Foaly was pissed. Not just a little, either, he was bordering on angry. He kicked a computer terminal out of frustration and muttered to himself.
"Stupid humans, coming down here on their stupid business being stupid geniuses."
"Genii," corrected Artemis.
Foaly smashed his hoof against the smooth floor. Artemis found it hard to keep from smiling smugly.
In order to reduce the chance of further embarrassing himself, Foaly turned to the screens and let his fingers dance over the keys, making words and images flicker across the screen.
Little feet sounded from the other end of the room and shuffled over to Foaly's side.
"Debriefing of the human is complete, sir." The elf handed Foaly a screen which he looked over for a second and nodded.
"How much did you tell her?" Holly was on her feet, concern evident in her voice.
"Just enough to understand what's going on, but not enough to fully process."
"In other words, a mind wipe should be safe," Foaly nodded to himself approvingly.
"Only after second dose of treatment."
It would be a couple of days before the Mud Girl could be mind-wiped, then. Foaly didn't like the sound of that, seeing as he would have to send her and Artemis home before that. Artemis had made it clear that they could only stay in the Lower Elements for 24 hours.
Which meant that they only had around eight hours left with the smart Mud Boy.
Mulch went to check on the girl, and found her sitting on the makeshift bed in the near darkness. He had the vague impression that though depression seemed to be cured, she was still a little crazy. He made a mental note to tell the donkey to get her some anti-psychotics. The notion was strengthened when he realized that she was laughing to herself.
"Sorry to break up your little party, but you should go upstairs."
She looked up sharply and the dwarf was convinced he saw her blush.
"What're you staring at, shorty?" She surprised them both with the level of venom she expressed. He couldn't blame her, though; it was pretty embarrassing to be caught giggling to yourself in a dark room over nothing.
"Touchy, touchy."
"Sorry, you scared me." Mulch just shrugged and turned around. Being a criminal toughened your skin against insults and sharp words.
"Come on, you'll get lost," at his words, Caroline stood and followed him. Her head grazed the ceiling.
"So are you an actual Dwarf then, not a little person?" Her voice was tinged with awkwardness, because even though she knew that everything she'd experienced was real it was still kind of weird to ask a question like that.
Mulch just grunted.
Thank you to Raisins-and-Kleenex, I've fixed things in chapter 10.
Sorry for the looooong delay. I was readmitted to the hospital and things have been a little ;lrwghk;glhkcrazy.
SO, anniversary is coming up and expect a chapter 3 times as long as usual in compensation for this short chapter and the long delay.
Also, new name seeing as the old one was a bit to emo for my tastes. Your thoughts?
Love you all and thank you for waiting. Regular updates are around the corner, really. Remember how it was in the beginning? haha probably not.
