Character Analysis
We first see Dale as "a tall, lanky man with large ears" (1.67) who follows Grandpa Sorenson out to greet Kendra and Seth when they arrive. He's a "second cousin" of Grandpa's according to Lena (6.48), and he's someone who can be trusted to handle the dangers of Fablehaven. Among other things, Dale's responsible for putting milk out for the fairies (which gets Kendra curious about what's really going on around the property).
Dale tries to warn Seth about how bad an idea it is to look outside on Midsummer Eve, saying: "To this day, I'm sorry I looked […] If it were me, if I could go back, I'd skip looking altogether" (9.73). And since Dale seems like a pretty steady dude, for him to be so frightened just getting a glimpse of something must mean it was really freakin' scary.
Poor Dale gets turned into a statue on Midsummer Eve, and it seems like the experience is not a good one for him: "His head was turned to one side, eyes squinted shut, arms raised protectively" (11.23). He's stuck like this until the fairy army gets proactive and rights all the wrongs done on Midsummer Eve and its immediate aftermath.
Well, not quite all the wrongs. After the whole thing with Bahumat, Dale's acting kinda down. According to Grandpa: "He feels bad that his brother Warren wasn't present when the fairies were curing everybody" (19.81). Bummer.