Dipper followed Mabel through the woods, carrying a stack of papers and a stapler. "Mabel!" He called out. "Come on how much longer?"
"We already put up flyers all over town, but what about all the creatures who live in the forest! I want this to be the best halloween party ever!" Mabel grinned.
Dipper sighed. "Come on Mabel, I don't think we want a grimmgoblin showing up to the party."
"Well duh!" Mabel laughed. "But what about the gnomes! Or even the multibear! The more the merrier!" Mabel took a flyer off the stack and stapled it to a nearby tree. "And we still need to discuss what our costumes will be this year!"
Dipper just sighed. "What are you trying to decide between?" He knew better than to try arguing with her.
"Let's see." Mabel hummed as she stapled another flyer up. "We have thing one and thing two from Cat in the Hat. A burger and fries, or a shake. Or a cookie and milk gallon."
Dipper nodded. "Okay."
"What do you think Dipper?" Mabel asked.
"You can choose Mabel." Dipper smiled. "But I think I would prefer not to have blue hair."
"So no thing one and two." Mabel nodded. "Sounds good." She headed towards another tree.
Dipper just glanced around as he walked. He paused as he noticed something. Tucked between a small grove of trees was a door. An old beat up wooden door, with a large golden number that said thirteen. "Hey Mabel look over there!" He pointed. "What is that?"
"Looks like a door! Let's go knock and see who is home!" She rushed over towards the door. Dipper rolled his eyes and followed. "Hello!" Mabel called as she knocked on the door. "Is anyone home?!" She held the flyer in her hand to her chest.
The door slowly creaked open. "Oh can we come in?" Mabel pushed the door open further. On the other side was a beat up shack. Dipper glanced around the door, it didn't look like there was a shack.
"Mabel wait." Dipper whispered, but she had already headed in. Dipper groaned but followed. It was empty. Dipper found another door on the other side of the shack. Mabel was already walking through it. "Mabel!" He rushed out to find them in the forest again. "That was weird. MABEL!" He groaned as his sister continued going through the forest. "MABEL!" He rushed after her. "Come on!"
A few minutes later the two came to a stop. In front of them was the mystery shack, only it looked younger. It looked like it had when they were kids. "Why is the mystery shack here?" Mabel walked towards the door. A moment later they heard two young voices.
"Wait up!" A boy wearing a striped shirt with brown hair came running out of the house. A boy with brown hair wearing glasses came running out of the house after his twin. "Come on!"
"Catch up!" The non glasses one laughed. "Let's go punch something!"
"We aren't." The glasses one smirked. "We're going to explore that cave we found yesterday." He held up a stone tablet. "I think we might be able to find another piece there."
"Dipper who are they?" Mabel whispered.
"They kind of… look like.."
"Stanley." The glasses one cried out again as his twin went running into the forest. "WAIT UP!"
"Stanley?" Mabel whispered.
"Come on!" Dipper grabbed her arm and the two chased after the young men. They continued to run until they arrived at a cave. The two stan's stood in front of it holding a flashlight.
"Stanley wait." Ford said suddenly.
"What do you want now Stanford?" Stan stopped.
"Someone is following us." Ford spun around. "Who's there? COme out!"
Dipper and Mabel looked at each other before slowly coming out of the forest. They looked over at the younger versions of their great uncles. "Um hi." Mabel smiled. "We weren't-.
"You were totally following us!" Stan folded her arms over his chest. "Why?"
"We were curious." Dipper held out a hand. "We noticed you holding that stone. Can I take a look at it?" Dipper took a step forward.
Ford looked at them and then slowly held out the tablet to Dipper. Dipper took it and looked down. He froze as he recognized a symbol on it. The same symbol that was on the hat he always wore, except for today. He hadn't worn it today because Mabel had dragged him out before he could grab it. "This symbol." He whispered.
"HAVE YOU SEEN IT BEFORE?!" Ford's eyes lit up. "WHERE?"
"Oh come on Stanford." Stan rolled his eyes. "How could these strangers know anything about your strange book?"
"Book?" Mabel asked.
Ford nodded slowly and slid a journal book out of his jacket pocket. It looked just like the journal only instead of a six fingered hand there was a pine tree. Dipper stared in shock. "Wow."
"Have you seen it before?" Ford asked again.
"Yeah. It's on different things all over the place."
"I'm betting it's important." Ford took the journal back. So we're here to find out how this stone relates to the author."
Dipper looked to Mabel who shrugged.
"Wanna come with us?" Ford asked.
"Stanford!" Stan hissed.
"They might be able to help us." Ford hugged the journal close. "This might lead us to the author of the journal!"
"Fine." Stan shrugged and headed into the cave. Dipper, Mabel and Ford followed.
"So.. You two live here?" Nabel asked.
"No, duh. Who would want to live in a cave." Stan huffed.
"I think they mean gravity falls." Ford shook his head. "But still he's right. We are just visiting. Our grandmother lived not far from here and we are spending the summer with her. Mom and dad thought it would be good for us to see a bit of the world."
"Sounds fun." Mabel smiled. "I bet you have lots of adventures here!"
"You bet!" Stan grinned.
"Mostly we are trying to find the author." Ford looked at the journal. "I'm thinking that stone is a piece of a bigger stone that will tell us how to find him. I haven't been able to figure out the code yet."
Dipper looked down at the stone. He couldn't figure out why his symbol was on it. "I feel like I've seen some of the letters before." Not that they were really letters.
"You have?" Ford's eyes seemed to be flowing again. Not in the possessed way but in the excited way.
Dipper nodded. "So this author… What do you know about him?"
"Nothing really, except he is amazing. He's crazy smart and he seems to understand what is going on around here."
"I bet you would love to meet him."
Before Ford could respond there was a noise. Like something crashing.
"I bet it's one of those bats again!" Stan was grinning. "I'm gonna hit it!"
"Hang on." Mabel frowned. "You don't know what it is. It could be friendly."
Stan just rolled his eyes.
"Sounds like… Laughter." Dipper whispered. They all went quiet and they could hear it now. A deranged laughter. Dipper and Mabel took the lead this time. Stan and Ford followed right behind.
A few moments later they came into a clearing lit by a small fire. An old man crouched low over the Fire rubbing his hands together. He was balding with patches of white tufts on his head.
"Oh it's just old crazy gleeful." Ford shrugged. "I guess this must be where he lives."
"Gleeful?" Dipper whispered and looked at Mabel. She mouthed the word Gideon.
"Who's there?!" The old man jumped up and pointed a spoon at them. "What do you want?"
"Is this yours?" Dipper held up the stone piece.
"My plate!" Old man Gleeful cried out. "You found it!"
"Plate?" Ford frowned.
"Yeah!" He came closer to Dipper. "I've been missin it!"
"Where did you get it?" Dipper asked, pulling the stone closer to his chest.
"In an old shack." Gleeful frowned. "Give it back!"
"A shack?" Ford asked
"It was holdin the door open. That place was weird. There were strange noises comin from beyond that door. So I let the door close and took the plate with me." He laughed again.
Ford looked crestfallen. Dipper in the other hand was putting his own pieces together. An alternate dimension! "Listen can I keep it?" Dipper asked Gleeful.
Gleeful and Ford looked at Dipper. "I think I know where this comes from."
"Where?" Ford asked.
Dipper glanced at Mabel. "Let's talk outside." Stan and Frod looked at each other and then nodded. The four Pines left the cave and headed back towards the Mystery Shack. They could hear Gleeful yelling after them, but the old man didn't come.
"So?" Ford asked. "Where?"
Dipper glanced over his shoulder for a moment. "Another dimension." Both boys stopped. "What?"
"What Dipper is trying to say is we come from another dimension, though that shack Gideon was talking about."
"Another dimension. Wow." Ford whispered.
Dipper smiled. He imagined he had been a lot like this version of Ford when he had first met Ford. "Listen Ford, Stan can we take this. I don't think it will lead to your author. I think it is from our dimension."
"Ford?" Ford asked and looked at Stan. He smiled. "I like the sound of that."
"Then I'm Stan." Stan smirked and lightly shoved at Ford's shoulder. The two brothers laughed.
"So can we take it?" Dipper asked.
"Other dimensions don't really exist." Stan chuckled. "You're pulling our legs."
"No really!" Mabel laughed. "Come on we'll show you." She started running towards the abandoned shack. They arrived there shortly later. Again they found just a door there, no shack.
"What is this?" Stan asked.
"The door to our dimension!" Mabel grinned and opened it wide open. The inside of the shack showed. Both Stan and Ford stared in amazement.
"Listen we're going through. Dipper looked at them. "Is it okay?"
"Yeah." Ford nodded. "I think we'll be fine on finding who the author is."
"I think so too." Dipper leaned down so he was facing Ford. "Listen can you two promise me something."
"Sure." Stan nodded.
"Stick together, no matter what happens." Dipper rested his hand on their shoulders. "Whatever happens in the future you two stick together. You are siblings and you need to stay together as long as possible." Stan and Ford looked at each other and smiled widely. The two high fived/sixed each other. "And one more thing. Promise me that if you meet a demon named Bill you won't trust him or do anything he says."
The brothers looked at each other and then him. They nodded.
"Good." Dipper stood back up and looked down at the stone piece. "You two take care." He looked at Mabel. She nodded and the two of them headed back through the door. Dipper closed it behind him.
"That was amazing!" Mabel whispered.
"Yeah…. Do you think.." Dipper stopped. "Come on let's go home. I need to start doing some research about this stone."
"But we need to finish putting up the flyers!" Mabel protested.
Dipper sighed. "Fine." He shook his head.
Ford and Stan walked back towards the Mystery Shack. "That was weird." Stan said. "Do you think they were really from another dimension?"
"I think so." Ford looked down at the journal. "Hey Stan, do you think the demon he mentioned… Do you think it was that diamond guy Will?"
"Naw." Stan chuckled. "Now come on. Gram Mab is making that pasta dish that is perfect!" He started running.
"Wait up Stan!" Ford cried as he chased his brother.
Dipper set the stone tablet on his desk and looked at his personal journal. He drummed his fingers over the desk and frowned. He knew he had seen the symbols before but he couldn't figure out where. Of course there was the pine tree but besides that there was what looked like a backwards three, and upside down triangle, bolded us facing multiple directions, a diamond and many others. He drummed his fingers more and more. He groaned and leaned back in his seat.
"This is going to be tough." He stretched his hands over his shoulder and started to take his notes down on the tablet and the symbols. He was going to decode it. He was determined.
Zxk vlr cfdrb lrq texq qeb qxyib pxvp?
Stone tablet found here- art/Stone-Tablet-Piece-1-640922674?ga_submit_new=10%253A1476843479&ga_type=edit&ga_changes=1&ga_recent=1