Antlers & Oil (early access)

Alternate of part 2

A/n thinking of doing this instead first to more ease wirt into the whole thing. Thought of most of this during bootcamp :o)

The weekend could arrive soon enough. Wirt had spent the last few days unpacking and hauling funitcher up the stairs into his room. Despite the exhaustion aching at his bones, he practically tripped over an empty box running when he heard the doorbell ring. Any words he had planed to say dried up as he opened the door to a smiling dipper.

"Hey! Wart right? You ready to go?" dipper asked, shuffling the bookbag on his back.

"Wirt actually. Um yeah im ready...where are we going exactly?"

"Just going to run some errands arround town. I have some chores to do this week, make sure the gnomes are not invading anywhere, check up on the manticores, things like that."

A moment passed before wirt started to laugh. At dipper's silence, he stopped, "wait, youre not joking?"

"No i swear!" he exclaimed before pulling out a red and gold book. "This is my great uncle's reaserch journal! Wrote everything about the strange chreatures of gravity falls in here." he hands it to wirt who begins to flip through it.

"What's a lepracorn?" he fights back a chuckle as dipper yanks it from him muttering "dang it why does everyone open up on that page!"

"Now is this the same old man that runs that mystery hack place?"

"Nono this old man is legit! Ive encountered most of these guys myself actually." at wirt's sceptical face he adds, "how about i make you a deal, you help me with a couple of these errands and ill prove to you that they exist."

"That just sounds like a win-win for you, what do i get?"

"How bout if you still dont beleive me, ill treat you to pancakes." almost immediatly, wirt puts his hand out.

"Deal." dipper smiles and shakes his hand before running off. "Hey! Wait up!"

He follows dipper all the way to an old cloting store... to pick up scraps. Wirt stares at him with a look of confution before dipper waves him off.

"Trust me on this one. We are gonna need these tonight." he winks before shoving the scrap fabric into his backpack. "Lets get something to eat. My treat." he eads wirt over to a little dinner and orders a couple sandwitches from a sweet old lady with one closed eye.

"Can i see the book again?" dipper paused, caught off gaurd before going to pull the red book out again.

As wirt flips through the book he reaches pages that are written in blue ink. "Did you write in this?"

Dipper's face reddens in embaracment "oh yah back when i was 12. It was my first summer here." wirt hummed in responce before resuming scimming through the book. He stoped again at an all black page, the red eyes and lettering looking like they were written by a man on the brink of madness. Dipper puts his hand on the book and slides it back over, tense. Wirt meets his eyes, not wanting to prod but very curious.

"Who...?"

"That ones gone now."

Wirt figured thats all he needs to hear. Dipper keeps his hand on the journal for another moment before letting go as the food arrives. Wirt slides it back over to him but flips the page immediatly, looking for something in particular.

"Are there any creatures that are tree related?"

Dipper hums with thought. "Well, theres the hidebehind. It kind of looks like a tree, then theres a few smaller creatures.."

Wirt sighs and closes the book and hands it back to dipper, "not quite what i meant, but thanks."

After half a day of running around and collecting various seamingly random items, dipper stops at a latter leading to a sort of perch hidden on an abandoned mini mart. He begins to climb up before helping wirt up. When they reached the top both were out of breath. Wirt lets out a sigh of releaf as he plops down on one of the cusions near a pare of propped binoculars. Dipper scoots up close to look through them before muttering to himself, "good its almost sunset."

"Can i finally find out what we are doing?" wirt tried to see what dipper was looking for, but it seemed like he was just watching a lone streetlamp. Dipper rummaged in the bag to pull out the jounal again, only taking his eyes away to find a cirtain page before handing it to wirt. He looked at the page before letting out a disbeilived 'ha!'

"Mothman?"

"Mmhm" dipper hummed, eyes still glued to the lamp, "gotta feed him every now and again or else he targets old folks on their walks home."

"Why old people?"

Dipper shrugs, "not sure. I think after a cirtain age the clothes just taste better to moths. Its why old people always have to have mothballs in their drawers"

"Yah i guess that makes sense." he pauses to think, "you know, if you are telling the truth about all this, im not sure how id feel..."

Dipper finally looks away from the binoculars to meet wirt. "How'd you mean?"

"Well i..." he tries to find the words "id normaly say i sound crazy, but you seem like you would get it" he waited for dipper to interject, when he didnt, he continued, "i have actually seen my fair share of unexplainable characters and settings...talking animals, different time periods bleeding into one another..." his eyes met dipper's staring intently with intrest, his face heats despite himself, "no nevermind i still sound crazy"

"What? No! Please go on! Where was-"

CRASH!!!

Their conversation is interruped by the sound of trashcans being toppled in the distance.

"What was-" wirt is cut off by a hand covering his mouth. He looks up to see dipper's eyes locked onto sonething far off, a slight smile on his face. Wirt follows his gaze to a strange shadow creeping over to the nearby streetlamp.

"Keep quiet and follow my lead" dipper whispered before grabbing an armful of the scrap fabric and slinking down the perch slowly. Wirt mimics his actions.

Once wirt reaches the bottom to get a proper look of the shadow. He freezes, his blood running cold as his feet glues to the ground the shadow is not a shadow at all but rather a black, fuzzy, almost human shaped entity. Its claws swipe at the light as its large wings give an occational flutter loud enough to hear.
Dipper oblivious to wirt's hesitation, continues onward. Wirt watches in horror as the thing rears  its attention onto dipper. He wanted to yell out, to run to dipper's rescure but a part of him trused dipper, i mean, the man had to know, right? The urge to abort the whole the whole ordeal and drag dipper with him grew with every second, however. Right as he was about to give in,dipper turns his head to shoot wirt an enthusiastic thumbs uo.his heatrate began to finally slow at the sight of dipper beaming back at him before turning towards the creature.