Chapter 10
Sho-dono: Hey people, I'm really tired today and so is Shiinmaru-dono, so don't expect too much.
Shiinmaru-dono: Heya! My happy pills just kicked! I'm wide awake now and have more energy than I can handle! I love reviews and CC so send them my way! On with the fic!
When Butler returned home and looked in on Artemis he groaned. The boy genius was sitting in the middle of his floor with sheets of crumpled up paper all over the room. When Butler entered the room Artemis turned to look at him, his signature vampire smile firmly in place.
"Why do I have the feeling I'm not going to like what this is about?" Butler sighed; he sensed one of Artemis' revenge schemes coming on.
"I know that smirk, Mud Boy, and it's never a good thing."
"About time you got here Holly," Butler grumbled in annoyance.
Holly shimmered into view above the window, her hazel eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Do YOU want to try getting authorization for the surface," Holly snapped as she landed on the floor. She turned her head to look at Artemis who was still writing furiously on the notepad. He looked over what he had written, frowned, ripped the page off and threw it aside; this process repeated itself for several minutes, "Is he going through a stage?"
Butler also watched Artemis then turned to Holly and in his most serious tone said, "Yes, he is; he is going through the stage known as 'First-love'." As soon as the last word was out of his mouth, the notebook that Artemis had been writing in became good friends with Butler's skull.
Holly snickered, "You've got to be kidding me; the little Mud Boy has finally fallen in love?" Holly burst out laughing at the mere thought. Many balls of wadded paper were pelted at Holly; poor fairy was buried within moments. One blast from the Neutrino and Holly was freed from the mountain of wadded paper. "Tell me, Butler; who has the genius Artemis fallen for?" Holly was still snickering, and when she chanced a look at Artemis…If only looks could kill, Holly would be a smoldering puddle of goo.
Butler was torn between embarrassing Artemis and keeping his sanity; embarrassing Artemis won by a landslide. "He's fallen for the target: Liam Fianna Morgan." Holly stopped laughing and became ashen.
"Butler, please tell me you're kidding," Holly said quietly while her eyes had become as big as saucers.
Butler, who was rubbing the part of his head that the book had connected with, turned towards her, "No, I'm n—" yet another book came sailing across the room, but this one had not been thrown by Artemis. Standing on the windowsill was a great black wolf with a collar around its neck. "What the—? Get out of here you mangy mutt!" Butler snapped at the wolf while trying to shoo it away.
Artemis on the other hand took the distraction to slip out his bedroom door. Thank you, Liam, Artemis thought as he quietly moved down the stairs. He slipped out the front door and saw Liam on a black motorcycle in front; Liam's hand was extended as he held out a helmet. "Climb on; I want to show you something," Liam's voice was soft, but Artemis could hear it clearly over the roar of the motorcycle. Artemis grabbed the helmet and placed it on his head, climbed on o the motorcycle, and gripped Liam around the waist. "Hold on tight; I find speed limits to only be suggestions."
"Oh dear," was all Artemis managed to say before Liam kick off and sped down the street. "How do you—never mind." They rode on in silence for several minutes until Liam came to a halt at the edge of a wooded area, he hid the bike and took Artemis' hands in his and tugged him towards that thick underbrush. In silence they hiked, their hands still clasped together. After hiking for several minutes they arrived in a large clearing. It was a rather peaceful place with small silver flowers covering the floor.
"Wow, it's beautiful." Artemis gasped in amazement.
"It's called Moon Valley by the inhabitants of these woods."
Artemis looked shocked, "People live here?" he asked incredulously.
"Depends on what you call people, Artemis," Liam was whispering as he crouched, "This clearing isn't what I want to show you; I want to show you the family that raised me. Then we can hash out your revenge plan. Sit down, Artemis, you'll appear less threatening." Artemis crouched and tried to appear composed, but he was shaking inside. Liam gave a wolf's howl and then several loud barks. Artemis was about to tell Liam off with some well-thought insult, when the bushes around them rustled. Artemis gasped, around him stood a pack of wolves. Artemis was hiding how scared he was when one of the more domestic looking wolves bounded towards Liam. The wolf jumped upon Liam and began to lick his face. "Hahahaha!!! Come on, Whitepaw, get off." The rest of the pack approached on a more cautious note, eyeing Artemis the entire way
The largest wolf, a beautiful silver haired male, spoke to Liam in a series of growls and short barks. Liam replied in the same manner and turned to Artemis, "This is my adopted father, Blackstar."
"Adopted? I think not." Artemis jumped horribly when Blackstar actually spoke in English, without an accent. "He is my son; the bastard who sired him does not matter to me. Liam is my son just as his sister was my daughter; do not be mistaken about that." Artemis could almost feel the happiness that Liam did; unfortunately it was ruined when Blackstar decided to turn towards him. "And who are you?" the threatening growl in his voice was back.
Artemis straightened a little but failed to suppress his shaking. Artemis had never been this close to anything remotely bestial before and he was terrified that the alpha male would kill him. Thus, like any other human, Artemis stuttered his way through a response, "M-my n-name is Artemis; I-I'm a f-friend of Liam…" Artemis couldn't come up with anything better as he clutched onto Liam; he couldn't help feeling afraid, though his mind was insulting his cowardice. The genius in him was disgusted at the fact that he couldn't come up with a decent sentence. What would Holly say if she saw me, the criminal mastermind, Artemis Fowl Jr. quaking in my boots, unable to speak an entire sentence without stuttering? Then again, Holly had never been surrounded by a pack of gigantic English speaking wolves.
Blackstar noted how nervous Artemis was and gave him a wolf grin, "There is no reason as to why you are so nervous. Liam brought you here; therefore we are not allowed to injure you." Blackstar's assurances did little to console Artemis' frayed nerves.
Liam had noticed how fearful Artemis had been ever since the wolves had appeared, he reached over and gave Artemis a small encouraging hug, "Come on, Artemis, these guys are nothing to be afraid of, their more like gigantic teddy bears if anything." Several indignant barks and snorts were heard from the surrounding pack. The young wolf, Whitepaw, shook his head and narrowed his eyes, "Teddy bears? Honestly Liam, you can't really expect to be able to do anything with such weak retorts."
"Sure beats being a night-nurser." Whitepaw's speechlessness was all Artemis needed to know that Liam had hit a very sensitive nerve.
"Night? Nurser? Liam, what is a 'night-nurser'?" Artemis was, for one of the few times in his life, complete stumped.
"It's a wolf who makes suckling sounds while asleep; it's considered shameful and childish to do so," Liam was scratching the ears of one white wolf and under the chin of a 'blue' furred wolf. Liam turned towards the alpha male, "Father, were there any births while I was away?"
"There were three; two girls and a boy. The younger of the two girls is blind," Blackstar replied.
"I'll take her with me then; unless…Artemis, would you like to have her?" Liam turned his blind eyes toward Artemis. Artemis could tell that Liam was hoping he would adopt the blind pup.
"May I see her first? I'd like to know who I'm going to adopt," Artemis mentally patted himself on the back for the splendid job of not stuttering. Blackstar chuckled before barking out toward a few pack-members. The two wolves left and returned shortly with a 'blue' furred wolf pup with a white starburst on her forehead. In Artemis' opinion, the pup was adorable; and who could deny those gray eyes of the pup? "She's beautiful…How could anyone not want her?" Artemis reached out towards the pup, "May I hold her, Lady?" he asked the female that was standing over the pup.
"Yes, but be careful, she nips." Artemis heeded the warning and picked the small pup and held her close. She wiggled for a few moments until she had settled down.
Artemis couldn't help himself; he bent his head and nuzzled the females head. "Awww…. Ow. OW." He cried out when she sank her little teeth into his eyebrow. There were snorts of laughter and a few grunts as Artemis tried, and failed, to remove her from his, now bleeding face.
Liam reached over to help while the rest of the pack continued to laugh. When he had finally freed Artemis he held the pup at arms length "Look, this is your new mother." he gave her back to Artemis "you are not to bite him. Understood?" a small whimper was the only answer he got. Artemis scratched her behind the ears and she responded by licking his hand gently.
"Hmmmmmm, what to name you." Artemis thought for a moment, his eyes glazed, then he grinned, "I know the perfect name for you! I'll name you after the Celtic goddess, Adruinna." Artemis could hear the pack give their approval; even the alphas, Blackstar and the lady Wolf, Greeneyes, were content with the name.
"Father, Mother, I have to go now; Artemis needs to return home before his bodyguard calls the police. I'll come back soon, I promise," Liam spoke softly, hugging Blackstar and Greeneyes in turn. "Come on, Artemis; it's time to go."
Artemis and Liam walked back to the motorcycle; the hopped on and sped off.
Shiinmaru-dono: Heya! I love all you reviewers out there! You have been excellent inspiration and I apologize for not updating fast enough. I do hope you can forgive Sho-dono and I for this crime. #shouts to background, "Finish up!#
Sho-dono: #Looks up from other story# huh? O. yah ok. There hasn't been a whole latta hoopla about the other story so we're considering not putting it up. You ppl need to tell us if you want to read it or not. Shiinmaru-dono will you give them a summary of it? I'm too busy right now to do so. See yuz.
Shiinmaru-dono: #sigh# My slave shows no respect (Sho-dono was demoted again). Anyway, I really can't summarize our other story, A Rare Flower. Sooooooooo, I'm just going to give you a taste of it.
Prologue
A small house sat quietly upon its small plot of land. A radio inside was giving the latest on the war.
The Germans' have invaded the United States and are
killing Americans in the thousands. Citizens are encouraged
to take up arms and defend themselves. The military is
doing all it can to defend from further invasion from the sea
and air. Little is being done to eliminate the threat already
within the borders …
Click. A young woman switched the radio off with a deft flick of her wrist. She turned to a young child who had been sitting on the floor in front of the radio. The year was 2154 and the world was once again at war; particularly Germany and the United States. "You shouldn't be listening to such horrible things." she scolded gently.
"Mommy," the six year old child said quietly, "is it true that the army people are too weak to handle the German people?"
The mother sighed and knelt so that she could look her son in the eye, "No, Cain, it's not true. Don't forget. Daddy's fighting, and you know he'll make sure nothing bad happens," as she said this though the sound of gun fire pierced through the night. The woman ran to the window and peeked out, what she saw was over a hundred German soldiers marching down the street and breaking into every house they came across. She pulled away from the window and ran to her son. "Come along, Cain, hurry!"
"But, Mommy…"
"No time for arguing, honey, just move." She grabbed her sons hand and ran towards the back of the house as the Germans' reached her door and began to break in. She shoved Cain into a small cupboard and closed the door just as the soldiers burst into the room; she turned and ran for the window.
"Halte!" the lead soldier shouted at her and fired. A single scream tore from her lips as she fell…
And Cain awoke.
If you want more of it, well, you know what to do. REVIEW!! Shiinmaru-dono out!