Fowl Manor: Ireland
Holly smiled as she walked flew through the open window that had been left for her. There had been a point in her life when she would have liked nothing greater than to see this building blown sky high. But that was years ago. She actually found herself enjoying entering the Fowl manor on several occasions. Weird…
She headed towards Artemis room, shielded of course. She floated down long hallway, looking at the various paintings and photographs hanging in the halls. She saw a couple of Mr. and Mrs. Fowl, and a few of Artemis. She blinked as she flew up to one. It was a picture of Artemis and his brothers. One of the twins was sitting on his lap and was grabbing Artemis's nose, the other was sitting calmly watching the two. Artemis himself was smiling as his brother squeezed his nose. Holly found herself smiling at his smile, it was a real smile, not his vampire one.
Who would have thought…
Leaving the picture Holly soon found herself near the teenager's room. Upon entering the room she discovered that her friend was nowhere to be found.
Huh, not here
Frowning she left the room, wondering where he might be. She again took to the halls. She froze when she heard footsteps.
Butler turned the corner, yawning slightly. Holly smiled when she saw him and unshielded. Butler jumped back in surprise as the Fairy seemingly materialized out of nowhere. He smiled when he saw it was only Holly.
"Holly," He said, "You shouldn't surprise me like that," He said. Holly laughed.
"Sorry big guy, I forgot how jumpy you were," She said, "I'm looking for Artemis," She told him. Butler nodded.
"He's in the library," He told her. Holly nodded.
"I don't suppose you know what's going on?" She asked him. Butler shook his head.
"I probably don't know much more than you do," He admitted, "But whatever it is, it's had Artemis and me running all over the globe for the past two months,"
"Maybe he's planning his world domination," She joked. Butler chuckled.
"Maybe, but he seems really determined to help you," He said. Holly frowned.
"Why? He's done a lot for the People already, he doesn't owe us anything,"
"I didn't say he was doing it for the People," Butler said.
"Wha?" Holly asked. Butler smiled and shook his head.
"Sorry, that's his business," He said, "You should probably go see Artemis now, he's waiting for you," Holly frowned but nodded. She activated her wings.
"Later big guy," She smiled and shielded. Butler smiled and nodded. Holly started to head to the library.
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Artemis was bent over a desk, closing examining an old book. He sat up and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He picked up the book and turned a page and looked at an old photograph that was on the page.
"Hey Holly," He said suddenly. Holly scowled as she lowered her shield.
"How do you do that?" She asked. He turned around in his chair and smirked.
"I felt the air pressure in the room rise as you entered," Holly stared at him.
"Really?"
"No," He smiled. Holly couldn't help but laugh as she gave him the customary kiss on the cheek.
"Got a sense of humor now have we?" She said.
"Apparently, I've been spending too much time with you fairies," He said. Holly chuckled. She sat down on a chair across from him.
"I see you had no trouble coming up here, no pun intended," He said. Holly chuckled anyway.
"His exact word were, 'if Fowl says it serious, we should listen to him,'" Artemis smirked. Holly rolled her eyes, the last thing he needed was an ego boost,"
"Alright, so you needed magic?" She said to him.. Artemis nodded.
"Yes, but first you deserve an explanation," Holly looked at him.
"I thought you weren't going to tell us anything yet,"
"I wasn't over a LEP monitored video channel," Holly nodded. Made sense.
"So what's up then. What's going on?" Artemis took a deep breath.
"Alright, I suppose I should start at the beginning," He said.
"That's usually the best place to begin," Holly said. He ignored her and continued.
"What I have to say might sound a little unbelievable," He said. Holly sighed.
"Artemis, after all the stuff we've done, nothing is unbelievable,"
"Agreed," He shrugged. He leaned forward slightly.
"…Have you ever heard of Mu?" He asked. Holly blinked.
"Mu? Uh…I've heard of it, but that's about it," She answered, "It's supposedly a lost island right?"
"Not just an island," Artemis corrected her, "A whole continent, and if my theory's correct, it's about to be found," Holly rose an eyebrow.
"What do you mean? You mean it's real?" She asked. Artemis nodded and leaned back in his chair.
"It's very real, and it's coming back,"
"Coming…back?" Holly asked, "What do you mean?" Artemis bit his lip slightly.
"Mu, is a giant mass of land…just like Hybras." He said to her. Holly looked at him.
"Just like Hybras?" Holly asked, "I don't get It,"
"Remember what Hybras was? It was an island that existed outside of time. The Demon warlocks used a powerful magical spell that allowed it to be lifted up and out of time." Artemis sighed.
"Don't you find it strange that the Warlocks were able to successfully execute the spell the first time they tried it, even if they had some problem,"
"You mean like being turned to stone?" Holly asked sarcastically. Artemis continued.
"The reason they were able to successfully wield a spell like that was because they weren't the first to do so, they simply followed example. A similar spell was also used thousands of years earlier, on Mu. Only for Mu, the factor isn't time, its space."
"Space?" Holly said. Artemis nodded. He got up and walked over to his desk, when he came back a minute latter he had his laptop with him.
"Look here," He opened his laptop. Clicking on a few buttons, he brought up a few pages, one of those pages was the book he had gotten from California.
"Look at this; this is a picture of a page of a sailor's journal written in the thirteenth century. This page, dated November 21 1214. Artemis began to read.
Never before have I witnessed such an event. The waves around us swirled violently, the ship rocked and turned. The men began praying, begging the lord to have mercy on them. Suddenly I saw it, out in the sea, not a mile from our beloved ship. It was land, and it rose out of the waters, the angry ocean swirling around it.
Artemis paused.
"This is what he writes later on," He finally said.
I can see the island clearly now. The Island that rose out of the ocean. Some of the men when want to go ashore, but our captain wouldn't' allow it. We will be continuing our voyage to…
Artemis stopped reading.
"I guess I don't have to tell you what he saw," he said to Holly
"The island that rose out of the ocean…meaning Mu?" Artemis nodded.
"This entry was written in the early thirteenth century, in the middle of the pacific ocean, on a voyage to discover new land." Artemis told her; "Well, they found new land alright," Holly leaned back in the chair she was sitting on. Her head was starting to spin.
"And there are other accounts, all across the world that details the same thing. Look," He clicked on a button. A new page opened up. It was a picture of cave paintings. Holly's eyes widened as she looked at it. It showed an island, with waves swirling around it. God like creatures were seen on either side of the island, it looked as if they were pulling it up. Pulling it out of the ocean.
"This is just one other account. There are many others, But each of them say the same thing. They all describes a large island that just rises out of the sea. This one here, these drawings, were found in a cave in South Africa. They date back too early B.C. Apparently, a tribe living near the coast witnessed Mu coming out of the ocean." Holly looked up.
"South Africa? That's nowhere near the Pacific ocean," Holly said. Artemis shook his head.
"No…it's not…Each one of these accounts, like this one, A sketch done miles off the Brazil coast in South America, and this here, Another sailors journal from the Southern Ocean, each of these descriptions of Mu were found in a different parts of the world," Holly looked at him.
"Wait, you said space…" She said, "Are you saying this is an island that moves!?" Artemis shook his head.
"No…Mu doesn't move…" He told her, "…But the Earth does," Holly rose and eyebrow. She didn't understand.
"What are you saying?" She asked. Artemis looked at her.
"Mu, to put things simply, is a magic island. It exist at one specific point in the universe. Earth, however, rotates around the sun. According to my calculations, every three hundred years or so, Earth and Mu coincide at a point where Mu can exist on earth. And because of Earths axel rotations, Mu's coordinates are different every time." He paused.
"I spoke with Qwan a month ago. He said that the demons did in fact get the idea for lifting Hybras out of space from an old legend. The legend of Mu. Qwan told me it. Apparently, back when the earth was still young. A few of the first people skilled in the way of magic saw where the world was headed, and they didn't like it. So they gathered a group and casted a spell. It rose an island, Mu, off of earth and into space, where the people could live in their own world and not deal with the evil growing on earth. At least, as legend goes. But in fact, the spell didn't move Mu, it simply anchored it to a specific point in the Universe, Earth continued to rotate without it. But as I have said before, every three hundred years or so there comes a point where Mu and Earth reunite."
"Wait, that can't be true. If Mu appeared three hundred years ago we would know about it. We had the technology to determine if a giant island just appeared on earth," Artemis shook his head.
"Not quite," He said, "Mu has some sort of magical cloaking device, making it invisible to anyone outside…oh I say a miles radius of it. That's why no one has been able to find it floating out in space, or see it when it comes to earth."
"A magical cloaking device?" Holly asked.
"Yes, like a fairy's shield only a million times bigger,"
"A shield? Do you know how much magic it would take to shield a whole island?" Holly asked incredulously. Artemis sat back in his chair thinking.
"Quite a bit, I would imagine."
"More magic that exits on earth! It's not possible!" Holly exclaimed. Artemis shook his head.
"Like I said before, Mu is almost a magical anatomy in itself, It could be said that the Island is a living creature and magic is its blood. It would easily have enough magic to sustain a constant shield. At least from a distance. As I have stated, once within a miles radius of the island, Mu can be easily seen,"
"But we still would have been able to detect it," Holly reasoned, "It may be able to hide from sight but not from radar, we had that kind of technology three hundred years ago. We would have found it," Artemis nodded.
"You did,"
"But you said we didn't,"
"I said you didn't know about it, I didn't say you didn't find it," Holly shook her head.
"Enough with the word play Artemis, I'm getting a headache as it is,"
"When I found out about Mu I thought the same things you did. So about a month ago I…uh…" Artemis suddenly looked shy. Holly looked at him.
"You what?" She asked. Artemis shuffled his feet a bit. He looked kind of like a kid who had gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It would have been funny if they weren't on such a serious subject.
"I…hacked into Foaly's system to look into it," Artemis admitted. Holly shook her head again.
"I'll lecture you about that later, for now just tell me what you found," She told him.
"Using Foaly's computer I was able to access the LEPs database. After some poking around I found a classified file there, a file that was hidden away from everything and everyone, even Foaly,"
"You can't hide a file from Foaly," Holly said.
"You can if he doesn't know it exists. This file was separated from everything else, it was hidden very carefully and had a security system second only to an eternity code" He said.
"So then how did you find it?" Holly asked. He smirked.
"Just because I don't know if something exists or not doesn't mean I can't find it. The fact that I'm talking to an elf is proof of that,"
"Yeah yeah, you're a genius," She muttered, "So what did you find?" Artemis's face grew serious.
"Apparently, around three hundred years ago, the LEP discovered that a massive piece of land that just materialized in the Atlantic Ocean. So they sent out a team to investigate, Soon after, that piece of land vanished. And the team was never heard from again,"
"The piece of land was Mu," Holly guessed. Artemis nodded. She was catching on.
"Even the LEP knew nothing about what had happened. So they closed the file, made it classified and never spoke of it again," Artemis sat back,
"There's a saying, 'you fear what you cannot see, and respect, that which cannot be explained'" The LEP left the matter alone after that. I'm sure it scared them. A team of trained LEP officers don't just disappear, and they sure aren't killed easily. They didn't know what happened. So that was why no one knows about Mu." Holly looked at him.
"Mu's coming back," She said simply. Artemis nodded.
"Probably," he said, "I still have one final test to make sure. But if Mu does come back," Artemis narrowed his eyes.
"Then I'm afraid, the existence of the People, will no longer remain secret,"