Based on characters from Fablehaven© by Brandon Mull. The original characters and plot details are my property. No copyright infringement intended.
Kendra watched Raxtus fly off to his hunt. She got up and laid the crushed four-leaf clover on the patio table. She then returned to the pool, jumped in and swam to her float.
Seth had just pulled himself out of the pool. She looked over at her brother and noticed that at 15 he was growing taller all the time. He had passed her by a year ago and was now almost as tall as their dad. He was still skinny though. She doubted Raxtus would have been able to carry them both had he been heavier.
Seth was sitting on the side of the pool, leaning back on his hands, and his feet idly kicking in the water. He was always thinking of some scheme or another, with school starting she assumed that he was trying to think of a way to do something else. He was staring straight ahead, his face vacant.
His expression changed and she wondered what he was thinking of now when the shadow of the hedge seemed to reach out for him. The shadow rapidly crawled along his arm turning his pink skin a shadowy gray. It moved up and along his arm across his chest and head and swiftly engulfed his entire body. His elongated afternoon shadow shrank, merging into one distorted shadowy figure. She could see through him now. He had faded into a shadow which melted into the hedge's shadow and Seth was gone. It happened so fast she could only watch in startled silence.
He had disappeared right in front of her. She sat up too fast and fell off the float into the water.
"Seth!" she screamed as she was finally able to react to what she had just watched.
"What?" he said irritated. "I didn't do anything!" he denied. Why is she yelling at me? She fell into the water. I didn't touch her.
He spoke as if nothing had happened and he was still just sitting there. He didn't reappear though.
She stood up wiping the water out of her eyes and stared at the place she had just seen and heard her brother. He was still there but she couldn't see him, the shaded water still swirled with the movement of his unseen legs.
"I thought you couldn't shade walk if someone was watching, that they would still see you," she asked, stunned. He wasn't shade walking, this was something new he was invisible.
"Yah, that's right I can't." he confirmed. His voice came from the place where he should be sitting.
"Well," she said hesitantly and swallowed nervously. "I can't see you and I know where you are. You just disappeared in front of me."
"You can't see me? But… you're staring right at me," he said, sounding excited.
"No! I can't see you. You and your shadow disappeared. It was like the hedge sucked you up into its shadow," she explained.
"Huh, I was just kind of daydreaming," Seth replied as he got up and walked around. He felt different, everything seemed amusing.
"Where did you go?" she demanded noticing that his voice was no longer coming from in front of her. There were no wet footprints to show that he had gotten out of the water but the water was no longer swirling.
"Come on Seth, I'm worried, I need to see you!" she yelled frantically, she was about to panic and was thinking about calling her parents.
"I'm walking down the hedge line in the shadows," he said casually. He watched as her head followed his voice but she couldn't see him. This is great, he thought. Now a big finish, "I'm here!" he yelled and suddenly jumped into the bright sunlight.
He appeared at the other end of the pool his long shadow flying out in front of him.
She sighed with relief, her brother was there. She could see him and his shadow again.
"I was worried that you were gone forever, that something awful ate you or something," she said exasperated.
"No such luck," he said sarcastically. She wishes, he thought as he walked back into the shadow of the hedge. The normal shadow of his upper body bobbed along the shadow of the hedge on the sidewalk and across the water. He remained visible as he walked back to sit where he had been before. He sat down and nothing unusual happened.
"How did you do that?" she asked as she joined him on the edge of the pool.
"Didn't know I did anything. I couldn't tell I was invisible except I felt a little different. My feet didn't hit the ground like normal when I walked and I couldn't see my own shadow like I just did but I could see myself though. That was strange," he smiled. He had been invisible. He was thrilled at the thought, but how? He was confused, how did he do it and not know he was doing it.
Kendra noticed the faraway look in his eyes. Off on another daydream, she shook her head. Any other boy would probably be dreaming of walking invisible through the girl's locker room. He was most likely walking through Fort Knox –with big pockets.
"No kidding, it was strange." She shuddered. Seth would like being invisible but what had just happened was scary and freaky.
That night when Seth went to bed he considered what had happened by the pool. He had disappeared while Kendra was watching and without even trying. He shouldn't have been able to do that. He was developing a new skill, one that he didn't fully control. It was frustrating and also frightening getting a new skill with no clue of what it was and how he had triggered it.
No one had described anything like this to him. There weren't any others but the two of them now, they were gone and their knowledge was gone too. It was difficult because there was no one to teach him and he wasn't going to ask the only other Shadow Charmer around as he was notably untrustworthy. The stories of what they could do were insufficient and based on eye witness accounts; some were pretty suspicious accounts at that.
Graulas, a demon, gave Nero, a troll, orders to teach Seth how to shade walk. One of the things he had learned from the troll was that each shadow charmer had a unique set of skills. Nero admitted that he had very limited knowledge of those skills. However, shadow charmers were usually evil people and they hadn't shared everything they could do even with each other.
He went over Kendra's description of what had happened when he disappeared. Though it seemed to her that the hedge reached out to him, it must have been something he did, he must have pulled the shadow to him and he disappeared into the shadow of the hedge. He had been daydreaming but not about anything specific, basically he had his mind clear as he had to do when he was lockpicking.
He thought he would try again the next afternoon and see if he could watch it happen. It was very weird to think about. He wondered what it had looked like from Kendra's point of view. The way she screamed at him it must have been 'scary movie' cool.
He fell asleep thinking about disappearing into a diamond mine and walking out unnoticed with pockets full of diamonds.
The next afternoon he sat at the edge of the pool just as he had before except that he was now facing the shadow of the hedge. He watched it slowly crawl toward him as the sun moved across the sky. His own shadow grew longer behind him.
He was excited but knew that he had to empty his mind if this was to work like before. He remembered back to what he was daydreaming about the other afternoon, vague thoughts of treasure hunting as usual. His mind was drifting now but he still could see the shadow approaching. He felt a slight tingle and a mild euphoria as the shadow fell on him. He looked down and could still see himself, his body was there, at least to him but his distorted shadow was moving toward the hedge's shadow. He had a slight perception that he had actually moved with his shadow and then there was nothing but him and the shadow of the hedge.
He stood but there was no shadow to show that he was standing. He walked but there was no sound of footfalls. When he tried to stomp there wasn't any feeling of his feet hitting the sidewalk. He marched up and down the hedge feeling the lack of sensation. He was recognizing how the overall experience made him feel, the tingle and mild euphoria were still there.
He had done it again. It was reproducible. He was slightly giddy, just on the verge of breaking out in silly giggles.
"Seth?" Kendra called. "Bracken and Raxtus will be here anytime now. Where are you?" Kendra appeared with a tray of snack food and drinks and sat it down on the patio table. She noticed the crushed four leaf clover still on the table.
"Over here," he called back from the far end of the pool, holding back the laughter that now threatened to burst from him.
"Playing in the hedge shadow again?" she asked as she got close to the pool and couldn't see him.
"Yup," he answered, chuckling.
"Where are you?" she asked again, turning slowly and listening for his answer.
"Over here," he said then ran silently toward her. He thought he would surprise her. She would think that he was still at the other end of the pool.
She walked to the side of the pool where the hedge shadow covered the sidewalk next to the water. She wanted to see if she could catch a glimpse of him as he popped back into view.
She stepped into the shadow of the hedge and he reached out to touch her.
With the touch of his hand on her arm, Seth's world spun violently and everything went dark. Suddenly something knocked the breath out of him and he felt nauseous like someone or something hit him hard in the stomach. He slammed into something soft but solid. Seth took a deep breath and screamed.
Kendra screamed in simultaneous reaction. She felt something warm and damp slap against her. She knew it was Seth; she felt him clinging to her but she couldn't see him or touch him.
"What did you do? Get off me. Where are you?" Kendra whirled around looking for him. She could feel him, sort of. She felt creepy like he was all over her back and breathing on her neck. She slapped her back but touched nothing. The creepy feeling spread as if warm slime was oozing down her arms and legs.
"What did I do? I didn't do anything. You did something, not me. What did you do? Where am I?" Seth yelled at her, his stomach was still roiling, as if he was going to hurl. He felt her moving him around, but he couldn't see a thing. "Stop pulling on me and maybe I can figure this out."
He tried to move his own arms but if he had moved he couldn't feel it. The euphoria was gone; he definitely didn't feel like laughing now.
Kendra stopped spinning and looked down at her elongated shadow jutting from the hedge shadow because it looked funny. She screamed again and jumped. Her shadow wasn't hers, it looked like Seth. She looked at her hands and body, she was still herself but her shadow was gone. The shadow that moved with her was definitely Seth's tall, skinny shorthaired shadow frighteningly mimicking her every move.
"Oh No, Seth! What have you done? You're my shadow? How did you do that? Where are you?" she yelled. "This isn't funny!"
"What? Huh?" Seth replied confused, she had stopped moving and his stomach started to settle.
"Who is doing all the screaming out here?" Bracken yelled from the far end of the garden. He was trying to be flippant but this wasn't Kendra's usual tone with Seth.
"Bracken! Here by the pool. Come quick," she answered loudly relieved he had arrived. She had been close to panicking. She felt relieved as he ran around the hedge followed closely by Raxtus that is until they stopped and stared at her.
Bracken's immediate shocked expression as he focused on her sent her into a full panic. He did not approach her nor did Raxtus. Kendra, now scared silent, pointed toward the shadows on the ground.
Bracken was stunned as he gazed where she pointed. He was stunned because not only the shadow on the ground was not hers but also where her body was in the light of the sun a halo surrounded her, a dark halo of shadow. Her usual bright fairy magic glow was gone.
"Whoa," Raxtus commented. He craned his neck forward for a closer look at her but he backed away shaking his head. "I have never seen anything like this."
"What?" Seth said. "I can't see a thing. What is going on?"
"Are you okay?" Bracken asked uncertain of what to do. He wanted to comfort her but he was afraid of what touching her might do.
"Yes." Kendra nodded but stared down at the shadow.
"Yes and no," Seth replied, his stomach still churned a bit.
"Seth?" Bracken asked as he looked at the shadow on the ground. She nodded and remained where she stood. Then she closed her eyes, it was too scary to look at for long. When she opened her eyes she stared straight at Bracken, her fear was obvious.
"What?" Seth answered, he felt his head move but not because he moved it.
"Can you move out of the shadow?" Bracken asked looking up at Kendra.
Seth struggled to move. "I can't move at all it seems," he answered.
"Which shadow, the one on the ground or the hedge?" Kendra asked unsure of what he was asking.
She was standing in the hedge's shadow with her feet about a foot from the edge of the shadow line. She didn't appear to know about the shadow wrapped around her like a blanket.
"Hey don't do anything yet," Seth yelled. "I want to figure this out before we undo everything."
"I guess we need to do this one thing at a time," Bracken sighed.
"Yeah, one thing at a time," he agreed, his stomach was beginning to settle down. He still couldn't see but at least he didn't want to heave up his breakfast any longer.
"Seth can you hear us?" Bracken asked loudly.
"Yes, I can hear you. You don't need to yell," he said sarcastically.
Kendra and Bracken looked at each other and frowned.
"If you can hear us we will try to figure out a way to separate the two of you," Bracken said in a normal tone.
"I can hear you!" he yelled as loudly as he could, he got no reply. "But you can't hear me," he whispered dejectedly.
What was he going to do?
Nothing he admitted to himself. He was blind and mute and apparently stuck where he was. The only thing he could do at the moment was to listen to what they were doing.
He realized that she had nothing to do with creating the awkward situation. He probably did this by reaching out of the shadow to touch her. His touch could affect her, just as his touch had the ability to alleviate magical fear, so maybe this was similar. But how was he going to jump back into the light? He couldn't move.
"Okay, Kendra, move out of the shadow of the hedge," Bracken said calmly, though he didn't feel calm. He was freaking out but he didn't want to freak her out.
Like Raxtus, he had never seen anything like this before and he had been around a long time. The handsome young man was in reality an ageless unicorn. He had selflessly sacrificed his adult horn and without it, he lost both the ability to return to his true unicorn shape and a considerable portion of his healing abilities. He had willingly resigned himself to spend the rest of his days uncomfortably as a human. When Kendra had fallen in love with him and remarkably (to them both) he had fallen in love with her, his outlook on life as a human had improved substantially. The present situation was very unsettling he didn't like seeing her in danger.
"That should do it! Get us into the sunlight," Seth said, hopefully.
She did what he asked and the shadow remained around her and Seth's disturbing elongated shadow remained her shadow.
"Well, that didn't work," Bracken said glumly. "How about this, you go all the way into the shadow," he suggested.
She turned, walked back and when she was fully into the shadow, he noticed that she looked normal. The shadow enveloping her was not noticeable at all but after waiting for a minute Seth didn't emerge either.
Seth felt movement then stillness. He waited and waited but nothing happened, no one spoke. He worried what were they doing now?
"This probably won't help but let's find out if Seth's shadewalking will work for you. Come out here then when I look away go back into the shadow," Bracken said, his curiosity was triggered by the vanishing shadow and the fact that she didn't seem distressed or in any real danger. Seth's condition on the other hand was unknown.
"That's an interesting idea," Seth said intrigued.
Kendra did as he suggested. In the sunlight she did not look down at her shadow as it appeared on the ground in front of her, it was too frightening. When Bracken and Raxtus turned away, she walked back into the shadow of the tall hedge.
"Ok," she whispered.
They turned back to the hedge and could not see her.
"Well, that worked. I can't see you at all," Bracken said looking up at Raxtus.
"Me neither," Raxtus shook his head.
Kendra looked down at herself, she was there but they couldn't see her. She walked around in the shadows and felt normal, she didn't feel any different. She walked to the end of the hedge in the shadow.
"Where are you?" he asked.
"Yes!" Seth hollered. They can't see her. Now if I can figure out how it works and how get out of this mess I'll have another cool skill. I have the ability to share shadewalking.
"Kendra?" Bracken called.
Kendra walked out of the shadow. Neither Bracken nor Raxtus focused on her so she kept walking toward Bracken, two, then three, four, five steps into the bright sunlight.
Seth could feel movement, could hear Bracken. It hadn't taken her this long to walk into the shadow so it shouldn't be that far to walk out of the shadow. She was still moving. What was going on? It was driving him crazy not knowing what was happening.
"Kendra where are you?" Bracken was beginning to get worried.
"Here," she said waving her arms and taking a final step right in front of him. She didn't like the fearful look creeping into his eyes.
Bracken was startled when he finally saw her just before she walked right into him. Raxtus flinched when she appeared a foot from Bracken.
She flinched too. She was really afraid now.
"Wow, I didn't see you until you were only a step away. That's really impressive, in the full sunlight, that's more than shade walking. Seth has developed some new skill I've never heard of," he said keeping his voice happy because her face was showing signs of her growing fear.
"Okay, Seth if you can hear us, it's up to you now. Come on out," Bracken called. Please, he begged silently his anxiety was also growing.
Bracken and Kendra stood about a foot apart. He could get a better look at the shadow surrounding her; it damped her fairy light totally. He noticed that was concentrated on her back and it fluctuated from two to four inches out from her body.
They stared at each other expectantly. Then they both looked down at Seth's long shadow beside his. They waited.
Okay, Seth thought, it's my turn now. She couldn't shake him off easily which was good to know but bad for him at the moment. He had decided to jump into the light since that is what he did yesterday to appear out of the hedge. The only problem was where was the light? He couldn't see a thing.
"Bracken just said Kendra was standing next to him in the bright sunlight. So if I jump anywhere I will jump into the light," he said out loud to give it weight, meaning and purpose.
"Here goes!" he yelled. Nothing happened. He thought he'd jumped but nothing happened. He tried again.
"I guess he can't hear us," Bracken said, not wanting to think that it was something more disturbing.
"What else can we try?" Kendra started to cry.
"I don't know, yet. Don't cry," Bracken said, agonizing over her fear. Still afraid to touch her he reached out toward her, she moved toward him and her hand lightly touched his arm. Fairy light flashed through the shadow, she glowed with magic again.
They rocked off balance and she fell into his arms. The dark gray shadow on the ground was suddenly and rapidly expanding beneath them. The grass disappeared as the shadow became opaque. Bracken jumped and twisted pulling Kendra away from where she was standing.
"Wow," Raxtus commented as Kendra's light flared. She looked like herself again.
Kendra's own elongated shadow reappeared at her feet, suddenly jutting across the lawn. Seth materialized in all three dimensions and in his normal color lying on the ground.
"Seth!" Kendra and Raxtus happily exclaimed simultaneously.
"Seth?" Bracken queried unsure if it was truly Seth. A long time ago Bracken had learned the hard way never to take Shadow Charmer events lightly or at face value. He walked back to where Seth sat on the ground.
"I don't think I'll try that again," Seth breathed and sat up, he was nauseous again but didn't think he would be sick. He covered his face with his hands blocking the blindingly bright sunlight. He had gotten use to the darkest dark.
Bracken knelt next to the boy and looked closely at him. He looked all right but that wasn't enough. He gripped one of the hands that covered Seth's face.
"How did you do that?" Bracken asked concerned. He wanted to verify that it was really him and make sure he was healthy. Bracken smiled as his touch confirmed both.
"I don't know for sure how any of it happened. But I think I know what not to do," Seth said still sitting on the ground blinking in the bright sunlight.
Kendra noticed Bracken grip Seth's hand before he asked his question, another of his many talents, a human lie detector. He stood up and nodded at the questioning look she forced onto her face. She sighed with relief and walked up to him.
Bracken put his arm around her, but he already knew Kendra was okay.
"I know I didn't do anything to free myself. How did you get me loose?" Seth asked. Using both his hands to shade his eyes he tried to look up at them.
Bracken and Kendra looked at one another and shrugged.
"I don't know," they said the same time.
"Yah, I don't think I'll try that again," Seth stated. Wincing at the bright light he covered his face again.
Bracken helped Seth up and led him to a chair in the shade. He and Kendra sat with him at the covered table.
"It looked cool," Raxtus said excitedly as his neck snaked around allowing his head to follow them to the patio.
"It didn't feel that way," Kendra said and shivered.
"I agree. I was blind and no one could hear me, though I could hear you. I couldn't even feel my own body. It was as if I was a puppet. I moved when Kendra did. Not fun, especially if you don't know how to make it stop," Seth complained into his hands still covering his face. "No, I won't try that again."
"Are we still having a party?" Raxtus asked innocently.
"Of course," Seth replied through his hands. "I need to celebrate my freedom."
"Mine too," Kendra added. "Seth that was very scary. If you know what you did, please don't ever do that again."
Bracken reached out and took her hand, grateful that whatever they had done fixed the problem. Sitting under the umbrella both Bracken and Raxtus could see her bright fairy glow and were reassured she was back to normal.
Bracken saw the four leaf clover on the table. Wanting to change the subject he picked up and held the clover. "Who got to make a wish?" he asked looking around. Raxtus looked away guiltily but Kendra spoke up.
"I did," Kendra answered and kissed him.
"Did you get your wish?" he asked with a chuckle.
"I did," she confirmed with a big smile. "Let's get this party going."
Bracken heard Raxtus sigh, he looked up at the grinning dragon.
Raxtus was glad she got her wish.