I felt like we needed a more light-hearted one-shot after the four semi-dark ones I've done so far. I haven't visited any of the episodes in Season 1 as of yet, so I will be doing a "deleted" scene in between Tourist Trapped and The Legend of the Gobblewonker.

Enjoy the newest one-shot!

A New Beginning

There was a surprising calm in the early morning air in the forest, something unusual for a strange town like Gravity Falls. A slight fog misted and rose off of the grass as the sun slowly began its journey upward. Despite it being summertime, the air was a little chilly in the early morning.

Inside the Mystery Shack attic, two preteen children were sleeping in their beds soundly. Mabel was tucked under her covers tightly, her stuffed tiger and new grappling hook held against her chest. She shifted in her sleep, her dreamscape filled with romance and no-gnomes-pretending-to-be-humans boyfriends. She smiled in her dreams, enjoying how one of her admirers professed his love to her.

Dipper, on the other hand, was clutching the journal close with both hands, his brow furrowed as his dreamscape spun with monsters and creatures alike making appearances. He unconsciously curled inward a bit on himself, warnings whispering their way into the back of his head. Trust no one. In Gravity Falls, there is no one you can trust.

It was when the voices began to grow louder in volume that he started breathing heavier, his grip tightening on the journal as he revisited the previous day's adventure in his dream. Trust NO ONE.

What about Mabel, though? Couldn't he trust his own sister? She had saved their butts yesterday, after all.

In Gravity Falls, there is no one you can trust...

"Not... true..." Dipper mumbled in his sleep, struggling to ignore the whispering. They echoed loudly in his mind as he shifted in the bed.

Trust no one.

"No!" Dipper's brown eyes shot open and he swallowed hard, calming down as he realized where he was. His gaze darted over to Mabel, who was still fast asleep in her dreams of romance. His body - which had been tense a moment prior - relaxed at the sight and he sighed heavily to himself.

The boy glanced down at his tight grip on Journal 3 and was grateful his sister was not awake to tease him (although she herself was sleeping with a grappling hook, so she'd be one to talk) as he set the book next to him. The gleam off of the bronze hand on the cover caught his eye, and he wondered for the hundredth time who could have written such an intriguing journal. Why did they stop writing? Why did they abandon their journal in the woods? Who were they?

Easy there, he told himself, eyes flitting to his alarm clock for a second. It's only six in the morning. There will be time to think about this later.

Dipper stole another look at his twin sister, this time allowing a smile to grace his face as he watched her giggle happily in her sleep. Whatever she was dreaming about probably boys, he thought to himself) it appeared to be good and she was enjoying it. At least she wasn't having nightmares about gnomes chasing her or something.

At that memory, the preteen winced and combed back through his recollection of yesterday's events. After being convinced that something was off about Mabel's boyfriend Norman, he had rushed into the forest to protect her. Of all the things attacking his sister, little bearded men who wanted her to marry them was definitely not one of the first things that had come to mind. And yet that was exactly what he found.

Needless to say, the gnomes had not appreciated his attempts to escape with his sister and had chased them to the Mystery Shack after creating a giant monstrous form out of all their little bodies. Luckily Mabel had thought on her feet and used the leaf blower on the gnomes to scare them off. Now Dipper was just hoping that that would hold them off long enough in case the creatures decided to return.

Dipper thought back to the journal, remembering how many creatures he had gotten mere glimpses at earlier when flipping through the pages. Zombies, ghosts, gnomes, some weird barf fairy... The list went on. He wondered if any of those creatures would try and marry his twin again, and this made him frown. No, that would not do.

Hopefully we'll be more prepared next time to fight them off.

Next time. He was jumping to conclusions awfully fast for someone who had only just com across a supernatural creature as of yesterday afternoon. What on earth made him think that there would be a next time?

Dipper' brown eyes flickered to his new blue and white trucker hat, which hung off of the headboard of the bed. He reached up and removed it, rubbing his fingers over the blue fabric of the pine tree with a small frown. His old hat was long gone now, somewhere in the woods with that one gnome who had clawed at his face and taken the hat with him. Something about this one called to him in a way, though. He didn't know how to explain it, but the boy felt like something had wanted him to take this hat when they were choosing an item from the gift shop yesterday. A brief sense of wonder hit him and he wondered if his twin had felt something similar in the way he had.

A small smile crept onto Dipper's face at the memory and he nearly laughed when he remembered the gnomes swearing revenge.

Next time.

Mabel shifted in her sleep, muttering something incomprehensible, and her younger brother couldn't stop himself from chuckling quietly. She was probably dreaming of vampires or boys again.

Dipper glanced at the journal as his thoughts turned away from his sibling, the gnomes coming back to mind after yesterday's incident. Were there more supernatural oddities lurking about in the town? Ghosts? Goblins? Maybe even a zombie or two? He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something mysteries going on, something bigger than just a simple journal and a bunch of crazy gnomes, and he wanted to find out what it was.

Next time, though, he thought to himself with a smile, we'll be ready.

After all, if he couldn't trust Mabel, who could he trust in Gravity Falls?

...I don't know, I just felt like Dipper's thoughts post-gnome-incident were needed.

Any requests?