Big Bright Beautiful World

Chapter 7

(Bill pov)

We get to a wide river, the only way across being these big boulders in the water that we would have to walk across. They make an easy enough path across since they are in a straight line, but they also look slippery. If he slips on them and falls in the river, I really don't want to have to fish him out.

"We'll have to find a way around this."

"Why?" Dipper asks as he stands next to me. "We could just go over the boulders."

"Because I don't want to fish you out of the water when you slip on one of the boulders."

He scoffs slightly before jumping to the first boulder before I can react to stop him. He makes his way across the boulders with no trouble at all, getting to the other side before looking back at me. "Are you two coming or what?"

Will and I both exchange a look before we cross across the boulders. Will walks a bit ahead of us as me and Dipper walk side by side.

"You know....you aren't exactly like I thought you would be."

"What is that supposed to mean?" He looks up at me.

"Well, I don't know.....I guess that I thought that you would just be really snobby like most other royals are."

"Maybe next time you shouldn't judge someone before you get to know them."

I silently laugh to myself realizing how right he is. Here I was thinking that he had made assumptions about me from our first encounter, but here I made all of these assumptions about him before I had even met him at all.

"Guys, come look at this." We hear Will call out. We go over to him and looking down the hill I see the kingdom of Dulac down there. I didn't realize that we were already nearly there.

"Is that, Dulac?" I hear Dipper asks, him almost sounding dissappointed.

"Yeah. We should be there before nightfall now." I answer. Will starts down the hill and I follow after him until I hear Dipper cry out in pain. I turn back and see him on the ground holding his ankle. I go over to him kneeling down. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, just.....my ankle hurts. I think I sprained it or something. I don't think I can walk on it, not right now at least."

I look down at his ankle, gently moving his hand out of the way so I can get a better look at it. There is no redness or any sign of swelling on it. It looks perfectly fine. So why would he pretend that he got hurt? Does he honestly not want to go to Dulac? But why? I don't get it. But, I know that I don't really want to have to say goodbye to him yet.

I pick him up bridal style and carry him over to a fallen log setting him down on it. "What are you doing?" Will asks behind me.

"Well if his ankle is as bad as he says, then it's best if he rests. Besides, one last night won't hurt. Not like Dulac or Gideon are going anywhere."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah. Can you go and see if you can find any food for us? I know a recipe or two that I could try depending on what you find."

"Sure thing." He runs off on my request. I use the nearby branches piling them together, lighting them ablaze with the snap of my fingers.

"Is doing that hard?" I look at Dipper, confused at his question.

"What do you mean? Making fire?"

"I mean using your powers like that."

I take a seat next to him. "It depends really. Some stuff takes more effort, but with enough practice it all becomes easy enough."