A couple hours later, the sun was coloring the world with red and orange as it fell beyond the horizon. The five of them were traipsing through the woods, hours after they would have liked to make their way. Dipper and Mabel had gone back into the Shack to grab rope to make a makeshift leash when Grunkle Stan had caught them. Their elderly relative had forced them back to work, snatching Wendy up in the process as she'd returned to ask what was taking them. Thus, they'd been stuck in the Mystery Shack until closing time, forcing Sam and Dean to wait for a couple hours. When the time came, they sprinted out of the Shack before they could be lassoed into any more chores, much to the displeasure of Grunkle Stan.
Shmebulock was frantically attempting to get away, clawing and scrabbling at the ground. The leash impeded his actions, much like those kiddy leashes that parents use to control their bratty children. Sam was on the opposite end of his pulling, easily capable of controlling the gnome. Shmebulock's low intelligence level seemed to help their cause, much to their relief, as he seemed to be leading them straight to the rest of the gnomes, where a smarter gnome might be refusing to move or going in the wrong direction. Despite their late start, they seemed to be making good progress, due to the manic energy of Shmebulock and their group being accustomed to moving fast in forest conditions.
Much to Dipper's displeasure, Sam and Dean had insisted on bringing their firearms. They'd insisted that it was just as a precaution, but Dipper would have rather they not bring the weapons. Dipper thought of himself as a slight pacifist, not wanting to hurt any of the creatures found in Gravity Falls. No matter how threatening they might be. The Winchesters had a different philosophy on life. They seemed very trigger-happy. From the few stories they'd told, it seemed that few of their targets survived, whether ghost or demon, or any other creature they encountered. The rest of them held the same weapons as they had in the clearing, a variety of blunt objects, good for swinging and hitting. They were still weapons, but unlikely to cause extensive harm.
As the light failed and the shadows lengthened, the Winchesters grew ever more tense, and Dipper kept spotting movement in the trees. Mabel and Wendy were also catching on, as he could see their heads turning in his peripheral vision.
"We're getting into gnome territory," he said, catching the eye of each of his group. They all nodded, their hands gripping their weapons tighter.
Shmebulock was even more frantic than earlier, his tiny fingers scoring marks in the ground as he attempted to escape. The further they walked, the darker the environment and more confident the hidden gnomes became. Soon instead of shadows, they were seeing dark forms, then the colorful figures of the creatures. Sam and Dean passed out flashlights, heavy-duty torches that had stronger beams than that of the one Dipper carried around.
When the sun's reach finally lost its hold and the darkness was lit only by their flash light beams, the gnomes came out in full force. They didn't attack as they had the many times they'd seen them the past couple days, nor any of their encounters prior. They just... congregated. Surrounded on all sides by an army of tiny men, the group formed a circle back to back, their flashlights directed out. Sam released Shmebulock's leash and the gnome disappeared into the ranks of the shifting gnomes, sitting in an eerie silence.
"What the hell are they waiting for?" Dean muttered. As the gnomes crowded closer, their circle tightened to the point that their shoulders were touching. Beside him, Dipper could feel Dean tensing up, and resisted the urge to make a grab at his weapon before the Winchester could fire it off. But before he could turn the rifle on the gnomes, a crack sounded as Sam fired his own pistol into the sky. The gnomes jumped in practical unison, skittering back a few feet and giving them more breathing room.
"Yeah who wants some?!" Dean said more confidently, pulling out his own rifle.
The small creatures seemed torn, internally debating whether or not to flee for their lives. This decision was made for them when from the back came the sound of a familiar voice.
"Excuse me, oh hey man, Jason! Good to see ya!" Like the parting of a wave, the gnomes cleared way for their current leader. Jeff looked exactly similar to what he had the last time they'd met him, and the time before that, and the time prior to that. The gnomes, like most magical creatures they found, seemed not to age. Or, if they did, it was a much slower process than the human lifespan could observe.
Jeff arrived at the front, still the brown bearded, mustache-less little gnome they knew so well. Though now that they had grown older, he hardly reached their knees. He stood, hands on his hips, surveying the humans before him like one would consider shelved products at a grocery store. He then smiled, and clapped his hands together in a familiar motion.
"So!" he said cheerily, " You've come to us, Dipper Pines! And you brought some friends too, how nice!" He waved at Mabel, earning a glare in return.
"Hey sweet heart, reconsidered our proposal yet?" Mabel didn't reply, instead opting for an obscene gesture.
"What the hell do you want, you little bastard." Dean voiced the opinions of them all, gaining a dark look from the usually cheery gnome.
Jeff responded with a grim smile.
" Well, all that we want is to have a new queen!" The surrounding gnomes broke out in a chorus of "Queen! Queen!" their little bodies bobbing with excitement. Jeff continued.
"But then you, you tried to get in our way!" He pointed an accusing finger at Dipper, and the queue around him snarled angrily.
"And so we thought, or well, heh, I thought, get rid of you, and no one is there to stop us! But look, you've brought her right to us!" he took a step forward, leaning in, "So if you'll just hand her over, we can be on our way."
The three male members of their party moved in closer to Mabel, and her own face contorted into a grimace.
" No way! I'm not going with you creeps! How many times do I have to say it!" She replied indignantly.
The gnomes began to sidle closer, their hands clenching and unclenching as they chanted "Queen!" in an almost satanic way.
Dean cocked the trigger back on his rifle, the sharp sound startling the gnomes.
" We're not completely defenseless you know. Think I could take down a handful of you before we go down." Jeff's livid emotion colored his plump cheeks red, and he shook his tiny fist at the hunter.
"You have no idea what we can do boy, there is no way possible for you to even fathom the extent of out power!"
Dean sniffed disdainfully at the puny man's threat.
"I might not be able to beat all thousand of you little monsters, but I can hurt your candidate for the throne." He slid a pistol out from inside his jacket, before aiming it at Mabel.
" It'll only take one shot." A jolt ran through the entire assembly, and the gnomes reeled back. A shard of fear slammed itself into Dipper's heart, but when he looked at Mabel, the feeling was replaced by puzzlement. Mabel was strangely calm, and when he met her eyes she was giving him total vibes of "Dipper, you'd better trust me on this." The same look he'd received the first time they'd met the gnomes, when she'd been able to scare them off.
Jeff was now nervously sweating, holding his hands in a sign of surrender.
"Hey man woah we don't need to go that far do we? Can't we resolve this like civil people?" Dean smiled mockingly at him, before turning his expression into a glare.
" And why don't you just leave, and we won't have to blast off this pretty girls head?" He pulled back the trigger.
"And how about you leave them alone? Keep to your little woods and gnome rituals, whatever you creeps do."
Jeff's only reply was unintelligible blubbering, a look of terror on his face at the consideration of his queen-candidate's being killed.
"Wait, w-what? You want me to leave them alone?" Dean's only response was a glare, and to tighten his finger on the trigger.
" But, but, she's our queen! She has to be! We can't just give up on her!"
Dean shrugged.
"Suit yourself," he said, then pulled the trigger.
Hey guys!
Sorry, missed the one week mark again. I got sick last week and pretty much spent the weekend sleeping. I might keep my update schedule on a 2 week cycle, just to give myself a little more breathing room :p
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thank you for all of the reviews, favorites, and follows!
See you soon!
-Missa