Let Me Be Your Eyes

Chapter 4-New Mysteries

Chapter 4-New Mysteries

 "Please?"

"No."

"Pleeeaaase?!"

"No! And that's final!"

Dipper scowls, crossing his arms and dropping to the floor criss-cross style. His actions are reminiscent of a pouting child. "Why?" He whines. "It'll just be the surrounding forest. I swear I won't go too far from the shack!"

Stanford mirrors Dipper's expression and holds the brunette in a hard stare- not that Dipper can tell though. "The woods around Gravity Falls are dangerous; full of wolves and, um, bears!"

"Please, Grunkle Ford!" Mabel jumps in after downing an entire glass of Mabel Juice. "I'll go with him to make sure nothing bad happens!"

Again, Stanford rebuffs them. "My answer is not changing. Besides, don't you guys have school today?"

Mabel laughs good-naturedly. "Pfft, no! Today is Saturday; there's no school on Saturdays. Where have you been living? The basement?"

Snorting, Dipper quips, "Where else would he live?"

"Who's living where?" A bleary-eyed Bill questions, stumbling into the kitchen. "Wow, note to self: never down a whole pitcher of Mabel Juice ever again. What time is it anyway?"

"A little after ten," Mabel answers peppily. "And we were talking about how Grunkle Ford lives in the basement."

"I don't live in the basement!" Grunkle Ford protests. "I have my own room; I just don't use it very often because I'm busy finishing my research for the university."

"Yeah, in the basement!" Dipper repeats. He pushes himself to his feet to take a seat at the kitchen table. He carefully feels around before finding his mug of nearly black coffee. "Hey Bill, you can be pretty charming; convince my grunkle to let me go out into the forest." The brunette simply nurses the coffee then, waiting for Bill to cast his Enchantment of Convincing. He's seen the boy use it on teachers to delay collecting homework or to push back test dates.

Bill falters, still flailing to a haze of sleep and Mabel Juice to catch up. "Oh, um... yeah." He pauses for a moment to collect his thoughts, mind still muddled. "Okay then. Hey Fordsy, I know that it may be a bit dangerous, but you can't keep Dipper locked up in the shack forever. He might just sneak out anyway and you would never know. It would be safer if you let him go now and work out his curiosity."

"There are many dangerous creatures in those woods! Wolves, bears, bobcats! He would be better off exploring the town."

"Give him a weapon he knows how to use, then."

"Mabel and I've taken self defense classes," Dipper inputs helpfully.

The eldest Pines in the room scowls, mostly to himself, while trying to come up with another rebuttal. "Well, he can't go alone!" Ford blurts, still dominantly worried for his blind grandnephew.

"I'll go with him then," Bill counters, smirking confidently. "I know these woods like the back of my hand. Other than yourself, there's nobody he'd be safer with." Dipper scoffs at this- he can handle himself, thank you very much -but says nothing. It seems like Bill is winning this argument, which means that he'll be able to go out in the woods.

Breathing out a sigh, Stanford finally relents. "Alright, fine. But, if anything happens, you two get right back to the Shack."

"Yes!" Dipper cheers, throwing a fist in the air victoriously. "We will. Now, come on!" He jumps out of his chair and runs for the door, slamming his shoulder against the frame in his excitement.