The next day was rather routine, except that Mabel was around, thus the day was anything but routine. Wendy got used to her melodic humming almost right away, and she had funny and nice comments on practically everything around her. She talked to the customers, and it seemed that she can talk anyone into buying anything. So the business was speeding up, and Wendy was barely catching up with seemingly endless flow of tourists. This, however, didn't irritate her at all, since Mabel always cheered her up just by being nearby. She even covered for her at the counter when the younger girl asked for a short lunch break, despite the plenty of customers. Who knows, Corduroy thought, munching on her sandwich, maybe with Mabel around the dull work at the Shack would actually be fun.

Later, in the afternoon, Mabel was tinkering something at the corner of the counter. Wendy saw several small lightbulbs, coloured glass, wire and empty small cardboard boxes.

"What are you making here?" - Corduroy girl asked curiously.

"Oh, it's just a little project me and Gruncle Stan came up with," - Mabel explained. - "It's supposed to lure the tourists to the Shack. See, I have some lamps with small solar cell and accumulators. During daytime, it charges up, and when it becomes dark the lamp lights up. So, I put the lamps in the boxes and cut orifices looking like spooky eyes. And you can add colored glass, green or red, suit yourself. If you see it at dusk from the distance, preferably behind the trees, it'll look like eyes. Like someone - or something - is watching you."

Wendy hemmed.

"And how's this supposed to make people go to the Shack?"

"Dunno, this part of the idea belongs to Gruncle Stan. Maybe he hopes that it adds up to the whole atmosphere of mystic forest, or stuff."

"I see," - Wendy replied, not suspecting the woe yet. However, it didn't make her wait for long.

After the main tide of tourists subsided, Stan came to the gift shop. Mabel was already done with her handiwork by then.

"So," - Mr Mystery began, looking at his grand-niece's creations. Wendy was reading her magazine, Mabel was gathering the leftover supplies. - "now that we have these magic lamps that Mabel made for us, someone has to go to the forest and place them in strategical positions. Let's see. Soos is busy fixing the cistern. Mabel?"

"Candy and Grenda are about to visit, I have to stay here."

"I see. Wendy, that leaves you."

"Wha-"

"Do you know the Waterfall trail? That leads to the cliff overseeing the lake and the waterfall. What the heck, of course you do."

"But Mr Pines-"

"Take a golf cart and go there, once you reach the trail, place the light on the sides of it, deeper in the forests, and make sure they are visible from the trail. And leave the solar batteries in well-lit places, you hear me?"

"But-"

"Look, the lights shouldn't be visible during the day, so hide them in, like, hollows in trees or somewhere. But there must be a clear line of sight from the trail to the flashlight, so it would be visible in the twilight."

"Mr Pines, this forest is dangerous!" - Wendy said, receiving an odd look from Mabel.

"Look kid, I'm not asking you to catch me a bear, all you have to do is to go to the Waterfall trail and place some lamps there, it won't take you long, and you won't even have to walk, you'll ride. What can possibly happen to you in the most high-traffic part of the woods in a bright daylight in a span of thirty minutes?"

"Uggh, fine!" - Wendy yelled. - "Gimme those! I'll plant them where they'll give heart attacks to each and every one of your potential customers!"

"That's the spirit!" - Mabel cried approvingly. Stan facepalmed and waved his hand at Wendy - 'go already.'

And Wendy went. At first, anger boiled inside her, but driving through the forest distracted her from the thoughts of Stan and unjustice. She knew the forest well, but she didn't like it. And the fact that she only had to step on the edge of the forest, in well-lit and well-travelled place, didn't help much.

Murmuring curses to Mr Pines under her breath, she proceeded to work. At first it was challenging, as the trees around the Waterfall Trail didn't have a lot of hollows to place the lanterns at. But then she got a grip of securing them between the branches, sometimes even climbing up higher and leaving the lamps at the upper branches so if would seem that the eyes watched the trail from above. At one moment she actually started to find interest in the work, but it was exactly when she ran out of lamps.

After she hid the last lantern in the long crack in the trunk of a particularly large pine tree, she took a step back to evaluate her work. Suddenly, a glint of light at the corner of her eye took her attention. She glanced to the side. There was a fallen tree, its roots protruding aimlessly to the sky. From the pit left by uprooted tree something gleamed again. The girl came closer to the hole. Inside, she saw a flashlight. She carefully picked it up. The flashlight was old and very dirty, its glass shattered, and only a couple of shards left in it were still clean enough to reflect the sunlight. That was probably what she saw. She lowered the flashlight, looking in the hole again, and this time she saw something else gleaming dimly in the pit, buried even deeper in soil and mud. She knelled to reach for the thing with her hand, recovering it from the dirt. It was a book, a really old one, with a cover of brown leather, its corners binded with copper, and an image of six-fingered hand, apparently, carved from copper as well, on its cover. A large number '2' was written in the middle of the hand.

The book was in a plastic bag with zip lock. The bag was extremely dirty from laying in the pit for a long time, but the book itself seemed to be in descent condition. Wendy looked around, suddenly insure of her surroundings, before unzipping the bag. She took the book out and examined it closely. The book looked like it was brought to this world from a legend or a fairy-tale, a neat one. She slowly opened it on its first page. A small lens attached to the book by a cord was enclosed between the page and the cover. 'Property of-' - the first page read, the end of the line was illegible under the strains and spots that covered aged paper. Wendy turned the page.

'August 5.' - I wonder what year - 'Studying Gravity Falls and neighbouring forests for more than three years pushed me to a conclusion that one journal would not be enough to document all of my observations.'

Wendy flipped several pages. 'Gobblewonker,' - was written at the top of the left page of a random spread. There was a drawing of a creature called Gravity Falls Gobblewonker, a monster that rumours stated lived in a lake near the town. The drawing was followed with specification of where and how the author saw the creature and speculations on its origin, biology and habits, which continued to the right page. At the bottom of the right page Wendy saw an inscription 'Weaknesses', followed by a blank space and a couple of questioning marks.

The girl turned a couple more pages. 'Demon caterpillars' - she read. There was a picture of a gigantic caterpillar with a wide maw full of teeth and rows of thorns on its backs. Several paragraphs explained how the author encountered one of them in the forest, gave a detailed description and speculated on its physiology and ecological niche. 'Weaknesses' - stated the last paragraph. - 'Alchemical silver damages the creatures, giving them what appears like chemical burns on touch. Powdered silver, if sprayed upon the creature, gives it severe and broad burns with possibility of instant death.'

'Gravity Falls Vampires' - was written on another page. - 'Corn faeries'. 'Flying jelly summoning spell'. 'Manotaurs'. 'Creature #326' - there was a drawing of a triangle with one eye and tiny arms and legs, wearing a top-hat and a bow-tie. Wendy held the book at arm's length. What the hell is this thing? It looks like someone gathered all the town legends of Gravity Falls, mixed it with a bunch of the most hilarious bullshit in the world and wrote it all down conscientiously. She flipped several more pages by guess and suddenly paused. 'Will-o-wisp' - the heading stated. Wendy knew about will-o-wisps.

'Also known as will-o-the-wisp, this treacherous forest spirit appears at night in the woods or near the swamps. Presumably able to captivate humans with its sight, will-o-wisp leads them deeper to the forest thicket or, preferably, to the quagmire to leave its hapless victim there. Motifs and goals of the spirits are unknown.' - Then the author described occurrences of witnessing will-o-wisps in the forest by lumberjacks and hunters and several events of disappearance that could be attributed to person encountering will-o-wisp in the woods at night and being led away. - 'Weaknesses: unknown. Judging how will-o-wisps only appear during the night time it can be presumed that they are vulnerable to sunlight and, possibly, ultraviolet in general.'

Wendy closed the book. All of this seemed like a prank that was too long and too elaborate to actually be funny. All, except for the wisps. On the other hand, will-o-wisps were an actual element of a folklore, so they could have been included in this book without any actual knowledge about the real mystical creatures of Gravity Falls. But still-

Wendy looked around. Turns out it didn't take her long to dig the book out, and she decided that it's time to go back to the Shack. The girl put the book into her bag, climbed to the driver's seat, tossed the broken flashlight at the passenger's seat so she can put it in a trash can at the Shack, and started the ignition.

"Dawg, you would not believe whom I've met at the forest!" - Soos exclaimed, obviously overexcited. Wendy rolled her eyes. She did that a lot. - "There was that huge dude with red hair and red beard and a lot of muscles, who said that he is very manly."

"Dad?"

"Nah! That one had horns, too, and hooves," - Wendy frowned. - "He ate my meat chips and told me that he is very manly. I asked him what he was doing there, and he said that he was walking around the forest being very manly," - listening to her friend with half-ear, Corduroy girl was searching through the mysterious book. Since she returned from her trip and reported to Stan, she was just sitting alone in the gift shop leafing through the book absently. The business in this hours was slow to none, and no tourists bothered her. Stan was in the living room, Mabel left to the town with her friends. Suddenly, Soos tumbled in, with a wide and blissful smile on his round face. He immediately told her about encounter with a mysterious forest creature.

"And he said that his name was Chutzpar, and he asked me if I have any manly stuff, and I said yes, cuz I have a luchador mask at home, and I told him that I can bring it to him this evening to show him. So I'll go to see him again," - he continued.

"Did he look like this?" - Wendy showed her friend the page with 'Manotaur' inscription and picture.

"Yeah," - Soos nodded. - "How did you know? What is this book? Is it Mr Pines' new catalogue of Shack's exhibits?"

"Not exactly. Can I go with you to see this guy?"

"Sure thing, dawg. I'm so glad you decided to go with me!"

"Soos, change the lightbulb in the closet," - came a shout from somewhere inside the house, and the boy quickly ran to the resque.

Wendy would like to go with Soos right away, but she had to visit her home first. Daily routine was waiting for her there - doing the chores and making dinner for the whole family. When she was done, she wiped her forehead and left home. In ten minutes she was at Soos' place. His grandmother opened the door.

"¡Hola, chica!" - Abuelita greeted Wendy. - "Do you want some dinosaur-shaped cookies?"

"Oh, I'd love to," - Corduroy heard her stomach grumble, - "But we, me and Soos, are, like, supposed to hurry."

"It's alright, I'll give you a bag. A bag of cookies, Soos," - she said, seeing her grandson coming back from his room.

"Thanks, Abuelita, you're the best!" - he replied. - "I'll come back later." - He ran back from the house, dragging Wendy with him, who barely had enough time to grab the bag of cookies from Abuelita.

Together they ran through the sunlit streets of Gravity Falls, past Greasy's diner, then out of town, by the cemetery fence, and deeper to the forest. Soos then lead her through the 'spooky' part of the forest, and when they cleared it, they finally stopped and caught their breath.

"That's it, dude. That's where we're supposed to catch up with him," - Soos said.

"Are you sure he comes?" - Wendy asked. The idea of meeting an enormous magical beast alone in the woods seemed worse by the minute.

"Dunno. He said he'd come, so I guess we'll have to wait a bit." - He took a bag of cookies from Wendy and tossed a handful in his mouth. - "Hey, do you hear that?" - he said, munching on the cookies.

"What, your champing?" - the girl retorted, but then she heard. A loud and rhythmical thuds coming from the forest, like a footsteps, but unnaturally heavy. Hey were closing in very fast. The two friends started to look around, searching for the direction it was coming from, but only when the beast entered the glade did they see it.

The manotaur was huge. Wendy was used to see big people every day, namely her father, but Manly Dan would seem scrubby and scrawny in comparison. Manotaur's hands were like trunks of a century-old trees, and his chest, wide as a mountainside, surged with every breath that raised gusts of wind. Cloven hooves left deep marks in the ground. His red beard was gathered in a ponytail, and on his left shoulder a tattoo of a male gender symbol could be seen.

"You!" - the manotaur shouted, his roar bending the trees and making Wendy cover her head.

"Sup dawg," - Soos happily responded. - "Meet Wendy, she's my best friend, and she's really cool. Wendy, this is Chutzpar, he's my new friend."

"Did you bring it?!" - Chutzpar protruded his thick and callous index finger, pointing at Soos.

"Sure thing," - the boy replied. - "here you go," - he handed his mask to the manotaur. The beast looked at the mask for some time. It was light-blue, with yellow edging around the eyes, nose and mouth. He then starter to pull the mask over his head, although it clearly was way too small for him, and even if it wasn't, his horns and inhuman structure of the skull would have prevented him from wearing it. - "It's very manly," - Soos continued, oblivious to the futility of manotaur's attempts. - "I watch lucha libre matches a lot, and they fight just so cool. Batista bomb and diving headbutt are my favourite moves, they are very spectacular. Luchador fighting is not so popular here in US, but in Mexico it's, like, a national sport."

At this point he was interrupted with a sound of ripping cloth. The Manotaur finally managed to pull the mask over his nose, so that holes for the eyes were in place of his nostrils. But that was when the mask finally gave up and tore apart.

"You!" - Chutzpar roared, making Wendy cover her ears again. - "What did you bring me! This thing isn't manly at all!"

"But man-"

"You dare mock me?! I'll show you what a real man can do!" - with that, the Manotaur lowered his head and charged at the nearest tree, hitting his forehead on it. The crack of impact deafened kids for a moment, before they saw how the pine tree started to bow down and fall, slowly at first, but gradually rising its speed. - "See?!" - he growled, when the pine hit the forest floor with a deafening thump. - "You are next!"

Without further warnings, two friends turned around and ran as fast as they could. This, however, was nowhere near as fast as the Manotaur moved. In only a couple of seconds Wendy realized that he was right behind them. She pushed Soos in the shoulder with all her strength, jumping in the opposite direction afterwards. Her expectations were fulfilled - the Manotaur ran between them at a tremendous speed. Luckily for the preteens, his enormous mass prevented him from changing direction too quickly, and they managed to get relatively far from him. Not far enough.

A couple more of evasive manoeuvres saved them from Manotaur's wrath, but Wendy knew this can't go on forever. She saw a huge boulder ahead of them and, grabbing Soos by the hand, ran to it. They stopped once they reached it, panting heavily, and Wendy felt coldness of the stone wall she pressed her back into. Chutzpar didn't make them wait.

"Duck!" - the girl cried, pushing Soos' shloulder when the manotaur charged at them, lowering his head once again. They jumped to the sides simultaneously.

The impact was so heavy Wendy felt ground jump under her feet, and a shockwave hit her in the back. She stumbled and fell to her knees, turning back in fear and awe to see what happened to the manotaur. Despite her hopes, the beast didn't pass out, but his horns were firmly stuck in the side of the boulder, that was covered by a net of cracks.

"You!" - he shouted, trying to free his horns. - "Don't go anywhere, I'll break free in a moment, and then I'll teach you a lesson!"

Wendy immediately snatched Soos' hand and dragged him away, as far as possible from the emotionally unstable magical creature. They ran through the forest, urged on by distant shouts and threats. Then, when they were far enough to lose sight of their enemy, they heard thunderous crack that could mean only one thing - the manotaur has broken the boulder.

The girl looked around in desperation. Seeing a thick and widespread undergrowth of ferns she ran there, leading her friend with her, and when they were deep enough they ducked. Broad leaves covered them completely, and they sat there, trying to calm down their erratic breath. Lumping footsteps were getting closer by the second - the manotaur must have been tracking them by scent.

"Dude he must be really upset about the mask not fitting him," - Soos said.

"Soos shut up please!" - Wendy whispered, covering his mouth. - "He'll hear." - The girl felt her whole body trembling, as she couldn't contain her fear. - 'There must be a way to beat him,' - she thought desperately. - 'He must have some weaknesses. Weaknesses? The book said something about weaknesses.' - She carefully produced the book from her backpack and started flipping through the pages, searching for the 'Manotaur' entry. She knew she saw it earlier. Where was it? At the beginning? Closer to the end? Her hand were shaking so much she accidentally tore one page. Finally, she found it. 'Manotaurs,' - the header read. A picture of manotaur flexing his tremendous arms was drawn lower on the page. She quickly ran her eyes through description and moved on to the 'weaknesses' section.

'Weaknesses: easily distracted by food. Can be tricked into performing any long and useless task if convinced that it proves his manliness.' - They can outsmart him. While this task didn't seem too difficult, the very thought of failure sent shivers down Wendy's spine. 'We only have one chance,' - she kept telling herself. - 'only one chance.' - She didn't know what was that heavy thumping in her ears - footsteps of approaching manotaur, or blood pounding in her temples.

Footsteps finally stopped outside the undergrowth of ferns.

"I know that you are out there somewhere," - Chutzpar roared. - "Hiding like unmanly cowards you are! So get out of there and face me! Don't make me trample all the ferns with logs and boulders!"

"No, please, don't do this!" - Wendy hastily stood up, raising her hands in a surrender. - "We're here. And we have cookies," - she produced the bag of dinosaur-shaped cookies and shook it slightly. The treat inside made a crunching sound. Chutzpar stopped instantly, looking at the bag with heavy breathing.

"Can I have some?" - he asked finally. Wendy took a hesitant step towards him. The Manotaur seemed... unstable. There was no guarantee that he would not attack them again once he gets the cookies. However, it was clear to her that trying to negotiate with the beast may bring results. She took another step forward.

Up close he seemed impossibly huge. His hairy chest was like a meadow with a tall grass, and his head was up at unreachable height. Realizing the she was putting her life through a lottery, Wendy shut her eyes and handed the bag to the Manotaur. He emptied the whole bag of cookies on his gigantic palm and tossed them into his mouth. For a couple of moments he was chewing. Then he gulped down heavily and went still.

"Good," - he said finally. - "Is that it?" - Wendy nodded, unable to speak because of the lump in her throat. - "Pity," - Chutzpar sighed heavily. - "Sorry for chasing you, guys. I don't usually do things like this. I just- I had a bad day."

Wendy took a risk to let out a sigh of relief. This was easier than she expected. Discarding the fact that she and Soos almost were trampled a number of times.

"It's alright, dawg," - Soos cheered him. - 'This is not even remotely alright,' - Wendy thought. - "And why did you have a bad day?"

The Manotaur sighed, raising a small hurricane.

"I've met Multi-bear today," - he explained. - "I wanted to fight him, but he convinced me not to. We chatted a little, and, as Destructor told us that time, he turned out to be a cool dude. I went back to the Man-cave, and told other Manotaurs about it. But Lideraur said that if I hang out with Multi-bear, I'm not man enough. So, now the other dudes wouldn't hang out with me, and I don't know what to do."

"Maybe you need to do something manly to show them that you are still manly enough?" - Ramirez suggested.

"Like what?" - Chutzpar sighed again.

"Like, say, fight in a luchador match," - Soos proposed. - "Although the mask is ruined. But plenty of fighters perform without masks, so it's OK, I think. Your favoured moves should be all kind of body slams, dude. With your weight it'd be devastating!"

"Fight?" - the Manotaur sniffed the air. - "But whom shall I fight?"

"And who's the strongest guy you know?" - the boy asked.

"Lideraur, of course!"

"Then fight him!"

"What?!" - Chutzpar sounded shocked. - "No one fights Lideraur, he's too strong!"

"Dawg that's the point!" - Soos reasoned. - "Fighting weak dudes is, like, cheating. Fighting the strongest is manly!"

For some time the beast was silent, save for loud snuffling. At some point Wendy decided that it might be time to hold her breath again, but then Chutzpar stood up.

"Alright, I'll try it," - he said. - "Our Lideraur is, like, an OK dude, so I think we'll be cool. Thanks for the help, guys. And for the cookies," - he went back to the forest thicket, leaving a glade behind him.

"Dude it's no big deal," - Soos called after him. Wendy wiped her forehead.

"It was easier than I expected," - she confessed.

"What was easier?" - the boy asked her.

"Soos, we almost got killed!" - Corduroy cried.

"Oh, come on, he was just upset," - he waved his hand.

"You think so? And I thought my dad can be mad. Look, I'm thirsty. And hungry. And whacked. Let's head home?"

"I'm hungry too, but Wendy, it's kind of early now. And we're not far from the Mystery Shack. Maybe we can pay Mabel and Mr Pines a visit, you know? He did offer us pizza yesterday."

"Fine, but let's not remind him about it. What if he decides to charge us for it?" - the girl sighed. - "Soos, and let's not tell them about the Manotaur and all this, alright?"

"But why?"

"Soos, you know how those grown-ups can be. They just get some things so wrong. Things about some manotaurs or magical creatures - especially."

"But Mabel is not so grown up," - Ramirez pointed.

"Yes, but- I don't know. Maybe we'll tell her later, when we get to know her better. OK?" - her friend shrugged and nodded.

"What?" - Stan arched an eyebrow, looking over the kids. Their battered clothes and somewhat bruised faces did not escape his attention. He scratched his backside through the fabric of his boxers. - "You were strolling in the forest, and decided to stop by because you feel thirsty and hungry?"

"Um- well- yeah, I guess," - Wendy stuttered. Their employer sighed.

"Come on in, then," - he shrugged. - "You'll make me company at least. Mabel is about to leave again."

It turned out that he was watching TV in the living room. 'The Duchess approves VII' was on air. Stan just resumed watching, telling Wendy and Soos that they can take some pie from the fridge, and make sandwiches. Corduroy volunteered to bring food for everyone, while Soos happily joined Stan. Microwaving some pie and slicing bread, cheese and salami didn't take her long. She put everything on a large plate and headed to the exit.

Exactly when she was about to leave the kitchen, she had a very strange sensation of being watched. The girl slowly turned her head to the side, to see a ghostly figure some five feet away from her. The figure was almost transparent, shimmering and wavering in the air. It was so blurred that she couldn't pick out its face nor clearly see the figure. Even its height was changing constantly.

Seconds passed. The girl was just standing stone-still, holing the plate and staring at the apparition. What are you supposed to do when you see a ghost? Run away screaming? Faint? Beat it down with a crucifix? In fact, she simply could not believe that she was really seeing it. If it did anything, it may have shook the girl out of her stupor, but it was motionless, aside from its perpetual flickering and quivering.

Wendy didn't know how long did they stayed like this, studying each other, but finally the ghost slowly raised its hand, or at least an appendage that would pass for hand. It was pointing at the table. Wendy followed the hand with her eyes, and saw that the breadcrumbs on the tabletop were moving. She took a step closer, watching the dance of crumbs on the light, almost white wood of the table. Even the small puddle of water joined the moving chits, twisting and distorting. Words were formed on the tabletop.

'Stop Mabel'.

Wendy put the plate down to thoroughly rub her eyes with both hands. The sentence was still there. She looked back at the ghost, only to see that it disappeared. She read the writing again. 'Stop Mabel'. She was positive she saw it, but could not believe it.

She heard the footsteps approaching the kitchen and quickly wiped the tabletop with her hand, erasing the mysterious inscription. A second later, none other than Mabel Pines herself entered the kitchen.

"Sup again, Wen-wen," - she cheered. - "having problems finding food? In my gruncle's household it's no wonder," - she laughed. - "And you have a face on you like you just saw a ghost, what in the world happened?"

"I just- um- well-" - Wendy stammered. - "We were watching 'the duchess approves'-"

"Say no more," - Mabel patted her on the shoulder compassionately. - "Boy, this table is dirty. When gruncle Stan ever learns to clean the kitchen up properly?" - she took the wet cloth from the sink and started to wipe the table clean. - "well, are you going back to watch the movie?" - she asked the younger girl. - "Or are all the sandwiches for yourself?"

Wendy hastily returned to the living room. She gave Stan and Soos their share of snacks and joined them in watching the TV, but the whole time she was on pins and needles, and not only because 'The Duchess approves VII' was inhumanly boring - although Stan and Soos seemed to like it. The situation seemed absolutely surreal. A ghost told her to stop the girl who came to the town yesterday to visit her great uncle. This was incomprehensible, but this was reality. When the preteens finally headed their homes, she waited until they went relatively far from the Shack and stopped her friend, grabbing him by the shirt.

"Soos, listen," - she said. - "One thing happened while you were watching TV. I've seen a ghost in the kitchen."

"Oh my gosh, are you sure?" - Ramirez cupped his cheeks.

"Yeah, of course I am," - she nodded. - 'Although I'm not actually,' - she said to herself.

"No way! What did it look like? And old dude? Or a young guy? Or maybe a middle-aged woman?"

"I don't know, I could not spell out any details. It was like- just a silhouette, no more. And it told me to stop Mabel."

"What?" - the boy's jaw opened. - "Stop her from what? Dancing all the time?"

"I don't know, it didn't tell," - she sighed. - "I think Mr Pines and Mabel don't know about the ghost. I'm almost positive. Something is wrong here, Soos," - she said, deep in thoughts, letting go of his tee. - "I don't know, what. And I want to find out."

Here comes the first chapter. Hope you liked it. In any event, feedback is of great importance, as I'm trying to make it better, and I need your opinion.

A very angry ravage, ilovefanfics105 - thanks for taking your time to revies. Dipper is elsewhere.

It's New Year's eve now. So happy New Year. And stay weird.