Disclaimer:I don't own anything or anyone from Artemis Fowl, sadly.
Leave an empty spot in your garden,
so that the fairies have a place to dance.
Leave an empty spot in your mind,
so that fairies may run and prance.
In the garden, they spread pixie dust all over the leaves.
When the moon hits the garden just right,
you can see it shimmer lightly, in the cool night breeze.
You can see them, too, if you just say please,
they'll dance before you with relative ease.
Wild Fae
~By Jordan
Stomping from the house, Alina yelled back, "We can't all be perfect gods like you!" and slammed the door behind her. Fuming, she started clomping down the steps of the back deck until she made it to the ground. From there, she jumped over the edge of a terraced garden into the snow below, sinking knee-deep into the fluffy substance. It was beautiful outside, but she took no notice of the natural beauty, so occupied was she with her angry thoughts.
She was heading for the small creek further back in the expansive, semi-wooded back yard and kicked up snow while she was walking, taking out her rage on the unfeeling snow that wouldn't talk back. Wearing snow pants, a thick coat, and gloves, she didn't have to worry about getting wet, so she went ahead and flopped down just short of the crick. After fumbling around in the snow for a stick and finding one, she dragged it in the water, letting the constant flow of water calm her down.
Her parents could be so self-righteous sometimes; Mother had been ragging on her about not taking her shower in the morning. Sure, hygiene was important, but really, all the nagging did was make Alina refuse taking a shower even more vehemently than before. It wasn't that she didn't like being clean; it was just the concept of wasting half an hour or more in the shower, most of that time being spent on her thick, brownish blond hair.
It was so thick that she had to viciously brush it every morning to get all the loose hair out, and even then, she still had knots and rats at the end of the day. Sure, it was somewhat pretty, and amazingly curly too, but sometimes it was such a pain to take care of.
She heard the crunch of snow behind her, and glanced back to see her younger sister Elsa standing a few feet behind her, tapping the ground with the tip of one boot, almost shyly. "Mama went shopping now, so you can come back in if you want..." she trailed off, then joined Alina.
"Want to go make hot chocolate?" Alina asked Elsa, after a long moment of silence. "You go make it for yourself, and you can watch a movie too. I'll be in after a while." she ruffled her little sister's hair affectionately, then gave her a small push in the house's direction.
When Elsa was gone, Alina picked herself up, walking further into the trees where her small 'fort' resided. It was under many aspen trees that leaned inwards and tilted away from where the creek ran a few feet away, so it was the perfect spot when it had a tarp spread over the top. After settling herself down, Alina closed her eyes and just listening. In a moment, she had heard the slight hum of an engine, and slowly stood, opening her eyes once more.
She searched around her, turning in a circle several times before pinpointing the direction of the humming with hearing. Fairies, she guessed, but made no move towards them. The last time she had found some of them, they had knocked her out with some sort of hypnotizing eye-stare, and when she woke, she had been bombarded with a splitting headache and couldn't remember clearly what had happened.
There was also something else that had been missing when she'd woken. Her parents had come into her room where she'd been sleeping, and for some reason, they'd been terribly sad. They said something about a brother of hers being lost, and when she made no reply, they had left immediately, not answering any of her questions. The reason for her response was that she could remember no such brother; she'd only ever had Elsa as a sibling, hadn't she?
From then on, her parents had changed enormously, to the point where her mother wouldn't look straight into her eyes, and her father ignored her altogether, unless she argued with her mother. In that event, he would roar at her and some severe punishment would be bestowed upon Alina after he had yelled for a sufficient amount of time..
A grimace tore across her face, distorting the normally blank features, and she narrowed her eyes in the direction of the vehicle the fairies were hiding in. Her harbored feelings were confused; part of her didn't truly care for holding a grudge against these fairies, and the other, childish part wanted to put them through the same thing she'd been through. Picking up a heavy branch, she brought it down into the crick, splashing herself slightly and driving it deeply into the mud underneath the water.
Having no current desire to wake with the same aching, lasting pain and disorientation, she turned away, not looking forward in the least to a burning cup of hot chocolate and a melancholy, lonely afternoon.
"That's odd," Holly commented as they watched the girl turn away and trudge back to the house. "She definitely knew we were here, though. I wonder if her mindwipe didn't take..." she trailed off, and watched Alina disappear into the house.
"Perhaps not? Any normal human wouldn't have noticed the hum of the shuttle; the sound is too minute," Artemis turned back to his computer, calling up the complicated formula he'd been working on before Holly had called his notice to the girl. "Perhaps you should go mesmerize her? I can operate the shuttle perfectly well, so I'll be fine alone in here."
Before Holly could say anything in reply, Artemis turned around, eyes slightly wider than usual. "Opal's in the immediate vicinity. The DNA tracker that Foaly developed just flashed up; she's in the house. I think," he whispered, his voice still mostly calm, "That we should probably go in."
"Agreed!" Holly gasped while slipping a human child's coat on, tucking her Neutrino into a pocket, and bolting out the now-open door. She immediately headed toward the house, floundering in the snow with her comparatively short legs. Artemis followed after a short hesitation, the results of the equation he had just finished flashing in front of his eyes. The loss Factor he had just calculated, displaying exactly what would happen next, had seemed to burn itself into his eyelids, and he felt blinded for a moment.
If Opal didn't kill the girl, there was a chance that she had something else, something worse in mind. Why the once-pixie would choose Alina was a mystery currently, but Artemis would guess that it certainly wasn't for something good. If things turned out the way the equation had predicted, and there was a 99.9% chance that they would, then much more serious action would have to be taken.
Still, Artemis hesitated at the thought of revealing to Foaly, Holly, and the others the devastating properties of the Loss Factor. Even after everything that the centaur had been through with the rest of them, Artemis didn't completely trust the centaur, and with good reason. He continually was finding bugs that Foaly had placed on his computer, even after he had promised to stop.
Caught in his indecision, Artemis was several seconds behind Holly getting out of the shuttle, and he paused to close the door and make sure that the shuttle wouldn't be discovered. Even so, he caught up to Holly in less than a minute, her slow progress through the deep snow enabling him to easily catch up. He grabbed her hand, helping her along, and started running once more, both of them desperate to make it into the house and try to prevent something that was inevitable.
Alina slammed into the house, her temper worse than it had been fifteen minutes ago. She stomped past the stranger that was sitting in a chair in the living room and into the kitchen, opening the fridge before she realized that there was someone she didn't know sitting in her living room.
Cautiously peeking around the corner, she noticed immediately the person's dark hair, and the exquisite beauty, along with the fiendish light that gleamed in them. That light worried Alina more than she wanted to admit, but there was something...intriguing about the girl. Stepping into the room after she had pulled her hair up in a ponytail, Alina cautiously ventured, "Hello?"
"Good day, mud child," the figure answered, and the voice was even more intriguing than the girl's appearance.
Bristling immediately, Alina answered with a somewhat stiff voice. "I'm not a child; I'm 13 years old. What are you doing in here?"
Taking no notice of Alina's tone, the figure introduced herself. "My name is Opal, and that question is inappropriate. When speaking to me, you will refer to me as Miss Koboi. You have a vendetta against fairies, correct?"
Alina found herself nodding, and a fire sprang up inside of her, wiping away all other emotions. "Yes...Miss Koboi. They stole an entire part of my mind," she said, simply. What more was there to it?
"They have stolen so much, haven't they?" Opal sympathized, then a morbidly beautiful smile spread across her pretty face. "Would you like to help me destroy them?"
Soo...a little more is revealed! But...what will Alina choose now, when faced with such a decision? DUN DUN DUN! *dramatic music*
Comments and constructive criticism in reviews are always, always welcome; I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter!