Author's Note: 129 reviews! Wow! Sorry for the long wait, but high school is really demanding. Two and a half hours of homework each night, and its only the first week! I try to write on the weekdays, but its usually only a paragraph or two and maybe some dialogue. I do most of my writing on the weekends.

Thanks to Queen Dragon, -Rock 4ng3l- you're an amazing predictor, you got it right ;), Rebel Rose, -anon-anon-anon- of course I will, AFG, Flaming Ninja, crazygirliecaptain, Literary Prima Donna, katy, Zarroc, and welovechocolate.

Again, CoffeeandCherryBrandy: I am glad to hear you think Artemis is now in character. After several people telling me he was OOC, I rewrote all the chapters in which people thought he was out of it. You said I was paying no attention to the Romeo and Juliet plot? I'm off the story. The only thing that is remaining is the character of Balthasar and the cottage. When Holly rides to see Artemis, she ruins Artemis's plan and therefore takes us off the plot. I wrote Holly like this to show she has a fun side, in some way. And the beach scene: Artemis did not know he was going there for sure. He knew that Mantua was a port town, and since he was heading west, away from the overhead sun, so he would hit the sea eventually. He did not know how long, or if he would get there by sunset. He explores for the same reason he doesn't say anything to Holly when he first reencounters her in The Opal Deception: Several observations can save your life. If Holly did turn back into her fairy self before either of the deadlines, they would have to flee and take an uninhabited route to the chute. Holly is happy about going to the beach because she never has time for herself in the fairy world when she's working above the surface, so she realizes that this could be the only time she could see this much without having to worry about Root, or shielding from humans. This a good enough explanation?

Recap

Holly ran down to the cottage, bursting through the door, and grabbing a piece of bread to shove in her mouth. "Artemis," she yelled, "Let's eat!" She watched as Artemis walked through the door, very pale, and was about to hand him a piece of bread, but he collapsed in the doorway.

End of recap

"Artemis!" she screamed.

When she saw no reply, she realized he had fainted. She ran outside, to the well, and filled a bucket of water, shrieking when she splashed some of the cold liquid on herself.

If this wasn't such a shocking situation, Holly would have laughed when she splashed Artemis with over a gallon of cold water on his face. But when Artemis did not sit up and yell at Holly as a reaction, nor react to it at all, she became even more worried. She could consider several options, some of which were more risky, and some she just did not want to do. She could wait for Artemis to wake up, but if he didn't in the next couple minutes, she would have to do something else. Shaking him was a possibility, as was the crude alternative of punching him in the hopes of waking him up. There was CPR, but she had no plans of doing that. She didn't want to be near Artemis's mouth twice in twenty four hours.

Holly looked at the drenched Irish boy for a moment, and tried talking to him first. "Artemis…wake up…" she said loudly, shaking him simultaneously. "I'm sorry I got you wet like this, I figured it would wake you up, but obviously, you're still unconscious, so…ummmm…." Holly scratched her head, thinking again about her options. "Artemis!" she yelled into his ear, "wake up, dammit!" Artemis remained still. She pulled back his right eyelid, the eye staying still. She would wait, but her patience was wearing out. She yelled at him one more time, looked at the Mud Boy, and decided to pursue her last option: CPR. She opened his mouth, and dreaded what she was about to do.

After about a minute, Artemis sat up, surprising Holly immensely. "You okay?" she asked.

He ran his fingers through his hair and looked at his fingernails as if deciding whether they were still in good condition. "Fine, except a bit hungry."

"A bit? You fainted."

"Well, that was a side effect."

Holly again rolled her eyes. "Admit it, Mud Boy, you're starving."

"I'm not starving. I haven't gone more than a day without food, and I am not close to death due to lack of food. I would prefer having water right now, since my thirst is greater than my hunger."

"Here, I'll get some. Go rest."

She poured him a glass of water and sliced some bread.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"About five to ten minutes."

"That's a bit long. You would think cold water would wake me up," Artemis replied, holding up a strand of his sopping black hair.

"Well, it didn't."

"What other methods did you try?"

"Uh, let's see, shaking you, yelling at you-"

"Which you enjoyed, I suppose?"

"Honestly, I was worried at first, but it was fun, yeah."

Artemis shook his head slightly. "Typical. Is that how I came about?"

"No, CPR."

"Interesting, I thought you wouldn't have done that," he said while raising his eyebrows.

"It was a last resort."

"You're right, I just would have rather woken up at the water, or being yelled at by a fairy."

"You're so formal, you know that?"

"Where does this come from?"

"Things like 'would have rather', refusing to end a sentence with a preposition, 'suppose,' refusing to admit anything that would weaken you…"

"A person should never admit their faults, and besides, good speaking skills are important."

Holly snorted. "Admitting your faults can be good. Try it."

"No. I would rather eat more food."

"Pig."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Who cares? Teenagers are supposed to have larger than normal appetites."

"I thought you weren't a normal teenager."

"Intelligence wise, no. Appetite, yes. Food tastes, no."

"So you're somewhat normal?"

"No."

"But you just said your appetite was normal, and two other things were not, so that makes you one third normal, which is…ah…thirty something percent."

Artemis rolled his eyes. "Thirty three point three repeating, actually."

"Who cares?"

"Most mathematicians, myself…"

"Close enough. Frond, Artemis, do you ever shut up?"

"Why, yes. Sleeping, eating, and thinking."

"So think now! Or eat! Or sleep!"

"About what? We already planned to get out of here, and we have several options."

"I wanna go home!"

"And so do I!"

"At least I have something to go back to!"

"And I don't?"

"What do you have?" retorted Holly for no particular reason at all, besides the fact that she was homesick.

"Family, Butler, Juliet, decent food, not to mention a computer…"

"Who cares about a computer, Artemis?"

"I do, in fact, it happens to be one of my favorite possessions. And Holly, we have had this conversation before, must we again? I can see you're homesick, Holly, don't blame it on me."

"Don't blame it- don't blame it on you! You're the one who got us into this mess!"

"Foaly built the time machine, Holly."

"Yeah, I know that, but you- you did extensive research to find out things you shouldn't have-like us! No human has ever discovered us, stole our Book, kidnapped one, in other words me, stole half a ton of metric gold, built a Cube from our technology…I mean, Frond, Artemis, the list goes on and on."

"Well, the clues were there if you really wanted to find them, and I do have my doubts about kidnapping you Holly, I've told you this before, now can we please change the subject?" The topic was getting closer and closer to Artemis's humane side, and he did not want it that way.

"One more question," Holly persisted. "One more, then your choice of conversation. Just one."

"Agreed," he sighed.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Why did you kidnap me?"

"Because," he groaned, "because I wanted to meet one and get rich off it. Honestly, I didn't think you fairies would be so, so human like."

"We are not!"

"You aren't, Holly, you're smarter. You've evaded discovery for hundreds, thousands of years, you've better technology, better transportation, heck, the fairies took me back in time six hundred and six years! I've been trying to build a time machine for three years, and who knows how old it is? Foaly had it stashed for ages. But you have personality, you can talk, you can…"

"Uh, thanks, I guess." What is he doing? First he's yelling, then being honest, then complimenting…What's his goal? To get me feeling so many things at once I just want…

"No, Holly, no guessing," he said, shaking her from her thoughts, "we cant guess now, things are too indefinite. To guess would make them even more."

"Gods, Artemis, how old are you? That's like way beyond your years."

He did his little "I'm a genius" shrug after saying, "Thirteen and seven months."

"If things are so, indefinite, then why aren't we just going to the chute?"

"I thought you wanted to travel."

"Don't you?" He was the one who had come up with the idea, after all.

"Yes, but, its too dangerous. What if you turn into a short little red thing-"

Holly rolled her eyes. "I thought you were mature."

"A fairy, and who wants to imagine the consequences? These people believe in witches, for heaven's sake."

"Well, it's the same concept as fairies, isn't it? The whole magic deal and shrinking two feet all of a sudden."

"I suppose."

"Stop saying suppose, dammit! It's getting on my nerves!"

"What else is a synonym for suppose without being too childish?"

"I don't know! I don't care! Just stop saying it!"

"Hmm, guess is too childish, suppose I can no longer say-but why does it annoy you?"

"Artemis, you're not in a business meeting or presenting a paper!"

"What about presume, assume, understand, believe so, expect, deduce, infer, hypothesize, consider, think is also childish?"

"Will you stop acting like a human dictionary?"

"I do have a very large vocabulary."

Was Artemis doing this on purpose? "Shut up! You're getting on my nerves!"

"Choose a word."

"You stupid idiot Mud Boy!"

"That's not on the list," he smirked.

"Just use a variety, Frond, is it really that important?"

"I suppose not."

"Stop saying it!"

"Why?"

If Artemis hadn't fallen unconscious, she would have punched him. She didn't know why she didn't. He would not shut his mouth, or do anything even close to it. It was getting to the point where all he did was annoy her. "Mud Boy, is it your purpose in life to annoy me?"

"I don't know."

"Answer yes or no, either you do or you don't!"

"Well, its obvious I annoy you, but I don't understand why."

"Because you act like it's your sole purpose in life to be rattling off facts like a computer, or a textbook. You act like such a friggin know-it-all!"

"I do know almost everything."

If Holly hadn't punched him then, she would have punched him now. But she did feel a tad sorry for the Mud Boy, so instead she resorted to the next best thing.

"Ow," Artemis said in response, rubbing a now scarlet spot on his cheek, "do you have to slap people so hard?"

"Only if they deserve it," she retorted with a wink.

"Did I?"

"Obviously if I slapped you. Would you rather have me deck you, that's always fun, too."

Artemis was about to say a witty retort, but when Holly's skin turned darker and darker, her ears became pointier, and she started shrinking at about an inch every five seconds. At the point where she had withered away to four feet, he let out a scream.

Author's Note: dum dum dum…big suspenseful music heehee, evil cliffhanger! If you want to know what's happening, if you want to get it soon, then review! The more reviews, the faster I write your next lil chapter which should include the fate of Holly unless I'm really evil ;-)

Please review!