Ah, this chapter took a little longer to come up with. I've been busy and school is starting soon! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. None of the characters belong to me of course. (That is the disclaimer by the way.)
There are no appearances of any of the Harry Potter gang in this one; many people were asking for Artemis. You wanted Artemis, you got him!
Foaly rapped his fist on the door, right next to the proud gleaming plate that read "Commander Trouble" . "Come in!" The voice that answered was so different then Root's old gruff greeting. And when Foaly opened the door he wasn't hit by a blast of smoke from a even fouler cigar. Another reminder that Root was gone….. damn Opal and her tricks. Even though time had passed since that fateful day, Root was still alive in everyone's minds and hearts.
Foaly entered the office and closed the door behind him. Trouble had looked up from his desk the instant he heard the soft clip-clop of hooves, his face was a mixture of astonishment and happiness- both of the emotions caused by the fact that Foaly had left his office and looked positively horrible.
"Foaly! What are you doing to yourself! You are working yourself to death!" Commander Trouble said as he studied the centaur. He knew that Foaly was one of the greatest things the fairies had. It was his genius that kept the humans from discovering them for so long and he had played major parts in every adventure that that mud boy Artemis kept popping up in. Having one of their best men so dangerously ill was not a smart move.
Foaly gave him a smile and folded his hands in front of him. He was a little nervous, but he hid it well. He didn't want anyone to know his real reason for going above surface… he would of told Holly but she never picked up the phone. It was too late to take shuttles to the surface now, but he planned to go in the morning. This night he would spend it preparing and gathering everything he needed….that is of course if this went well.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Foaly said.
"You want a vacation, take a week off, go home and get some sleep. " Commander Trouble said and pushed back on his desk to push his seat back and rise to his feet. A week may have been a while for Foaly to be gone but he needed it. He wasn't much help in poor health. Besides, Foaly was his friend….sort of. He cared about Foaly at least. And he could only imagine Holly's angry face yelling at him for working him to death. He winced lightly at the thought of the spit-fire girl, but all thoughts of Holly vanished from his head when Foaly shook his head.
"No, I only need two days…. On the surface." Foaly said, holding up two fingers which also happened to form the 'peace' sign. Maybe he did that so Commander Trouble wouldn't be too astonished and give an out right no like Commander Root would of done. The only time Foaly had been to the surface was when Artemis had kidnapped Holly and he needed to be on site. He didn't get to see much of the mud man's world then, only one rich family's manor in the same time frame. He didn't even get the chance to see the stars….
"What! The surface? Foaly you can have a perfectly good vacation right here in the city! Why do you need to get to the surface?" Commander Trouble said. By this time his eyes were as wide as dish plates as he stared openly at the centaur. Foaly seemed to be acting like a very spoiled child at the moment. He knew he was important and valued…but would he really use that to influence this?
But of course.
Foaly sighed and lowered his hands. "Having me gone for a week is a bit long…who knows what will happen then. And don't you think I've deserved a nice vacation after all I've done…." He smiled sympathetically at poor Trouble. "And what will the media think if they knew you were working the genius behind the LEP to death… what will Holly think?"
Commander Trouble's face paled at the subtle threats. He was cornered…and he knew it. But Foaly was smart… maybe he could talk some sense into him. "But… getting you above and below surface is so…hard." He said, stressing the word.
Foaly sniffed indifferently. "But it wasn't too hard when I was needed with the Fowl business." He pouted. Trouble sighed angrily. "That was…different." He said. It was getting harder and harder for him to keep from getting angry. Foaly was just so….difficult!
"I need a break! Some fresh air will do me good. You let other members of the LEP take vacations of the surface. The only reason you aren't letting me go is because I'm a centaur…do you not like centaurs?" he asked , laying the simple undertones of a lawsuit and trouble if he didn't get his way.
Trouble sighed and sank back into his chair…his favorite chair. It seemed to take away all the stress that Foaly just placed on his shoulders. He saw now that it would be so much easier for everyone if he just let Foaly go to the surface. But since when had he become so selfish?
"Where do you need to go? You can't exactly prance around Disney World like the others." He said in defeat.
"Scotland."
"Scotland! Foaly…come on! This isn't like you. Why don't you go to Ireland instead?" he said, trying to reason with the difficult centaur but Foaly shook his head stubbornly.
"It's only Scotland, and I'm only going to a forest for only two days. I really need the break…" he said and did his best to look as pitiful and pathetic as possible.
Perhaps if he was dealing with Commander Root it wouldn't of worked. He would of seen right through his façade and sent his scrawny centaur butt sprawling. But this wasn't Commander Root no matter how many people wished he would come back. But this was Commander Trouble. They were both good commanders, one just had a softer heart.
"I want you bringing all your gadget things, got it Foaly? If you get yourself sighted by a mud man I swear…." Trouble ordered and looked at the centaur sternly. "And how are you going to be getting around anyway?" he asked suspiciously. This was the kind of trip that you had to plan for a long time. He trusted Foaly enough to realize this wasn't a spur of the moment type thing.
"You can't exactly use your wings." He said, referring to the ones Foaly makes for the other members of the LEP. "I know that!" Foaly spat miserably. He had the feeling that he was being mocked with that comment…and he was. "I've got it all planner out, alright? I just need a shuttle tomorrow morning." Foaly said correcting his tone. He didn't want to piss off Trouble just as he got his way.
"Bright and early?" He questioned.
"Bright and early." Foaly said with a nod of his head.
Trouble smiled, and then Foaly. They had come to an agreement at last.
Trouble's friend was going to get himself back into tip top health with a badly needed break (At least he thought so. He didn't know what Foaly was really planning.) And Foaly was going to be able to find out if there are other centaurs living among the mud men and if there were, he of course was going to get them out of there and below surface.
That would be quite a surprise for Trouble to face… a whole new herd of centaurs. Foaly could only imagine the look on his face though….Root's would have been more comical.
He turned and walked out of the office, leaving Trouble to do his work. Everything was different now… he needed to get use to Root being gone but… his was a presence that wasn't easily forgotten.
Some teenagers like to play sports. They try out for football, soccer, baseball, lacrosse and many others. Others just play sports for fun like snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing. Then again, some teenagers don't like to play sports at all. They are too focused on friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, their jobs, and other things. If I was to write it all out the list would be endless. They like computers, talking on the phone, playing video games- normal teenage stuff.
But whoever said Artemis Fowl was normal?
Though he was on the computer, which could be seen as normal thing for teenagers his age to do, exactly what he was doing wasn't that normal. He wasn't chatting with friends on line (indeed the few friends he had he wouldn't be able to talk to through the online world. Besides, he had Butler), nor was he playing a video game. He was playing chess.
He had stopped bothering to find people to play with in real life. That tended to get boring when they severly underestimated him and were careless. But this world was chess was better. The players were ranked by their past history so it was very easy to find advanced players. Right now, he was in a game with one of them yet growing severly annoyed. And not because he was loosing, no Artemis never lost.
The pale boy sat in front of his computer desk as he stared at his screen studying the possible moves and planning a strategy in his mind. Unfortunately his sharp eyes would keep getting distracted by a little box that was next to the digital board. In this box, the two opponents can talk to each other. "hello!1 r u gonna move?" the same message kept coming over and over again until it was just shortened to "hello?" over and over…
It was quite annoying. Especially since " r" and "u" were words. He was beginning to doubt this game's rating of "advances players". He sighed in defeat and closed his eyes and massaged his temples. This fourteen year old boy really looked much older then what he really was, and it wasn't just the custom suit. It was the manner he held himself, the way he spoke and the way he moved.
It screamed rich, cunning, and smarter then you. But that was because he was. He was rich (He had a nice chunk of fairy gold after all), and he was cunning. And chances were good that he was smarter then everyone in his age bracket, and those above his age as well. But that was a bad thing when you were looking for a decent game of chess.
At last, he moved a pawn. "finally! " his opponent typed in response. Artemis stayed silent. He didn't want to encourage their chatty tendencies and give himself a further headache of trying to understand what they were saying. Instead, he sunk back into his plush leather chair.
He was currently in one of the many offices of Fowl Manner. It was a smaller room, but cozy none the less. The lights were dimmed which cast everything in a warm glow. The walls were lined with leather back books, the pages lined with gold to give it a beautiful shine. The wooden floors where covered with a deep red Arabian rug with intricate designs of gold and dark blue. Everything had a sort of old look to it, until you looked at the laptop. It was one of the best out there and a newer model.
Though you couldn't find another laptop like that anywhere like it in the world. This one had special… qualities. Fairy qualities, though things have been slow in the Fairy world. Holly did promise to call when she needed help but as yet to do so. This meant that there was no goblin rebellion, that Opal was gone for good and that nothing else was going seriously wrong. Times were peaceful…and he hated it.
His opponent moved their knight. "ur turn slowpoke!"
But Artemis wasn't slow anymore. Now that he had his strategy planned out in his head he knew each and every move he had to make.
"lol ur so stupid!"
Artemis smirked and watched as they caught his pawn with the knight they had moved out.
"another stupid move! ive got ur rook now!"
Ah…victory will be sweet. He may of sacrificed another pawn but it takes sacrifices to really get what you want.
"Dude? R u sure ur advanced?"
Indeed… Artemis had made many sacrifices.
"ur boring me! i gonna hurry up and finish this game. "
But all his sacrifices where worth it in the end, he did have his mother and father back now. Butler was alive (though oddly aged). He had to thank the fairies for all of this though.
"hahahah! ur gonna lose!"
Mostly Holly. The other fairies didn't seem to trust him fully. They did trust him after all he did to help though. He saved their butts how many times? But they had saved his the same amount.. maybe even more.
"Arty?" the ever worried of the voice of his mother called. "Arty, come outside to the sun! Get out of that office and enjoy some lemonade with me and your father!"
He sighed. Oh yes, he really owed the fairies a whole lot. Well.. now that he had to go he might as well end this now. He only needed to make one move, a very simple move.
"I do believe my illiterate friend, that is check mate. " That was the first, and last, thing he ever said to his now defeated opponent.
"Arty?"
"Coming!" he shouted back to his mother and turned off his computer, a smug look on his face. The only problem with playing people over the internet was he was no longer able to see their actual reaction when they lost; the look on their face.
But he saw it so many times in his life, he had beaten so many better foes. He could imagine the look on the other's face. Obviously they had a lot to learn about life.
Chess was like less, you have to give things up if you ever want to win the big prize that makes it all worth while.
Lovemehatemejustdon'tfearme: I haven't formatted it like that again because of the oddness…hehehe.. I'm glad you liked it and I hope that as things go along it only gets more intriguing.
Hogwartssharmed1: My updating speed might get a bit slow due to the fact school is approaching!
Helltanz98: Artemis has now been introduced. And thanks you for correcting my mistake, I knew when I was writing that one part that it was a little odd and it should have been "gods".
Sponge-fan: Reading your review made me smile….a lot. I'm so glad that you like it that much! And you will see later on if Foaly is or not. I can't give anything away after all. And everyone will meet eventually… as in… the next chapter!
Summer.snoboardr: I thought that was an interesting way to do it as well, connecting them with the centaurs.
ProfRasah: Hehehe… thanks. I'm glad you like it a lot!
Marz1: Foaly was brought to the surface before, in the first book so I know it's possible. They never really went into a lot of detail though, and neither am I. ;;