In a dream
Artemis looked around himself. It seemed like he was on a round stone floor with stone steps surrounding it. There only seemed to be three steps in all and they created an oval around the lowered surface of stone and the steps simply led to more stone floor, though the darkness shrouded the space a few meters from the lowered surface too thickly to see anything. The darkness was black as pitch; so dark so that Artemis believed if he was only a few inches into it he wouldn't see his hand in front of his face. Everything looked blood red. The very air was blood red. Artemis closed his eyes momentarily to block out the grim scene.
He opened them again and turned around. Last time he had had a dream Holly, No1, and Qwan had been there and he was willing to bet at least one of them would be there. He wasn't disappointed.
Holly was on the other side of the lowered surface. She was looking around and she saw Artemis. Their eyes locked and a sort of mutual trust was evident in both their eyes. At the same time, they both seemed to ask each other, 'what now?'
Artemis tried to speak but something had seemed to render him mute. The same thing appeared to have happened to Holly. They both heard a rankling of chains. It wasn't like their last dream, this rankling was coming from big heavy chains, the kind that is used for confinement.
The rankling seemed to grow closer. Artemis suddenly heard irregular steps with every rankle as if someone who was walking was too weak to walk normally, as if every step they took pained them greatly. Artemis and Holly turned to the sound and even through the pitch-black darkness, they could make out the outline of what seemed to be a human with huge chains on its wrists and ankles. With every step the chains rattled, as if they were reluctant to let their prisoner move.
Artemis and Holly had a huge sense of foreboding wash over them. Something was wrong. This creature wanted them dead.
Artemis and Holly both tried to move. They both tried to find a way away from this creature. They knew it was coming for them. They knew it was going to kill them with its bare hands if it had to. But they couldn't move. They were petrified to the spot.
Artemis watched as the creature unevenly walked to the very edge of the darkness. He couldn't make anything out about it besides its chains. "If you won't get me out, I'll take you in," it rasped. For a second Artemis wondered how it would bring them in, it couldn't reach them. When he had the answer, he really wished he didn't.
Part of the darkness around them solidified and created two giant hands. One hand wrapped around Artemis and the other wrapped around Holly. Both the hands started squeezing. Artemis could feel the very life being taken from him.
In a cave somewhere
No1 stopped talking when Holly started choking. He and Root both looked down at her to see a vague blue tint come over her face.
"But she is still out cold!" No1 said. Root gripped Holly's wrist to check her pulse.
"Her heartbeat is slowing down too fast," he said. They both started to pale.
"Holly, wake up!" No1 said, shaking her a little.
"D'Arvit!" Root swore.
St. Mungos Hospital
Healers surrounded the still-sleeping Artemis. He had started choking and now the healers were totally clueless as to what to do.
"Draught of Awakening, please?" one of the healers asked the healer with the potions.
"Here," the other healer said, handing her the potion. The healer tried pouring it down Artemis's throat and holding his mouth closed so he had to swallow it. He did swallow it, but it had absolutely no effect.
"It's not working!" one of the healers cried.
"Gee, you think?!" a particularly frazzled healer snapped. They were all too busy fighting to notice the person making her way to the front.
A cave somewhere
"D'Arvit, Holly wake up!" Root shouted. It was just then No1 and Root noticed another by Holly's side.
"Who are you?" No1 asked. A human child with dark black hair and stormy gray eyes had just suddenly appeared there.
"I can help her," the girl said simply. No1 suddenly paled.
"You were just a dream…" he whispered. Since No1 hadn't told Root the entire dream, he didn't know what No1 was talking about. The girl just sighed, exasperated. She waved her hand in the air and two vines hanging down from the ceiling snapped forward and wrapped around Root and No1. The vines snapped to the other side of cave, pinning both of them to the wall.
"D'Arvit! What did you do?!" Root shouted.
"I knew you would interfere. Stop talking or I won't be able to concentrate!" the girl snapped. She kneeled by Holly and wrapped her arms around her limp form. She started whispering inaudibly and thin ribbons of white and silver magic began flowing from her fingers and going into Holly.
St. Mungos Hospital
A healer named Mabel was the first to notice the ten-year-old girl next to the choking patient.
"Who are you?" Mabel asked. The girl was pretty, with almost navy black hair and sapphire blue eyes. The girl just looked up with those piercing blue eyes and she looked down at the patient again.
"I can help," she said simply. All the healers shrugged. They already tried everything they knew. The girl propped herself on the bed and wrapped her arms around Artemis. Little Sapphire and white ribbons of magic unfurled from her fingers and wrapped around Artemis, only to melt into his skin.
In a dream
Holly and Artemis could see their vision speckling in darkness. The hands were too strong. Suddenly, little ribbons of magic appeared on them and traveled along their body to the hands. The ribbons wrapped around the hands and the hands convulsed. Four voices rang out clearly through the dream, "You will not have them!"
The thing in the darkness let out an inhumane scream and everything tumbled into nothingness.
A/N
I hit some writer's block so I decided to go with another dream. So now we know some creature is after Holly and Artemis. Why is it after them? Are they the only ones? And why did the Ancients help them? Yet another chapter waits to be written! Review! (And yet again, I don't own anything.)