Ramirez (Gravity Falls FanFic)

Chapter 6 - Leprecorn

I didn't want to miss out on any information, so I stayed up most of the night reading the whole journal, and the rest not being able to fall asleep because of what I had just read. 

I knew Soos seemed desperate to return the journal, so I figured that, if we were going to use it for a summer adventure guide, it would be now or never. Lucky for us when we woke up it was raining. If we found a rainbow, I could take Soos out to look for a leprecorn, one of the many... interesting creatures found in the journal. Out of most recorded, the leprecorn seemed not so intense. The perfect first-time creature for Soos and myself. 

While it rained outside, I let Soos play his keyboard he had gotten for his birthday last year, since he was very enthusiastic about showing me how it works. 

I had just peek out the window, noticed the rain had stopped, and let my smile grow as Soos pressed down on a random key, "Yeah-ya!"

"It finally stopped!" I said excitedly, running to the window to peek out. "A rainbow! Soos, let's head outside!" I leaned in closer, "I have something I want to show you," I whispered. "Abuelita! Soos and I are heading out! We'll be back before cena!" I informed her. 

"Okay," Abuelita replied. 

"Oh! Uh, Abuelita?" I remembered, "You don't happen to have a box of Lucky Charms, do you?" 

"So what did you want to show me, dude?" Soos asked as we had left the house and started into the forest. "And what is the box of cereal for?" 

"Well," I said as we hiked along, moving a branch out of my way, "First we have to find it. And the Lucky Charms should help with that."

As we kept walking, we finally came to the end of it. 

"Woah!" I commented, "I didn't even know it was possible to find the end of a rainbow!" 

"It shouldn't be," Soos said, resting on a rock for a moment. He took off the tan cap he always wore and used it to fan himself for a minute. "Jerri, it's hot out here, dude. How long until we find this thing?" 

Approaching the rainbow, I dumped some of the cereal on the ground and then placed the rest of the box in the middle of the mess, setting up the leprecorn bait. 

"How long-" 

"Shhhh!" I interrupted. I didn't want his loud voice scaring it off, wherever it was. 

"How long do we have to wait?" he asked, this time in a whisper. 

"I don't know," I whispered in reply, looking around, "Hopefully not too long." 

Suddenly I could hear it, that constant loop of "Danny Boy" the journal said their horns played. It started out soft, but got louder and louder until the creature jumped into view from the other side of the rainbow. 

"Oh, goodness," I said in shock. Yes I had seen the picture, but I didn't expect it to be that realistic! It had the head, hat, and beard of a leprechaun, but the body, mane, and horn of a unicorn. Its beard and mane were rainbow. It had big, rosy cheeks and a large, orange nose. It had big, beady eyes and its horn seemed to sparkle as music came from it. 

"What is that?" Soos asked, half in terror and half in delight. 

"Its a leprecorn," I said, standing to get a better look. "Come on!" I waved Soos on to follow me. He put his cap back on and followed me from behind as I approached the thing. 

He sniffed around the cereal bits left on the ground. It then noticed us, and we stopped as it trotted over to us. Following my lead, Soos knelt down as I did to get a better look. It stopped in front of Soos. 

"Aw, this little dude's actually kinda cute," he said. 

The creature just stared up at Soos. Then, shocking Soos it exclaimed, "TOP O' THE MORNIN' TO YA!" It then jumped up, bit Soos's hat, and, pulling his head down with the cap, began to chew on it. 

"Ahh!" Soos shouted, "Get it off, dude, get it off!"

I ripped the journal out of my pocket and tore through the pages until I found the one on the leprecorn. I quickly scanned the page and was reminded what the author did when the same thing happened to him. 

Setting the book aside, I quickly grabbed the creature by its horn and threw it away from us as far as I could. 

Soos picked up his hat, which had fallen on the ground, brushed the dirt off of it, and stuck it back on his head. 

"Man, thanks, dude," he said. "What did you say that thing was?" 

"A leprecorn," I repeated, "What seems to be some sort of leprechaun, unicorn thing." 

"I could tell." He scrunched his eyebrows. "How did you know where to find it, anyway?" He then glanced over and noticed the journal. "Wait," he continued, "It wasn't that, was it...?" 

I nodded. 

"You said we would take it back!" he argued. 

"Yes, I did, and we will," I explained, "But look," I picked it up and walked over to him so he could see as I flipped through the pages. "Look at all of these creatures that have been spotted, in this town!" I said, "You had fun today, right? Just imagine what we could find if we held on to this journal for a week, or even for a few more days! We could have crazy fun adventures even better than this one. Wouldn't that be fun?"

Soos, still uneasy, stared at the picture of a stomach-faced duck, question quail, cowl, and hawktopus I had the journal opened to. 

"Well, those don't look too scary, and today was fun..." He thought for a moment. "Okay," he finally relented, "but just for a week. But then we have to return it, okay?"

"Okay," I agreed. "But if after a week we both want to keep it, and I mean both of us, will that be okay?" I asked hopefully. 

He looked at me uneasily. "I don't know," he said, "I guess we'll see. But as of right now we return it, alright? I have a bad feeling about that book." 

I looked at the old journal I held open in my hands, remembering the "muse" the author wrote about as a chill ran down my spine. 

"Alright," I agreed. A stronger breeze blew through. 

"Now let's head back," suggested Soos, looking up at the now overcast sky, "I have a feeling it's going to rain again."