Claws
Frustrating. There was no other word for it. He'd hover in front of her. He'd wave his arms wildly. He'd set the room on fire. Nothing fazed her.
It wasn't Mabel's fault.
It was Dipper's fault. For being stuck on an entirely different plane of existence.
Following her was virtually pointless. Watching over her did no good. It didn't fix the despair and loneliness that seemed permanently etched on her face. It didn't do any good to read her aura with his third eye and see the motes of pruce swirl about her long, now shaggy, brown hair. It didn't make him feel right. He had found Mabel, but raw human emotions wrecked his grip on the world.
They were overpowering.
Eating made him feel better. The occasional minor demon he encountered. The rare summoner looking for Cipher that he dealt with. There was no keeping track of them anymore. Now it seemed the sparks and fire flowed endlessly. He didn't have trouble with wearing thin anymore. His appetite grew to match his meals.
Now the question remained: how could he get Mabel's attention?
Dipper mulled over the question as he prowled through the mindscape, somewhere in the northern tundra of Canada. The world was frozen over. His presence elicited steam along his path.
A screaming head? It seemed like a good idea, but rather impractical. A nightmare? Not when she was already so distressed. Though it would be a decent laugh. Maybe if he couldn't come up with anything better.
Preoccupied by thoughts racing through his forebrain and distracted by a flood of information in his hindbrain, third eye staring wide. Dipper didn't see the demon till he ran into a wall of ice it erected to halt his approach.
Scowling, Dipper pulled his hat off and wrung melted ice-water from the canvas. All three eyes found the offender.
Mahaha, he gathered. Its grotesque shape towered above him even though its feet rested on the ground. Stringy hair obscured milky white eyes. A frozen grimace made it appear as if it were smiling. Giggles tittered out of its throat, though Dipper could read in Mahaha's aura that it was ticked. Its bare body was laced with sinew and protracted claws almost doubled the length of its arms.
Dipper adjusted his hat back on his head. He stared down the other demon, asserting dominance by forcing the other to break the silence.
"What are you doing in my territory?" the beast growled.
Dipper smirked. "What does it look like?"
Mahaha's confusion overwrote his irritated aura with plain colors of qwmytr. "I don't know."
Dipper rolled his eyes. "I was minding my own business. Now I'll probably eat you. That is what every demon I've met has tried to do to me."
The beast dipped its head, a laugh falling from its still mouth, as if it expected such an answer. "Demons do take pleasure in both 'minding their own business' and eating. I usually adhere to the first. But if you wish to challenge me, then I accept."
"Feel confident, Mahaha?"
Colors of surprise filtered into the beast's aura. But it remained statuesque.
Dipper tipped his head with a silted smile.
"Mahaha. Mahaha. Mahaha. Don't you know my name?"
The ice demon shifted. Another inadvertent giggle.
"I know of many of our kind. But I have never seen a demon that appeared so human. Who are you?"
"Alcor." Dipper's voice heated the permafrost a few degrees. Blue plumes of fire broke through fissures in the ground. He lifted his head and smiled. Golden sparks jumped between his fingers, bent into hooks.
"I have never head of you."
"News doesn't get around when all those who know are eaten."
Mahaha let out a guffaw. An actual laugh this time. Amusement radiated in the beast's aura, glowing neatl. Its mammoth form shook, blue skin sending snow flurries onto the ground, snuffing fire. Icicle claws flashed in the ambient light of the mindscape.
"I am an isolated demon." Mahaha chuckled. "But I know an empty boast when I hear it. Impossible for an insignificant creature like yourself to eat their opponents. You appear as no more than a child."
"Mahaha." Dipper sounded as patronizing as possible. He tapped his forehead, next to his golden eye. "I know lots of things. And I know the truth when I hear it. Your name. Your weaknesses. Your death. My eyes sees all."
"Impossible." The ice demon scoffed. "Omnipotence is only for the most powerful and oldest of demons. There is no way a fledgling would wield it."
"Feel confident, Mahaha?" Dipper repeated, "Then challenge me."
The beast bristled, while hair borne by an invisible force as it swirled about its head. Cloudy eyes narrowed. Its stance shifted. Another giggle reverberated in its throat.
"You have it backwards, Alcor. I believe you should challenge me."
Dipper shrugged.
His flippancy didn't please the ice demon. It roared, rocking the tundra. It appeared to grow even more, towering higher than the pines in Gravity Falls. Matted dreads of white hung over its eyes and its ever present smile. Grey clouds filled the skies of the mindscape.
Dipper whistled in appreciation. Dramatics. Not bad.
It was impressive. But it wasn't intimidating. Dipper had survived nearly half a year with nothing by his threadbare, summer attire. Almost six months with a human form, mercilessly driven by the burning of a thousand suns below his skin. All those weeks with only powerful, leathery wings at his demonic disposal. It was by choice.
Gaining corporeality had been his priority.
But he could spare some energy to educate Mahaha. He drew portions of sparks into his hands, so his third eye was nearly blinded by the intensity. It was hot. Unlike his flames. Pure power scorched through his fingers and up into their tips. Dipper let them melt until they were fluid, and then reshaped them. He solidified the flesh when it met his standards. His hands smoked.
The beast hadn't even noticed Dipper's transformation. Swinging behemoth-like arms, it tried to smash Dipper into the permafrost.
As graceful as a dancer, Dipper beat his wings. He spun his body out of reach of the first arm and dove under the grip of the second. His size was barely comparable to the giant, making every evasion simple.
Mahaha. Hilarious. It was funny how dumb he was.
Sinewy, frosted legs blurred as the ice demon reversed its footing to track Dipper's movements. It tried to kick him out of the air. But Dipper's every maneuver was fluid. He rolled with the slipstream off its skin, reaching out fresh claws to drag them along the beast's ankle, pressing them in deep.
Razor points, diamond hard, flayed open antarctic skin, tendons, ligaments, and vasculature. Freezing, blue blood sprayed with both the force of the wound and the resulting writhing of the giant. Dipper pulled back to hover and survey his work.
His claws, fine tips no longer than regular nails were wickedly sharp. Now covered in ichor, akin to liquid Helium. Expending a mote of magic, he flicked his wrist and dispersed the icy blood.
Mahaha had collapsed to one knee. One eye was visible through his lanky hair. Its back heaved, in both anger and the drain of healing. The profound wound flashed with violet lightning, like that of a blizzard. Gargantuan fists tightened.
Dipper cocked his head. "Where is your soul?"
The beast ignored his question. "Claws?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Just now."
"Impossible."
"Not impossible."
"Who are you?"
Dipper leered, "Alcor."
If Mahaha had been about to say something further, it was unable. Its form flickered, like a bad connection. The gray colors of the mindscape encroached upon the ice demon's features. A spear of blue light stabbed into its left chest, and Dipper could feel the pull from where he hovered a few paces away.
Sapphire flames bloomed in both his palms. No way. Mahaha was not getting out of this fight with a summons!
Dipper lunged forward, wings growing to afford him a more expansive downward stroke. Invisible fingers tugged at his hair and clothes with the intensity of his charge, a faux wind. His hand reached out, digging into the ice demon's chest, driven home by Dipper's momentum and claws. A laugh mingled with a scream ripped from the beast's throat and echoed over the expanse of the tundra.
Both demons were dragged into the summons.
Cold was the first thing that registered on Dipper's bare arms. Tundra winds cut through the fine material of his t-shirt. Circulating the sparks under his skin helped, if only a little.
One human, standing at the edge of the circle wore surprise plain on her face. She didn't seem to be expecting a boy, who looked no older than thirteen, appearing at the center of the array.
She was wrapped in clothes that were certainly warmer than Dipper's attire. He could just make out a face. Smooth, dark skin and thick, black hair. She spoke, and the words registered in Dipper's mind of their own accord.
"You're not Mahaha."
"No."
"Where is he?"
Dipper held up the frosty soul of her liege. It had already grown icicles. They tinkled with the movement of his claws.
"I suspected as much."
Dipper shot her a quizzical look.
"He's a dumb demon."
Dipper threw back his head and laughed. It resounded within the spacious abode. It colored the flames in the hearth royal blue. He liked this woman. She was refreshingly perspicacious.
"Why are you here?" She asked when he was done.
"I didn't want to let Mahaha get away."
She nodded as if it made perfect sense. Which only made Dipper stifle another giggle with his hand.
"Will you eat him now?"
"Perhaps."
"I am sorry to disturb you."
"Alcor."
"I am sorry to disturb you, Alcor."
"Um, it's fine. Did you need something?"
"What?" For the first time, the woman looked ruffled.
"You summoned a demon. Did you need something? A deal, perhaps?"
Her lips curled into a half smile. Mysterious. It finally clicked in Dipper's brain. Her aura was missing, or perhaps more accurately, suppressed. He had to strain is all-seeing eye to catch a snatch of her name, Patuktuq. Ice Crystals.
"No."
"No? Then why summon Mahaha?"
"I was not being facetious when I said he was a dumb demon. I stumbled upon him long ago, as a child, and managed to evade him. But there came I time when I summoned him for assistance. I was able to save my people, in exchange for my soul, under the conditions that my dues be collected on the night of a blue moon. So I spend the years preparing stories, I summon Mahaha, and entrance him with a tale while the second moon passes overhead. This is the fourth time I have done so."
Dipper floated, legs crossed underneath him, closer to the edge of the circle. The circumference pressed against him, but it was like a light pressure rather than a rude shove. It wouldn't be difficult to pass through. But this woman had no soul to take.
Eyes alight, he asked, "Could you tell me your story?"
"And what will I get in return?"
"I'll eat Mahaha's soul and yours will be freed."
Patuktuq shook her head like a chiding mother.
"Dreambender, you can do better than that."
"What did you call me?"
"Alcor the Dreambender. There's triangles and stars in your aura. There's no other demon you could be."
Dipper lunged at the woman, blue fire igniting all the candles about the array. "How did you know that?" His claws dug into the invisible barrier, it's resistance like jelly beneath his grip.
"The sights tell me many things. Even before the world changed. It is how I first met Mahaha. After The Day, I now see prophecies. You are but a spark of the roaring forest fire you are destined to be. But you can't very well reach that point without proper contracts."
Alcor's third eye jolted to catch up with Patuktuq's visions. Darkness. A void that consumed all. Blackened days and rocked foundations of the earth. A catalyst that would change everything. Someday. Eons away. Even now. Time melted together. Meaningless.
Information rushed, roared, and raced out of control. He brought his hands to his head, claws digging into his skin so hot, gold, blood ran between his fingers. An inhuman keen slipped out. Space began to bleed into the ether and condense out of the atmosphere like a sickness.
With a terrific effort, Dipper forced his third eye shut. His remaining two were narrowed as he fixed them on the woman – seer and storyteller.
"Tell me." He hissed. "What would you deem to be a more appropriate contract?"
Patuktuq folded her arms over her chest, unimpressed.
"Free my soul and I will tell the world of Alcor the Dreambender."
"A publicity agent?" Alcor cackled.
"One you obviously need."
For once, two halves of him collided in agreement. Sensible.
"Deal!"
Sapphire flames swathed Alcor's hand, claws glinting in the light. Patuktuq reached out to clasp it. And upon contact, Dipper could feel what she could hide from his eyes. She had no true regard for her soul. She would sell it again if the situation required it. Her hand was strong. Every move she made was definitive and final. She never second-guessed herself. Not even now.
Nothing like himself.
But that was neither here nor there. He focused on reversing the passage he'd taken before. Magic squished and swirled, dumping him back out into the tundra of the mindscape. His wings stretched wide to steady himself. But he zeroed in on that sensation for future reference. That blip.
The frozen soul of Mahaha was still clutched in his other hand. The more he looked at it, the more it reminded him of the blue raspberry freezie pops that he and Mabel used to do rock-paper-scissors for in the summertime. But like an artic wind, the loss of corporeality cut through him again. It seemed, at this point, he couldn't punch through to reality without a summons.
Better remedy that.
Dipper place the soul on the ground, and within seconds, the permafrost had crept up to cover its shimmery surface. It pulsed. Wiry limbs bloomed from the soul, scrabbling like an insect attempting to right itself. Claws of icicles were dwarfed compared to their previous glory. White hair was stiff with fresh flakes of snow. Mahaha was no bigger than a snow cat.
Milky eyes and gruesome smile tipped sideways as the beast canted its head in Alcor's direction.
"What is the meaning of this?"
"A deal."
A tiny, echoing laugh filled the expectant silence.
"You release the soul of the storyteller and you spread the name Alcor the Dreambender." Alcor flexed his clawed fingers meaningfully. Vicious points gleamed. "We have no need to seal the deal. This is final: follow through or I will tear you down and eat you."
TBC
Please enjoy this slightly less-gory chapter :\
Special thanks to the guest review who assured me that I was not a terrible person and that I was sitting on another chapter. It's been kinda slow lately since I'm struggling with inspiration for the last few chapters (I was projecting this would be 6 chapters sooooo...). There might be a little bit of a wait! ;(