Based on characters from Fablehaven© by Brandon Mull. The original characters and plot details are my property. No copyright infringement intended.
Unleea was frightened of the helicopter since she hadn't experienced the previous helicopter ride. She had been unaware during her shade-share with Seth on the trip in. Kendra held the little girl in her lap as she shivered and hid her face. She did better on the airplane but clung tightly to Seth's hand.
Leander reappeared at the airport for the airplane ride back to Connecticut. Unleea was unaware that he had followed them and they didn't want her to know he had. So as on the flight out he didn't sit with his friends on the plane.
He again boarded the plane in disguise. He tucked all of his hair under a brown knit cap so no one could see the color of his hair and wore sunglasses to hide his pale blue eyes.
On the plane ride home everyone was quiet for the first hours, lost in thoughts of what was going to happen when they got home. Unleea's overt nervousness finally got to Seth and he begged Kendra to do something. Kendra held the girl in her lap and finally rocked her to sleep.
Leander kept an eye on his friends. He saw Kendra move to the seat next to Seth and watched as Unleea gradually fell asleep in her arms. Finally he couldn't stand it anymore. He got up and moved to Kendra's empty seat next to Bracken.
"Ok, tell me what you found out!" he said in an agitated whisper. He looked seriously at Bracken and then across the aisle at Seth.
"Not now," Bracken shook his head looking at the upset young man.
"Now, please!" Leander insisted his face showing his frustration and troubled emotions.
Bracken sighed. He knew his linked shield would muffle their conversation if Seth moved closer. Bracken reluctantly signaled Seth to come over. He pushed up the armrest and Seth sat cross-legged on the floor between them, his elbows resting on the seat corners.
"Don't break the link and we can talk," Bracken told them and he looked down at his hand. They also looked at his hand resting on the seat as it moved slightly so he touched Seth's right arm and Seth's left elbow moved a fraction of an inch to touch Leander's right knee.
"Now tell me what you found out," Leander repeated plaintively for Seth's benefit.
Bracken nodded.
Seth told Leander about the interrogation of the narcoblix controlled little man and how Raxtus was supposed to have died.
"But… why didn't I die?" he looked at them confused.
"Um... because Kendra and I removed the fairy magic before I read the other incantation," Bracken confessed.
"Why?" Leander asked inquisitively.
"Because I knew you would not be normal if you continued to be the fairy dragon." Uhm… he cleared his throat and told Leander his reason. "You wanted to be normal more than anything but you were afraid of it too. It would have been a waste of the spell. I knew you needed to have a chance to be a real dragon and you couldn't do it if you had fairy magic filling the places where dragon magic was supposed to be.
"But I don't know why you haven't gotten your dragon magic yet," Bracken said with confusion.
Leander was speechless. They had done that for him and unknowingly saved his life. He felt fortunate that he had friends like Bracken, Seth and Kendra.
"I'm sorry we didn't tell you before now. You seemed to be doing okay thinking that the spell took the fairy magic away, and since you could invoke both of your forms and turn invisible I thought it would be just a matter of time before your dragon magic would show up," he apologized.
"But no one knows that you cast that spell?" he asked for clarification.
"No, just us and mother of course, and...umm," Bracken confessed again. "I did tell her about you," he winced saying the words not knowing if Leander would be angry with him for telling her. "She knows you are Leander."
"Oh okay! Yeah it's okay if she knows. She has always been there for me," he said to ease Bracken's tension. He thought for another moment. "But the blix and his friends who wanted Raxtus dead think he was killed by the spell... right? Then everyone who hears Seth's story will think the same, so just the five of us know it's not true."
"Yes, I suppose that is true but…" Bracken said uncertainly.
"No, I want Seth to tell them what he heard," he said excited, interrupting Brackens thought. "Oh, you should have told Celebrant that would have been great! I could have seen the relief on his face when he heard that the bane of his existence was gone," he laughed, though the pained expression on his face was at odds with his words and laughter.
"Then I don't think that you would have been happy with his reaction," Bracken told him seriously. "I think he truly cares about you. He will be sad to hear such news."
"Yeah, right!" he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Leander felt suddenly free when he heard that his dragon counterpart was supposed to be dead. The relief was apparent on his face as the thought went through his mind.
"And what about your mother?" Seth asked not totally understanding Leander's bitter feelings toward his father.
"What about her?" he retorted.
"How is she going to feel knowing all of her children are dead?" Seth said rudely, thinking that Leander was being callous.
"About the same as my father, she never met me but she will hear stories. Raxtus was a freak and a disappointment. She will probably think it was for the best that he died. Dragons aren't known for tolerance," he explained to both Bracken and Seth. Leander thought Seth was trying to be sensitive to her feelings as if she were a human. He knew she wouldn't feel that way – she was a dragon and they didn't have the same emotions when it came to offspring. She cried for unhatched eggs – yes, missing offspring – yes, deformed and contaminated adult offspring – no. He knew it was true though Celebrant's apparent compassionate concern yesterday was confusing to him.
"Sir, you must return to your seat. We are preparing to land," the flight attendant said. She touched Leander's arm and looked down at Seth. She waved him up from the floor.
"Oh, sorry," Leander said and got up.
Seth looked up and noticed Kendra. She made a face at him. Unleea was sitting in her seat and Kendra was occupying Seth's.
"Who is that with your brother?" Unleea asked sleepily, not recognizing Leander in the hat and sunglasses.
"I'm not sure," she grimaced, as Seth sat in her seat next to Bracken.
Leander went forward to his seat. He had lots to think about, he was supposed to be dead and yet he wasn't. Raxtus, the dragon, could not show his shiny silver face without someone questioning his appearance and possibly coming after him again.
Just after they landed, Leander slid between two advertisements and disappeared. After a confirming whisper to Kendra that he was with them, he hopped into the bed of Seth's truck. He enjoyed the two hour trip, the wind in his face felt almost like flying.
"Do you think he is okay?" Seth asked Bracken quietly. "I didn't expect him to take the news like that or think of his parents that way."
"Don't worry about him. It would take anyone a while to process information like that. We just need to make sure he doesn't do anything permanent yet," Bracken said calmly, thinking about Leander's earlier statement of renouncing his dragon form. This definitely would make it easier for him to make the decision to take that permanent step.
When they arrived back in Fablehaven, it was almost supper time. Leander followed them into the house, ran up the stairs and became visible in Seth's room. He pulled off the knit cap and sunglasses, fluffed his now flattened hair, changed into a crumpled shirt and went to greet the returning group. He watched the exchanging of hugs as he slowly walked down the stairs as if he had been there all the time.
Maeve hugged Unleea affectionately, listening attentively to her animated story about the frightening helicopter ride.
"Hello," he said.
"Oh, I didn't know you had come back," Ruth said surprised to see him on the stairs.
"I got back right after lunch but I didn't want to disturb anyone so I took a nap, staying out in this forest isn't very restful," he lied with a smile. His rumpled clothes and messy hair looked like he had been camping out all week. Everyone looked at him expectantly and the room went silent. "I haven't found anything new," he shook his head and shrugged.
"Well, we did," Seth said with a frown staring bleakly at Leander.
"What?" he asked encouraging Seth's story.
Surrounded by his family and still in his mother's embrace, all eyes went to Seth.
"I think we need a meeting for this news," Bracken broke into the conversation. "Is everyone here?" Bracken asked.
"Just about. Supper is almost ready but Dale is still in the barn," Marla said, with worry in her voice. She didn't like Seth's tone or look as she glanced up at her son's face.
Everyone was nervous at Bracken's request for a meeting.
"I'll go get him," Leander offered helpfully.
"No, you stay here. I'll get him," Stan said looking with concern at the serious group before he walked away.
"In here," Ruth invited them to the living room. She opened the double doors and everyone filed in quietly.
Kendra pulled Bracken to the loveseat and they sat together. Seth sat in the chair next to the big desk since he was going to be the main speaker. Leander leaned against the wall near the door until Ruth pushed him into an overstuffed chair next to the one where Maeve was sitting. He tried to move but Ruth gave him a stern stare and he sat uncomfortably staring at Seth. The room remained silent.
Stan and Dale arrived a few minutes later.
"Ok, who is going to start?" Stan asked as he sat in the chair behind the big desk.
Seth looked at Bracken, not wanting to be the one to start off.
"I guess I will. Celebrant was upset…"
Bracken told them of the visit to Wyrmroost and their 'cover story' of their attempt to find out if anyone knew why Axezeles would have died at Fablehaven before it was sanctuary.
"Celebrant wants to come here and try to find out more about where she was. He ah…" Bracken stuttered. He was having a hard time twisting the story so he wouldn't let them know Maeve was Axezeles.
"Don't go on." Maeve stopped him, shaking her head. "This is getting much too complicated for no good reason. I trust these people now, Bracken."
"I am Axezeles," she announced. "I was almost killed by Navarog and they are trying to find out who was behind it."
Fifteen minutes, many discussions and questions later, everyone had moved around and Leander had escaped his overstuffed chair next to Maeve. He prodded Seth to continue with his news.
Seth cleared his throat and broke into the excited conversation. "I have other news to add. It's not very pleasant."
Suddenly the room became silent again. He proceeded to tell them of his and Unleea's conversation with the little man and the narcoblix.
Gasps of 'No' broke out in the room as he told them the spell killed Raxtus because fairy magic permeated him.
"They used me to get the spell in front of Raxtus," Seth said, the tears running down his face were real, he still felt vilely used. Their plan to kill Raxtus hadn't worked but it very well could have if Bracken hadn't been involved.
Maeve, tears running down her face, sat silent in her chair. This was the first time she had heard the extent of Raxtus' contamination with fairy magic. Unleea crawled up into her lap and hugged her tightly.
Kendra watched the woman deal with her grief. Her tears flowed also but she was mad at Leander for putting his mother through this. It was his choice, he didn't have to let anyone know he was alive if he didn't want to but she didn't have to like it.
As a group, they made the decision to send the news to Celebrant the next morning. Bad news, good news, and then bad news again, Celebrant probably wouldn't want anymore news from Fablehaven after this.
Leander was not as happy as he thought he would be when everyone knew Raxtus was dead. It was sad. Raxtus was a nice dragon. Almost everyone there knew him and either liked or loved him. The news affected everyone in the room including Leander, the tracker. He no longer had a reason for being there. If Raxtus was dead, he didn't have anyone to track. He didn't have a job, oops.
Dinner was solemn but Leander ate like always, as if he was starving.