of things you'd expect to see during the 20th century.

Yes, the twins will play a pretty big role in this, because while I don't particularly love the Fowl Twins series, I do love the twins themselves.

Let me know what you think of this chapter!

-Keera