Sorry for the delay. :) Life gets in the way. This has been mostly written for about two weeks now, I just finally got a chance to start typing it up.

We're back-tracking a little bit from the last chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 6: Sparkles

Seth had been a little depressed after his non-quest with the Singing Sisters, skulking around as he wondered what kind of horrible timing they would have and dreading the possibilities. Maybe they'd call for him when he was supposed to have his first job interview. Nah, that wouldn't be important enough. His own wedding day? That seemed a more likely possibility - make his new bride worry about his well-being for however long it took before he could make it back (assuming he did make it back.) Or maybe they really would demand his presence in order to have him miss the birth of his first child after all.

"Snap out of it, man," Warren said during the car ride back to Fablehaven, waving his hand in front of Seth's face.

Seth blinked, then glanced around the car to see Bracken looking at him concernedly and Warren twisted around in the front passenger's seat also watching him. Vanessa was driving like usual - they all wanted to get back as soon as possible, and her wicked driving really didn't bother Seth at all anymore.

"Sorry," he responded. "Forgive me if I'm a little worried."

"What can you tell us about what happened?" Bracken asked, sitting a couple feet away from Seth. They had all tried to get Seth to talk the day before, but all he'd said was that he was tired and didn't want to talk about it.

"I'm not entirely sure," Seth began, but then he shrugged. "They caught a loophole and now the last part of my deal with them has been... postponed."

"Until when?" Warren asked.

"...They didn't say."

Bracken and Warren exchanged significant looks, as though they both immediately seemed to understand what was going on.

"Well there's no sense in moping about it," Vanessa spoke up from the front seat. Her voice held a tone of annoyance to it, but Seth understood that she wasn't upset with him. Being in such close proximity with Bracken for this long was wearing down on her patience. Seth could tell that Bracken felt similarly about Vanessa, however the unicorn masked his feelings a little better than the narcoblix. Kind of. They were both giving each other the silent treatment, only recognizing the other's presence when necessary. Seth wouldn't exactly call that harmony, but at least he didn't have to listen to them bickering back and forth as usual. Their relationship had improved since Zzyzx, but they still preferred to be apart from one another if they had the choice. Neither of them was willing to sit by and let Seth go at his task alone, though, even if it meant enduring each other's company for an extended period of time.

"I know," Seth said, "I just can't help but wonder about when I might go. It's nerve-wracking."

"I get it," Warren answered, "But if you keep beating yourself up over it, you're only giving them more satisfaction."

"Warren's right," Bracken said.

"Of course Warren is right," Warren responded. "He happens to give good advice every now and again."

"Stop being an idiot," Vanessa said. "And Seth, cheer up. We're almost there."

"She called me an idiot," Warren whined with a grin on his face, obviously feigning hurt. Vanessa just rolled her eyes in response and asked, "Remind me again why we're dating?"

"Beats me. Oh, wait... Something along the lines of 'we have some history together.' Yeah, I think that rings a bell."

"Idiot."

Warren kept smiling while Bracken cleared his throat. "Anyway," the unicorn began, "You've got to make peace with yourself. You can either live each day by dreading the next, or you can enjoy the present-"

"We're here," Vanessa said, suddenly coming to a stop. "Who wants to get out and open the gate?" She looked pointedly at Warren as she asked that question.

"I am apparently sacrificing myself for the success of the team," he announced. "Anybody have an umbrella? It's kind of pouring out there."

Seth picked up the one at his feet and handed it to Warren. "Here's one," he said as he passed it over.

"Warren, wait - I can do it," Bracken said, unbuckling his seat belt.

"I like you too much to put you in the line of fire from Vanessa. She's pretty good at aiming at things with cars."

"I have never run someone over!" Vanessa protested.

"Oh, but she could. Don't worry about it, I'll be right back." He opened his door and stood up, taking the umbrella and opening it over his head quickly as Bracken leaned forward with another insistance on his lips.

A cascade of fine, golden glitter suddenly fell out of the umbrella and coated Warren's hair, face, shoulders, arms, and even some of the car. Seth immediately started to chuckle, which led to full-on laughter, while Vanessa looked at Warren quizzically as though not understanding why there was glitter everywhere and Bracken planted his face into his hands, shaking his head.

Warren had quickly shut his eyes tight. After pausing for a moment he asked, "Has the fairy dust stopped falling yet?"

Seth's brain started to compute, and the conclusion he reached only filled him with more mirth. It was a relief and quite a stark contrast from the serious atmosphere of the past several days.

Fairy dust... Practically insisting to jump out into the rain... Bracken.

"It was you, wasn't it?" Seth laughed, pointing at Bracken.

"Is it that obvious?" Bracken asked, still shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Warren - that wasn't meant for you."

"Do I want to know why you filled an umbrella with glitter? Yes, actually, I do," Warren said, brushing off his shoulders and his face. It didn't have much effect, aside from maybe to spread the shimmering bits over even more of his skin and clothes.

Seth paused in his laughter and said, "He meant for me to open it. I played a practical joke on him and Kendra a little while ago and I guess this was the revenge I'm supposed to have been dreading." He chuckled a little more after that.

"Sorry," Bracken apologized again, looking bashful. "Gold looks good on you, Warren."

"It just had to be glitter, didn't it? That stuff is evil. I'll still be finding it two weeks from now at this rate," Warren complained.

Bracken shrugged his shoulders and Vanessa rolled her eyes again before saying, "Warren, please go get the gate already."

Warren shut the car door and walked toward the gate to open it after first bowing and saying, "Yes, Master," to Vanessa.

The narcoblix then turned around and fixed her gaze on Bracken. "You will be detailing my car. Inside and out," she demanded, leaving no room for argument.

Bracken didn't fight her. "Fair enough," he ceded.

"Today," she insisted.

"Fine," he answered.

Seth grinned. "Looks like you lost this battle too," he directed toward Bracken. The unicorn just rolled his eyes and said, "Well, at least you look a little less depressed."

It was brilliant. How do you get the trickster to feel better? By playing tricks, of course!

The episode in the car got Seth thinking, and - after they'd officially arrived back at the house and settled in with some cookies and brownies that had surprisingly come from Kendra and Mom - he had several ideas roaming around in his head. Harmless ideas; nothing too cruel.

Besides, if Seth was being completely honest with himself, it was a relief to have something else to think about right now. And something fun, no less.

He started with Vanessa's cell phone. She left it unattended for a minute while she went into the kitchen for something, and Seth - after making sure no one saw him - picked it up and slid it into his pocket. He pulled out the roll of tape he kept in his emergency kit (which hadn't yet made it back upstairs after their trip) and glanced around. The dining room was dim at the moment, so Seth grinned and headed in that direction - if they couldn't see him, how could he be caught?* Sure enough, Vanessa walked right past him without noticing him and Seth wondered if she was looking for her phone yet.

"Where did you leave it last?" he heard Warren ask from the living room.

"I thought I'd left it on the coffee table, but it's not there," she responded. Then, placing her hands on her hips she said, "I give up. Warren, can you call my number? I'll find it that way." She walked out of the dining room and into the living room.

Seth quickly chose the wooden chair that was nearest to him, quietly pulled out a couple long pieces of tape, and stuck her phone to the underside of the chair.

Then he walked away as quietly as possible. It wouldn't do to have Vanessa or someone else come into the dining room and expose him by turning the lights on. No... he had to leave the scene of the crime, so he went into the kitchen and swiped another cookie to munch on while he observed what happened next.

Sure enough, Vanessa's phone started ringing and she ran into the dining room, turned on the lights, then paused as she glanced around and couldn't see the source of the ringing anywhere. She looked confused and started pulling out chairs from around the table when the ringing stopped. "Warren, can you try it again?" she shouted. "Keep calling until I answer."

Her phone started ringing again, and this time Kendra came into the room to help look. "It sounds like it's over in that corner," she said, moving toward the source of the noise.

"I looked over there," Vanessa said, "but who knows? Maybe you'll find it."

"Do you even remember bringing it in here?" Kendra asked, pulling chairs aside and still not finding the cell phone in question.

"No. I don't think I've been in here since we came back, except for right after I noticed it was missing."

Kendra furrowed her brow, then something seemed to click in her brain. Seth took that as a sign to leave the immediate vicinity as quickly as he could without drawing attention to himself - knowing her, she'd have him figured out in no time flat.

Sure enough, Seth's sister checked the underside of the dining room table. When she didn't find the phone here, she started checking underneath the chairs. It wasn't long before she sat up with an "I've found it. And I'm pretty sure someone deliberately put it there, and I'm also pretty sure I know who."

Uh oh. :) I'm going to chop this off here. Next chapter will have more general silliness. Thank you everyone for your views and reviews! I'm glad my story is interesting to some people. I didn't realize this series was quite as popular as it apparently is, which is awesome!

*Direct reference to Shadow Charmer awesomeness. In case that wasn't clear.

So, I've been hearing rumors of a Fablehaven movie... anyone know anything about this?