Welcome to Monster Falls

The River Guardian

"Are we there yet Dipper?" Mabel asked her twin brother, who's face was buried in his Journal.

Dipper kept reading, occasionally mumbling something under his breath. He gave no indication that he had heard her.

Mabel raised an eyebrow. "Dipper?"

"Bro-bro?"

"Dipping Sauce?"

"Dipstick?"

Mabel crossed her arms. She sighed and pulled up her right sweater sleeve. She licked her finger, and then proceeded to stick her finger into Dipper's ear.

"Gah! Ew, Mabel what was that for?" Dipper exclaimed, rubbing his ear against his shoulder in an attempt to get rid of the uncomfortable wet feeling.

"Well you were kinda ignoring me," Mabel said, shrugging her shoulders. "I asked you if we were there yet. You've been going on and on about this place all morning and you aren't telling me anything!"

Dipper winced. "Sorry Mabel. It's just that the instructions to get to this river are crazy complicated. I need to focus."

"A river?" Mabel shouted. "You're excited to go see a river?"

Was Dipper finally running out of things to look for?

"It's not just a river! It's a magical river!" Dipper said, eyes wide and voice dripping with wonder.

At her twin's statement, the scepticism that had started to gather in her mind vanished.

"Really?" Mabel gasped. "What can it do? Can it give you magical powers? Make you pretty?"

Mabel put her hand on her chin, face contorting in concentration. She suddenly gasped loudly, startling Dipper. "What if it turns you into mermaids?"

Dipper scoffed. "As if. The Author never really got to see what the river did, just that the plant life surrounding it was wilder and he's claiming that one of them was alive. It probably just causes plant growth or whatever." He paused. "Also, why would a river turn you into a mermaid? I thought you were over Mermando."

Mabel's face flushed, and she blubbered, "W-what? Oh him? I'm totally over him!" She fell silent, at a loss of what to say. A smirk quickly replaced her stiff upper lip. "Are you over him? I mean, he was your first kiss..."

Dipper looked horrified for a second before turning a deep scarlet colour that could rival the Journal's cover. "It wasn't a kiss! It was CPR!"

"Riiiiight," Mabel said, her tone suggesting she didn't believe him. Dipper grumbled as the went along, and Mabel silently gave herself a tally mark.

***

Several left turns later....

"Are we there yet?" Mabel groaned. Her feet were aching and her legs were trembling. They'd been walking for hours!

"No Mabel, there's still- ah!"

Dipper was abruptly cut off as he tumbled down a slope, not having seen it as he read his Journal. He landed directly in a stream.

Mabel's eyes widened in alarm.

"Dipper! Bro! Are you okay?" She shouted down at him as she scrambled to get to him, running in the stream, splashing noisily and getting her legs wet.

"I'm fine. Perfectly dandy," he answered dryly, looking up at her from his place on the ground, entire lower body in the stream. He grunted and got up, making his way to the side of the stream where the Journal had fallen. "We need to keep going if we want to reach the river before nightfall-"

"Hey look at that!" Mabel cut him off, a hand over her eyes and pointing a little ways up the stream. "It looks like a dam!"

Dipper looked up, and indeed, there was a dam. It looked like a beaver's, many twigs and branches mashed together to make a barrier. "Whoa."

He neared it, his sister right next to him. Mabel touched one of the branches that still had a leaf left on it.

"What do ya think yer doin' to ma home?" A deep, gravelly voice said behind them.

The twins twisted around to find themselves facing a rather hideous creature. It was short and squat, with purple fur and a slightly human face with thick chunky teeth. It was carrying wood in it's short arms, one of it's webbed feet tapping on the ground impatiently. A long flat tail trailed behind it and Mabel could resist blurting out,"It's a beaver!"

The creature seemed to immediately stiffen up, it's jaw clenching. "I'm no beaver. Those stupid, ugly low lifes only wish they can be me," it said in a dangerous tone.

What's this guy's deal? Thought Mabel.

"Sheesh, alright, alright. You're not a beaver," Mabel muttered.

"Then what are you?" Dipper asked.

The totally-not-a-beaver looked at Dipper with its yellow beady eyes and went, "Hmph. Why should I tell a human eh? And one tresspassin' on ma land? There ain't been no human here in thirty some years."

Dipper and Mabel gave each other a look. A special twin look that meant "Do you want to ask who 'tresspassed?'" Or in Mabel's case, "Do you want to give him a makeover?" They still needed to work on communicating them.

Mabel watched as her brother showed the creature his Journal, and she saw as the creature noticeably tensed and it's eyes narrowed as soon as it saw it.

"Who tresspassed before us? Was it the Author of this Journal? You see, I've been looking for-" Dipper's spiel about is summer quest was harshly interrupted by the creature, it's words angry and annoyed.

"Him? The bloody scientist? Who wanted to catalogue me? Ma river? Called me monster? Tried to steal ma precious river? That's why yer here ain't it? To steal ma river! This is ma river, I need it ta survive and no one is ever gonna take it from me," it hissed, claws suddenly sprouting from its hands.

"Eeep," Dipper squeaked. "I- I didn't mean to offend you-"

"Lies!"

He started to back up, Mabel following his example, until they were backed up against the dam.

The creature only got closer, it's face twisted into a murderous expression.

Mabel quickly climbed the dam, pulling Dipper up with her, the twins now stranded between a deep pool of weird multicoloured tinted water and a murderous beast.

"Jump!" Mabel ordered, deciding that getting her sweater wet was better than dying. Both Dipper and her knew how to swim well, so they'd be fine.

"What?" Dipper exclaimed as she pulled him along as she jumped.

They heard the roar of the creature behind them, so they started to swim as fast as they could away from it.

"I curse ya! I curse ya and anybody who come inta contact with ya! Ya think I'm a monster? Just ya wait!"

____

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