Chapter 4
Let the Games Begin
Council member Vinyaya sat eating her breakfast: Oatmeal and tea. Not exactly tasteful, but her age had weaned her from sugar and food coloring. She was an old elf with much knowledge. This is why she had been elected to the council and why she was a wing commander. Her insight helped make the right choices for the People.
The council had been in charge of the People for 200 millennia. It was a form of government set up by the fairies after the overthrow of King Liric who had ruled as a tyrant for 900 years. This was all when the people still lived above ground and long before humans began to multiply on the Earth. When the people had finally received their freedom following King Liric's demise, they set up the council as a form of democracy to protect themselves from such an event happening again…or so they thought.
Vinyaya's face showed hatred and determination as she thought of Ark Sool's plot. He had grown too powerful and was now threatening the People's freedom. The worst part of it was, the People had no idea that it was going on. Sool had created himself a special assassin force that "took care" of anyone with thoughts of disclosing the information to the people. Sool was going to bring war upon the mud men and initiate a genocide. But Vinyaya was not going to give in so easily. She would not sit and allow her people to terrorize an entire race that is completely unaware of their resistance. She was going to stop this…this murder! Vinyaya was going to speak at a conference that would be broadcasted on PPTV. She sat finishing her breakfast and think about what she would say to make the people forcibly overthrow Sool's plans.
Outside her apartment, Sool's special police squad, or rather assassin squad, shuffled into position, waiting for the go-ahead from Commander Sool. The object: make sure Vinyaya does not become a threat; deadly force was authorized. The head of the squad checked in with Sool, "Commander, have we the go-ahead?"
Soot sighed. Why did special forces always have to use such weird lingo? "Negative!" the commander answered, "Hold your position and mark target. We're still waiting for the Foaly force to check in."
The Foaly force in question was having difficulties. There was no blind spot to sneak up to Foaly's control station. Sool agitated voice issued from the unit's communication system, "Foaly unit! Are you in position?"
"As close to it as we can be, sir."
"Well then, Foaly and Vinyaya forces, go-ahead confirmed. Proceed to fulfill your objectives!"
Soot chuckled to himself. He decided he would have to get a drink to toast himself when this operation was a success, and Sool had no doubts that it would be anything less than perfect.
Major Trouble Kelp stood outside the door, listening to the conversation. He smiled. He had passed on the right information and the plans were set! He crept back to his desk to file some more reports. Now, all he had to do was keep his nose clean, figuratively of course.
Foaly was just thinking about having some carrot bread for breakfast when he noticed a strangely dressed band of fairies rushing toward his control booth. He recognized the uniforms as those of Sool's "secret" force's. "So the power struggle is the begin now?" thought the centaur. Foaly had been preparing for this and had a plan ready to be put into action.
He pushed a button and smiled as he said, "Let the games begin, Sool!"
Fowl
Manor
Evening approached and Holly and Artemis had separated to
get dressed and ready. Mrs. Fowl had gone through the trouble of
picking out an absolutely beautiful dress for the elf. (Holly was
grateful for this. Being a tom boy meant she had no talent in the
picking-out-of-dresses field.) Mrs. Fowl had also hired someone to do
Holly's hair and make-up- Holly felt spoilt with such attention. An
hour later, Holly studied herself in the mirror. The Holographer only
changed the shape of her ears, yet Holly barely recognized herself in
her reflection. It could be the fact that, because she was no longer
in the LEP, her crew cut was not mandatory. Her red hair had grown
out and was now medium length and in curls. She had always loved her
hair long.
She could hear music from a live orchestra playing downstairs. It was time to go meet Artemis. She stuffed her communicator into the purse that went with her dress, just in case.
Meanwhile, Artemis was fumbling with his cuffs . As the music started downstairs, he took one last critical look at himself in the mirror, pausing to fix a stray strand of dark hair, then he went to meet Holly. Their paths converged at the head of the stairs. Artemis blushed upon seeing Holly. She was beautiful! (In a pointy sort of black widow way as Eoin Colfer says) He mumbled a greeting then stuck out his arm for Holly to hold as he escorted her down the steps. Artemis was usually awkward in social situations, and his awkwardness seemed to multiply ten-fold in Holly's presence. "Just what was getting into this mud boy?" she wondered.
Holly took the proffered arm, sensing a growing bond between herself and the boy. But that was preposterous.! She was almost 80 years older than the boy! But then, her subconscious thought, her proportioned age of a fairy to a human was not much older that the boy. Not much older at all. With these confusing thoughts in her head, she descended the stairs with Artemis.
Holly gasped in awe. The downstairs was bursting with people. They were even spilling out into the decorated garden. The floor was a maze of people dancing back and forth, and, while not in complete unison, they all seemed to be following some unknown steps that Holly figured must be some sort of Mud Tradition. This was the part of humanity Holly had never found in any fairy textbooks: when the time called for such behavior, yes mud men could be violent, treacherous, and dirty, but they could also be polite, eloquent in speech and foot, and a perfectly agreeable and fascinating race. Perhaps, for the first time, Holly was actually seeing the good in humans. Was it possible to have an inter-species friendship…or even more? Holly roughly these thoughts from her head. How could she be thinking about that?
Artemis had been peering into Holly's eyes and noticed the struggle within her. What is bothering her? Is it me? he thought.
Holly saw his look of concern and quickly smiled. She laughed nervously and asked, "Aha, ha, um…What are we supposed to do now?"
Artemis stirred. He noticed that they were already at the landing of the stairs and had been standing there for quite a while. He mentally shook himself, "Do you know how to dance?"
"Are you telling me that you do?"
Artemis placed a pale hand on his chest, gesturing himself and gave his trademark vampiric smile, "Of course I do. I am a genius of all sorts. I'll lead."
"Well, that's the weirdest way any guy could've asked me to dance. At least he could've requested instead of stating." thought Holly, but said nothing out loud.
And
so Artemis led Holly out onto the floor and they danced, lost inside
the crowd of rotating couples. Holly breathlessly manage to ask, "Who
are all these people, Artemis?"
Artemis gave her a mock serious
face and answered, "This may be the first and last time you hear me
say this Holly, so listen carefully: I don't know."
Holly just laughed and continued to follow the boy's lead. The song had a mild beat, but it slowed down near the end. Her and Artemis were drawing closer, each just staring into each other's eyes, forgetting the crowd around them. There lips were getting nearer and nearer to each other, almost touching now, then…they heard a loud and familiar voice laughing uncontrollably nearby. The pair broke apart, the "kissing mood" had passed. They looked around, slightly embarrassed and found an out-of-breath Butler wiping away tears from his eyes from where he had been laughing so hard.
"What's so funny?" asked Artemis with a scowl.
"Nothing, except the irony of the situation. The first time Holly came to Fowl Manor, you had just kidnapped her, Artemis, and she hated your guts. And now look at you two! Friends dancing. Oh, the irony!"
Holly went and hugged the huge Eurasian man for whom she felt a certain camaraderie for. She decided to ignore the "irony" of the situation and instead said, "Welcome back Butler. How's Juliet?"
"Fine and still kicking butt in the Mexican Wrestling league."
"She should be," said Artemis with a bit of a smile, "She is a Butler after all."
Suddenly Holly started. Artemis raised an eyebrow at the fairy and leaned in to whisper in her ear, "Maybe you should take the call upstairs in the library."
Finally Holly understood. It was her fairy communicator vibrating in her purse that had startled her. She quickly darted up the stairs with Artemis and Butler in her wake and another, uninvited and unknown person in their wake. She reached the library and pulled the communicator from her purse.
"Holly here."
Mulch's head appeared in the view screen. He look worried, maybe agitated , and he seemed to be upset about something. Of course, this was all from Artemis' point of view. Holly had not noticed Mulch's body language and asked, with a hint of excitement, "Has Foaly given you the new case yet?"
"Yeah, I'd say he did, but I don't think it's the one he had in mind," answered the dwarf. All of the Mulch's hair seemed to be quivering.
"What..?" began Holly but Artemis cut her off.
"What's happened to Foaly, where is he?" asked the pale Irish boy.
"That's just it," said Mulch, "Our new case is Foaly! He's been horsenapped!"
