Fablehaven Chapter 3 Summary

The Ivy Shack

  • Perspective shift: we're now seeing things through Seth's eyes. He finds a small path into the forest, and gets out a compass so he can find his way back easily (and quickly, so no one notices that he's gone).
  • Seth doesn't want to admit that he's scared, but the forest is actually a bit creepy—and even weirder, he sees a shack covered in ivy. Inside it, an old woman sits next to a tree stump, gnawing at a knot tied in some rope. Um… odd.
  • She notices Seth, and invites him to come in; he asks if his grandpa knows she's here, since he owns the land, and she says yes, he's aware.
  • Again she invites him in, and she gets out a dancing puppet to show him (apparently this will entice him in?). She says it's a limberjack, which is not the same thing as a lumberjack.
  • Seth can't help but start joking, which annoys her. She asks him to test his courage by putting his hand inside a box, which obviously seems like a bad idea to him—what if it's filled with nails or glass? He begins to suspect that she's a witch, or crazy, or both.
  • She says that if he doesn't stand by his words, he'll have an unpleasant trip home, and when he backs away, he notices her murmuring something.
  • As Seth starts back toward the house, random things in the forest start to fly at him and trip him—it's almost as though something is invisibly pursuing him, which is really freaky. Finally Seth makes it home, sweating, dirty, and scared.
  • Back to Kendra. She's found a book titled Journal of Secrets—it's locked, though, and the keys she holds will only open one of the three clasps.
  • Seth runs in and tells Kendra about meeting the witch. Kendra thinks this is weird and that they should tell their grandpa so he can call the police, in case she's a homeless woman living on the property without permission.
  • There's a tree house on the property that's not off-limits, so Seth and Kendra go hang out there and work on a puzzle for a while—Kendra can tell that Seth is really spooked about what happened in the forest, though.