Chapter 5
Wild Horse Chase (Part I)
A/N: Yeah, it might take a while for the title to make sense...anyway, R&R please!
"Horsenapped?" gasped Holly.
Artemis, however, was not as easily flustered and instead of gasping, he began to collect information, "By whom and for what?"
Mulch shook his head, "Nobody knows. Sool thinks the centaur just ran for it, I suppose that means Sool had every intention of firing the pony, but all the news networks have been told that he was horse napped."
"Hold on," interjected Artemis, "Is horsenapped a real word? Never mind, it doesn't really matter. We need to meet in person, but where and how?" mused the boy.
Butler knew the answer to this one, "In one hour, let's meet at the rock-hand formation with the missing finger. You know the one, Mulch."
Mulch nodded, "Yeah, I know the one. But don't be late. Everything's going screwy down here!"
"What do you mean Mulch?"
"You just have to come and see, no time now to explain. I'll be waiting for you, Mulch out."
Holly turned the communicator off.
Artemis pushed them all into action, "Okay, let's all get changed into something we can save Foaly in. Butler, get my bag of tricks and yours as well. All right, in 7 minutes meet back up here and we'll plot our escape."
Butler was amused, "7 minutes exactly? Why 7?"
"It's a lucky number," answered the Irish youth, "Now let's all get moving. Time is of essence here! Oh, and Holly, I never thanked you for coming to the ball with me so…er…thanks."
For a moment, Holly paused, still thinking about the mud boy's rare show of gratitude. 'Perhaps a mud boy could change,' she thought. She snapped herself out of her reverie and went off to change. Butler was already halfway to his secret safe to his "bag of tricks." Artemis was left as the only one in the room, or so he thought.
"Good evening son. Were you just going to run off to save your fairy friend without even making up an excuse for your mother's and my benefit?"
This was an
unexpected twist even for a millionaire genius. Artemis spun around
to see his father emerging from the shadows of the room. "Father!
You knew about the fairies?"
Artemis Fowl the First gave a
little chuckle as he replied, "I'm surprised at you son. You're
a genius. How could I not know about the fairies when one rescues me
from the Arctic, not to mention my son seems to run off with them
almost every other month?"
Artemis was exasperated, "But you
were unconscious!" Then the boy's tone changed dramatically, he
was almost pleading now, "You're not angry are you?"
"Angry? How could I be angry at a race who not only saved my life, but also saved my son's life. I have no clue what wild, haphazard adventures you have with your new friends, but they are saving your life…from yourself! Look at you. They have taught you respect. They have taught you what fighting for good feels like, and most importantly of all, they have taught you friendship. Your mother and I have spent your entire childhood trying to teach you these lessons, but it came down to you discovering them with the help of your new friends. No, son, I am not angry, rather I am happy and proud to have you as a son, even if you have to lie to us to run off with you different specied friends. So go on son. Learn life's lessons and go save your friend."
A tear collected on the side of Artemis' eye; he wiped it away with his sleeve quickly so that his father would not see his emotions. He tried to remain as stoic as ever as he headed for the door, but he paused halfway there. He then ran back and hugged his father saying, "Thank you." It was short-lived emotional outbreak, but it was enough and so he turned back around and ran back to his room to prepare for the adventure. How many curves could one day throw at him?
At the
agreed upon time, the friends met back in the library. Butler had two
huge bags stuffed with technical equipment, Artemis had a small
laptop, and Holly had changed into a cham-foil suit. They had no idea
what they were facing, so they prepared for everything.
As they
snuck out of the house, Butler whispered to Artemis, "Shouldn't
we leave a note or something? Your parents will be worried."
The boy's eyes were nothing but mystery when he replied, "It's all taken care of, my friend. No need to worry."
Butler stared at the boy, but when it became clear that Artemis had no intention of going into further detail, he gave it up as a bad job and turned his attention to something more useful by saying, "I'll drive."
The three climbed
into the Bentley and Butler drove to the Tara entrance; he already
knew the way as he had been led there by Much Diggums last time the
fairy world had been in danger. Artemis sat in the back in a
meditative state, however, within the first five minutes, the boy had
fallen asleep with his forehead pressed against the window.
Holly
had vouched to sit shot-gun next to Butler. Her mind and heart were
racing. She was about to ask Artemis if he had a plan developed and
was just about to turn around when Butler put his finger to his lips
to motion to stay quiet and whispered, "Shhh…let him sleep. You
should get some sleep too. We don't know when we might get the next
opportunity to sleep.
Holly unwillingly complied. The last thing she felt like doing was sleeping, but she knew she'd be better off for it and so fell into a light slumber. Before long, she was being awoken by Butler. She dazily looked around, remembering where she was and where they were heading. The Tara entrance stood just ahead of them, about 50 yards off. Butler had parked the Bentley behind some bushes to help conceal its presence. Butler and Holly looked back to where Artemis was still asleep, and apparently dreaming, for he was muttering, "No! You can't have my acorns! Stop! Don't take my acorns! Oh, please, don't take them. I'll have my manservant snap your neck if you touch even one of my acorns!"
Needless to say, Artemis woke shortly there after to loud laughter coming for the front seat. Butler had tears streaming from his eyes while Holly couldn't be seen as she was rolling on the floor holding her sides.
Artemis loudly cleared his throat to get their attention. When they finally settled down enough to stare at him levelly, Artemis put on his strictest face and lectured, "This is a serious mission, people. What on earth or below it could be this hilarious?" Though he already had an idea that it was about him. His brain automatically sorted the facts he knew: I was asleep. Neither Butler nor Holly are good at telling jokes, therefore, I must deduct that…."Oh, great! Was I talking in my sleep?"
This question was met by renewed laughter and Artemis was turning red from embarrassment. He tried to withstand their outright enjoyment of his shame in silence, but when Holly asked him if he would really have Butler kill her if she touched one of Artemis' acorns, the boy had had all he could take of the other people's merriment.
"Okay, yes. Very funny. Now that we've all had a good laugh at the notorious Artemis Fowl, perhaps we can concentrate on our mission. Let me remind you people that Foaly's missing and we're already late to meet Mulch."
This shut the pair up quickly, however Holly and Butler could not look at each other for the rest of the night without one of them mouthing the word, "acorn," which, of course, made them burst out laughing again, and, in turn, scrambling to get out of the enraged boy's way,
However, back to the present, the three were making their approach to the hidden entrance that Mulch had made years ago. Butler led them to the rock formation that looked like a human hand, where he paused to push some bushes back to expose the hidden cave that luckily the LEP had not yet found. The clay wall that used to conceal its presence was missing do to Butler breaking through it a year previously. The three climbed in the tight cave and soon came to the hole Mulch had blasted in the air vent. The huge manservant was about to lower himself through the hole when urgently shouted, "No! That's too simple. Foaly would not leave something like this for an entire year."
"Perhaps no one's noticed it yet," suggested Holly. She was tired of the dark cave and only too well recognized the faint glow on its walls as dwarf spittle. It made her skin crawl and she was anxious to get out of the cave.
Yet Artemis persisted with his theory, "I don't think so. I believe that Foaly left this hole here to tempt someone to take it. He probably has the whole thing wired with sensors and monitored by the LEP. Here Holly, let me borrow your helmet."
He was referring to the one Holly had "commandeered" before she had left the force. It was highly advanced and equipped with a broad spectrum of sensors. Holly had given it to Artemis when she had first gotten it and the boy had disabled its uplink to the LEP and its autodestruct capabilities.
Holly pulled the helmet from a backpack she had brought along and handed it to Artemis. The boy slipped it onto his head and flipped through the different sensors, watching the hole for any changes. The fourth option he chose showed the ions that proved his theory that the hole had been left there on purpose. The hole was covered with an invisible network of probes and sensors that would easily give away their attempted break in. Artemis, however, was not dissuaded and instead turned his attention up and down the air vent, searching for where the ions ended and where it would be safe to burn a new hole for entrance.
About 10 feet off, Artemis saw the end of the sensors. He crawled to the area and pointed at a spot of the floor of the vent. "Butler," he asked, "Which of your guns would most effectively put a hole in this spot?"
Before Butler could
answer, Holly had pulled a shiny new gun from a holster at her side.
It was such a small gun, that neither Artemis nor Butler had even
noticed it on her apparel. Though none of the gathered knew, it was
officially called a Dipper, for it used sound waves that fairy and
human ears could not hear as its method of concussion, however the
small bird known as the dipper would be driven insane by the
compressed resonating waves that, on the right setting, could shatter
even the so-called shatter proof glass. The gun was a miracle of
science and on different settings could be gentle enough to just
knock a person out or, at a higher setting, straight through 12 feet
of solid rock.
Holly had selected a setting in between the two
extremes and aimed the gun for where Artemis was pointing. The boy
had barely had time to pull back his finger before Holly had pulled
the trigger. The gun had the desired effect and Butler slid through
the newly created hole to the ground eight feet below it. Holly
followed suit and, after reaching the ground, turned around to help
the mud boy who was always helpless in physical situations such as
this. To her surprise, the Irish youth had already slid through the
hole and was already landing when she turned around, bending his
knees to cushion the drop. Holly noticed the ease in which he landed
and shot the usually useless baggage a quizzical glance.
Artemis caught the questioning look and quickly supplied the answer to the question he knew the ex-captain wanted to ask him, "I've been working out with Butler. I finally remembered my promise to myself that I had made in the Arctic. I had promised myself that I would not just exercise my brain, but my body as well so that I could be more useful on our little adventures. And that whole 'Troll Nasty' ordeal motivated me to keep my promise."
Now that Holly looked for it, she noticed that the pale mud boy actually HAD bulked up some. He was still miniscule compared to Butler, but the boy was definitely not nearly as slight as he had been on the previous adventures.
Butler, meanwhile, was not checking out a certain mud boy's enhanced features, but instead was securing the area. One could never be too safe in unfamiliar territory. He called back to the pair, who had miraculously not fought the entire trip, minus a tease here and there, "Hey! Keep up! I can see Mulch ahead!"
