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Chapter 2

"You did a good job Short," said Root. "Even if you did disobey my order."

There was a tinge of something in Root's voice, was it pride? Holly wondered. Was root proud of her?

"Thank you Commander," said Holly humbly, though on the inside her own self-pride was brimming out her ears.

"This thing is amazing," interrupted Foaly. "It has to be over a 1000 years old, but you could swear that it's just been pulled out of the adolescent dragon's mouth."

Dragons, though human fairy tales don't make them out to be, were peaceful creatures. They never harmed anyone unless they were first attacked. As it happens, they didn't look very peaceful, so when a troop of Roman warriors came across them all those years ago, they assumed that they were troublesome, despicable creatures. Therefore, they attacked with everything that they had, and the dragons fought back. Unfortunately for the dragons, they were vastly outnumbered. Dragons, a little like faeries, didn't have many children. In fact, a healthy mother could only have two babies in her entire lifetime; an unhealthy one was lucky to have one child. The humans fought the dragons, and one by one, they pushed them into extinction. Holly shivered. Barbarians.

"So when will you be able to manipulate it's powers?" Root's voice broke into Holly's thoughts.

"You shouldn't use the word manipulate, it makes it sound like we're doing something wrong," replied Foaly, examining the tooth meticulously. "As for the time length, I have no idea. It could be days, weeks, months, maybe even years. It all depends on how it responds to science."

Root glared at the back of Foaly's head. "Some technological genius you are."

"This doesn't have so much to do with technology as it does history and the pure connection that the People and the dragons had."

Holly smiled as Root and Foaly continued to argue. Some things never change.

"How long are you going to be in here?" a female voice floated into Artemis' mind.

He glanced up from the computer and saw a pretty girl with blond hair and blue eyes. Emily, the typical wife for someone like him, even if typical wasn't quite what he wanted. What he wanted he couldn't have because of circumstances beyond his control.

"I have to find out who this Salina Rodina character is," replied Artemis.

"It was probably just a prank."

"A prank letter?" Artemis raised an eyebrow.

She shrugged. "Whatever, here." She slammed an envelope down on his desk and walked out of the study, silently fuming.

Artemis picked up the envelope, and immediately knew whom it was from. Salina Rodina, no return address.

Not knowing what to expect, he slit the top of the envelope open and let the letter fall out. Another riddle was laid out in front of him in sloppy handwriting.

"Children read about it

Adults don't believe in it

Teenagers don't care about it

And faeries have it."

Artemis stared at the paper in horror. Did this enigma of a person know about the people? Is he or she taunting him?

Holly sipped her coffee as she relaxed in the officer lounge. Commander Root had tried to send her home to rest, but Holly would have none of that. She had a strange longing to know the secrets of this tooth, though she had no idea why. So, for the last three hours she has been sitting in the lounge room, waiting. And waiting.

Then to the shock of everyone in the lounge and probably the building, they heard a scream.

Holly immediately dropped her cup and went shooting in the screamer's direction.

The screamer ended up being in the ops booth, one of Foaly's fellow scientists, as it happens. When Holly got there, she found her lying on the floor, a medic, Root and Foaly stood over her.

"What happened?" The medic asked.

"I don't know," answered Foaly. That was probably the only time that he had ever said those words. "She just touched the tooth, started screaming and collapsed."

Everyone in the room looked up at the tooth sitting on the lab table uneasily. It shone with brilliance, brighter then Holly had remembered it.

"She just seems so drained of energy," said the medic. "Give me a few hours and I may be able to explain what's wrong. Till then I suggest that no one, and I mean no one, touches that incisor."

He didn't have to say that twice, everyone in the room was so scared to death that they wouldn't go near that tooth for all the gold on the planet.

TWO HOURS LATER

"Well, I have discovered what's wrong with her, though I don't know how it happened," said the medic that had tended to the scientist earlier.

Holly, Root, and Foaly were all sitting in the medic's lab for a briefing on the scientist's, a pixie by the name of Mickha Martizi, condition.

"She's been drained completely of her magic," he said. "This has never happened before, and I believe that the stress of having it torn from her body like that caused her system to shut down."

"Do you think that the dragon tooth did it?" Asked Root, leaning forward in his chair.

The medic nodded. "That's what I believe."

Everyone was quite.

"Then we have to get rid of it," said Root eventually. "Bury it, burn it, whatever we can do to get it far away."

"NO!" A voice cried. It took Holly several moments to realize that the voice was her own, though she had no idea why she shouted that.

"What do you mean no?" Demanded Root, glaring at her. "That tooth is a danger to my officers."

"I know sir," said Holly, bowing her head a little in embarrassment. "But isn't just throwing it away a little drastic? I mean, it's such a great find.........."

"I agree with Holly," Foaly's voice interrupted the conversation. "We will need to put some precautions with it, of course, but getting rid of it would be a little idiotic after all we went through."

Root's face glowed red for several moments before he said, "fine, but only Foaly is allowed to touch it. He doesn't have any magic to drain."

With that, Root stomped out of the room, followed by Foaly. Holly was left trying to figure out why she wanted to protect the tooth so badly.

Not a very exciting chapter, but the next should be better. This was just kind of building the story up. Please review!