Disclaimer: Artemis Fowl and related characters are not mine. They are
works of and are copyrighted to Eoin Colfer.
Scene Five: Metamorphosis
Holly was sitting in a soft, field of green with her long, lithe legs drawn up against her chest. The sun was sinking low in the sky bleeding colors of crimson, purple, and soft pink. It was sunset, her favorite time of the day. A breeze played gently with her short strands of auburn hair. Three feet in front of her, a vast lake resided with waters of a calm azure. Mighty trees surrounded the lake: tall oak, proud beech, and graceful willow. The lake perfectly reflected the sky and Holly watched in content as the sun sank silently, radiantly into the horizon.
As the elf continued gazing, questions inevitably pushed its way into her mind. Why was she like this? Where was she? Commander Root would be sure to have her badge for staying aboveground like this for no reason. But the serenity permeating the lake was so insistent that she only half vaguely asked herself these questions, content to only watch and wait. A smile curved her cherubic lips. It had been a very long time since she had managed to go aboveground for the simple reason of enjoying something as natural as a sunset.
The wind blew a little more forcefully upon the area, sending ripples skidding across the lake. The trees whispered to one another, the tall grass humming in the breeze. Holly smiled. She could almost hear the spirits of the trees singing their slow, joyful song of growth and nurturing. Her mother had taught her how to do so once. listen, to the sounds of nature and sing with them.
Holly parted her lips and let the sounds flow from her mouth. A graceful, haunting music emanated from the elf. This was a song only the trees, the plants, and the animals could understand. It was her song to them and her serenade for their beauty. They joined her in chorus. Her lashes closed dreamily at the splendor of all that surrounded her. There was a longing in her now, a longing to stay like this for an eternity.
Slowly, Holly came to realize that there was another voice singing beside her, a voice that did not belong to nature but seemed so old it was ingrained in the natural environment. Her eyes flashed open, her voice faltering in song. The trees, the plants, and the breeze also grew silent. Holly looked around her. It was dark now, the sun already having set. But there was no moon in the sky, or at least a moon that Holly could see. It must be the day of a new moon, she realized.
She cocked her head wonderingly for the other voice had not stopped in song. In fact, it continued stronger now, gaining in power and volume. Holly began crawling towards the lake for that was where it seemed like it came from. Just as she came within a few feet of the lake, something stopped her. The same old fairy intuition she had trusted with her life had sparked once more, warning against looking into the lake. She paused in confusion. What could be wrong with the lake? Nothing looked wrong.
The voice pushed her feelings away, drawing her onwards once more. It was insistent in a gentle but powerful fashion. That voice was trying to tell her something. It was at the tip of her mind, teasing her comprehension. She bit her lip. What harm could looking in the lake do? She took the last few shuffling steps and looked at the water.
The lake was unexpectedly dark and blank when she looked in it. It was calm and smooth, oil slick. It looked ominous. Then the wind picked up a little and in the small waves Holly noticed various shapes in the water. There were many down there, walking, running, flying, talking, doing something but their outlines were all she could make out. The shadows hid them from her. She opened her mouth to call out for them, but then she saw Chix's form in the water. That was an unmistakable shape. He had just landed from a flight, it seemed: an impossible flight on a broken wing. He seemed to notice her. He shook his head, or maybe it was the water being wobbly. She wasn't sure which, but she didn't understand what he meant. She moved to call his name when she noticed something else in the water. Her reflection.
A dark face stared back at her, its complexion as dark as the present Chix's had been. Her auburn hair had turned a dark burgundy and hazel eyes had become the color of dark red. Her face was larger, better built and defined than it had used to be. It was a beautiful face, but its beauty made it all the more horrifying. Her eyes widened in increasing terror. This was not right.
Then something erupted from the lake in an explosion of water and force. Something. something grabbed on to her shoulders and tried to drag her within. A terrified, shrill scream pierced the air as Holly struggled against the powerful arms, "No!" It was a fruitless struggle; she knew it. But she didn't want this; she wanted no part in this. However, the longer the arms held her, the more the strength in her limbs failed her. Her forceful punches and pulls had become clumsy movements. Her mind was beginning to give in to the call that hadn't stopped since it began a song with her. As she was about to be dragged in the water, something happened.
A voice pierced the night and called to Holly. It was a voice speaking in a language familiar to Holly, a language close to her heart: Gnommic. "Holly," said the voice, "Holly, come back. It's time to go home now. You're worrying us, silly. Come back now." It was a voice she knew from the bottom of her heart. A voice that she had missed so desperately for such a long period of time.
Shafts of light began piercing the gloom, brightening the darkened lake. The arms stilled momentarily, loosening their tight grip. Holly pulled away and scooted backwards. The arms moved back to the lake. In the last minute, Holly saw the things that had grabbed her. They were arms and hands, but they were arms and hands of a creature the elf had never seen before. They were long, bony hands. The scaly flesh stretched taut across the bones of the appendages. Each long finger ended in a claw. One hand had seven fingers. Then they disappeared underneath the water, hardly disturbing a ripple. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Foaly sighed at the sight over the viewing screen, his heart beat receding back to normal. His centaur eyes distinguished Holly's own heart rate blipping feebly in the monitor. The warlock paramedics were checking her other vital signs. As the genius technician of the LEP, Foaly knew a lot about medics. It was part of his job to monitor the vitals of the LEP operatives, after all. Besides, it didn't take a genius to figure out that when the heart plummeted, as Holly's did a few minutes ago, it was not a good sign.
Nonetheless, did the elf did begin stabilizing, and that was good. Very good. He looked to his side where Commander Root and Captain Birchwood were also watching, faces drained of color. This could quite possibly be one of the rare few times the Commander was not his trademark red. It only illustrated the depth of fear the LEP officials experienced during Holly's emergency heart attack.
Holly had been knocked unconscious after the confrontation with Mercury. She had seemed stable then but the warlock paramedics insisted that she be brought to the healing centers. It was a wise decision, as it turned out, as Holly experienced heart failure followed by about ten minutes from her removal from the warehouse in downtown Haven.
Usually, heart attacks were no problem for fairies, elves especially. Their magic automatically fixed the blockage and cleaned out the entire network of arteries and veins etc. effectively flushing out the trace fungus that resided in the heart from the cigars. Usually. But if the elf were drained of magic, as Holly seemed to be, then there was a problem. The fairy then had to resort to treatments from the warlock medics. However, the magic the warlock medics offered to Holly's shaking form seemed to be rejected. If anything, it made it worse. Shortly after the magic was offered, Holly started having seizures.
The warlocks had never seen anything like it. After a few moments, the chief medic had ordered all hands to go off. He had realized that they were aggravating the situation; they were not making it any better. If Holly was going to pull out of this one, it was on her own. Things had gone rather badly for the better part. The convulsions had grown worse. In one terrifying moment, it seemed as if they would lose her entirely. The shakings had weakened, and the heart rate was almost gone Foaly had never been more afraid in his life.
Then Holly took one shuddering breath and exhaled. Her vital signs were starting to return to normal, but her heart seemed dangerously weak. Even now it beat an unsteady, frail rate.
The chief warlock exited the emergency room and emerged into the viewing room. Commander Root was on him in an instant, "How's Holly?"
The chief warlock sighed, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead. "I don't know what to tell you, Commander," responded the healer.
Root's face instantly regained its rosy hue. "What do you mean you don't know?" he growled. The temperature instantly rocketed inside the room and the medic began sweating once more. This was almost as bad as being inside that room with the dying elf. Almost.
"I-I don't know!" stammered the warlock. "We haven't made any accurate diagnosis given the information we have! We have no idea what's wrong with her."
"Isn't that your job?" asked Commander Root acidly. "To know what's going on and cure it?"
"Commander Root," said the warlock, trying to maintain a calm tone, "look here. She was under some sort of spell whose origins are entirely unknown to us, correct? And then ten minutes after removal from the site the captain experienced heart failure and then convulsions." Commander Root took a few deep breaths in order to calm down and follow what the medic was saying. The warlock continued, "We could not, cannot, make a diagnosis in such a short amount of time. We tried treating the symptoms as best we could, but you saw the situation yourself. Capt. Short pulled out of the attack. barely. Now I'm afraid she's gone into a coma. We still have no idea what's going on inside her body."
The commander had gone redder and redder despite the deceptive serenity that his expression was set in. "Then I suggest, doctor, that you find out with whatever time you have left," he returned in a steely tone. "Or else your time will be running out."
The medic swallowed, nodded, and hurried away. All traces of calm were gone. You did not argue with the commander of LEP, especially one with a gun strapped to his hip.
When Root turned his attention back to the other occupants of the room, Foaly was already at the other side peering at Holly's still form. His keen gaze picked up his best friend's condition: ashen pale, weak breaths, and she didn't seem like she would waken any time soon. Things did not look too good for Holly Short.
It was Captain Birchwood who first broke the silence, "I think, Commander, that we ought to review the case now. The sooner we get to the bottom of it, the more chances we have of helping Captain Short." Root nodded decisively. Captain Birchwood was right. They could do nothing mooning about while Holly was unconscious.
"Come on, Foaly," said Root, his voice uncharacteristically soft. He laid a hand on the centaur's shoulder. "We have to get back to headquarters."
The centaur nodded minutely. The three left for the Police Plaza. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~
"All right, everyone," said Root to the two other occupants of the Ops Booth. He sat himself in a large chair, puffing on his trademark fungus cigar. "What exactly did happen down there?"
"I would like to know the same thing," nodded Birchwood. He opted to remain standing with his arms folded. "About fifteen minutes after the zenith of the moon, I received a message from Foaly informing me that Holly's team had tagged the target and was pursuing him. Ten minutes after, there was a request for back up in a location near downtown Haven. By the time my team had got there, Captain Trouble Kelp, along with Holly's remaining team, had already contained the situation."
Two pairs of eyes landed on Foaly who, despite his years of experience in relaying information, squirmed at the thought of what he was going to tell them. If they both knew what Holly had done, they would kick her out of the force . If not them, then Internal Affairs for sure. But what choice did he have? None really. "Well," began Foaly, after a moment's pause. He pressed a button and Holly's feed, along with the rest of her teams, was projected on to the plasma screen. "Let's start at the beginning, shall we?"
"All right, Holly convinced Hash Tater to let LEP into his security details," began the centaur.
"I heard she threatened him into it. Now that the jewel is gone, Tater is threatening to sue LEP," said Root suddenly.
Foaly shrugged. "Mr. Tater was being stubborn so Holly had no choice but to use forceful negotiation."
Root sighed before saying, "Go on."
"We get the whole security beefed up and I wired all feeds to the Booth," said Foaly. "Blah blah we wait blah blah until Holly sees something moving in the shadows at the pillar closest to jewel." The feed changed color as Holly switched visions on her Optix helmet. "Night vision, infrared, motion sensor, nothing works. But if you pay close attention to the night vision, you can see an almost imperceptible something moving in the shadows. Don't even bother with system malfunction. Holly thought that herself, but it's not, I checked it." Foaly slowed the rate of the feed and pointed at the area of the pillar with a laser pointer.
"What is that?" frowned Root, leaning forward in his chair.
Foaly shrugged, "I tried enhancing the image, but when I did all I got was shadows. So Holly gets her team ready. The minute that thing gets within a certain radius of the jewel, all the electricity in the compound gets shut off. The connection from Central is fried, I just found out. Holly gets her Team A to make a diversion and Team B shoots. Curious thing, not everybody could see what it was, so only about a half of the team were working in all. But when Team B focuses the tunnel lights, they see it and everything goes smoothly." The centaur paused the screen at a full shot of Mercury. The two others sat up in their chairs. This was their first glimpse of Mercury and also the first incriminating picture ever taken of the thief. He did not disappoint the two who had expected something infairy. Rather, they thought Mercury looked like some sort of mutant.
Foaly smiled at their reaction. Birchwood had gasped audibly, an intense surprise bursting over his face. Root had remained implacable save for the suddenly rapid puffing of his cigar. The centaur smirked, "No cigars in here, please. My computers might not take it much longer." The commander glared at the centaur before dousing the lit fungus cigar. But still his eyes gazed in rapt attention at the screen.
"What am I seeing here exactly?" asked the red faced LEP commander.
"Mercury," answered Foaly, grinning. He continued after Commander Root's deadly glare. "It's only one full shot of Mercury. We're not exactly sure what he is. Obviously not fairy. Or at least not a normal fairy. I'm still searching for similar pictures and characteristics from all available data gigabytes. However, it'll take a long time, a week if we're lucky. That's a lot of gigabytes to travel in."
"So Mercury's a freak of nature," nodded Root. He had considered blowing up on Foaly over the time limit but realized that the centaur was doing his very best. Behind the smirk and the sarcastic nature, the centaur was very concerned over his friend's welfare. "That's good to know. It would have been nice to know this before we set up heists for him."
"So then," continued Foaly, "Two trackers hit the target. Thief flies out unscathed, predictably. Now here are the read outs for the trackers." Foaly gestured to another screen. The schematics of the underground city were laid out and there were two beeps going on a steady but very fast rate outside. The centaur read out the altitude and velocity the trackers were traveling in.
Birchwood whistled, "That's extremely fast, even for wing sets. No wonder we were never able to catch him at all. That and that cloak of his."
"Tell me about it," agreed the tech genius. "It outpaced the other models by miles."
"Yet Holly was still able to catch up with him," cut in Root. His dark eyes gazed in suspicion at Foaly. "I wonder why."
The centaur chuckled nervously, "The wings were purely for show so I went ahead and updated Holly's wings with a few experimental ideas. I had no idea she'd be using them at all."
Root throttled the air, wishing it were around the centaur's neck. "Foaly, you thrice blasted centaur! If that thing had blown up.!"
Foaly winced, "Come now, Commander, I knew what I was doing." Then he moved forward to get that topic out of Root's mind. "Holly starts gaining on him and shoots a few shots with the help of Optix. She gets one hit and that stealth cloak Mercury's using is cut out. She can see him now. Just when she's about to make a shot, Mercury stops in mid air. Holly crashes into him and the two go down." Root grew redder and redder as the camera feed was visibly jolted and the next few minutes were a tangle of dark clothing and terrifyingly high-speed shots plummeting downwards. Foaly plunged on, "Holly blasts Mercury with a Neutrino and he gets off of her. She manages to stop from splattering herself all over the ground, but she ditches the wings as a result." Holly's pain sensor went over the roof as she crashed into the wall from what it seemed. The next few moments were clear as Holly was revived by magic, sent orders and continued onwards. "After she's inside the main storage facility, we catch a flash of red. She sidesteps in time and shoots. We see her pause and the camera sees this." Foaly blew up a picture of a strangely familiar face with a flash of red frozen in front of his palm.
This time even Root gasped, "That's."
Foaly nodded grimly, "Chix Verbil, registered sprite for the LEP. He was part of Cudgeon's team in the first Artemis Fowl affair and he was working with Holly when his left wing got busted when she was working as a chute monitor. Holly pauses, obviously natural. But then everything gets blurry. Obviously, Mercury must have incapacitated her somehow judging from the sounds. Then he attacked her with probably a buzz baton because pain sensors went right off the scale for about three minutes. Afterwards, the camera loses power. Again, for a reason I'm not sure of, but it did." Foaly frowned in his lecture, obviously bothered with the extraordinary amount of technical failure when it came to the Mercury case. "Next thing we know, camera lands face down so I blow up the audio." Root and Birchwood's face became graver and graver the more they heard of the conversation between Holly and Mercury. The audio then started giving out for a long while and the next thing they heard was the firefight between Captain Kelp and Mercury. In the end, Foaly finally said, "We don't have a visual or an audio of what Chix did to Holly."
"Did you check Kelp's feed?" asked Birchwood.
"Of course. Theirs went fuzzy when they went into the warehouse too. But they did say that Mercury was chanting in a strange language and there was a red light surrounding Holly. Later on, they see Holly this way," answered Foaly.
"This is bad," said Birchwood. "From what it sounds like, we've got a freak with very powerful magic or technology working for someone and who seems to have the ability to turn fairies into something 'they're meant to be.'"
"Assuming Mercury isn't crazy or a liar," volunteered Foaly.
"All right," said Root, standing up, "Foaly, I want you to call those behavioral specialists and get a profile on what we have so far of Mercury. I know it's sketchy because we only have him on visual for a few minutes but work those doctors out. Birchwood, I want a full investigation on Chix Verbil. I'm assuming he's gone UA?" UA was simple military talk for unauthorized absence. Foaly's nod confirmed his hunch. "I want a full report and then a search for him. No friend or family member is not going to be investigated. I want this fairy found. Now!
Two days later.
Foaly was visiting Holly Short although for all the good it did, he might as well have visited a wall. Holly Short was unresponsive to any stimuli given her although she had remained stable throughout. Stable was good. They could work from there. But if she continued on like this. The centaur sighed. He wished Holly had family. He wasn't sure if he could do this by himself. As far as he knew, Holly's father was dead, her mother dead, grandparents on both sides dead, and no cousins or friends. One of these days he really had to look up Holly's genealogy. This accident brought to sharper focus that Holly was alone in the fairy world, and she only had a few friends. The closest thing she had to a family was LEP.
"Wake up, Holly," whinnied Foaly fruitlessly, "we don't know what to do now. All your friends are waiting for you to wake up." He paused, "Well, almost all of them. But if Artemis Fowl knew how you were, he'd be with us too. We could probably use his help." The centaur chuckled a little, "That boy really can do impossible things. But I'm the smarter genius. Right?" He remained silent for a few minutes. "You told me once you were almost friends. I wish I was paying more attention at the time," said Foaly. "I never told you this but. back when I was reviewing his memories, I think the sentiments were returned. Artemis Fowl."
Unbeknownst to Foaly as he continued to blab about the bygone Artemis Fowl days, Holly twitched. Somebody was calling her name. But it was spoken in a strange voice. No, she groaned inwardly, no more strange voices or languages. But this voice continued on. Was it speaking to her? But who would be speaking to her? She could barely make it out, ". flyboy grandstanding?" What? Flyboy grandstanding? Somebody had asked her once whether how she was piloting a shuttle necessary or was she grandstanding . Artemis Fowl! That Mud Boy!
Hazel eyes instantly popped open, irritation pinching her pretty features. Then the pain hit her like an anvil and she groaned, instantly forgetting all about that little verbal spar with the human. Her hand shook and she noticed something. An IV was inserted to her arm, and she sat up with a gasp. Last time she had been knocked unconscious a remarkable individual that shall remain nameless had pretended to inject her with truth serum. She inspected it closely before she noticed a centaur that had backed away from her bed with his jaw touching the floor.
"Hey, Foaly," greeted the elf, a little surprised at his expression, "what's up?"
"Gods of all the world!" he stammered. "H-Holly!"
"You okay?" asked the female captain before settling back on to the cushions.
"Am I ok?" muttered Foaly, shoving his shock to the side. She had woken up. Just like that! "Am I ok! Are you okay?"
"Ugh, I feel like I got body slammed by a troll," muttered the elf. "My body's aching and my head is spinning."
"D-d'you remember what happened to you?" asked centaur nervously. He was immensely relieved at his friend's recovery (he couldn't wait to tell the others), but now that she was awake, something was bothering him. "I've got to call Commander Root."
"Root!" exclaimed Holly before groaning, a hand going up to her throbbing temples, "The mission! What happened?" Foaly, by now, looked extremely nervous.
"We really ought to wait for the Commander, Holly," said the centaur. "You're just recovering. Ease up on yourself and let us handle it."
Holly groaned but it was not from physical pain this time, "I screwed up, didn't I? How'd Root take it?"
"Erm, the Commander should tell you that," said Foaly. "Now hold on for a sec while I go page the commander." The centaur clip clopped out although it wasn't necessary. Once outside Holly's perception, the centaur took out a handheld device from his belt and paged the commander with a simple message: Shrt awke. Brief and to the point. What more need be said? Then the fairy took a deep breath and glanced towards the door of Holly's room. It would only be a matter of time before Holly remembered what had happened and realized just exactly what had happened to her. She wouldn't like it.
Holly frowned as Foaly left. He was avoiding her questions, which usually meant the answers were not ones she'd Iike. But what more could she expect? She'd screwed up royally on this mission and Internal Affairs would kick her out for sure. She sighed as the realization came crashing down on her. She'd be kicked off the force. It was almost better to stay unconscious than to be forced to learn that fact. Not only that, but the headache she was experiencing was enough to make her world reel. In addition, something was throwing her off. There was something going on that set her on edge. There was something wrong and it tingled her at the back of her mind.
When Foaly walked back in, she said, "Foaly, you don't have to hide it from me."
The centaur's brows disappeared beyond his hairline. "Wh-what do you mean?" he asked.
"I know what happened."
"You do?" gawked the centaur.
"Of course," snapped Holly. "I'm not an idiot." Her infamous temper had flared once more before subsiding as suddenly as it came, "I was kicked off the force, wasn't I?"
Foaly's golden eyes widened comically, his brain finally working out what she meant to say. It took half a minute for him to realize it, and when he did, he laughed. It was an exhausted laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. It was sorely needed from all the pressure the centaur had gone through lately.
Holly's glare made the laugh die quicker than Foaly would have liked. "I fail to see what's so funny, centaur," said the elf.
Foaly shook his head. "Sweetheart, that should be the least of your problems right now," he smiled.
"What do you mean?" frowned the elf. It was at that precise moment that the Commander Root walked in the door and the centaur was never gladder to see him at that moment. "Commander," breathed Holly, sitting up straight.
"At ease, Captain," growled out Root. He glared forcefully at her until she settled back into the bed, ignoring her soft protest of being able to sit up. There were a few minutes of silence where no one said anything. Unexpectedly, Holly broke it.
"I'm sorry, Commander," said the elf, and there was true remorse in her voice. But her features were straight and she did not look down. Foaly was inwardly impressed at Holly's strength of will. "I did what I thought was best for the mission. I'll turn in my badge and equipment as soon as I get out of the hospital."
The commander was inwardly relieved. He had hardly thought it appropriate to ream out a newly awakened coma victim but Holly had just given him the incentive he needed. "What under the world are you talking about, Short?" barked Root.
Holly's face showed her surprise. "I. I'm being kicked off the force, aren't I?" she asked, but a small hope had kindled inside her. Maybe, just maybe.
Root's color subsided just a little. "You broke around fifty rules going after Mercury, Holly," he said, "and that's not counting the fact that Tater wants to sue us. Thank the gods the lawyers have found a loophole around that." He snorted at Holly's face. If he weren't her superior officer for over twenty years now he would have found her face impassive. But he could read her better now. "Don't look like that, Short. You're not kicked off yet. You're just suspended indefinitely. It was the best course we could find."
Holly sighed in relief. There was still a chance, however small it was.
"Now, the Council doesn't want me to involve you in this investigation anymore, but I felt better of your strength," continued Root. "I want to ask you questions about the heist."
Holly nodded, "Of course, Commander. What have you found out?"
"We reviewed your camera feed and pieced together pretty much what was happening. Except." and his eyes glinted at her strangely in this sentence, "what happened when Mercury began saying something in another language that no one can decipher. We only heard a word or two before the audio blinked out. All recording equipment was disabled during that time for a reason Foaly has yet to know."
Holly fingers slowly curled around a fistful of fabric, her eyes zoning out in a point Root nor Foaly could see. "I remember. Chix wanted me to become something like him. He took out a fairy bible except it was all black. He began saying something in a language that my gift of tongues couldn't decipher. It was something similar to Gnommic; I could catch a few words here and there, but I didn't get it overall. Then a red light surrounded me. I was in so much pain."
Her hand shook a little. Foaly and Root glanced at one another. "What happened to me?" asked the captain. "I remember so much pain inside. And then something happened, the chanting stopped. Trouble. did Trouble come? I remember Trouble somehow." Her eyes finally flickered towards them and she realized for the first time that they were gazing at her in a strange manner. "What? What is it?" she asked. Her eyes widened, "The spell.. It didn't work, did it? I'm not like him, am I?" She at her hands and fingers. "D'Arvit."
"Not quite. Notice anything different, Captain?" asked Foaly wryly. "Do Julius and I look smaller to you?" Holly's eyes widened in horror as her eyes confirmed what Foaly had been hinting at. She hadn't noticed anything because the two of them were staying far away from her. But even that distance could not disguise the fact that they did look smaller to her. There was a large click in her head. The reason why they seemed small, the reason why she was surprised at the size of Trouble's hand on her back in the warehouse, the reason why her senses been on whack, the reason why her body ached so.
Holly looked towards the window of her room in the hospital and with her bedside control set it to reflect. Her reflection slowly greeted her back. Although it was not as she had feared it would look like, it was definitely different. The length of her body had grown. Whence she had been shorter than Root and most definitely Foaly, she could now easily tower over them. Likewise, the rest of her body had grown as well. Her face was the same, but with marked differences. It had grown more defined, expressing its character very well. Her hair as well, once a light shade of brown, had darkened to ruby fire. It was what she would have looked like in a few centuries. Otherwise, she was still the same. She retained her exotic nut-brown complexion, her hazel eyes, and her pointy ears. To put it short and simple, she looked like a fairy the size of a human.
"D'Arvit," she breathed once more, "what the hell happened to me?"
Scene Five: Metamorphosis
Holly was sitting in a soft, field of green with her long, lithe legs drawn up against her chest. The sun was sinking low in the sky bleeding colors of crimson, purple, and soft pink. It was sunset, her favorite time of the day. A breeze played gently with her short strands of auburn hair. Three feet in front of her, a vast lake resided with waters of a calm azure. Mighty trees surrounded the lake: tall oak, proud beech, and graceful willow. The lake perfectly reflected the sky and Holly watched in content as the sun sank silently, radiantly into the horizon.
As the elf continued gazing, questions inevitably pushed its way into her mind. Why was she like this? Where was she? Commander Root would be sure to have her badge for staying aboveground like this for no reason. But the serenity permeating the lake was so insistent that she only half vaguely asked herself these questions, content to only watch and wait. A smile curved her cherubic lips. It had been a very long time since she had managed to go aboveground for the simple reason of enjoying something as natural as a sunset.
The wind blew a little more forcefully upon the area, sending ripples skidding across the lake. The trees whispered to one another, the tall grass humming in the breeze. Holly smiled. She could almost hear the spirits of the trees singing their slow, joyful song of growth and nurturing. Her mother had taught her how to do so once. listen, to the sounds of nature and sing with them.
Holly parted her lips and let the sounds flow from her mouth. A graceful, haunting music emanated from the elf. This was a song only the trees, the plants, and the animals could understand. It was her song to them and her serenade for their beauty. They joined her in chorus. Her lashes closed dreamily at the splendor of all that surrounded her. There was a longing in her now, a longing to stay like this for an eternity.
Slowly, Holly came to realize that there was another voice singing beside her, a voice that did not belong to nature but seemed so old it was ingrained in the natural environment. Her eyes flashed open, her voice faltering in song. The trees, the plants, and the breeze also grew silent. Holly looked around her. It was dark now, the sun already having set. But there was no moon in the sky, or at least a moon that Holly could see. It must be the day of a new moon, she realized.
She cocked her head wonderingly for the other voice had not stopped in song. In fact, it continued stronger now, gaining in power and volume. Holly began crawling towards the lake for that was where it seemed like it came from. Just as she came within a few feet of the lake, something stopped her. The same old fairy intuition she had trusted with her life had sparked once more, warning against looking into the lake. She paused in confusion. What could be wrong with the lake? Nothing looked wrong.
The voice pushed her feelings away, drawing her onwards once more. It was insistent in a gentle but powerful fashion. That voice was trying to tell her something. It was at the tip of her mind, teasing her comprehension. She bit her lip. What harm could looking in the lake do? She took the last few shuffling steps and looked at the water.
The lake was unexpectedly dark and blank when she looked in it. It was calm and smooth, oil slick. It looked ominous. Then the wind picked up a little and in the small waves Holly noticed various shapes in the water. There were many down there, walking, running, flying, talking, doing something but their outlines were all she could make out. The shadows hid them from her. She opened her mouth to call out for them, but then she saw Chix's form in the water. That was an unmistakable shape. He had just landed from a flight, it seemed: an impossible flight on a broken wing. He seemed to notice her. He shook his head, or maybe it was the water being wobbly. She wasn't sure which, but she didn't understand what he meant. She moved to call his name when she noticed something else in the water. Her reflection.
A dark face stared back at her, its complexion as dark as the present Chix's had been. Her auburn hair had turned a dark burgundy and hazel eyes had become the color of dark red. Her face was larger, better built and defined than it had used to be. It was a beautiful face, but its beauty made it all the more horrifying. Her eyes widened in increasing terror. This was not right.
Then something erupted from the lake in an explosion of water and force. Something. something grabbed on to her shoulders and tried to drag her within. A terrified, shrill scream pierced the air as Holly struggled against the powerful arms, "No!" It was a fruitless struggle; she knew it. But she didn't want this; she wanted no part in this. However, the longer the arms held her, the more the strength in her limbs failed her. Her forceful punches and pulls had become clumsy movements. Her mind was beginning to give in to the call that hadn't stopped since it began a song with her. As she was about to be dragged in the water, something happened.
A voice pierced the night and called to Holly. It was a voice speaking in a language familiar to Holly, a language close to her heart: Gnommic. "Holly," said the voice, "Holly, come back. It's time to go home now. You're worrying us, silly. Come back now." It was a voice she knew from the bottom of her heart. A voice that she had missed so desperately for such a long period of time.
Shafts of light began piercing the gloom, brightening the darkened lake. The arms stilled momentarily, loosening their tight grip. Holly pulled away and scooted backwards. The arms moved back to the lake. In the last minute, Holly saw the things that had grabbed her. They were arms and hands, but they were arms and hands of a creature the elf had never seen before. They were long, bony hands. The scaly flesh stretched taut across the bones of the appendages. Each long finger ended in a claw. One hand had seven fingers. Then they disappeared underneath the water, hardly disturbing a ripple. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Foaly sighed at the sight over the viewing screen, his heart beat receding back to normal. His centaur eyes distinguished Holly's own heart rate blipping feebly in the monitor. The warlock paramedics were checking her other vital signs. As the genius technician of the LEP, Foaly knew a lot about medics. It was part of his job to monitor the vitals of the LEP operatives, after all. Besides, it didn't take a genius to figure out that when the heart plummeted, as Holly's did a few minutes ago, it was not a good sign.
Nonetheless, did the elf did begin stabilizing, and that was good. Very good. He looked to his side where Commander Root and Captain Birchwood were also watching, faces drained of color. This could quite possibly be one of the rare few times the Commander was not his trademark red. It only illustrated the depth of fear the LEP officials experienced during Holly's emergency heart attack.
Holly had been knocked unconscious after the confrontation with Mercury. She had seemed stable then but the warlock paramedics insisted that she be brought to the healing centers. It was a wise decision, as it turned out, as Holly experienced heart failure followed by about ten minutes from her removal from the warehouse in downtown Haven.
Usually, heart attacks were no problem for fairies, elves especially. Their magic automatically fixed the blockage and cleaned out the entire network of arteries and veins etc. effectively flushing out the trace fungus that resided in the heart from the cigars. Usually. But if the elf were drained of magic, as Holly seemed to be, then there was a problem. The fairy then had to resort to treatments from the warlock medics. However, the magic the warlock medics offered to Holly's shaking form seemed to be rejected. If anything, it made it worse. Shortly after the magic was offered, Holly started having seizures.
The warlocks had never seen anything like it. After a few moments, the chief medic had ordered all hands to go off. He had realized that they were aggravating the situation; they were not making it any better. If Holly was going to pull out of this one, it was on her own. Things had gone rather badly for the better part. The convulsions had grown worse. In one terrifying moment, it seemed as if they would lose her entirely. The shakings had weakened, and the heart rate was almost gone Foaly had never been more afraid in his life.
Then Holly took one shuddering breath and exhaled. Her vital signs were starting to return to normal, but her heart seemed dangerously weak. Even now it beat an unsteady, frail rate.
The chief warlock exited the emergency room and emerged into the viewing room. Commander Root was on him in an instant, "How's Holly?"
The chief warlock sighed, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead. "I don't know what to tell you, Commander," responded the healer.
Root's face instantly regained its rosy hue. "What do you mean you don't know?" he growled. The temperature instantly rocketed inside the room and the medic began sweating once more. This was almost as bad as being inside that room with the dying elf. Almost.
"I-I don't know!" stammered the warlock. "We haven't made any accurate diagnosis given the information we have! We have no idea what's wrong with her."
"Isn't that your job?" asked Commander Root acidly. "To know what's going on and cure it?"
"Commander Root," said the warlock, trying to maintain a calm tone, "look here. She was under some sort of spell whose origins are entirely unknown to us, correct? And then ten minutes after removal from the site the captain experienced heart failure and then convulsions." Commander Root took a few deep breaths in order to calm down and follow what the medic was saying. The warlock continued, "We could not, cannot, make a diagnosis in such a short amount of time. We tried treating the symptoms as best we could, but you saw the situation yourself. Capt. Short pulled out of the attack. barely. Now I'm afraid she's gone into a coma. We still have no idea what's going on inside her body."
The commander had gone redder and redder despite the deceptive serenity that his expression was set in. "Then I suggest, doctor, that you find out with whatever time you have left," he returned in a steely tone. "Or else your time will be running out."
The medic swallowed, nodded, and hurried away. All traces of calm were gone. You did not argue with the commander of LEP, especially one with a gun strapped to his hip.
When Root turned his attention back to the other occupants of the room, Foaly was already at the other side peering at Holly's still form. His keen gaze picked up his best friend's condition: ashen pale, weak breaths, and she didn't seem like she would waken any time soon. Things did not look too good for Holly Short.
It was Captain Birchwood who first broke the silence, "I think, Commander, that we ought to review the case now. The sooner we get to the bottom of it, the more chances we have of helping Captain Short." Root nodded decisively. Captain Birchwood was right. They could do nothing mooning about while Holly was unconscious.
"Come on, Foaly," said Root, his voice uncharacteristically soft. He laid a hand on the centaur's shoulder. "We have to get back to headquarters."
The centaur nodded minutely. The three left for the Police Plaza. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~
"All right, everyone," said Root to the two other occupants of the Ops Booth. He sat himself in a large chair, puffing on his trademark fungus cigar. "What exactly did happen down there?"
"I would like to know the same thing," nodded Birchwood. He opted to remain standing with his arms folded. "About fifteen minutes after the zenith of the moon, I received a message from Foaly informing me that Holly's team had tagged the target and was pursuing him. Ten minutes after, there was a request for back up in a location near downtown Haven. By the time my team had got there, Captain Trouble Kelp, along with Holly's remaining team, had already contained the situation."
Two pairs of eyes landed on Foaly who, despite his years of experience in relaying information, squirmed at the thought of what he was going to tell them. If they both knew what Holly had done, they would kick her out of the force . If not them, then Internal Affairs for sure. But what choice did he have? None really. "Well," began Foaly, after a moment's pause. He pressed a button and Holly's feed, along with the rest of her teams, was projected on to the plasma screen. "Let's start at the beginning, shall we?"
"All right, Holly convinced Hash Tater to let LEP into his security details," began the centaur.
"I heard she threatened him into it. Now that the jewel is gone, Tater is threatening to sue LEP," said Root suddenly.
Foaly shrugged. "Mr. Tater was being stubborn so Holly had no choice but to use forceful negotiation."
Root sighed before saying, "Go on."
"We get the whole security beefed up and I wired all feeds to the Booth," said Foaly. "Blah blah we wait blah blah until Holly sees something moving in the shadows at the pillar closest to jewel." The feed changed color as Holly switched visions on her Optix helmet. "Night vision, infrared, motion sensor, nothing works. But if you pay close attention to the night vision, you can see an almost imperceptible something moving in the shadows. Don't even bother with system malfunction. Holly thought that herself, but it's not, I checked it." Foaly slowed the rate of the feed and pointed at the area of the pillar with a laser pointer.
"What is that?" frowned Root, leaning forward in his chair.
Foaly shrugged, "I tried enhancing the image, but when I did all I got was shadows. So Holly gets her team ready. The minute that thing gets within a certain radius of the jewel, all the electricity in the compound gets shut off. The connection from Central is fried, I just found out. Holly gets her Team A to make a diversion and Team B shoots. Curious thing, not everybody could see what it was, so only about a half of the team were working in all. But when Team B focuses the tunnel lights, they see it and everything goes smoothly." The centaur paused the screen at a full shot of Mercury. The two others sat up in their chairs. This was their first glimpse of Mercury and also the first incriminating picture ever taken of the thief. He did not disappoint the two who had expected something infairy. Rather, they thought Mercury looked like some sort of mutant.
Foaly smiled at their reaction. Birchwood had gasped audibly, an intense surprise bursting over his face. Root had remained implacable save for the suddenly rapid puffing of his cigar. The centaur smirked, "No cigars in here, please. My computers might not take it much longer." The commander glared at the centaur before dousing the lit fungus cigar. But still his eyes gazed in rapt attention at the screen.
"What am I seeing here exactly?" asked the red faced LEP commander.
"Mercury," answered Foaly, grinning. He continued after Commander Root's deadly glare. "It's only one full shot of Mercury. We're not exactly sure what he is. Obviously not fairy. Or at least not a normal fairy. I'm still searching for similar pictures and characteristics from all available data gigabytes. However, it'll take a long time, a week if we're lucky. That's a lot of gigabytes to travel in."
"So Mercury's a freak of nature," nodded Root. He had considered blowing up on Foaly over the time limit but realized that the centaur was doing his very best. Behind the smirk and the sarcastic nature, the centaur was very concerned over his friend's welfare. "That's good to know. It would have been nice to know this before we set up heists for him."
"So then," continued Foaly, "Two trackers hit the target. Thief flies out unscathed, predictably. Now here are the read outs for the trackers." Foaly gestured to another screen. The schematics of the underground city were laid out and there were two beeps going on a steady but very fast rate outside. The centaur read out the altitude and velocity the trackers were traveling in.
Birchwood whistled, "That's extremely fast, even for wing sets. No wonder we were never able to catch him at all. That and that cloak of his."
"Tell me about it," agreed the tech genius. "It outpaced the other models by miles."
"Yet Holly was still able to catch up with him," cut in Root. His dark eyes gazed in suspicion at Foaly. "I wonder why."
The centaur chuckled nervously, "The wings were purely for show so I went ahead and updated Holly's wings with a few experimental ideas. I had no idea she'd be using them at all."
Root throttled the air, wishing it were around the centaur's neck. "Foaly, you thrice blasted centaur! If that thing had blown up.!"
Foaly winced, "Come now, Commander, I knew what I was doing." Then he moved forward to get that topic out of Root's mind. "Holly starts gaining on him and shoots a few shots with the help of Optix. She gets one hit and that stealth cloak Mercury's using is cut out. She can see him now. Just when she's about to make a shot, Mercury stops in mid air. Holly crashes into him and the two go down." Root grew redder and redder as the camera feed was visibly jolted and the next few minutes were a tangle of dark clothing and terrifyingly high-speed shots plummeting downwards. Foaly plunged on, "Holly blasts Mercury with a Neutrino and he gets off of her. She manages to stop from splattering herself all over the ground, but she ditches the wings as a result." Holly's pain sensor went over the roof as she crashed into the wall from what it seemed. The next few moments were clear as Holly was revived by magic, sent orders and continued onwards. "After she's inside the main storage facility, we catch a flash of red. She sidesteps in time and shoots. We see her pause and the camera sees this." Foaly blew up a picture of a strangely familiar face with a flash of red frozen in front of his palm.
This time even Root gasped, "That's."
Foaly nodded grimly, "Chix Verbil, registered sprite for the LEP. He was part of Cudgeon's team in the first Artemis Fowl affair and he was working with Holly when his left wing got busted when she was working as a chute monitor. Holly pauses, obviously natural. But then everything gets blurry. Obviously, Mercury must have incapacitated her somehow judging from the sounds. Then he attacked her with probably a buzz baton because pain sensors went right off the scale for about three minutes. Afterwards, the camera loses power. Again, for a reason I'm not sure of, but it did." Foaly frowned in his lecture, obviously bothered with the extraordinary amount of technical failure when it came to the Mercury case. "Next thing we know, camera lands face down so I blow up the audio." Root and Birchwood's face became graver and graver the more they heard of the conversation between Holly and Mercury. The audio then started giving out for a long while and the next thing they heard was the firefight between Captain Kelp and Mercury. In the end, Foaly finally said, "We don't have a visual or an audio of what Chix did to Holly."
"Did you check Kelp's feed?" asked Birchwood.
"Of course. Theirs went fuzzy when they went into the warehouse too. But they did say that Mercury was chanting in a strange language and there was a red light surrounding Holly. Later on, they see Holly this way," answered Foaly.
"This is bad," said Birchwood. "From what it sounds like, we've got a freak with very powerful magic or technology working for someone and who seems to have the ability to turn fairies into something 'they're meant to be.'"
"Assuming Mercury isn't crazy or a liar," volunteered Foaly.
"All right," said Root, standing up, "Foaly, I want you to call those behavioral specialists and get a profile on what we have so far of Mercury. I know it's sketchy because we only have him on visual for a few minutes but work those doctors out. Birchwood, I want a full investigation on Chix Verbil. I'm assuming he's gone UA?" UA was simple military talk for unauthorized absence. Foaly's nod confirmed his hunch. "I want a full report and then a search for him. No friend or family member is not going to be investigated. I want this fairy found. Now!
Two days later.
Foaly was visiting Holly Short although for all the good it did, he might as well have visited a wall. Holly Short was unresponsive to any stimuli given her although she had remained stable throughout. Stable was good. They could work from there. But if she continued on like this. The centaur sighed. He wished Holly had family. He wasn't sure if he could do this by himself. As far as he knew, Holly's father was dead, her mother dead, grandparents on both sides dead, and no cousins or friends. One of these days he really had to look up Holly's genealogy. This accident brought to sharper focus that Holly was alone in the fairy world, and she only had a few friends. The closest thing she had to a family was LEP.
"Wake up, Holly," whinnied Foaly fruitlessly, "we don't know what to do now. All your friends are waiting for you to wake up." He paused, "Well, almost all of them. But if Artemis Fowl knew how you were, he'd be with us too. We could probably use his help." The centaur chuckled a little, "That boy really can do impossible things. But I'm the smarter genius. Right?" He remained silent for a few minutes. "You told me once you were almost friends. I wish I was paying more attention at the time," said Foaly. "I never told you this but. back when I was reviewing his memories, I think the sentiments were returned. Artemis Fowl."
Unbeknownst to Foaly as he continued to blab about the bygone Artemis Fowl days, Holly twitched. Somebody was calling her name. But it was spoken in a strange voice. No, she groaned inwardly, no more strange voices or languages. But this voice continued on. Was it speaking to her? But who would be speaking to her? She could barely make it out, ". flyboy grandstanding?" What? Flyboy grandstanding? Somebody had asked her once whether how she was piloting a shuttle necessary or was she grandstanding . Artemis Fowl! That Mud Boy!
Hazel eyes instantly popped open, irritation pinching her pretty features. Then the pain hit her like an anvil and she groaned, instantly forgetting all about that little verbal spar with the human. Her hand shook and she noticed something. An IV was inserted to her arm, and she sat up with a gasp. Last time she had been knocked unconscious a remarkable individual that shall remain nameless had pretended to inject her with truth serum. She inspected it closely before she noticed a centaur that had backed away from her bed with his jaw touching the floor.
"Hey, Foaly," greeted the elf, a little surprised at his expression, "what's up?"
"Gods of all the world!" he stammered. "H-Holly!"
"You okay?" asked the female captain before settling back on to the cushions.
"Am I ok?" muttered Foaly, shoving his shock to the side. She had woken up. Just like that! "Am I ok! Are you okay?"
"Ugh, I feel like I got body slammed by a troll," muttered the elf. "My body's aching and my head is spinning."
"D-d'you remember what happened to you?" asked centaur nervously. He was immensely relieved at his friend's recovery (he couldn't wait to tell the others), but now that she was awake, something was bothering him. "I've got to call Commander Root."
"Root!" exclaimed Holly before groaning, a hand going up to her throbbing temples, "The mission! What happened?" Foaly, by now, looked extremely nervous.
"We really ought to wait for the Commander, Holly," said the centaur. "You're just recovering. Ease up on yourself and let us handle it."
Holly groaned but it was not from physical pain this time, "I screwed up, didn't I? How'd Root take it?"
"Erm, the Commander should tell you that," said Foaly. "Now hold on for a sec while I go page the commander." The centaur clip clopped out although it wasn't necessary. Once outside Holly's perception, the centaur took out a handheld device from his belt and paged the commander with a simple message: Shrt awke. Brief and to the point. What more need be said? Then the fairy took a deep breath and glanced towards the door of Holly's room. It would only be a matter of time before Holly remembered what had happened and realized just exactly what had happened to her. She wouldn't like it.
Holly frowned as Foaly left. He was avoiding her questions, which usually meant the answers were not ones she'd Iike. But what more could she expect? She'd screwed up royally on this mission and Internal Affairs would kick her out for sure. She sighed as the realization came crashing down on her. She'd be kicked off the force. It was almost better to stay unconscious than to be forced to learn that fact. Not only that, but the headache she was experiencing was enough to make her world reel. In addition, something was throwing her off. There was something going on that set her on edge. There was something wrong and it tingled her at the back of her mind.
When Foaly walked back in, she said, "Foaly, you don't have to hide it from me."
The centaur's brows disappeared beyond his hairline. "Wh-what do you mean?" he asked.
"I know what happened."
"You do?" gawked the centaur.
"Of course," snapped Holly. "I'm not an idiot." Her infamous temper had flared once more before subsiding as suddenly as it came, "I was kicked off the force, wasn't I?"
Foaly's golden eyes widened comically, his brain finally working out what she meant to say. It took half a minute for him to realize it, and when he did, he laughed. It was an exhausted laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. It was sorely needed from all the pressure the centaur had gone through lately.
Holly's glare made the laugh die quicker than Foaly would have liked. "I fail to see what's so funny, centaur," said the elf.
Foaly shook his head. "Sweetheart, that should be the least of your problems right now," he smiled.
"What do you mean?" frowned the elf. It was at that precise moment that the Commander Root walked in the door and the centaur was never gladder to see him at that moment. "Commander," breathed Holly, sitting up straight.
"At ease, Captain," growled out Root. He glared forcefully at her until she settled back into the bed, ignoring her soft protest of being able to sit up. There were a few minutes of silence where no one said anything. Unexpectedly, Holly broke it.
"I'm sorry, Commander," said the elf, and there was true remorse in her voice. But her features were straight and she did not look down. Foaly was inwardly impressed at Holly's strength of will. "I did what I thought was best for the mission. I'll turn in my badge and equipment as soon as I get out of the hospital."
The commander was inwardly relieved. He had hardly thought it appropriate to ream out a newly awakened coma victim but Holly had just given him the incentive he needed. "What under the world are you talking about, Short?" barked Root.
Holly's face showed her surprise. "I. I'm being kicked off the force, aren't I?" she asked, but a small hope had kindled inside her. Maybe, just maybe.
Root's color subsided just a little. "You broke around fifty rules going after Mercury, Holly," he said, "and that's not counting the fact that Tater wants to sue us. Thank the gods the lawyers have found a loophole around that." He snorted at Holly's face. If he weren't her superior officer for over twenty years now he would have found her face impassive. But he could read her better now. "Don't look like that, Short. You're not kicked off yet. You're just suspended indefinitely. It was the best course we could find."
Holly sighed in relief. There was still a chance, however small it was.
"Now, the Council doesn't want me to involve you in this investigation anymore, but I felt better of your strength," continued Root. "I want to ask you questions about the heist."
Holly nodded, "Of course, Commander. What have you found out?"
"We reviewed your camera feed and pieced together pretty much what was happening. Except." and his eyes glinted at her strangely in this sentence, "what happened when Mercury began saying something in another language that no one can decipher. We only heard a word or two before the audio blinked out. All recording equipment was disabled during that time for a reason Foaly has yet to know."
Holly fingers slowly curled around a fistful of fabric, her eyes zoning out in a point Root nor Foaly could see. "I remember. Chix wanted me to become something like him. He took out a fairy bible except it was all black. He began saying something in a language that my gift of tongues couldn't decipher. It was something similar to Gnommic; I could catch a few words here and there, but I didn't get it overall. Then a red light surrounded me. I was in so much pain."
Her hand shook a little. Foaly and Root glanced at one another. "What happened to me?" asked the captain. "I remember so much pain inside. And then something happened, the chanting stopped. Trouble. did Trouble come? I remember Trouble somehow." Her eyes finally flickered towards them and she realized for the first time that they were gazing at her in a strange manner. "What? What is it?" she asked. Her eyes widened, "The spell.. It didn't work, did it? I'm not like him, am I?" She at her hands and fingers. "D'Arvit."
"Not quite. Notice anything different, Captain?" asked Foaly wryly. "Do Julius and I look smaller to you?" Holly's eyes widened in horror as her eyes confirmed what Foaly had been hinting at. She hadn't noticed anything because the two of them were staying far away from her. But even that distance could not disguise the fact that they did look smaller to her. There was a large click in her head. The reason why they seemed small, the reason why she was surprised at the size of Trouble's hand on her back in the warehouse, the reason why her senses been on whack, the reason why her body ached so.
Holly looked towards the window of her room in the hospital and with her bedside control set it to reflect. Her reflection slowly greeted her back. Although it was not as she had feared it would look like, it was definitely different. The length of her body had grown. Whence she had been shorter than Root and most definitely Foaly, she could now easily tower over them. Likewise, the rest of her body had grown as well. Her face was the same, but with marked differences. It had grown more defined, expressing its character very well. Her hair as well, once a light shade of brown, had darkened to ruby fire. It was what she would have looked like in a few centuries. Otherwise, she was still the same. She retained her exotic nut-brown complexion, her hazel eyes, and her pointy ears. To put it short and simple, she looked like a fairy the size of a human.
"D'Arvit," she breathed once more, "what the hell happened to me?"