Just thought you'd like to know:
All talking in sign language are indicated by double dashes -- blahblah.-- For example, read and review in sign language would be --read and review.-- So yeah. Don't get confused, people!
Artemis woke up. He sat up groggily and rubbed his eyes. It had been two weeks since the transaction between him and the Extinctionists had been finalised, and thinking about it still made him slightly queasy. Artemis had also felt slightly jet-lagged since the adventure in Morocco, but ample time had passed for him to recover from the time differences. Maybe he was more traumatised by his actions than he thought.
A knock intruded through the haze of speculation. "Good morning, Artemis," Butler said, his voice sounding more gravelly through the boy's fatigue, "It's time to get ready for school."
Artemis frowned. "There is absolutely no point for me to go to school. They can teach me nothing."
"There are only five more days until the summer holidays." Butler's mouth curved the merest fraction upwards. Only people who knew him well would have even noticed the slight change in his facial expression.
"Five more days of my life wasted in a useless institute. I could be using that time for more productive pursuits." Like researching the fantastical subject of fairies, Artemis added silently. Then Artemis sighed. "But I can't help that I'm more intelligent than the rest of the Irish population, who all believe that children must attend school for most of their childhood and adolescence." The ten-year-old climbed out of bed, padding over to his wardrobe.
Butler turned to leave. "Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes." Artemis nodded, and began to undress.
Butler pulled the door close behind him. He walked briskly to Sana's bedroom door. Ever since Artemis Fowl Snr had disappeared, it had fallen on to Butler to become cook, then manservant, gardener and butler as the various servants in the Fowl household were dismissed one by one. Butler, when he was first employed by the Fowls for their newborn son, had never thought that one day he would become the bodyguard and manservant for two children.
Butler knocked on Sana's door. A few seconds later, three thumps issued from the room, and Butler opened the door. The girl was still half asleep, which was strange, considering her habit of jogging around the manor before breakfast. "Good morning, Sana. It's time for school."
Sana nodded sleepily. "Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes." She nodded again and dragged herself out of bed, stumbling into the ensuite bathroom. Butler twitched his lips again, and went downstairs to prepare breakfast.
Artemis slid into his seat, dressed in his navy uniform. Butler placed a plate in front of the boy, and Artemis began to eat. A few minutes later, Sana emerged, yawning widely as she plopped into her chair. Butler slid a plate in front of her. Sana made a vague shape with her hands. Artemis noticed her gesture.
"Sana, if you were trying to sign your thanks to Butler, that didn't even look like sign." Sana shot a glare at her brother.
Artemis, undeterred, continued his lecture. "The sign looks like this," Artemis paused to demonstrate, "and your sign looked more like the sign for 'hate' rather than thanks. It's important to give accurate signs, as the wrong sign could make your recipient confused, who, because of misinterpretation, would – " Artemis broke off, finally noticing that no one was actually listening to his comments. He scowled, finished his breakfast, and then went upstairs to prepare for school.
The end of term finally came, and Artemis (predictably) came first in the year, with an average of a hundred. As he was presented with an award for his perfect scores during the year, as the whole school clapped dutifully under the watchful eye of the teachers, as he shook the principle's hand, Artemis' thoughts drifted to his grief-stricken mother lying in her bed back home, to his father lying somewhere in the Arctic, and wished with all his heart that they were here, in this hall, watching their son get an award in front of the school.
Angeline woke up groggily. Where was she? What was this dark room, with its creeping shadows and menacing shapes?
A blond girl with glittering eyelashes knocked on the door and stepped softly into the room. "Mrs. Fowl? It's time for lunch."
Angeline turned her head towards the figure. "Thank you for telling me, but I'm not hungry."
"But you didn't eat breakfast either," Juliet reminded her, thinking of Artemis' command for her to look after his mother properly. "Do you want to eat a piece of toast?"
Angeline shook her head. Juliet frowned. "Do you want me to do anything for you?" Angeline started to shake her head, but then remembered something.
"I'd like to move up to the attic. This room feels empty with only one person."
"Okay, Mrs. Fowl. I'll start moving your things up there for you. Are you sure you don't want a piece of toast?"
"If you insist," Angeline smiled wanly.
"I'll go get it now, and after you finish your toast I'll start moving you stuff, okay?" Angeline nodded and closed her eyes. Everything tired her out nowadays, even having a simple conversation made her exhausted. Two fat tears threatened to escape from under her lashes. Timmy, where are you? Angeline cried silently. I need you. Come back to me…
"Miss, hurry up! Dismiss us already!"
"Anne, you know I can't do that. Wait for the bell. A few extra minutes won't hurt you."
"Yeah it will! I can smell the beaches of the Bahamas already…" Anne closed her eyes theatrically, hands clasped to her chest. The class laughed.
"I'm going to Japan for their summer festivals. You want to come, Jenny?"
"Sorry, Belinda, I can't. I'm going skiing in New Zealand."
Sana listened to her classmates' chatter about their holiday plans, their excited babble enveloping her, combining with the summery smell wafting into the classroom and the warmth of the sun into an intoxicating mix. She closed her eyes, her lips curving into a rare smile.
"Hey, Sana." Is someone calling my name? "SANA!" Sana jerked awake to look into her friend Karina's mirth-filled eyes. The class laughed.
"Did you hear what I said?" Sana shook her head. Putting on an overly patient air, Karina enunciated slowly, "I asked whether you have any plans for the holidays." Sana shook her head once again.
- -I am staying at home for some rest.- - Sana signed carefully. Her friends, who were learning the language with Sana, slowly translated back into English, frowning in concentration. Karina, the most adept at sign language, understood it first. She gave Sana a hug, trying to communicate through that hug the friendship and support that she felt for Sana.
At that moment, the highly anticipated bell rang, echoing through the school. Anne, with a loud cheer, ran out of the classroom, shouting her goodbye over her shoulder. The rest of the class laughed at Anne's eagerness to leave and began to depart in a more orderly fashion.
"Bye, Miss."
"See you later, Miss."
"Have a nice holiday, Miss."
- -Bye, Miss. See you next time.- -
The teacher, who knew the basic signs, smiled. "Bye, Sana. Have a nice holiday."
Surrounded by her group of chattering friends, Sana walked out of the school, where Butler and a slightly irritated Artemis were waiting for her. She was about to get into the car when –
"Hey, Sana!" Belinda's voice called her back. Sana turned around to see her friends lined up in a line. "Okay, everybody. On the count of three." Belinda said to the line. "One…Two…Three!" One by one, they began to make a life-sized sign each, contorting their bodies to form the symbol.
- -Have- - - -A- - - -Good- - - -Holiday- -
Sana looked at them, a huge grin splitting her face in half. The people on the ground looked up from their positions, twisting their heads to look at her reaction.
Karina laughed. "Look, everybody, she's smiling!" She untwined herself, the others following her example. She rubbed her back, grinning ruefully. "Good thing we all do dance here or my back would've snapped!"
The others laughed, shaking their limbs out. Sana gave each person a hug, until they were just one big hug. A loud voice interrupted them.
"Are you done yet, Sana? Or do I have to wait longer until you and your group of friends decide to stop hugging?" Artemis had gotten out of the car, his arms crossed in annoyance. Someone gasped behind her.
"He's so cute!" An audible whisper reached Sana's ears, and by the looks of Artemis' slowly reddening face, he had heard it too. Unless it was sunburn again.
- -I am coming, so be patient.- - Sana signed. Her face was bland, but her hands signed the volumes of humour that Sana was trying so hard to hide.
Artemis got back into the car, and Sana joined him a moment later. Butler, amused at Artemis' first encounter with girls other than Sana, drove off. Sana leant back into the seat. There were two months of glorious summer stretched in front of her, and she intended to enjoy it to the full. Maybe she could drag Artemis out of the manor a few times for him to actually meet natural stuff that was not dissected and put under a microscope.
It is night-time. I run along a road. My feet pound frantically, rhythmically, along the hard, tar covered surface. My feet hurt. I look down at them, and they are dressed in my ballet slippers, the ribbons tied comically up to my knees. The hard road hurts my feet. I can't run properly in these shoes. I'm wearing a tutu too. And not just a tutu, but the costume for the fairy queen. The ribbons trail behind me, fluttering around my legs. They look good when I'm dancing, but I'm going to trip over wearing this thing. I want to stop and take it off, but I can't stop. I only know that if I stop, something terrible is going to happen.
The breeze begins to blow from behind me, and suddenly flames spring up from all around me. They just burn, without any wood or oil to burn off. I don't know why, but I have to run faster than the flames. I have to. I begin to sprint, ignoring the pain in my feet. My feet get more and more tired. My breath gets more and more ragged, but no matter what I do, the flames are always ahead of me. I can feel the fire closing in behind me, blocking my escape path. Now I can only run forwards.
The heat is unbearable, oppressive, overwhelming. The breeze, instead of cooling me down, only brings more heat from the flames behind me. The breeze turns into a wind, and suddenly, the fire leaps forward in front of me, flying along the ground at an alarming rate. I have no hope of getting in front of it, but I can't fail. I have to beat it. I must beat it. I try to run faster, but now my legs seem to be made of lead. I can't move. I stretch out my hand in front of me and try futilely to stop the fire's progress, but it ignores my plea and continues to forge ahead. I can feel the heat from the flames licking at my heels, but it never burns me, only heating my feet enough so that I run faster.
My lungs are on fire from the smoke I've been breathing in. My heart is on fire from all the sprinting I've been doing. My feet are on fire from the running I've had to do in my ballet slippers, which are wearing thin. They feel like they are about to break. My legs are on fire from the leaden weights of my feet. But I still can't beat the fire. It still burns in front of me. A shape, which had been a smudge in the distance a while ago, now begins to grow in front of me at an alarming rate. It looks familiar. I run closer, and then suddenly I can see it clearly through the smoke and heat waves. It's my home! Over the crackling of the fire, I can hear my mum's singing, my dad's whistling, and their laughter, louder than the rest. Those sounds reach my ears, entering my body, my soul, my very being. Then the fire begins to burn even faster and the two trails of fire start to blaze up, until they are two tall towering infernos. The vague shape of my home is still discernible through the flames and the smoke, but barely.
As if a light bulb had lit up in my mind, I realise what the fire had been aiming at my home all along. I had to run faster, to dash through the door, to get my parents out of there, to somehow, in some miraculous way, to tell them to get out. I want to scream, to get them to hear me, but my voice doesn't work. I can't speak! My voice is locked! I lock my discomfort and pain away and try to run faster. I look down at the ground, only focusing on putting one foot in front of another. I enter the small space between the two lanes of fire. The roaring of the fire increases, drowning out the sounds of my parents, the heat grows until it feels like I'm going to dry up or just burst into flame. And then I'm out. I'll make it to my home! But then the wind gives an almighty blow, so that the fire leaps over my head and lands on my home.
My mum's humming and my dad's whistling turn grotesquely into screams, mixing horrifyingly with the laughter that doesn't fade. The sounds merge into one static blob of sound, like the whiney and screechy sounds that come out of microphones when they go funny. I clap my hands over my ears, trying to block out the sound, but it permeates through the thin barrier of my hands, getting louder and louder until all I can hear is the static, thrumming through my body like some kind of twisted music.
Then the sound stops. I stop running. In front of me is a smouldering ruin, black and menacing. The flames start to flicker and recede. Something rolls out of the fire and stops at my feet, glinting innocently. I bend down and pick it up, singed ribbons flying. It is a plain gold ring, and on the inside is inscribed: 'Rowan, I love you. Adam.' Then the ruin that was my home disappears, the fire disappears, the ring disappears, and I stand, on a road in the middle of the night. Then someone or something speaks.
"Sana, go to the third oak tree by the river behind your house." A pair of hazel eyes appear in the sky, blocking out everything until all I can see are the eyes.
"Go to the third oak tree by the river behind your house."
Sana woke up, bolting upright. Sweat dripped from her, mingling with her tears, soaking the sheets that were wrapped tightly around her. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for her pulse to calm down. After what seemed like an eternity, her heartbeat returned to normal, and Sana opened her eyes. From the faint light filtering through the curtains, it was still in the middle of the night. The familiar contours of her room began to take shape, forming from meaningless, menacing lumps of shadows into regularly shaped objects.
Sana flopped back on to the bed, kicking the thin sheet covering her off. The thin, acrid odour of smoke still seemed to linger in the room, although the girl knew that it was a figment of her imagination, and it still seemed to be unnaturally hot in the large, spacious room. Sana, lying on her back, watched her room grow lighter and lighter as dawn approached. She heard the birds outside begin the first faltering notes of the dawn chorus, the initial warbling notes slowly swelling until it became a loud, chaotic racket of birdcalls. She wondered sleepily how she slept through all that noise every morning. Finally, as the sun burst over the horizon into glorious day, Sana felt her eyelids grow heavy, and she dropped into a deep sleep, undisturbed by any dreams.
Excited at the prospect of having two months of no school, Sana was positively bouncing with delight as she made her way down to the table for breakfast. However, once she realised that she felt happy, a tinge of guilt entered her mind. She shouldn't feel happy, right? What would her parents think? It had been two months since their deaths, and she still felt their loss keenly, but if she was feeling happy about something, not just amused at something, what would they think? Did that mean that she was beginning to forget them? She couldn't let that happen. The thought of forgetting Adam and Rowan frightened her.
Artemis, always earlier at the table during school terms – and the first day of the holidays – than her, noticed Sana's subdued expression.
"What's wrong? You were jumping ecstatically with your friends yesterday, so what happened to you and your 'It's the summer holidays!' vibe?" Artemis asked, sweeping scrambled eggs onto his toast.
Sana looked up and gave him a thumb up. - -I'm fine. Thank you for asking. - - Artemis noticed the care she took to sign 'thank you' properly. Maybe she does listen to me. She probably acts like she doesn't just to annoy me, thought Artemis, mollified by his sister's actions.
The gentle clinking of cutlery filled the room. Sana, after sipping some of her juice, noticed the absence of Angeline.
- -Where is Angeline?- -
"She's still sleeping," said Artemis brusquely. He did not know what to do with his mother. On one hand he wanted to help her get over the disappearance of his father by analysing her psychological state and then treating her accordingly, on the other, he just wanted to shake some sense into her and lock her in the room, where she couldn't be harmful to anyone except herself.
Sana, noticing the Irish boy's distress, decided not to continue the subject. Artemis, wiping his mouth on his napkin, noticed for the first time the shadows under Sana's eyes.
"Sana, have you been sleeping?"
Sana looked up, startled. - -Yes. Why?- -
"You looked tired, that's all."
- -Do not worry about me. I am fine.- - The last thing Sana wanted was Artemis to start pestering her to let him analyse her for his next research project.
"Sure. Anyhow, don't disturb me from now on. I'm working on a very important project that could restore the fortunes of the Fowl family." Artemis stood and walked away from the table. Sana and Butler looked at each other.
"Do you know what he's talking about, Sana?" Sana shook her head. Butler nodded thoughtfully. "It's probably some sort of scheme to get more money. He'll tell me soon enough." With that, Butler began to clear the table, carrying Artemis' dishes to the kitchen. A moment later, he walked out again.
"Sana, are you done?"
As a response, she wiped her mouth on her napkin and stood up. Butler stacked her plates into a pile and carried them into the kitchen, where they joined Artemis' plates.
"Sana, come back." Butler called from the kitchen, preparing to stack the plates into the dishwasher.
Sana walked over to where the bodyguard was and leant on the door.
"Sana, wherever you go, don't go out of the boundaries of our estates. If you want to go somewhere else, you will have to take me and Artemis with you, okay? I have been charged with your safety as well as Master Artemis', and so until you get a bodyguard of your own I will have to follow you everywhere. Is that clear?"
Sana nodded, slightly amazed at the length of Butler's speech. It was the longest speech she had ever heard him utter, even when he was trying to persuade Artemis out of proceeding with one of Artemis' many schemes.
"Before you leave, do you want to take lunch with you?"
- -Yes, please.- -
Butler quickly assembled a sandwich, stuffing a bread roll with fresh lettuce, olives, smoked salmon, egg, and onion, drizzled over with extra virgin olive oil, and wrapped it in a piece of waxed paper and proceeded to place it into a small shoulder cooler bag. He handed the bag to Sana, who then slung it over one shoulder.
- -I will go now. I am not leaving here, so it should be fine.- -
Butler nodded. "See you later. Keep the cooler bag out of the sun," he said, turning around to clean up the kitchen. Soon after, the soft booming sound of the front door opening and closing could be heard reverberating down the corridor.
Sana strolled out the door, feeling her spirits lift as she stepped into the sunlight. The morning, although hot, was not humid and sticky, and the sky was an arch of pure cobalt. A breeze blew gently across the ground, cooling down Sana's hot skin. At least it's not hot, she thought, shivering, reminded of the nightmare earlier. Sana began to walk down the side of the Manor, shaded by giant trees, which marginally cooled the air down of what was potentially a boiling hot day. Any emotions that remained from the nightmare were inevitably swept away by the peace and happiness that Sana felt by spending time with Nature.
Almost unconsciously, her feet directed Sana towards her favourite haunt: the giant, strong boughs of the maple tree that grew next to the river that winded through Sana's home to enter the Fowl estates. She began to climb the tree, hands and feet gripping the smooth limbs strongly until she reached the centre of the branches. The manner in which the tree grew always invoked in Sana's imagination visions of giants bending the branches to suit their tastes. A few boughs branched near the bottom of the tree, but most of the branches met near the middle of the tree trunk, forming a large, solid join where Sana could lay down comfortably and not risk falling out of the tree. She reached the junction, as strong and as secure as a castle. Lying down on her back, she gazed through the thick branches to the patches of blue sky visible through the multitudes of leaves that shifted and spun in the wind, throwing their dappled shadows over the girl. The leaves kept shifting. Sana's weary eyes began to droop, and soon, she was sleeping, safe in the branches of the maple tree.
Whispers, issued so softly I couldn't hear them clearly, filled the air. I'm running again, dressed once more in the costume of the fairy queen. This time, regardless of the pain later on, I pound my feet desperately against the bitumen, in a bid to get home before the flames spring up, but to no avail. No matter how fast or how long I run, my home just won't appear.
I start to tire, but the flames still don't appear. The whispers are beginning to clear, and it's now possible to distinguish that the whispers is in fact one whisper, said over and over again until the air is saturated with the same message.
Suddenly, the fire appears, and with it, the smudge that I know with certainty is my home. I begin to race, trying to believe that, this time, I will prevail and warn my parents in time. But the fire won't, or can't, let me win. It still leaps before me, the crackling of the fire almost, but not quite, drowning the whisper, slowly but steadily increasing its volume. The breeze begins to blow, and I'm drowning once more in a sea of heat and smoke.
This time round my home has approached faster, and it quickly becomes discernible. Once more the flames roar into fiery pillars, and once more I futilely try to conquer the situation and save my parents. This time, their singing and laughter is joined by a monkey's chatter: the playful chattering of little Jayjay. I want to save all three, but I know it's useless to try. The fire will win, but I try to outrun it anyway. The fire begins to roar forwards; the wind has begun to huff and puff to burn my house down.
The screams begin. The whisper is now audible, and it mixes and churns with the screams, now with Jayjay's desperate screeches added. I collapse to the ground. I squeeze my eyes shut, cover my ears to try and block out the sound, but it is everywhere. I can't hide from the sound, and I can't hide from the stench emanating from the burning structure in front of me.
The sounds stop. The heat gradually fades away. The ground still retains some of its heat, but it slowly begins to leech away. The breeze drops away. Nothing stirs. The only thing I'm aware of is the whisper, only it's not a whisper anymore. The voice is speaking again, repeating the same thing over and over again. Even though my eyes are closed, the hazel orbs are still visible. I drown for the second time, only this time I'm drowning in a hazel gaze.
The voice says, "Go to the third oak tree by the river behind your house."
The voice whispers. "Go to the third oak tree by the river behind your house."
The voice breathes, "Go to the third oak tree by the river behind your house."
Then the voice is no more.
Sana woke slowly, the shock not as great this time, tears pouring from her eyes into her hair. Dreaming her parents' deaths was still as painful as the day she saw her home burn down, knowing that she would never see them again, never to hear them, hear their laughter, smell her mum's fragrance, feel her dad's rough hand enveloping her own again. And Jayjay's death… The fate Artemis had subjected him to was awful enough, to be sold to Extinctionists to be killed, but to hear him die with her parents, to hear him burning to death, was even worse. And what was with the voice? Both times, the voice, to the point that Sana suspected that the owner of the voice had instigated the fire, had urged her to go to the third oak tree by the river behind her house, but what was the purpose to actually visiting that particular tree? She wasn't even sure she could distinguish an oak tree from other trees, except maybe pines and maples, and the only reason why she could tell between those trees were because pine trees had needles instead of leaves, and maples had leaves that looked like stars. When she had come back from Morocco, and had woken up, Sana remembered that someone had said the exact same thing as the voice in the dream, but she had quickly dismissed it as a random sentence that had come from someone in a dream. But now that she had had two dreams, nearly identical to one another, and both carrying the same message, maybe the message was important.
As her mind began to dwell on the mystery of the voice, Sana's emotions quietened, until she stopped crying. Soon, she had stopped thinking about the voice and began to listen to the birds chirp to each other in the trees.
"Look! Worm."
"Where? Where?"
"There. Over near the bank."
"Mine!"
"Mine!"
"No, mine!"
"Why?"
"I found it."
"So? Mine!"
"No, mine!"
Sana smiled quietly to herself, amused by the birds' frivolous conversation. The smile grew broader as she realised the implications of understanding what birds were saying to each other. My imagination's going haywire! I'm even imagining what birds say to each other? I wish I could understand birds though…
Sana did not know how much time she had spent lying in the reassuring comfort of the branches of the maple tree, but when her stomach began to growl, reminding the girl to eat her roll, the sun had passed its zenith, and was preparing to set for the day. She took the roll out of the bag, unwrapping it of the paper, and took a big bite. The roll was so big it nearly did not fit into Sana's mouth, and from the looks of the food Butler had placed into the roll, he had tried to squish the contents of a salad into the roll. Not that Sana minded, even though the taste of olives and smoked salmon was a bit peculiar, but not unpleasant. She leaned against a branch, slowly demolishing the roll with unhurried efficiency. Around her, the birds were chirping once again.
"Look, a human's eating something."
"Do you think it'll drop crumbs?"
"The crumbs are mine."
"No, mine!"
"Mine!"
Sana smiled and, ripping some of the bread off, crumbled the bread and let the morsels fall to the ground. Immediately, three or four birds flew from the tree down to the crumbs, quickly freeing the ground of the pieces of bread. After that, once in a while, Sana would crumble some more bread, and the birds, who had stayed hopefully on the ground just in case 'it did drop crumbs', would polish the titbits off. In time, the roll was finished. Sana stood and brushed the crumbs off her clothes, and, looking down on the birds, she could still see their unabashedly hopeful faces.
- -I have finished my food. I do not have anymore,- - she signed down to them, not expecting them to understand what she was saying, but feeling an obligation to tell the little birds that no more food would be dropping down. To her surprise, the birds had flown off. She could hear them, chirping in the trees.
"It just said that no more food would be coming."
"Really?"
"Yes. It didn't make any sounds, but you could sense its meaning anyway."
"I couldn't."
"If you payed more attention to your surroundings, Zazu, you would be able to."
I could write a book about my imagined conversations between birds, thought Sana. A leaf drifted past. The sun began to approach the horizon, the late afternoon rays turning the leaves golden, and her mind floated back to the mystery of the voice. For it to have appeared in both dreams… it must be a pretty important message that someone had imprinted into her brain. But who would do that? Who did she know had hazel eyes, apart from herself? But she'd know if she was telling herself to find a random tree in her estates, so it had to be someone else. Suddenly a thought struck Sana. What if it was a trap for someone to lure her out and then kidnap or murder her? Sana shivered, smiling nervously. She must be watching too many television dramas to even think of a reason like that. It wouldn't hurt to go find that tree, right? She'd go tomorrow to visit that tree with Butler and Artemis. If she was with Butler, she would definitely be safe, even if there were fifty-million assassins waiting for her to come out, because no one, absolutely no one, ever messed with Butler.
The sun was beginning to set when Sana decided to head back to the manor. Slowly climbing out of the tree, cooler bag swinging precariously, Sana clambered back down to the ground and began to amble back. The sky, lit with the rays of the setting sun, had turned into a whirl of glorious colour. Sana stopped her walking to watch as the last rays of the sun winked out, followed by the first stars of the night lighting up the sky. The half-moon began to light up the Earth with its soft silvery light, giving everything a white, frosty glow. Sana raised her arms and breathed in deeply, filling her lungs with the cool, clean air of the night. Slowly, stepping out with one foot, Sana began to dance.
The next day, after asking Butler for permission to visit her estates on the pretence of seeing the conditions of the land and whether the tenants were looking after it properly, and after dragging Artemis away from his studies (what was that boy doing?! He'd been trapped in the study for ages! Was he starting yet another research project?), Sana walked, accompanied by Butler and a disgruntled Artemis, over to her estates. A small house had been built where her home had once stood, and inside it lived a man who had rented the land for tax purposes and now lived on it every now and again. Sana did not really understand how tax worked, or how renting her land could help tax, but Artemis was managing her finances, so she did not really care what the man did, as long her land was still kept thriving and healthy.
The door was closed, and, ignoring Artemis' muttering under his breath about how the man was probably not there and they were wasting their time, Sana walked up to the house and knocked firmly on the door. Butler stood behind her, ready to spring into action at any time. After a few moments the door opened, and a thirty-something year old man stood in front of them, blinking at his visitors.
- -Hello. I am your landlord, Sana, and I would like to walk around my estates. I will not bother you, and I will do this every so often.- -
The man, Artemis had told Sana last night, was called Ryan, and he stared at Sana's hands uncomprehendingly. Sana had told Artemis to translate for her, but he was looking around, pointedly ignoring his adoptive sister. Enraged, Sana stamped on Artemis' foot. Although he was trying to hide his pain, Artemis could not hide the tears of pain that had sprung up in his eyes. Eyes watering, Artemis began to translate.
"Hello. I am your landlord, Sana, and I would like to walk around my estates. I will not bother you, and I will do this every so often."
Ryan stared down at the small girl standing in front of him. When he had signed the contract, some official had been there to overlook and legalise the contract. He had known his landlord was young, but this girl? This was his landlord? A girl barely out of nappies was his landlord?
"How can you prove that you're my landlord?" Ryan asked antagonistically. He would not, cannot, believe that a mere girl was in charge of his land.
Sana raised her eyebrows and took out a folder from a bag, looking through it to pull out a sheet of paper. - -This is my copy of the contract. The signature, I can prove is mine.- - While Artemis dutifully translated her signs into English, Sana carefully signed her signature on another piece of paper. She held it up for the man to see.
- -How about now? Compare the two signatures all you like, but you will find that they are the same.- -
After long minutes, Ryan thrusted the papers back at Sana. "It does seem to be you," he said disdainfully. "Well, you're welcome to walk around all you like."
Sana flashed him a smile and walked away. Artemis gave Ryan a long, piercing look. "I know what game you're playing, and I can tell you now that you will lose."
"What do you mean?" Ryan asked uncomfortably. The boy spoke with authority, with power, and that disconcerted Ryan.
"Don't play dumb. I know that you will lose because I'm the one managing her property. And no one ever loses to Artemis Fowl." With that, Artemis turned his back firmly on Ryan and followed Sana, who was waiting impatiently several metres away. Butler followed, keeping one eye on each child, leaving Ryan confused and frustrated behind them.
Slowly, Sana winded her way through her estate, memories leaping out at her with every new location. This was where she had lost her front tooth when she had crashed into that tree over there while learning how to ride a bike, and this was where her mother and father used to sit together for hours on end, just enjoying each other's company. With each memory, Sana's grief became stronger, until she thought her grief would burst out of her like a balloon bursting from too much air.
The party of three finally reached the river bank, and Sana, assuming that the trees were all oaks and that the counting started from the right, began to count trees. She got to the third tree, but, to reassure herself, she counted the trees from the left. One… Two… Three…. It was still this tree, so it must be correct. Sana began to circle around it, looking for any clues that would lead her to whatever it was the owner of the eyes wanted her to find. There were no weird scratches on the bark, no unnatural markings, no nothing. Sana circled the tree for the third time.
Butler, standing at a respectful distance away, looked bemusedly at Sana's odd actions. That had to be the fifth time she had circled that tree, peering intently at its bark, both above and below her. What was she looking for? Was this why Sana had suddenly just asked them to come with her to her estates?
Next to him, Artemis was not even aware of what was happening around him. Where could he find evidence that the fairies existed? They existed in every fairytale or legend from practically all the different cultures of the world, but he needed to find a link, a shred of evidence, to give him a strong argument that could convince Butler. Maybe he needed to trawl through the Internet again. Artemis scowled. Whenever he needed to research or determine something, Sana had always pulled him away from his work! Last time this happened, she had made him help paint her room, leaving him covered in paint and unable to define his Artemisanium. This time, he was on the verge of discovering an entirely different species, and she had dragged him, once again, to visit her estates!
Sana, unenlightened to Artemis' annoyance, began to climb the tree, taking time to examine every branch carefully in order not to miss anything. Still nothing. She climbed back down again and crouched down, crawling around the roots of the tree. Just as she was about to give up, she saw a small, inconspicuous, arrow on one of the roots pointing down into the ground. Yes! She had found it!
Excitedly, she stood up and walked over to her bag, where she had put a small spade. Walking quickly back to where the arrow was, she began to dig. After a while, instead of slicing through soft earth, her spade hit something hard and very solid. She enlarged the hole and saw a bit of silvery metal emerging from the hole. After working on it, the hole became large and deep enough to pull the metal object out, revealing a time capsule the size of a tissue box. She wiped the dirt off the capsule on her top, put the capsule and the spade into her bag and patted the earth back into the ground. Standing up, she walked back towards Butler and Artemis, the latter looking rather relieved.
- -We can go back now.- -
"What? Aren't you going to walk around the rest of the land?" Artemis asked, feeling an obligation to remind Sana of her smokescreen task.
- -Do you want me to?- - Sana asked, shooting the boy a look.
He quickly shook his head. "It's alright. Let's head back now, shall we?" Without further ado, Artemis turned and led the group back to the manor.
After dinner and a shower that night, Sana sat cross-legged on her bed, staring at the smooth, mirror-like surface of the time capsule. The capsule was almost perfect, except for a small crack in the middle, splitting the capsule into two halves. After some more staring, Sana took the capsule and began to try and unscrew the capsule, holding the bottom end of the tube firmly. However, the slick surface of the capsule did not allow any grip, and Sana felt her hand slide around the side of the tube every time she tried to turn the top half of the tube. In the end, Sana had to sneak into Artemis' lab and steal a pair of latex gloves for her to grip the smooth metal firmly, and finally the two halves of the capsule slid open, spilling its contents over the bed.
Sana looked at the things that had spilled onto her bed with a growing sense of disappointment. This was all the capsule held? A small CD, held securely with foam, and a jewellery box, also cushioned by foam? She suppressed her disappointment and went to her computer, which she had taken from the study when Artemis had announced that he was not to be disturbed while he was in the study. Switching the computer on, she waited several minutes before logging on and inserting the CD into the disk slot.
A lot of files were on the disk, but only one of them was named 'Sana'. Feeling her excitement return, she double clicked on the file. The file opened, revealing it to be a moving clip. Her mother was sitting at the desk where she usually worked, and the suit in which she was dressed in showed that she had either just finished a meeting with a client or was preparing for a meeting with a client. Sana stared at Rowan, feeling shock, elation and grief all at the same time. To suddenly see her mother like this unexpectedly!
Rowan smiled gently and began to speak. "My dear, if you are watching this, it means that your father and I have died already, as this time capsule was to be revealed to you only if we died before your twelfth birthday." Sana barely registered Rowan's words, too busy drinking in the sight of her mother's face.
"The point of this video," Rowan continued, "Is to tell you about your heritage. Videos technically aren't in good enough quality on computers yet, but the whole reason that you can watch this is part of the truth of your heritage. I don't know how to begin," said Rowan, sighing loudly, "but I'll plunge into the deep end of the pool. You," she looked directly into the camera, "are part fairy. This is because I'm a fairy." There! There was the little quirk of her mouth whenever she was explaining something to Sana. Something Rowan said tweaked at Sana's mind, but she dismissed it, trying to catch more of her mother's mannerisms.
"I was born about a hundred and fifty years ago, and converting that to human ages, I'd be around thirty-something. To tell you the truth, fairies hate humans." A wry smile twisted Rowan's mouth. Sana had almost forgotten that smile. "We think that they are all selfish pigs who are more intent on getting money than to care about the people around them and their surroundings and nature. And it is absolutely right. But your father was different. Even though he was an architect, his buildings were all designed so that they were environmentally friendly. He was kind, considerate, gentle, but with an iron will and a wicked sense of humour
Sana saw her mother's expression soften into the smile specially reserved for her father. "I think that was what made him attractive to me. Your father was just so different to the people around him, and sometimes I could even see his aura stretching out of him to help those around him and to help the environment survive.
"But, as I've told you, fairies hate humans, so when I decided to become human and try to gain the love of the love of my life, I was kicked out and shunned by the members of my family, my people. I became an outcast. Fairy technology is much more advanced than human technology, which is why you can even see this, and also the reason of how I could become human. It's still a developing technology, but fairy surgeons can transform fairies by putting hormone glands of the specified animal, including human. There was no going back, so I took the operation to become human, and set about winning the heart of Adam. Thankfully, I did, and now we've got you for a beautiful daughter, Sana.
"To protect him, your dad doesn't know about this. But I think he suspects something, or he might've guessed the truth already. When I turned human, I abandoned everything that was part of the fairy race, including my magic. From what I've seen so far these three years since your birth, you may have some magic, but I can't confirm this until you're ten or twelve, as magic tends to emerge around then.
"I'm running out of space on this disk. Before I go, I've got a few more things to say to you. Sana, your father and I love you to bits. You are the most precious thing in our lives. Sana, we have lived happy and fulfilling lives, and, even if you can't see us, we will continue to protect and look after you, even if it's only in spirit. We want to see you live a happy life, okay?" The screen began to blur in front of Sana's eyes. Impatiently, she dashed away her tears as so not to miss even one second of her mother's video.
"Another thing, Sana, when I accidentally came across one of my ex-fairy friends, she actually talked to me and we've been meeting up ever since. She's the one who's been providing me with all this fairy technology, and she was the one who told me that I have a sister, born ten years after I had been banished. If you need any magical help or anything, there's a file on this CD somewhere that should tell you how to find her. Her name's Holly Short, and apparently she's now a police officer. That's all. We love you, Sana."
Suddenly Adam's face appeared in the camera. Sana had forgotten just how brilliant her father's smile was. "Are you making a CD for Sana? Why didn't you tell me?" Adam looked into the camera, directly into the eyes of his daughter.
"Hey, Sana! I love you!" The video clip ended, the last frame of the video frozen on the laughing faces of her parents.
Sana stared at their faces until she realised that her face was cold. She touched her cheeks, startled to find that they were wet, and wiped her face dry of her tears. Sana reached for the jewellery box, still sitting innocently in its foam surroundings, oblivious to the emotional turmoil of the girl picking it up. Carefully untying the ribbon, she lifted the lid and saw a simple, circular locket with a fine, white-gold chain. She opened the locket. On one side, a picture of the three of them had been slid into place, Sana looking very dazed and small, and on the other a picture of a girl with fairy-like wings soared above a miniscule inscription. To read it, one would need a magnifying glass, but Sana already knew what it said: 'We, with the grace of God, will be the wings that will carry you through life'. It had been one of her father's favourite sayings. Sana, tears carving tracks down her newly-dried cheeks, fastened the chain around her neck, hands trembling so much that fastening the silver chain properly merited an Olympic medal. The locket nestling just above her breastbone, Sana reached one trembling finger and touched her locket delicately, then, as she began to shake, held the locket fast in a tight fist. Sana, ever since that gut-wretching night of the fire, cried for the loss of her parents who never deserved their deaths, and for the relief that she at last had something to remember them by.
Finally, Sana's sobs subsided, and she looked back at the computer, still frozen on her parents' faces. Mum had been saying something, Sana thought. Maybe I should go see that video again and actually listen to what she was saying. With that thought in mind, Sana sat back down in front of the computer, and clicked 'Play'.
