Ryland was speeding through the forest on his BMX bike. The terrain was rough and rocky, with plenty of logs and stumps also among his path. He swiftly avoided every obstacle in his path by riding around them or hopping over them. He kept pedaling fast as he neared the outside of the forest. In his path was one large tree stump, and he only pedaled faster. Sweat dripped down his face as he got closer and closer to the stump.
Once he was close enough, he hopped and performed a 360-degree tailwhip as he flew right over the stump before landing back on the ground in a normal position and riding off. He rode his bike and parked right in front of the Mystery Shack's porch, where Mabel stood watching him. She held a look of disbelief with her mouth agape and her eyes sparkled in amazement.
"WOOOO! Go Ryland!" she cheered, clapping her hands together rapidly as she watched on, gleefully biting down on her lower lip.
I didn't even know what BMXing was 5 minutes ago, but man is it hot!
Ryland smiled as he got off his bike. He walked over to the porch and grabbed a water bottle as he sat beside Mabel.
"So what'd you think?" he asked as he took a sip of water.
"That was amazing!" Mabel praised. "You're, like, a bike god! Long golden hair flowing in the wind and all!"
"Pfft..." Ryland chuckled, not expecting that response. "Thanks, I guess! Heh. I knew this conditioner I bought was doing well for the flow."
"And how long did you say you've been doing this?" Mabel asked.
"I've been biking for as long as I can remember, but I didn't get into BMXing until I was about twelve," Ryland explained as he wiped the sweat off his face with a towel he grabbed from the side.
"Five years..." Mabel summed up. "Now that's impressive!"
"It's a lot of practice, and it hasn't all been incredibly kind to me." Ryland then rolled up his right sleeve and revealed a scar under his forearm. "That trick I just showed you? I got this the first time I ever tried it."
"Wowza," Mabel awed as she looked at his scar. The scar was long and had the color of a faded red. It was very angular and perfectly shaped for a scar. It was best described as something like a very wide and short triangle on its side. "That's scary."
And hot.
"Meh," he shrugged, rolling his sleeve back up. "I have worse ones than that. But uh, probably not the right way to go about first impressions."
Mabel giggled. "Well, it's not like I miiiiind."
Quickly realizing her raunchy thoughts were slowly creeping through her mouth, she proceeded to start violently coughing on purpose in an attempt to immediately distract him from her words.
"Are you alright?" Ryland asked, raising an eyebrow in concern.
"I am now," Mabel said, smiling brightly at him.
"Ya know, you're pretty cool, Mabel," Ryland said with an admiring smile. "Your vibe is just so bubbly and fun."
"A girl tries her hardest in this dour world," Mabel said with a confident shrug.
"And you can even tame fire-breathing dragons!"
The mention immediately dampened Mabel's confidence. "Yeah... how about less so on the dragon part?" she said with a nervous smile.
"It sounds so cool though!" Ryland said excitedly. "I mean... frickin' dragons! In Gravity Falls! That's awesome! Seriously, as long as we're hanging out this summer, that's something you gotta show me!"
Mabel laughed anxiously at the suggestion. On one hand, she was happy that Ryland was implying that they would be hanging out often that summer. On the other hand, she was growing more and more nervous about how adamant he was getting about wanting her to show him non-existent dragons in the town. She was starting to have regrets about her alterations to the gnome story, although she was never proud of the initial decision to do so anyway.
"How about you just show me more of your BMX tricks for now?" Mabel suggested, hoping to further divert from the dragon topic.
"What's up, dudes?" Soos asked as he suddenly stepped out of the Shack onto the porch, with Wendy following right behind him. He walked up and sat right in between Mabel and Ryland. "Just finished a tour. What are you guys up to?"
"I was showing Mabel a few of my BMX tricks," Ryland told him. "She told me earlier about that one time when her brother got kidnapped by gnomes and she defeated them with a fire-breathing dragon that she tamed!"
Mabel felt her skin go cold immediately.
Oh crap.
"Huh, really?" Soos asked, scratching his head. He turned over to Mabel. "I thought that it was you who was kid-"
"-ing about it being a fire-breathing dragon?" Mabel finished, cutting Soos off by placing her hand directly over his mouth. "Yeah! I was! It was actually a normal dragon. I just added the fire-breathing part to enhance the story a bit. Fire-breathing dragons don't actually exist. I'm sorry, Ryland."
From the side, Wendy raised an eyebrow suspiciously as she listened in on what Mabel was saying.
"Oh," Ryland said in a somewhat disappointed tone but soon smiled. "Eh, it's cool. I mean, a dragon is a dragon, right?"
"Wow! Who knew there were dragons in Gravity Falls?" Soos awed wondrously. "I gotta ask Melody if she'd be cool with keeping one."
Soos immediately shot up from the porch steps and ran inside the Shack, shouting for Melody distantly before the door shut. With him gone, Wendy took this opportunity to step up to the two.
"Hey, dorks," she called as she walked past them down the porch steps. "Mabel, mind if I borrow you for a minute?"
"Sure, Wendy!" Mabel accepted.
She stood up from the porch and followed Wendy as she walked to the side of the Shack. For a moment, she looked back at Ryland and gave him a quick gesture to let him know she would be back in a moment, to which he nodded understandably. The two girls then reached the side of the Shack, giving them slight privacy to talk away from Ryland or anyone else.
"What's up?" Mabel asked innocently.
"Oh, nothing," Wendy said, crossing her arms. "But you know, as long as we're here, I kinda felt like hunting dragons, and I had a hunch that you'd be the best person to ask where I could find them."
Mabel sighed. She knew that Wendy was, once again, onto her, and there was no use trying to hide from her. "Alright! You got me! I made the part about the dragons up! And the rest of the story about the gnomes!"
"Dude, what are you doing?" Wendy asked. "You're telling Ryland that Dipper got kidnapped instead of you? What are you trying to prove?"
"That I'm not such a screw-up!" Mabel admitted. "I didn't want to lie to him, but when he wanted to hear about me, I couldn't think of something from that summer to talk about that didn't make me look bad or involve one of my dumb past crushes! So... I kinda tweaked the story a little."
"Mabel…" Wendy said with a facepalm. "Ryland's like the most average guy there is. He's not the type of guy to go and pick apart your mistakes. Besides, you're a great person! You have nothing to be insecure about."
"Psht! I'm not insecure!" Mabel declared. "Mabel Pines is not insecure! She's a strong, confident, and powerful woman who's not afraid of anything and don't need no man!"
"Riiight..." Wendy said, simply going along with her. "So that means you're gonna tell Ryland the truth?"
"Of course!" Mabel assured before glancing to the side hesitantly. "Eventually..."
"Well, this is your love life, not mine. So I'll let you handle it," Wendy began, beginning to walk off. "But if I were you, I'd just tell him the truth. Trust me when I say you really don't have anything to lose here. Not now, at least."
As Mabel looked back at her and thought over what she said, Soos' pickup suddenly drove into the lot and pulled up in front of the Shack's porch, grabbing everybody's attention. Soos then walked back out of the Shack and stood behind Ryland, watching as Dipper and Derrick both hopped out of the truck and shut the doors behind them.
"Soooo, how was it, dude?" Soos called out to Dipper.
"Runs like a charm, Soos. It honestly feels great to drive around Gravity Falls. Feels so free," Dipper said as he grabbed a few bags of groceries from the backseat.
"Also, there's a bunch of crumpled-up Yumberjacks takeout bags in the passenger seat, if that information is of any use to anyone," Derrick passively mentioned.
"Oh yeah, I've been meaning to get those cleaned out. But they leave a lingering smell of fast food that I kinda like more than normal air fresheners," Soos replied.
Although Derrick's presence seemed to cross Soos' mind, Wendy was not so oblivious and caught notice of him quite instantly as he stood beside Dipper. "Already picking up strangers in Soos' car, huh, Dipper?"
Dipper glanced over at Derrick and realized what she was getting at. "Oh, right. My bad. Guys, this is Derrick. He's actually my best friend from back home in Piedmont."
"Sup," Derrick said, waving a hand out of his pocket for a brief second.
"And Derrick, I'd like you to meet my other friends. This is Wendy," he said gesturing toward Wendy.
Wendy then chuckled as she scanned Derrick's appearance. "He kinda reminds me of Robbie, but like fifty-percent less emo."
"I... have no idea how to respond to that," Derrick replied, confused.
Dipper chuckled. "Don't worry, man. Wendy's cool. I've told you about her before, remember?"
Derrick's eyes lit up. "Oh wait. Isn't she-?"
"Yes," Dipper cut off in a deep, monotone tone as he lowered his eyebrows warningly. He knew everything that he had told Derrick in regard to his history with Wendy and didn't need him repeating it all aloud in front of the both of them.
"Gotcha," Derrick said, grinning.
"Anyways..." Dipper said, quickly looking to change the subject. "This is Soos." He then held out the bags of groceries as he walked toward Soos. "Here are your groceries, by the way, man."
"Aw, man! Thanks a ton, dawg!" Soos said, holding the bags in his arm. He held out his other hand toward Derrick to shake. "And it's nice to meet you, Derrick. It's good to see that Dipper actually does have friends back home."
"Wow. You were right, Dipper. He is pretty funny!" Derrick said with a humored smile as he shook Soos' hand.
Dipper sighed with continued annoyance. "Moving on…" He walked up to the porch where Ryland sat. "This is Ryland. He also works here at the Shack, and uh... yeah, that's all I got. We kinda just met last night."
Ryland stood up and offered his hand to Derrick. "Yeah, but it's still nice to meet you. We'll probably get to know each other soon enough. I've actually just been spending the day getting to know Mabel."
"Did someone say... Mabel?" Mabel asked as she suddenly jumped into the scene with glee.
"Hey, there you are!" Ryland pointed out.
"How was the drive, bro-br-?" she began, before her eyes drifted from Dipper to Derrick, finally addressing his presence. Her eyes bulged and her eyebrows tilted angrily. "What's HE doing here?!"
"Oh, brother…" Derrick groaned in response.
"Oh no..." Dipper said, having dreaded this interaction. "Mabel, calm down."
"Calm down?!" Mabel repeated as she stomped and walked up to Dipper's face. "You know one of the reasons I was looking forward to this summer was so I could get a break from him, right?"
"Now you know exactly how I feel, Sparkles," Derrick said in a sarcastic tone, rolling his eyes.
"Why are you here?!" Mabel asked impatiently as she turned to him. "Why is it that every time we go someplace, you're somehow magically there too? Why can't you just stay home? Or better yet- a jail cell?"
"Mabel, please!" Dipper pleaded, attempting to intervene.
"Please..." Derrick furthered. "If anyone belongs in a jail cell, it's you because of the crimes you committed wearing those ridiculous outfits."
"Derrick, man, c'mon!" Dipper pleaded. He looked to the side and saw how uncomfortable Soos, Wendy, and Ryland appeared as the other two continued to bicker.
"Should we, uh, give you guys some space?" Wendy awkwardly asked.
"What's with those two?" Soos asked.
Dipper sighed irritably. "I don't know. They've had it out for each other since they met."
"What do they hate so much about each other?" Ryland asked.
"Everything."
"Hate my outfits all you want. At least I have more than one!" Mabel scoffed at Derrick, pointing at his outfit.
"My one outfit is lowkey. Not some flashy crap to remind the whole world how much I'm an attention whor-"
"ENOUGH!" Dipper burst, startling the two. "BOTH OF YOU! I'm so sick of being the one who always has to put an end to these stupid fights you guys keep starting. Why can't you two just hate each other in secret or something instead of always starting a scene?"
"Hate each other in secret?" Derrick asked, raising an eyebrow. "Isn't that what girls do?"
"Dipper, you know how much he irritates me!" Mabel said frustratedly. "Why would you bring him to Gravity Falls?"
"I didn't bring him to Gravity Falls!" Dipper told her, appalled by such an improbable idea. "His dad sent him here after he caused trouble back home."
"Why? So he can cause trouble here instead?" Mabel asked.
"Yeah, basically," Derrick said with a shrug.
"No, not basically," Dipper told him before turning back to Mabel, pulling her aside so they could talk a bit more privately from the others. "Look, Mabel, I know you never liked the guy and had no plans of seeing him this summer."
"You got that right," Mabel said sassily, crossing her arms as she turned away.
"I get it, okay? But it wasn't even my plan to see him either, but now look! Now he's here!" Dipper said.
"But does he have to hang with us?"
"He's my friend, Mabel," he reminded her. "Whether you like it or not, he's been my friend for ages. So of course I'm gonna hang out with him. The same way I know you would hang out with Angela, Sammy, and Gretchen if they were here."
"But you don't have problems with my friends the same way I do with him," Mabel argued.
"Sure. But... you also have way more friends than me..."
Mabel frowned. She slowly turned her head back to him, watching as he rubbed his arm somewhat gloomily at his own admission. She couldn't doubt that Derrick was one of, if not, the only real friend Dipper had made in recent years. And for as much as she detested him, she couldn't deny that he's done right by Dipper throughout that time.
"...and I know that's not your fault, and yeah, you have good reasons to not like Derrick. Trust me, I don't even agree with everything he does. But I've talked to him, and I think maybe he could change. It'll take time, but what change doesn't?"
The mere suggestion raised some doubt in Mabel's mind. But it was also the first time that Dipper had even suggested the possibility of Derrick changing. Four years in Piedmont dealing with the same consistent back-and-forths and learning of his constant delinquencies had never once opened that door. Gravity Falls was a place of change, and even she knew that. Though she had her suspicions, perhaps she couldn't rule out the possibility of it rubbing off on Derrick, of all people.
"All I ask is you two just try to be cool for the summer. Or at least give him a chance to change," Dipper said, pleading for her cooperation.
She was incredibly reluctant, but she decided to try and do right by her brother and swallowed her pride for the moment.
"Fine. I'll do it for you."
Her head turned back to Derrick, and she stiffly walked up to him. In an act of Trying-Her-Gosh-Darn-Best-To-Be-Good, she offered her hand out for him to shake.
"Welcome to Gravity Falls, Derrick!" she said in a very fake enthusiastic voice. "I promise I will try my best to tolerate your existence this summer and not kill you on sight!"
Derrick stared at her with fear in his eyes for a good moment. "Dipper, what the hell did you do to her? I'm terrified."
"Just shake her hand, dude," Dipper told him as he approached.
"Do I have to?"
Dipper paid him a stern glare which said more than enough. Despite his deep reluctance, he brought his hand forward and shook hers back slowly for a brief moment, which neither of them found to be very pleasant.
"This is worse than holding Gideon's hand," Mabel said as she shook his hand disgustedly.
"I'm gonna have to burn this hand when I get the chance later," Derrick said, equally as disgusted.
Dipper ignored their remarks and stepped back toward Soos, Wendy, and Ryland. "Huh. Not gonna lie, that worked out better than I expected."
"Geez. Makes me wonder how ugly things could get if those two played against one another in Lario Wagon," Soos said. "Melody and I usually have our biggest fights playing that game. Imagine what those two would be like."
"I'd rather not," Dipper simply said. He turned back toward Derrick. "So with all that out of the way, Derrick, what do you think of Gravity Falls?"
"Gotta hand it to ya, Dipper," Derrick said, placing his hands in the pockets of his hoodie as he looked around the forest. "You were right about this place being more interesting than Piedmont."
"I told you!" Dipper said excitedly. "This place is totally weird! I'm glad you believe me."
"What? I didn't say this place was weird."
"Huh?" Dipper questioned, excitement fading away. "You said this place was-"
"Interesting," Derrick reiterated. "It's got some cool forests and some cool stores and such. But there's nothing that felt all that weird. Whole town seems pretty average to me."
"Average? You're telling me Scuttlebutt Island was average? Dusk 2 Dawn was average? The cemetery was average?" Dipper asked, getting slightly infuriated.
"You wanna tell me what's so special about an island in the middle of the lake, a random convenience store, and a normal cemetery run by two people who are way happier than anyone running a cemetery should ever be?" Derrick asked, crossing his arms.
"Are you seriously saying that nothing about anything I showed you today was weird to you? Nothing at all?"
"Err, let me think..." Derrick said, putting a hand on his chin, "I thought that Toby Determined guy was pretty weird. He's the closest thing to nonhuman I've seen all day."
"Can't argue there," Dipper admitted before looking back at the others. "But c'mon! Can any of you please back me up here? Tell him that I'm not lying! Tell him we've actually seen weird things!"
"Well, I obviously support you," Mabel pitched in. "But I'm also the last person he'd ever believe, so what use is my word?"
"Look, Derrick, dude," Soos said as he walked up to Derrick. "I know you're new here and all, but you gotta believe us. We've seen some spooky stuff around here, dawg."
"Yeah, man," Wendy nodded beside Soos. "Dipper's not lying here. For the most part, this town might look pretty normal at first, but if you look deeper, you're going to find a lot of the really crazy stuff that this place has to offer."
Dipper glanced over at Ryland and noticed he wasn't stepping up. "C'mon, Ryland. You've been here for some time now, right? Surely you've seen some weirdness around here."
Ryland shook his head. "Sorry, man. I don't really have a stake in this. I'm kinda in the same boat as Derrick 'cause I haven't seen anything strange around here either."
"Wait, what? Seriously?" Dipper asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, I mean, I spend all my time either at home, school, work or at the BMX park. All of it couldn't be any more average," Ryland explained.
"It seems like we have an outlier," Derrick said as he smirked at Dipper.
"But it's not like I don't believe you guys, necessarily," Ryland clarified. "I mean, I've been talking to Mabel today and she told me about that one time with the gnomes and the drag-"
"-drag it was to deal with them!" Mabel cut off with an awkward laugh. Ryland looked over at her with slight confusion at first before just going with it.
"That's it!" Dipper shouted confidently as an idea had apparently struck him. He ran off the porch and walked in the direction of the open woods before looking over at Derrick. "Since I'm still not any closer to convincing you this town is weird, why don't we take a trip into the forest and I'll show you Gravity Falls weirdness firsthand?"
"That doesn't sound weird or creepy at all," Derrick remarked. He then shrugged as he stepped off the porch and walked up to him. "But if you insist."
Dipper looked back toward Mabel, Ryland, Wendy, and Soos on the porch. "Anyone else want in?"
"I'd love to, dudes, but Mr. Mystery is calling my name!" Soos said as he stood up in a heroic pose. "Not literally since, ya know, I am Mr. Mystery. Point is- I got work here. You dudes have fun though!"
As Soos walked inside, Wendy began to follow him. "And I think I'll stay back to help. I don't know, today just isn't really one of those slacking off-kinda days for me. I'm down next time though! Just try not to get eaten alive and stuff."
She then walked inside along with Soos, leaving Dipper and Mabel to raise their eyebrows curiously at her response.
"Huh. Wendy not wanting to slack off? That's... different," Dipper analyzed.
Mabel turned back and directed her attention back at Dipper. "Well, as for me, I think I'm just gonna hang back here at the Shack with Ryland."
"I don't know," Ryland said, chaining his bike to the side. "I kinda want in."
"What? Really?" Mabel asked.
"Yeah!" Ryland said excitedly. "I mean, it's a chance for me to see actual weirdness for the first time as well! This could be awesome! Why don't we both join them?"
"Uhh, sure! I guess," Mabel said with a fake smile, but her tone was all the more reluctant.
Ryland turned toward Dipper. "We're in!"
"The more, the merrier!" Dipper said enthusiastically as he began to walk toward the woods again. "C'mon, let's get going. I wanna try to make it back before sunset." Derrick followed him while Mabel and Ryland stood back for a moment. Soon, they stepped off the porch and slowly began to follow along.
Ryland turned back toward Mabel as he kept walking. "Maybe we'll see a dragon along the way. That'd be cool, wouldn't it?"
Mabel stopped walking and stood still for a moment while Ryland continued to proceed forward into the woods without noticing. After standing alone for a brief moment, she sighed in annoyance and continued to slowly trudge behind the others.
"As cute as he is, even I'm starting to get annoyed by the dragon stuff."
Mabel, Ryland, and Derrick were walking steadily through the woods behind Dipper. He studied the area as they walked, glancing around in every direction. He suddenly came to a halt and began to examine the surroundings closely. The others stopped behind him and waited for a response.
"How much further until we get there? I didn't expect this much walking," Derrick complained.
"If that's the case, you're gonna hate hanging out with us this summer," Dipper stated.
"I already hate agreeing to this," Derrick replied.
"Dipper, where are we even going?" Mabel asked as she looked around the area. "I don't see what's so special about this part of the woods."
"Hang on," Dipper said, raising his finger commandingly.
He scanned the grass and noticed a pine cone flat in the middle of the edge and stepped forward to pick it up. He examined it closely but found it to be nothing less than a regular pine cone. He threw it back on the ground and took a step toward the right.
"This way," he said as he began walking again in the right direction of the woods. The others began to follow again.
"So, would you mind telling us exactly what we're looking for?" Derrick asked.
"You'll see."
"Okay, but uh... what exactly will I see?" Derrick pressed.
"SHHHH!" Dipper shushed suddenly, coming to a complete stop again.
The others behind him stopped as well and looked around instinctively. Dipper scanned the woods once more with his complete and total focus. They heard something and he thought he had an idea of what it was, but the rest of the group couldn't pinpoint it.
"What are we standing here for?" Derrick whispered.
"What part of 'SHHH!' do you not understand?" Dipper whispered back aggressively, prompting Derrick to raise his hands up defensively.
Dipper continued glancing around until his eyes fell upon a certain object. It was a dark red, pointy hat with many scratches and dirt on it. It stuck out of a short bush just a few feet away from the group. Dipper stared at it, studying it from a short distance.
"Guys, look at that thing popping out of the bush over there," Dipper whispered toward the rest of the group, pointing toward the hat.
Ryland squinted over at the hat Dipper was pointing at, and whispered back, "It looks like… a cone?"
"I bet it's some sort of magical cone," Derrick sarcastically replied. Despite Ryland's significantly greater amount of enthusiasm for the current adventure than Derrick, he couldn't help but snicker at his sarcastic humor.
Mabel looked over at the hat as well, eyes widening. "Dipper, is that a…?"
"I think it is, Mabel," Dipper whispered back, smiling.
"Oh, for the love of..." Derrick said, breaking out of his whisper. "What is it, Dipper?!"
The red hat suddenly started moving away from the group at a fast speed, alerted by Derrick's outburst.
"You idiot! Now, it's running away!" Dipper shouted angrily at Derrick as he started to run after the fleeing hat.
"The cone is running away?" Ryland said, confused and somewhat surprised.
"Honestly, I'm a little shocked by that too," Derrick admitted.
"Don't just stand here! Come on!" Mabel shouted at both of them, following Dipper in his pursuit of the cone. Derrick and Ryland looked at each other before running along with the two.
The hat was moving fast and kept scurrying through the bushes. Dipper kept sprinting after it as fast as he could. The natural terrain of trees, logs, and slopes, however, kept messing with his movement and speed as he tried his hardest to keep up with the hat, which was moving masterfully through the same terrain.
As he got closer, Dipper soon realized he was in a close enough range to close the gap between the two and end his second chase of the day. He ran for a few seconds more before leaping forward and grabbing a hold of the hat. He rolled over into a flatter, more open area of the woods while keeping his grip on the hat.
"Got it!" Dipper shouted as Mabel, Derrick, and Ryland caught up.
"Damn, Dipper. That's twice in one day," Derrick said, trying to catch his breath. "Seriously dude, you should consider trying out for track next year."
"What'd you catch?" Ryland asked, panting.
Dipper lifted up the dark red hat from the ground, which was revealed to be the pointy hat belonging to a big-bearded gnome, who wore blue overalls and a red-sleeved shirt underneath. The short gnome held onto his hat as Dipper lifted it, swinging its feet around as it attempted to escape Dipper's grasp to no avail.
"Release me, human!" the gnome demanded amidst its struggle.
Dipper raised the gnome in front of Mabel, Derrick, and Ryland. "My friends, I present to you: a local Gravity Falls gnome."
Mabel appeared completely unfazed as she looked at the gnome, having seen them plenty of times before, and none of those occasions being particularly pleasant. For someone who hadn't seen gnomes before, Derrick looked more confused rather than surprised, as if he was thinking over the entire situation. Ryland, on the other hand, looked actually surprised.
"Woooah," Ryland awed as he brought his face up close to it. "It's so small. It's kinda cute actually."
"Cute? I'm a Timberland Gnome!" the gnome shouted. "Are you aware of how dangerous we are?"
"Ha! Its voice is funny!" Ryland chuckled as he looked back up at Dipper. "You got captured by these things? They look almost harmless."
Upon hearing this, Mabel quickly turned away from the others, trying to hide her guilt in case she was to be called out. Dipper simply raised an eyebrow in confusion at the presumption. "Wait, what?"
"Human!" the gnome intervened angrily. "This is your final warning! Release me now or suffer the wrath of the Timberland Gnomes!"
"Relax, man," Dipper calmly replied. "I'm just proving that you exist to my friends."
"That's it!" the gnome lashed. "You still haven't released me, and I will no longer stand for it!"
The gnome pulled out a ram's horn from its overalls, put it up to his mouth, and blew hard. The horn sent out a large sound that echoed throughout the woods. In an instant, the ground began to vibrate hard and the bushes began trembling in response. Suddenly, waves of red-sleeved gnomes began rushing in from the bushes, holding pine cone spears pointed at Dipper, Mabel, Derrick, and Ryland.
Shocked by the sudden waves of gnomes that just appeared, Dipper instinctively dropped the gnome and looked around at the dozens, maybe even hundreds, of other gnomes that had now surrounded them. The gnome he dropped scurried away as another individual gnome stepped out from the circle with a white hat instead of a red one.
"Who blew the Horn of Sacred Woods?" the white hat gnome asked.
"It was me, Sir Thomas the Great," said the gnome that Dipper had previously held, who kneeled before the white hat gnome. "These humans had picked me up and were examining me! Calling me cute and harmless! Saying my voice was funny! I've never been more insulted in my life!"
The white hat gnome looked over at Dipper, Mabel, Derrick, and Ryland and stepped forward toward them.
"Hey," Dipper quickly intervened. "Listen, we didn't mean to cause any trouble. I was just trying to prove to my friends here that you all… well… exist." He then raised his hands up innocently. "But you know, we see you all now, and I'm sure we've all seen more than enough to know that weirdness is real, right guys?"
"Hell yeah! This is so rad!" Ryland replied gleefully.
"Pfft, are you kidding?" Derrick scoffed. "These are gnomes?"
"What? You still don't believe me?" Dipper asked, clenching his fists.
"Dipper, they're just a bunch of tiny people with beards," Derrick stated, all the gnomes gasping in response. "Obviously, you set this up to get me to believe in Gravity Falls weirdness. While it's a solid effort, I still don't buy it."
"You think this is a setup?!" Dipper asked, infuriated.
"Are you really that stupid?" Mabel asked, starting to get fed up herself.
"Dude, c'mon. This is legit," Ryland calmly pitched in as well.
"I'm not stupid, guys. I know you're all just messing with me," Derrick continued to deny. "C'mon, joke's over. Let's head back to the Shack."
Derrick began to walk away, but a group of gnomes pointed their pine cone spears at him, bringing him to a halt.
"Did you seriously just insult us gnomes by calling us 'tiny people with beards'?" the white hat gnome asked as he approached him.
"I'm sorry, and your name is?" Derrick asked.
"I am Sir Thomas the Great," the gnome introduced. "I am the leader of the Timberland Gnomes. And we don't take very kindly to you humans. But we're even less kind to those who insult us and our presence."
"Dude, c'mon," Derrick chuckled. "This has gone on long enough. I'm not falling for this 'gnome' business anymore."
"How inattentive can you be, human?" Thomas the Great asked, getting impatient. "You are surrounded by an entire army of my Timberland Gnomes and you believe this is nothing but a game?"
"It's not that I believe it's a game. It is a game," Derrick clarified. "And you guys are playing well, so kudos for that. But if you don't mind, I've had enough playing around. So if you would let me go, that would be really appreciated."
Derrick attempted to walk even further but was pushed back by the gnomes with pine cone spears. They began walking toward him, pushing him back further and causing him to fall back on his rear.
"Dipper, do you wanna tell these guys to break character and that it's all over? I'm tired of this," Derrick asked, getting annoyed.
"We're telling you, this isn't a game! These are real gnomes. Stop being so stubborn and just listen to us!" Dipper shouted back at him.
"This human's lack of belief in our presence insults me," Thomas the Great told the rest of the gnomes. "I wish to dispose of him and the rest of his friends."
"Sir, you wish to bring in the Guardian of the Gnomes?" asked the gnome that Dipper held before.
"I do," Thomas the Great confirmed with a sinister smile. "Bring in the Guardian of the Gnomes!"
A group of gnomes suddenly appeared and made their way to the circle of the gnomes, lifting a giant cage while walking into the circle. The surrounding gnomes stood back to make room for the gnomes walking in with the cage. Dipper, Mabel, and Ryland slowly walked back in fear, while Derrick just stood in place, completely unfazed by the transpiring events. Dipper turned his head behind him to look for a possible escape, but there was nothing but rows of gnomes holding pine cone spears behind them.
"Dipper, what's happening?" Ryland asked, growing frightened. "You're familiar with these guys, right?"
"Yeah, but not this," Dipper said, also frightened. "This is totally new. But I really don't like where this is going."
The gnomes set the cage down and stood back. A separate group of gnomes created a totem among each other and opened up the cage's many latches from top to bottom. Once completely unlatched, the gnomes deconstructed their totem and backed away. The cage was mostly overshadowed by darkness from the many shadows made by the trees, making whatever was inside the cage impossible to identify through the darkness. A faint growling, however, was soon heard from the inside.
A single gnome quickly ran up to the front of the open cage and called out to the creature inside. He put his hands forward and gestured for whatever was inside to come out. "Here, girl! Come out! It's okay."
The growling got louder and the creature's footsteps got louder as it got closer to the exit of the cage. A strange feeling of warmth and heat suddenly filled the air as the creature in the cage moved closer. The single gnome quickly ran back into its place with the rest of the gnomes as the giant creature stepped out of the cage and into the daylight. Dipper, Mabel, and Ryland stepped back even further once they finally got a glimpse of what the Guardian of the Gnomes was, which was revealed to be a big, dark-red dragon.
Mabel couldn't believe what her eyes were looking at. "No way..."
"Putrid humans, meet our both literally and figuratively hot Guardian of the Gnomes!" Thomas the Great shouted at the four, to which the dragon roared loudly in response as smoke steamed from its nostrils.
(Chapter updated as of December 5, 2022)