A Runaway Princess at Sea (bill x fem.dipper)

Chapter 21

"Suspicious?" 

The man nodded. "Yes. We are looking for those who seem to look out of place. The clothes worn, or their facial structure, anything standing out."

At that, McGucket had to resist rolling his eyes at the idiocy at the description. 'Well, then ya' have ya' work cut ou' for ya. This a port, plenty of odd ones here.' he thought sarcastically. Like seriously. IT'S A TRADING DOCK! 

"No, ain' seen anyone like tha' round." McGucket said stroking his beard as if he had thought long and hard about the man's question. He hadn't been thinking of the possible murderer in his shop/makeshift home but was instead concerned for the girl across from him not even moving a finger. Dipper, on the other hand, was panicking so much that she couldn't even stop her thoughts that were spinning a mile a minute. 

'It can't be,' she thought. 'It was too fast! There is no way that the military could have sent so many soldiers in just a week. It took us almost two months to reach this place! I have to warn him! What if he gets caught? Or killed? Or..or...'

Dipper's heart raced. The cyclone of fear, worry, and paranoia clouded her judgement. The ever increasing dread she had been apprehending kept building up even stronger than before.  Everything became hazy and unfocused, 

The man looked over to Dipper once more. He honestly didn't find it suspicious for a customer to be in a bookstore, but the fact that they hadn't even looked up once or greated him tipped him off. Still keeping an eye on her, he continued his conversation with McGucket. "Well, I must ask you to keep a lookout for anyone that may seem out of the ordinary and inform one of the soldiers immediately. We will soon be putting this town on lockdown until we have apprehended this villain."

At this Dipper shot up from her seat and startled both the elder man and guard. Silence fell over the three, and the bustling town outside could now be clearly heard through the walls. Nervous beads of sweat streaked down Dipper's face, cheeks stained pink with embarrassment at what she had just done. 'Nice going,' she scolded herself. 'You just have drawn more attention to yourself!'

"Pardon me for startling you, good sir," Dipper spoke, willing that her nervousness wouldn't show through her quivering voice. She kept her head down for extra measure. "I had just remembered something important. My mother is ill and has not ventured outside the house for quite a while. She does not know of the murder, and I feared for her safety. So I apologize for abruptly getting up." The lie fell off her tongue like sand, grading past the gaps of her teeth and leaving her mouth feeling dry.

Not even waiting for a reply, Dipper took out the coin bag and removed the amount due, placing it on the table surface and gathered the books. "Thank you for the books, Mr.McGucket. I'll try to visit again soon."

McGucket grinned and bid her farewell as well. Then she smiled and left. As she passed the towering man, she slowly lifted her eyes. The glare he shot down sent chills up and down her spine and she immediately turned away but didn't dare pick up her pace so she wouldn't bring any unwanted attention to her stiff posture. She could still feel the stare heating up her back as she left the back room, into the main store, and even at the door.

Quickly opening it and stepping out, Dipper descended the short stone stairs, lifting her legs as if she were a wind-up soldier doll, turned, walked until she was out of range and sight before ducking into an alley. It was then she relaxed and let out the breath of air she didn't know she had been holding, sliding down a wall and collapsing to the ground. 

'Oh god, that man scared me to death! I thought he would pick up that lie." She thought. Her heart pounded in her chest, but soon the pressure of keeping calm despite being nervous and scared, slowly but surely levitated off of her stiff shoulders once the sense of safety washed over her. But before Dipper could enjoy it, her mind snapped back to the information the guard had let out, jumped up and ran. A few muttered curse words were spilled but why would she care. No one would reprimand her for it. 

Clutching the books to her chest while carefully avoiding heavily guarded areas, she started blending into the large crowds, and quickly made her way to the docks and boarded the Mindscape. As soon as she stepped foot on the deck, her legs collapsed under her. Dipper breathed in and out in heavy breathes, her nerves aching from the tension she was feeling under the stare's of everything around her, as if daring her to slip up and ruin everything. Just as she was collecting her breath, Dipper felt the ground shake as someone made their way towards her. 

"Seriously, PT? When will ya stop with the disappearin' acts! I was scared half to death!" Pyronica furiously shouted. 

Her face was red and sweaty, and her pink hair stuck to her wet forehead. She even looked like she was about to cry. "Do ya know how worried I was about you? I ran from shop to shop looking for ya, I even went back to Red's place to see if ya could have ended up back there. I even checked our inn in an attempt to find ya, but ya weren't there! Just because you ain' cooped up on the ship no more doesn't mean that you should be wandern' off like that!" 

Dipper looked away, embarrassed and ashamed that she let herself stray away and even worried her pirate sister a second time. Pyronica sniffed. "If I hadn't thought to return to th' ship, do you understand how pissed Bill was going to be once he heard that you disappeared off the face of the earth on my watch? If anything, I might get off with a light whipin', bu-" 

At the mention of Bill, Dipper remembered why she was in such a rush, forgot all about her exhaustion and stood up, dropping the books in the process. Pyronica flinched as she stepped back a bit surprised at Dipper's sudden decision to act like a springed trap setup to catch animals. She was about to open her mouth to ridicule her again but was interrupted when Dipper grabbed her arms. 'How irresponsible of me! How the fuck could I forget!'

"PT w-" "There's no time! Listen, you can lecture me all you want some other time, hell you can tell Bill all about how I kept leaving, but right now we all are going to be in deep shit if we don't leave this instant!" Pyronica wanted to say something snarky about why they should do that but stopped herself once she saw Dipper's expression. Her eyebrows were scrunched up and her eyes were wide with panic, fear, and determination. It was looking at her that made her acknowledge Dipper's appearance. Her hood had flown off to reveal her hair that was blown in multiple directions, and her face was flushed pink from rushing from one part of the town to the other.

"Now listen, there are soldiers roaming around the markets. The murder has spread way too quickly and with Bill standing out more than usual, sooner or later fingers are going to pointing his way. Find everyone, get them to the ship, and leave. If we don't do something soon, not a single one of us will ever see the light of day again!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OMFG I AM FINALLY DONE WITH CHAPTER 21! I am so sorry that it took so freaking long just to complete one chapter! I know originally I would do 2, maybe 3 and then post them all at the same time, but that would take too fucking long! 

With writer's block making my life hell, I don't think I would be able to do that anymore without taking your reading time. I always get annoyed waiting and then only getting one chapter after like a year, but now I became that. 

So once again I'm sorry for making you wait and I hope you'll be patient with me for the rest of the book! 

Bye bye!~ Dancerheart41