Holly Short

Holly Short is a fictional character, a LEPrecon officer in the Artemis Fowl children's book series.

Physical appearance and family

Holly as depicted in the Artemis Fowl Graphic Novel

Holly Short is an elf with an auburn crewcut, hazel eyes, and a chatty mouth. She also has the pointy ears and chestnut-coloured skin typical of her species. She is exactly ninety-nine centimeters in height, one centimeter shorter than the fairy average (three feet in US editions), and has a gymnast-like stance. She also has a good sense of humour that accompanies her cockiness. She is in her mid-eighties - reasonably young by fairy standards. Holly is described as pretty in two different ways: pointy, and like a black widow (with coffee-brown skin). In Book 2 Chix Verbil, a sprite who thinks he is "God's gift to the ladies", tries to impress Holly with his suave attitude and flying skills, but she ends up saving his life, and his precious wings, after he is shot by a goblin in a B'wa Kell flyby. Not much is known about Holly's family, except that she lost her father at a young age (for a fairy - she was around sixty years old at the time), and that she is the great-granddaughter of Cupid. Also, her mother was a willowy European elf whom you did not want to cross. Her hobbies are reading, playing crunchball, and, like most fairies, flying.

Work and appearances in the series

She was abducted by the twelve-year-old criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl II in the first book of the series when he uncovered evidence of the existence of fairies. She was the first female in LEPrecon. The Commander of LEPrecon, Julius Root, became a father figure for her as time went on. She is a great shuttle pilot, a quick thinker, and a true policewoman. After Root was killed in an explosion set up by Opal Koboi, she was suspected to be the Commander's murderer and pursued by LEP Internal Affairs until Wing Commander Vinyáya, female mentor and defender, and Foaly convinced the fairy council that she was, in fact, innocent. Holly resigned when she found Ark Sool (the newly appointed commander of LEPrecon in the wake of Root's death) to be unable to let go of circumstances. She and Mulch Diggums set up a Private Investigation agency with Artemis as a consultant for the agency. Holly was later recruited into Section 8, the fairy equivalent of MI5 by Wing Commander Vinyáya. Holly's best friends are Foaly, Major Trouble Kelp and, up until his death, Commander Julius Root. She also became friends with Artemis after many adventures, and currently maintains secret communication with him. Her unusual relationship with Artemis, with the slow evolution of their relationship from antagonists, to allies, to companions, and then eventually to close friends, is one of the main focus points of the series. She is one of the few people he respects, as he states at the end of The Arctic Incident, and although she enjoys baiting him, she has constantly gone above and beyond the call of duty to help him. Their multiple mutual life-and-body-saving incidents has helped create a bond between them not unlike that between two soldiers from the same squad in the military. At the end of the fifth book, thanks to inconsistencies of dimension and time travel, Holly and Artemis find they have exchanged eyes, each now having one hazel and one blue eye, with Artemis seemingly retaining some of Holly's magic. Artemis himself has stated that once puberty hits, he expects he will see her in a different light from "friend". Supposedly to test such feelings, Holly gives him a kiss on the cheek in The Lost Colony, to which he struggles, to some extent, to maintain his affections, stating hurtlingly that he has his "emotions under control - just about". Many of Holly's co-officers admired her even though she was a "rebel officer", and many of them were sorry to see her resign (especially Foaly), but they knew she would be happier free; Ark Sool would have monitored her too carefully. At the end of Book 5 Holly temporarily died from being stabbed by the demon leader, Leon Abbott. However, she is soon revived when Artemis shoots Abbot at a specific time he was counting down to, which, due to the unique time dimension they were in, stops Abbot from killing her in the first place, simultaneously saving the warlocks Qwan and No1.

External links

• Artemis Fowl Site - Characters: Holly Short | FanGathering