Artemis Fowl: The Unpredictable Future

Chapter 2: Fulton

Artemis knocked on the bathroom door, "Holly, is everything alright?" He had been hearing strange noises in the bathroom while she was taking a shower and was getting a little worried. In all the years Artemis has known Holly, he has never heard her make such noises. He had a fairly decent idea of what was happening, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions. He tried opening the door, but it was locked so he tried knocking again.

The sound of water stopped and a few moments later, Holly poked her head out of the door with a towel wrapped around her hair. "What is it Artemis? Can't an elf get a decent shower in her own hotel room?"

He averted his eyes to the side of the door, "My apologies. I just thought something was wrong."

He glanced back at Holly before she turned and noticed a faint smile on her face before the door closed. He sighed a breath of relief, "She doesn't seem to be upset. Perhaps I am in the clear... or perhaps she is waiting for an opportunity to punch me again." He unconsciously rubbed his arm, already feeling a bruise forming there. Artemis went to the other side of the bed to change into one of his more casual suits, threw his phone on the bed, and left to traverse the outside of the hotel. He hurried to avoid the possibility of an immediate reprimanding.

Holly came out wearing her favorite black jeans and a bright green tee-shirt this time. She noticed Artemis wasn't in the room and walked to the window, discovering that he had ventured out to look at some monument. She laughed, "Figures he would look for something of historical importance on our vacation." She went down to the front of the hotel only to slowly approach Artemis from behind. When she got close enough, she jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck while straddling his back with her legs. He suppressed the instinct to yell out in fear before he realized it was, in fact, not a four-armed man trying to kidnap him. He clutched at his chest, feeling as though his heart was trying to beat its way out.

Breathing heavily, he turned his head to look at his attacker, "Holly, please don't do that. You know I'm not accustomed to being out in public without Butler." He reached up and held her hands around his neck while she rested her head against his shoulder and laughed at the sight of a startled Artemis. "Well, you wanted to come to this battle fort. What would you like to do?"

Holly jumped down from his back and put a hand on her hip and the other on her chin. "Hum, I'm not really sure. Remember Arty, this is my first time coming to a place like this." Holly pulled out a pamphlet that she had grabbed from the hotel lobby. "It looks like there are some vintage cannons and a gift shop nearby." She looked up at him, "Wait a minute, what were you looking at before I got here, mud boy?"

"Oh, just this statue here." He returned to looking at the metallic sculpture once more, "This statue itself shows that this man died in battle."

Holly tilted her head a little, "And how do you know that? I know you're just dying to educate me on this trip."

As she said, Artemis loved to show off his intelligence, "The horse he's on, look at the front legs. Both of them are in the air which means he died in battle. If only one leg was up, he died of fatal wounds. If no legs were in the air, then that means he had died of natural causes."

Holly shook her head but smiled, "How about telling me the origin of chocolate chip cookies? Then I would be truly impressed." She smirked.

Artemis simply brushed off this ridiculous challenge. Of course, it was a woman who had accidentally invented them. She would normally make her cookie dough with a mixture of chocolate powder, making them into chocolate cookies. One day, when she had no powder to work with, she broke pieces of chocolate into the dough, thinking they would simply melt and mix together with the dough while they baked. This false insight resulted in what is possibly considered the most famous of desserts in the world. So clearly, Holly was teasing him as everyone knows the origin of chocolate chip cookies.