Changes

Chapter One

Some very strange things had been happening to the sleepy town of Gravity Falls since Lilah had arrived. She had come to Gravity Falls to stay with her Grandfather, who she only recently found out existed, but disappeared under unknown circumstances less than a week after she arrived, leaving her with no choice but to stay with her new found best friends, the twins Dipper and Mabel Pines, and their great uncles (or Grunkles, for short) Stan and Ford. The water supply had also been switched to a larger, cleaner lake after it had been revealed the town lunatic, Old Man McGucket, used the old lake as a toilet and personal bathroom.

The lake was beautiful and clear as crystal, filled constantly by a mountain stream. But that lake was where things started going wrong.

People had rushed to the doctor in large clumps, complaining of stomach cramps and intense migraines, limbs that refuse to work and senses that suddenly made the world around them so overwhelming that they could do nothing but lie on the ground and sob. No one knew what was happening until the hour that the first person changed. The screaming could be heard echoing from all around town as more and more people started to morph and transform, until the entire town had become into things that could only be described as monsters. Only not hideous ones.

Mabel grew a shimmering melon pink fish tail and fins, and Dipper's entire lower body had transformed into a deer's, complete with a fluffy white tail and silky ears that suck out of his pine tree cap at awkward angles. Grunkle Stan's skin had turned slate grey and stony, sprouting massive wings, eyes that radiated yellow light and a stiff tail that never seemed to miss knocking the antenna off the TV, while Great Uncle Ford had velvety, sand coloured fur, a muzzle full of sharp teeth and parrot wings with colours brighter than a rainbow. Every single person in the small town of Gravity Falls had transformed into a fantastic creature. Except for Lilah.

Everyone was puzzled at why Lilah didn't change, but it had been two weeks since the incident, and Ford had to focus on more important things, like finding a cure. He found having paws rather frustrating, as thumbs were needed for almost everything.

Lilah and Mabel were in the gift shop, laughing at Dipper's squeaky puberty voice when a very strange thing happened. "Stop it, guys!" Dipper bleated, rather annoyed. "My voice isn't that bad!"

"Oh, it's not, is it?" Mable warbled in a silly mockery of Dipper's voice.

"No, he's right. It's not." Lilah cut in and Dipper smiled at her, but Mabel saw the glint in her eyes, and chuckled as Lilah taunted him again. "It sounds more like this. Hi, my name is Dipper Pines, and I'm a big nerd who kisses a pillow with Wendy's face drawn on it!" She laughed, but when Mabel didn't laugh, and Dipper stepped back in horror, she realised something was wrong.

"What are you staring at? Wasn't I funny?" She questioned them, but gasped when she heard Dipper's quavering voice burst from her mouth. "What!? What's happening to me?" She took a few steps backwards, but fell over promptly, as her legs got tangled together. 4 of them, she realised. 4 furry, tan deer legs. She screamed, but Dipper hesitantly trotted forwards and tried to calm her down. He got her to stop screaming, but she was still sitting on the floor hyperventilating, as Mabel sat in her fishbowl on wheels, unable to help.

Dipper had managed to calm Lilah down enough to stand up, but when she tried, she fell over straight away. Dipper put his arm over her one of her shoulders and leant the other up against Mabel's fish bowl, and they slowly dragged themselves to the hall, where Lilah could take a look at herself properly in the mirror. She stood up, unsteadily taking her own weight parallel to Dipper in the tall mirror. She blinked, thinking she was seeing double, but when she lifted her hands to rub her eyes, the Dipper on the left in the mirror copied her. As she tried and failed to steady her thoughts, Dipper and Mabel watched her keenly.

"Okay", she breathed. "What the heck is going on here?"

"We should probably get Ford, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah, that might be advisable", she croaked, before collapsing into a dead faint on the floor.