A Summer Full of Spells
Arc 1: Chapter 1: A Wizard Comes to the Town
EHT DRAZIW DEVIRRA TA EHT NWOT
EHT SNIWT T'NOD NEVE ENIGAMI
LLIW EHT YNITSED ETINU SIHT EERHT?
RO LLIW SIHT YROTS DNE PU YLDAB?
The Mystery Shack is one of the most normal places at the town. Even though, it is supposed to be full of "mystical items", sold as attractions and souvenirs, which are obviously fake. The real mystery of this shack is why it is so visited.
There, the 12-year-old twin siblings, Dipper Pines and Mabel Pines, were sleeping in the attic, as their great uncle, or grunkle, as they said, was the owner of the tourist attraction.
Dipper, just like most of the time, was sitting on a chair in the store, reading his journal, whose original author was a mystery. In that book, there was information about all the supernatural beings that inhabited the town. Since he was a smart boy, serious and obsessed with mysteries, he was rarely seen without this book. He wore a cap with a pine tree and a blue vest.
His twin sister Mabel was trying to lick her elbow. She was the opposite of her brother, that is, she was a cheerful, optimistic, positive, funny, romantic, and playful person, but she was not that intelligent. She wore braces and a pink tiara. Each day, she wore a different sweater, which she knitted herself. This time, she was wearing her classic shooting star sweater.
Soos was also at the store. He is the handyman of the Mystery Shack, who was trying to change a light bulb. He was tall and wore a green shirt. He is a very friendly person and always tries to help in any way he can. But, at times, he could be a little clumsy.
"Oops, sorry, Mr. Pines" said the handyman, dropping the lamp on the floor.
"This will be removed from your salary" said the twins' grunkle, entering by one of the doors at that moment. He was tall, old, wore glasses and wore a hat on his head. He was very tricky man, enjoying cheating and manipulating others to make money. But still, deep down, he had a good heart. At that moment, a customer entered the store, and Mr. Pines' sales flair was activated.
"Hi, young man! Would you like a doll with a shaking head? To this day, it is not known why his head shakes so much" said the owner of the establishment, trying to add a little suspense and drama to the story to get the boy to buy it.
"No thanks" replied the boy, shyly and with a small British accent. He was the height of the twins and wore a blue T-shirt, with the image of a star and a moon in the center, both golden. The most curious thing about his appearance was his hair, which was a dark shade of blue.
"So how about a wooden skull? No one knows how its tree died" offered Mr. Pines, trying once again to sell one of his fake souvenirs.
"Look, I really appreciate your offers, sir, but I just came to fill my water bottle" said the boy, taking a bottle of water out of his pocket, breaking Mr Pines's expectations, leaving him with a bit of bad mood.
"Fine. Soos, fill the boy's bottle, but use the water from the bathroom's sink," ordered the owner of the establishment, leaving the room for his office, to organize some of his coins.
"You can leave it to me, dude" said Soos, taking the bottle of water and going to fill the bathroom.
The boy with the cap, feeling that he should warn the blue-haired boy, approached him.
"If I were you, I wouldn't drink this water. That sink hasn't been washed since the Middle Ages," said Dipper.
"Well, don't worry, I will find a way of cleaning it," said the boy, with a little bit of shyness. At this moment, he looked around the place.
"Wow, your grandpa seems to be interested in supernatural beings. Even though, these things seem to be fake," said the blue-haired boy, picking up one of the souvenirs.
"He is our great-uncle, and believe on me when I say, he is not interested in any of this. For him, it's just an easy way of grabbing tourist's cash," said the boy with the cap, with a small laugh.
"Do tourists buy it?" asked the blue-haired boy, a little more comfortable.
"Surprisingly, they do. It's the only real mystery in this place" answered Dipper, making the two boys laugh.
"I have never seen you around here. Are you visiting the town for the summer?" asked the boy with the cap.
"The accent kind of shows it, right? I am Finn… Spell" said Finn, making up a fake surname.
"I am Dipper. Dipper Pines. And that girl trying to lick her elbow is my twin sister, Mabel" said the boy with the cap, shaking the blue-haired boy's hand.
"Almost there, Mabel. Almost there" said the girl with the sweater. In this moment, Dipper felt something touching his leg, which startled him.
"Mr. Starry Night don't do that. Sorry for my cat's actions. He does that when he likes someone. I told him to stay outside, but it seems he entered without me noticing it" said Finn, picking up his cat and petting his head.
When Mabel saw the cat, she ran in the boy's direction to play with the animal, since she loved these little felines.
"Look at this little boy! He is so much adorable!" said the girl with the sweater, petting and praising the cat. Finn, seeing that someone new approached him, blushed once more.
"It seems that he liked you. Kind of rare he liking two people so much at the same day" said the boy, seeing the happiness in Mr. Starry Night.
"Of course, he would love me! I adore cats! I even have my own cat back home" said Mabel, excited to meet another cat owner.
"Oh my sweater! Your hair is amazing! Where did you dyed it? I would like to dye a part of mine pink or purple, or rainbow!" daydreamed the girl with the sweater. Finn got a little nervous about the question.
"Somewhere back at London! Yeah, that's why I can't bring you there. Sorry" answered the blue-haired boy, making up an excuse.
"Okay, I can wait a little bit more. By the way, I loved your shirt. I also love stars! Look at my sweater!" screamed Mabel, comparing her sweater with the boy's shirt.
"Yeah, you are right" said Finn, more comfortable with the two kids.
"Mabel, you are not thinking about dragging Finn to your summer love list, are you?" whispered Dipper, worried that she would hurt one of the two in the process.
"Nah, he just seems to be a nice guy, that's all" said the girl with the sweater, whispering back to him.
"So, where are you staying, and how long do you plan to stay here in the town?" asked the boy with the cap, curious to know more about the boy.
"I am staying on a rather messy and old place, and I plan to stay here until the end of the summer" answered the blue-haired boy.
"Here is your water, dude" said the handyman, returning with the boy's water bottle, which he put in his pocket.
"Thank you, sir" said the blue-haired boy.
"It's okay, dude" said Soos.
"Well, I already have to go, but it was a pleasure to meet you all. I hope to see you all again" Finn said, leaving the establishment.
Out of the house, the blue-haired boy and his cat started to walk back to the place they were living at, but the feline wasn't that happy.
"Come on, Mr. Starry Night. That place is not that bad. Just a little old, but nothing that the two of us can't handle" said Finn, trying to cheer his friend. The cat, however, didn't seem to have gotten any happier.
As they arrived at the place he was staying, they got a little bit disgusted, because it didn't matter how much they were trying to like the place, it was still hard to like it.
"Meow!" said Mr. Starry Night, sad for having to sleep at that place full of cobwebs, wood eaten by termites, a destroyed roof, mold, and a lot of other things.
"Well, time to start cleaning this place. A little magic might help us fix this" said the blue-haired boy, involving his hand with a blue, slightly transparent aura.
Back at the Shack, things went back to being boring, until someone burst through the door, full of news.
"GUYS, YOU HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT I FOUND!" said Wendy, a 16-year-old red-haired girl in a green checked lumberjack outfit, about to give urgent news.
"Did a Boy Band with beautiful boys arrived at the town?" asked Mabel.
"Was the Bigfoot photographed in good quality for the first time?" Asked the boy with the cap.
"Did the pizza delivery man leave pizza for free in front of the Shack?" asked the handyman.
"No. A witch has come to the town!" said the red-haired woman.
"Are you serious?" asked the girl in the sweater, extremely excited.
"Have you taken pictures of her? Do you know where she lives? What weaknesses does she have? I have so many questions" asked Dipper, full of excitement and curiosity.
"Calm down, dude. We only have pictures of some floating stones" replied Wendy, showing pictures of a group of floating stones, wrapped in a dark blue aura, making the three of them look surprised. "They are all near an abandoned house, but no one has visited that place for years. And the worst part, is that it seems she has a beast! My friends and I heard some scary noises when we were hanging out close to that place" said the red-haired woman.
"Well, this looks like work for the Mystery Twins!" said Mabel, full of excitement. Dipper, however, made a slightly sullen face, because he didn't like the term "Mystery Twins" very much, but he was still very curious to know more about the witch.
Finn was having some issues with one of the hallways of the abandoned places. There were electric spiders there. They looked like normal spiders but could produce electricity.
"For Lunario's patience, how there can be so many of these spiders here?" said the wizard boy, avoiding the energy coming out of the little creatures, end casting magical rays at them.
As one of them was secretly approaching the young sorcerer from behind, Mr. Starry Night used his claws to attack and destroy the animal.
"Thank you! This count as one more web and we finished it! Now there are only other 29 spiderwebs scattered around this place" said the wizard boy, trying to keep the optimism, and removing the web the spiders were living in.
"Meow" said the cat, sad with the place they were staying, making his owner feel a little bit disappointed.
"Don't look at me like this. You know I am trying the best for both of us" said the young sorcerer, trying to make his pet happier, however, he failed at it.
"Look I know this place is not of the best, but we need to try, don't we?" asked Finn, still trying to keep both happy. Noticing he wasn't succeeding, he sat down, hiding his face on his knees.
"You are right. This place is awful. We shouldn't have run away from home" said the wizard boy, sad for not being able of making the place happier. He started to shed a few tears.
Mr. Starry Night noticed how sad his owner was. He approached him and licked his arm, showing he was there for him.
"Thank you, Mr. Starry Night. Sometimes, I just need to be reminded that I am not alone. Let's keep going, if we keep this pace, we will finish the cleaning in a few weeks. But we will need to clean that water soon. I am starting to get thirsty" said the young sorcerer, getting up and wiping his tears away.
However, as he was walking away, he remembered something.
"Wait, we need a few more sound orbs. Vox extollendam!" said Finn, creating a magical orb.
"Meow" said Mr. Starry Night, sounding like a beast when it reached the orb.
"You are an adorable little beast, aren't you?" asked the wizard boy, petting his cat.
After packing up a few things and putting them in his backpack, the boy with the cap and his sister were heading towards the abandoned house.
"Okay, Mabel, remember the plan. We will enter through the door and we will stick to the walls and hide so that she does not see us. Afterwards, I make some notes in the journal and we take something to prove that we were here. And why are you bringing a knife and fork?" asked the Dipper, seeing what his sister was carrying.
"To eat the walls of the house, obviously. Those two brothers were stuck in that candy store because they had no way to eat, so I came prepared. I'm rooting for a wall of chocolate chip cookies" said the girl in the sweater, dreaming of the house made of candy.
"Mabel, did you read those fairy tales before you went to sleep again?" Asked the boy with the cap.
"Maybe" said Mabel, with a little smile that delivered the truth.
"Well, everything will be fine if we follow my plan," said Dipper.
As they walked, the forest seemed to get darker and more frightening. After about 15 minutes, they arrived at the abandoned house. It was a big place and destroyed because of the time. Everything from an old house you can imagine, this place had, like cobwebs, wood eaten by termites, a destroyed roof, mold, and a lot of other things. Even a little scared, the boy with the capopened the door.
"Well, now that we are here, it is better to stay together and walk slowl…" said the Dipper, being interrupted.
"The last one to reach the witch's room is a rotten egg!" shouted Mabel, running happily around the house.
"Mabel, wait" said the boy with the cap, trying to stop her. "Forget it. As always, I'm the only one who takes things seriously," said Dipper.
Finn and his cat were preparing a purifying potion to clean the water. The little feline was giving the wizard boy the ingredients, while he was mixing them.
"Okay, now I need a little bit of moon dust" said the young sorcerer, looking at his spell book for instructions.
"Meow" said Mr. Starry Night, giving his owner a bottle full of a light blue powder.
As soon as the powder entered in contact with the potion, a delicious smell soon took over the place.
"Well, now, I need to wait the ingredients combine. Meanwhile, is time to try my disguise out!" said Finn, Putting on a cape and a hood. Then, He climbed a bench and started to levitate it.
"So, how do I look? Is it unrecognizable enough?" said the wizard boy, becoming almost unrecognizable.
"Meow" said the cat on a positive tone.
"I will take that as a 'yes'" said the young sorcerer, laughing a little.
"Now, no one will recognize me. Even though, no one here on this town really know how I look like. Well, except the twins" said Finn, looking at his reflection at the mirror.
"Meow!" said Mr. Starry Night, happy with his owner talking about the twins.
"I liked them too. But I don't want them to know about the whole truth. They probably wouldn't like me. But, even if I believe they wouldn't want to be my friends, I don't want them to dislike me either. They are so nice! And probably don't even imagine the mysteries this town hide" said the wizard boy, happy with the memory of the twins.
At this moment, the potion's smell started to get a little stronger.
"Well, it seems it is time to finish the potions" said the young sorcerer going back to the potion crafting.
Meanwhile, Mabel was walking down one of the halls in the house, delighted with everything.
"Look, a green moss!" said the girl in the sweater, believing that the moss was interesting.
"Wow, look at this fancy cobwebs!" said Mabel, delighted with one of the webs. Suddenly, she smelled a wonderful smell from one of the rooms.
"What a wonderful smell. That candy room is all mine!" said the girl in the sweater, searching for the smell. After a while, she got to the room, which, different from her expectations, was not made of candy.
Curious, she looked behind the door, and came across a tall figure and wrapped in a strange hood, making it impossible to see her face.
"Wait, is that the witch?" asked Mabel. At that moment, the figure turned to look at her. Before the figure could see her, however, the girl ran away. While running, she ended up falling into a hole that opened when she stepped on it.
Back to the potion's room, Finn was trying to understand what was happening. He couldn't tell who was there seconds ago, but he knew it was something.
"Did you see it too?" asked the wizard boy to his cat. The feline nodded, which made the young sorcerer a little bit worried.
"I think it would be better if we look for who or what invaded our house. It could be someone dangerous" said Finn, leaving the room with Mr. Starry Night.
The boy with the cap was walking close to the wall, looking for the witch's room.
"Where does this witch sleep?" Dipper asked himself as he walked around. At that moment, he heard a noise from behind.
Curious to know what it was, he walked towards the noise, however, when he approached the source of it, it hid behind the wall.
"Hello. Is anyone there?" asked the boy with the cap. When he went to see what it was, he heard a great roar, as if it was a beast.
Dipper screamed in fear and walked away, starting to run. However, like his sister, he ended up falling into a hole.
Mr. Stary Night approached the hole, and felt confused, as the voice seemed familiar to him.
"I haven't found anyone, yet? Were you any luckier?" asked the wizard boy, trying his best to walk around the place with his disguise.
"Meow" said the cat, showing his owner the hole that the other boy felt down. Finn knew what it meant. Whoever it was, this person was at his trap.
"Time to see who this intruder is!" said the wizard boy, going to the safe way of arriving at his trap.
After falling through a pipe that was well below the hole, the boy with the capfell into a cauldron, where his sister was also.
"Hi, Dipper. How are you?" said Mabel, in the same cheerful tone as always, without noticing the seriousness of the situation.
"We are in a cauldron, almost ready to turn into witch soup and you ask me how I am?" asked Dipper.
"Relax, it's not like we're stuck here" said the girl in the sweater. At that moment, she saw a rope. "Look, a rope!" said Mabel, pulling the rope, activating a trap that caused a net to fall on them. "Oops" said the girl in the sweater.
"Mabel!" shouted the boy with the cap, angry with his sister. Before anything else could be said, the two heard the witch's footsteps, approaching the cauldron. The two hugged and started to shake with fear.
"Dipper? Mabel?" said the figure, in a voice like someone they had met previously.
"Huh?" said Mabel, a little surprised by the voice.
"It's me, Finn" said the figure, removing the cape and hood that covered him, revealing who he really was. In fact, he was a wizard, and he was levitating along with a bench, on which he was supported to be the size of an adult. His hands were enveloped in a blue aura and he levitated the two siblings to free them from the net.
"Wait, what does this mean?" asked Dipper.
"So, are you the witch?" asked the girl in the sweater.
"Actually, I'm a wizard, but whenever someone does magic, everyone thinks it's a woman. It is a sad prejudice that still exists. The disguise was meant to scare teen vandals" Finn replied. The twins were amazed by the surprise.
"But what about the beast I heard?" asked the boy with the cap.
"It was a spell of magic spheres that I put in the house that make anyone's voice more frightening. Mr. Starry Night just needed to make some noises, and people believed he was a beast" replied the young sorcerer, revealing his cat was right behind him.
"Wait, wizards are also real? This town doesn't stop surprising me even for a minute" said Dipper, surprise with the reveal.
"Wait, you guys know about the creatures that live here?" asked Finn, surprised that they knew about the town's magic.
"If we do? We have already fought against these creatures. Gnomes, a robot, and even statues that gained life at night!" answered the boy with the cap.
"We are basically professionals" said the girl with the sweater, bragging a little.
"Why didn't you tell us about this? And why are you leaving in this abandoned house" asked Dipper, not imagining why the wizard boy wasn't honest.
"I was scared of people thinking I was weird because of my magic" answered the young sorcerer.
"Are you kidding? This seems to be awesome!" said Mabel, excited with the news of the boy being able of doing magic. The boy blushed a little, seeing that the twins seemed to be interested by his talent, not disgusted. Suddenly, he became a little bit more serious.
"As for the house, I needed some place to stay. I ran away from my house so that I could be free to be the wizard I want to be, so I stayed here. But it is not that much comfortable. But just a little bit of magic and I might fix it" said Finn, trying to hide his sadness.
Dipper and Mabel felt a little bad for their mate. Being alone in an abandoned house sad, especially for a child.
"Secret Sibling Meeting?" the girl in the sweater asked.
"Secret Sibling Meeting" replied the boy with the cap, forming a circle of secret conversation.
"Dipper, I think we should do something to help him" I said to Mabel to her brother.
"But what? We can't invite him to stay with us during the summer," said Dipper. Mabel, upon hearing what her brother said, smiled. Dipper recognized what it meant.
"Mabel, you are not thinking of inviting him to stay with us. Are you?" asked the boy with the cap.
"Oh, come on, Dipper. Look how he's doing. Living here, alone, in this abandoned place and far away from everything. Besides, he doesn't seem to have anyone else to take care of him. And look on the bright side, you can put him in your nerd book" said the girl in the sweater.
"Well, looking at it this way, it can be really good. There's nothing about wizards in the journal. I can be the first to write about one!" said Dipper, getting excited when thinking about doing something that even the author would not have done. Then, the two turned to the boy wizard.
"Finn, would you like to spend the summer with us at the Mystery Shack? asked the boy with the cap.
"Are you serious?" asked the young wizard
"Yeah, we can have a sleepover every night, tell secrets..." replied Mabel.
"And find out more about this town together. A wizard would be very useful in our mystery hunts" completed Dipper.
The young sorcerer switched glances with his cat. It was dangerous to live with people he didn't know. But something he learned through the years is that his cat's intuition was usually right. Also, anything would be better than living in an abandoned house. He received a nod from his feline companion and decided what he would answer.
"Even though, it might not be one of the safest options to live with someone you don't know, but anything is better than leaving here" Finn said, accepting the twins' offer, being wrapped in a triple hug by the girl in the sweater.
At night, the boy wizard was already in his pajamas about to spend his first night at the Mystery Shack.
Trying to convince Mr. Pines about letting a random boy live with the twins was not easy. But, after a lot of begging and cute faces, they made a deal.
The young sorcerer also used a part of the abandoned house that was not completely destroyed and made a small place outside of the Shack, were he was keeping all of his magic related stuff.
"Your grunkle was nice to let me live here" said the boy wizard.
"Well, it's impossible for anyone to say no to my cute face. And we're just going to have to fix and pay for everything you break with your powers" said the girl in the sweater.
"Now that we're all here, I have about three hundred questions to ask you. What is the source of your powers?! Do you have a specific language to cast spells?! Is magic hereditary?!" asked the boy with the cap, with a pen and the diary in hand, about to make notes about the young wizard.
"Look, I would love to answer all of them now, but I will answer later, it was a very tiring day and I really need a good night of sleep" replied Finn.
"Okay" said Dipper, a little disappointed.
The boy wizard then pulled a tiny bed out of his pocket, already with a pillow and a blanket.
"Augere" said the young sorcerer, involving his hand and the small bed in a blue aura. The spell caused the bed to grow and become a normal size, making the mystery twins impressed.
After that, Mabel turned off the light, and the three lay down on their respective beds. Mr. Starry Night licked Finn's hand and laid down next to him.
"Good night, Dipper. Good night, Mabel. Good Night, Mr. Starry Night" said Finn.
"Good night" said the girl in the sweater.
"Good night" said the boy with the cap.
"Meow" said the cat.
As the young wizard closed his eyes, he felt relief. Relief that he was sleeping closer to an adult. Relief that this place was safer. And relief that he was not completely alone. Finally, after a long time, he felt welcome.