A neighbor of theirs, Farmer Pepperon, owned a sleigh. It was painted red and, every year, sometime in the week before Christmas, the farmer would attach bells to his sleigh and a white mare leading it, and deck himself out in a red suit. He'd drive the sleigh from a path in the woods, onto the frozen lake, then to the Lake Gravity Falls Public Boat Launch, into town and up Main Street. Once arriving in town square, Farmer Pepperon would bestow the little kids with simple toys he had carved out of wood. It was a beloved holiday tradition.

Pepperon was generous man, but not to Ricky and Gus. The two teens had made a mistake, and that mistake was being friends with Billy Mischief. For Farmer Pepperon had been the very same rotund gentleman that Billy had set on fire and humiliated all those months before. That day, Gus and Ricky saw the power of the farmer's spite. "I won't help you. If your friend got himself in trouble, it serves him right."

So as the teens walked across the ice, they cursed Pepperon's name. "I wish I had the wooden fox he carved for me when I was eight!" Ricky growled "I'd smash it to bits!"

"Damn his hand carved tops." Gus said. "Mine always tipped too early..."

Ricky nodded in agreement, but the conversation sputtered out. They walked for several seconds, hats over their ears, mittens thrust into pockets, their breaths coming out as visible puffs. The heiress sighed "We have got to convince Billy to apologize to him."

Gus snorted "Good luck with that. I don't think Billy is sorry."

"Of course he's not," Ricky said with a sigh "but it's a civility thing and, besides, it's not a good idea to live in a town this small and have an enemy." Gus had to nod at this comment.

Naturally, Ricky had been very confused when Gus had approached her on her property, babbling about wallpaper and lake serpents and bacon shirts. After getting him to slow down and take a breath, Ricky heard a coherent version of the story. Then she had sworn and thrust her hand into her coat pocket. She pulled out the amulet on a chain.

"Damn it, I he told me he outgrew the need for this!" He looked into Gus's eyes "I'm telling you- I haven't touched it since yesterday. I forgot it was there! I've been so busy- getting new books and visiting my aunt two towns away."

But the past was done, and now they were walking across the ice. Luckily the top 8th of an inch or so had melted in the days, and frozen again with snowflakes stuck in it, which made for a friction surface. They cut through the small village of ice shanties. Already some had corners plastered into the ice. Ice shanties were made cheap, as they would probably sink.

Gus walked at the island kind of diagonal until he saw the great hole in the ice created by Lagrafa. The fair haired boy pointed this out to Ricky."The last I saw him was by that hole."

"Did he make that hole?"

"No, but his monster did."

Ricky raised an eyebrow and glanced down at Gus. The boy knew he had to elaborate, so the time spent reaching the island's shore was also time spent catching Ricky up on the tale of Lagrafa's creation. Gus felt relieved knowing that Billy had shared his secret with the heiress, because the fair haired boy didn't know how he was going to explain how his friend was stuck on Scuttlebutt Island otherwise.

"He did that in the Man-Cave," Ricky replied, as they stepped onto shore "the manotaurs had a bunch of trained bears they were bullying us with. But Billy did something- something that stuck them together into this, awful, ugly creature- that could talk!" She sounded scandalized by the last part.

It was the first Gus had heard of Multi-Bear, though after she spoke those words, what Billy had said earlier that morning suddenly made sense. Gus did not find Billy where had left him, which annoyed the boy somewhat, even though he had not told Billy to wait in one place. As they walked deeper inland, however, it became clear which direction the young magician had gone. It was a little at first, but the damage to the island from Billy's random energy attacks were clear as day. The island bore craters like scars, and trees were broken in half when they were lucky. As they traveled on, more of those marks were visible. Gus started to worry.

"Ricky, you don't have to be with me. Just give me the amulet- Billy and I will come back later."

The girl raised an indignant eyebrow "A noble gesture, Gus. But where was that nobility when we were back on the mainland, or walking over the ice?"

Gus sighed "Look, the thing is, I didn't realize he'd get this bad. I mean, look at all this!" It really looked like a series of explosions had gone off on the island. "I'm worried," Gus said "Billy wouldn't hurt you on purpose, but he can't control himself right now…"

Ricky took Gus's wrist. The boy felt a thrill that he was knew as forbidden. The girl said "He's my friend too. I'm already out here. I'm not going to leave him."

"But-" Gus piped up.

"In fact, I should be the one telling you to go home." She pointed out "Unless you have some kind of invincibility to Billy Mischief's magic that I don't know about?" She teased.

Gus laughed "'Fraid not," he said "he's the one who put me in these stupid clothes!" The boy gestured to his torso.

Ricky giggled, "I wasn't going to say anything, but you do look like an overripe banana."

Gus's smile faded, because he remembered how lost and afraid Billy had looked when he had last seen him, wearing an outfit identical to this. They came to a place where the path of destruction actually split. In one direction, the ground was charred on the path going inland, but there were more exploded trees on the path going toward one of the shores. Both disagreed about which way Billy had gone last, so they resolved to split up: Gus took the inland path and Ricky went toward the shore.

A footpath took Gus a winding way around the thick trunks of very old pines, and over a ridge. A ring of white birch trees came into view, and-

Gus felt ill.

There was an amazing amount of blood. Truly outstanding, really- more blood than the boy believed could be in a creature that was smaller than an elephant. It was everywhere- it was on the snow, it was on the white bark trees, it was on the low hanging pine needles, on the rocks and it had seeped into the soil. Like it had just exploded out. The blood was what stood between the two parts that Gus was looking at. On one side of the blood was a weird, hairy sack- like some kind of deflated balloon. And on other other side, a deer skeleton, fully intact.

Gus's eyes simply stared between the deerskin, the blood, and the skeleton for a while. Something in his brain was locked, and he could not right away come to the obvious conclusion. When he did, he strangled a yell in his throat. Some creature had deboned this deer!

Some creature that was on this island with himself and Ricky. Billy too.

Unless the thing that had done this was Billy!

Gus felt ashamed of the thought as soon as he had it. Billy wouldn't do something so barbaric and cruel! It had to be a manotaur or a mountain lion of something.

But, how would a mountain lion be able to do this? To remove an animal's skeletal system all together, and in tact- it was simply impossible. No amount of strength could do something that required so much finesse!

…But magic could. It dawned on Gus that Billy was the only person or thing he knew who was able to do a thing like this.

"Gus! Come here! I found something!" The voice yelled from about a hundred feet away, unseen beyond closely packed trees.

Gus was only too happy to leave the sight of the deer. So eager was he that he burst out into a run, in a beeline, pretty much in the direction of Ricky's voice. Luckily, it was winter, which meant that all the thick and prickly ground bushes were dead. He ran until he saw her feminine black shape through the trees, then put on more speed. Finally he entered the clearing Ricky was in and stopped, panting.

She turned to him "You alright?"

Gus looked up. He could tell her. He could tell her all about the carnage in the forest and his doubts about Billy. She might get mad at first. She might call him a liar. But she would demand proof, and then Gus would give it to her. He would show her what Billy had done- what butchery he was capable of. And then she would see. Then she would rethink ever making Billy her boyfriend.

"Gus?" Ricky asked.

But it wasn't something Gus could do. Yeah, Ricky deserved a lot better than Billy. But right now, she liked the know-it-all magician. Whether she loved him Gus doubted, but she did believe in him and she held him in high regard. A part of Gus wanted to separate his two friends, and yet he didn't want to hurt them. Especially not Ricky. Seeing the deer would just upset her too much.

Besides, it was unfair. Billy was not in his right mind at the moment- he wasn't entirely responsible for his actions.

"Just got tired running, I guess." He panted.

Ricky urged Gus to come close. "Look at this tree- someone carved a message in it."

Indeed, Ricky was right. There was a part of the trunk where the bark was stripped, leaving a column of exposed wood. In said wood was a message…though it didn't make much sense.

Li dqbrqh lv xs wkhuh…Sohdvh khos ph! L'p ehjjlqj brx, Sohdvh!

"Huh," Gus said "that's weird. I can't read it though. Lee Duckburgh..what?"

"I don't think it's in English, Gus," Ricky said, bending at the waist to inspect the message.

"Well that's definitely not French- I know that!" Gus said. Come to think of it, these didn't even look like words in any language. A lot of them didn't have vowels. "Do you think this is qwlghmian?" He asked. "Qwlghmian? Am I pronouncing it right?"

"Probably not," Ricky said "about the pronunciation question," she added. She cocked her head to study the letters. "And I don't think this is qw- that language either," she said, avoiding saying that bear trap of a word. "Too vowely." She declared. After a few more seconds she said "You know, I was thinking it was a code of some sort- but you might be right. It might be Takelma, or the Chinook language or something."

Gus shrugged, and so did Ricky. Gus brought up the obvious question "So, this has nothing to do with Billy, right? A mean, an Indian probably wrote this? Like some trader?"

Ricky pressed her lips together "Actually, I wasn't thinking that. But now that you mention it, it's probably the case." She nodded "It looks pretty fresh, though. Like from today." She gave Ricky a worried look "If he's still nearby, we should find him and warn him not to go near Billy, at the very least."

Gus sighed wearily "Yeah. 'Hey Chief. We just want to warn you, if you see a skinny blond guy, go the other way. He'll probably turn you into a carrot or something.'"

"Well," Ricky said "we'll give him some kind of story he can buy." She snorted darkly "We'll lie, so that our story will make sense without magic."

Gus had found another message. He pointed this out to Ricky.

Zkb! Zkb lv wklv kdsshqlqj wr ph?! Zkdw glg L hyhu gr zurqj?!

"They sure did write a lot of exclamation points." Gus pointed out.

"Maybe it's a warning of some sort?" Ricky guessed.

"About what?" Gus asked.

Ricky didn't answer. She called Billy's name several times. She didn't receive an answer. "Let's go back inland." She suggested to Gus.

Gus shoved himself in front of her "Let's not." Ricky's eyebrows came together and Gus continued. "I checked in there pretty thoroughly. The island isn't that big." It was a lie. He just didn't want there to be a chance for Ricky to see the deer, and what Billy had done to it. Regardless of whether he was or not, it would only make Ricky think Billy was some kind of monster. Ricky didn't deserve that, and Billy probably didn't either.

Ricky crossed her arms challengingly, still unconvinced. "But where else would we look?"

Something in the frozen lake behind Ricky caught Gus's eye "There's a message in the ice, too."

Ricky looked back over her shoulder, over the cliff. Scuttlebutt Island was kind of like an inverted mirror of Lake Gravity Falls. The lake had a beach on its west shore and cliffs on all three other sides. The island also had mostly cliffs except for a beach on its west side. They were on the north side now, so they were looking over a drop-off.

The cliffs rose out of the water, so it was a clear view to the ice. Ricky and Gus saw the letters though, due to the angle, it was hard to see. They resolved, then, to go down, and at least take a look. Once on the lake, they approached the message, though it was as much gibberish as the first two.

Jrwwd jhw rii wklv lvodqg! Wkhuh'v d idfhohvv pdq iroorzlqj ph!

And when they were close enough to see it, they spotted another.

Ru lv lw rqob d krda?

"Gus, I think Billy did go this way," she pointed to a dark patch in the ice. It wasn't a patch at all, but rather a hole where one could see the black water from beneath. "Look at that. I think Billy made it."

"Or maybe an ice fisherman?"

"Gus, are you looking? It's too irregular for a fishing hole. In fact, the sides aren't even cut or cracked in any way. It looks more like someone melted it," she added "with fire."

Ricky was right. The hole itself had a kind of oblong shape, and the sides were rounded, as if melted. In fact, Gus could imagine a fireball being hurled at the ice and forming this hole.

"At least he just made a hole. I hope he doesn't get any wild ideas and tries to melt the whole lake…" Gus said.

"He can't swim. Why would he do that?" Ricky questioned. "In any case, we're on the right track."

There were more messages.

Jxv! Zkhuh duh brx?! L fdq'w pdnh lw!

Jrwwd jr ilqg klp!

Qr! Fdq'w jr edfn wr Judylwb Idoov…kxuw shrsoh…

"Okay," Gus announced "this is officially getting spooky."

The trail of messages lead to the river. Said river cut through a chasm, and was fed by a waterfall. Walking on the ice in the middle of the chasm was strange, like being in a hallway made of stone and glass.

"Do you think Billy might have made these?" Ricky spoke up.

"Why would he do that?"

"To communicate with us?"

"He's doing a bad job if that's the case." Gus pointed out.

They rounded the corner to the waterfall which was now frozen- the water seemingly paradoxically stuck in mid fall. But there was something wrong with the waterfall: there was a hole blasted through it. The two kids felt that it was safe to assume that Billy had gone through there. Upon reaching it, they saw the falls was a three foot wall, except for the part where there was a blasted hole showing the same rounded signs of being burnt as the melted ice from earlier. They also saw that the recess beyond the wall of ice was deeper than they had believed.

"Hey Gus, it looks like there's a cave back here!"

"Huh," the boy replied "I wonder if the Pines brothers know about this?"

The cave behind the falls was both deeper and darker than they had expected. It extended far- at least as big as Gus's living room. However neither teen could tell how far it went because of some oppressing darkness- as if the cave had been swathed in black funeral cloth. But something was visible from far ahead- in what the teens believed to be the middle of the cave.

Two jaws dropped.

There were lights in the cave- moving lights. Gus believed them to be some strange breed of firefly that glowed red, but they were too large, and the wrong shape. Shapes. Gus recognized some of the shapes flying. The question mark, the evergreen tree, the heart. They glowed so brightly that they looked like they were made of neon tubes. And they were revolving. Circling in a rough orbit around a singular object.

Said object was also red, also glowing, though Gus could see bits of hot white light as well. He realized he was looking at someone's back, who was lying on their side. They had their hot white hands wrapped around their head, which was pulled forward. Gus recognized the shape of the back, but Ricky acted first.

"Billy!" She breathed, jogging forward. Gus ran after to her after only a moment's hesitation.

For a while, magically making messages around me is enough. What do they say? Who cares! As long as my magic is doing something, it's at bay. Said magic has to concentrate on getting every word right. But it was only barely enough. I can feel the wall of energy centimeters away from my ear even as I'm doing it.

I blast the cave. Blast the cave with words, with fire, with, well, blasts. For a while, it lights up almost as brightly as I am. Is it wise? Maybe I'll cause the whole mountain to collapse on toppa me. Dying like that has to be better than having my magic build up until I burst!

I blast a rock away. The rock ceases to exist as a rock, though a fresh cloud of airborne dust hangs in the air above where the rock used to be. However, something catches the blue light in the ground underneath where the rock once was. There is a hole in the stone cave floor. Not one that I made. This one is too irregular- a natural depression in the earth. There's an object in it.

Curiosity draws me. I scurry over to the hole. The object is a box- a box with golden hinges. It's locked. Then, it's broken, after a give the lock a small blast. The box pops open.

There is but one object inside: a piece of paper. A deed for some property. I groan and the groan turns into a scream. I believed that, once, for just once, things would work out in my favor. The universe would align and I'd find something that would help me in this box. I kick the box and the deed with it away, as it's not even worthy of my magic.

I'm sweating buckets, and by this point, I'm shaking. The pain from the birch trees had been nothing like I had ever experienced before. There was a kind of prickling, and a hotness, and coldness at the same time. I'm making it sound like it's kid's play and it's not. I realize: This is what burning feels like. IT HURTS! And it keeps getting worse!

The wall gets closer, closer! Millimeter by millimeter. There's no running away from it any more. It hampers me in from all sides. It's strangling me. No. It is me. I'm trapped inside myself and it's unbearable. Let me out!

I've fallen to the floor on the base of the cave. I cradle my pounding head in my arms and curl by back into itself; fetal position. My body is shaking. Using my magic does no good now. I don't know what that deer did to me, but it's making me worse. I…need…to do…magic…I wave my hand and the air is suddenly full of strange flying creatures. Versions of the designs from the wallpaper this morning, but made out of something resembling neon, and able to move on their own. The cave darkens- I don't even know if I'm doing this or not.

I don't feel any better. The designs, I fear, are a dire portent.

I'm…I'm going to die…

Once I realize this, my eyes start to water and my face distorts into a pained grimace. " L grq'w zdqw wr glh…" I say quietly, not expecting to be heard.

"Billy!" I hear a breathy, female voice, and the sound of boots on stone. My eyes snap open.

Gus and Ricky were halfway to Billy when the magician suddenly sat up, pushing up with one of his arms. He turned his face to the two teens, who gasped and stopped in their tracks.

Billy was glowing, and not with vitality. Like his jacket, his face glowed an unnatural, bright red- more akin to flames in an oven than sunburn. His gloves, tie, and hair were a bright unnatural white. But most startling were his eyes. No longer was Gus looking at his friend with the arresting blue peepers. What he saw in front of him were two deep black caverns, each with a white point of light in them which was ringed by red. Billy didn't look like Billy; he hardly even looked human.

"Jr DZDB!" The magician cried, sweeping his arm. As he did so, and arc of red flame spread out in a wave. Gus saw that it was approaching Ricky and he grabbed her arm and ran her back to where the frozen pool met the stone floor of the cave. The fire pursued them to the ice, them sizzled at the ice's edge, melting it a little before itself dying out.

Billy was standing now, and the glowing symbols still rotated around him, but now faster and in tighter circles. His arms were straight out and to his sides, his white hands in fists. Standing up tall, face twisted in rage, his form glowing unnaturally, he looked like some kind of monster. "Grq'w brx nqrz zkdw'v jrrg iru brx!?"

Gus backed away, his breaths frequent and shallow. "He's speaking some weird devil-language! How does he even pronounce those words?" Maybe he was speaking Qwlghmian after all? Could Billy be fluent?

Ricky shook her head. She looked dumbfounded; shocked. Then light sprang into her eyes as she had an idea. She reached into her pocket and brought out the amulet on the silver chain. "Billy! I have this for you!" She said, holding it up.

Billy snarled, and a golden light escaped the hollow of his mouth. "Lw'v wrr odwh iru wkdw, Ulfnb! Qhyhu plqg!"

Gus took Ricky's hand. "Ricky, we have to get out of here."

Ricky gave Gus a shocked look "But Gus! We can't just leave now. We found him, and he needs our help!"

"But Ricky- it's dangerous! He just threw fire at you! Clearly he wants to hurt us and he doesn't want to be helped!" Gus was serious. After seeing the aftermath of the deer, wouldn't put anything past Billy. The fair haired boy didn't understand what was going on with the magician, but he wasn't in his right mind. Gus did not trust Billy not to harm them when he was crazy.

"Olvwhq wr wkh nlg, Ulfnb!" He blasted the ceiling with his energy "L'oo ghvwurb brx, dqg hyhubwklqj brx fduh derxw! Wkh ehdu khdg vdlg vr!" Then floated off the ground, one spitting red flame in each hand, still snarling at the teens below. The flying symbols had resumed their more random orbits, but even faster now.

Ricky's face twisted into a mask of anger "Alright Billy, just stop it!" She yelled and, whipping her head around "You too, Gus! We aren't leaving Billy!"

Billy cringed, made his hand into fists and the flames grew even taller and angrier. "QR!" He shouted shrilly.

"As for you," Ricky said, stomping toward him "I know that you're scary and loud, and I know you're speaking in tongues. And I know you're trying to scare me for some reason. But you're still my friend Billy in there. And I know you won't hurt me." She held the necklace in front of her face "You need this, and you're going to take it whether you like it or not!"

"Ricky!" Gus shouted. Was she out of her mind? But Billy- or whatever had possessed him- seemed to be moved by Ricky's words. Moved to start levitating backwards. His legs splayed in front of him almost comically(he didn't seem to know what to do with them when airborne), and he pressed one flat hand open in the international 'stay back!' gesture. But then he seemed to remember what he was capable of.

"Gr qrw. Frph. Dqb. Forvhu. Ru L'oo-!"

He pointed a finger at Ricky. Gus screamed and ran forward, expecting a red bolt to jump from his finger. It didn't, but the symbols surrounding him suddenly changed direction and swarmed to a place just above his shoulder. They hung in the hair, and even though they didn't have eyes, Gus could swear they were looking down at Ricky the way a cat looks down at a baby bird fallen from the nest. The symbols dived and surrounded Ricky. The girl screamed as they attacked her with their inexplicably corporal lines- stars poked her with their points, fingers pinched her, llamas bit.

"L zrq'w kxuw brx Ulfnb-" Billy said, his voice cracking "exw wkhb zloo!"

"That's enough, you bastard!" Gus said, grabbing a hold of one of Billy's levitating legs. He pulled at the floating magician with all the strength he had, and was a little surprised to find that he succeeded in bringing Billy down to earth. Billy was surprised too, as Gus forced him first on his rump and then onto his back. Straddling the older teen's chest, Gus pulled a fist back to send careening into that stupid glowing, surprised face, but Ricky called to him.

"Gus! Catch!"

The heiress was unable to move any closer due to the symbols, which had formed a moving wall in front of her, but she was able to chuck the necklace in Gus's direction. She had good aim, despite the obstacle. Gus caught the necklace, just as Billy was trying to levitate himself again. "Oh no you don't!" Gus said through gritted teeth, and slammed his palm into Billy's forehead. Between Gus's palm and the magician's head was the turquoise stone.

The man screamed in pain, and his back curved forward. At first it was a demonic "Ddddxxjjjkkk!" But it turned into a more human "Aaaauuggghhh!" Several things happened at once. The flying symbols holding Ricky flickered a couple of times, then disappeared. Light came into the cave through the waterfall. Refracted through the frozen water, the light was a bright blue color- very pleasant. The odd colors drained out of Billy's face and clothes and he was once again a blond kid in a tacky yellow jacket.

Gus moved away from the older teen but, as soon as he did it, feared he was too premature. What if Billy hadn't gone back to normal? What if he was just tricking him? He knew he couldn't let the Californian hurt Ricky. Gus got to his knees as Billy was pushing himself up with one arm. Gus studied the older boy. The magician was still shaking a little, and he was holding the amulet to his head like it was ice on a hot day. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was ragged; uneven.

"Billy?" Gus asked, quietly but firmly "Are you back?"

Lids unpeeled. Blue eyes regarded the fair haired boy.

Then Billy lunged.

Gus struggled to keep his balance as the older teen entangled him in a hug. He could feel the boy's shaking. "Thank you." Billy whispered into his shoulder.