An Exceptional Eleven Chapter Student Mini Novel!

 Sometimes students complete surpass all expectations!  This story is by Anas.  He has been working on it for over 3 months, completing one chapter each week as part of his ongoing tutoring.  I think you will be impressed! 

hapter 1

Butler crashed into Orion’s  study. “What is it Butler?”

 

“It’s… it’s.. Mrs Fowl. She's really sick.”

 

Orion pushed past Butler and sprinted up the grand stairs. When he reached her bedroom, he realized that his mother’s distinct odour was no longer there. Instead, it was replaced with a pretty yet sick fragrance. Orion slowly entered the bedroom. “Mother! What is it?”

 

Mrs Fowl groaned softly. She didn’t reply. Orion panicked and was about to rush to his mother’s bedside table and cry on her shoulder when his scientific brain kicked in. He approached her and examined her. “I’ve never seen this before…” 

 

He decided to call his magical fairy friends to help him. He started speaking into his hand and then stopped. He went and waited by the door. No more than 15 minutes had passed and his best friend Holly and the genius centaur Loryn had arrived. He explained the situation to them in detail and they all approached the bedroom. While Loryn was setting up his machines and tools, Holly followed Orion to the bed. As soon as Holly looked at and smelled Mrs Fowl, it hit her. She whispered to Loryn and he agreed sadly. She approached Orion.

 

“Orion, I’m afraid that your mother has a fairy disease called the Spelltropy. She has a full organ failure and her brain doesn’t work anymore. The only way to cure her is to get the brain fluids of a particular type of lemur. Sadly, the lemur has been extinct for almost 10 years.”

 

Orion started crying. “I know,” he murmured.”I killed it.”

 

Chapter 2

 

While Loryn and Holly tried to devise a plan, Orion just sat silently in a corner massaging his forehead, which he did while he was thinking of a plan. After 30 minutes of thinking, he suddenly jumped. 

 

“I know what we have to do, but it’s a little…hard.” He started explaining that the only solution was to travel back in time to stop himself selling the lemur. The others were sceptical but after a while, they reluctantly agreed. They transported the time travel machine into his office and they powered it up. It could fit into a pocket for easy transportation.

 

Loryn said he couldn’t go because he had matters here. He warned them, under any circumstances, not to be recognised by younger Orion’s because the Laws of Time would be broken. Holly and Orion agreed, then they reluctantly turned on the machine and traveled back in time. One moment they were in Orion’s living room and the next they were in Orion’s old office. It was a successful journey. They felt relieved and apprehensive.

 

Orion and Holly looked around in wonder. The office was gleaming white, as Juliet, Butler’s sister, would clean it every day. The office also had monitors showing tv channels from all around the world. There was also a gigantic wardrobe. Orion remembered this as the time when his Father was kidnapped by the Russian mafia.

 

They decided to borrow some of younger Orion’s wigs from the wardrobe and wear them in order to disguise themselves so that younger Orion would not recognise future Orion. They remember that Loryn had gravely warned them not to be recognised. Holly suddenly remembered a fact that Loryn had told her. He had explained that the longer they were in the past, the lower their chances were of going back to the future. 

 

“Orion, do you remember where you put the lemur?”

 

“No, I don’t but I will try to.”

 

Holly  and Orion sat on a chair while he tried to think of the place.

 

He suddenly jumped up and whispered guiltily,”I, I remember it now. I put the lemur in the attic so that Mother wouldn’t see it and sympathize with it and make me let it go.”

 

They imagined that it would be a go-in go-out type of mission because Orion thought that younger Orion and Butler had left already but he and Holly still proceeded with it carefully at the beginning. 

They slowly tip-toed down the corridor that led to the attic. It was darker and damper than Orion remembered. They heard rats scurrying on multiple occasions and they heard a crow croak somewhere in the distance. They swallowed nervously and continued.

 

Once they had reached the attic, they let their guards down, but this was a fatal mistake.

 

Orion heard quiet footsteps behind him and looked around suddenly. His eyes bulged out. It was Butler. As his cover was blown he just sprinted towards them

 

Butler grinned,”Gotcha thieves!”

 

Orion shouted,”Holly run!”

 

They ran as fast as their legs could carry them but they were not a match for Butler and his speed. He lunged at them from behind and fell on both of them, not letting them get away. Orion thought to himself,”Oh no, I forgot all about Butler and now we are going to have to meet my younger self”.

 

Butler regained his breath and said a single word - ”Thieves!” -  and spat on the ground while looking at them menacingly.

 

He carried them on his shoulder while squeezing them tightly and sprinted all the way to younger Orion’s bedroom. Older Orion looked from over Butler’s shoulder and was horrified to see younger Orion sitting on his chair.

 

Younger Orion instructed Butler to trap them in the metal non see-through cage. They overheard him telling Butler that they will leave in an hour so he can have time to stack up on weapons.

Chapter 3

 

After younger Orion had left with Butler, Holly and older Orion started devising a plan to escape. Holly suggested that they could just time travel back to the future, but Orion instantly rejected it because he couldn’t afford to lose his Mother as well as his Father, but rethought his opinion and decided to keep it just in case as a back-up plan.

 

“How in the world are we supposed to escape?” Holly wondered sadly.

 

“Don’t worry. I have a plan.You just need to have patience.”

 

After what felt like an eternity but was actually just 30 minutes, they heard a knock on the cage. Orion counted to five and the door swung open just on time. And right in front of Holly, was the last person she expected to see. It was a dwarf-like creature who was really, really fat. Holly recognised him from her police days as she arrested him before. It was Mulch.

 

Mulch didn’t expect them to be here either. He was here to rob the place, and just thought this was the vault. Instead of gold though, he found the police officer who arrested him before and somehow, the boy he was stealing from. Unsurprisingly, he fainted.

 

After 20 minutes, Mulch was woken up by Holly who said one word. “Explain.”

 

He got up and started talking. “You see, I was coming here to rob this place when I saw the owner leave. I was about to just stroll in but then I remembered the cameras. I froze the time with my trusty Time Freezer 5000 and went in. I looked in the blueprints of the place and saw what looked like a vault so I went there and opened it and somehow, I saw you.”

 

Orion told him that was enough explaining for now and that they needed to go. They sneaked out of the cage and when they saw the front door, they sprinted for their life. When they reached Mulch’s supercar, they went in and they drove away with Mulch on the steering wheel. They sighed happily while Mulch was thinking how big a bucket of gold really is. He smiled.

 

Chapter 4

 

Orion and his friends, with their newly gained confidence, rush to find younger Orion before it’s too late. Older Orion remembers that he was going to sell the lemur to some radical extinctionists that set up camp in Tunisia. 

 

Older Orion and his friends decided to go back to Fowl Manor first and stack up on some much-needed supplies then they would travel to Tunisia.

 

After collecting everything they needed, the group took the Fowl Plane and flew all the way to the extinctionists’ villa in Sfax, which is in Tunisia. 

 

Orion remembered that there was going to be a huge party in their villa that night just so they could eliminate the poor lemur. Orion decided he needed to change that. Somehow, they managed to sneak in acting like regular blood-thirsty extinctionists and luckily, they were not caught.

 

By the time that they had slipped into the crowd, they saw a horrifying sight. The extinctionists were about to drop the lemur into a fire.

 

Holly whispered sadly to Orion,”I am so sorry Orion, but we are too late.”

 

Orion refused to accept the fact that his mother would be gone, and even though they were too far away he decided to attempt something. He had one chance to do it. Just one chance, so he activated his wings. He flew towards the fire pit as fast as he could while the extinctionist leader dropped the lemur into a fire.

 

Orion felt the furry creature hit his stomach while he flew out of the wide-open back door. He looked back briefly and glimpsed Holly running towards him with Mulch trailing behind her thinking of an escape plan for later as usual. They headed for a local park to regroup and plan their next move.

Chapter 5 

 

All the time that Older Orion was escaping, younger Orion was musing. He needed to find a way to capture them. Butler came out from behind him. He was grinning from ear to ear.

 

“Don’t worry, Master Orion. I had already put a tracker on the lemur in case someone stole it. Good decision.”

 

Young Orion smiled.

 

Older Orion arrived at the park with his friends. Holly suggested that they leave now and Orion agreed. Holly got out the time-travelling machine and they prepared to use it. 

 

Suddenly, they each felt a sharp pang in their legs. They looked down. “Oh no, it’s an anaesthetic dart!” Orion said miserably. One by one, they collapsed.

 

Butler and Younger Orion came out of the bush.  He noticed that a small sphere-like shape had tumbled out of Holly’s pocket. He read the label which conveniently had ‘Time Machine 5000’ written on it. Younger Orion stored it in his pocket for later analysis.

 

When younger Orion and Butler came back to Fowl Manor they placed the prisoners in the basement cell and put the lemur in the attic cage. He shoots it with one of Butler’s anaesthetic darts and it sleeps before it even hits the floor of the cage. He went to execute the next part of the plan. Younger Orion decided to sell this machine to a billionaire friend of his, Antonio Armani, who was an Italian engineer. He sent an image of the machine and set the price at a whopping 11.5 billion pounds.

Chapter 6

 

After an eternity of being drugged, Older Orion woke up to find Holly staring at him, and Mulch in a corner still drugged. After a long time, Mulch finally woke up.

 

“Where are we?” whispered Mulch anxiously which was not a usual trait of his. He was usually happy and optimistic that everything was going to be fine.

 

“We are in what appears to be my basement. Back then, I was still using it as a prison. How ingenious,” said Older Orion fruitily while simultaneously thinking of one of his trademark devilish plans.

 

After a couple long hard minutes of focusing without any interruptions, Older Orion’s eyes lit up. He whispered excitedly that he had found it. He instructed Mulch to use his mind control powers to invade Butler’s mind, who was standing sentry a couple hundred feet away, and make him open the lock and free them. Mulch felt reluctant as he didn’t want to show Younger Orion and Butler that they were not actually humans, like they thought. After a bit of thinking through, he eventually agreed and started charging up his mind control powers.

 

Just a minute later, Mulch said his mind control power was ready. Older Orion told him that this was his moment and that they needed him now more than ever, which gave Mulch’s absolutely gigantic ego a confidence boost. Older Orion looked up and he saw Butler approach them. He got scared and thought that the worst had happened and that Butler had somehow overheard them. But he was very wrong, one of the first times in his life. 

 

He saw Butler get the key out of his pocket and open the basement prison’s door. They nodded to him and sprinted past him as quickly as they could. They tried not to trip as one wrong step could jeopardize the entire operation and probably get them killed. After what felt like ages, but was really only seconds, they reached the end of the long corridor and they saw sunlight seeping through the front door. As soon as they tried to open the door, it dawned on them. It was locked. 

Chapter 7

While Orion and Mulch were on the verge of tears, Holly was somehow smiling.

 

Older Orion asked sceptically, ”Why are you smiling Holly? We are in a really difficult situation and I don’t think you really quite get that concept.” 

 

Holly said smartly, wondering how Orion hadn’t figured it out yet, ”I managed to grab Butler’s keys when we were heading for the door, just in case it was locked.”

 

Mulch snatched the keys from her hand and quickly opened the door, not wanting to risk the chances of them staying long enough for Butler to wake up and capture them, and ran out of there with Holly and Older Orion following just behind him. They headed for the evil lair of Antonio Armani.

 

After a long time of tirelessly walking there, while following Older Orion’s guidance from his memory, they finally arrived at a gigantic manor with a sign conveniently stating: ’Antonio Armani’s evil scientist lair. Do not enter.’ Instead of just breaking in and hoping for the best, they decided to rest a bit as they felt that their bodies were literally about to collapse. Instead of just letting their sleeping urges take over and falling over in the open, they found a couple of gigantic bushes close together and they now let themselves sleep.

 

Older Orion woke up with the unmistakable sound of drilling coming from the house. They decided to inspect what was happening by breaking in. They saw a window high up that was opened, unlike everything else in the house. Smoke was coming out of  the window, which explained why it was open in the first place.

 

Everyone grabbed their items and they started trying to sneak up. They looked for a ladder nearby but they obviously couldn’t find anything. Older Orion decided to use a really unorthodox method.

 

Orion asked Mulch,”Could you get us up there?”

 

“I could but it’s not going to be easy, " replied Mulch innocently while adding this to his ever expanding list of services that he had helped. He imagined how much gold he would ask for and his mouth drooled. He sure would need a lot of buckets.

 

They climbed on Mulch’s back and he scrambled up to the window. After 15 minutes of hard work, they finally reached it. They hesitated to go in but they ignored their feelings and tumbled in. And it was only then that they saw their worst nightmare take place. 

Chapter 8

Antonio Armani was tinkering with the time machine. It appeared he was trying to find the energy source that fueled the entire gizmo. But it wasn’t like he was going to find one, Holly thought mischievously, this baby is solar-powered and doesn’t have any sort of battery.

 

Not knowing what Holly knew, Antonio was still trying to pry open the machine. This time he was using his modified laser drill that could penetrate through basically anything. He had patented it when he was 15, and used up the money gained from the patent to start up his own company which flourished for a few years, granting him billionaire status.

 

Holly was thinking that if Antonio managed to cut open the machine, he would probably replicate it and use his team of gifted scientists to make more. After he had some more, he would sell them for billions and billions of pounds which he would use to start up a factory to make more machines so it would be a good investment.

 

Sadly, she was correct in her prediction as that was almost exactly what Antonio was planning. The only difference was that he wouldn’t sell a couple, he would instantly make a factory to make as much money in as little time as possible.

 

This attitude would probably be frowned upon by most of the population. But Antonio was a narcissist. He loved only himself and his machines. And when he discovered a way to make more money to indulge himself in yet more things, he obviously made the most of it without hesitation.

Chapter 9

 

After ages of watching Antonio try to force open the gizmo, Holly’s legs were starting to  hurt. Her brain was telling her to just jump in and punch Antonio in the face, but Orion’s instructions made sense. They had to wait for the perfect moment to strike, so as to not ruin the whole plan. She hoped, with everyone else, that they would act soon. If they delayed it much longer, her legs would stop working and she would plummet down on her way down at least five stories. And after a fall like that, there is no going back.

 

After two hours, they heard the much-anticipated sound of the machine cracking open. Antonio shouted in happiness and celebrated. This consisted of him jumping around for about two seconds and that’s it. He had no time for enjoyment. Things had to be done to make sure the plan worked perfectly.

 

Holly, Orion and Mulch decided that now was the perfect time to jump in and interrupt him mid-celebration. As Antonio was imagining the wealth this machine would bring him, Holly used her specially modified gun to hit him on the head, caveman style, and knock him out cold.

 

“I didn’t actually mean to knock him out,” said Holly, “I only meant to distract him by bonking him on the head slightly.”

 

Orion replied a touch testily, ”You are stronger than you think. I have experienced your hits and I am bold enough to say that I feel bad for the poor man.”

 

Mulch swiftly grabbed the broken machine, put it in his invisible secret pocket, and pushed Orion and Holly to the staircase.

 

“Quickly Mud Boy, we have no time to waste.”

 

Orion didn’t like that nickname. It referred to the human species at a whole. It was because at one point in time, the humans lived in mud. Therefore, they were called Mud Men.

 

As they were running down the stairs, they were interrupted by Antonio’s security guards. They went backwards but were blocked off by another security team. They were trapped.

Orion whispered to Holly, the experienced police officer. “Can you see any way out of this Holly?”

 

“No. I don’t see any way out of here at all.”

 

Mulch groaned. ”Here we go again I guess.”

 

They walked over to the guards and casually surrendered. You should never show emotions when your enemy is around. The guards did a quick search for contraband. Somehow, despite the machine in Mulch’s pocket, they didn’t find anything. Mulch let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. Orion and Co. had got lucky, something that didn’t happen too often. The guards hadn’t discovered Mulch’s secret pocket as they hadn’t done a thorough check. A decision they would regret later on. Even Holly and Older Orion didn’t know that he had it in his pocket.

 

Chapter 10

 

Orion and his friends were bundled quickly and efficiently to the Scientific Experiments Room which was surprisingly quiet and small. There weren’t any experiments going on despite the name. There was only a lonely booth in the middle, which for some reason, frightened Holly more than a whole army. Mulch, with his keen sense of smell, instantly deduced that they had built it just for them. 

 

The guards looked frustrated. “Get. In. The. Booth. NOW! For goodness sake!”

 

Orion refused. “No, why would we get in this booth that would likely kill us? Do you think we are stupid?”

 

The guard's reply was blunt and to the point, much to Orion’s annoyance. “Yes. Yes you are stupid.”

 

“Didn’t need to be rude about it.” replied Holly angrily. Right now, she would like nothing more than to punch this guard in his face. Sadly, she couldn’t quite do that right now.

 

While Holly was wondering why on earth they would need to get into this booth, the guards finally lost their patience. They pushed the trembling group in and swiftly locked the door, correctly deducing that Orion’s first objective would be to try to escape as quickly as possible. 

 

Antonio walked in, bristling with anger. Who could blame him? Orion thought. We have just destroyed his whole project. But instead of him shouting and crying, he suddenly stopped and calmly smiled. This was not good, thought Holly sadly.

 

Antonio walked up to a red button Orion didn’t remember seeing and pressed it.

 

“Well, that's not good,” said Mulch.

 

They heard a humming noise. Antonio explained that he was about to extract their DNA. If he couldn’t use a time machine, he might as well use a cloning machine. They heard a gas being released in their cell. With Antonio laughing like an evil madman in the background, Orion’s reality started fading. His last vision was seeing Holly and Mulch begin to fall. He heard a clang and then it was all black.

 

Chapter 11

Orion Fowl woke up groggily. He looked for Holly and Mulch and was relieved to find them lying next to him awake. They huddled up together and started planning. 

 

“Orion, you plan as you are the smarter one and the better planner,” said Holly matter-of-factly.

 

Orion started thinking. There was no obvious move that would get them out of this that would be easy. If they wanted to get out of there safely, they had to do it the hard way. There were no simple short-cuts or pathways that would somehow get them out of there without any effort.

 

After ages of thinking hard, Orion still couldn’t find any way at all, and nor could Holly and Mulch. Just as they thought they were surely doomed, they heard a crash. Older Orion looked around to see what was the source of the sound. What he saw there shocked him more than anything else before it. Younger Orion had broken in with Butler!

 

Butler disabled the guards easily as he was much bulkier than all of them combined. He then smashed into Antonio Armani, sending him crashing through a table. Antonio had not foreseen such events; no one else had either.

 

Younger Orion grabbed the key from the main guard and opened the door cell. He helped everyone up kindly. They looked for the time machine.

 

“Where is it?” shouted Butler angrily to the barely-awake Antonio, scaring him to the verge of death. The situation itself was really not helping either.

 

“I do not know where the time machine is,” he squeaked. “If I knew, I would have told you.”

 

“Typical,” said Holly, sighing.

 

Mulch suddenly started laughing. He explained that he'd had it in his secret pocket the whole time, and was only stopping the fun so they could actually escape. He reached into his pocket and prepared to give the miniscule machine to Butler.

 

Butler grabbed it, put the pieces together and hoped it worked. The machine started humming, much to everyone’s relief. They used it to go to the future as a group.

 

They gave the lemur to Loryn, who was confused about how they finished the mission so quickly, as for him, they had just left. He decided to ignore this for now, and he quickly extracted some of the lemur’s DNA. He injected Angeline Fowl with the serum and the colour came back to her face. Older Orion cried happily, while Younger Orion stood there bewildered. 

 

Loryn mind-wiped Younger Orion and sent him back to the past with a Police Captain, who went there with him in order to take the time machine back with him.

 

Just as Older Orion was about to explain what happened with Holly to Loryn, he couldn’t remember anything from the past days’ events, but ironically, Holly and Mulch explained everything to him, with Loryn intently listening in.

 

THE END