Antlers & Oil (early access)

3

Wirt watches as he slowly holds out the fabric to the entity. It seemes perplexed, sniffing at its offering, before starting to nibble. The strange clicking noise it made as it feasted sent shivers down wirt's spine. Dipper looks back at wirt and makes a gesture with his eyes for him to come over. Wirt takes a deep breath and finally resumes inching his way over. Once he is close enough to properly see the creature, he Stops, offers out the fabric, and waits.

He can feel the mothman's cold breath on his skin sending chills up his spine, but the cold didn't compare to its eyes. Red, deep, and practically glowing as they seem to pierce Wirts very soul. A small chitter can be heard emanating from the mass as it cautiously accepts the offering. Wirt is at a loss of words as his brain finally decides to process what he's doing. Its real. This is the real mothman! Dipper was right. He watches the mothman eat from his hands as his brain runs at a million miles a minute. He vaguely heard dipper saying to be careful not to touch it. The creature finally finishes and takes off. One beat of its large wings causes a gust of wind so strong wirt has to close his eyes. When he opens them he finds only dipper and himself under the line street lamp.

"So..." dipper snaps wirt from his thoughts, "pancake time?"

"Wait what?"

"We should go back to the diner! I know we already went for sandwiches but the pancakes there are my favorite!"

"B-but..." Wirt looks at him lost "I lost the deal?"

Dipper rubs the back of his neck sheepily "i uh was gonna take you eitherway...its just you seem pretty cool and i wanted to be friends and all." he cleares his throat awkwardly and starts packing up all the equipment. "although, if you dont want to go-"

"No!" wirts face heats up at his out burst. He takes a deep breath and tries to collect his feelings, "i mean, im not gonna turn down breakfast for dinner." he kicks the dirt as his feet "i-i-i would also like to be friends" he looks up and gives dipper a lopsided smile that he returned.

At the diner, wirt works to get all his thoughts in a coherent line. He was flipping through the journal again, this time with the certainty that it was all real. Flooded with information, real information. It was almost too much. Staved and then suddenly sat infrount of a bufeet he didnt know where to really start.

"You said youve delt with something simmilar?" dippers voice snaps him out of his own head. He manages to pry his eyes off the page to see dipper holding a notepad. "You dont mind me writing down a bit do you? Im working on my own research journal."

"No not at all." in reality the idea that his exeriences would be written down was a little intimidating but he pushes past it "i dont really know where to start..."

"How about location."

"Thats the thing!" dipper jumped, wirt lowers his tone, "sorry. The thing is, i actually dont know! I know it was in some kind of forest or hevaly wooded area, but when it comes to the actual geografical location? I got nothing."

Dipper scribbled something down. "Forest? Was it big?"

Wirt furrowed his brows as he tries to remember. Its been so long and his old therapist never asked these questions. "It was big, seemingly endless! But at the same time id find myself walking in big circles over the course of days..."

"Days?" dipper asked surprised. "How long were you there? Were you alone?" he was only veguely aware the questions were getting on the personal side.

"Oh i was in for much much longer. Not sure how long exactly, time made just if not less sense than the location. And no. i was with my little brother and his pet. And if you include people i met while there i was far from alone..."

"I assume these are the talking animals you mentioned?"

"Jeez dont word it like that you sound like my therapist" he laughed before realizing what he said and clearing his throat. "Yes. there was a horse and a bluebird that followed us for some time during our journy home. They were really nice." wirt looks off to the side and blinks a few tears away "can we continue this later?"

"Oh of course!" dipper said, finally getting the hint. He puts his notebook as the food arives. "Bacon in the pancakes?"

"Youd be surprised its a good mix of sweet and salty" his face lights up a bit at the distraction. "What about you? Sure ive only taked to a few locals so far but i havent met anyone like you yet. How come nobody else talked about the monsters here?" (a/n changed "monster hunting" to "running errends" in chapter 1)

"I dont really like to call them monsters. They can be scary and violent sometimes but never really monsterous. As for why nobody else talks about it, nobody really knows. At least not nearly as much as i do, and the things they do know is kind of illegal to talk about it."

"Illgal? Like some sort of cover up or conspiracy?"

"No...yes? Im not too sure i really think the law is in place to prevent people from having to remember the horrors they endoured..." dipper took a bite of his pancakes and sighs. "Scratch what i said earlier. Theres one being i would classify as a monster..."

(A/n) if I write about 1000 pages every few days I should be done by the end of the year :o)