Based on characters from Fablehaven© by Brandon Mull. The original characters and plot details are my property. No copyright infringement intended.
Axezeles flashed silver blue light and a small graceful woman stood before them. She wore a tattered dark skirt and a simple dirty off-white shirt. The wounds on her chest and back were visibly red through the thin shirt. Her appearance shocked them all: she was a young woman with long blue black hair and Asian features. They had assumed that she would look similar to Leander or at least like a human from northern Europe.
"Oh my," Kendra said. "You are beautiful."
"Well mother and daughter won't work," Seth said bluntly.
"No, it won't," Unleea agreed.
"I chose to wear something that is in keeping with Unleea's clothing. We could be from any time so our alibis have flexibility." She stated in perfect English with a British accent.
"I can see that I am small compared to more modern people. Maybe I need a big name. I chose the name Maeve it's the name of a tall warrior queen." Axezeles said with a positive nod.
"Maeve is a good name, even now. It will do well even if no one knows what it actually means." Bracken agreed.
"We need to set this up just right." Leander said. Now that he saw her in her human form he could imagine that she wasn't his mother but she was a victim needing protection. He thought about how to set it up for the Caretaker to take over their safety and care. He knew he needed to discuss this with Bracken, and started to say something to him but Bracken was already ahead of him.
"Kendra, you go with Hugo and bring a caretaker, Stan or Ruth, whoever you can find, back here. We will figure out the story and set up the scene. You need to be just as surprised as they are so you go ahead and leave now," Bracken said, knowing it would take her at least an hour if not more to get them organized and back to the cave.
"All you need to know is that Leander's search brought results, just not the ones that we thought. We found something and need their help," Seth added. "Remember mom told you not to go anywhere dangerous, from above this cave looks dangerous."
Kendra left reluctantly and Hugo followed her as she left the cave.
"Hugo, you know not to tell anyone about what you heard in the cave unless Bracken says it's alright? Right?" Kendra asked the golem.
"Hugo keep secrets," He said with more emotion than Kendra had ever heard him use.
"Thank you, Hugo," she smiled up at him.
Hugo made a gravely sound in his throat. He knew that Axezeles was alive and that it would be dangerous for her if someone found out.
Hugo lifted Kendra to the surface ledge and climbed out himself.
"I guess we should run if we have such important news," Kendra said as she climbed onto his arm again.
"Hugo go fast?" He asked curiously.
"Not at first but when we get close to home yes Hugo, very fast." She clung to the blunted stone spikes sticking out of his arm and he took off toward the house.
"Mom! Dad! Grandma! Grandpa! Anybody?" Kendra yelled from her perch on Hugo's arms as they entered the garden. Fairies flew in from all directions and swirled around her and Hugo. Hugo slowed to a fast walk.
"Kendra!" Fairies chirped at her.
"Did you find Raxtus?" Dozens of them asked in their windchime voices.
"Did you?" Another dozen asked.
"No sorry." She replied.
"Oh. No." Their disappointed voices rang as they passed the news that she hadn't found Raxtus. They went back to their pastimes uninterested in what she was yelling about if it didn't involve Raxtus.
"Mom? Grandma?" She yelled again, she didn't really expect the men to be home right now. They were usually out doing their various chores around the sanctuary.
Hugo was now at the porch, he lowered his arm and Kendra jumped down as her mother and grandmother came running out the door.
"What is it Kendra?" Ruth asked drying her hands on her apron. Marla ran up to her daughter and put her arm around her.
"They found something... They need help... It wasn't Raxtus though," she stuttered through the words unsure of what she should say. She knew if she told them that they had pushed the cabin over that would get some action.
"Seth had Hugo push Warren's cabin off its foundations to get to a hidden cavern that Leander led us to," she said cringing.
"What?" Ruth sputtered angrily.
"Kendra, what made him… never mind." Her mother shook her head. Kendra could feel the anger welling up in both women.
"But they found someone down there trapped, they need help," she said hurriedly was unsure but the anger was subsiding with the news so she thought she could add another log to the fire. "There is a troll down there too."
"OK, I'm getting Stan, Dale and your dad," Grandma Ruth stated as she walked back into the house, her anger gone.
"Wait for me Hugo. We will go back together," Kendra told him. Hugo nodded and stood still, waiting. Kendra entered the house with her mother.
"What did they find?" her mother asked as they followed Ruth to the kitchen where the two-way radio was.
"I don't know, they yelled for me to get help. I was waiting like you told me, to let them handle the hard stuff and I heard Seth speaking trollish," she said twisting the facts.
It took a while to reach all three men on the radio. Ruth told them they would meet them at Warren's cabin. Stan asked her to bring his rescue and climbing gear, so they had to locate it and rig it so Hugo could carry it to the site.
An hour later, Kendra and Hugo were back at Warren's cabin with Ruth and Marla. They were stunned at the condition of the cabin but even more impressed with the hole in the ground and the cave opening.
Ruth, Marla and Kendra went inside the cabin to see the damage and were surprised that it wasn't that bad. The floor tilted about a foot from one side to the other. The amount of broken glasses and dishware wasn't as bad as it had sounded to Kendra when it happened.
A few minutes later, they sat waiting for the men at the edge of the hole in the ground. Hugo had jumped in with the rescue gear to talk to Seth to see how things were going. Seth helped Hugo remove the rescue gear inside the cave. Hugo came back to say that no one was hurt but that they needed to wait for Stan before they all came down.
They heard metal jangling and the rumble of the cart as Mendingo brought Stan, Scott and Dale.
"Oh! I'm glad you told us about the cabin." Scott exclaimed angrily. "Seth…Argh!"
"If they found someone trapped then it is fine son," Stan said.
Hugo helped all of them down into the entrance of the cave and led them through the winding cave. They walked into the cave room. Bracken and Leander were standing opposite a short and rotund troll who was standing over two figures lying on the floor. Seth was sitting on the floor near the bodies speaking a foul sounding language and the troll was yelling back in the same guttural speech.
"I told him 'Stan Sorenson is the caretaker of the sanctuary; he can give you what you want'," Seth said to everyone. "Grandpa he says that we can have the women if you promise to close him up in this cave and promise that no one will ever disturb him again. He wants the promise from you. He wouldn't believe me or take Bracken's word. He says he has been here since before the treaty and it is his cave."
"What did he do to them? If he has harmed them there may be consequences for his actions." Stan stared at the woman and girl and saw that they were breathing.
Seth spoke to the troll for a few moments. The troll looked belligerent. Seth spoke two words and the troll looked afraid and began to speak
"They are asleep like hibernation. He just didn't want them telling anyone about the cave. He is the one who filled it in after they intruded."
"What did you say to him?" Kendra asked surprised at the troll's fearful reaction.
"I told him earlier I'd get Hugo to bring in the sun and ruin his home, he didn't believe me then but now he knows what Hugo can do. He feels the fresh air now too and doesn't like it." Seth answered.
"He has my word that we will leave him in peace; we will fill in the cave. If anyone comes again he must report it to me and I will take care of the intruder or he will be evicted." Stan said.
Seth told the troll what his grandfather said and the troll nodded his head.
"We have an understanding?" Stan asked.
"Yes," Seth said.
"Good," he said.
Seth spoke to the troll once more and the troll nodded. He spoke a few nasty sounding syllables and the two on the floor began to stir.
"You are now part of the Fablehaven treaty and will abide by the covenant. Nero is who you will tell if you have an intruder, he will come to me." Stan said.
Seth interpreted. When the troll found out he had to report to Nero he screamed and danced and pulled at his tusks. Then he ran around the curtain wall and wailed.
Marla and Ruth ran to the women lying on the ground. Bracken and Kendra joined them.
"He wasn't happy about that. I wonder why?" Scott asked.
"I think it's because Nero is the reason he hid in the cave in the first place," Seth laughed. "He owes Nero money. This has been a bad day for him all around."
Bracken healed them and they awoke confused at all of the people around them. Soft words of comfort and assurances of safety from Ruth and Marla helped ease them.
When Marla introduced Bracken to them, they knew his name. Stress levels decreased significantly, so the explanation of their circumstances wasn't as difficult as the caretakers had supposed. These women knew of the sanctuary system or at least about the inhabitants.
The two did not speak much. The Caretakers had to listen to their words translated through Bracken or Seth. The older woman was speaking an old dialect of English but the girl was speaking Gobblish. The little girl stared at Bracken when she wasn't staring at Seth.
After a few minutes, Bracken and Scott carefully carried them to the cave opening. Hugo lifted them one at a time to the surface in the rescue stretcher. Once on the surface, Bracken and Scott took them inside the cabin. Ruth and Marla fed them broth and gelatin to see how their bodies would take food after being in hibernation for so long.
When it was certain that they could handle the trip, they rode in the cart to the main house.