A lot of my chapters tend to have around four to five thousand words...huh. Anyways, I seem to write all my storys' chapters like episodes, if that makes any sense.

"I can't believe you shaved all the sheep," Mabel pouted as she leaned forward on the fence. "They look so weird now."

"It's not like they're bald," Dipper said. "Besides, all that thick wool is probably really heavy for them. I think they like having it shaved off. Right Amy?" He glanced at Amy but she seemed distracted, as if she was daydreaming. He wondered if she was thinking about Ghost. It had been a few days since they had seen the dragon. "Uh, hey Amy, you okay?"

She blinked then looked at him as if just noticing that he was there. "Oh, I was just thinking… It seems colder today."

"Colder? Well, it's a nice cool day, but I wouldn't say it's cold. Better than being really hot and sweaty, right?"

"Yeah, but today was supposed to be near the nineties." She made a face. "It feels more like low seventies."

"Well then it's a good thing the weather guy was wrong, right?" He laughed.

"I guess…" she mumbled.

Normally, Amy would just brush odd things off since they happened so often around here, but her suspiciousness of the weather got Dipper curious. So, he left the girls and went back into the house, passing Stan sitting in the living room in the recliner and watching television; Bill was lounging across the sofa on the other side. He went upstairs to the room that Ford was using and knocked on the door. After waiting a few moments, he knocked again and it was finally opened.

"Ah, Dipper," Ford said as he stepped aside. "Come in!"

Ford seemed to have turned the bedroom into his own little lab. It was cluttered with strange devices and machinery in a sort of organized chaos kind of way. Over in the corner, a strange device with twisted prongs was channeling purple electricity over its antennas. On the table nearby was a machine that resembled a typewriter in appearance; it was spewing out a long sheet of paper as it speedily drew jagged lines across it. Dipper wondered if Amy knew all this stuff was here.

"Something I can help you with?"

"Huh? Uh, no. Well, actually, I was wondering if you thought there was anything weird about the weather today?"

"Weather?"

Dipper examined the purple electricity from a few feet away. "Yeah. Amy said something was off about it."

"Let's see then." Ford rummaged around the table for something then produced an odd little gun-shaped device. "I haven't been outside today. Hm… Strange," he remarked. "According to this, it's been getting colder and colder by the hour…"

Dipper looked worried. "Amy mentioned it was cold. What could be going on?"

"Hmm…" Ford narrowed his eyes.

…

"All right you," Ford crossed his arms. "What are you up to now?"

Bill was stretched out on the sofa; he glanced at the old man with a look of boredom. "Nothing new. Why do you ask?"

"You're seriously going to act like you're not the one messing with the weather?" Dipper asked.

"Ha! Weather? Sorry, not really my thing. Unless it's a tornado of fiery death or blood rain then I don't care."

"Blood rain?" he echoed quietly with a confused look on his face.

"Hey!" Amy's call sounded from the front doorway. "Guys, it's snowing!"

"So?" Bill said.

Dipper and Ford exchanged looks before rushing outside where Amy, Mabel, and Stan were already on the porch. Sure enough, little flecks of snow were drifting down silently. "It just started over here," Amy said and gestured to the forest. "The trees are already covered though."

"This is new," Ford muttered as he peered out from their shelter. "Snow in summer during the hottest part of the day?"

"Something has to be causing it, right?" Dipper reached out to let a snowflake land in his palm.

"Do you think it's a dragon?" Mabel asked.

"Whatever it is, it beats sweating." Stan shrugged.

Amy gave him an odd look before rolling her eyes. "I don't think a dragon would be doing this. I mean, dragons can be mischievous but this… This isn't something they do." She stepped out from the covered porch to get a better view. "Look over there." She pointed in the direction of a distant mass of swirling storm clouds.

"It looks like a big cloud wall." Mabel squinted at it. "But…gray and ominous."

"That must be the source." Ford began walking in the direction.

"Uh, hey, old man." Amy waved. "You're just going to go waltz over there by yourself?" Their breath was now visible.

He looked back. "Yes. You're free to tag along."

"I know what I'm free to do," she sniffed. "I was gonna go whether you said so or not." She smirked at the face he made then skipped down the porch steps. "Stay!" She pointed back at Bud who whimpered in response before going inside the house.

"Wait for us!" Mabel called as she and Dipper chased after them. "Summer snow adventure!"

Stan sighed. "Eh, fine. Cable's out anyway. Stupid random snow…doesn't even make sense…"

…

"Brrr…" Dipper rubbed his arms as they walked through the snowy forest. He looked at Amy. "Aren't you cold?"

"Yeah," she replied and watched her breath. "Should've grabbed a jacket." Amy looked up. "The snow is coming faster. It looks like it's been snowing the whole day but it only just started." Her auburn hair was now spotted with snowflakes.

"Ugh." Bill looked around at the trees. "This form sucks. I can feel cold."

"You couldn't before?" Dipper asked.

"Pfft." He took off his yellow tailcoat and placed it on Amy's shoulders.

"Do you think Flora's okay?" Mabel asked worriedly.

"I'm sure she's fine," Dipper replied. "She could always go back through that portal to Telmak, remember?"

"We should go look for her."

"Actually," Ford said. "It might be a good idea to split into pairs now and see which direction that storm cloud is in. Now that we're here, the trees are blocking the view."

"You mean you're lost." Amy was already walking off. "I'll go this way. After an hour, we should all meet back here. Try to stay in a straight path so you can get back without getting lost."

"Come on Dipper," Mabel tugged his arm. "Maybe we'll run into Flora."

…

The forest had become almost completely silent, muffled by the falling snow. Arms crossed, Amy seemed to be walking with a purpose other than finding the source of the strange phenomenon. Bill followed, trying to brush the snow from his hair, but the wet feeling it left behind just annoyed him more.

"Why do you like this stuff so much? It's dumb."

"Snow?" Amy glanced back at him; she shrugged. "It's peaceful. Everything is quiet and still, aside from the falling snowflakes." She stopped and turned to face him. Her sudden stop caught him off guard and he almost bumped into her. "It's pretty, too," she said.

"Huh?"

"The snow. Everything covered in snow is pretty."

He looked at her hair and grunted something.

"What?"

"Nothing." He stepped back quickly, suddenly realizing how close they were.

As they carried on, the snow began to fall faster and at an angle, whipping around more and more as wind picked up through the trees. Amy had her arms crossed, holding onto the coat around her shoulders, and her head lowered to keep the snow from hitting her face. She stopped and looked around. Should they try to go back, or should they find shelter before the storm worsened?

"No, I don't like snow!" Bill shouted over the wind.

Amy spotted a large hollow tree, its front gaping open like a tent. She gestured for him to follow then hurried over and slipped inside. "I used to hide in this tree when it rained while I was playing in the forest," she said as Bill slipped in beside her. She grabbed at the top of the tree's split and drug her hand down, sealing the tree shut like a zipper. "Nature based magic is useful sometimes," she said. In the darkness of the hollow tree Bill formed a blue palm-sized fire that illuminated the interior with its color. Amy sat down and pulled her knees up to her chest. She remembered the tree's interior being bigger, but it was still enough space for them to sit comfortably.

It was silent aside from the muffled sound of the wind outside, and every now and then the hollowed bark of the tree would creak. "Great," Bill said suddenly. "Now what?"

Amy sighed. "We'll have to wait for the weather to die down. Sounds like it turned into a full-blown blizzard. I hope the others are okay."

"I don't."

She shook her head. "You can sure hold a grudge…" She scooted closer to him and reached out her hand to brush the melting snow out of his hair.

He tensed, but a tune she started humming relaxed him for some reason. It sounded oddly familiar, and he was almost disappointed when she stopped. After a long while of her being silent, he looked over at her to see that she had dozed off, curled up tightly in his coat. He stared at her with his head slightly tilted to the side. She couldn't possibly be comfortable like that? After debating it in his head for a bit and determining that she was in fact asleep, he carefully reached over towards her and pulled her up against himself. She seemed to relax and loosen up a little after a few minutes and turned in her sleep to bury her face into him. He tensed again but only for a moment before he realized that she was still asleep.

…

As the wind died down and the snow ceased, a large white reptilian-like paw appeared from nowhere and pressed firmly into the snow followed by the rest of the large dragon's body. The white beast was almost invisible amongst the snow-covered forest, his big green eyes being the only thing that gave him away in the physical world. He stood silent, listening carefully as he slowly scanned his surroundings before locking his eyes on a familiar tree. He approached the tree and snorted at the scents.

"The blizzard has gone," he said in his deep voice.

The tree split open and Amy squinted and looked away. "Agh, it's so bright! I should've opened that slower."

Bill peered out at the snow then hid back in the tree. "It's everywhere!" His complaint echoed through the hollowed tree.

"Yes." Ghost looked around. "Two hours of a raging storm can do that." He looked down at Amy. "Flora is with the others and I gathered your sheep up in their barn."

"Thanks!" Amy smiled.

He nodded. "I have also discovered the source of today's weather. A frost beast."

"I don't know what that is," Amy said, "but it sounds fun."

"Despite being territorial, they are docile by nature. However, they have been known to create blizzards when in distress as a way of protecting themselves."

"It's in distress? We should help it."

Ghost blinked slowly. "I thought you might wish to do so. Even Flora cannot calm a beast as easily as you."

"Just my specialty," she said as she tried to drag Bill out from the tree.

Ghost noticed her wearing Bill's coat and narrowed his eyes at the one-eyed man. "You must be cold, too. A selfless act from someone like you? Interesting." Ghost did not show it, but he was greatly amused by the glare Bill gave him in response. Something about the way he reacted at the topic of Amy intrigued the dragon, but at the same time it greatly concerned him. Things were becoming much more complicated than he would've liked and something bad was bound to happen.

The white beast led the way through the snowy trees, looking back from time to time to see if Amy was alright. Each time, he noticed that Bill was never more than a few feet away from her, usually following behind, and carefully watching their surroundings. Amusing, he thought to himself.

Finally, Ghost came to a stop near a strange bundle of birch trees that were curved and folded over each other in a dome shape. As they neared, the thin trees creaked and dropped snow as they straightened themselves back to their natural state revealing a purple wing-less dragon curled up inside. Flora slowly uncurled from the group of people she was sheltering. "Greetings…"

"Amy!" Mabel ran over and hugged her, catching her off guard and almost knocking them both into the snow. "We found Flora!"

"Actually," Dipper walked over with a smile, "she found us."

"Good thing, too." Stan added. "Otherwise we might be a bunch of Pinesickles. Haha! Get it?" The others groaned at his joke.

"A dragon's intuition is strong…" Flora smiled warmly. "I knew…that you were trying to find me…so I found you first. I could also sense the danger…of the coming storm."

"Come," Ghost caught their attention. He pointed with his snout. "The storm subsided because the frost beast is likely fatigued. It is that way."

"The what now?" Stan raised an eyebrow.

The snow was becoming thicker and thicker as they neared their destination. The wet snow now reached up to their knees and their legs were slightly numb. Even Flora was having a difficult time as she kept stopping to gently breathe small flames on her freezing hands. Ghost, on the other hand, was seemingly unbothered by any of it, having sat through the strange weather patterns of this world for centuries. He did remain close to Flora though so that they could share their warmth and would even stop to wait as she warmed her hands.

Finally, Ghost stopped them at the edge of a large clearing that made a perfect circle in the forest. So perfect, that some of the trees were simply sliced in half vertically instead of completely demolished.

"There used to be trees here…" Flora sounded almost sad.

Amy stepped carefully into the snow-covered clearing and eyed a pale gray mass in the center. As she got closer, she realized that it was some kind of wolf-like creature curled up pitifully in the snow. Its pale fur was long and shaggy, light gray in color with a white face and underbelly. The creature had large paws with bear-like claws, two long fangs protruding from its mouth, big pointed ears, and a strangely broad tail. Despite being around the same size as her bloodhound, the creature's features were obviously puppy-like.

"That's a frost beast?" Dipper asked as they looked down at the animal. "I expected something more… I dunno, terrifying?"

"It is only a puppy," Ghost snorted. "To think it caused all this damage. Frost beasts are native to the northernmost mountains of Telmak. The fact that one ended up in this world is…troubling."

"Aw," Mabel smiled. "It's cute. Hey there little guy."

As she reached out to touch it, the beast's blue eyes shot open and it lunged at her with a vicious snarl. Ghost had managed to snatch the girl away by her sweater collar before it was able to bite her. The frost beast quickly tried to run away but lost its balance and collapsed onto its side, revealing a bear trap clamped onto its hind leg.

"I hate trappers…" Amy muttered in a menacing tone. She slowly approached the animal and kneeled down beside it. The beast growled and tried to bare its teeth at her, but she smiled and reached out to it. "Aren't you a scary baby? Can you understand? I want to help you."

"The type of dragon Amaranth is…" Flora explained. "Can commune with others' souls…"

"What does that mean?" Dipper asked.

Flora smiled. "There is…an aura about her…that others can't help but relax around… It is alluring…haven't you noticed?"

"I've loved Amy from the moment we met her!" Mabel nodded as if she completely understood the explanation.

"It is why she is good with animals… It is hard for animals…to understand our intentions…unless we commune with their hearts…souls if you will."

The frost beast ceased its snarling, taking on a frightened and vulnerable look as it lowered its head and whimpered. Amy slowly stroked its cheek, and the puppy leaned into her hand. The chain of the trap was broken, meaning that this likely wasn't the exact place that it had become trapped. The blood around the wound was frozen, which might cause some difficulties, Amy thought, but at least the leg and foot were still responsive and the trap did not appear deeply imbedded. She called Ghost over and soothed the nervous puppy as the dragon approached. "Do you think you could get this trap off?" she asked.

Ghost peered down at the metal object. "Child's play." Faster than anyone could blink, he whipped the end of his tail, the tip barely tapping the trap but immediately breaking it apart.

Amy carefully removed the pieces and examined the injury. "Poor little guy."

Flora approached and lowered her head. "I can fix this…" She gently touched her snout to the beast's leg as her eyes began to glow. The blood remained, but the wound itself slowly closed before their eyes until it was completely gone. The frost beast stood up to test its leg then yipped happily, licking at Amy's face.

"You should be thanking them," she laughed and the pup barked at the two dragons.

"You have healing powers?!" Mabel gasped. "Flora, that's amazing!"

Flora chuckled. "It is simple magic…really. Amy can also use healing magic… We are both fairy dragons…with nature powers."

"Now what do we do with it?" Dipper asked, watching Ford sketching an image of the animal in a book.

"I will return it to its native home," Ghost announced and the beast barked as if in agreement. "Its parents are likely distressed searching for it."

"I will…defrost and replenish the forest." Flora said.

"Bye cutie." Amy hugged the frost beast.

"Hopefully I can discover how it ended up here in the first place." Ghost said. "Though, I fear I already know the answer."

"Excuse me, Ghost," Ford said. "This may be a bit much to ask of you, but would you mind letting me tag along?"

"For what purpose?" He eyed him.

"Nothing dubious if that's what you're concerned with. I only wish to see more of that world you call Telmak. And I would like to see an adult specimen of this species." He gestured to the frost beast.

Ghost growled lowly as he debated it. "…Fine then. Humans are too curious."

"And dragons are not?" Flora smiled at him.

He snorted and lowered himself closer to the ground, stretching a wing out towards Ford so that the human could use it as a ramp up to his back.

"Can we come too?" Mabel ran over to the white dragon with her brother at her side.

Ghost huffed and rolled his eyes. "Fine. Hurry up!"

Amy and Flora exchanged smirks.

…

Ghost bellowed out smoke as he landed in the snow-covered valley and looked around at the surrounding mountains; nothing seemed out of ordinary. In his arms, the frost beast let out a long howl that echoed through the valley. Ears pricked, it listened, and as the echoes ceased another howl sounded in response. He placed the pup down and it bounded away until it was met with a much larger beast at a mountain base. After watching them leave together, Ghost took to the air to glide over the mountains.

"It sure is cold up here," Mabel remarked.

"At least you have a sweater," her brother retorted as a chill passed through him.

Despite how well hidden they were, the dragon was easily able to spot the different creatures hiding or roaming through the snow. Nothing appeared distressed or unusual until a glint in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Making a wide turn he located a cave entrance in the tallest mountain where an icy path trailed along the edge to lead up to the cave. The pressure it gave off told him that it was the location of a natural gateway, but something was off about it.

He landed silently at the entrance and peered inside. There were pale-colored crystals growing along the ceiling and walls ranging from pink, to green, and even white. With pointed tips, all of the crystals, no matter where they were, appeared to be pointing at the crystal gateway in the center of the cavern. Oddly, the gate was active, a swirling gold vortex at the center was letting out little sparks of electricity. The three humans slid down from his back and entered the cave; it was rather well lit inside.

"The growth patterns of these crystals," Ford mused. "It's like they're drawn to this arch. Like how flowers turn to face the sun."

"There is no one here," Ghost growled. "This portal should not be active, and something is off about it."

As Ford neared it, the sparks became wild and they all had to quickly duck as the gate shot out a lightning bolt that flew out of the cavern. Almost as soon as it had left the cavern a loud ear-splitting crack resounded outside, echoing loudly across the quiet mountains. They ran outside and were surprised to see that the lightning had literally split the sky, leaving behind a vigorously spinning vortex of purple and black. The portal's shape was jagged and strange and in the mere seconds that it had lasted the snow, stones, and even several plants were almost sucked away from their places.

"That must be what happened to get that frost beast over into our world," Dipper remarked.

Mabel looked at him. "But what was that? Why did it do that?"

Ghost was the one who answered. "Natural portals can only be activated by certain magical beings. Not animals. And that peculiar electricity the portal is leaking… It has never happened to a natural gateway, but I know that manmade ones react similar or worse when the energy is too much for the gateway itself to handle."

"And that shouldn't happen to a natural gateway," Ford said. "Correct?"

He nodded and glanced back at the cavern. "If natural gateways are activating on their own and leaking a strong enough energy to tear rifts like that… I can only assume that it has something to do with Ragnarok. From what I have heard, he has absorbed vast amounts of power over all these years. Recently, he has once again begun his attempt to break free. He must be nearing his goal if the portals in Telmak are being affected. Quickly," he lowered his wing for them, "I must inform Gaia."

Once they had settled on his back, Ghost took to the air once again and flew back out over the snowy mountains and valley, back to the portal they had arrived through.

…

"The crystal portal located in the northern snow valley must be deactivated and sealed off." Ghost stated as he landed before Gaia.

Gaia looked down at the white dragon before her, only briefly glancing at the humans that had come with him. Beside her, the blue and white dragon Zephyr wrinkled his snout. "Seal a natural portal?!" he growled. "Who do you think you are, making those proclamations!?"

Ghost shot him a look that made the smaller dragon wince slightly. "Was keeping an eye on the gateways not what Gaia had asked me to do?"

"Er…well, yes, but… It's still not for you to decide or tell the Great Mother to seal a portal!"

A flick of the end of her tail told Zephyr to silence himself. "I do not believe that Ghost was finished speaking, Zephyr."

Zephyr lowered his head like a scolded dog. "Eh, forgive me…"

"Please," she turned her attention back to Ghost. "Continue."

…

June 16th

It snowed today. Yeah. Snowed! Sort of…

The animals of Telmak are different from the animals around here in several ways. The biggest difference being that they have magic. An animal from that world (Ghost called it a frost beast) ended up lost in this world. It got stuck in an old beartrap and created this nasty blizzard out of panic. And it was just a puppy! Pretty big for a puppy though. The adults are even bigger. They look kind of like a cross between a gray wolf and a bear.

Before we found it though, or even knew what we were looking for, we all split up into pairs in the forest, but not long after, the storm got really bad. Luckily, we managed to find Grunkle Stan and Ford. Even luckier, Flora found all of us. She curled around us to keep us warm and used her magic to bend the nearby trees so that they covered us in a dome to keep the snow out. Dragons are amazing!

We were stuck like that for a good hour or more. We were worried about Amy, but Flora told us that she would be okay. Amy's mentioned once that she likes the snow, but this was a full-blown blizzard! Well, turns out Flora was right. Amy was perfectly fine.

After the storm stopped, Ghost showed up with Amy and Bill. Amy told me later that she used her own magic to use a tree for protection too. Flora said that the type of dragon she and Amy are is called a fairy dragon. A pacifist breed of dragon that has plant-based magic. They're also good at reading auras and animals love them. They even have special healing powers. Though, Flora mentioned that since Amy is part human, she is not condemned to pacifism like regular fairy dragons. Meaning, she can fight. They call it a "chaotic fairy dragon" when a fairy dragon is not bound by pacifism. Regular fairy dragons are incapable of intentionally harming anything and they don't eat meat.

Anyways, Ghost led us to the source of the storm. A frost beast pup whose hindleg was stuck in a beartrap. Poor fella. Amy calmed him down enough so that Ghost could free him, then Flora healed him. He turned out okay.

After that, Mabel, Ford, and I went with Ghost to bring the puppy back home to Telmak's northern mountains. While we were there, we came across the problem. A natural portal that was going haywire! It even shot lightning at us and tore a rift in the sky for a few seconds! Ghost said it was likely due to Ragnarok getting closer to breaking free. I'm more worried now.

Ghost had to get Gaia's permission, but she quickly agreed to seal off that portal so it wouldn't cause anymore problems. Yeah. I'd say sucking up and teleporting wild beasts to other worlds without warning is definitely a problem.

Interesting sidenote from today: Bill followed us out into the woods when we went to investigate. Well, actually, he was following Amy. Clingy much? She seems used to it. Or maybe she just doesn't care. Anyways… After complaining that it was cold, he took off his coat. At first, I thought he was just being a weirdo, but then he just put it on Amy's shoulders without saying anything and kept walking.

While we were stuck in that tree dome with Flora and our grunkles, Mabel and I discussed it a little. I'm with Grunkle Stan in that he probably did that just because he needs her alive and well for their deal. Mabel, of course, thought otherwise. Ford pretty much agreed with Stan and me, but he was speculating it for a minute or two before saying so. Flora didn't say anything, but I'm pretty sure she was listening.

There are reports of a coyote pack causing problems for the local farmers. I hope Amy's sheep will be okay. That woman is serious about those sheep. So, for the coyotes' sakes, they better stay away. Also, I'm pretty sure the rooster, Chuck, knows kung fu or something.

To be continued…