Dipper, Mabel, and Ryland stared up at the giant red dragon, or the Guardian of the Gnomes, with growing terror. Derrick, on the other hand, looked at the dragon completely unfazed. The gnomes began to chant various different words in the dragon's presence.
"It's a frickin' dragon," Ryland said blankly, staring up at the creature with a mixture of childlike awe and absolute fear. "I can't believe it."
"Me neither..." Mabel said as she stared along in awe but for other reasons.
"Fear us now, human," Thomas the Great said, targeting Derrick specifically. "The Guardian of the Gnomes is the greatest ally of the Timberland Gnomes. You four will be burnt to a crisp, which is exactly how she likes her meals. It's got a nice flavor to it."
"Woah, man! This is crazy!" Dipper shouted, stepping up toward Thomas. "We didn't mean for any of this! Can't you just let us go? We don't want any trouble!"
"It was you who brought yourselves the trouble," Thomas the Great struck back angrily. "You and your friends assaulted and personally examined one of our kind with your repulsive human hands. Your friend here also insulted us by denying our presence."
"And we're sorry for that!" Mabel said, stepping up next to Dipper. "But c'mon, there has to be a way to work this out. Humans to gnomes? Gnomes to humans? We're even kinda-sorta friends with one of your other gnome buddies. What's his name again? Jeff?"
At that moment, Thomas the Great and all the surrounding gnomes gasped and started whispering to each other. They all started raising their pine cone spears and made various claims with growing anger.
"They're with Jeff!" one of the surrounding gnomes shouted.
"They're Woodlands!" another one shouted.
"You dare pledge your allegiance with that fiend, Jeff?" Thomas the Great asked.
"Fiend?" Dipper questioned, confused.
"Wait, I thought all you gnomes were buddy-buddy with each other!" Mabel claimed, also confused.
"Jeff and his gnomes are Woodland Gnomes. We're Timberland Gnomes!" Thomas the Great shouted. "And if you're his friend, that must mean you four are Woodlands!"
Dipper and Mabel exchanged genuinely perplexed looks with one another as they looked around at the surrounding gnomes. The whole Woodland and Timberland distinction was new to them, and they had no ideas in mind as to what the difference was. Regardless, the gnomes began angrily shouting in protest against them, which began to disturb the dragon and make her curious.
"Alright, enough is enough!" Derrick shouted, stepping forward. "This is ridiculous, Dipper. Honestly, I was impressed with the effort you put into making all this happen. Getting these little people, the dragon costume, and the acting. It's all very convincing, but I still don't buy any of it. I know the game, and it's over."
"But dude-" Dipper tried to speak up.
"Now if we can just stop all the screaming and shouting and just go home! This was a huge waste of time!" Derrick declared.
Thomas the Great's eye twitched at Derrick's ignorance and walked back beside the cage. "That's it, I've had enough of this uneducated pest," he said, turning to the dragon. "Holy Guardian of the Gnomes! Burn this human and his lack of belief!"
"Excuse me?" Derrick asked, before turning toward the roaring dragon turning to face him.
The dragon then opened its mouth and took a deep breath before unleashing a powerful burst of fire at Derrick. At the same moment, Dipper jumped and tackled him out of the way before the flames could hit either of them.
Derrick's eyes bulged at the sight of the dragon's flaming breath, his expression finally growing fearful and confused. Dipper stood up and pulled Derrick up on his feet again, as he continued to look upon the ongoing fire.
"D-D-D-did that thing j-j-just…?" Derrick stammered, pointing toward the fire.
"YES!" Dipper yelled out in his face. "That is really a giant fire-breathing dragon that really just tried to kill you, and I really just saved your life. Oh yeah! And we are really surrounded by a bunch of gnomes that are also gonna try to kill us too!"
"Wait a sec..." Ryland said, turning to Mabel. "I thought you said there was no such thing as fire-breathing dragons."
"Um... whoops?" Mabel said with an innocent shrug. "It looks like there are after all! Who would've thought?"
A gnome then threw a pinecone spear at Derrick, hitting and piercing him in the knee, causing him to yelp in pain. He pulled out the spear and verified that it had done nothing worse than a bad cut. But he was still caught off guard by the fact the tiny spears were even capable of causing such damage in the first place. It was finally enough to break him.
"Alright! Alright! I believe you! You were right, and I was wrong!" Derrick finally admitted as he ran up to Dipper. "Now let's get the HELL outta here!"
Derrick tried to make a break for it but was immediately stopped by more gnomes pointing their spears at him again. Dipper scanned the area for an easier escape but found that they were surrounded by nothing but waves of gnomes. Sure, the four of them were giants in comparison, but the sheer number of gnomes was enough for him to know that it didn't matter when they were easily outnumbered.
"Kill them all!" Thomas the Great ordered as he spectated Derrick's escape attempt.
The dragon roared again and turned its head to the four. Mabel looked up at the dragon and then behind her and noticed the angry gnomes still standing in formation behind them.
"Guys! I have an idea!" Mabel said, beginning to walk backward toward the gnomes. "Back up!"
"Back up?" Ryland asked, raising an eyebrow. "You mean back up into the gnomes with the pointy pine cone spears?"
"Just trust me!" Mabel told him, continuing to back up closer to the surrounding gnomes.
Dipper, Derrick, and Ryland decided to follow through and back up closer to the gnomes behind them as well, prompting the gnomes to ready their spears against the four as they continued to step into them.
"We can't back up anymore! Now what?" Dipper asked.
Mabel looked up as the dragon roared loudly and began to inhale again, signifying it was about to fire once again. Dipper, Derrick, and Ryland looked on anxiously as Mabel stared at it with all of her focus. As the dragon pushed its head forward to exhale, Mabel raised her hand up.
"Now jump away!" Mabel shouted to the three, throwing her body to the right of the dragon's incoming fire. On cue, Dipper jumped along with her to the right while Ryland and Derrick threw themselves to the left.
The fire aimed at the four was expelled into the wall of gnomes that had stood behind the group. The gnomes in front of the blast screamed at the approaching flames.
"OUT OF THE WAY!" many of the gnomes shouted in unison as most of the gnomes jumped out of the flame's range, clearing a direct, unguarded path back into the forest once the dragon's fire dissipated.
"There's our escape! Now's our chance!" Mabel shouted to the others, pointing to the open path.
The four quickly got to their feet and began to run through the gap in between the gnomes, passing the embers and clearing smoke from the fire. They pushed back into the forest and began to make their escape from the Timberland gnomes and their dragon.
"No! They're getting away! How could you let them outsmart you like that?" Thomas the Great shouted furiously at the fallen gnomes. He turned toward the dragon and the other wall of gnomes. "All of you! Hunt them down! Don't let them escape!"
The Timberland Gnomes nodded in response to their leader's command and began running through the forest. Some climbed up trees and started leaping their way through the woods. Some built totems on top of each other to gain height advantage as they followed. The Guardian of the Gnomes, on the other hand, leaped forward and spread out its wingspan, roaring loudly before taking off above the forest in pursuit.
Further into the forest, Dipper, Mabel, Derrick, and Ryland were already running as fast as they could. However, the gnomes already weren't too far behind as they kept chasing and leaping through trees in the near distance behind.
"This is insane!" Derrick shouted while running. "I almost got burnt alive by a damn dragon?! And now we're being chased by actual gnomes?! Like, WHAT?!"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Dipper shouted to him while also trying to avoid running into the trees ahead. "But you didn't want to believe me and everything I've been telling you about. Even when it was right in front of you!"
"It's just… it all sounded so fake, and I didn't think they were actually gnomes!" Derrick called back.
"You called them little people with beards and thought the dragon was a costume!" Mabel chimed in. "Do you TRY to be stupid or are you just that dumb?"
"Maybe a bit of both," Derrick answered half-wittedly. "Now, do we even know where we're going?"
"I think I do! Follow me!" Dipper shouted while sprinting all the way ahead of the four.
"Guys! Up in the trees!" Ryland alerted, pointing up as he ran.
In the trees above them, gnomes continued following closely, leaping from branch to branch. Some had already gotten far enough ahead to start throwing their pine cone spears at them. Some used bows and arrows to fire gnomes at each of the four running as well.
"So I assume this is kinda how your first experience with gnomes was?" Ryland asked Dipper while narrowly avoiding the gnomes being fired at him.
"Sort of, I guess!" Dipper replied. "Though we had the Mystery Cart at the time! That would really be really helpful right about now!"
"Could be worse! At least you weren't kidnapped this time!" Ryland said.
Dipper paid him a confused glance. "Huh? I never got kidnapped by gnomes! That was Mabel!"
"Wait, what?" Ryland questioned. He looked back at Mabel herself in confusion, who looked to try to avoid his glance as she ran. "But you said it was him who got kidnapped!"
"What?! Mabel?!" Dipper questioned suspiciously.
"Is now really the best time to be talking about all of this?" Mabel asked, suppressing her guilty face as best as she could.
"I don't know. I wouldn't mind seeing this conversation keep going," Derrick chimed in with an entertained smirk as Mabel's lie started to unravel.
"And I wouldn't mind seeing you become dragon food," Mabel struck back.
Dipper's eyes darted upward. "Speaking of dragons..."
He pointed a finger to the sky just as the dragon soared overhead, casting a giant shadow right over them as it flew. They were running through trees and weren't in an open enough space, so the dragon couldn't accurately target them. That didn't mean it still wouldn't try.
"Mabel, maybe you can use your dragon-taming skills so we can turn that dragon on them!" Ryland suggested.
"Uhhhh, w-well…" Mabel stuttered nervously.
"Dragon-taming skills?" Dipper questioned yet again. "Since when?! This is the first time we've ever seen a dragon!"
"I thought you used a dragon to defeat these guys the first time you fought them!" Ryland told him.
"A dragon? No! We used a leaf blower!" Dipper replied.
"A leaf blower?!" Ryland repeated, turning toward Mabel with growing perplexity.
"Mabel, what the hell have you been telling this guy?" Dipped asked as he turned his head back to her again.
"Oh man..." Mabel said to herself quietly with growing dread. Her stress just grew more and more despite the current circumstances being more than stressful enough. She didn't even have a proper means of trying to respond at the moment, but she was very aware of the hole she had dug herself into.
As he kept running, Dipper looked ahead and gasped. The four stopped in their tracks as they came face to face with a cliffside. Stuck at a dead end, they began to analyze their surroundings.
"What happened?!" Derrick asked. "I thought we were running in the direction we came from?!"
"We must've taken a wrong turn on our way," Dipper assumed. "C'mon, let's run back!"
The four took a few steps back but were stopped as the dragon landed right in front of them, shaking the ground violently as it roared loudly. Out of the surrounding woods came waves of Timberland Gnomes, pointing their bows and spears at the four as they marched toward them. Walking up from right behind the dragon was Thomas the Great, who wielded his own pine cone trident. He aimed it directly at the four, who were surrounded once again.
"It's over!" Thomas the Great declared. "You four have nowhere left to run! We have you cornered! Now you will meet your end!"
"Is it too late to apologize for not believing?" Derrick asked him, shrugging his arms up awkwardly with a fake smile.
"Far too late, human," Thomas the Great answered.
"Worth a shot," Derrick replied with nonchalance.
"Now, Holy Guardian of the Gnomes, burn these insufferable humans!" Thomas the Great commanded.
The dragon roared once more in response. The four grouped up against one another and prepared for their upcoming fate.
"So let me get this straight..." Ryland began as he looked over at Mabel. "You have absolutely no idea how to tame dragons and everything you told me today was made up?"
"Not everything," Mabel corrected. "My name is Mabel. Heheh..."
She laughed awkwardly as she looked back at him, but he just looked unamused, though not particularly angry either. She looked away, knowing well that it probably wasn't the right moment to crack jokes after all her lies had been learned.
"So this is it?" Derrick asked. "Is this seriously how it ends?"
"I guess so," Dipper replied calmly. "Goodbye, Mabel. It was a short summer, but I wouldn't have spent it any other way, nor could I have asked for a better sister."
"And I couldn't have asked for a better brother," Mabel tenderly returned. "And for what it's worth, I'd hug you right now if you didn't reek of sweat from all the running."
"That's fair," Dipper accepted.
Derrick looked at Dipper and sighed. "Well man, if this is the end, then I wanna say thanks for being an awesome friend while it lasted. And I definitely should've believed you about Gravity Falls weirdness."
Dipper smiled gratefully. "Hey, it's cool man." His smile suddenly turned into a frown. "But I'm still not gonna let go of how stupid you were today."
"I mean, we're about to die, so that's all cool with me," Derrick replied before turning to Mabel. "And Sparkles, all things considered, you're not all that bad."
"I hate you," Mabel replied immediately, not even paying him a final glance.
"Yeah, I hate you too," Derrick corrected. "I was just trying to make this an effective last moment for all of us, but if you're gonna be that way, then so will I."
"Well, I kind of just met all of you..." Ryland finally chimed in. "...but, you know, it's been kinda fun... I guess..."
"Wow. What a touching moment this is! It's making me so emotional!" Thomas the Great said tearfully with folded hands as he looked upon the four. However, in an instant, he reverted back to his sinister look, grabbing his trident again and turning back toward the dragon. "Now that it's over, BURN THEM!"
The dragon began to inhale yet again, building up its fire breath. The group huddled close together once last time as they prepared for the end. Everyone but Dipper shut their eyes in preparation for their fate, while Dipper just watched.
"ATTAAAAAACK!" a voice suddenly boomed.
At that moment, a giant net was thrown from the top of the cliff right onto the dragon, catching it. The dragon shrieked and roared, trying to free itself from the thick net, but ended up falling over on its side, trapping itself even further in its entanglement.
Mabel, Derrick, and Ryland soon opened their eyes again in time to witness blue-sleeved gnomes soaring down from above to tackle the red-sleeved Timberland Gnomes. More blue-sleeved gnomes ambushed them from behind within the trees as well. The red-sleeved gnomes and blue-sleeved gnomes clashed together in multiple different fights. But the blue-sleeved gnomes clearly caught the red-sleeved gnomes off guard and were able to prosper in the ongoing battle.
A single familiar gnome hopped down in front of Thomas the Great, causing him to gasp.
"Well, lookie here," the gnome said boastfully as he stood before Thomas. "If it isn't Thomas the Great, leader of the Timberland Gnomes."
"Jeff! I should've known these humans were leading us into your trap!" Thomas the Great scolded, clenching his fist.
"Even with their help, I feel like your stupidity might've played the biggest role in the fall of your Timberland Gnomes and your defeat in the second Great Gnome War!" Jeff the Gnome replied with a smug look on his face.
"Defeat? I haven't been defeated yet, you clueless barbarian," Thomas declared confidently. "My Timberland Gnomes are… uh…"
He stopped as he looked around at all of his red-sleeved gnomes. Most of them had either been pinned or knocked out, while the remainder looked to have given in and surrendered to Jeff's blue-sleeved army.
"…all beaten by my Woodland Gnomes!" Jeff finished for him. "Face it, Thomas. You're finished! Now surrender your territory, and let's end this!"
Thomas the Great glanced around at his fallen faction sadly before fiercely turning back to Jeff, pointing his pinecone trident at him. "I won't go down without a fight!"
Jeff immediately placed two fingers in his mouth and whistled. On cue, his army of Woodland Gnomes surrounded Thomas the Great, pointing their own pine cone spears at him. Heavily outnumbered, Thomas unenthusiastically dropped his trident.
"Alright, Jeff..." Thomas submitted, raising his arms up in defeat. "I surrender the Timberland territory back to you. You and your Woodland Gnomes are victorious."
"That's right we are!" Jeff shouted jubilantly. "WOO! We did it, boys! The forest is ours again!"
"Shmebulock!" Shmebulock cheered as the Woodland Gnomes raised their spears and celebrated their victory.
Having watched the whole event unfold, Dipper, Mabel, Derrick, and Ryland finally pulled apart from their former huddle. Mabel, Derrick, and Ryland all exchanged confused looks with one another while Dipper walked straight up to Jeff.
Jeff soon turned around to Dipper and instantly recognized him. He smiled and offered his hand. "Ah-hah, my old friend! Thanks for your help!"
"Yeah, man," Dipper said as he shook Jeff's hand. "So does this mean your war is over?"
"Just about! Although there's gonna be a lot of cleaning up these next few days as we reunite the territories. Getting the Gnome Union to cooperate is gonna be tough. Especially with the monarchy out the window," Jeff explained as he watched his Woodland Gnomes take Thomas and the defeated Timberland Gnomes as prisoners. "Yep, there's probably gonna be an election for gnome president soon, and trust me when I say gnome politics are the worst."
"I guess you won't be running then?" Dipper assumed.
"Oh no, I'm totally running," Jeff clarified. "Another opportunity to run and control the whole colony again at the cost of filling out paperwork and taking pictures of me kissing babies? Only a small price to pay!"
"EH-HEM!" Mabel suddenly intervened from behind.
Dipper and Jeff turned toward her, Ryland, and Derrick, each of whom looked equally floored.
"I hate to interrupt, but do you wanna explain what the heck just happened?!" Mabel questioned.
"Mabel Pines..." Jeff called out flirtatiously, taking off his hat and brushing a hand over his hair. "It's been a while. And you've certainly grown too."
"Ew. Still not happening, shortcake," Mabel cut off, crossing her arms in disgust. She looked at Dipper. "So what happened? You planned all of this?"
"It's a bit of a long story," Dipper admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Earlier today when I was showing Derrick around the town, I snuck away and met up with Jeff for a bit, who filled me in on this civil war that had been going on between the gnomes."
"So that moment when you had to take a thirty-minute bathroom break, you were actually outside in the woods talking politics with a gnome?" Derrick asked, recalling the event earlier in the day.
"I guess you could put it that way," Dipper said with a shrug. "Anyways, I met up with Jeff because I needed a big way to convince Derrick of the weirdness of Gravity Falls. I knew Derrick was too stubborn and wouldn't give in if I had just shown him a gnome. For example, calling them little people with beards…"
Jeff shook his head disapprovingly at Derrick. "You know how many hit lists you may have just gotten yourself on for saying that? You better watch your back..." Derrick rubbed the back of his head awkwardly in response.
"So after that, Jeff pointed me toward the Timberland Gnomes and we came up with a plan that would connect my goal of convincing Derrick to his goal of defeating the Thomas and the Timberlands. So I put on a bit of a facade when we got back to the Shack and led you guys to the Timberland's territory to purposefully aggravate them," Dipper continued to explain.
"And when we were running back and you said we missed a turn, it was actually you purposefully leading us into Jeff's planned trap!" Ryland realized as he mentally connected the dots.
"You got it," Dipper nodded at him.
"Wow. So you really did put all of this together just to give me a scare by having a dragon almost burn me alive," Derrick said, staring ahead in disbelief. "That's hardcore."
"Actually, I had genuinely no idea about the dragon," Dipper clarified. "That part was completely unplanned. You actually could've died back there."
Derrick stood further stunned for a moment and didn't know how to respond now that he knew that the moment they were discussing truly was the result of his own stupidity. "Well, that's just... wow..."
"Yeah... but everything else was planned out, thankfully," Dipper nodded.
"But wait, weren't you also in on all of the goodbyes when we thought we were going to die just a minute ago?" Ryland added.
"I faked it," Dipper answered, smiling. "Plus, it bought us a bit more time for Jeff and his gnomes to show up."
"So you didn't really mean it when you said you couldn't have asked for a better sister?" Mabel asked, folding her arms disappointedly.
"Of course I meant it," Dipper reassured her with a chuckle. "I just thought you knew that already."
"Aww, you," Mabel said as she lovingly punched him in the arm.
"Anyways, now that the war is over, I reign supreme again!" Jeff cheered. "For defeating Thomas, I now own the name Sir Jeff the Great! I shall have a statue built in my honor. But first, I command a celebratory squirrel bath!" He then looked back at the teens. "And I'm happy to supply you four with one too for your assistance."
"No thanks," Dipper quickly shook his head.
"I'm good," Mabel declined with disgust.
"Not a chance," Derrick refused.
"I'd rather not," Ryland said.
The sun was setting and dusk was nearing as Dipper, Mabel, Derrick, and Ryland found themselves finally returning to the Mystery Shack after a long day. They were all still exhausted from the ample amount of walking and running they had accomplished. Dipper leaned himself against Soos' parked pickup truck and let out an exhausted sigh.
"Well, that was a fun experience," Mabel stated in an enthusiastic, yet equally sarcastic tone of voice.
"Just like old times, huh?" Dipper agreed with a smile, feeling oddly nostalgic after the day's events.
"I'm kinda stuck in the middle of thinking the whole thing was awesome and just being traumatized," Ryland admitted.
"Speak for yourself. I nearly got myself burnt alive. I'm strictly traumatized," Derrick told him.
"Look on the bright side, at least you finally acknowledged how stupid you are," Mabel began cheerfully. "Maybe you are capable of change after all!"
"Yeah, and we all know that you aren't," Derrick jabbed back as he began to walk away from the Shack. "Anyways, I'm gonna head back to my place and cry myself asleep. I'll catch you all later."
"See you around, Derrick," Dipper waved before letting out a yawn. He stretched his legs out slightly before walking over toward the porch of the Mystery Shack. "Well, my legs are destroyed, so I'm gonna head inside and lie down before I lose the ability to stand."
"Alright, Noodle Legs," Mabel jabbed.
Dipper opened the door and went inside, leaving his sister alone with Ryland outside. She nervously glanced over at him and caught him trying to sneak a glance at her.
She knew he was thinking about what had happened earlier and how she had lied to him. Looking back, she felt regretful for lying at all in the first place. She knew Wendy was right and that she should've just told the truth from the beginning. Rather than simply telling Ryland some of her flawed past experiences, she lied to his face and unraveled an even greater flaw of hers right in front of him. And all of it could've been avoided in the first place.
"So, uh…" Mabel started, finally breaking the silence.
"So, uh…" Ryland repeated.
"Look, Ryland," she began. "I'm really sorry for lying to you. Whether it's about the dragons or even just changing the original story about the gnomes."
"So, what was the original story?" he asked, showing genuine curiosity.
Mabel hesitated to answer at first but quickly overcame the feeling. She stood up straight as she looked him right in the eye.
"When I was twelve, I was going through a bit of a boy-crazy phase and was constantly trying to chase a summer romance. I met a guy named Norman at the beginning of that summer, and I pretty much immediately started dating him. After a little while, it turned out Norman was actually a bunch of gnomes who were just looking for a queen, and when I said no, they... kidnapped me..."
Ryland leaned against Soos' pickup as he thought over everything he was hearing. "So... Nora was actually Norman... and instead of Dipper, it was you who got kidnapped?"
"Pretty much," Mabel nodded. "Dipper's actually the one who saved me and even warned me in the first place that Norman was suspicious. But I pushed him away and got myself into a mess I could've avoided had I listened to him."
"And you guys really beat the gnomes with a leaf blower instead of a dragon?"
Mabel quietly nodded in response, to which Ryland just looked to the side with an unchanged blank expression on his face, not really sure what to make of things. He then looked back at her.
"Why would you lie to me about all this?"
Mabel sighed. "I don't know. I guess I was scared that you might judge me. That all this would make you think I'm some terrible, flawed girl who can't do anything right."
"What?" Ryland chuckled. "Mabel, you were twelve. Why would you think I'd judge you based on something that happened when you were a kid?"
Mabel gave an embarrassed smile as she looked to the side awkwardly. "I don't know..."
"You wanna know what happened when I was a kid?" he asked.
He then rolled up his right sleeve again and unveiled the BMX scar he had shown her earlier in the day.
"I got this when I was twelve," he revealed. "Yet you praised me earlier today when I pulled off the same trick that got me this in the first place."
Mabel looked at the scar and quickly picked up what he was getting at. He rolled up his sleeve and smiled warmly at her.
"We're not perfect when we're young, Mabel. And even though we get better as we get older, that doesn't mean we should be ashamed of our pasts," Ryland told her. "If anything, it's something to look back at and laugh about. Like what an idiot I was to get that frickin' huge scar in the first place!"
He started laughing at himself, which made Mabel laugh along. She looked at him as she laughed and noticed that he was genuinely humored by his past. She thought about her own past again and smiled.
"Yeah, or how stupid I was to have gone out with a bunch of gnomes!" she said as she burst out laughing again, but this time with Ryland joining her.
"You see? We're both laughing at ourselves," Ryland pointed out.
"Yeah," Mabel nodded, only for her face to show guilt once again. "I guess I just feel so bad for lying to you."
Ryland shrugged carelessly with a calm smile. "Don't stress it. It's whatever."
Mabel glanced to the side hesitantly before looking back at him. "So... what now?"
"Well, my shift's over, but I don't know. Going home sounds a bit too tame for me right now after everything we've gone through today," Ryland told her.
"Yeah, me too," Mabel agreed. "I'm also starving, but I'm also feeling too picky to eat microwaved frozen food, which is about all we eat at the Shack if we don't go out. And right now, for some reason, I'm craving movie theater popcorn. And a series binge of Ducktective."
"Ducktective, eh?" Ryland asked with a smirk. "Didn't they just release the new movie yesterday?"
Mabel gasped excitedly. "You mean 'Revenge of the Constable'? Yes! I would've LOVED to have seen it last night if we didn't get here so late."
"We could go check it out now if you want," Ryland casually offered, glancing down at his phone. "It's only six o'clock and the next showing is in fifteen minutes."
Mabel felt as though her heart skipped a beat as she processed the question. Though she didn't take it as him asking her on a date or anything like that, the fact he had continued to offer her acceptance and friendship despite what she had done that day was enough to make her melt inside. Despite her rosy-red face and flustered smile, she tried her best to keep her composure.
"I'd love to," she simply said as she smiled up at him.
Ryland smiled warmly back at her as the two began to walk down the path that led outside the Shack's lot and would take them into town. As they walked together, the sun began to disappear into the night, allowing the full moon to shine brightly among the shimmering stars that spawned out amongst the new night sky.
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(Chapter updated as of February 10, 2024)