Dipper was wandering around the circus grounds without a lot to do. His part in Mabel's act consisted simply of lighting a fuse, and it thus didn't require much practice. As a result, he had a lot of time to himself, and often wasn't quite sure what to do with it. After a few minutes of aimless wandering, he heard a humming and decided to follow the sound of it.
Soon, he came across Wendy, the circus' resident axe juggler and thrower, as well as the substitute human cannonball. She was currently in her juggling outfit, and she was sitting on a barrel of gunpowder. Her hat was resting on her head, and her bright red hair draped down her back, ending just below her waist. Dangling from her mouth was, like usual, a short black cigarette holder with a cigarette at the tip. It was considerably more high-class than one would expect from somebody like Wendy, but somehow it didn't seem too out of place.
Dipper approached Wendy, as she hummed casually to herself, pulling a match from her pocket. She struck it against the cigarette holder in her mouth before bringing it to the tip of the cigarette, lighting it. She didn't seem to be wary that she was doing so while sitting on a barrel of gunpowder, but despite only being a teenager, Wendy was sort of a nonchalant thrill-seeker, or at least that's the best term Dipper could think of for it.
Dipper decided to approach her, struggling to pretend not to be nervous of the powder keg that Wendy was sitting on. He had also developed a bit of a crush on the teenager, making it even harder to appear calm.
"Oh, hey dude." said Wendy as she noticed Dipper. "What's up?"
"Oh, not much." said Dipper, looking at the ember of Wendy's cigarette to make sure no sparks or bits of ash drop onto the barrel. "I've just been kinda, heh, heh, wandering around, you know."
"Uh-huh." said Wendy, tossing the lit match over her shoulder, where it landed on the dirt and burned out. "I'm about to get ready to practice for my act. I think I've gotten the hang of it."
"Yeah, you are ama- pretty good at it." said Dipper, who still wasn't looking Wendy in the eye, as he was busy looking at the lit tip of Wendy's cigarette to make sure it didn't shake loose any embers or ash onto the barrel of explosives Wendy was sitting on.
"Uh, Dipper? My eyes are up here." said Wendy.
Dipper's eyes shot up to look at Wendy, who laughed.
"Oh, heh-heh. Sorry." said Dipper nervously. He gestured to the gunpowder keg and said "I'm just kinda concerned about... y'know, that."
Wendy laughed again and said "Relax, dude. I'm not gonna accidentally blow myself up. I just like sitting on this thing sometimes 'cause, I don't know, I guess I just like the danger of potentially blowing myself up. Really helps to stave off boredom."
Wendy took a drag on her cigarette holder and hopped off the barrel. "Well, guess I better start practicing." she said, starting to walk off.
That's when Dipper got an idea. An idea that he realized might have very well been a very, very bad idea. But, an sudden wave of overconfidence over took him as he followed Wendy and asked "Hey, maybe I could help you with practice? It's not like I have a whole lot to do right now anyway."
"You sure?" asked Wendy, blowing smoke from her nostrils.
Dipper nodded.
"Hmm." said Wendy. "Sure, if you feel up to it. Follow me."
Wendy continued walking towards the edges of the circus grounds, and Dipper followed along, feeling his sudden boost of confidence begin to wear off. He wasn't quite sure how Wendy was going to have him help her practice, but considering what her at was, it was likely something dangerous. Still, he was pretty sure that even if it was dangerous, he was going to be fine. Wendy was a skilled performer, she knew what she was doing. True, she had the occasional tendency to accidentally set herself on fire, but still.
Wendy passed by a pile of throwing hatchets, picking up four of them and carrying them in her arms. "These ones'll do." she said, the cigarette holding bobbing up and down in her mouth as she spoke.
Soon, the two came to a a lone pine tree at the edge of the circus grounds. It was surrounded by several burnt tree stumps.
"Here's where I've been practicing since we stopped here." said Wendy.
Dipper gulped as he looked at the blacked remains of what used to be pine trees. "Yep, I-I can see that." he said nervously.
Sitting on the ground nearby was a nearby bottle of some sort of flammable liquid, used for Wendy's act. Wendy casually picked up the bottle and poured it onto the blades of each of her axes.
Dipper could no longer take the anticipation, and asked "So, uh, what in particular do you need help with?"
Wendy set down her axes on the ground and briefly took the cigarette holder out of her mouth and used it to point at the lone surviving pine. "I'm gonna need you to stand right about there." she said before putting the holder back in her mouth.
In an instant, almost all of Dipper's confidence evaporated. He had suspected that this was mostly likely what Wendy had planning, but it wasn't until now he quite realized the reality of what was about to happen.
"Um, alright." said Dipper, taking a deep breath.
"You sure you want to do this?" asked Wendy.
Now was his chance to back out of it. Dipper realized that it was probably the best option, and the one most likely to result in him keeping all of his limbs. Sure, Wendy was skilled in her act, but Dipper knew full well that there was no way he was going to stand in one spot without flinching, and if he did-
Dipper felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see Wendy smiling down at him. It was rather dark out, so the tip of the cigarette in her holder glowed brightly, illuminating her warmly smiling face.
"Look, Dipper, it's really okay if you don't want to do it." she said. "I mean, I know I'd be scared of having a buncha flaming axes tossed at me. If you'd rather not do it, I'm not gonna judge you."
Dipper smiled back at her, not even bothering to hide his blushing cheeks. For some reason, Wendy telling him it was fine if he wanted to back out gave him a new boost of confidence to go through with it. It was crazy, sure, but it was a sure thing to both impress Wendy and prove that he was capable of daring feats of his own.
"Thanks, but I think I'd like to do it anyway." said Dipper, walking towards the tree.
"Alright, it was nice knowing you, man." said Wendy jokingly as she picked up the axes.
Dipper stood with his back against the tree. Wendy said "Alright, I'm gonna need you to hold your arms out to the sides."
Dipper nodded followed Wendy's instructions.
"Now, I'm gonna need you to stand perfectly still." said Wendy, taking a drag on her cigarette holder before looking at her axes. "Seriously."
"I'll try." said Dipper, trying not to move.
Wendy took one of her axes and took a few practice swings. "Ready to do this?" she asked.
"As I'll ever be." said Dipper.
"Okay, so am I. Here I go." said Wendy.
She began jugging the four hatchets in a circle, the axes twirling through the air as Wendy caught and tossed them with remarkable speed. One by one, each of the axe blades brushed against the lit cigarette at the tip of the holder in Wendy's mouth. As soon as they did, they each ignited into flames, due to the flammable liquid they'd been doused in. Wendy continued juggling the flaming axes, not so much as flinching.
Dipper gulped as he watched Wendy toss the firey hatchets into the air, knowing full well that they'd soon come flying towards him. The juggling got faster until it was like there was a ring of fire directly in front of Wendy. Dipper couldn't helped but be awed by this.
Wendy gave him a winked before blowing a series of smoke rings that floated through the air between the two. Then, as quick as a blink, hurled one of the axes forward. The burning axe twirled through the air at lightning speeds, passing through each of the smoke rings and landing blade-first into the tree, lodging itself just under Dipper's arm. Though thoroughly terrified, Dipper kept from flinching.
Wendy was now juggling three hatchets. Sparks flew from them as Wendy threw them through the hair, making Dipper glad that the girl was standing on dirt rather than grass. Wendy smirked as she blew another series of smoke rings from her mouth. With remarkable precision, she threw another axe forward, which landed in the tree right next to Dipper's right leg. Dipper took some deep breathes, seeing how close it got.
Now Wendy was only juggling two axes, though she had sped up to make up for this. She exhaled a cloud of cigarette smoke from her nostrils, blocking Dipper's view of her. Dipper waited with anticipation, not knowing when the next axe was going to come.
A few seconds later, a burning axe shot out of the smoke cloud, landing right above Dipper's head. The cloud dissipated, revealing Wendy holding a lone flaming hatchet. She looked at the hatchet, then to Dipper, and a smirk grew on her face. She closed her eyes, and reared back her arm. Dipper reflexively shut his eyes.
A painfully long second passed, and heard heard a loud woosh through the air, followed by an even louder thunk.
Opening his eyes, Dipper saw that the fourth and finale axe had buried itself into the tree, deeper than the others, to the left of his torso.
Dipper let out a long sigh of relief and stepped forward. Behind him, the pine tree could no longer take all of the axes Wendy had thrown into it, and it snapped in half, crashing to the ground.
Dipper walked up to Wendy, who smiled proudly at him.
"Wendy, that was so awesome!" he cheered. He had always found her act impressive, but he had never quite been so up close before.
"Thanks." smiled Wendy. She patted him on the shoulder and said "What you did was really brave."
A bit of ash fell from the tip of Wendy's cigarette as she said "I mean, I know your sister's the one getting shot out of a cannon every other day, but that doesn't mean that you don't have guts, too."
She ruffled Dipper's hair as he grinned back at her.
The two then turned to the flaming remains of the tree Wendy destroyed.
"Think we should get some water for that?" asked Wendy.
"Yeah, probably." said Dipper.