Artemis Fowl: Blue Eyes

Chapter 2- Hit it Out

Artemis laid awake for hours into the night just staring blankly up at the stars. The temperature had risen considerably, and the warm breezes were a pleasure to have. He was currently resting for a moment on a pile of dry leaves. He saw no need to fall asleep completely; he was probably going to die anyway. (Now that was thinking irrationally. For him anyway.) He had no way of communicating with anyone, and it's not like he carries around a...

...a cell phone!

Artemis jerked up and patted himself down wildly. No phone. He looked around, and then remembered the copy. It had the phone, but he was miles from it. The genius had parachuted out of the plane when he realized what was going on.

It wouldn't have mattered anyway. His cell phone and all other technical devices are setting back in his room at Fowl Manor.

He plopped back down on the ground, feeling defeated. Everything that could've possibly gone wrong had gone wrong. What the bloody hell was he thinking, doing something so stupid... It was just a dream... just a...

Something hit the back of his head, making him get up again to look around. Nothing. There was a very, very faint rumbling in the background, but it was so quiet, Artemis thought he was imagining it. Something on the ground flickered in the moonlight as he moved. It looked like a small gold coin with a string tied around a hole in the middle.

Something inside him went haywire when he reached down to pick it up, but he couldn't quite put his foot on what it was. Something so tangible, but just out of his reach. He kept the little necklace.

It seemed after he found the thing that he slept soundly. It was a change, from staying up all hours of the night doing research on things completely irrelevant to him. He assumed it would fill the emptiness. Of course, a few crimes here and there helped, but they didn't fill anything.

But now the hole was slowly closing up. He'd found something he was missing—

—too bad he had no clue what it was.

But he did. He knew what it was.

Well, not exactly.

It was driving his brain crazy. It was driving him crazy. Everything else, including his survival, was shoved aside for this coin-thing. Or whatever it was.

His dreams were assorted fantasy novels with mythological creatures everywhere. One of them stood out like a pine tree in the Sahara: A beautiful Elvin girl with short auburn, copper-colored hair. She talked and laughed (and argued) with him for as long as he desired.

But dreams are hard to come by when you're awake, and Artemis awoke to a very loud, very annoying—

"ARRRRTYYY!!!!"


Things weren't easy for Holly.

Turning herself into a human wasn't easy (or legal.)

Going aboveground without being caught wasn't easy (or legal.)

But hey, she was Holly. She didn't care if things were hard or illegal. All she wanted to do was see if Artemis was okay. That couldn't be so hard...

...and that wasn't true.

After her talk with Commander Root went up in smoke, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Yes, she knew it was going against an order, but one year of LEP junk is a bore. She'd been adventure-deprived, and when a good one finally comes up, they say she can't go.

"Holly Short; mission objective: secure the fact that Artemis Fowl is not, I repeat, NOT dead," she mumbled aloud as she snuck quietly down a long-since-abandon corridor. There was dead silence.

"But," she continued, "to complete the objective, she must first pay off a goblin and take an illegal ride to the surface." The little elf sighed heavily. "Why am I even doing this? Why should I care about that power-crazed prodigy?" She kicked a stone as she thought about it. Because he's changed, said the little voice in her head, "or at lease...he had...before we..."

"Hey! Yeah, you. Short redhead. You Holly?" Holly looked up and nodded to the goblin. He walked toward her in a wobbly, drunken fashion. "Ok 'den. Follow me."

Before she could say a word, Holly found herself being dragged back down the hallway. "Where are we going? The chutes aren't this way—"

"You ain't goin' up any chute, lady. Yer goin' up a hole." Holly's eyes widened, but shrank again as she let the goblin lead her.

They eventually came to a dark, dark cavern that Holly seemed to recognize.

"This is the diamond mining caves, there's nothing--"

"Are you gonna keep yappin, or are you gonna let me do my job?"

Holly was quiet for a few minutes until they reached the very back of the cave. She stared at the back of the ugly goblin's head, for he'd stopped. He slowly turned to face her. "You ain't one 'a them LEP guys, are ya?" The beady little eyes looked Holly over as she quickly crossed her arms to cover her badge. She slowly shook her head, keeping her cool.

"I'm a girl. Girls aren't LEP 'guys'." If the goblin was dumb enough to miss her badge this whole time, he'd surely believe that.

And she was right. He grunted and turned back to face the wall. With one quick breath of fire, the thin "dirt" wall crumbled. An illegal tunnel, eh? Not a chute. I didn't think that seemed logical. A tunnel would explain the recent increase in goblins getting to the surface. But, (and I'll kill myself for this de ja vou,) goblins aren't that smart, and there must be someone helping them.The two pressed on, until the goblin abruptly stopped and was looking up. There was a hole in the ceiling about 5 foot in diameter. The gobbling blew three puffs of fire into the hole, waited a minute, and then blew one last big one. A rope (or three, actually) fell. Holly wasn't stupid, but she was desperate. And desperate times calls for desperate- well yeah, whatever.

Holly also noticed that she was acting very weird lately. Very weird. Un-Holly like. Hopefully she could figure out why if she saw Artemis.

Holly wasn't really prepared for what was at the other end of the rope. This wasn't just a little hole dug to make some easy money- they had a whole express going on! It was like another city was right under their noses. Another city full of goblins, that is. Besides the people being suited up to journey so close to the center of the Earth it wasn't funny, every other living creature there was a goblin.

The red-haired fairy didn't realize she as being dragged over to one of the many holes. She seized the moment to gather information. "Hey, do you know who's running this operation?"

Again, the goblin eyed her with suspicion. "That's classified stuff--"

"Aw, come on. Please? I won't tell anybody."

"Blue Eyes started us out, so you could say that he's the one runnin' this thing. But he left us a little while back and told one of the other bosses that they were now in charge."

"Is Blue Eyes like a nick name?"

"How should I know? And you can't tell nobody 'bout this."

"I hear you," Holly said with a grin. A lead. Now all she had to do was figure out who this "Blue Eyes" character was and-

But that wasn't the mission objective. (And this wasn't a real mission, but Holly didn't care) She had to stick with the original plan, or it would never work. Keep one thing and one person in mind- Artemis.

Wait a second, she thought as she began the long climb to the surface, Blue Eyes...Artemis? Could it be that he..? No. No, that's not possible.

He couldn't be...


One breath of that cool, (well, not exactly fresh, but close enough) air was all Holly needed to know the trip through the Earth was worth it. She still hadn't figured out how a bunch of Goblins could've managed such a complicated dig, unless if this Blue Eyes person was some sort of genius. "Stop it," She mumbled aloud. "It's not Artemis. He's completely lost when it comes to goblins and fairies and things."

But, there was no time for petty thoughts. She had to perform the transformation soon.

The idea of becoming a human, even if for a short time, had seemed like an adventure at first, but the more she thought about the idea, the more she hated it. There were so many things that could go wrong, and she could be stuck as a mud man forever. Well, until she died at an early age, anyway.

Without giving it another thought to dwell on, Holly reached into her pocket and pulled out a small blue stone. She began to chant...

"Magic stone of blue,

Against the moon,

A wish I bid you grant

Take away the powers

And not within hours,

But within minutes, I have to chant

Forbid my book

And give me the look,

A mud man I will be

To laugh, love

To live above

And last for..."

Holly paused on the last line. She crossed her fingers. The last line was a crucial part in determining her future. It was originally, 'And last for eternity,' but Holly only wanted to be human for a short while. This was how the fairies she'd researched eluded the spell. She concluded that they must've changed the last line to however many days, or years they wanted to stay human. But that was just her well-thought-out guess. She lied to Root about the cure. That was a fact, not a legend. There really was no cure.

So with only a guess to go by, Holly finished the last line,

"...twenty-seven hours."


Next time—I really have no clue...yet! You might find out who Blue Eyes is, though. And I plan to put in a lot of Holly/Artemis fluff! Aah, fluff... My sister hates it, but I'm a sucker for mushy, cute things.

a/n— Oh my freakin wow-man! I am SO happy! I love you all! Every single person who reviewed this! No, I will not quit writing on this, (and I hope you liked this chapter, by the way. Maybe it cleared some things up.) I really did not want to stop where I did, but I did. So :p. I can't wait to write the next chapter...

mad sam: You are not annoying! And yes, I do love critiques. . I don't think I've ever gotten a longer review! Thank you so much! It seems there's more I need to clear up than I thought. This chapter should've helped. (With both the plot and Holly's OOCness.)

TrunkyZ: Holly has to turn human! She has to! It's just that way! :P Thanks for the tips! Gah! I'm so thrilled!

Everybody Else: Thank you thank you thank you all so very very much! I'm glad you like this story. Cuz I sure am having a blast writing it. Revising it, no, and getting the plot together, frustrating, but writing it- fun! Thanx again!

Chao for now!