Episode 6: Loch Ness Monster: True or Real?
Choice way to spend the afternoon. Homework done, guitar at your arms, walking through uncharted forest. World's best sister at your side.
Bea's fingers plucked effortlessly on the nylon strings of her meticulously handcrafted redwood McElroy guitar. She hummed along with a melody made up on the spot to accompany the chorus.
Cricket was taken back to a time when this was their daily routine. Northern Arizona was such a distant memory now, as well as the simplicity of life. Perfect days like these only came along once, maybe twice a month. With the wind at her back, the partly cloudy sky overhead, and hours with nothing to do. No job from their uncle, no more homework, no appointments to keep.
Eight samples collected so far, all types of plants. Cricket had borrowed supplies from her chemistry lab with her professor's permission weeks ago and had been performing some experiments recently.
She'd also decided she was going to avoid the supernatural, if only for today. It was too recently that a certain fourteen year old wearing a certain mint green suit with a name she was not going to mention tried to commit both genocide and homicide. She gave this certain fourteen year old a pass on the genocide part because he did not know about it, but the other one…
But I'm not gonna think about that today. Today is a break from all of the weirdness, she thought. Bea isn't bothered by it, I won't be either.
And it was true, her sister was unphased as she strolled through the East woods, without a care in the world. If she was aware that she'd almost died three days ago, she didn't show it one bit.
But Cricket's mind trailed off for a while.
It was an absolute miracle what had happened three days ago. It truth, she hadn't been strong enough to stop the destruction of her favorite place as well as the home of hundreds of creatures. This made her stomach churn. She wasn't used to being in this kind of position. In fact, she was used to being bailed out by her sister, her unbelievably lucky, charismatic, optimistic sister, Bea. Everything turned out fine as long as she had anything to do with it.
Those were lives at stake back there. Maybe I shouldn't put myself in these kinds of situations. Which is why today was a break day.
"Woah Crick, watch out!" Called Bea from a few steps behind her. Cricket's legs locked and she jolted out of her trance. She moved the jars out from her field of vision and it registered in her brain that she was at the edge of Gravity Fall's largest lake. Once again, she was bailed out by her sister.
"I- I would've seen it." She mumbled, trying to sound assertive. But she wouldn't have seen it.
Her sister shrugged her off, smiling gleefully. "Alright then. Wanna turn back?"
"No, why- why would we turn back?" Cricket stammered. Her mind was on all of the self-doubt bubbling inside. "Going back isn't an option! Why would you think that? Do I look like the kind of person who gives up?!"
Bea wrapped an arm around her sister. "Hey, calm down. I'm not much of a swimmer, that's all I'm saying."
Cricket faltered on her next sentence. "I just…" She sighed. "I don't know how I'm supposed to do it all."
Bea pursed her lips. "Well, I don't know what you mean, but if you want my advice, don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't do it all."
Cricket raised an eyebrow.
Bea slung the guitar behind her and took a jar out of Cricket's arms. "It's not school work that's gotcha down, that much I know. You love that stuff. But you shouldn't have to do whatever it is by yourself." Another jar. "Or at all." And another. "If you're so stressed about it, make an informed decision, and you might find out that you don't have to do it at all." She paused, calmly searching for a clue that she'd gotten through to Cricket. Then she took one more jar.
Cricket's eyes went down to her arms. Only four jars. Much easier to carry. Then she looked at Bea, who now had half of her load. "I… that helped, I think. Thanks, Bea."
"Hey, whatever I can do to help. Jars can be heavy, 'specially for your twig arms." She threw one in the air and caught it, the small group of plants bouncing around inside. Bea had her moments where she was easily the smarter sister. Even without realizing it.
Under her breath, Cricket made her decision. "Then that's settled. No more weirdness. No more adventures, and no more Journal." She nodded. "I'm done."
Cricket would've agreed to turn around and head back, if it weren't for a far off speck that held her interest a second later.
"Is that an island? Bea, come back, look!" She set her jars down and paced along the waterline eagerly. Bea poked her head through the tree line.
"What up?" She asked.
"An island! And who knows how long it's been there. Do you know what this means?" Before Bea could answer, Cricket interjected, "It means life that's isolated from the rest of the forest, biodiversity, organisms that have evolved for that island and that island alone, completely unique!"
Bea laughed and shook her head. "There's my Crick with the nerd jargon."
Cricket's eyes widened. "I have a strong need. Imagine the samples!"
…
"Thanks for lettin' us use your boat, Joel." Bea patted the rusty metal side of her mute friend's fishing boat. They were a few hundred yards from shore, Joel at the wheel, Bea at the back admiring the boat itself, and Crick at the very front. This was the very thing she needed to distract herself. The water roared underneath her, its powerful waves being cut down the middle by the metal bow. The air smelled of crisp plants and clear lake water. It combed through her short brown hair and blew the locks away from her eyes. An uncertain chord rang out from the back of the boat. Then another. A steady string of chords followed, soon accompanied by a rhythmic strumming.
"Weeeeeee're se-tting out to seeeaa!
We're setting o-out for sea!
To adven-ture oh myyyy oh meeee,
The trav-lers Joel, Cri-cket, and Beeeaa!
To Scuttlebutt Island we go, HO!
With no map to tell us where to go, HO!
Yet here we are,
We've come so far,
So Scuttlebutt I-sland, HO!
No monster dare cro-oss our path,
If they do then we unleash our wrath,
We've got Cri-cket's brains,
Joel's might-y gains,
And Bea's dashing good looks completes that!"
The prose went on for a few minutes. Already some new never before seen plants came into view from Scuttlebutt Island. A bed of thin purple flowers swayed in the cool breeze at shoreline, water lapping at the delicate stems. The island itself was gloomy. Dark and cold, and a layer of fog sat thick in the trees. Cricket squealed with delight.
"Hold on, hold on! Joel, Crick, what the heck was that?!" Bea's alarmed tone alerted the other two boaters to her spot. The red head had put her guitar on the floor and her upper body was hanging over the side of the boat, peering into the darkening water ten feet down.
"What did you see?" Asked Cricket.
"I saw… something. It went under the boat. It was big, like 'hippo ate a rhinoceros who just won a whale- eating contest' big."
"And you're sure it wasn't a trick of the light? Your imagination?" Cricket walked the border of the boat, but no shapes appeared anywhere in the waves.
"My imagination is so extensive I got myself to believe my boring second grade teacher was a pink rabbit with a top hat. That was her only redeeming quality too. But I doubt I'd imagine something like this." Bea explained to Joel, who was pointing a harpoon into the sloshing water.
"We ought to turn back then. I'm not taking any chances." Said Crick grimly. Joel brought the harpoon in close, patted it, and glared at the water as he returned to the driver's wheel.
"Go away." Cricket half ordered half begged it. "I have nothing to do with you anymore."
Joel started up the engine again. Bea swiftly carried her guitar up over her shoulders and strummed furiously before starting a new verse. "Ooooooohhhhh weeeeeeeeeeeee're-" But instead of singing, all that came next was a grunt as she hit the wooden deck. Something had rocked the boat. Hard.
Cricket sailed to the right, almost crashing into Bea and instead smashing her ribs against the metal railing. All the air evacuated her lungs. She fell over onto her back, groaning, clutching her side. A sound like a watery slap hit the side of the boat closest to Crick, and the boat was rocked in the opposite direction. This time Crick tumbled on top of her sister. Scrambling to her unsteady feet, she gasped as she saw that the boat's deck was nearly perpendicular to the white foamy water. She felt gravity pulling her into a watery grave. A slimy dark green fin broke the surface, followed by a sleek green body. Water streamed off of its ragged fins that had tendrils of water-dwelling plants tangled in them. The rest of it was occluded in the dark waves, but its shape was discernable: long, sea turtle- like flippers, a lengthy slender neck, broad head, an ovular body, and a zig zaggy tail. Its figure distorted on the surface, yet anyone could see how massive it was. Cricket didn't care how fascinated she was with sea creatures, this was certain death with fins.
"Joel, floor it! Floor it!" Screamed Cricket. Joel hung from the driver's cockpit. He swung a few times then got his legs on a bar and used the new footing to climb his way back into the seat. He tightly fastened his seatbelt and swerved the wheel. This got the boat upright. The force knocked Cricket off of Bea, who proceeded to gasp for breath and used her guitar as a crutch to get to her feet.
Joel's large foot slammed down on the gas pedal, and they went forward.
He turned the boat around. "Bea, I'll watch to the left, you watch on the right!" Cricket ordered.
"Aye aye, cap'n. Permission to drop sick rhymes as I do so?" Bea barked like a crewman.
"Uh, sure, yeah. Permission granted."
"Sweet, cause the last two minutes gave me a lot to work with. Ooooooooooohh!" She sang, louder to compete with the growling engine:
"Weeeeeeee're sailing back to shoooooore,
We're sailing ba-ack to shoooooore,
On land we're safer,
Than on water I must say, for-
We are ad-venturers no mooooore!"
Bea scanned the waves as she bellowed faster,
"Crick you should come over here faaassttt,"
Cricket limped over to Bea's side of the boat.
"If you don't the great view won't laaassst," She sang to imply that Crick needed to hurry the heck up! She speeded up.
"I just saw the monster,
Oh wait- no I lost 'er,"
A roaring, grinding sound was heard from under them, and his fishing boat coasted to a stop. Joel tried the gas pedal again. Nothing.
Bea snapped her fingers a few times to get the last rhyme out.
"Ah! Now our lives are a thing of the paaaaaassstt!"
She finished with a little lick on the guitar, a final strum, and a bow. Then she tucked her six string into its protective plastic case.
Joel leapt out from his seat with his harpoon gun. The waves slowed down, and the boat quit rocking side to side. Even the wind was still. On deck, the three stood back- to- back. Joel took a single tentative step forward to get a better view of the lake. Then another.
Water a hundred yards ahead of them stirred, bubbled, and then formed a dome- like wave around a hulking dark mass. It shot forward with an astounding force.
"It's gonna ram the boat!"
Joel ran to the edge and pointed his harpoon at it, ready to fire. But instead of hitting the boat… it dove under the last second. Joel fired a split second too late, and his jagged spear fired into the murky depths, having missed its target entirely. Joel stared into the abyss.
"AHH, everyone look out!" Bea screamed. In its wake, the lake monster had created a wave twice its size, and it surged forward.
There was no time to move. The wave crashed and swept Cricket off her feet. It was only the railing where her arm locked around one of the bars that she didn't fall off the boat. When the wave had passed, Cricket coughed up disgusting lake water and pulled herself back on deck. Joel was soaking wet, but he was fastened on the driver's seat. He was leaning to one side and turning the wheel as far right as it would go.
Whipping her head around, Cricket was mortified to see that the wave had caused the boat to veer left. It was now headed for the rocky shore. Rocks pierced through the surface of the agitated water, as tall as the boat was wide.
Her black jacket, now soaked, was weighing her down immensely. She tore it off and made for the cockpit. Joel's cap was gone, and water poured down his face. But at least they were both okay.
Bea! Where was she?! Wails of pain came from the bow. Cricket wiped the moisture from her eyes and made it back on deck, almost tripping from the constant rocking. At the tip of the fishing boat a foot stuck out from between two bars of the railing, the rest of the leg disappearing over the side.
"Aggh! My leg!" Her sister strained. The rest of her hung limply upside down. "On the plus side though, really great view." She twisted her upper body to face right side up, but immediately winced and hung back down. She reached up to grab the rails, but her arm wasn't long enough.
"Don't worry!" Called Cricket who was right above her now. Her arms flailed around, unsure of what to do. She touched the stuck foot, but Bea howled.
"Not the foot!"
A black mass surged under Bea until it was a mere five feet from the surface. It moved from under her to below the boat, then beyond to open water. The boat itself was nearing the rocks where it would surely break to some extent.
Water roared far off to the right. The monster was preparing for another attack, another wave. There was only moments left.
"Bea, grab my hand!" Cricket's upper body went over the side and she reached for Bea's hand. Her sister's soaked hand slipped a few times in her grasp until she grabbed her wrist. Then she pulled with all of her strength to get her on deck. Bea was upright and working her foot out from between the metal when a shadow covered them both. The air became cold and humid. The smell of decaying wood and dirt filled their senses. Cricket looked at the thirty foot wave, and lastly, at Bea. Then everything was dark. Dark, and cold. Cricket was no longer holding a hand. Only the darker figures of the cockpit passing her by gave her a hint to where she was headed.
Her head and shoulder hit the deck, and she let all the air out of her lungs. The wave carried her to the edge of the boat until the earsplitting screech of tearing metal rose above the roaring water. In front of her, deck split and sharp rock cut through it. It missed the cockpit, but went on to the other side of the boat. Split it right in half. The wave carried her over the side and into the icy abyss below.
…
Snapping, water crashing, all sounds muted like a foggy distant memory. Cricket opened her eyes and sat up. Clumps of chilly, slimy sand ran down her back, and she shivered. The pain from ramming into the railing rattled her bones. It took a while for her to remember where she was. Boggy trees swayed above her, the moss and fungus clinging to the soggy bark. Small waves lapped lazily at her feet, taking her by surprise. She brought her legs to her chest and took a long, hard look around. Only blue water for hundreds and hundreds of yards on one side, mysterious bog on the other. She herself was at the edge of a small pool that had channeled off of the main lake. Some sharp rocks towered over some untamed waves a little off to her right. A top one was a broken steel cockpit with a red rimmed roof. The driver's seat was untouched except for the seatbelt, which had been ripped in half, edges frayed out. But the glass and metal encasing it were barely salvageable.
Oh. Oh. OH! The lake monster! Cricket clawed at the sand behind her, attempting to get to her feet without losing sight of the water for fear that the monster might emerge while she had her back turned. But the pain in her ribs kept her from making any more sudden movements. She tentatively pressed a hand to her side, pressed harder as if the pressure would keep it from hurting, and with the other she pushed herself off the ground. Her feet found their stability, and Cricket was able to stand somewhat firmly on the sand. With all the weight centered on her feet, she sunk a few inches into the sludge.
"Where is everyone?"
Her eyes wandered back to the destroyed cockpit. The untouched seat. He could still be alive. Knowing what little she knew about her friend Joel, she was certain he'd made it out alive.
"And what about…?" What about Bea?
Cricket dug her legs out of the slime- sand and made it to the jagged stones. One half of the boat stuck out of the waves. The bow. That's where she'd been caught. Cricket searched for footprints on the sand, for any sign at all. A sound like someone passing gas came from her feet. An air bubble had popped from her sinking legs. There would be no footprints; not on this sand. If she'd made it to shore, this was not a way to track her.
A black plastic case sat opened perched in between two rocks near the shoreline. Cricket ran as fast as the throbbing would allow. No guitar in sight.
"Huh. Unless this sea monster likes McElroy's, Bea's out here somewhere." She said, a glimmer of hope rising in her injured chest.
…
"The Lake Beast has go-tten us stranded,
On Scu-ttle-butt Island we've landed,
My crew dis-con-certs,
And hey m'foot kind-a hurts,
But my spir-it's not broke it stays candid!"
Bea limped along the moist undergrowth, hands busily plucking along a little tune. Her entire foot swelled twice its normal size, and yet she got along though the bog with utter determination. The humid air stuck to her face and created little dots of water. She wiped them away.
"There was no sign of anyone at the wreck. They're probably fine, just need to keep playin'. Although…" She got to the base of a towering pine. "It would be nice to get a better vantage point. And a rest for… this." She carefully lifted her leg to check out her swollen foot. She'd been forced to take her shoe off because of the pain.
One leg limp, she climbed up to a tall branch, guitar on her back. "This should keep me safe from ole Ness while I wait for Crick to come get me. Can barely walk." She sighed with relief when she found a comfortable position. The sun gleamed through the canopy and she realized how cold she was when the warm rays hit her skin. A family of strange yellow birds came to rest on a branch of a neighboring tree, ten feet away.
"Hello." Bea waved. One of the tiniest birds chirped back.
"Hope y'don't mind if I play some tunes while I wait for someone." She patted her McElroy and tuned a string. Then a four chord progression, more fluid than her previous ones, filled the heavy air.
"Up in the ca-no-py far from the ground,
Two sunny birds sang the most beautiful sound,
Away from the toils of life on the floor,
They soar through the sky forevermore.
Hey! That was a nice one!" She plucked a happy melody and then strummed away, louder. The beams of light bounced off the smooth wood of the McElroy and the thin nylon strings, and lit up the brown- green leaves around her.
…
Cricket shivered uncontrollably. She'd lost her protective black jacket and now the only barrier from the cold was a damp shirt.
"It's the last week of September in Oregon. Figures." She muttered. With the combined cooling temperatures and the humidity of Scuttlebutt Island, she had just turned a corner into Hypothermia Town. "No getting dryer, no getting warmer." Her teeth chattered noisily.
"Ahg, this is such a disaster! The first time I try to avoid the weirdness, and it still finds a way to come to me."
Through some thick moss, Cricket found a muddy bank. A thick layer of green and brown mush tainted the surface. This reminded her of her first night with the Journal. All the mud formed when the storm hit.
"The mud… the mud!" She threw herself into the bank and covered herself in mud and whatever green algae was growing on top of it. For the time being it would be freezing against her skin, but soon it would act as a perfect insulator from the chilly air. She cautiously raked some of the sludge that was more green than brown and rubbed it over the 'problem area' that was her ribs. They ached in the frigid wind.
She'd half buried herself under the slimy ground yards from the bank. "Now I can keep going… but… why on earth do I feel so tired?" She yawned, and leaned on a tall fir. Her eyes fluttered closed. The will to walk was fading. Giving up, huh? It's what I'm good at anyways.
A throaty hiss emerged from the bank, and sludge slid around and plopped back into the brown water. Cricket's eyes flew open. Whatever small sense of security she felt had vanished. It took a second for her vision to focus.
A jumbo plane sized creature had risen from the muck. Sludge dripped from its sleek green body, off its back and its snout. Teeth bared, they shown a light shade of yellow. Its fins were weighed down by the tendrils of moss and other plants entangled along its spine. A closer look revealed a tortoiseshell pattern along its flank. Its small eyes glowed as they scanned the bank. Its nostrils flared as it sucked in air, the flaps protecting its breathing holes opening and closing with each breath.
"It's trying to smell me." Cricket breathed, her whole body tense. "Okay, okay. No sudden movements. If I can stay quiet, it won't see me either." The Lake Monster's eyes were covered by a film of milky white. "It doesn't see well."
It snorted in air and puffed it out with a level of ferocity matched only by Cricket's terror. She tried to control her trembling and the urge to run away as fast as she could. If she could stay still, she would live. But every instinct she had, which were not very many to begin with, told her to leg it. The green monster's neck wavered closer and closer to her. She let out an involuntary squeak, and quickly covered her mouth.
The Lake Monster's head swayed in her direction. Keep your calm, don't panic! Stay still and you'll be okay! Be better at this. Cricket tensed all of her muscles in an attempt to force herself to stay still. She mouthed, I'm not gonna move, over and over again. Monstrous eyes locked onto her. But it didn't attack. It's working. Stay still, stay still, She repeated, but her body wasn't having it. Cricket physically could not keep calm and collected. Fear, self-doubt, and utter terror bubbled dangerously near her surface.
One more small, insignificant snort came from the monster, and Cricket bolted up, irreversibly exposing herself. Its nose rapidly sniffed the air and cocked its head. Then its head turned to the side and its eye opened wide to take in the blurry sight of whatever had just moved. Mere feet from her.
"Oh my gosh." Cricket gulped and swayed back and forth, ready to faint. A deafening roar exploded from the thing's throat and columns of saliva hung from its teeth. A six foot long forked tongue curled inward.
Cricket was stunned into wakefulness and the feeling in her legs and arms returned. Putting one foot in front of the other, she limped away at full speed.
She could not bring herself to look behind her. But the roars subsided and melted away into the sounds of the bog. Chest heaving, Cricket collapsed into the mud at the foot of an enormous pine. "I can't. I can't, I can't do anything right. How can I do it? How do you do it?" She thought of Silas, who had everything under control all the time. She wasn't like him, and she didn't want to pretend to be like him anymore. She thought she'd given the supernatural up, to be normal, because Cricket had come this close to getting people killed. They'd given her a responsibility she could not fulfill, and held her to a standard she could not live up to.
"Bea, where are you? I can't handle this alone. I'm not brave enough."
…
"The most beau-ti-ful lady he ever did see,
Perched atop a birch,
Above the shining sea,
He thought she was HOT,
So he took the leap,
To ask her on a date,
To get some co-ffee-"
Cricket stopped crying. "B… Bea?" She got up, scanning her surroundings. The song was coming from somewhere close by.
"She said "sure, why not,
I've got nothing else planned."
And then began the love story,
That would last a lifespan-"
"Bea! Where are you?" Yelled Cricket. She listened closer, and looked up. One foot wearing familiar converse swung from a high up branch.
"Hey, down here!" She called desperately. The song stopped and a face stuck itself out.
"Cricket! Oh, I'm so glad! You found me!" Bea said a quick goodbye to someone and swiftly climbed down. With a final jump, she got to the bottom, one hand on the tree for support, and one bare foot off the muddy floor.
"Are you okay? What happened?!" Cricket gestured to the swollen mass at the end of her sister's leg.
"I dunno, probably twisted-" She responded calmly, "But you're here! I knew you'd find me. What's the plan?"
"The… the plan?" Cricket stammered. She didn't have one.
"Yes!" Bea smiled enthusiastically. "The super intelligent super brainy plan that you always have to win!"
And there it was again. All the responsibility, this time again with lives at risk.
"How about you come up with the plan this time? Just to mix it up a little." There I go avoiding things again.
"Hmm, I'm no good at plans. But you're on a roll already. You found me like I knew you would, and you've covered yourself in mud to mask your scent, brilliant, and now all that's left to go is beat the Lake Monster and find Joel, and we're golden!"
"Wait a second… you knew I'd find you?" Nausea gripped Cricket's stomach tightly. The thought of someone having that much faith in her made her feel sick, knowing now how inadequate she turned out to be.
"Of course! And you did, so I was right."
"What if I hadn't?"
"Oh c'mon, we both know that wouldn't happen. You're like superwoman."
Sweat formed on Cricket's brow. Her brain was scrambled, too scared from the recent Lake Monster attack to form any thoughts. She was only human. "I… how about we- we find Joel first?" It was a perfect temporary solution. Surely Joel had some sort of plan.
"Great! What'd I say? Superwoman." Bea looked around. "Which way should we go?"
"Uhhh… this way." Cricket chose a direction at random. She wrapped an arm around Bea's waist to take some of the weight off her swollen foot. For a girl who'd experienced being swept off an old rickety fishing boat and was suffering a nasty twisted ankle while being hunted by a shark on steroids, Bea's outlook on life stayed a positive one. And all Cricket was doing was stalling and expecting Bea to have a full-fledged plan and carry her responsibility for her.
"And what was all that about the coffee and the dating?" Cricket asked.
"Oh it's these beautiful birds I found up there, I passed the time by detailing their romantic story. So juicy, you wouldn't believe it. Fleshing out their characters was key, always is with characters, so I came up with and sang each of their backstories. It's beautiful, I'll tell you about it in song."
…
Bea was breathing hard. Her eyes squeezed shut for most of the trip, relying on Cricket to guide her through the island. When she had her breath she sang the detailed fictional lives of the two lovebirds, verse by verse. The male bird was named Herald and the female bird was Brenda, and though it was a sappy love story right off the bat, Cricket found it endearing.
When Bea coughed for a longer-than-usual time, Cricket decided a rest was in order. She sat Bea down at the base of a fir and scouted ahead.
"What now?" She asked herself, having gotten out of earshot from her sister. She took a seat on a large rock and sighed. "It'll be dark soon." The sun was setting behind her, and all of the trees cast long shadows over the murky forest floor. "I don't have my jacket to keep us warm. That's gone. The Journal would be so useful right about now." An itching thought crossed her mind. However unlikely, it was plausible that her jacket as well as the Journal could be near the shipwreck. And she was darned if she let anything else happen to her sister just because she was afraid. She might be done with the supernatural, but she wasn't done being a good sibling.
Her brain went into overdrive as she canceled out possibilities. "If we hail a boat the lake Monster'll wreck it too. Only option is to get rid of it, drive it off somehow. And for that, I need the Journal." And more cold fear washed over her. "Bea might not make it that far. I'll need to prepare to beat this by myself, assuming I don't find Joel along the way. The way..." She thought for a moment. "Which way to go?"
She heard waves nearby, so they were near the shore. But she would avoid the lake until it was absolutely necessary, so she resolved in climbing a tree to get her bearings. At the top she scoped the view. The shipwreck was clear across the island, close to a mile away. A mile and a half if they stuck near the shore, which Cricket was convinced they'd have to to not lose their way. She eyeballed that the shorter route was the right side. "Okay." She reassured herself aloud. "Plan established."
…
After Bea was done singing both of her lovebirds' lives up until the moment they met, she went off on a tangent about finding soulmates.
"Have you *breath* heard about the idea that before you meet your soulmate *breath**gulp*, you can only see in black and *breath* white?" Bea giggled. "Would you say that after meeting 'Mr. Immeasurably'-" She alluded to the Night of Werevamps, "*breath* you see in more… vibrant colors?"
Cricket was caught by surprise. She went on the defensive. "What?! No! What are you talking abo- I think you're noticing things that aren't there. Silas is… cool and all but he's just a friend." Excellent job throwing her off your scent, Cricket. Smooth.
"You can try to deny it but it's plain on your face, Crick. *Breath**gulp* you can try to fool me but I see right through your love-stricken ruse." Bea erupted in a bout of coughing.
Cricket muttered. "The one time I want to lie convincingly and she chooses right now to pick up on it." Her sister's coughing turned into heaves and they had to stop for another breather.
The extra energy it took to hop on one foot through sinking muck was tiring her out. "Leave me." Bea said in an exaggerated tone, gripping her chest and draping herself over the trunk of a tree. "I won't make it. Remember me as I was." She closed her eyes.
Cricket glanced at the swollen foot anxiously. This is what she had been afraid of. Going at it alone. "Are you sure you can't go any further?"
"I'm only slowing ya down, Crick. I love ya but I'm spent. You go." Bea's grip on her chest weakened and she started falling asleep.
"Ohhh, I can't do it. I- I have to but…" She took some steps away, and some steps back. Then she stomped her foot. "Keep it together!" She scorned herself. Shoulders slumped, she took one last look at Bea.
"I'll be back as soon as possible. I promise."
No answer. Her sister had dozed off. Cricket knew how dangerous it would be for Bea if she tried sleeping the entire night on a frigid night like this. So she got some leafy branches and took the next ten minutes to construct a small blanket- like shelter complete with mud, leaves, and twigs just in case she didn't come back.
"I'll be back soon." She promised. The pain in her ribs was less, by the next day she would probably have one heck of a bruise, but she could tell no bones had been broken.
Then she trudged off into the unknown…
…
…For like, ten seconds before she tripped a wire, a net materialized around her, and she soon hung from a tree. A bell was rung on a nearby branch. Her legs were twisted around in the net, and even though she wriggled around, nothing gave.
Footsteps to her left alerted her of someone's presence. She hung as still as she could. Because as long as you don't move, it can't attack you, right? Brilliant. Out of the shadows came none other than Joel.
But he looked very different since they'd last seen each other two hours ago. He had markings made of mud on his face and around his eyes, and he held a handmade spear in both hands. Fastened around his waist was a belt and new pants made of vines and giant leaves. On his head he wore a kind of headdress of the same material. He had basically become a native.
"Joel!" Cricket exclaimed.
He poked her with his spear, eyeing her with curiosity.
"Ow!" She slapped the spearhead away. "Joel it's me! I need your help." The animalistic gleam in his eye vanished. He let her down and she led him to Bea. He stared at her, then poked her with his spear.
"No don't do that!" She pushed the spear away. One of Bea's eyes peeped open. "Pick her up. We're going to the shipwreck, I- I have a plan." Cricket explained.
Bea stirred. "I saw the whole thing. And Joel? If the apocalypse ever happens, I want you on my team, dude. Mad skills."
So together, Cricket leading the way and making sure that they stayed within ear shot of the lake's waves, and Joel carrying Bea, they hiked to the ship wreck. Angry roars sounded off in the distance, yet there was no sign of the Lake Monster so far.
Joel jogged in front of Cricket at one point to stop her from setting off another one of his traps. This one was another net. "My, you've been busy." Cricket commented. "Seriously though, who even are you?"
Joel shrugged and kept going.
…
It was near nightfall when they arrived at the scene of the crime once more. The last rays of sunlight glinted off the waves of the lake, and near shore, the last of the boats were coming into harbor. Cricket's pain was now only a dull ache. A huge contrast to Bea's deteriorating condition. She was pulling through with astonishing bravery though. What a champ. It reminded of the time Bea'd removed a bee's nest from next to their fort in the forests of northern Arizona. All of the bee stings she'd taken, but managed to relocate them to a tree far away from them. Cricket felt envy bubbling in her core. Why can't I be more like her? With her dwindling pain, she was losing hope anyways.
Joel nudged her. They'd arrived. He found the driest spot he could and set Bea down, who proceeded to take her guitar out and beat a rhythm on the side. "I'll be the suspenseful background music while you two look for the Journal thing." She stated.
The waves had died down. The rocks looked more benign. And the cockpit was still stuck on the tip of a jagged stone, giving the bay an overall eerie air.
Cricket scowered as close to the shoreline as she could without trembling from fear. Joel effortlessly scaled rocks.
She lifted stone after stone, branch after branch. Under one was her tattered black jacket. But no Journal. There was a hole where the pocket should've been. "Darn it." She cursed at it and threw it aside in anger. She scanned the waves. Maybe it was floating in the water.
There was a small strip of red at the tip of one of the jagged stones, teetering over the edge. Cricket squinted. "Could it be?"
It was! The Journal wavered, untouched, fifty feet from the shoreline. "I see it! There it is!" She called to her companions with joy. Cricket had her back to the water as she jumped up and down. But a terrifying hiss abruptly ended the celebration. Cricket dashed away from the shore. Sure enough, the Lake Monster had appeared, baring its teeth and snapping its jaws. Its clawed upper fins grasped the jutting rocks. The Journal was right behind its massive body.
"Why, always!" She cried. Furious guitar music unfocused the animal's fixation on Cricket. Nearly a hundred feet away, inching toward the shoreline, Bea played out a fast paced, up beat tune to distract it. Her eyes wide, her face tense.
It slithered slowly away from Cricket and toward the music, and she once again had a perfect line of sight with their salvation. She took the first cautioned steps in the water, but a force colliding with sand had her whipping her head around. The Lake Monster had lunged at her sister, jaw wide open. But Joel had thrown one of many concealed spears at it, changing its head's trajectory. It had missed her by a few yards.
Bea strummed a long chord and reassured her sister. "Go! We're holding it off!"
"O-okay!" It wasn't okay, not in the slightest. Cricket's hands scraped under the pressure of the rough stone as she climbed rock after rock under the more aggressive waters. One foot temporarily slipped and she was sent a few feet down so the water was up past her knees. She closed the space little by little. Fifty feet. Forty feet. Twenty feet. A glance to the shore told her that Joel was doing a good job of protecting Bea while she distracted the sentient jumbo jet. And Bea never skipped a beat.
The last rock to scale was the hardest. Fifteen feet up. But if cricket was good at anything, she was good at climbing. She perched herself atop the rock and opened the Journal as gently as possible to the page where she'd once seen a Sea Monster drawing:
Closely resembling the plesiosaur from the late Mesozoic era, this creature- "yeah, blah blah, how do I drive it away?" She said with frustration. "I don't need an introduction to it, we already received the full welcome party package."
In Gravity Fall's lake this creature has no natural predators, and yet the island located near the center of the lake beckons me. The equipment on the boat I plan to sail to the island is too valuable to risk an attack from this colossal creature, so I will work day and night to genetically engineer an organism to keep it at bay.
Further down the page:
This black and yellow eel should do the trick. It secretes a smell that is like poison to the Loch Ness-esque creature's senses. I set it loose at the harbor and watched it nest near the waters of the island. With some remnants of one eel lining my boat, I was able to carry my equipment safely with no chance of an attack.
My organisms will populate the area around the island and soon they will be just another species in the lake.
"But… what?! If the eels keep the Lake Monster away, why is it attacking us when we're on Scuttlebutt? That doesn't make any sense!"
"Crick!" A sharp cry from Bea. She and Joel were fighting it off, but just barely. Joel threw his second to last spear at it. This one caught in its back fin and was lodged between some vines. "What do we do?! Tell us!"
"It- it says something about black and yellow eels! If we get one or two, the Lake Monster will leave us alone! But-" Cricket tried to explain why they would not work, but Joel was already dragging Bea away from the shore while she played her McElroy. He dropped her off at the tree line and dashed into the woods.
"He ditched us!" Bea seethed and played an edgy lick to compliment the mood. The Lake Monster climbed onto shore to get at her. This was it. "Crick, help me!"
But Cricket would not move. What on Earth did her sister think she could do to help? This was a ten ton monster that was bent on killing and eating them. A scrawny one hundred and twenty five pound girl could do nothing to stop it. There was no way. The image of the monster closing in on Bea brought her back to the excavator about to squish her. Same situation, different circumstances. She hadn't been able to stop it herself last time, why would this be any different?
Cricket tried to find the words to explain it, and one phrase popped into her head.
"I'm not much of a swimmer!" She yelled.
Bea gawked at her, clawing out with her other hand to get at the last spear. "What? The water's barely up to your knees ya doof, get over here!"
"No, I mean- well- you said you didn't want to go into the water because you didn't swim, well, I'm not cut out for all this!" Cricket gestured to Ness.
"Crick this isn't the time to choose your career path and have an existential crisis, I need you!" Bea caught the spear and swung at it. "Noodle arms and all!"
This isn't something you choose. She heard in her head. She knew where it came from. It had been the tiny voice festering at the back of her mind for the last hour. Somehow, she knew she'd chosen this life from the moment she said the words, I'll have the Journal back, thank you. There was no going back from that. Whatever happened next, she had the decision to learn to handle it or not.
…
Bea stabbed the spear into the air. Close up, the Lake Monster's fear- inducing features were even more prominent. Twelve inch nostrils that spit out water with each breath, a glowing set of eyes that saw through her, unmoving. Its snout knocked the spear out of her grasp. Bea tried getting up, but it was an impossibility with her twisted ankle and probably numerous broken foot bones. She got on her stomach and clawed at the sand, trying to get away. She felt the stench of the monster's rancid breath on her back, and adrenaline coursed through her veins. Only, the teeth never sank into her. She peeked over her shoulder.
…
Cricket's hands opened and closed around the splintered wood of the hilt of the spear. Eyes calm, body still, outright provoking the wrath of the lake Monster. Her pants were ripped from her hurried sprint from the rocks to the sand, and finally, to be the last line of defense. The beast roared and lunged, teeth once again bared. Cricket swiped at it with the sharp tip of the spear, knuckles white with the running thought in her mind that truly, even with the readiness to learn how to fight for what she loved, without the spear she was helpless. The spear head left a cut across the thing's upper lip, crossing one of its nostrils. It hissed, oddly colored blood dripping, mixing with water and saliva.
It lunged again. Cricket countered again, this time stabbing the roof of its mouth.
She imagined the excavator pushing against her then powerless arms, and the combined anger of her inability to protect the Shelf Elves and at the complete flop that today had been gave her a new strength.
Its eyes were desperate, and she hesitated. Its cheekbones protruded sharply from under its eyes. Come to think of it, the parts of its body she'd never seen before, whether covered by mud or underwater, were rather boney and gaunt- looking. It was desperately hungry. That's why it had risked going near the eels.
While her insides where wetting themselves with terror, her exterior fought with bravery.
"Yeah, go Crick!" Her sister cheered. A smile crossed Cricket's lips. But the slight break in concentration was all it took for a giant snout to knock the spear from her hands.
"Oh no." She breathed. The creature hissed and prepared to attack.
Heavy stomps sent sloshy sand flying in all directions. Joel's broad figure sailed out of the tree line. He flung a three foot long black and yellow eel at the Lake Monster's head. It caught in one of its fins along with the vines. It violently shook its head from side to side, attempting to rid itself of the eel.
Joel had four in his arms, all dead and each with a distinctive hole through their heads. Cricket took one and threw it with all of her might. It hit the thing's snout and slid off. It bellowed. Joel threw the next that it dodged. With confidence this time, Cricket drew the last eel back, and fired.
It landed square in its mouth. With this, the Lake Monster let out a guttural howl, arching its boney back.
"Aha!" She grinned triumphantly. The Monster sunk back into the sea with a final growl.
"I knew you had it in ya." Bea said cooley, relaxing herself on the sand.
…
"Threeee ad-ven-tur-rers after a long day,
Decided that on Scu-ttle-butt Island they'd stay,
For a while to rest,
After van-quish-ing ole Ness,
Ad-mir-ing the view of the baaaaayyyy.
How was that?"
Joel had set up a camp for himself that included a handmade tent, a fire, and multiple traps to catch food. What was most impressive was the lures in the water he'd set. The basket near the tent full of fish implied that he'd caught a lot using those lures. Including four or five eels that strayed from their caves under water.
Cricket made a mental note to do something about Ness being hungry later.
Two fish cooked over the warm fire where Cricket and Bea warmed themselves while Joel himself hailed a boat that would take them back to shore.
"It was perfect." Cricket replied, tired to the bone. She knew what she had to do now. No more running. That was no longer an option. There was no room for self-doubt, no room for hesitation. The road ahead would be a long and hard one.
"Hey." Bea nudged Cricket's arm and handed her a cooked fish. Cricket took it and smiled. "It was gonna burn if you didn't take it out." Bea happily dug into her meal, but Cricket just stared at hers. Then she remembered the second part of their earlier conversation.
"You shouldn't have to do whatever it is by yourself." Bea had said. Cricket could never be perfect. She'd shape the heck up, that was for certain. At least, with her sister by her side all the way through, she would never have to do every little thing.
Hey, guys! It's me, Sleepy Apricot! Sorry I haven't talk to you in a while, I've just been super busy with a very, very long family reunion. But I'm back on track and hoping that school starting in two days won't affect my writing schedule, hahahaha *in pain*. I love all of you for just reading it, it's such a confidence boost and I hope you like to read it as much as I like to write it. I know it's not as popular as other authors' work that's published here on this awesome site, but I love each and every one of you anyways :*
Also heads up, in the episodes From this one on I will be leaving clues scattered through at the end. Because believe me, there's a whole huge plot going on that I physically cannot wait to unravel for you guys.
(Hey, this is just an update for three weeks later. I'm about 18 pages into episode seven, but school has started and I am struggling to get a good footing and relearn how to balance work and school and keeping up with my deadlines on this site, so I may need to go into a short hiatus until I have a solid routine. I apologize for any inconvenience, and I will return as soon as is possible. Love you all!)