Looking Ahead


July 12th, 2016

"This is it!", Wendy called back to her traveling companion as she exited the wood and entered a clearing.

Dipper was still a good 5 or 6 yards behind her as she called out. He probably could have stayed closer to her but he had noticed something as they went deeper into this section of the woods. He knew this was Corduroy Lumberworks land, but using stuff Wendy had taught him over the last couple of summers he could tell that none of the trees in the area are that old.

"You ok back there?" Wendy called back as she realized he wasn't with her.

Shaken out of his introspection, Dipper rushed forward into the clearing. "Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. I was just noticing how young all trees look. I mean I know this is Lumberworks' land, but these trees are too young to be cut."

Wendy smirked a little bit as she realized that her wilderness lessons with him had apparently been paying off. "Yeah, good eye. The timber here is too young, but that's because it was only replanted about a decade ago. These woods won't be ready for harvesting until Gus's kids are ready to join the family business."

She reached down and ruffled his hair. He'd had a few growth spurts over the last few years, but she still had a good 6 inches on him. Turning back towards the clearing she added, "But that wasn't why I brought you out here. This is it, this is where I'm gonna have dad build me my cabin."

She watched Dipper as he walked around and took a better look around the half acre or so clearing. It only took a few moments before she saw the realization of what she said hit him.

"Wait a minute, your cabin? I thought you wanted to get out of Gravity Falls." He said as he walked closer to her.

"Yeah, so did I. But this last semester at college, I mean there I was in Portland the city of my dreams, and all I could think of was getting back here. This is my home." Wendy said as she moved some stray hairs out of her face. She stopped herself from adding the 'especially when you are here' that she wanted to say. They weren't really a thing yet and she didn't know if it would be right to say.

"Glad to hear that," Dipper said as he looked up into her eyes, "since it feels like home to me too…"

He was set to continue and ask her if she would maybe like to go to dinner with him, when something caught his attention. There was a flash of light coming from the tree line off to the left side of the clearing. He had been surrounded by a flash like that too many times in the past, someone using a timetape was here.

"We have a visitor." He whispered as he nodded in the direction of the light. And then he was off with Wendy right behind him. They had dropped their backpacks, but as he ran Dipper pulled out the collapsible baton Ford had gave him.

When they made the tree line they crouched down behind a tree, Wendy took a look and then signaled seeing two unknowns. It seemed like they hadn't been seen by them as they were focused more on the other end of the clearing. Dipper counted down from three and then they rushed the unknowns. He ducked low and ran shoulder first into gut of the shorter of the two of them, though that was questionable as the other one may have only an inch or two on this guy.

Wendy led off with an upper cut that her opponent dodged. Next she went for a snap kick that was likewise sidestepped. This happened for the next few strikes she attempted before she let out a frustrated, "What the? Stand still!"

"Where would the fun be in that." Her opponent said as she ducked under another punch.

Knowing that Wendy could use some help, Dipper attempted to use his baton to incapacitate his opponent only for it to be caught.

"You don't need to do that. We're not here to fight. We're only here to site see some." The masked man on the ground said as he released the baton. Taking off his glove, he touched the back of his left hand to his forehead, then held out his pointer and pinkie fingers as if they were horns. "On the honor of the Mantaur Oath."

Dipper hopped up off of his downed opponent and stood up straight. He then reached down and offered the man his hand to help him up.

"Dip, what are you doing?" Wendy called out as she saw him help his opponent up. This actually distracted her opponent allowing her to land a spin kick to their abdomen.

"You can stop now Wendy, I don't think they're enemies. The big guy here said they are here to just look around." Dipper said as he through a thumb toward the masked man beside him.

Wendy gave the guy a quick look over. While he was around 6 foot, that meant he only had 4 inches Dipper. Besides that he really wasn't much bigger than Dip. He stood there with his hands in his pockets as he allowed her check him out. Finally Wendy turned back to Dipper and asked, "You believe him?"

"Yeah, he knows the oath." Dipper replied with a nod. What he didn't have to say is that there was only a dozen or so people who knew the oath, so they were dealing with someone who they knew already.

"Besides. If we meant you harm, she…" the masked man nodded to the woman who was now standing just behind Wendy as he continued, "could have taken you down thrice during the time it took you to judge me just now."

Wendy felt a hand clasp her shoulder and heard her opponent whisper, "You fought well, but you need to get better. If not for yourself, then for him."

The masked lady then walked over and joined her equally masked partner, who was in the middle of a conversation with Dipper. Shaking her head she joined them, "So you're just visiting then, huh. Well what do we call you then?"

She already had her suspicions, but knew that they were just that; suspicions.

"Well like I was just telling your young friend here, we can't give you our given names due to your normal time travel b.s. But when we're on outings like this we sometimes go by a nom de guerre. I'm called Stoneworker," the masked man said and with a of his hand towards his partner he added, " and this is m'lady of the woods."

That settled it, Wendy looked over at Dipper with a nod before turning her attention back to the two masked people in front of them. "Alright man, you can quit with the theatrics. We all know that me and Dipper, heck the whole Pines clan, are free from time paradoxes thanks to the Globnar contest the two of us went through last summer after the whole Marthin Multineck incident. That was my time wish."

Jabbing a finger in his chest she continued, "And really man, how dumb are you thinking we are right now."

"Uh," The masked man started to say before Wendy cut him off.

She started pacing in between the masked pair and Dipper as she spouted, "Stoneworker. Stoneworker? Really!?"

"I mean you might as well called yourself Big D! I mean everyone knows that that a stone worker is another term for," she paused, then she turned towards the masked man in her best Mabel accusatory pose, "a Mason!"

"Well you got me," The masked man said as he reached up with his ungloved hand to pull off his mask revealing a Dipper that appeared to be in his late 40's, maybe early 50's. But that wasn't what caught Wendy's attention, there was a golden glint on the ungloved hand's ring finger and add that to the possessive term he called his partner, well her mind started processing in overdrive.

"And since he," Dipper added looking at the masked lady, as he threw a thumb towards the elder him "called you the 'lady of the woods', I'm guessing you are…"

"Yeah man, it's me." The masked lady said as she pulled off her mask, revealing an older Wendy with her shoulder length hair pulled back into a tail. Her family's lumberjack genes pulling off another miracle in that she almost looks younger than her companion. Looking at Dipper she continues, "And like we said, we're really only here to get a good look at the untouched lot here. My nephews have decided to start clearing out the woods and so we visited my old cabin. We decided to come snag a few pictures to show them what the area should look like after they plant the new grove of trees."

She looked over at her younger self and saw that she really didn't hear her. Wendy was looking repeatedly at Mason's hand, then to her Dipper and then back at Mason's hand. "Mason, you forgot to take something off before we left. It looks like you've broken the younger me here."

Both Masons quickly looked over at the younger Wendy. Dipper saw where she was looking as the elder Mason lifted up his hand showing off his wedding band.

"Wait a minute, are you two…?" Dipper started to ask before he was cut off by his elder self.

"Welp, look at the time." Mason said as he pulled up his sleeve and looked at his bare wrist, "Man, I need to get a watch."

Getting next to his Wendy, the elder Mason pulled out the timetape and continued, "Yeah, it's time for us to get going. Been fun reminiscing with you two, but we have dinner plans to get to."

Shaking her head, the elder Wendy looped her arm in his as he pulled the tape to the proper distance. When he released it she called out, "You two make sure you take care of each other!"

Them disappearing was the catalyst for Wendy coming out of her fog, "Wait, I have so many questions for you two."

"They're gone Wendy," Dipper said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh man." Wendy said as she stared at the spot their elder versions disappeared from. "I'm gonna need to think about some things."

"I know what you mean. Let's head back to town." Dipper said as he dropped his hand down to his side and started to head towards the clearing.

As she watched her friend walk away, she knew she definitely needed to think things over.