Here's another one of my "Future-Pines" stories, takes place in the same timeline as all the others that I've written. I've also now listed them all in chronological order on my profile page so anyone following along doesn't get mixed up, and to help first-timers to my works (though I try and make them stand-alone as much as possible, so no worries if you haven't read them all, or any). Anyways, enjoy! - SGA
As the old saying went, some things never changed. Time may have led to new careers, marriages, and in Mabel's case, a divorce but also two beautiful children. But none of that could stop the Pines twins from heading up north to the little town of Gravity Falls for a few weeks every summer like clockwork. The little vacation was always meant for nothing more than spending time relaxing with friends and family. But despite their best efforts, the siblings still couldn't help but inevitably stumble across the unbelievable every now and then.
Sometimes a little too literally.
"...Think anything lives in there?" The young woman wondered out loud to her brother as they gazed upon the narrow hillside cave. Considering how the claw marks on the rough-hewn walls made it look the result of some serious digging, the simple answer was an obvious 'yes'. Dipper however felt like there was an even better reply.
"I think we should just keep moving." He suggested before passing a nervous glance to the rest of their little band. This little walk in the woods had taken an unexpected turn. As usual, Mabel had taken a full contingent along for their short hike. Her latest pig, Waddles IV, aimlessly sniffed around at the end of his leash. Meanwhile her two-year-old twins sat in a wagon munching goldfish crackers, or at least her son Finn was.
"Whazzat, Mommy?" One of Mabel's miniature doppelgangers clambered out. But before her innocent curiosity could draw her very close to the cave mouth, Gladys Pines was plucked up off the ground with ease by her lanky aunt.
"Not so fast, cutie." Wendy deposited her little niece back into the wagon. "So what's the plan here?"
"What else?" As much as Dipper still liked to explore the unknown, as an uncle he felt like his priorities were pretty clear. The young man tugged his twin's shoulder. "C'mon, let's go."
"Just a sec!" She sang, and without a moment's hesitation Mabel picked up a rock and chucked it in as far as she could throw.
"Hey!" He protested. "Mabel, what are you-"
"I'm just checking!" His sister chirped. She then cupped her hands around her mouth and began calling into the cave. "Hello! Hellooooo! Anyone hoooome?"
There was a sudden gust of air behind them, followed immediately by a massive thud that sent everyone bouncing a few inches off the ground. As they stumbled to keep their balance, a low throaty growl answered them.
"Now there is."
They whirled around and were first greeted by a thick puff of acrid smoke. When it cleared, they found themselves facing a long, scale-covered behemoth thought by most of humanity to be nothing more than mere myth.
"Hello there." It whispered with a smile, displaying two rows of dagger-sharp teeth. A fiendish twinkled in its golden-yellow eyes.
"...Ohhh, no." Dipper swallowed hard. This wasn't going to be easy to weasel out of. Mabel instinctively grasp her brother's shoulder tightly as her jaw dangled agape. Wendy stepped in front of her niece and nephew.
A dragon. A full-fledged, in-the-flesh, bona-fide dragon. Of all the things that could have appeared today, a genuine dragon. God forbid the mystery-laden forest of Gravity Falls let them take one little nature walk without any serious trouble.
The fearsome beast let out a chuckle at their stunned expressions. So far he was cultivating a spectacularly menacing first impression. However, before he could really start to make them tremble in their shoes, things suddenly took an unexpected turn when little Finn reached his own separate conclusion about what he was looking at. The child lit up like he was looking at a Christmas tree overlooking a mountain of presents.
"DINOSAUR!" The dragon flinched under the volume of the tot's joyous shriek. The tot then shot out of the wagon.
"Hey, wait-" Dipper tried to grab him, but he was much too slow. The ecstatic toddler zipped over and latched onto a scaly brown leg without a second thought.
"What….?!" The bemusement-stricken monster tried shaking Finn loose. The little boy only tightened his already tenacious hold. Soon he was grasping on so fiercely that his fingers might as well have been iron clamps.
"DINOSAUR!" He whooped again. "Mommy, lookit! A real dinosaur!"
"A what?" The dragon huffed indignantly. "Insolent whelp! I am no dinosaur! I am a-"
"Dinosaur!" He repeated. As far as he was concerned, this was now the greatest day of his entire life.
The beast tried scaring him off with a ferocious snarl,, but the child just roared back in playful reply. To make matters worse, the menacing mood he had been trying to set had been spoiled. Wendy and Dipper were still on alert, but more puzzled than frightened. After all, it was hard to be scared of something that was being cuddled by a baby. Mabel meanwhile had gotten over her fear completely, and young mother clasped her hands as she happily cooed.
"Awww! Guys, just look at them!"
"Uh….." Her brother just grunted. But when Finn started nuzzling the dragon's smooth, scaly-brown skin, Wendy burst out cackling at the ridiculous sight. The beast glared fiercely. and Dipper shrugged apologetically on his wife's behalf.
"Finn really, really likes dinosaurs." He explained succinctly.
"YEAH! Dinosaur!" The little boy cheered again on cue.
"Like? Like? He's not supposed to like me. No one is!" The dragon snapped back irritably. People were supposed to wince at the very thought of him. "You should cower before me! You should be begging for your miserable lives!"
Mabel didn't even bat an eyelid. Instead she put her hands on her hips and smilingly asked back, "Pffft! Any why's that?"
"What do you mean why?" He let out a snarling sputter of disbelief. "Don't you realize what you're talking to? Just gaze upon me! I could devour an entire cow whole with one bite! With a single sneeze I can reduce an entire town to ashes! How do you not understand?"
The young woman cheerily giggled off his ferocious boasts. To her, the lack of a threat was pretty obvious. "Oh c'mon, you can't be that bad at all! Not if Finn likes you this much!"
The dragon's wings spread wide in an attempted show of intimidation. This however only triggered an excited cheer from the child still clinging onto his leg. The flustered creature immediately fumbled to fold them back to his sides. Mabel giggled.
"Nice try, mister. But trust me, my babies are pret-ty spot-on with these kinds of things." She said with unwavering confidence. "You're really nothing more than a big scaly softie, arentcha? Arentcha?"
She prodded him square on the tip of his nose. "Boop!"
"Boop!" Her son followed her lead and affectionately poked the "dinosaur."
"How dare you show me such disrespect?" His indignant roar fell on deaf ears. Mabel was now busy hunting around in her backpack.
"Oooh, wait! Hold on, hold on! I just need to…." The young mother held up a finger as she searched. Soon she produced her camera. "Found it! Okay Finn, look over here at Mommy! That's it, sweetie. Now say dino-cheeeeese!"
"Dino-cheese!" At this point the child's grin that threatened to take over his entire face.
"Picture perfect!" She whooped. Her son beamed, then returned to his blissful obsessing.
"Dinosaur, dinosaur, dinosaur…" Finn sang over and over while he pet the increasingly frustrated beast.
"I am not a dinosaur!" He reiterated angrily.
"No, youa Dinosaur!"
"I am not a dinosaur!"
"Youa Dinosaur!"
"I. Am. Not. A dinosaur!" His defiant roar echoed loudly through the surround forest, sending every bird in earshot frantically fluttering for its very life. The volume had actually stunned the little boy, but only for a second. In no time he was beaming brighter than ever.
"Youa silly dinosaur!" Finn declared with both a cheery laugh and a knowing smile. The increasingly flustered monster rumbled out a groan.
"Ohh, no need to be the world's biggest grump., He's only two and a half. Besides, it's adorable!" Mabel chortled, then added on her child's behalf. "And you know, my hun-bun kinda has a point. Dinosaurs are just big lizard things, and you're a big lizard thing. It's not that much of a big difference if you think about it!"
"It's a very big difference!" The all too casual remark struck a nerve with the force of a freight train. The dragon let out another livid roar that sent Waddles IV bolting with a panicked squeal. Wendy barely managed to keep the little pig from running straight into the surrounding woods.
Mabel was undeterred. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about! It's just fact! You just look a lot like a...hmmmm….."
"Steggasaur!" Her son chirped, earning him a proud pat on the head.
"Good guess, sweetie! Yeah, like a big wingy stegosaurus!'
Together, mother and child continued to wear down the creature with their energetic the dragon winced under the pitch of their shared laughter, Finn clumsily shimmied his way up the front leg and onto the beast's long neck.
"Giddyup! Giddyup, dinosaur!" He kicked his legs against its sides. "Let's go!"
"Yeah, lookit you! Mister Awesome Dinosaur Cowboy!" Mabel whooped. "Hitting the old trail on your Jurassic steed! Hold that pose for Mommy, buckaroo!"
She snapped off several more adorable photos in quick succession. She then draped an arm around the creature's neck and smiled for the camera. "Selfie!"
Their bubbling laughter practically he was, one of the terrors of the forest, and he had completely and utterly failed to cow a small child, of all things. Finally, it just was too much for his utterly butchered pride to bear any longer. He snapped with a hoarse cry.
"Enough already!" He shook the child loose, sending him tumbling into his mother's arms. Looking frustrated to the point of tears, he tried to scold them, but could manage more than a quavering growl. "You….you...you…."
Shielding his watering eyes, he folded his wings tight and hurriedly retreated into his den to nurse what was left of his self-esteem. "You humans j-just don't have any respect today!"
And like that he vanished in a huff, no doubt to have a private sulk.
"Bye now!" Mabel held up her little son. "Say bye-bye to the silly dinosaur, hun-bun!"
"Byyyyyyeee!" He did so with gusto, waving both his little arms with joyful fury. "Bye, dinosaur! Bye bye!"
"This. This is the total high point of the week right here." Wendy grinned as she made her declaration.
"Yeah….high point. Sure." Dipper gasped in relief. Not wanting to push their luck any further, he began to dutifully herd everyone away. "Okay, time to head back to the Shack."
"Dude, chill." His wife playfully ruffled his hair. "If we like, had a dollar every time we faced dea-"
"Language." Said the fussy uncle.
"D-E-A-T-H," She quickly corrected herself. "Then we'd be rolling-"
"It's kind of hard not to get a little panicky when the K-I-D-S are around."
"Oh they're fine!" Mabel chirped confidently. "My babies can totally handle a little bit of weirdness, no problem! Isn't that right hun-bun?"
She rubbed noses with her son, who just squeaked excitedly, "Mommy, we saw a dinosaur!"
"I know, we did! And what about you, Glad-Glad? Did you like the big silly di-" The young mother turned, looked into the wagon and let out a strangled yelp. Wendy and Dipper followed her horrified gaze, and their hearts collectively skipped a beat.
They were short one toddler. No wonder they hadn't heard a peep from Mabel's little girl in the past few minutes.
"...Where Gladys?" Finn squeaked confusedly for his missing sister. The little boy was quickly deposited in the wagon as the adults took up a frantic search.
"Gladys? Glaaaaadys!" Wendy yelled. "Gladys?"
"How does a kid get distracted with a dragon around?" Dipper grumbled as he cast his gaze all around. "Gladys? Sweetie?"
"Here Waddles!" Mabel shook her daughter's abandoned stuffed duck in front of the pig's snout. "Catch the scent! Okay, now go! Go find Glad-Glad!"
Waddles just sat there, gazing up uncomprehendingly through his beady black eyes.
"Mabel, I thought that doesn't work!" Dipper groaned.
"It will! We just have to believe in him-"
As they tried to keep their heads together, neither one noticed the nearby racket until it literally came hurtling out of the forest. Branches went flying as a fire-red beast half-flapped, half-bumbled out of the woods. Mabel nabbed both her son and pet, and Dipper in turn grabbed her shoulders and yanked her back.
"Look out!" he yelled. "It's a-"
"Wait!" Wendy realized something. "Dipper, look!"
The lion-like creature didn't seem to mean them any purposeful harm. In fact, it seemed so busy with its own issues that it hadn't even noticed them yet. Its scorpion tail flailed about, and leathery bat-like wings beat against the earth as it thrashed and bucked. If that wasn't proof enough that it was in obvious distress, the panicked yowled that started ripping from its throat only moments later cleared up any lingering doubts.
"Get off! Get off! Get OFF!" The manticore (as Dipper recalled reading in Journal Number 3) yowled frantically. Finally it seemed to notice the startled pack of humans, stopped, and stared confusedly at them. .
"Hi there!" Mabel broke the tense silence with a friendly wave. The lion-beast's face lit up with unmistakable relief, and it hurriedly limped on over as fast as it could
"Is this yours? Please say yes! Please! It shamelessly begged. It lifted its back leg and revealed a chocolate-haired little girl clinging tight with a tenacious hug.
"Hi, Mommy!" Mabel's little daughter was beaming bright enough to light up an entire city. The sweet little thing then made sure to greet the others in turn.. "Hi, Unca Dippeh! Hi, Aunt Wenny! Lookit!"
"Glad-Glad! There you are, you silly!" Mabel bounced on over. The manticore did an anxious dance of impatience while the young mother adoringly stroked her tyke's head. "Now just what were you doing wandering off like that?"
The child cuddled up tight to her catch and grinned. "Found a kitty, Mommy…"