They had thought their lives would finally calm down after the battle at Zzyzx, but when Seth starts having strange dreams their hopes vanish into thin air. Are the dreams only his own creation, or memories from his past life? Word of the strange events reach the ears of Clemendo, the great Shadow King, and suspecting the boy to be the reincarnation of the son he murdered, he sets off to finish the job he started all those thousands of years ago. Will the Sorensons get through this adventure, or is it finally the end?
He was in a dark cave. Steep walls rose up three metes, full of cracking stone and moss. Rocks about the size of a tree stump were littered around the ground, and a small torch was hung up on the wall.
He was pacing. Back and forth. Back and forth. One step after the other. He was worried. Where was she? Had she been caught? Was she even coming?
Just as he was about to give up on waiting, a sound shook him back into the present.
" Thought I wouldn't come, did you?"
Swirling around, startled, he saw the origin of the sound and smiled. There, at the mouth of the cave, was a girl. She wore a simple light brown dress, with laces at the back. Her long, dark brown hair fell down her back and shoulders. Green eyes stared at him, and he felt his heartbeat quicken.
" For a while, yes," he answered and the girl smiled. She walked closer and leaned in so that their faces were only millimeters apart. She smelled just like newly baked cinnamon rolls and flowers.
" I would never leave you here, my darling. I will always come, I promise. I promise it to you, my A-"
" Seth!"
Seth sprang up in bed, startled by his sister's voice. His eyes scanned the room as if still expecting to be in the cave. Had it been only a dream? It had seemed so real! He could still smell the odor of the rotting walls and the perfume of the-
" Seth!"
This time, the voice was louder, meaning it was originating from somewhere closer. As if on cue, Kendra barged in through the doorway, hand on her hips, a frown on her face.
" I have been trying to wake you up for the last fifteen minutes!" she exclaimed, angrily, and Seth put up his hands in mock surrender.
" Well, you just succeeded!" Rubbing his eyes, Seth yawned largely and heard Kendra gag.
" Oh God, Seth, your breath smells!" she said, and through his fingers, the boy saw her pinch her nose shut. Teasingly, he took a deep breath, and let it out on her face. Shrieking in horror, Kendra immediately ran out of the attic door, leaving a laughing Seth to fall out of his bed alone.
When the laughing fits finally ceased, Seth took off his pajamas – a pair of shorts and a T-shirt – and pulled on jeans and a grey flannel shirt.
After that, he descended the stairs to the second story and walked into the bathroom, where he then washed his face with cold water, and cleaned his mouth with mouthwash, taking Kendra's claim about his bad breath seriously. Once he forgot to wash his teeth in the morning and managed to scare away a whole group of fairies with it.
Once he was done, he continued his way downstairs where the rest of the family was seated at the dining table, eating breakfast combined from apple pancakes – his grandmother's own recipe -, freshly baked bread, berries, PB&Js as well as hot chocolate made out of Viola's magic milk.
Pulling out a chair, and sitting on it, Seth said his 'good mornings' to everyone, while reaching out to grab a pancake. A few people answered him, though Warren seemed to still be asleep, as he was quiet and was applying the peanut butter from his PB&J sandwich onto one his pancakes. When Kendra informed him about it, Warren only grunted, before stuffing the whole disgusting mess into his mouth, making everyone in the table cringe, Dale the most.
Vanessa buried her face in her hands and sighed at her boyfriend's behavior. They had begun dating a few months after the battle at Zzyzx, which had been over two years ago. The same had happened to Kendra and Bracken, although their relationship was hard, due to the absence of the fairy prince, because of his duties in the Fairy Kingdom. But they were both happy, and patient.
Although in that time, Seth had become much more responsible it didn't mean he didn't fool around sometimes or annoy everyone at Fablehaven. He once set Mendigo to dance Gangnam Style in his grandparents' bedroom for two hours straight, which earned a small smile from them as well as a warning that doing it again would get him grounded. Of course, that didn't stop him from repeating the act, which was totally worth it.
" Today, we will resume our normal duties, although, " Grandpa started after a few minutes of everyone enjoying their food. " Seth, you're going to help Warren clear out some of the bushes near the satyrs' tennis field. They've destroyed most of the plants anyway, so it shouldn't be too hard. "
The cousins nodded in agreement, before both stuffing their faces full of food again.
" Kendra, I'm going to need some help baking later on in the day." Grandma continued after her husband's sentence. The word baking made Tanu's head snap up, and his mouth spread into a ginormous grin, which made Seth think of a kid who had just found a candy shop with free candy.
He couldn't hold back a smile himself. There just wasn't a single thing, that could top Grandma Sorenson's cooking. And anyone who tried to achieve something like that was usually somebody not in their sane mind, or a satyr who had been clubbed in the head too many times – and yes, that had happened... twice.
Seth reached out for more pancakes, and Kendra slapped his hand.
" You've already eaten five! If you take one more, you'll end up looking like a fat potato!"
"Or a centaur with too much ego," he muttered, before snatching a pancake from her plate instead, earning a glare, and a slap on the head. Warren chuckled and snatched Kendra's second pancake while eating the piece of the previous one right off her fork.
Kendra let out a defeated sob, and dropped her head onto the table, making everyone laugh. Then she grabbed the bottle of whipped cream, squirted a pile onto each hand, before smacking both Warren and Seth in the face, smearing them white.
Tanu fell off his chair laughing, and Seth began trying to lick whipped cream off his nose. With some miracle, he succeeded. Vanessa, stood up and walked over to the Samoan currently curled up in a ball, and helped pull him to his feet.
Tanu wiped a tear from his eye, while clutching his stomach, his shoulders shaking with laughter. He tried drinking some of the milk from his half-empty glass, but only ended up remembering the scene and making the liquid come out of his nose. Not it was Dale's turn to fall off his chair. It would be a long time before they finished...
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As they waded through the forest, Seth was careful not to crush too many plants. Although some were normal flowers like dandelions and daffodils, some were important ingredients for a number of Tanu's potions.
These plants included the bark of a Clinchebald tree and the leaf of a Glangtom bush. He had no idea why the names were so complicated and had decided that instead of looking for each individual plant and making sure not to step on any of them, he would be careful with all of the greenery.
" Why didn't we just use the path?" he complained, and Warren turned to look at him with a grin on his face, while his feet sank into the muddy ground.
" Weren't you the one who always wanted to go on adventures?" the man asked playfully.
Seth huffed, and climbed over a fallen tree. " There is absolutely no adventure in these parts of the woo-" his sentence was cut short when the ground suddenly disappeared from beneath him, and he was enveloped in darkness...
