Author's Note: I promise that this isn't going to be a story that is updated every two weeks (Or is it three?). I just had a ton of homework last week and a huge test on the U.S. Constitution that was worth half of our history grade. Sorry.

For those of you asking for Gavin, here he is. I'm not sticking to Brandon Mull's specific Kendra/Seth third person limited (or whatever POV it was) POVs this chapter. Since Gavin is one of my main characters in this story, he gets to have his own chapter, too.

You might have already noticed, but if you didn't, I changed the summary a little bit. I just remembered about Seth and Kendra's parents being kidnapped. Sorry for some of the spelling/grammar mistakes. They weren't there when I typed this up. I tried to change them after it was posted, but the system wouldn't let me change them. :(

Disclaimer: Alas, neither Fablehaven nor Gavin belong to me. They are owned by Brandon Mull. Now, onto the fun stuff!

Chapter Seven: Potions and Reacquaintances

"So how exactly are we supposed to find this potions person; assuming that there's even one in Alaska?" Kendra asked.

"I don't know. Don't you have one at F-Fablehaven?"

"Yes, Tanu. But I thought you said that we weren't aborting this mission." Kendra said in a slightly challenging tone.

"I know. But we should put Seth's w-w-welfare first, since he's still with us. Warren's fine in whatever dimension he's sitting in. He can wait a l-little while longer." Gavin stated defensively.

"Warren's fine?! He's been sitting with some stupid Yahtzee game to keep him company for over three months and you're calling that fine?" During this, Kendra's voice had risen an octave.

"So, Seth doesn't matter now? Your own brother?"

"He does! But you have no right to decide Warren's fate! As I clearly recall, you trapped him in there. Albeit, as Navarog, but it's your fault that we're even on this stupid mission! If it weren't for Wyrmroost, none of this would have ever happened!"

"My fault?!" Gavin's expression had turned threatening. His eyes were dark; not warm and compassionate like they had been moments ago, but cold and hard.

"Like I said before, Kendra, I had absolutely no power over what N-N-Navarog did. I would reverse time if I could to change what he did, but unfortunately, I can't. Maybe y-you're right Kendra, maybe you and I both shouldn't have agreed to come on this mission. Maybe I made a wrong choice even coming back to you a-a-at all." Gavin snapped before he wheeled around to walk out of the room. "I'm checking us out. Meet me at the Jeep when you're ready to go." That said, he stormed out of the room.

As the door closed behind him, Kendra crumpled onto Seth's bed, tears now flowing freely.

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Gavin strode to where their group had checked in; trying to take deep breaths to calm down. Why couldn't anybody understand that all he was trying to do was to help them and clear his name? To make people realize that he was not evil, just an orphaned boy who wanted a family; a family that would accept him for who he really was. Not the Gavin Rose impersonated by the demon prince Navarog, but the Gavin Rose who had a heart.

Gavin shook his head, trying to erase his confusing thoughts. It was not like any of them were going to happen too soon anyways.

Gavin's thoughts turned to Kendra. He had known that she would be the hardest to win back. Gavin had sensed that near the end, she had had feeling toward him that were a little more than ones that would come out of a friendship. By her "welcoming" reaction, he knew that she had been crushed by "Gavin's" betrayal.

Just when Gavin thought that things were getting "back to normal", she had to bring up Navarog. People's general hostility toward him had made him touchy on that subject.

Now, Gavin wished that he had not snapped at Kendra. It was not her fault; she was just stating the cold, hard facts. Cruel facts that Gavin wished were not real.

Once again, Gavin shook his head. "What's done is done,' he told himself firmly 'there's no changing it now.'

Finally, Gavin thought about Seth. He really did feel sorry for the poor kid. Gavin knew first-hand what it was like to have absolute zero-control over your own body. Briefly, Gavin thought that it might have been better to be unconscious, but still occupying 100% of his body rather than having it been shared with a demon. Quickly, he diminished the thought. At least when Navarog occupied him Gavin could still realize what was happening around him. On top of that, Seth could not move his body at all.

By now, Gavin had reached the "front desk". The elderly lady was standing behind her tiny desk, waiting for some other psychos that wanted to come and have a "vacation" out in no man's land. Only nutcases would come out here.

The whole time the elderly lady was checking them out in her enormous black binder, Gavin was lost in thought. He really should apologize to Kendra; he did not actually mean what he had said to her. Gavin started drafting apologies in his head, each more eloquent than the last. None of them sounded good. A simple "I'm sorry" would have to suffice.

At last, the little old lady was done scribbling in her binder. She handed Gavin a handwritten receipt, then bustled off to who knows where.

Gavin stared at the receipt in his hand. On it, the old lady had written:

Beware. Danger lurks at every corner. Watch your backs, you are being followed.

Looking up from the receipt, Gavin gazed in the direction that the old lady had left. Who was she?

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Kendra was out by the Jeep with all of their bags when Gavin walked out of the motel.

"Seth's inside," she said shortly when Gavin came within hearing distance. Kendra nodded her head curtly in the direction of their rooms.

Gavin dipped his head and turned back around to the direction where he had come from.

'Now how am I supposed to apologize?' he thought 'She won't even listen to me. But I really don't want to have to get the silent treatment for the rest of this mission. Why do girls have to be so confusing?!'

Gavin made his way to Seth's room, deliberately walking slower so he could stay away from Kendra's wrath as long as possible.

'Wow, self; scared of a girl. Not even an armed girl at that. Now that is really degrading.' The wonders of verbal communication would never cease to amaze him.

Gavin stooped down to pick up Seth. Lucky kid, he got to escape arguments by being Sleeping Beauty.

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If tension between two people could be described in temperature, then the atmosphere in the car was volcanically hot. Kendra would only answer Gavin's questions with a curt "yes" or "no" reply when possible. Every time Gavin talked, he stuttered. For two hours, the conversation went like this:

Gavin: "Where t-to?"

Kendra: "Anchorage."

Gavin: "When do y-y-you want to stop for lunch?"

Kendra: "Doesn't matter."

For two whole hours, Kendra stonily gazed out the window; not once looking over at Gavin.

Meanwhile, Gavin clutched the steering wheel like a drowning man would to a life raft. He was having an internal war with himself and his conscience. His conscience was saying 'Just apologize to her. It's now or never. It's not like anything is going to get better if you don't apologize to her.' But Gavin was arguing back, 'What if things get worse? She could end up yelling at me again if I screw up.' In the end, Gavin's conscience won.

Mustering up all of his manliness and courage, Gavin spoke up "K-K-K-Kendra?"

'Stupid stutter.'

"What?"

"Uh, about what I said to you back at the motel. I d-didn't mean it. It's just that when people bring up Navarog, my guard instantly goes up. I instinctively th-th-think that they're going to say something negative about me. It's kind of a sore s-subject. I'm sorry about what I said. Really. A-A-And I am glad that you brought me here with you. I finally feel like I'm being accepted by p-p-people."

Kendra turned away from the passing scenery outside the window. "I'm sorry about what I said too. I don't know what I was thinking. I-" she paused "I guess I was just confused. Seth and Warren both mean a lot to me. I guess I just thought that it wasn't right that you were ignoring Warren. But I shouldn't have ignored Seth either. Consider us equal?"

"Yeah."

'That went a lot better than I thought it would.' Gavin thought to himself.

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The Jeep pulled up next to an old, abandoned office building. Gavin looked out the window at the crumbling mortar and peeling paint somewhat scornfully.

"You s-sure we're at the right place?" he asked.

"Yep. This is where the nanolocater said the nearest potions person was."

"Looks more like they'd be a drug dealer," Gavin stated.

Gavin stopped the Jeep and opened his door.

"Are we going to bring Seth?" Kendra called from the other side of the Jeep.

"No. If they need to see him, they can come out here. I don't want to have to fight or make a quick escape and w-w-worry about carrying Seth. I just need to get something out of the back really quick."

Gavin went around to the back of the Jeep and rummaged around in the trunk, digging out his spear.

"Your spear?" Kendra said incredulously, but it looked to Gavin like she was trying to hold in laughter.

"You never know, they could be working for the Society. I've got a dagger, too, if you want it."

"No thanks," Kendra said quickly. "Let's just get this over with. This place creeps me out. It reminds me of some gang hideout."

Gavin entered the building first, motioning for Kendra to stay behind him. The building had a sort of reception or front desk area that led to a hallway lined with office doors. All of the offices had long since been out of use. Through some doors, Gavin could see dusty rooms that were cleared of furniture. After about twelve doorways, the corridor ended abruptly. To the left of the main hallway, a slightly smaller passage branched out. This continued for several yards before it, too, ended. The whole office building was like a system of arteries that were connected to several larger veins. Now, though, the passage had ended in what looked to Gavin to be a sort of file or record room, as it was filled with metal shelving that held dust-coated boxes. From somewhere within the room, a light was switched on, making an eerie glow spill through the doorway.

Gavin stepped into the room, prepared to investigate, but was quickly yanked back into the shadows by Kendra.

"If someone's in there; let me do the talking. They're going to recognize you by your stutter, whether they're a Knight or from the Society. Either way, things wouldn't turn out good for us. Just pretend to be my bodyguard or something, go along with what I make up. Try to hide your face, too."

"Okay."

Kendra slipped into the doorway before Gavin. Silently, he followed her. She skirted the perimeter of the room before daring to venture into the labyrinth of metal shelves and cardboard boxes. At the dead center of the room, Gavin saw a man hunched over piles of papers. A whiteboard with numbers, words, and miscellaneous pictures; like something a mad scientist had written all over; was positioned in the corner of the workspace. Pots, or cauldrons, to be more specific; filled with mysterious multicolored concoctions were arranged along a counter.

Kendra stumbled over a loose file box, causing it to skid across the floor and into the view of the man. Gavin caught her and drew both of them back behind a metal shelf. When Gavin looked over at Kendra, her eyes were wide and she was breathing hard from the close call.

"That was close," she mouthed to him.

Gavin nodded. Way too close.

The man stopped flipping through his papers and slowly turned around. Crud.

"Who's there?" he called.

Super crud.

Kendra took a deep breath, bit her lip, and looked up at Gavin; her eyes asking her unsaid question. Gavin sighed, and then nodded in assent. She hesitantly stepped out from behind the shelf.

Reflexively, the man's hand snapped behind his back and he groped for a dagger. Finding it, he raised it in a defensive stance.

Raising her hands in the air to show that she had no weapons, Kendra slowly took a step closer and said to him, "We mean no harm." She gestured for Gavin to come out from behind the shelf, yet his facial features still remained concealed by the shadows. "All we want is for someone to help heal our brother. He got himself stuck in a magically-induced sleep. We need a potion to get him out of it."

Still holding the dagger in front of him, the man asked "How'd you know to come to me?"

"Our-our parents told us. They were going to come, but had to deal with some…family matters. Our brother would have had to wait for a week to get healed. We decided to take matters into our own hands."

"Huh. What are your names?" the man inquired, as if he were an interrogator questioning an accused suspect.

"Riley and Nate Travis."

"Brother's?"

"Hunter."

The man nodded in the direction of Gavin and pointed his next question at him. "Why can't that one back there speak for himself?"

"He's mute."

Of all the speaking disorders, Kendra had to choose muteness. Wow. They were going to have a serious talk once this was over.

"Ah. So, back to business. You expect this potion to come free?"

"No. List any price you want. We'll see if we can make it happen. If not," Kendra shrugged.

During this exchange, the man's dagger had slowly lowered so that it was now down by his thigh. He placed it back on the table and turned to face Kendra once again.

"Okay," he said slowly. "The type of potion you'd be looking for requires feathers from a phoenix and griffin, fairy dust, and bayberry."

"Fairy dust?" Kendra inquired dubiously, a smile struggling not to sneak onto her face.

"Yep. But not the Neverland stuff, this is the real deal."

Apparently there was fake and real fairy dust. Well, Gavin had learned something new today; he had not even known that fairy dust existed until he was enlightened by the man. He made a mental note to never become a potion maker, he did not want to turn into a nutcase who believed in sparkles and Neverland and pixie dust.

"Okay. What's your price?"

"Well, usually I charge money; about a $1000 per vial."

"We can pay you that."

"But," the man drawled "seeing as these are such rare ingredients, I'm thinking not money, but something equally rare, magical even."

"Like what?" Kendra asked curious and, by now, slightly worried.

"Oh, an artifact maybe. Or something useful in the magical world and human world."

Gavin could practically see the light bulb turn on in Kendra's head. 'No, don't do it,' he silently prayed, but it was to no avail.

"Um, do you know what a nanolocater is?"

The man shook his head no.

"It's like the Translocater artifact and a GPS in one device. They can find everyday objects and magical items or places."

Kendra could not be doing this. They needed that nanolocater to find Warren!

Gavin stepped forward and grabbed Kendra's upper arm, trying in vain to get his message through without losing his disguise as her mute brother.

"It's okay," Kendra whispered "We'll manage without it."

Frustrated, but unable to express his objections, Gavin stepped back into the shadows. Here went all of their planning down the drain in five seconds, just so they could get a potion from sleaze bucket.

"Okay, girl. You got a deal. Give me a few minutes and it will be ready."

By now, Gavin's eyes were flashing trying to contain words and emotions that he could not express at the moment. Kendra placed a placating hand on his forearm.

"Not now," she muttered in a low tone.

As promised, the potion was done within minutes. It was pale violet in color and was poured into a clear glass vial.

"Thank you so much," Kendra said as she reached for the vial. "You don't know how much this means to us."

The man moved the vial out of her reach. "Not so fast. What about your part of the bargain?"

'Weasel,' Gavin thought.

"Oh, right. Here," Kendra stated as she fumbled to get the nanolocater out of her backpack. She handed it over to the man, who, in turn, gave her the vial.

Just as they were about to turn to exit the workspace; Kendra turned, probably remembering something, Gavin guessed.

"I don't think I ever caught your name," Kendra called back to the man.

"Dewin." The man stated as he flashed an uneasy smile at her.

"Oh, thanks."

Gavin felt chills go down his spine. Here, of all places, he had to meet the man who ruined his life for two years. Dewin, the sorcerer who had mutated him into Navarog. He knew there had been something shady about him.

Kendra quickly navigated the through the file room and through the rest of the building. After two minutes, Kendra and Gavin raced out of the building into the clear Alaska morning. Kendra was breathing hard, her breath left puffs of steam in the frigid air. She looked over at Gavin who was opening his mouth to say something.

Before he even got a word out, she cut him off by saying, "In the car, you never know what has ears out here."

Gavin was about to object, but changed his mind and nodded his head in agreement. She had a point, there could be…things…listening.

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"You know who he is, right?" Gavin asked after they had been driving for a few minutes.

They were on their way to a rest stop that they had seen on their way to Anchorage. They had decided to wait to give Seth the potion until they were well away from Dewin.

"Yeah, the guy who morphed you into Navarog."

"That means the Society is crawling everywhere. What if-"

"Right here," Kendra stopped him off as she pointed to the rest stop.

Gavin parked as far away as he could from the other groups of people and cars parked around the picnic tables and bathrooms. They did not want people staring at them if there were "side effects" or if the potion backfired.

Kendra crawled into the backseat with Seth and got the potion out of her jacket pocket. Gavin joined her, crouching behind Seth's head.

"I need you to elevate his head so I can pour it in."

Gavin gently cradled Seth's head while Kendra uncapped the glass vial. Delicately, she poured the potion into Seth's mouth. Seth coughed but swallowed the liquid. After a few seconds that felt like eternity, his eyelids weakly fluttered open.

"Hi," he said in a barely perceptible whisper.

"Seth!" Kendra squealed as she hugged him.

"Seth coughed again. "Can't breathe!" he gasped out. His eyes were bulging like a frog's.

"Oh, sorry." Kendra loosened her grip on her brother, then placed her hands on his shoulders and held him an arm's distance away. "Don't you ever do anything like that to me again, understand?!"

"Yeah, but it wasn't really my fault," he said wryly.

Kendra laughed and hugged him again. When she pulled away from him again, Seth had a serious expression on his face.

"Um, Kendra? I've got something to tell you guys."