Ooh. This is a long one. Thank you to my reviewers!
*
Chapter Nine; Towers of Gondor
"I know I shouldn't ask," Tessa remarked after several minutes trying to mount a bareback horse, "but how on earth do you manage this?"
The horse snorted loudly.
"I mean there's no handholds and if you grab its mane it bites you." Tessa eyed her bleeding wrist unenthusiastically. "Besides which it's about as tall as me."
Artemis was having much the same problem. Alison, being extremely tall, was sitting uncomfortably on a quarter horse; Jennie straddled a pony that seemed to be rounder than it was tall. Her thighs were stretched almost unbearably apart. Her cousin hid a grin and looked back at her own mount.
"Let me on? Please?"
It stepped backward and narrowly missed her foot. She jumped.
The mastermind nearby was going for the run-and-leap-method. His black mare whinnied as he collided with her side, one leg caught over her back. Painfully he hung there for a split second before slamming to the ground.
Rubbing his inner thigh and flinching continuously at the sprained muscles there, Artemis complained to the nearby Riders of Rohan, who were laughing so hard they were almost doubled over. "I thought this was supposed to be easy!"
"It's obvious you have never ridden a horse before. We will have to carry you lest you break our steeds." Haraj was scowling.
"Well, corrals are much safer; their horses have saddles." Tessa swung her leg high, hooked it over the horse's back, and hoisted herself up, grabbing at the blue roan's neck. His ears went flat, but Tessa beamed; she was astride a horse!
Artemis flushed as two Riders helped him onto the coarse back. Haraj with a relieved sigh ordered them to move out.
A few minutes later, he looked back. Tessa was kicking her horse's ribs desperately, Artemis was yelling things like GEE-UP in utter embarrassment, Ally's horse had decided to go the other direction, and Jennie's was grazing unconcernedly.
She covered her eyes. "God this is embarrassing."
"No kidding," said Tessa, digging her heels in hard.
Famous last words. The horse reared.
*
Four hours later, the quartet arrived in Gondor.
*
Tessa looked with wide eyes at the mother-of-pearl pillars around her as she wandered disbelievingly over the threshold of Gondor. Guards clad in the colors of the Mark mulled around, eying the cousins' garments suspiciously.
"Why did you take us here? Aren't you Riders of Rohan?"
Haraj gave her an exasperated look. "The Red Arrow has been sent to us. Theoden had us ride forth. Aragorn son of Arathorn has ridden to war!"
Jennie and Tessa squealed. "He has? He did? When? Yesterday? When will he be back? Is Legolas with him? Is Pippin here? Is Merry? Where are the hobbits? Where's Legolas?"
Artemis stuffed his hands in his bathrobe pockets and concentrated on not snickering.
The cousins looked at each other and squealed again. "You mean we're HERE right NOW? What a perfect time! Thank you Holly wherever you are! Has the Ring been destroyed yet?"
Haraj looked at them suspiciously. "You should not speak so lightly of the matters beyond your comprehension."
Jennie snorted loudly. "I've read the books ten times!"
The Rider of Rohan raised his eyebrows.
Tessa cut in hurriedly. "Where in the books ARE we? Like is Pippin still here?"
"Peregrin Took," Haraj said, obviously beginning to be annoyed, "is at the House of Healing, for his companion Meriadoc Brandybuck is sorely wounded."
The cousins looked at each other. Tessa sighed. "That's where we are. Okay, that works. Take us to the House of Healing please."
"You know them?"
Alison managed to keep a straight face. "Let us say they have encountered them before and delighted in the meeting. But this will be their first reunion in Gondor. Or Middle-Earth for that matter."
Haraj glowered. "Speak not in riddles. We have enough to puzzle out."
" 'Seek for the Sword that was Broken, in Imladris it dwells,'" Tessa sang, skipping ahead as the Captain of Rohan led them to the House of Healing.
Artemis caught up with their guide and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. These cousins make everyone they talk to feel like they're losing their marbles."
"Marbles?"
Artemis rolled his eyes and gave up.
*
Holly woke, surprisingly more tired than she had been to begin with. Her power was almost completely gone. And so, she noticed, were the cousins.
An uneasy feeling stirred in her gut. Laboriously, she climbed from the bed and left the house, her mind focused on one blurred thing. Fumbling around her neck as she knelt on the lawn, she broke open a sphere of dirt and caught the acorn as it tumbled from its enclosure. She wedged it into the dirt.
Power seared through her, making her feel better. The captain staggered to her feet, dehydration replaced by a feeling of strength. But no sooner had she stood up than a gloved hand struck her to the ground.
"HOLLY!"
Captain Kelp's familiar voice instantly banished the terror that had leaped into her throat.
"Trouble? What are you doing here?"
"Foaly sent a Retrieval team as soon as he realized you were unconscious." Captain Kelp apologetically helped her to her feet after running a systems check on her with a scan bar. "Sorry it took us so long, Holly. Some T.V. satellite spotted us and there was mass mind wiping to be done. A crisis might have been prevented had we hurried." His eyes darkened.
"But I'm fine. I completed the Ritual and my power is back." Holly tried to console him.
"Not that! Those cousins, Artemis Fowl, and the other girl, what's-her- name, Alison."
"They're here too."
Trouble tried hard to keep from shrieking. "No, Holly. Tessa wished on your unsupervised magic, and it came true. All four are in a world that's not supposed to exist."
Holly blinked. "And that's bad?"
"It's never happened before! We have no idea what to do!"
"Foaly can -"
"Foaly is clueless. Their chances of coming back alive are one in a million, Holly!" Trouble slumped on the ground next to her. "When I think of what we could have stopped had we hurried -"
Holly shook her head, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder. "No, there's a way to save them.
"There has to be."
Behind them, the rest of the Retrieval team landed and stored their helmets away, breathing in the night air jubilantly. Had either of the cousins' moms been awake, she would have found the scene unusual. But thankfully enough they were both asleep. Or so the elves thought.
Trouble looked away from Holly's anxious features and bellowed at the others. "Come on, we have to get this time-stop set up and take Holly back underground. It's already about midnight. Move!"
The team worked hurriedly. Captain Kelp spoke into his mouthpiece rapidly as the time-stop elevated discs were set. "Foaly, are you ready?"
Holly grabbed a helmet and fit the mouthpiece to her size. She interrupted Trouble. "Foaly, I can't go back underground! Not now!"
"Sweetheart, you have no choice if you want to save Fowl. We need your magic to do a trace. Hopefully you haven't replenished it yet."
Holly groaned, giving him her answer.
"Well, we'll just need more magic than usual." Foaly's disappointment was clear in his normally buoyant tones. A keyboard rattled under his fingertips in the background, and the time-stop blossomed over the house in a milky dome. "You were going to have to come back anyway. How's that, Trubs?" he asked, deftly changing the subject. "Is that the best time-stop you've ever seen or what?"
"Ummm, yeah -"
"But Foaly," Holly protested.
Root's voice boomed over the speaker. "No buts, Captain. You get down here on the double and no solo life-saving this time, okay? This is all your fault! None of this would have happened had you followed my orders! Now GET DOWN HERE BEFORE I THROW YOU ON DRAIN DUTY FOR THE NEXT CENTURY!"
"Thanks for the confidence booster." Holly cut off his scathing reply by flicking the power switch, feeling peeved. Root was right. This was her fault. Artemis Fowl somehow pulled her into trouble every time. But this time, she would have to pull him out, is she wanted him to survive.
The Retrieval team was moving out. Trouble grabbed her wrist and yanked her along. "Come on, Holly, we only have eight hours!"
*
Foaly looked up as a group surrounded the Ops booth doors. Root was too busy reading a pod surveillance report to notice until the centaur drove his elbow into the commander's ribs. He yelped and spent a few moments working himself into a rage before actually seeing the reason for his new bruise. "Oh. Holly?"
The captain reluctantly entered the booth. Foaly hid his grin at her multicolored Mud Child garb by hastily turning to his laptop. "Good. You're alive. We thought that your power drainage might have downed your statistics, but apparently you're still kicking."
"I kick pretty hard, Foaly, so you might want to watch what you ask for." Holly had guessed the reason for his wide grin and scowled down at her overalls.
Root was smiling too. "Any ideas on how we're going to save Artemis Fowl, Foaly? New ones, not the ones that you've rejected for their complete lack of intellect?"
Despite the stinging insult, Foaly sobered immediately. "Well, Julius -"
Moderately sobered, that is.
"seeing as you're on a time limit, the easiest way would be to track something of theirs. From there -"
"Cell phone!" Holly's eyes lit up. "Artemis Fowl always has his cell phone."
"Do you have the number?" Root asked Foaly, who was already typing a message.
"I have all numbers," said Foaly, and sent the message.
*
Eip. Five pages on Microsoft Word. o.0
*
Chapter Nine; Towers of Gondor
"I know I shouldn't ask," Tessa remarked after several minutes trying to mount a bareback horse, "but how on earth do you manage this?"
The horse snorted loudly.
"I mean there's no handholds and if you grab its mane it bites you." Tessa eyed her bleeding wrist unenthusiastically. "Besides which it's about as tall as me."
Artemis was having much the same problem. Alison, being extremely tall, was sitting uncomfortably on a quarter horse; Jennie straddled a pony that seemed to be rounder than it was tall. Her thighs were stretched almost unbearably apart. Her cousin hid a grin and looked back at her own mount.
"Let me on? Please?"
It stepped backward and narrowly missed her foot. She jumped.
The mastermind nearby was going for the run-and-leap-method. His black mare whinnied as he collided with her side, one leg caught over her back. Painfully he hung there for a split second before slamming to the ground.
Rubbing his inner thigh and flinching continuously at the sprained muscles there, Artemis complained to the nearby Riders of Rohan, who were laughing so hard they were almost doubled over. "I thought this was supposed to be easy!"
"It's obvious you have never ridden a horse before. We will have to carry you lest you break our steeds." Haraj was scowling.
"Well, corrals are much safer; their horses have saddles." Tessa swung her leg high, hooked it over the horse's back, and hoisted herself up, grabbing at the blue roan's neck. His ears went flat, but Tessa beamed; she was astride a horse!
Artemis flushed as two Riders helped him onto the coarse back. Haraj with a relieved sigh ordered them to move out.
A few minutes later, he looked back. Tessa was kicking her horse's ribs desperately, Artemis was yelling things like GEE-UP in utter embarrassment, Ally's horse had decided to go the other direction, and Jennie's was grazing unconcernedly.
She covered her eyes. "God this is embarrassing."
"No kidding," said Tessa, digging her heels in hard.
Famous last words. The horse reared.
*
Four hours later, the quartet arrived in Gondor.
*
Tessa looked with wide eyes at the mother-of-pearl pillars around her as she wandered disbelievingly over the threshold of Gondor. Guards clad in the colors of the Mark mulled around, eying the cousins' garments suspiciously.
"Why did you take us here? Aren't you Riders of Rohan?"
Haraj gave her an exasperated look. "The Red Arrow has been sent to us. Theoden had us ride forth. Aragorn son of Arathorn has ridden to war!"
Jennie and Tessa squealed. "He has? He did? When? Yesterday? When will he be back? Is Legolas with him? Is Pippin here? Is Merry? Where are the hobbits? Where's Legolas?"
Artemis stuffed his hands in his bathrobe pockets and concentrated on not snickering.
The cousins looked at each other and squealed again. "You mean we're HERE right NOW? What a perfect time! Thank you Holly wherever you are! Has the Ring been destroyed yet?"
Haraj looked at them suspiciously. "You should not speak so lightly of the matters beyond your comprehension."
Jennie snorted loudly. "I've read the books ten times!"
The Rider of Rohan raised his eyebrows.
Tessa cut in hurriedly. "Where in the books ARE we? Like is Pippin still here?"
"Peregrin Took," Haraj said, obviously beginning to be annoyed, "is at the House of Healing, for his companion Meriadoc Brandybuck is sorely wounded."
The cousins looked at each other. Tessa sighed. "That's where we are. Okay, that works. Take us to the House of Healing please."
"You know them?"
Alison managed to keep a straight face. "Let us say they have encountered them before and delighted in the meeting. But this will be their first reunion in Gondor. Or Middle-Earth for that matter."
Haraj glowered. "Speak not in riddles. We have enough to puzzle out."
" 'Seek for the Sword that was Broken, in Imladris it dwells,'" Tessa sang, skipping ahead as the Captain of Rohan led them to the House of Healing.
Artemis caught up with their guide and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. These cousins make everyone they talk to feel like they're losing their marbles."
"Marbles?"
Artemis rolled his eyes and gave up.
*
Holly woke, surprisingly more tired than she had been to begin with. Her power was almost completely gone. And so, she noticed, were the cousins.
An uneasy feeling stirred in her gut. Laboriously, she climbed from the bed and left the house, her mind focused on one blurred thing. Fumbling around her neck as she knelt on the lawn, she broke open a sphere of dirt and caught the acorn as it tumbled from its enclosure. She wedged it into the dirt.
Power seared through her, making her feel better. The captain staggered to her feet, dehydration replaced by a feeling of strength. But no sooner had she stood up than a gloved hand struck her to the ground.
"HOLLY!"
Captain Kelp's familiar voice instantly banished the terror that had leaped into her throat.
"Trouble? What are you doing here?"
"Foaly sent a Retrieval team as soon as he realized you were unconscious." Captain Kelp apologetically helped her to her feet after running a systems check on her with a scan bar. "Sorry it took us so long, Holly. Some T.V. satellite spotted us and there was mass mind wiping to be done. A crisis might have been prevented had we hurried." His eyes darkened.
"But I'm fine. I completed the Ritual and my power is back." Holly tried to console him.
"Not that! Those cousins, Artemis Fowl, and the other girl, what's-her- name, Alison."
"They're here too."
Trouble tried hard to keep from shrieking. "No, Holly. Tessa wished on your unsupervised magic, and it came true. All four are in a world that's not supposed to exist."
Holly blinked. "And that's bad?"
"It's never happened before! We have no idea what to do!"
"Foaly can -"
"Foaly is clueless. Their chances of coming back alive are one in a million, Holly!" Trouble slumped on the ground next to her. "When I think of what we could have stopped had we hurried -"
Holly shook her head, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder. "No, there's a way to save them.
"There has to be."
Behind them, the rest of the Retrieval team landed and stored their helmets away, breathing in the night air jubilantly. Had either of the cousins' moms been awake, she would have found the scene unusual. But thankfully enough they were both asleep. Or so the elves thought.
Trouble looked away from Holly's anxious features and bellowed at the others. "Come on, we have to get this time-stop set up and take Holly back underground. It's already about midnight. Move!"
The team worked hurriedly. Captain Kelp spoke into his mouthpiece rapidly as the time-stop elevated discs were set. "Foaly, are you ready?"
Holly grabbed a helmet and fit the mouthpiece to her size. She interrupted Trouble. "Foaly, I can't go back underground! Not now!"
"Sweetheart, you have no choice if you want to save Fowl. We need your magic to do a trace. Hopefully you haven't replenished it yet."
Holly groaned, giving him her answer.
"Well, we'll just need more magic than usual." Foaly's disappointment was clear in his normally buoyant tones. A keyboard rattled under his fingertips in the background, and the time-stop blossomed over the house in a milky dome. "You were going to have to come back anyway. How's that, Trubs?" he asked, deftly changing the subject. "Is that the best time-stop you've ever seen or what?"
"Ummm, yeah -"
"But Foaly," Holly protested.
Root's voice boomed over the speaker. "No buts, Captain. You get down here on the double and no solo life-saving this time, okay? This is all your fault! None of this would have happened had you followed my orders! Now GET DOWN HERE BEFORE I THROW YOU ON DRAIN DUTY FOR THE NEXT CENTURY!"
"Thanks for the confidence booster." Holly cut off his scathing reply by flicking the power switch, feeling peeved. Root was right. This was her fault. Artemis Fowl somehow pulled her into trouble every time. But this time, she would have to pull him out, is she wanted him to survive.
The Retrieval team was moving out. Trouble grabbed her wrist and yanked her along. "Come on, Holly, we only have eight hours!"
*
Foaly looked up as a group surrounded the Ops booth doors. Root was too busy reading a pod surveillance report to notice until the centaur drove his elbow into the commander's ribs. He yelped and spent a few moments working himself into a rage before actually seeing the reason for his new bruise. "Oh. Holly?"
The captain reluctantly entered the booth. Foaly hid his grin at her multicolored Mud Child garb by hastily turning to his laptop. "Good. You're alive. We thought that your power drainage might have downed your statistics, but apparently you're still kicking."
"I kick pretty hard, Foaly, so you might want to watch what you ask for." Holly had guessed the reason for his wide grin and scowled down at her overalls.
Root was smiling too. "Any ideas on how we're going to save Artemis Fowl, Foaly? New ones, not the ones that you've rejected for their complete lack of intellect?"
Despite the stinging insult, Foaly sobered immediately. "Well, Julius -"
Moderately sobered, that is.
"seeing as you're on a time limit, the easiest way would be to track something of theirs. From there -"
"Cell phone!" Holly's eyes lit up. "Artemis Fowl always has his cell phone."
"Do you have the number?" Root asked Foaly, who was already typing a message.
"I have all numbers," said Foaly, and sent the message.
*
Eip. Five pages on Microsoft Word. o.0