Monsters Within the Falls

Chapter 3

If there's one person who can explain this, it's Ford, Dipper thought to himself as he sat behind the attic door. He pushed his long body up against it so no one could come in unless he moved. He heard Mabel and Ford coming up the stairs and scrambled out of the way.

"What could possibly be so important, Mabel?" Ford was saying, "I was in the middle of my research."

Mabel laughed nervously. "Trust me, Grunkle Ford, you'll be much more interested in researching this." Her voice shook just a bit.

Dipper stood in the middle of the room, as straight and plain as he could. But his face was flushed and he could feel his ears pulling back as Mabel pushed open the door.

Ford caught sight of Dipper. Dipper clenched his firsts and tried not to let his ears twitch, but they did anyway.

"What on earth?" Ford said, rushing over to Dipper and beginning to examine him. Mabel closed the door. "What happened?" Ford said in astonishment.

"I don't know, you tell me!" Dipper said, his face redder than ever. He flinched as Ford prodded one of his back legs.

"Fascinating!" Ford said in wonder.

Dipper backed up a few steps without falling. "Great Uncle Ford, what happened to me?" He said, trying not to sound panicked. "What am I?"

"The technical term is cervitaur, and I honestly don't know." Ford said, holding out his hands as if to calm Dipper. "But we'll figure it out." He took a slow step closer to Dipper, as if afraid of spooking him. "Just tell me exactly what happened."

Dipper told him how he had begun to itch on the way home, and blacked out in the bathroom.

"The itch was likely the fur growth." Ford said, walking around Dipper and continuing to examine him closely. "But there has to be some inciting incident. Something like this doesn't happen out of the blue."

"Well, I fell in the river just before we came back, but that's it." Dipper said.

Ford looked up sharply. "Wait, what river?" He said.

"What was it called, the... Cantus Fluvius, or something?" Dipper answered curiously.

"The Commutatus Fluvius..." Ford said, grabbing his journal off of Dipper's bed. "Of course!"

Mabel looked at the two of them. "Wait, so it was the river?"

"It must have been," Ford said. "When I was conducting my initial research of Gravity Falls I came upon the river. I could tell that there was something supernatural about it, so I prepared to take a sample. But then several creatures emerged from the forest warning me not to." Ford looked a bit embarrassed. "One of the warnings came from a rather good gnome friend of mine, so I heeded them. I left the river as it was. I'd forgotten about it until now."

Dipper rubbed the back of his neck. "So when I fell in..."

Ford nodded. "Some sort of enchantment took effect. Tell me, did you swallow any of the water?"

"Probably," Dipper said, shrugging. "I was under for a second, and flailing around a lot."

"That must be it. You consumed the water, and that brought upon the transformation." Ford spotted the damp clothes still lying at the foot of Dipper's bed. "Are these what you fell into the river in?"

"Yeah," Dipper said, still rubbing his neck in slight embarrassment.

"Excellent!" Ford picked up the wet clothes and started towards the bedroom door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Dipper asked quickly.

Ford looked over his shoulder. "I'm going to study the water left in your clothes. I should be able to turn you back if I can get a good sample."

Dipper and Mabel both nodded. "Then hurry," Dipper said, "I don't want to be a cervitaur forever!"