Yesh! Yet another chapter! I am epic! Thanks to those who reviewed. Hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: I don not own Fablehaven. The rights belong to Brandon Mull.


Seth POV

'This is what I get for leaving the yard when I'm grounded.' thought Seth. Since Seth had disobeyed his punishment, he received a new one. He was now stuck raking leaves on a Saturday afternoon with no one to keep him entertained.

As he raked another batch of leaves into the already huge pile, Seth wondered if he could get Bracken or Warren to join him. He doubted they would. They were both busy watching the college football games on TV with everyone else.

Just as Seth was raking the last bit of leaves in the pile, he heard the back door fly open and footsteps on the porch. The next thing he knew, a person had dove straight into his pile and had demolished an afternoon's worth of raking.

Spinning around to glare at the offender, or in this case offenders, Seth saw none other than Warren and Bracken laughing in the red and gold leaves. Before he could react, Mara, Vanessa, Trask, Kendra, and Tanu came running out of the house.

Realizing the potential fun that could now take place, Seth threw his rake aside, and jumped into a small pile of leaves. As he was laughing, he felt a bunch of leaves, dirt, and twigs hit the back of his head.

Seth turned his head to see Kendra, laughing like a maniac. Picking up a clump of his own, he hurled it at Kendra, only to miss and hit Vanessa in the back of the head. She turned around from her rake fight with Mara to glare at him. When, a playful smile formed on her face, Seth knew it was time to run.

He ran as far away as he could, but Vanessa was much faster. Soon, a pile of damp leaves flew into his hair. Seth grabbed some more leaves and threw them as he turned around, only to hit Warren who was now in front of him. Both he and Vanessa were holding rather large clumps of leaves, and were smirking at him.

Seth wasn't even thinking as he was running away. He just needed to find Bracken and fast. Seth saw the unicorn boy hiding behind a tree. He called to him and when Bracken turned his way, he motioned to the pursuing adults behind him. Bracken looked at Seth and then the tree. Motioning upwards, he began to climb. Seth lunged at the tree and began to shimmy up, looking vaguely like a monkey having a spaz attack while climbing.

Once they were safe, Seth and Bracken began making faces at the two below. Vanessa and Warren gave up and began to walk away when suddenly an idea struck Seth. Calling down to the others he yelled,

"Hey guys! Why don't we play capture the flag?"

Seth slid down the tree with Bracken close behind. When he reached the ground he looked at everyone for an answer.

"Sure."

"I guess."

"Why not?"

"Sounds fun!"

"I haven't played in forever."

"Yes! Let's do it!"

"Alright," said Seth. "You all pick teams while I get the flags."

Seth ran into the house and up the stairs to his bedroom. He grabbed two flags, one orange one purple from his drawer. They plain handkerchiefs tied to sticks to form a triangular flag.

Running out of the house again, he was told the teams were:

Warren, Trask, Mara, and Vanessa

Him, Bracken, Kendra, and Tanu

When they had explained the game to Bracken and had gone over the rules, the teams ran in opposite directions into the woods to find their spot to keep the flag.

Seth's team had traveled quite a distance before the came to a small hill made of rocks. Kendra quickly scaled the rocks and stuck the orange flag in the top of them. They quicly decided that Tanu and Bracken would guard the flag while Seth and Kendra went to steal the other team's.

Seth and Kendra raced back to the house, crossed the yard, and went in the direction the others had gone. They finally reached a clearing with a huge tree in the center. The purple flag was pretty much at the very top. Warren was in the tree and Trask was patrolling the ground.

Seth and Kendra backed away from the spot and began to whisper.

"This means that Vanessa and Mara are trying to get our flag." whispered Kendra.

"How are we gonna get the flag?"

"You're going to be a distraction."

"Righ-What?"

"Lead them away so I can get the flag."

"No way! I climb faster than you!"

"Fine. I'll distract them you get the flag."

"Good. How are you gonna do that?"

"Don't worry. I'm a pretty good actress."

Kendra stood up and began to run in place and pant a bit before she went into the clearing.

"Warren...Trask!" she paused to catch her breath. "Vanessa and Mara...they're hurt!"

Trask ran over as Warren jumped down. "What happened?"

"They were climbing our rock pile to get the flag when Mara hit a loose boulder and she and Vanessa got hit with rocks! Vanessa broke her arm and Mara's unconscious!"

Both men were out of the clearing in the blink of an eye. Seth was proud until he realized their one flaw.

"That was great and all Kendra but now the whole opposing team is at our base and when they find out those two aren't hurt they're gonna have no problem catching iour flag."

"Then climb like a monkey on steroids!"

"Right!"

Seth began climbing faster than he ever had. He grabbed the flag, descended a few branches and jumped the rest of they way.

"C'mon!"

They took off in the direction of their base, hoping that the other team hadn't gotten their flag yet.

They got to the clearing just as the opposite team was climbing the pile.

"Stop right there!" Everyone turned toward Seth as he pulled out the orange flag. "We win!"

Tanu and Bracken whooped as the other team groaned. They jumped off the rock pile and sighed. Then they smiled and began to laugh with the others.

Vanessa turned to the boys on her team "I can't believe you two fell for that."

Mara smirked. "It shows that boys are even stupider when they're love."

The girls began to laugh as the boys tried to object. Eventually they gave up and began to laugh too. Everyone laughed and talked and teased until they heard Grandma Sorenson's voice call:

"Dinner time! I made pasta!"

Seth made eye contact with everyone before he yelled:

"Last one there has to do the dishes!"

Everyone took off for the house, with Mara beating all. Bracken ended up being last.

As they walked through the door, Seth turned to his friends "Manhunt after dinner?"

They answer was simultaneous.

"You're on!"


Hope you all liked it! It was a ton of fun to write. Here's another cookie question(it's tricky): Who knows where I got the flag colors from? Hint: It's from a comic series that featured in stuff like this. Reviews make my day!