I do not own Gravity Falls.

Prompt: Firewood

The Creature in the Firewood

"You know, I think Grunkle Stan invites us over for the holidays just so that he doesn't have to do the chores."

Trudging through the snow, Mabel kicked her feet and watched the powder sail into the air before raining back to the ground in a graceful manner. She cast a glance at her disgruntled brother. "Probably," she failed to deny. "But he loves us, so that's okay. He's old. He'll hurt himself if he does too much work."

"Yeah. He nearly threw out his hip getting the Christmas decorations out from the crawlspace." Dipper winced at the recollection. "Still. You think he could give us a break."

"Come on, Dipper. We just have to gather more firewood. It's not like we have to chop it down ourselves." She skipped ahead of Dipper and performed a little spin, her long green skirt flaring out around her red nylon-covered legs. "And it's a winter wonderland! How many Christmases have we wished it would snow in California? Now we have it."

"You never fail to look on the bright side," said Dipper in amusement.

"Of course. It's no fun otherwise."

The two trekked through the expansive, snow-blanketed forest, picking up twigs and short, fallen branches whenever they came within their sight. The sun began its descent as they worked, the bright blue transforming to dusk.

"I think this will be enough," decided Dipper, struggling to get a good grip on his armful of firewood. "It's going to be dark soon, anyway."

"Hang on, let me just grab that pile of wood over there."

Mabel made her way to a mound of bent and broken twigs beneath a majestic pine. As she grabbed hold of some of the sticks, there was a high-pitched squeak that made her jolt back in surprise. "What the—?"

The sticks scattered in all directions as a small winged creature burst out to freedom. Her silvery wings fluttered rapidly in the winter air, beady black eyes darting about wildly. Mabel dropped her firewood in astonishment, eyes locked on the brown-skinned creature, vines and leaves crawling up her legs and arms. Short black hair stuck out at every angle and a dress made of leaves covered her petite form.

"No way!" exclaimed Dipper. "A wood nymph!"

"She's so cute!" squealed Mabel. When the wood nymph cowered, she hastily quieted her voice. "Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you." She extended her hand and said gently, "You're very pretty."

The wood nymph studied her hesitantly for a moment. Her warm brown eyes must have been inviting, for she floated forwards and settled in the palm of her hand. Dipper regarded her thoughtfully. "Wood nymphs don't normally leave their homes during the winter. I wonder what brought her outside."

"Is this your tree?" Mabel asked, pointing to the pine that was directly in front of them.

The wood nymph shook her head, round face falling in sadness. Dipper frowned, suddenly noticing the bent state of one of her wings. "Are you hurt?"

Mabel's heart clenched at the miserable nod. "You poor thing! We'll help you find your home and your family can fix you up." She paused and glanced around at the dense forest. "Somehow."

"It shouldn't be too hard," assured Dipper. "Wood nymphs have a natural navigational instinct. She should be able to find her tree."

The wood nymph sat in Mabel's palm and the two started to walk through the snow. Every so often, the magical creature would point in a certain direction and the twins would change tracks. After fifteen minutes they came upon a dismal sight and they froze.

A pine tree was lying in a deep trench in the snow. The roots were just barely still in the ground and dozens of wood nymphs flew frantically around their destroyed home. When they caught sight of the humans, they charged forwards with angry shrieks, but the wood nymph in Mabel's hands called out to them.

"It's okay!" said Mabel soothingly. "We're friendly!"

The group of wood nymphs listened to what their companion had to say before calming. A few wood nymphs gently lifted their injured friend in the air and took her to be taken care of. Mabel regarded the fallen tree with sad eyes.

"What happened?"

"Probably the snow storm that happened a couple days ago," deduced Dipper. "This tree is pretty small, it's probably not that old. It might be just a baby, which explains why it didn't hold up against the winds. The wood nymph we found must have been blown away and got trapped between those twigs. We might have saved her life."

"What are these wood nymphs going to do?" asked Mabel worriedly. "Will they move to a new tree?"

Dipper hesitated. "Doubtful. Wood nymphs are guardians of the trees, so when they call a tree a home they stay with it until it dies. This tree isn't dead yet. The roots are still in the ground. But the trunk is nearly split into two."

"We have to help them! They'll freeze!"

Dipper rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well…wood nymphs have the power to heal nature, so long as there is still life in it. The problem is that they need the tree in its proper place in order to fix it."

"We have to lift the tree?"

"We have to lift the tree."

Determination filled Mabel's face and she cried, "Then let's do it!"

Standing on either side of the tree, they used all their strength to lift it from the ground and anchor it in place. The pine tree was just a few heads taller than they were, but it was no easy feat to keep it steady. The wood nymphs quickly caught on to what they were doing and surrounded the tree, a light melody sounding from all of them. The tree glowed a bright green, and the twins watched in awe as the roots were once more firmly entrenched in the soil and the trunk began to heal, the split repairing itself until it was whole again.

"Epic," breathed Mabel.

They took a few steps back to regard the tree, which looked brand-new. The wood nymphs cheered and encircled their heroes. The one they rescued, her wing mended, flew up to them and kissed each of their cheeks. Dipper laughed. "You're welcome!"

"Now you can stay warm!" said Mabel cheerfully.

Glancing up at the sky, Dipper's eyes widened. "Oops. Come on, we better get going. We need to make it home before it gets dark."

Mabel watched as he went to collect his firewood, which he had set aside in order to help heave the pine tree back into place. "I dropped mine. I don't remember where."

"This will be enough for now. We'll just have to come back out tomorrow."

Bidding the wood nymphs farewell, the twins hurried through the forest. As they ran, Mabel asked, "Think Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford will believe us about the wood nymphs?"

"They'll either take us seriously or think we're using it as an excuse to get out of doing more work."