One Shots and Short Stories

Exploring the Preserve: Fablehaven

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters or places, they all belong to Brandon Mull.

Author's Note: I did this one on request to @Yakall, It's about Seth, Eve, Doren, and Newel exploring Fablehaven. It might have typos, but I haven't got around to writing as much as I want to let alone editing previous stories. Sorry, its been so long. I finally got a chance to get back on and finish this story once school was cancelled due to the Coronavirus. Hope you are all feeling well! Enjoy

"Come on Seth!" Newel shouted. Seth was trying to keep up, but his legs weren't near as good for running through the forest as the saytres had. He was also dragging Eve along beside him.

"We're coming!" he yelled back. They finally reached the top of the hill Seth was panting. He could see the old manor about a mile away. "Please tell me you didn't get me so exited just to see Grandma and Grandpa Larsen! I love them but they're not very fun."

"No stupid!" Doren said, rapping him on the back of his head with his fist. "Grannies cookies can wait. We're going too see the cemetery."

"No offence Doren," Eve said, "But we've been there before, It's not that interesting."

"We thought so too." Newel grinned, "But Doren here was taking a wiz earlier today, and he discovered something. We wanted you guys to share the find."

"What is it!" Eve and Seth said at the same time.

"We don't know." Newel grunted, with a grudging look at Doren. "Doren wouldn't let us go in until you two came."

"In?" wondered Eve.

The goat-men ignored her and led the way. Seth considered what Doren said about the cookies. He might head on over to the manor for some desserts. In mostly silence, the four of them descended the hill and got on an overgrown path that connected to the main road somewhere long forgotten. A few ruins of cottages and shacks lay scattered around the area, and the manor loomed to the left of them. A medium sized hill sat peeking over the trees nearby. Covered in flowers, it was where Bahumat and Muriel were buried. They finally reached the edge of the graveyard. The remnants of an old stone wall circled the stones. Doren hopped lightly over the rubble and the others followed. "This way." he said. His voice echoed in the silence. The sun was high in the sky, but the sticky humidity, and the shadows cast by the trees gave a sickly, dark aura.

"Here we are." Newel said. "He pointed to an ancient looking headstone, one of the last ones still standing. It was weathered so badly, there was no way of reading the engraving. Doren pushed Seth and Eve back with one arm, turned around, and with a mighty donkey kick the stone fell backwards with a crack of hoof on stone. Where an empty patch of dry grass should have been, there was a hole. A much larger hole than could've logically been there on its own without magic. An old ladder was hanging weakly from two pegs at the mouth of the pit. "Who wants to go first?" Newel said cheerfully.

"Umm, how about Doren." Eve gestured to the offended satyr. "He's the heaviest." Doren glared back at her.

"Rude!" he said in retort, he climbed down anyways. Like a spider-monkey, or spider-goat for that matter. He disappeared into the darkness before Seth heard the clatter of hooves on stone. Seth quickly followed. He couldn't let Eve go thinking he was a wimp. He would've gone first, but Eve had a point about the heavy thing. At least now he knew it wasn't entirely stupid to go climbing down into a pit. Once he was in, he could see the floor, it wasn't too far, he jumped and landed in a crouch. Doren stood leaning against an archway to a long damp corridor.

Seth looked up, Eve was descending about five feet above him. With a grin she shouted, "Trust Fall!" and dropped. Seth caught her and set her down. Ever since he had told Eve what a trust fall was, she had done it at every possible second. Most of the time Seth had managed to catch her, although he did stumble a few times. The first time she did it without warning, she knocked him to the ground. He laughed, Eve gave him a quizzical look. He was remembering a few days earlier when she had shouted "Trust fall!" At Kendra and they both fell into the pool.