Hugo launched the football high into the summer air. Seth ran, following the ball for what? Fifty yards? Sixty? Seventy? Finally Seth saw the ball falling from the sky still far in front of him. Just before the ball reached the ground Seth dove forwards hoping that he had timed teh dive correctly. The ball tipped off his fingers and fell dully onto the soft grass. Seth tumbled and fell flat, his clothes stained by the thick, green grass.
"Incomplete." yelled Newel running to grab the ball. Newel and Doren were satyrs who had made their home at Fablehaven. For most of teh summer the two had been enjoying their new flat screen television but had finally gotten tired of it and turned it off. It was a new record! No television for over 10 seconds!
"I almost had it!" Seth laughed as he grabbed the ball seconds before the satyr could. Newel tripped and went skidding across the overgrown lawn taking some large patches of grass along for the ride. After scrambling around on the ground for a minute the satyr finally got; his furry goat legs as stained as Seth's jeans. "Hahahahaha" Seth laughed pointing at Newel. Soon Doren and even Hugo joined in the laughing. Newel jumped up from the ground after failing to wipe the embarrassing stains from his fur. He raced toward Seth and tackled him full force; sending them both sprawling onto the lawn. Seth rolled out from under Newel thin body and got to his feet laughing.
"Seth!" Grandpa called from under the deck. "First off you should not be rough housing with satyrs and second I wish to talk to you." he called.
"Be right there." he called back as Grandpa re-entered the house, shutting the door loudly.
"Come on guys." Seth said, "Let's get in one more play."
"Hike" Seth yelled snapping the ball back to Hugo. Seth ran forward dodging the two satyrs and running long knowing that Hugo would throw the ball at least a hundred yards. Seth heard the ball come out of the golem's giant earthen hands. Seth picked up the pace hoping he would catch this ball. Seth caught sight of a small dark shape coming down from the sky. Seth was in perfect position for the catch. He stood still waiting for the ball to come down. Once within arms' reach, Seth jumped cradling the football. "Touchdown!" he yelled throwing teh ball into the ground. It bounced back up and jumped over Newel like it had a mind of its own. Newel stumbled backwards surprised by the jumping ball.
"See you guys." Seth called as he ran towards the house.
. . .
Grandpa had called Seth into his study. The room was much blander then the last time he had seen it. There were no golfing plaques or trophies hanging on the walls. No ancient magical items. No tiny fairy skull in a clear globe. The only thing not depressing about the room was the fact that is almost double its former size thanks to teh brownies who had restored teh house after Graulas destroyed the house and killed Coulter.
"Seth." Grandpa started sitting down in his desk chair. "Recently you have disobeyed hundreds of orders I have given you but every time you have it has inevitably helped us so your parents, Grandma, Warren and the rest of us believe that it is time that I start trusting you with more responsibility; so starting tomorrow I am going to allow you to roam most of the preserve unaccompanied." he continued, staring at Seth. "All areas except for: The valley of the Four Hills, where the artifact was hidden, The land plotted to the Centaurs, because still suspect that you stole the Soul of Grunhold, You may not go anywhere near Kurisock's tar pit, Graulus' cave, and a swamp where the swamp hag that trained Muriel lives."
"So generally all the cool places on the preserve." Seth said flatly, already processing which areas he would explore first.
"No. All the dangerous ones." Grandpa replied continuing to stare. "If you are found on any of these places these privileges will be revoked and I will lock you in the dungeon for an extended period of time. I am not kidding."
"Am I allowed in the Hall of Dread?" Seth asked hopefully.
"Take a guess at the answer to that question." Grandpa replied, glaring.
"No." Seth answered unhappily.
"I also have one other restriction I'm withdrawing. I'll let you look out the window on the next Festival Night"
"What? really?" Seth said, eyes wider than dinner plates. "This isn't a joke!"
"No. You can look out the window on the next festival night, but please, don't open the window this time" Grandpa added reminding Seth of his first stay at the magical preserve when on Midsummer's Eve he had disobeyed everyone' orders and opened the attic window letting in several deadly monsters that destroyed the house, captured Grandpa and Lena, and turned Dale into a lead statue.
"Got it?"
"Got it."
"Okay you can go." Grandpa said getting up and opening the door of the study allowing Seth to run free.
. . .
"Seth!" Doren called from the yard, "Are we going to play again?" he asked waving the football around in the air.
"Sorry guys." Seth called back, entering the forest, "I'm going to explore the woods."
"Seth! Wait!" the satyrs called in unison as they raced after Seth through the thick underbrush. "We need to show you..." The satyrs tripped. "Hahahahahahahah" Seth laughed coming out from within the shadow of the trees, holding up a long, thin, spool of thread. He tugged on it and it went taut showing the satyrs it was tied around a thick tree. "I didn't think you guys would trip up that easily." Seth said still laughing standing above them. "Now what did you want to show me." he asked
"We were hoping you would accompany us to Kurisock's tar pit and see if you find anything. Maybe even more adamant weaponry."
"Sorry guys. Grandpa said that I wasn't allowed to go to the tar pit and I am not going to get reward taken away but you guys want to go see what the nipsies are up to." he asked, smiling mischievously.
"Of course."
"You know it."
They walked off into the dark forest.
Seth knew from his previous visit to the nipsies that they lived a long way from the house but this time it seemed like they had been hiking across Fablehaven for three hours and the blazing sun sapped a lot of his energy so Seth was relieved when he finally saw the large hill that the nipsies called their home. The only difference this time is that surrounding the hill there were not vicious poisonous plants that could kill him by nipping his ankle.
"So, have you guys visited the nipsies lately," Seth asked cautiously, hoping that this time the sixth and seventh kingdoms would not be trying to take control over all the nipsies. "because, this time I would like to actually look at some, and not the creepy dark ones, even though are kind of cool.
"Actually, we have not been here since the shadow plague." The satyrs answered in unison.
"Great." Seth said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
"Well we will never know if we don't go and explore." Doren said bounding away with Newel at his side. Seth followed sending a silent prayer that the nipsies would not be at war this time. Seth followed the satyrs around the hill to a tunnel dug straight to the heart of the steep hill. The last time Seth had come to the home of the nipsies a giant boulder had sealed off the tunnel. This time the tunnel was completely open and was teeming with tiny centimeter high fairies. The nipsies. "They are so small" Seth laughed bending down to take a closer look at the tiny human-like beings. "I knew they were small but this size it's just… incredible." Seth said now on his hands and knees and withdrawing a magnifying from his emergency kit.
The nipsies were almost exact replicas of humans except that they were a quarter inch tall. Most had bright blue eyes but Seth spotted a couple with stormy gray eyes and one with emerald green ones. They all had long pointed noses and thin lips. Some had long thin arms and looked weak while others had bulging biceps which didn't look to impressive from a human eye view but were most likely considered large from other quarter inch nipsies. All had short skinny legs with little to no knee. They had five toes on each foot and five fingers on each hand. They wore absolutely no clothing.
"Seth? Seth. Seth!" the Satyrs yelled from the base of the tunnel. Seth dropped his magnifying glass. Luckily the giant magnifying lens fell in an area almost devoid of nipsies.
"You guys scared the heck out of me. What was so important? " Seth yelled down the tunnel gasping for breath as he went to retrieve his magnifying glass.
"You have to see this." the satyrs yelled. Either something extremely unbelievable was down their or there was something no one cared about. Newel and Doren got excited about everything. Seth raced down the tunnel careful to avoid stepping on any nipsies and provoking retribution. That had happened on his first stay at the preserve when he had inadvertently changed a fairy into a imp was turned into a mutant walrus by all the other faries.
"What is so…" Seth stopped. The satyrs had reasons why he had to see this. This was either really really cool or a death trap.