Holly sat morosely on her mother's sofa, staring at the carpet. It was immaculate, she noticed. Her mother handed her a steaming cup of tea, and she barely looked up as she took it.

"Now, dear," Coral Short began, taking a sip of her own drink. "What's on your mind?

Awkwardly wriggling a little, Holly stayed silent. Her mother waited for her to organise her thoughts., and pluck up the courage to say them. It was almost thirty seconds before this happened.

"I'm going away," she blurted out. Her mother looked at her with curiousity, but the carpet was still occupying Holly's full attention.

"Where to?"

Another short pause. Then, "I can't say." Holly shifted her gaze to a particularly interesting tuft, slightly to the right of the last one.

"When will you be coming back?"

"I don't know." Holly shrugged. "Maybe never."

"Is this a work assignment?" inquired her mother, very worried but trying not to let it show.

At last she managed to meet her mother's eyes. "No," she replied.

Her mother rose from her armchair and slipped onto the sofa beside Holly. Coral put an arm around her daughter's shoulders, and kissed her gently on the cheek. "Good luck," she whispered, realising that this was just something Holly had to do.

"Thanks, Mum." Tears sprang to Holly's eyes. "Goodbye." The two of them embraced,, the last expression of love they would ever share.

Then Holly brok away, and stood, eyes firmly focused on the floor. She walked to the front door, but Coral stayed seated. As Holly pushed the open button, she turned to look at her only living relative. Beautiful and full of motherly pride, it was a wonderful image for Holly to walk away with. So she did. The pneumatic door hissed shut behind her.

And in the quiet emptiness of the room, Coral began to weep.

Holly stood on the doorstep, thick cloak wrapped tight around her. She was glad it had a hood - it was raining. She was still soaked though. Raising a shivering hand, she rapped on the heavy wood as hard as she could.

It was opened, after a brief moment, by Butler.Despite his height, he was looking directly at Holly. The surveillance system must have shown her coming up the path.

"Holly," he said. It was not a question. She nodded anyway. "Are you here to see Artemis?"

She threw back her hood, and the rain began to trickle down inside her collar. "No, she replied. "I'm here to see Juliet."

No emotion was visible on Butler's face in this light - if any was showing at all - but Holly knew he was surprised. He paused, then stepped back. "I'll go fetch her. Come in, out of the rain."

Once she was in the impressively large hall, Butler shut the door. He cast an odd glance at Holly, then disappeared off up the stairs. Holly was left to drip steadily on the marble floor. And to have staring competitions with the the many paintings of Artemis's ancestors.

It was not long before Juliet came bounding down these same stairs, Butler slowly following. He had obviously not had any knowledge of this arrangement.

"Holly!" beamed Juliet. "You made it!"

The addressed nodded, smiling softly. "Of course I did." As Juliet reached her, and knelt to give her soggy friend a hug, Holly asked, "are you ready then?"

Juliet skipped over to a nearby table, and pulled out a backpack from underneath it. She held it up; it looked rather full. "Yup! All packed. Except..." She dodged over to the umbrella stand in the corner , and plucked out a pink and silver one. Obviously hers then. Holly couldn't imagine any other member of the hosuehold owning it. "I think we might need one of these."

Butler had now reached the bottom of the stairs. "If I may ask, what is going on here?"

Juliet sighed, and her shoulders slumped. She dropped what she was carrying by the door, then walked slowly over to her brother. Standing on tiptoe, she kissed him on the cheek. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Goodbye."

Then she dashed back to the door and swung it open. Jerking her head at Holly swung the fairy into action. Juliet grabbed what she'd just dropped, and with one final, sorrowful look at her brother, shut the door behind her and her friend. Butler, rather bemused, made no move to follow them.

After a short struggle, and an exclamation of "useless piece of junk!", Juliet got her umbrella to open, and stay open. The two girls looked at each other, and then Holly raised her hood again. They began to walk down the gravel path to the great door in the outer wall.

Holly sensed that Juliet was barely keeping herself under control. An outburst of "I can't believe we're really doing this!" confirmed her suspicions. And made her grin like mad.

"Neither can I," she whispered. With the pitter-patter of the rain filling the air, she was unsure if her companion had heard or not.

Soon they had passed through the heavy outer doors of Fowl Manor. As they thudded shut behind the girls, Juliet paused and looked back at the place where she'd spent the last five years of her life. Holly looked back too. "Are you regretting this?" the fairy asked.

"No," Juliet said, after a moment. "But I wish we could have stayed."

And the two of them began to walk down the slippery, muddy road away to the right, leaving behind everything they had ever known.

They said nothing more until they reached a sheltered spot - the porch of a nearby church, where they plonked themselves down on the stone seat. It was quite dark. The moon was mostly obscured by clouds.

Juliet opened the front pocket of her backpack, and pulled out a metal flask. Holly looked away. She knew exactly what was in it.

"Are you really sure you want to go this far?" inquired Juliet softly. "You won't ever be able to go back afterwards."

"If I don't do it, they'll make me go back." Holly did not look up, though.

Juliet paused. "I'll drink some first if you want." Holly shrugged and nodded, so her friend began to unscrew the cap. Then she took a swig, swallowed it and held out the bottle to Holly.

Nervously, the fairy girl reached out a hand to take it. She looked right into Juliet's eyes. Her friend was smilingly sadly at her. Holly gripped the metal container in both hands, and Juliet relinquished her hold.

"Once a fairy has taken spirits with the Mud People, they are forever dead to their brothers and sisters..." recited Holly, quoting Chi Lun's Almanac of the People. Then she closed her eyes, and raised the flask to her lips.

Quickly, she tipped her head back and swallowed a mouthful of the liquid. Then she choked and coughed. Perhaps not just because of its sharp taste, but also because of what she knew she'd just done. Weakly, she held out the bottle to Juliet.

The human girl knocked it away, and it fell on the floor. Juliet wrapped her arms around her friend. "I'm so proud of you!" she whispered. But Holly could not reply. She just hugged back.