When the door opened, we both relaxed, at just seeing the package.
"Did you order something Grant Sam?" Mason called over his shoulder as I picked up the box "Oh, yes. It's for tomorrow night." She walked down the stairs, and we looked at her "What's tomorrow night?" we asked, heading back inside.
"I've decided to hold a dance here at the shack tomorrow night," she took the box from me and opened it, pulling out streamers and other decorations "One of you will stay here and help decorate, while the other will put up posters around the town."
"Mas, you decorate." I grabbed the pile of posters, and headed for the door "If one of us can make this place look nice enough for a dance, its you." "Is that an insult to my shack?" Grant Sam asked, and I smiled at her over my shoulder "Is it?" and closed the door behind me.
Sure I was hungry, but I really wanted to check what was walking around here outside.
"Hey!" I stopped when I heard Mason yell, and run up to me, holding my bag "You forgot this!" he grinned, and I slid it over my shoulder, reaching in, to see if anything was packed in it.
Phone, wallet… and journal.
"I thought you'd need it for later." He nudged me "Don't get yourself lost in town, or distracted." I pushed him while laughing "Oh please! I'll be fine!"
Going our separate ways, I took the long walk into town.
Using my teeth, I ripped off another piece of tape, and stuck it to the poster, before stepping back, and kneeling down, scooping up the last few posters.
Already, a few of them were getting noticed, and someone walked up to me "You from the shack?" I nodded "I am, what's up?" I asked "Are you going to be at the dance?" "I'll be working, so yeah, will you be there?" "I'll see what it's like." They walked off, taking a poster with them.
Walking off, I looked around, trying to find a place to put the posters, before I stopped, and smiled.
I hurried across the street, and stepped into the bookstore, the elderly woman smiled at me "Hello again Dear… How have you been?" "Busy, how about you?" I asked, resting against the counter, and she nodded slowly "It's been a slow day, I'm glad you're here."
My stomach, let out a growl and I felt my face heat up in embarrassment, making her smile "Hungry dear? I haven't eaten anything yet either, why don't you join me?" "Oh, I can't intrude." I raised my hands, but she shook her head "Please, it would be nice to have company."
I smiled at her "Alright then." We went over to a small reading table and chairs, sitting down, she left to go and get food.
Coming back a few minutes later, she set down a tray, with pancakes and tea sitting on it, "Here you are dear." "Thank you." I smiled at her and picked up the tea cup, taking a small sip.
We chatted away the minutes, talking about books we liked, and our plans for the day, I left, promising to return as soon as I could.
I hung up a few more posters, and headed back home.
The afternoon sun came down on me, as I headed back, listening around to the forest however, it was unusually quiet.
Normally, I'd hear birds or the sounds of other small animals, but not on this walk, it was kinda like everything was hiding.
A rustle from the bushes from behind me, made me look over my shoulder, and stiffened up.
As the wolf walked out of the undergrowth.
Low on all fours, it had dark brown fur, messy and full of leaves, twigs, its dark eyes looked up at me, watching me, to see what I'd do.
I nodded to the wolf, and started to walk again, however I heard it following me, looking down from the corner of my eyes, the wolf, walked beside me, easily keeping pace with my long strides.
"Are we walking the same way?" I asked, and, it shook its head, moving to in front of me, blocking my path, it held out its paw, and I took it, shaking it lightly "Well… My name is Dipper." I smiled.
It let out a low bark, and started walking forwards, looking over at me, as if waiting for me to follow, and I did.
The wolf, lead me back to the Shack, before brushing against my legs, and running off into the woods once more, letting out a howl as it did so.
As I walked up the steps, my Grant Sam's hand, shot through the door, grabbed hold of my arm, and yanked me inside.
"Grant Sam?" I asked, and she closed the door shut "Nothing good, comes from wolves." She said simply "How did it go?" she took the posters from me "Good, a bunch of people walked up to me and asked about the dance." "Good." Grant Sam walked off and I followed her.
They had decorated one of the Shacks extra rooms, and outside, Mason, no doubt made most of the decorations that had been used, or he managed to find them in the Shack somewhere.
The rest of the day, I baked a lot of treats for the dance, and we got most of it set up, no doubt tomorrow we'd spend at least half of it doing the rest of the work.
We fell into the seats, and Mason looked at me "That, was a lot of work…" I nodded, taking a long sip from my lemonade, "But, it'll be worth it tomorrow." He held up his glass in response "True."
Eating some take out for dinner, I sat on my bed, opening the journal, trying to see if there was a needed entry.
My laptop, was already up on some websites, information ready at my fingertips to read and make notes on, however, I wanted to make sure the Journal, had some more information.
And it did.
Setting down the book, the pages were open to Werewolves, and I pulled my laptop into my lap, before reading away, it mostly talked about their origins, but I wanted to know why, the people here at the falls, were so afraid of them.
When that search showed up nothing, I took a different approach, searching up "Wolves in Gravity Falls."
And this time, I got leads.
Apparently, there's been all sorts of disappearances, and things going missing, before each one, wolfs howl had been heard.
"Huh…" I chewed on my lip, and grabbed the Journal, all it said, was that werewolves often looked after things, or people, they were mentioned to be protectors of sorts.
"This isn't making sense…" I sighed, and looked out the window, "I really need to try getting some answers from them, don't I?" groaning, I closed all the tabs, and put the Journal away, rubbed my eyes, tired from looking at the laptop screen and small words of the Journal.
"What's up Dipper?" Mason asked, falling onto my bed, and I looked at him "Just tired. I did a search, but I got nowhere." "What were you looking up?" he asked, resting his head in his palms, I looked around the room, trying to listen for Grant Sam.
"She's talking with Sus downstairs." As if he read my mind, he sat up "Alright, good…" I sighed "I was looking up why, people are so scared of wolves here." He nodded "Yeah… It is rather odd, for everyone to be so… afraid, what did it say?" "Just that every time something bad happened, a wolf howl had been heard before it." I replied.
"That would make them paranoid, but really? Are they blaming wolves for something that probably isn't their fault?" "I guess so…" we kept quiet.
Our gaze went to the window, as a loud snap came from outside, we nearly tripped over each other to get to it, a large tree, was laying down on the front yard, snapped at the bottom.
"How…?" we looked at each other, before Grant Sam marched out into the front yard "Wood cutter?!" a woman, who looked like Wes, came into view, with an axe over her shoulder "Yes?" "Why, are you cutting down trees on my lawn?!" "I need it to carve a totem pole." The woman waved off our Grant Sam.
We let out sighs of relief "It was just her…" "Jeeze, we're getting ourselves worked up over nothing." We broke into laughter at our silliness, and ran downstairs, jumping off the steps and bolted outside.
"Grant Sam!" we ran over to her "Yes?" she looked at us, and we smiled "Can we play with the left over silly string please?" the two of us asked at the same time, and she groaned "Very well, just not inside the house." We high fived, and ran back into the house.
Ripping open the box, we both grabbed as much as we could, before finding Suz "SUZ!" she looked at us "Come play with us!" she nodded and we all ran into the front yard, however I nearly knocked Wes over in my race with Mason, bottles of silly string fell all over the ground.
"Man… How did the old Lady let you get your hands on this?" he picked some up, and I grabbed the rest "We just asked, wanna play with us in the front yard?" I asked, and he nodded "Sure."
Joining me outside, and pointed the can at me, before firing "Pfft…! Purple is a good colour on you!" I pointed a can at him, and he laughed as it sprayed out at him "And green is good on you."
Our laughter, and the sound of silly string being shot out at each other, filled the night sky.
Laughter, laughter and good times.
Those teens were lucky, but they were so unaware…
But, I'll keep watch over them.
After all…
I'm not the only monster that lurks around here.