Chapter 2
Root tugged on his chin and remained silent, as well as every other fairy vying for a space in the Ops Booth. Those who hadn't heard it directly from Foaly's mouth soon heard it through the passing whispers.
"You're sure it's not a stray goblin?"
"The shoots were all cold during the past thirty-eight hours. Besides, it's still too big for any person of magic descent." Tapping his hind hooves agitatedly, Foaly scratched his back then coughed. "There is still the matter that Artemis saw it."
Redness surged through Root's face, "I'll have no dealings with that mud boy!"
Foaly shrugged, but continued to nervously.
"You can't mean to actually want to have contact with him do you?!"
"He saw what I figure no other human saw. I've been keeping a scanner on their nets. So far nothing. I'd even say that Artemis is already one step ahead of me. He's now looking into historical writings. Things from the Anglo-Saxon times."
"The Anglo-what?"
"A human time period."
"Ok, what has our boy found then?"
Foaly didn't miss the fact that Root was now calling the most despised human 'ours'. "Not much. He's translating a piece from Beowulf at this moment from the original text, seems to think that perhaps there was a misinterpretation." He glanced at one of his monitors and straightened in his seat. "Hey, wait a minute. It looks like he's really onto something here." Laughter burst from Foaly, "That kid never ceases to amaze me, even with his primitive human technology!"
Grumbling something incoherent, Root leaned over to see what Foaly was laughing at.
Pointing at the screen, Foaly snorted, "Look at this. Apparently, by the looks of things, the first translations lost the true meaning of the story of Beowulf when translators didn't understand what they were translating! Artemis, the little devil, found a copy of the original text! Incredible! There's an entire section they cut out."
Root remained silent.
Sighing melodramatically, Foaly grimaced, "I don't know Root. Artemis is way ahead of me on this. The Anglo Saxon language is a difficult language to translate..." He neglected to say that he'd done hundreds of times, considering it was actually based on the first Fairy tongue. He was eager to work with Artemis. A human master-mind; most likely the only person with intelligence remotely close to Foaly's.
Root looked concerned, "You mean you can't translate what this thing says?"
Looking at the ceiling, Foaly bit his tongue, "I don't know...it could take a couple of weeks." Again, he refrained from mentioning that, that was if he worked on it for an hour a day at most and at an incredibly slow rate.
"D'Arvit! I know what you're asking of me Foaly!"
Foaly looked up with innocent eyes. "What? Me? I haven't a clue what you mean!"
Root snorted piggishly and scowled, at least his colour was going down. "Ok..." He paused for effect, "Ok..."
"You going to get to the point?"
"Of course. Ok... Well. It looks like we don't have much choice."
Foaly was ready to cheer when Root announced, "Yup, it looks like we'll have to get the LEP on this. Can't have anybody dealing with something this serious." Root nodded to himself, apparently pleased with his decision. "Yes, I'm afraid to add this to their load, their busy enough as it is."
Root faced the crowd of on lookers and shooed them away. Flapping pudgy hands before him as he made his exit, leaving the shocked Foaly behind.
Foaly took hold of his senses and clambered awkwardly to his hooves. "Now hold on a moment Root. I have a better idea!"
Blithely ignoring Foaly, Root rummaged through a folder of papers that had been handed to him. Foaly took a few steps forward, but Root exclaimed loudly and hurried off. The secretary who'd handed Root the folder was pale.
"Something strange is up down at the city center," she explained.
"That makes a low second on my list," Foaly muttered.
Foaly stared blandly at his screens for a full minute. His hands were hanging at his sides and his face felt like it was sagging down to his belly. He needed some sleep, but how could he rest when there was the possibility of the strange phenomena happening again?
He groaned inwardly, lamenting the fact that no one else seemed to be as interested in this as he was. In fact, even the LEP weren't down here getting briefed by him on what was going on. So they were definitely out. There wasn't anyone else that could possibly help him...except for a certain human.
Why can't he just make it a 'hobby' to contact and observe humans? Or rather, a particular human? He snapped his fingers and smirked, Root wouldn't happy, but who of the fairy world would be? This was important, both the Fairy and Human could be relying on whatever he learned.
"Right then." He ran his fingers lovingly over the keyboard and began his first real offense against the Magic world.
"Butler, check the incoming lines. Something just flickered, like a bug's been placed." Artemis was already in a grumpy mood about the whole thing. There was hardly ever a time when something could actually stump him.
A few seconds later Artemis sighed, "Oh never mind Butler, I can do it myself." It only took a couple of minutes to check and the results did not please Artemis at all. A click of the mouse and a few codes entered and he found his problem. He'd been hacked.
A voice suddenly sounded over his speakers. "That's incredibly impressive. Seriously."
Looking over at his main monitor, Artemis's eyebrows shot up. Glancing warily around the room, he rolled his chair closer. He fitted his headset over his ears and pulled the microphone arm down. "I'd thank you for the kind remark, except I find that I am under strange circumstances."
The voice quavered slightly with laughter, "Ah yes. Strange indeed."
Artemis dove into the myriad of security determined to catch a trail that'd lead him to his visitor. But even Artemis's state of the art technology couldn't do that for him.
"You can't find me."
Resting hands before him, Artemis grinned slightly, "I'm going to assume that you have video feed on me as well as audio. That in itself is impressive, you'll be certainly the first to do so."
Again the laughter came, "The first and undoubtedly the one and only. You are the master mind of your kind."
"My kind?"
Foaly felt the muscles in his tummy tense. Artemis was sharp. "Um, bad choice of words."
"Is there a reason why you've contacted me?"
Artemis was beginning to look irritated at being disrupted. "Well I don't suppose there's any reason to beat around the bush, Artemis." Foaly watched closely for any reaction out of the boy at the mention of his name, but was sorely disappointed. "Well for starters, my name is Foaly." Again no reaction, just as there should be in that case.
"Go on, Mr Foaly."
Foaly made the hard decision of showing himself. If he was going to work with the boy, he didn't want the kid in the dark. He flipped his own camera on, revealing himself to Artemis.
"What the -!"
"Have you never seen a centaur before?"
Root tugged on his chin and remained silent, as well as every other fairy vying for a space in the Ops Booth. Those who hadn't heard it directly from Foaly's mouth soon heard it through the passing whispers.
"You're sure it's not a stray goblin?"
"The shoots were all cold during the past thirty-eight hours. Besides, it's still too big for any person of magic descent." Tapping his hind hooves agitatedly, Foaly scratched his back then coughed. "There is still the matter that Artemis saw it."
Redness surged through Root's face, "I'll have no dealings with that mud boy!"
Foaly shrugged, but continued to nervously.
"You can't mean to actually want to have contact with him do you?!"
"He saw what I figure no other human saw. I've been keeping a scanner on their nets. So far nothing. I'd even say that Artemis is already one step ahead of me. He's now looking into historical writings. Things from the Anglo-Saxon times."
"The Anglo-what?"
"A human time period."
"Ok, what has our boy found then?"
Foaly didn't miss the fact that Root was now calling the most despised human 'ours'. "Not much. He's translating a piece from Beowulf at this moment from the original text, seems to think that perhaps there was a misinterpretation." He glanced at one of his monitors and straightened in his seat. "Hey, wait a minute. It looks like he's really onto something here." Laughter burst from Foaly, "That kid never ceases to amaze me, even with his primitive human technology!"
Grumbling something incoherent, Root leaned over to see what Foaly was laughing at.
Pointing at the screen, Foaly snorted, "Look at this. Apparently, by the looks of things, the first translations lost the true meaning of the story of Beowulf when translators didn't understand what they were translating! Artemis, the little devil, found a copy of the original text! Incredible! There's an entire section they cut out."
Root remained silent.
Sighing melodramatically, Foaly grimaced, "I don't know Root. Artemis is way ahead of me on this. The Anglo Saxon language is a difficult language to translate..." He neglected to say that he'd done hundreds of times, considering it was actually based on the first Fairy tongue. He was eager to work with Artemis. A human master-mind; most likely the only person with intelligence remotely close to Foaly's.
Root looked concerned, "You mean you can't translate what this thing says?"
Looking at the ceiling, Foaly bit his tongue, "I don't know...it could take a couple of weeks." Again, he refrained from mentioning that, that was if he worked on it for an hour a day at most and at an incredibly slow rate.
"D'Arvit! I know what you're asking of me Foaly!"
Foaly looked up with innocent eyes. "What? Me? I haven't a clue what you mean!"
Root snorted piggishly and scowled, at least his colour was going down. "Ok..." He paused for effect, "Ok..."
"You going to get to the point?"
"Of course. Ok... Well. It looks like we don't have much choice."
Foaly was ready to cheer when Root announced, "Yup, it looks like we'll have to get the LEP on this. Can't have anybody dealing with something this serious." Root nodded to himself, apparently pleased with his decision. "Yes, I'm afraid to add this to their load, their busy enough as it is."
Root faced the crowd of on lookers and shooed them away. Flapping pudgy hands before him as he made his exit, leaving the shocked Foaly behind.
Foaly took hold of his senses and clambered awkwardly to his hooves. "Now hold on a moment Root. I have a better idea!"
Blithely ignoring Foaly, Root rummaged through a folder of papers that had been handed to him. Foaly took a few steps forward, but Root exclaimed loudly and hurried off. The secretary who'd handed Root the folder was pale.
"Something strange is up down at the city center," she explained.
"That makes a low second on my list," Foaly muttered.
Foaly stared blandly at his screens for a full minute. His hands were hanging at his sides and his face felt like it was sagging down to his belly. He needed some sleep, but how could he rest when there was the possibility of the strange phenomena happening again?
He groaned inwardly, lamenting the fact that no one else seemed to be as interested in this as he was. In fact, even the LEP weren't down here getting briefed by him on what was going on. So they were definitely out. There wasn't anyone else that could possibly help him...except for a certain human.
Why can't he just make it a 'hobby' to contact and observe humans? Or rather, a particular human? He snapped his fingers and smirked, Root wouldn't happy, but who of the fairy world would be? This was important, both the Fairy and Human could be relying on whatever he learned.
"Right then." He ran his fingers lovingly over the keyboard and began his first real offense against the Magic world.
"Butler, check the incoming lines. Something just flickered, like a bug's been placed." Artemis was already in a grumpy mood about the whole thing. There was hardly ever a time when something could actually stump him.
A few seconds later Artemis sighed, "Oh never mind Butler, I can do it myself." It only took a couple of minutes to check and the results did not please Artemis at all. A click of the mouse and a few codes entered and he found his problem. He'd been hacked.
A voice suddenly sounded over his speakers. "That's incredibly impressive. Seriously."
Looking over at his main monitor, Artemis's eyebrows shot up. Glancing warily around the room, he rolled his chair closer. He fitted his headset over his ears and pulled the microphone arm down. "I'd thank you for the kind remark, except I find that I am under strange circumstances."
The voice quavered slightly with laughter, "Ah yes. Strange indeed."
Artemis dove into the myriad of security determined to catch a trail that'd lead him to his visitor. But even Artemis's state of the art technology couldn't do that for him.
"You can't find me."
Resting hands before him, Artemis grinned slightly, "I'm going to assume that you have video feed on me as well as audio. That in itself is impressive, you'll be certainly the first to do so."
Again the laughter came, "The first and undoubtedly the one and only. You are the master mind of your kind."
"My kind?"
Foaly felt the muscles in his tummy tense. Artemis was sharp. "Um, bad choice of words."
"Is there a reason why you've contacted me?"
Artemis was beginning to look irritated at being disrupted. "Well I don't suppose there's any reason to beat around the bush, Artemis." Foaly watched closely for any reaction out of the boy at the mention of his name, but was sorely disappointed. "Well for starters, my name is Foaly." Again no reaction, just as there should be in that case.
"Go on, Mr Foaly."
Foaly made the hard decision of showing himself. If he was going to work with the boy, he didn't want the kid in the dark. He flipped his own camera on, revealing himself to Artemis.
"What the -!"
"Have you never seen a centaur before?"