Ford and Wendy were out of sight when Mason turned back to the path, and a quick glance behind him showed that Mabel was gone too. A shiver ran down the back of his neck as he stared into the trees around him, alone in the suddenly quiet forest. It felt like… like something was watching him— and in these woods, that was definitely possible. Whether it meant him harm or was simply curious, it was better not to take chances.
Mason took off running along the path, turning to look behind him. He didn’t see anything, but—
Smack! Mason stumbled backwards from something green and flannel-looking. What? A plaidypus, or—
Wendy turned to look at him. “There you are, dude! What took you so long?”
Mason could feel heat burning in his cheeks as he stumbled backwards, adjusting his glasses as he went. “Oh, uh, nothing.” He straightened his vest— what he thought of as his “adventuring outfit”— and tried to regain his composure. “Wait, I mean—”
“Ah, Mason, there you are,” Great-Uncle Ford said, turning to look at him. “Nothing wrong with a little independent study, but next time try to stay where I can see you. Stan would have my head if you got carried off by a monster.”
Mason nodded as he lengthened his stride to keep up with the others. He soon fell into step next to Wendy as Ford strode on ahead. Wendy was mostly quiet, occasionally spinning her axe around to chop down vines or branches hanging into the path. For a while they walked in silence, Mason searching for something clever to say. Something smart, to impress Wendy with his knowledge— but not too smart. He didn’t want to bore her.
In the end, Wendy was the one to break the silence. “So, how’re you liking your first trip to the forest? Seen anything creepy?” She grinned, wiggling her fingers at him.
“Uh— well, I haven’t seen anything.” Mason hesitated. “But— Wendy, you’re out here a lot, right?”
She nodded, slicing her axe through a vine dangling down. “Yeah, why?”
“Have you ever felt like— like something was watching you? While you’re out here?” Mason’s cheeks burned red. She probably hadn’t, and now she would think that he was just a paranoid little kid who was super lame and she wouldn’t want him to come with on any more explorations and why had he said that he was an idiot—
“Oh, yeah, all the time.”
Mason did a double take. “You— what?”
Wendy shrugged. “There are tons of creatures out here in the woods. A lot of them are curious and like to watch us, and anything dangerous won’t mess with you when you’re with me and Ford. Anyways, you get used to it pretty quick.”
Mason let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. “That’s— thanks.” He was just being paranoid.
“No problem, dude. I was pretty creeped out my first trip in here, too.” Wendy wrinkled her nose. “Actually, you’re probably handling it a lot better than I did.” She paused, looking up at the conifer trees looming up around them before she continued speaking. “Now, though, I like the forest a lot better than most places in town. No one to judge you, I get to fight monsters— or, well, study them.” Wendy sighed. “I don’t get to do nearly as much fighting as I’d like.”
Ford turned his head, raising an eyebrow at Wendy. “I can hear you, you know. You do plenty of fighting, and besides, we don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Psh, I could take the monsters in here any day.”
Mason laughed. “Is that why you have your axe? To fight monsters with?”
Wendy fingered the wooden handle. “Kinda… but I have some better weapons, too.” She grinned, and something about the lighting made her teeth look razor sharp. Mason wasn’t sure whether he wanted to see these “better weapons.”
He decided a change ot topic was in order. “Hey, so what do you think we’re gonna be doing today?”
“I dunno.” Wendy cupped a hand around her mouth and shouted, “Hey, Ford, are you gonna tell us what the plan is or just act all mysterious about it?”
“I’ll explain when we arrive,” Ford said, his tone inscrutable.
Wendy rolled her eyes. “Being mysterious it is, then.”
Mason laughed harder than he should have, then stopped himself. Had Wendy noticed? Did she think he was weird? A quick glance revealed that she was back to swinging her axe at various foliage, and Mason let out a small sigh of relief. As long as she didn’t know about his crush on her, he would be safe. But she was just so cool, and brave, and—
“Mason. Earth to Mason.” Wendy was waving a hand in front of his face.
“Yeah! Definitely!” Mason’s head spun around wildly. “Wait, what?”
Wendy snorted. “Whatcha thinking about? You totally zoned out on me, dude.”
Mason’s mind went totally blank as he fumbled around for a suitable answer— anything other than the truth. “I-I was trying to guess where we were going.” That sounded reasonable, right?
Wendy laughed. “You can try, but believe me— when Ford decides to be mysterious about something, there’s no getting it out of him.”
Ford, who must have been listening to their conversation, came to a stop up ahead. “Well then, you two are in luck. We’re nearly there, so I’ll give you a briefing on what to expect and what we’ll be doing.” As Mason and Wendy caught up with him, he smiled at Mason. “Curiosity is one of the natural hallmarks of an explorer— you have a lot of potential.”
Mason’s cheeks flushed again, this time with pride. He fumbled in his jacket for the Journal. “So… what is going on? Are we gonna investigate a monster?” He gasped. “Did you discover a new species? Or—”
Ford laughed. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but no, we aren’t doing any of those things. What we’re doing is… much more serious.”
“Oh.” Mason arranged his features in what he hoped was a suitably serious expression. So far Ford seemed to like him, and he couldn’t disappoint him now!
Ford glanced down at him, an eyebrow raised. “Mason, are you all right? You look ill.”
“N- no, I’m fine,” Mason said, hastily reverting to his normal expression. “So what are we doing?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure where to begin.” Ford hesitated, looking around the forest. “As you know, this forest is home to hundreds —if not thousands— of creatures that don’t exist anywhere else. You can imagine what a disaster it would be if this forest were destroyed— which is why I take even a potential threat to it very seriously.”
Mason followed his uncle’s gaze to the trees towering overhead. “But— the forest is so big. What could destroy it?”
“Hopefully nothing,” Ford said seriously. “Soon we’re going to reach a cave, which, as far as I can measure, is in the direct center of the forest. And in this cave… well, as I said, hopefully it’s nothing. But if not…” His voice trailed off, and Mason unconsciously clutched the Journal closer to himself. “If not, all of Gravity Falls may be in danger.”
Silence fell over the small group, and maybe Mason was imagining it, but it seemed like even the birds had stopped chirping. The forest in danger... and Ford wanted him to help! He took a deep breath, feeling himself start to sweat. Why does this always have to happen when I’m talking to Ford? “What’s happening?”
Ford pushed aside the branch of a tree, revealing a large clearing. “It’s best if I show you.”
Mason barely heard him as he looked up at a massive rock structure. The gray, cragged material stretched up to the sky probably around twenty feet above Mason’s head; although it didn’t reach the heights of the trees around them, it remained an imposing structure. A dark hole about the same height as Mason cut into the base of it, leading who knew where. Mason tried not to think about what might be inside.
Ford knelt next to the hole, a frown creasing his features as he inspected something on the ground. “Mason, Wendy, both of you come over here.”
The two exchanged glances, then walked over— Wendy loping casually along, Mason all but sprinting over. Ford pointed to the grass at their feet. “Both of you look at the ground here. Mason, have your Journal ready to take notes. What do you see?”
Mason adjusted his glasses and peered forward. At first glance, it just seemed like normal grass, but— he blinked, unsure if he was really seeing what he thought he was. The tips of the grass in about a six-inch radius around the cave entrance had turned an ash gray. Had it been any other time of year, it could have been explained as the grass either dying or growing back, but it was the height of summer. There was no simple explanation for this.
“The grass is— it’s like it’s dying,” Mason said hesitantly.
Ford nodded. “Touch it.”
Mason wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to touch the dying grass, but he did as instructed. The tips of the grass flaked away in his hands and drifted on the air before settling to the ground. “It’s like ash.”
“Make sure you’re writing this all down,” Ford reminded. Mason fumbled to pull a pen out of his vest, bracing the Journal against his left arm to write. “And yes, it is like ash. That’s why we’re here; when I last visited this cave, about a week and a half ago, I noticed this strange phenomenon occurring inside the cave, with the lichen and moss growing inside.”
“And now it’s spread out here,” Mason realized. “But what is it?”
“Much as it galls me to admit, I don’t know.” Ford stood up and began pacing back and forth across the clearing. “Whatever this—this disease is, it’s somehow sucking the life out of plants in the forest. I’ve no idea whether it affects animals as well, but even if it doesn’t directly hurt them, it will have disastrous effects on the ecosystems of the forest! If it continues to spread, food and territory will be lost, forcing the unique lifeforms that live here out of balance.”
Mason scribbled down his words in a messy scrawl— it was harder than it looked to write with the Journal balanced on his arm, and the urgency of the situation was beginning to sink in. He paused in his writing and looked up at Ford. “ But— we’re here to stop it, right?”
“Of course we are!” This time, it was Wendy who answered his question. “If anyone can figure out a way to stop this weirdness, it’s you and Ford. You guys are both the brainiest people I know— and you’ve got me on your side.”
Ford nodded. “Exactly. I have no doubt that with the three of us, we’ll be able to solve this mystery in no time. Now then— Mason, I’m going to show you how to collect a sample of the grass, and then I’ll show you two the cave, where we’ll get more samples of the older infected growths. We’ll analyze and study them back at the lab.”
He procured some plastic bags from the pockets of his trenchcoat and showed Mason how to place the “infected” grass inside without damaging it. As they did so, Mason was struck with an anxious thought. “Grunkle Ford,” he began, wanting to ask but not wanting to seem like too much of a scaredy-cat when he did, “you— you said this was like a disease, right?” Before Ford could reply, Mason took a breath and continued. “Could we be infected with it?”
“Excellent question, Mason,” Ford said. “And, as far as I know, the answer is no, we cannot be. As I said, I was first in contact with it a week and a half ago. I assume that if I were infected, some symptoms would have shown themselves by now.” He paused, and before Mason could heave a sigh of relief, spoke again. “Unless, of course, it affects humans differently than plants and simply waits longer to take effect.”
“Oh, stop freaking him out.” Wendy rolled her eyes at Ford, then turned to Mason. “You’ll be fine, dude. Now let’s go in there and collect some samples!” She punctuated her words with fist bumps to the air, then frowned. “Wow. That sounded a lot less lame in my head.”
“Science is never lame, Wendy,” Ford said. “But she is right in that we should head on down.” He reached into his trenchcoat once again and handed a headlamp to Mason, keeping one for himself; Mason couldn’t help but wonder just how much stuff Ford stored in the coat.
Ford ducked into the cave entrance, Wendy following in a flash of red hair. Mason was about to follow when he realized something. “Hey, wait, Grunkle Ford! You didn’t give Wendy a headlamp!”
There was no reply; Ford and Wendy must not have heard him. Mason hesitated for only a moment before he turned on his headlamp, tucked the Journal back into his vest, and stepped off after them.
As soon as they entered the cave, Mason felt the temperature drop, the air changing from the humid summer heat to the cool darkness of the underground. Illuminated by their headlamps, Mason followed Ford and Wendy down a thin passageway that angled downward. They had travelled probably ten yards before Mason felt the stone floor level out beneath his feet; the walls, which had previously been so close his shoulders nearly brushed them, fell away.
They had entered the cavern.
Mason turned from side to side, the headlamp rotating with him as he took in the stalagmites on the ground and the stalactites hanging down from the high, vaulted ceiling— he prided himself on knowing the difference. The light on his head barely reached the dark recesses of the top of the cavern, and he could hear a distant echo of dripping water.
Ford, who Mason knew had been in the cave many times before, was all business. He pulled yet another object out of his coat— this time, an electric lantern that cast a more consistent glow around the large cave. Ford set it on the ground as he spoke. “I first discovered this cave shortly after my arrival here. In it grew various types of lichen and moss, some with strange— even magical— properties. Now, however…”
He gestured to a spot on the cave wall nearest to them, and Mason could see something the same ashy gray as the grass aboveground. “Something is killing the life in this cave and the forest. We’re here to find out why it’s happening— and how to stop it. This will take all my concentration, and I need both of your help to do it. Are you with me?”
“Y—” Mason’s voice cracked before he could finish his enthusiastic yes, and he was grateful for the dim lighting hiding his blush. “Yes!”
Wendy nodded. “We’re in.”
“Excellent. Wendy, you’ll be gathering samples from all around the cave, and Mason and I will record their properties and then take them back to the lab to study.” Ford gestured to the roof of the cave. “Check to see if there’s anything that hasn’t been infected.”
Wendy mock-saluted him. “Yessir.”
Mason, however, frowned. Neither of them seemed to recognize the obvious problem— the ceiling of the cavern was much too high for Wendy to reach. “But how is she—”
Wendy and Ford exchanged looks, and Wendy turned back to Mason with a grin. “Dude, you’re gonna love this.”
“Now, there’s no need to try to go full,” Ford said in a warning tone. “Just the wings will be enough.”
“Aw, c’mon—”
Ford shook his head. “I don’t want you straining yourself.”
Mason’s eyes flicked between them, searching for answers. “What are you talking about?”
Wendy wiggled her eyebrows. “Watch and see.” She took off her green flannel and tied it around her waist, revealing a black tank top with a dragon emblazoned on it. Her eyes closed and she furrowed her brow, assuming a look of deep concentration.
Mason frowned. He was watching, but he sure wasn’t seeing anything. Wendy rotated her body as if she were stretching her back, and Mason heard a faint popping noise as she—
“No. Way.”
Wendy craned her neck around. “Yes! I did it!”
“I—” Mason took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, sure he was seeing things.
Because there was no way that Wendy had dragon wings.
Wendy grinned at Mason, and now he was sure that her teeth were sharper than usual. “I’m part dragon, dude! I can go almost full dragon— see?” She held out an arm, and Mason could see green scales covering the pale skin nearly up to her elbow— he was distracted, however, by the claws coming out of her fingers. So that’s what she meant by ‘better weapons.’ “Whaddaya think? Pretty sweet, huh?I can see in the dark, too— even when I'm fully human. No headlamp necessary!”
Mason’s mouth tried to form words, but no sound came out— nothing coherent, anyways. “I— you— dragon—”
Ford inspected the green webbed wings, nodding. “Excellent job, Wendy! You were zero-point-six seconds off from your best transformation time.” He turned to Mason, a smile on his face. “I told you that Wendy would be a valuable asset on our exploration. Not only will very few creatures mess with a dragon hybrid, but she can reach places we otherwise would have no access to!”
Mason’s mouth was finally back under his control— mostly. “Can— can I touch them?”
“Sure!” Wendy turned, extending her wings out to about five feet each. Mason reached out a tentative hand to them. The tips of the wings were a dark green that gradually lightened to a grassy color at the bottom, and under his fingers it felt almost like— leather, maybe? But it was smoother, and more flexible. “Aren’t they awesome?”
“Y-yeah.” He looked from the wings to Wendy, smiling at him. Mason felt his face heat up. “Yeah, they really are.”
Wendy rotated her shoulders. “Am I good to go now?”
Ford nodded, and Wendy didn’t need any more encouragement. A single flap of her wings propelled her into the air, and after only a few seconds she was hovering near the cave roof. Mason watched in awe as she darted around, grabbing samples and placing them in the bags Ford had provided. Her brilliant red hair blew back as she flew, and her eyes—
Mason shook his head. Focus! He was here to help Ford save the forest, not stare at Wendy. He pulled out Journal 3 and his pen and looked to Ford for instruction.
Ford gave him an approving nod. “Write down any observations on the samples she brings back, no matter how unimportant it may seem. Back in the lab, we’ll test and compare them to my previous observations of the plants.
Mason nodded, preparing himself for the work ahead, but he couldn’t help but steal one last look at Wendy as she soared around the cave.