"Ugh…" Dipper opened his eyes blearily. The pain was gone, but his head was aching.

"Dipper? Dipper are you okay?" Mabel sounded frantic. She was pounding on the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Dipper said. "Just blacked out for a sec." He tried to push himself to his feet, but something wasn't right. His legs felt weird. He looked down at where they should be, and a foreign sight met his eyes.

His shorts were torn into pieces around where his legs were a minute before. And attached to his torso were four long, spindly, brown legs that definitely did not belong to him.

He screamed.

"What?" Mabel asked from the other side of the door. "Dipper, what happened?"

He was breathing heavily, staring at the bottom half of his body. He couldn't say anything. He looked at where the soft, brown fur started on his stomach, thickening as it moved towards his legs. He twisted around, seeing his elongated body stretch behind him and attach to two more legs. And a short, tufted tail poked up at the back. He stared at it. It twitched.

"Uhh… Mabel?" He called through the door, trying to stay calm. He propped himself up on one of his front knees, trying to stand up.

"What?" She sounded both exasperated and worried. "Dip, tell me what's happening already!"

Trying to steady his breath, he got up and took a few wobbly steps toward the door. He leaned against it and unlocked it, falling forward as it swung open.

Mabel stumbled back and stared at him, lying facedown on the floor, back legs sticking up absurdly in the air.

"What the heck?" She said in astonishment.

"Help me!" Dipper said frantically, pushing himself back up onto his knees. Mabel took his hand and pulled him up, staring at him.

"Oh my gosh, Dipper, what is that?" She said, pointing to his lower half.

"I don't know!" Dipper said with distress. He looked down, still unable to believe his eyes. "I don't know!" He took another wobbly step forward, and the momentum pulled him into a few more. Unable to coordinate his front and back legs, he fell again.

Mabel looked down at him lying sprawled on the floor. She examined his furry back and skinny legs. "I would say you're a centaur, but that does not look like a horse." She sounded like she was trying not to laugh.

"Mabel! How can you think this is funny? I- I'm-" Dipper couldn't seem to think of words to adequately describe his predicament. "I'm a freak!" His voice broke, and he sounded like he was on the verge of tears.

"Oh, come on, Dipper, this is pretty cool!" Mabel said, helping him up again. "Come on, let's get you into our room."

"Cool?!" Dipper said incredulously, but he allowed her to support him as he stumbled into the attic bedroom.

He sat with a thump in the middle of the room, awkwardly folding his new legs beneath him. He tried to breathe normally. "Okay…" he said, trying to calm down. "Ohhhhkay…"

"I think I figured out what you are," Mabel said.

"Oh yeah?" Dipper replied, trying to keep his voice clear of fear or anger.

Mabel nodded. "You're a deer!"

"A deer?" Dipper twisted around to examine himself. She was right. The short tail and white spots on his back made him look like Bambi.

She giggled. "Have you seen your ears?"

"My ears? What about them?" He said frantically, still trying to come to grips with the situation. He put his hands up to feel them, and long, velvety flaps met his fingertips. In his surprise, he felt them rotate and stand straight up.

Mabel laughed again. "They've been doing that the whole time!" She stroked Dipper's back. "You're so soft," she said in wonder.

Dipper shivered under her touch. The fur between her fingers and his skin made it feel like she was rubbing a blanket on him.

"Here, why don't you see for yourself," Mabel said, getting a mirror off her bedside table and bringing it to him.

He took the mirror and held it up. He was shocked to see not only fluffy ears sticking out of his hair, but the tips of antlers as well. His nose was discolored and dark, and he had little brown spots creeping up his neck and scattered on his shoulders.

That's when he realized that he wasn't wearing any clothes.

"Ah!" Out of habit, he tried to cross his legs, but ended up tangling himself. "Mabel! Get me a shirt!"

Mabel laughed. "I don't know, I'm loving the natural look."

He glared at her. "Mabel!"

She rolled her eyes and went over to his dresser, throwing him one of his orange shirts. "Don't expect me to get you pants, though." She said, still half laughing.

He glared at her again and pulled the shirt on.

Just then, they heard Stan coming up the attic steps. Dipper whipped around, looking frightened. "Don't let him see me!" He said wildly. He scrambled to get up and onto his bed, but all he did was make a ruckus as he knocked things over.

Mabel ran to the door and held it shut just as Stan tried to open it.

"Hey, what gives?" He said. "I'm bringing you kids lunch!"

"Uh, just a minute!" Mabel said, looking at Dipper. He was trying to get his back legs onto his bed and presumably under the covers. He was still stamping around and making quite a lot of noise.

"What's up, you got an animal in there or something?" Stan said, half laughing.

"Uh, yes! We brought home a deer!" Mabel said quickly. Dipper looked at her angrily. "I mean, no! Nope! There's nothing in here at all!"

"Just let me in already," Stan grumbled.

"No! You can't come in!" Mabel said, pressing herself against the door with all her might.

Stan sighed in exasperation. "Fine. Your sandwiches are out here then. That's the last time I do something nice for you, ungrateful little…" They heard him walking away, muttering to himself.

Mabel exhaled and slid down the door. Dipper stopped attempting to get into his bed and trotted over to her. He settled himself down next to her.

"Why didn't you want him to see you?" Mabel asked, glancing at him.

Dipper looked at her, his ears rotating back and down. "Mabel, are you crazy? He would put me on display! It was bad enough pretending to be the pre-teen wolf boy, but this?" He gestured to his new body, "He'd probably market me to the whole world!"

Mabel sighed. "I guess you have a point."

They sat in silence for a moment. Then Dipper got an idea. "Hey, do you think you could bring Ford up here?" He asked her.