I'm really sorry for the long wait for this chapter, guys. I would have made it shorter, but I couldn't figure out how to without leaving another (more annoying) cliffhanger. But this chapter is really long, and I'll have the next one up soon. Thanks for the reviews and follows, guys! Keep telling me what you think, because I'm not completely sold to this chapter.

Dryad. Dry·ad. /ˈdrīˌad/ (noun). In folklore and Greek mythology. A nymph inhabiting a forest or a tree.

I looked it up in the 1976 dictionary in the Gravity Falls library. I found a picture in the mythology books. I slammed my head against the bookshelf for not knowing and mentally slapped myself for slamming my head against the bookshelf.

My head is full of questions, each of them swimming around in my brain, but none of them have answers. How could I not have known that I was a mythical creature? Why didn't my parents tell me? So I'm a tree nymph, huh? I guess that explains why I like the forest so much. And it explains why I like climbing trees, and fantasy books, and maybe why I found the book in the first place. Maybe being a dryad is what led me to Gravity Falls, and how I met-

Dipper and Mabel!

They talked about how they know all about the weird stuff going on in this town- maybe they'll have some answers.

I run to the Mystery Shack, clutching the journal like my life depends on it. The business is closed today, meaning Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Wendy don't need to be there, but Dipper and Mabel are since they live there, and Soos is always hanging around.

"Guys!" I yell, running into the gift shop. The bells from the door ring as I skid to a stop on the wood floor and narrowly avoid the cash register by bumping into Soos.

"Whoa!" I bounce off of his stomach. "Sorry, Soos."

"It's okay, dude." He pats his belly. "Feels good."

"Hi Autumn!" Mabel says, spinning around on a globe. "What's up?"

"I found out something really big." I answer. "Let's go up the attic. We need to talk about this."

I feel like I'm about to burst while I'm walking up the stairs, but I manage to hold it in until Dipper and Mabel are on their beds, Dipper holding his 3 book and Mabel with Waddles balanced on her feet.

I'm sitting on the floor grinning like an idiot when Dipper breaks the silence.

"So, what are you waiting for?" He asks. "Tell us what you found out about!"

I explode, with all of the information spilling out. I open my book and show them. Once I've said everything I know, the twins' eyes are as big as mine usually are.

"Can I see that?" Mabel picks up the journal and flips to the page that I was talking about. She wrinkles her brow in confusion. "What the last part there before?"

"What?" I lean over to look at the writing, and there on the bottom of the page in bright red ink is a new paragraph.

"Let me see." Dipper grabs the 1 book and reads the newest inscription. "It looks like a spell. You should try reading it, Autumn."

"Okay," I take a deep breath. "Here goes."

I close my eyes and speak the magic words slowly.

"Phystrathm flogetarta onewertale."

"Whoa!" Dipper and Mabel's voices join in unison.

"I don't feel any different…" I look down. "Oh. That must be it."

Instead of my normal long sleeved T-shirt and jeans, I'm wearing some sort of green toga-like thing. It's tied by a gold waistband and ripped a little near the bottom. I can feel some sort of laurel wreath on my head.

"That's it?" I mutter. "It's a pretty ineffective spell."

"Does this mean you're magic?" Dipper asks, and then abruptly slaps his forehead. "It makes sense now!"

"The fact that I'm a dryad is sort of old news."

"Not that." He turns to face his sister. "Mabel, I was wondering why we didn't have to deal with monsters since Autumn got here. We had to face a creature every day, and things were so normal because there was already something fantasy related in our lives!"

"Are you saying that I'm a monster?" I put my hands on my hips, and feel some paper tucked on the inside of the waistband.

Initiation, it reads. Center forest. Three o'clock.

"Guys, what time is it? I apparently have plans at three."

I show them the paper. Their digital alarm clock proclaims that the time is 2:45.

"I guess I should get going."

"We should come with you." Mabel smiles.

"I don't know if that's a good idea-"

"I think it is a good idea." Dipper stands up. "Let's go together. Mabel and I can hide during the initiation parts. We can just lead you there and help you get back."

I sigh. We head out into the woods. Even though nobody is out to see us, we'd probably look pretty weird: a boy with a strange birthmark on his forehead, a girl wearing a neon sweater in the hottest part of summer, a creature from Greek mythology, and a pig.

"Why have we been walking so long?" Dipper fusses, reading his journal. "We should be at the center of the forest by now."

"Cheer up, Dippingsauce." Mabel pokes his face, causing him to make little whimpering noises.

"That looks like it." I point to a little circle of the forest where the trees part and a beam of light seeps through.

"What?" Dipper squints. "I don't see anything different."

"You mean there isn't a clearing right over there?" I ask.

Mabel shrugs. "Must be some sort of weird separator thingy so that you can see it but we can't because we're normal."

She smiles the entire time that she says that.

"I'm going to try going in."

I run towards to clearing, vaguely aware of the twins yelling for me to come back. As I pass into the light, a blue electric force field flickers. I turn back, and I can't see Dipper and Mabel anymore.

"Autumn!" Dipper's frantic voice calls. "Can you hear us?"

"Autumn!" Mabel yells. "Where did you go?"

"I'm over here!" I call out, but I don't think they heard me, because there is no reply.

"Hi!" A voice from behind me says. I jump from being surprised.

"Oh!" I turn around. "Sorry. Hi. I'm Autumn."

"I figured," the girl says, twisting her brown hair on her fingers. "There was something going around about a new dryad coming today. I'm Willow."

"I'm guessing that you're a dryad too?" She's wearing a toga that looks almost the same as mine, and she has a laurel wreath on her head. And there's the fact that she was named after a type of tree.

"Uh-huh!" Willow nods. "I'm sort of like the head dryad. There's a bunch of us."

Once she says that, tons of dryads walk out from behind (or inside of?) trees.

"We're all pretty shy," She admits. "We haven't had a new member in ages."

"New member?"

"Let's take a walk. I'll explain how everything works. And I want to show you your tree!"

"My tree?"

The forest seems sort of different, now that I know that I'm a part of it. It seems pretty easy to navigate, like I can't get lost anymore. Everything is brighter and magical.

"You must have some questions," Willow says, breaking the silence that started to form.

"The biggest one is, how to the book contact me?"

Willow smiles and pulls out a piece of paper. The writing on it is identical to the writing I found in the journal.

"This is how we contact new dryads." She explains. "Whatever is written on the paper corresponds to whatever is written in the book."

"Okay, that makes sense." I say. "But what exactly does the spell do?"

"You use the spell to go between your normal and full dryad form."

"What's the difference?"

"You can use some plant magic when you're in full form." She points towards the ground. "Watch; this is really cool."`

Right where she was pointing, a bright purple flower sprouted out of the ground, followed by a few more.

"Wow, that is cool!" I say in shock. "I can do that?"

"Perks of being a tree spirit!"

After a few more minutes, Willow stops walking.

"This is your tree." She walks to a big oak. It's nice, but a few feet shorter than the other trees in the forest.

"Cool." Then I ask, "Why is it a little smaller?"

"Your tree is linked to your age. You're the newest, and also the youngest, so your tree is shorter."

"How old are you?"

"Dryad age is a strange thing." She frowns. "You're twelve, so nothing strange has happened yet. But once you reach your teenage years, you age slower. Around seventeen or eighteen, you stop aging altogether. I was born in the 1920s, but I look about seventeen."

"So, does that mean the dryads live forever?"

"Almost." Her frown becomes deeper. "Everything is linked to our trees. If our trees are cut down…" She slides her finger across her neck.

"Oh." I look down, sad because of the talk about death, then I remember all of the cool things about magic and immortality. "Well, it still seems like it's really amazing to be a dryad."

"It is." Willow perks up. "The whole thing comes with some amazing powers, but there are limitations."

"Like what?"

"When you're in dryad form, you can't get too far from the forest," she explains. "You can switch between forms at any time during the day, but at night, you're stuck like this. So, if you live too far away, which you do…"

"I have to sleep in the forest?"

"It's not as bad as you're imagining," She says quickly. "You sort of…join with your tree, and you fall asleep once you do. When you wake up, you transfer out, and you're free to leave."

"Was that a pun?"

"Not intentionally."

~~~~~~~~~~After initiation~~~~~~~~~~

I barely have been outside of the circle of light for one second when I'm tackled by a blur of purple yarn and brown hair.

"Autumn!" Mabel screams. "Are you okay?! Where were you?! We were so worried, you just sort of disappeared, and you were gone for an hour, and Waddles was so worried, too!"

She moves over to reveal the pig running in circles and frantically oinking.

"I'm fine," I assure her. "I'll tell you all about it."