The children had to sneak past Susan's tavern as they passed it, on the off chance that she might see them and ask awkward questions, but once that was done they hurried to the main path just outside Gravity Falls.
Once they got there, they wandered back down the path until they reached the spot where it branched off into the forest.
Unfortunately, there was no handy background music to tell them if this trail was safe or not. Just that old, broken signpost, which some wiseacre had decided to tie an old boot to.
The trail itself didn't even look particularly menacing, at least no more than the rest of the forest. Whoever had written this story clearly had no concept of when to create a stereotypical dramatic atmosphere.
Mabel reached into her bag and pulled out a pebble, tossing it onto the ground in front of them.
"Whoa-no!" Dipper stopped her from pulling out another one. "We should save those for if we need to leave the path. That's when we're actually gonna need them."
Mabel blinked, and then smiled at him sheepishly. "Oh. Right. Whoopsie."
She pulled the bag a little more securely onto her shoulder, and then both of them, feeling butterflies of nervous excitement in their stomachs, set off down the path.
For what felt like an hour they wandered along, enjoying the way sunlight filtered through the trees and dappled the trail ahead of them, and the light breeze that rustled through their clothes and the ends of their hair. Once Mabel even saw a deer and two fawns stepping through the underbrush, and had to cover her mouth to suppress a few squeals of excitement. Dipper, without fully thinking about what he was doing, grabbed the journal and a pencil out of his vest pocket and tried to sketch them, but they moved away before he could finish.
They shared the pie when they got hungry, and agreed that even when it was cold, it really was the best pie they had ever eaten.
Despite his previous scorn for the idea, Dipper couldn't help wondering if the castle, whenever they found it, would provide some kind of magical cure for Ford's memory problems. Fantasies flitted through his head of their grateful uncle, having his mind restored to normal, taking them out on adventures in the forest with him; spying on strange creatures together and drawing sketches of them; telling stories about him and their grandpa when they were young; all of them sitting in front of a bonfire, with McGucket and his son, and telling ghost stories by the light of the full moon-
"Dipper!"
It took him a moment to realize that Mabel had been saying his name, with increasing urgency, and tugging his sleeve.
It took him another moment to realize why she'd been doing this: there was a strange sound echoing through the trees. Specifically, music.
Music that sounded a lot like one of the tunes McGucket had strummed on his banjo one evening when he was in a good mood.
Yes, I'm sure you all realize by now that it was the sound of bluegrass music.
"Where's it coming from?" Dipper asked frantically, twisting his head back and forth.
"I can't tell!" Mabel pulled another rock out of her bag and wielded it threateningly over her head; she slowly stepped around until she and Dipper were back to back.
Dipper could feel his heart starting to pound in his ears, and his palms sweating even more than usual.
Grunkle Ford ran into whatever those were, and he barely escaped with his life! And he's a full-grown man with actual muscles! What chance have we got against them?!
And then he let out a frightened squeak when a dark figure stepped out onto the path right in front of them.
In shape, it looked more or less like a poverty-stricken man-or kind of like McGucket, since it had on the same kind of big crooked hat and filthy overalls. Though McGucket's overalls were filthy because they were always covered in oil and grease and ash, and these were covered in...lots of dark red-brown stains that Dipper didn't want to think about too hard.
Nobody in their right mind, though, would mistake this creature for a human. It had tufts of dark fur sticking up along its arms and covering the tops of its bare feet, and its face was absolutely covered in the stuff. The only features that could be clearly discerned were its big glowing eyes, and a wide mouth filled with long, sharp-looking teeth which was currently grinning at them.
After a second it let out a few deep hooting, grunting noises, and slapped its hands against its knees and elbows in an oddly rhythmic fashion.
Mabel gasped, and her back pressed against Dipper's a little more tightly; he glanced behind them, and saw that another one of these things had stepped into view, blocking their escape from that direction.
...He would say that things couldn't get much worse than this, but saying that was usually when the universe liked to prove you wrong.
"What are those?!" Mabel whispered.
"How do I know?!" Dipper hissed back. "I've never seen things like this in my life!"
The hill man in front of him hooted again, and took a step forward, fingers twitching eagerly. Saliva dripped from the ends of its fangs, and its long tongue snaked out and ran over them.
And then Mabel swung her arm.
There was a loud thunk, and the hill man behind them staggered backwards, clutching its forehead, as a pebble fell to the ground.
"RUN!"
Mabel seized Dipper's arm, and together they took off into the trees.
They could hear the angry hoots and grunts of the hill men coming after them, as well as the swift padding of their feet, moving with far more elegance and grace than they were capable of, as it was all they could do not to get tripped up by roots and branches.
Periodically Mabel would whirl around and hurl another pebble after them, accompanied by a defiant war cry every time she managed to land a good hit. Unfortunately, the time she took to stop also meant that the creatures kept gaining on them, and Dipper knew their supply wouldn't last forever.
Please please please we need some way to escape or hide, anything-
Up ahead, he saw a flash of red, and without really thinking about it was drawn towards it.
They dodged around a giant oak tree, and found themselves standing in front of the biggest, stoniest wall they had ever seen-and a little to the left of them, where the red had been, there was a cracked part-just barely big enough for an animal, or two small children, to slip through.
He didn't hesitate; he just lunged for it, pulling Mabel with him.
It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but they both managed it. Mabel dodged out of one hill man's grasp just in time, and they both collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, as infuriated howls rang in the air behind them.
For several minutes the children just tried to get their breath back, and let their racing hearts settle.
Dipper rolled over onto his back, clutching his chest with one tiny hand.
"Well-" he wheezed out at last, "that was-more excitement-than I expected. Maybe-we should-go home now." Assuming they could find the path again, or that the hill men or whatever they were had given up and gone away.
Mabel didn't answer.
"...Mabel?"
He tilted his head to the side-and saw that she was sitting up, and staring at something with wide eyes.
"Dipper, look."
He pushed himself up, and twisted around-and finally saw what she was seeing.
...It had to be the castle in the journal.
There was no way this forest was big enough to hide two hidden castles, right?
But it was not quite the same as the drawing-either version.
For one thing, the high stone sides and roof were overgrown with ivy, vines and all other types of plants, until it looked like it was being strangled by nature.
It was crumbling apart here and there, with parts of it actually lying on the ground in front of them.
It didn't look as though it had been inhabited in years.
Dipper felt a little chill as he got to his feet, the better to examine the castle more closely.
"Dang…" Mabel whispered, standing up too.
A few seconds later, she shivered as a drop of rain landed on her nose.
Neither of them had noticed how gray the sky was getting, but they began to realize it now, as a crack of thunder rolled through the air.
There was nothing else for it: as dark and creepy-looking as this castle was, it was also the only source of shelter available to them right now.
The children hurried towards it.
They only paused a little bit when they saw that there had once been a set of impressive double doors at the entrance, but one of them had partially been ripped off its hinges and now the bottom half lay crumpled on the ground; they just slipped under the other half, barely in time to avoid the sudden downpour outside.
The inside hallway was not much better than the outside; the floor was covered in a scattering of dead leaves (at least that's what Dipper hoped they were, it was a little too dark to see), and he ended up walking face first into a cluster of cobwebs that he had to spend a minute spitting out.
"Hold on." He heard Mabel rummaging around in her bag, and then there was a sssskritch noise before a tiny flame came into view.
Mabel quickly touched the match to a small stub of candle, and held it up to take a look around.
The room they'd come into was a lot bigger than they'd first realized, with a high, ridged ceiling, and up ahead there was a long, curved staircase covered in a decaying carpet. Dipper's eyes followed it upwards-and for a moment he thought he saw a figure standing at the top of the staircase, far too big to be a normal human.
He staggered back with a yelp-but when he looked again, there was nothing there.
"Dipper?! What's wrong?!" Mabel asked anxiously.
"N-nothing. Just...my mind playing tricks on me." He smiled at her weakly.
Mabel squeezed Dipper's shoulder, and then tilted the candle so the melting wax would run onto the floor, instead of on her hand.
"Well-" Dipper cleared his throat- "we came here looking for answers, so we might as well start searching."
He tried not to tremble as thunder rumbled overhead again.
They slowly wandered, hand in hand, further into the depths of the castle. The rest of the ground floor was just as big of a mess as the main hallway had been; Dipper's nervousness was not improved by the sight of animal tracks here and there, or the remains of a clawed tapestry in one corner.
Do it for Grunkle Ford, he reminded himself. He needs this.
The reminder gave him a small measure of extra courage, and as time passed and nothing bad happened it grew in confidence.
Despite that, none of the rooms they peeked in provided anything in the way of answers, mystical or otherwise, about what this place had to do with Grunkle Ford. They were mostly empty, save for more leaves, dust and spiders.
Eventually, though, they found a room with an old, moth-eaten sofa, and a massive fireplace with some old chunks of wood in it. Mabel used her candle to put together a little fire, and they sat down on the sofa to enjoy the warmth.
"...Some day, huh?" Mabel finally asked, taking a drink from their waterskin and passing it to him.
Dipper snorted and gulped down a bit for himself. "No kidding."
"But at least we finally found this place, right?"
"Yeah...but so far it seems like it's a bust."
Mabel sighed, and brushed some hair out of her face. "Try looking in the journal again."
"Good idea."
Dipper pulled the book into view, and opened it-
-and couldn't believe his eyes.
The page with the picture of the castle on it had changed: namely, the words written underneath it, which had been as faded and illegible as the rest of the book, were standing out clear and black.
My New Home
Father has begrudgingly permitted me to come here, and use this old castle as a place where I can pursue my studies in peace. I'm sure that Mother is the one behind that, considering how much he wanted me to stay home and somehow help our family climb further up the social ladder, despite my expressed lack of interest in doing so. And even she seems to think that it's just a phase I'm going through that will eventually pass if they just indulge me a little.
No one in our family seems to care about what I want. No one except-
It's not far from a quaint little village called Gravity Falls, where I can go if I need supplies. However, I intend to be as self-sustaining as possible, so I can research the strange creatures of this forest undisturbed! Perhaps I should try my hand at gardening…
Dipper gawked at the page in disbelief.
How was this possible?
"...Hey, wait a minute." Mabel looked down at the journal with a frown. "Doesn't that handwriting look a little like-"
And then the children received their second collective heart attack of the day, when a massive gray paw reached between them and snatched the journal from Dipper's lap.
Dipper spun around-and his throat was too closed up with terror for him to even scream, at the sight of what was looming over them, hefting the book.
A deep, gravelly voice rumbled, perfectly accompanied by a flash of lightning from outside, "This doesn't belong ta you."
Hey, what do you know-looks like I know when to create a stereotypical dramatic atmosphere after all.