Episode 5: Just like animals.
Arc: "Devil's Deal"
Opening: Shiver – Gazette.

. . .

Dipper analyzed his new body carefully. He had two small dog-shaped ears on each side of his head, which were disturbingly moving at different angles according to the sounds they captured. He was, apparently, half his original height in this new form, covered in medium dark-bisque fur.

For some unknown reason, his hair had flicked from its original brown to a dark blue, with some strands of hair blocking his view. His clothes were too small for him, and were even slipping out of his body – his shorts were a good example. Only his pine tree hat fit his head. Dipper thought that there was nothing stranger than the blue hair when he looked at his own eyes…

They were yellow!

He had been so occupied analyzing his body that he had forgotten his own eyes! He had so many questions about the eyes' color: how did that happen? Why? His confusion turned into anger, as he turned to face his 'mentor', Bill Cipher. "Bill, I want an explanation! Why is my hair blue? Why are my eyes yellow?! Answer me!" Dipper was almost barking, like a dog. Bill rolled his eyes (as he was on his wolf form) and went to try to calm down his apprentice.

"Yesh, relax, kid. Having your body change a little after the transformation is normal." The golden wolf explained, emphasizing the word 'transformation', tail wagging, either as a warning to lower his voice tone or to emphasize his apparent cheerfulness. "Your hair is blue because your pine tree hat may have affected it, the same thing happened to Am— uh, anyway... Now, about your yellow eyes… I have no idea." Dipper's jaw could've dropped to the floor if it was physically possible.

"What do you mean 'you have no idea'? You're a dream demon! You know everything!" He practically yelled. No, he really yelled that. Danna was stifling her laugh, whilst Daniel was giving her a look that should've made her stop, while hitting her constantly with his tail (definitely purposefully), but it just made her want to laugh even more. Asaph was trying to hear the conversation better, although Dipper's yells were making it easier. The siblings' discussion was the real problem when it came to the eavesdropping.

"Well, I know lots of things about the humans and their world. I'm not as smart about the demon realm as my smart-ass brother here." Bill then gesticulated to Keehnesi, whose left eye was twitching in annoyance – that sounded like a warning to Bill. Yet, the golden wolf ignored that point and turned to Beatrice. They seemed to share a thought whilst exchanging glances, as they nodded to each other. The blue – almost grey – fur-covered wolf turned to the four kids-now-animals.

"Well, I think that, now that you know your animal forms, you're ready for your first mission." She explained. Danna and Daniel had stopped their bickering to look at her. "After discovering your animal transformations, you shall go to the forest to train with your new forms; take is as a field trip, if you want to make this a little less dangerous — that training will help you develop your walking abilities and perhaps will help with your teamwork and cooperation, since certain people need it." She eyed Danna and Daniel, as the former didn't seem to understand the passive-aggressiveness whilst the latter definitely did. "However, that won't be a normal training like always. It's a test. Today you'll fight a strong creature that no human has had the honor, or luck, to see before."

A few images floated in front of the four apprentices — which made some of them back off in surprise and others wonder if they would also learn how to do that later on—, revealing something shocking. A shadow with wings and blood-red eyes was roaring, flying through the forest of Gravity Falls, smashing whatever was in its way and attacking the animals, not letting any survivors behind. "The Black Wyvern." Dipper's eyes widened.

"That was the creature I saw on the forest earlier!" He blurted out before he could stop himself. Dipper mentally scolded himself for revealing that secret so soon, but he felt like he needed answers. "I-it attacked me when I was walking through the forest, and then mysteriously disappeared." So it's a wyvern… Dipper thought whilst narrowing his eyes. Beatrice nodded at him in acknowledgement.

"Well, now it's time to go." Said Beatrice as the images faded in a blue mist. "Good luck. And you cannot change your appearance until you've defeated the Wyvern, as we've put a spell on you that prevents you from doing so; you can try, but we doubt you'll be successful. It won't take long until you get used to your new forms, so don't worry. Well, that's all. Again, good luck to all." And then the world around the four apprentices started to spin, until they blacked out completely.

…

When Dipper opened his eyes, he couldn't feel the warmth of his bed. Instead, it was replaced with the coldness of the hard ground under him. The brown wolf stood up and looked around. They were at a forest, but it had colors, which meant he wasn't on the multiscape anymore. Then, he looked at himself. He was still on his wolf form. Beatrice had told them that they couldn't transform back until they had defeated a wyvern roaming around the forest, so he should start looking for it. Until he remembered something: the others!

He stood up – losing some of his balance until he could adjust himself to walk in four legs, or paws – and looked around. And there were they, fallen on the floor as if they were sleeping; and they were, indeed. Dipper focused a little, and tried to think of a bucket with cold water. He was never taught how to summon things, like Asaph and Bill, but he had to try.

He focused on what he wanted – the bucket with cold water — he focused on that, and that only. Suddenly, in a yellow aura, said bucket magically appeared and immediately fell on top of its victims, with the loud sound of water hitting the ground, making Dipper lose his concentration. The water slipped out on the other three apprentices-turned-animals, but the bucket fell specifically on Danna's face – that would've been funny if it didn't hurt. She stood up quickly and shouted in frustration.

"Why am I wet? WHY CAN'T I SEE ANYTHING?! I'M BLIND, HELP ME!" And then a fox-looking Danna ran around, forgetting why they were there and that she was now a fox. In fact, Dipper was surprised that she could even run perfectly although she had been a fox for the last 5 minutes. She then hit a tree, which knocked the bucket off her head. Danna winced at the light hitting her eyes, trying to adjust her sight. "I can see again? I'M CURED!" With this random sentence, she ran around like a maniac, seemingly enjoying being able to see again.

"Stop acting like you use drugs for the tenth time this month." Asaph snapped lightheartedly, and then he turned to Dipper. "What was that for?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at the wolf and then shaking his whole body to make it less wet. Surprisingly it worked — he always thought that was something only naturally-born animals could do but perhaps he was wrong. His fur was still wet, unfortunately, but he managed to lessen the 'damage' of it. Before Dipper could give an answer, he spoke again: "Ah, this is the forest where the wyvern is, right? Gravity Fills? I'm awfully bad at remembering names when I'm partially wet." Asaph said while looked around. Dipper noticed that Asaph wasn't from that place, for sure. The boy would be able to know the town's name if he was. He did have a Canadian accent, or, if not, managed to mimic one perfectly. Dipper shook his head.

"It's Gravity Falls, but that was a close shot." He corrected. Asaph didn't seem to care. Daniel opened his eyes slowly, and looked around. He didn't seem to mind the wet fur and his sister praying for the sky about weird and random subjects. He had seen her doing that before, and that seemed to be normal. At least it seemed to be to him.

"Ugh, everything hurts." The orange-colored fox stretched, as if he had slept on the cold floor all day, which was half-true. The most likely explanation was that they had been teleported to the forest in the middle of the night, as they could already see the sun rising on the horizon. "Where are we? And what time is it?" Daniel started questioning the others all of sudden.

"We're in Gravity Falls' forest. It's probably 7 a.m. or something." Dipper explained quickly. "We don't have time for questions. The faster we find that dragon, the faster we get out of here and out of these forms." Danna stopped praying and nodded, which meant she was listening to him. Daniel also nodded. Asaph did it as well, but added:

"Seems fine, but, for your information, wyverns aren't dragons. The difference between them and dragons are that wyverns walk on two legs instead of four, which is common on dragons. That's due to having their 'hands' to be attached to wings, as dragons have their wings attacked on their backs instead." The boy-turned-tiger explained. Dipper felt a headache coming. So it really is annoying when he corrects other people.

"I'm aware, but let's just find that creature and defeat it." Dipper had started to walk – managing to keep his balance – but stopped, and turned to the others. "Uh, you do know how to defeat a wyvern, don't you?" He asked, suddenly worried. If they didn't, how would they defeat the wyvern? Surely a cage wouldn't appear out of thin air and, if it did, it wouldn't be enough to stop the creature.

"No." The three of them answered with blank faces. Dipper could tell, by their voice tones, that they were also worried about what'd happen.

"So, we're technically stuck on those bodies forever?!" Danna started to freak out. "OH FUCKING NO! I DON'T WANNA EAT ANIMALS AND ROLL ON MUD AND HAVE TO LICK MY FUR TO CLEAN IT AND—" She could've screamed forever if Daniel hadn't pushed her to the floor, stopping her. "What was THAT for?! Can't you see I'm being dramatic here?!" She stopped screaming at herself to start screaming to her own brother. Emphasizing how angry she was, Danna made sure to show Daniel her pointy teeth, although se look didn't look as intimidating as Dipper was looking at that moment, as annoyance was consuming his patience.

"Stop freaking out." Daniel said calmly, trying to make Danna relax. That wasn't really working. "I'm always saying that you're loud, and I'm never exaggerating. You freak out for every little detail. This 'test' is to make us work together, SO PULL YOUR GODDAMN SELVES TOGETHER AND MOVE ON!" His lecture couldn't have worked better. Danna immediately stood up at hearing her brother scream the last part and that also startled Dipper and Asaph. Dipper thought Daniel was just as irresponsible as his sister, but now the wolf could say he wasn't. "Now, can we please move on? I'm getting really creeped out; I think these trees have eyes."

And then they started to walk around the forest, and also decided that it was better for everyone if they stuck together like glue. "Is Daniel always the opposite of Danna? She looks a bit… unstable." Dipper whispered to Asaph. Daniel and Danna were walking in front of them, and the female sibling looked like all she wanted to do was bite someone's shoulder off. "…" Dipper was about to say something else, but stopped himself from doing so.

"We all have different personalities and flaws. I'm not a specialist, but I can try to explain it to you; Danna is the group's troublemaker: she likes to pull pranks on everyone and she also panics easily. You can call her drama queen if you want, she loves being called that; it's always been like that, as far as I can remember — I think we met like this, with one of her pranks, but I'm not sure. Daniel tries to control his sister, and you can say he's her tamer — we all call him that — because, if a prank sounds too absurd and prone to fail, he tries to make up her mind. He almost never succeeds, but it's worth a try. He's, like, his sister's guardian angel and brother at the same time."

Asaph stopped talking suddenly, as if trying to think of something about himself. "I'm kind of like the leader of this group, or that's how I see myself. But you can also call me the walking Wikipedia if you don't like that title. I try to control them and order them around, but I'm not so sure if it really works. Sometimes they listen to me, and sometimes they don't. You can say I put order to this zoo. Literally." Dipper smiled.

"Sounds like you have a lot of fun together." The blue-haired wolf said, smiling. He was still surprised with everything that had happened to him lately: he had made a deal with Bill, he became the demon's apprentice and now was walking as a wolf through the town's forest chasing a wyvern. That sounded like a fairytale (or a terror tale) and, if he told anyone, that person would laugh at him and tell him that this is ridiculous. Then, at thinking about wolves, he looked at himself. He was getting used to walking on all fours.

That was why Beatrice and the others had sent them to their first mission on the same day of their animal transformations: to get used to their animal forms while working together to defeat a creature that sounds dangerous and mysterious. Dipper could understand now.

"What does it feel being a half-demon like us?" Asaph asked all of sudden. Dipper stopped on his tracks and looked at the white young tiger as if he had gone crazy. Half-demon? Where had he gotten that idea? Wait— they were half-demons? They didn't seem to be that bad... Was it because he attended the event where the pink demon, Keehnesi, explained about the dream-demons' origin and perhaps they thought he was also included? His powers were possible because they were on the dreamscape, if he recalled correctly, and thus, it was possible. Dipper tried to be as gentle as he could about the subject.

"Oh, I'm not a half-demon. I'm a human." He explained softly. Asaph narrowed his eyes and shook his head, almost as if in disbelief.

"No, you can't be. Humans don't have the powers that Halflings have. Halflings, or Demonlings, are half-demons, the children of demons and humans. How do you think you are able to transform into an animal and still keep it that way in real life without transforming back? My mentor has said that to me: if you can levitate and summon items whilst being awake, or use any of your powers at all, then you're either a demon or an angel, or something else; that is because we're only half dream-demons, and so we have control of the physical world as well, instead of only the dream realm, since we are physical beings and not beings made of energy like our mentors. Believe me: you smell like a demon, so you must be one." Dipper looked at Asaph for a few seconds, before closing his eyes shut and concentrating: his mind went blank, and he had only one objective; levitate — just like Bill had taught him. He was praying it didn't work, it couldn't work. Soon he couldn't feel the floor under him, and opened his eyes.

He was levitating a few centimeters from the floor. With wide eyes, the boy fell to the floor, impressed, losing all his focus as he fell on all fours on the ground. After all, how could he focus while discovering that? He had learned a new thing that day: he wasn't human. Or wasn't half human. What was the difference? He could be the child of any demon in the underworld (or that's how he thinks it is called), or the child of any angel — most likely a demon, like Asaph said. Why did that matter? He wanted to wake up from that dream; he wanted it to be a dream.

He wanted to wake up on his bed in the attic and realize he had never made a deal with Bill Cipher and go back to his normal life, hunting monsters and playing around with his sister. "I know it's confusing." Asaph said, trying to comfort the golden-eyed boy. "But we can't always—" He bumped on Daniel, who had been standing there for a few minutes staring at something that looked either too scary or impressive.

It was a cliff. Daniel and his sister had been staring at a cliff, which meant that was the end of their track — there was no other way around. Daniel analyzed the cliff carefully, as if trying to think on the best way to go to the bottom of it without breaking his neck. "That's so high…" He muttered, impressed and scared at the same time. "I wonder how much pain someone must feel if he falls from here…" Danna could be seen with shining eyes and a big grin to match as her tail wagged cheerfully, revealing that she was plotting something.

"There's only one way to find out." Daniel turned to her in worry, almost reading her mind. "Have a good landing." And then she pushed him off the cliff. After bumping on a few trees and such, he landed on the floor covered in scratches and some bleeding wounds. "SO, DID IT HURT?" Danna shouted from the top of the cliff. Daniel felt his rage building.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK?!" He shouted back. Dipper and Asaph could've face-palmed if that was physically possible. Why do I feel that I should've brought earmuffs? Where can I buy them at this time of the day? Dipper thought as he sighed. However, one loud roar echoed through the forest, making the pine trees shake and the ground tremble. Dipper's ears moved frantically; he could recognize this roar from miles away.

"Guys" He said. "We've found our target."

A/N: Hi... *avoids pebbles*

I know I've been missing for... Uh, I dunno. Since I don't have any other interesting subject to say here, let's answer the questions: (1) A Black Wyvern. Mythology too much? Maybe. (2) They'll defeat the wyvern! Yay! Coincidence? I THINK NOT! Yeah... (3) Honestly, no I wasn't. I didn't know anything! JK. I think I've never told you all my gender, even though it's a little obvious. OK, new question:

(1) What is Awakened Niwana's gender?

That's all, I think...? But I don't care, I hope you like this chapter. Dipper is half-demon! Ooh, things are getting interesting, aren't they?

Awakened Niwana, off.