Chapter Forty, Farewell Fowl
When Artemis opened his eyes, a bright light going through a veil of white was the first thing he saw… So apparently he was not dead yet.
The morning sun was shining through the trees of the forest as a thick fog was slowly creeping around the arena's dark and damp soil. Despite the abundance of light, the scenery surrounding Artemis seemed quite eerie to him, not to mention that the humidity of the ground under his body felt rather uncomfortable. Furthermore, since no cannons had been heard during the night, the fact that there were still three tributes left in the Games was certain and that thought was just as good as it was worrisome.
After having taken a moment to properly wake himself up, Artemis sat up, being careful not to disturb the stinging burn on his abdomen. As the boy stretched, he reached for his water bottle, which turned out to be empty. Artemis let go of a sigh. He was too thirsty to be able to avoid a trip back to the river. The boy thus got to his feet and headed for the water, deciding that for the sake of his aching muscles, his backpack could temporarily be left behind.
With caution, Artemis began to walk away from his newest camp, letting his shoulders sink in discouragement. The thick fog spreading around the forest barely allowed him to see the tip of his own feet; he would never be able to get to the river and come back to find his belongings with his view obscured by the disorienting mist. Before going any further, the boy tried to find a way to make sure he would not hopelessly walk around in circles. The idea he came up with was to use the knife he had gotten from the District 7 girl during his first day in the arena and carve marks on each tree he passed to thus be able to easily go back on his own tracks when he would have to do so.
Artemis dug a hand in his pocket to retrieve the object and then groaned faintly, realizing that he did not have the blade on him. He had never had a soldier's mindset; remembering to take a weapon with him at all times was certainly not in the boy's nature, especially now that Silyah's handy bow had perished in the fire. With a roll of his eyes, Artemis headed back to his "shelter," not even deeming the simple bed sheet and the backpack against a tree worthy of being called a camp.
Walking at a slow yet steady pace, Artemis managed to follow the right path for a little while, but just as he was about to find his belongings, four words made him freeze.
"Good morning Ice Prince."
The raven-haired teenager stopped dead. That voice, he knew perfectly well, but he was far from wanting to hear it. Not now… Slowly, the pale boy looked around, unable to catch a glimpse of the strong District 1 male because of the blasted fog. Caskar Tristol had found him and to Artemis, he could have been anywhere, just waiting for the right moment to dig a sharp metallic blade into the boy's slender body.
"Seems like I caught up with you at last."
Artemis felt his pulse shoot up sky high. The voice seemed to come from everywhere; it was surrounding the boy on all sides. Wasn't it for the fog, it would have been easier to locate Caskar, but apparently, nature would never be on Artemis's side.
Caskar allowed himself to laugh. He was above it all now! The Ice Prince was at his mercy; now that he had found him, there was no way he could escape his grip. "I'm going to give you a heads up; just because I like challenges," said the Career in a tone that suggested he was smirking like an idiot.
Heads up? Up! The trees! Artemis's brain had required a little more time than usual to figure out the clue, once again proving that the exhaustion this adventure had brought the boy was taking its toll on him. However, as soon as the answer struck him, Artemis hurried to his backpack, searching for his knife as fast as he could. Caskar might have given him a few seconds to get ready, but seconds passed way too quickly to lose any of them.
Suddenly, Artemis's hypothesis was confirmed when the loud sound of Caskar's boots hitting the ground was heard. "Time's up."
The frail boy tensed, his mismatching eyes growing wide. He had already established the fact that he was not a fast runner, but perhaps, now that Caskar was on the same level as him, he would manage to remain concealed under the white cloak created by the fog. Feeling the adrenaline rush through him, Artemis attempted to move as soundlessly as he could; he needed all the variables to be on his side and since Caskar only had one eye left, it was very likely, biologically speaking, that his system had compensated for the loss by granting him more acute hearing.
Caskar laughed again, pulling his dagger out of his pocket. "I've waited for so long to use this," he whispered under his breath as he followed Artemis without much effort. He did not feel like spending too much energy on Artemis's case; he simply wanted to enjoy himself a bit before his victory. For the first time in those excruciating Games, he would be able to put a check mark beside a name in his killing list.
Artemis could not even hear Caskar anymore; he was so focused on his task and worries that everything else seemed to have faded away. How long would it be before the other boy would decide to put an end to the chase?
Through the fog and due to his missing eye, Caskar had some troubles evaluating distances, but soon enough, his nemesis would be within reach. Just a couple more meters and Caskar would finally be able to kill Artemis. He could finish him off in a matter of seconds, but what kind of satisfaction would that bring the District 1 male?
The Career's blade glistened through the fog and sliced the air behind Artemis in quite an audible way. For the tall boy, there was nothing like scaring a prey before the deathblow.
The sound of metal slicing through the air made Artemis want to hurry up, but apparently nature was still against him. Dead end, Fowl. Dead end,thought the boy as he saw a massive fallen tree in front of him.
"Farewell, Fowl," grinned Caskar as he got hold of Artemis's shoulder.
Artemis suddenly felt very lightheaded as a shiver crawled down his spine. He was not ready to die! Even if he had tried to convince himself otherwise a few days ago, he knew that he was not ready! His heart was beating too fast, as though it was about to soar right out of his torso. Now was certainly not the time for a heart attack!
Attack… Attack! The word resonated in Artemis's brain as if a new instinct had taken over him. An instinct of survival even stronger than any ordinary human being would be able to feel… And if there was something Artemis Fowl was sure of, it was of the fact that he was no regular human being.
Following the instinct, Artemis struggled against the hand on his shoulder.
"You're just as strong as a squirrel," sneered Caskar, mocking the boy.
The raven-haired tribute took a short breath and gathered up what was left of his strength, raising his leg to send somewhat of a solid kick in Caskar's stomach. Unfortunately, the daring move had the regrettable side effect of making Artemis lose his balance and fall to the ground.
Well at least the boy was now out of Caskar's grip… Flee! Flee for God's sake! screamed Artemis's mind, abandoning all rationality. Needless to say, he was not too keen on the idea of being sliced to death by a teenager with anger management issues. As much as the boy had been preparing himself to face his end during the past couple of days, being moments away from that said end had quite the impact on him. He could not let himself die!
Evaluating his few means of escape, Artemis crawled along the fallen tree that trapped him with Caskar, suddenly wishing to be able to escape and peacefully stay alone, hidden in the arena until the Capitol would think the situation so boring that they would force everybody to get out of the Games. Sadly, such a thing would probably never occur. Things rarely went the way Artemis wanted them to go, not even in the past and clearly not in the future.
"So, you're feeling sneaky today?" Caskar dragged his knife across the surface of the tree, loving the harsh metallic sound it produced. It made his own skin crawl and therefore, it must have provided his opponent with the same horrifying feeling. In fact, had Caskar asked, he would have been pleased to know that it was indeed the case. "I wonder why you are not begging for mercy… You know just as well as I do that's it's over, Art."
Artemis held his tongue, afraid that his entire body would give up on him if he uttered the faintest sound.
"Well," continued the Career. "Let's give you a good reason to do so, then." Caskar let out a growl as he swung his leg back, building up the momentum to give Artemis back the kick he had dared to administer him.
The young man's foot landed heavily on Artemis's stomach, rubbing against the boy's burnt skin. Artemis's eyes shut themselves tightly and a shrill sound, much like a half-strangled groan, escaped his throat as a wave of pain traveled through his nervous system.
As cheerful as he would ever be, Caskar grabbed Artemis by his raven black hair and dragged him up at eye level. Artemis nearly whimpered. He was a play toy in a rabid wolf's jaw.
For a second, the two boy's eyes met, terror clearly shining through Artemis's mismatching ones as his slim hands tried to remove Caskar's claws from his scalp.
"No. No struggling this time. I wanted to have a little more fun with you, but you leave me with no choice, Artemis Fowl."
Respecting his words, Caskar bashed Artemis's head against the fallen tree and let the tip of his blade meet the District 3 boy's throat. Artemis had been in the middle of another scream when the cold and slick knife went through the first layer of his skin, breaking the screech rather abruptly.
Deliberately slowly, Caskar slid the blade on Artemis's pale skin, enjoying its contrast with the thin scarlet lines of blood his weapon were leaving behind. As Caskar gradually applied more strength on the boy's throat with his knife, he anticipated that soon enough, blood would start dripping down the weak boy's jugular… Yet as the steel sliced Artemis's skin, not a drop of the red liquid escaped the cut and the amount on the knife tribute's remained minimal, thanks to the faint traces of magic that were trying to spare Artemis a fatal blood loss.
"You disappoint me, Ice Prince. Not only isn't your blood blue, but it's not really flowing to my liking." Caskar's expression turned into a sour sneer as he dug his knife even deeper into Artemis's skin, twisting it inside of his flesh.
Rendered useless by the Career tribute's blade, Artemis let go of a strangled noise, betraying pure agony. In a doomed to fail attempt at saving his own life, the boy tried to scratch Caskar's hands with his trembling ones, determined to break free. Looking down on his pathetic prey, Caskar cackled. The Career's laughter made Artemis feel sick; even more so than the concept of a game in which only one person out of twenty-four teenagers survived. All of a sudden, the pale boy felt as though his blood was on fire. The magic trying to heal him added to the cold he felt and the injuries he suffered from were most likely the main causes of the unbearable sensation.
Still playing around with Artemis's wound, Caskar furrowed his brows. "Why. Don't. You. Die!" he exclaimed through clenched teeth. At any moment, he expected the cannon announcing Artemis's death to be fired, but it seemed that the teenager was not ready to give him that pleasure.
As a reply, the pale raven-haired boy gave Caskar a forced, yet rather successful vampire smirk, hoping that he would at least give the Career a few chills.
Not letting Artemis's expression worry him, Caskar quickly thought of a new plan of action. "Guess we'll have to use another way since you won't bleed to death," the smile on the Career's lips was partially hidden as a cold wind blew the fog around the fighter and his victim.
The boy from 1 plunged his knife inside the fallen tree's bark and tightened his hands around Artemis's jaw to then go down to his neck. Pearls of crimson liquid dripped down Caskar's big hands as they wrapped themselves around Artemis's throat, making the injured boy let go of multiple strangled gasps.
As his skin was turning drastically pale, the District 3 boy kept on trying to fight back. He repeatedly dug his nails into the back of Caskar's hands to the point when he actually managed to mark his skin.
Merely annoyed by his protesting prey, the Career centered all his weight on his arms, pushing even harder on Artemis's neck, enjoying the sound of bones cracking as he dug his thumbs inside the boy's wound.
Artemis felt that he was losing the last of his strength. His fingers rested over Caskar's for half a second before they slipped down, landing on the grass on both sides of his body. Gasping in a way he deemed horrible, Artemis fought for each of his breaths, trying not to be alarmed when his eyes began to lose their focus.
Suddenly, Caskar raised an eyebrow. Artemis's expression had changed.
Even as his pulse was beginning to fade away, the pale and slender boy was smiling.
Artemis's head fell against the fallen tree as the Career's hands loosened their iron grip on his neck.
Following the boy's gaze, Caskar looked down just as a strong flash of pain took over his abdomen, exactly where the tip of a stone spear pocked out of the fabric of his shirt.