Weirdness and Wendip (Book 2)

Tired and Tyres

Chapter dedicated to Jeremy. We're all monster truck. Dipper's point of view.

It had been a hell of a night and already Stan was putting us to work. Mabel and Wendy were tasked with prepping Beaky for the general public, this was pretty much making him look a little less realistic. Beaky was dressed in some shorts and a baseball hat making him look like a baseball mascot. Stan meanwhile was behind the counter counting the previous day's takings. Myself and Soos had been tasked with retrieving Stan's precious Oldsmobile I grabbed my back pack and jumped into the golf cart. 

Soos was incredibly chipper, his normal self.

"...dude, you should of seen it. The huge dragon, it blocked out the entire sky. Bright red and eyes aglow. As it crashed into the car, writhed around and breathed fire. I only just jumped aside." I laughed.

"Soos, I wasn't even there and I think I know what happened better than you." Soos turned a corner.

"Well, I like how I describe it." I shook my head at the big man and grinned before taking a gulp from my Pitt Cola. Mabel had told me what had actually happened at least three times and Stan a further time as well. "So... uh dude, real talk just for a second. Are you going to ask Wendy out yet?" I spluttered and coughed up my drink. My god, since when did Soos take an interest in relationships.

"Soos, I'd already told her and she didn't feel the same." I felt myself go red, I didn't know whether Soos saw her kiss me.

"Oh, all right, cool dude." He said. "Looks like she fooled you." He added quietly and then hummed for a second while I stared at him. "Du du du, du du du. And we're here."

The railway station loomed before us, it was of course my first time seeing it. Shattered glass littered the ground so I told Soos to park some distance away. The Draco must have come too some time during the previous night as the only indication of its presence was a disturbance in the dirt leading into the forest. The car itself was nowhere as bad as what Stan had described it last night. True, the passenger side door was caved in badly and the windows were all smashed but it was no right off and could probably be driven away. We hopped out and made our way over. That was until I spotted a puncture on the right hand side. Soos being the ultimate handyman that he was quickly set about replacing it with the spare while I explored the outside of the station. I didn't want to venture in alone just in case the Draco (injured or not was still hanging around). Firstly I examined the Draco prints leading away from the vehicle. They were long and mis-formed showing the animal must have had some serious injury but I eventually found a good one and opened up my back pack. An idea had come into my head, a gift for Wendy. 

Last week, I'd accidentally/on purpose found Mabel's 13th birthday present to me. A make your own footprint mould kit. It was essentially just plaster of paris which when combined with a little water would make a cast of the footprint in a couple of hours. Of course, I hadn't taken the gift but just bought one for myself. As this was meant to be a decorative item though I added a little red food colouring instead of water. I left the mixture to set and followed the tracks into the forest. 

I had to double back on myself a couple of times as the path wasn't clear but eventually I found where the tracks led. It was a clearing. The high trees rose up on all sides around me, the space was about fifty yards wide and roughly circular. Five large stones were in the clearing, spread apart and a carpet of grass covered the floor. That was except in the centre. A bare circle of earth twenty foot wide, no grass or pebbles enclosed inside it. The tracks of the Draco led directly into it and stopped. How odd. Both Stan and Mabel had said that the creature was badly injured so it couldn't of flew. Wait a second, Stan actually said it couldn't fly at all, it just glided. So where had it gone? I approached the bare circle of earth. I teetered on the perimeter and looked around. The stones were large and stood tall, it was unlikely they could just be that way, someone had put them there. I rifled through my Journal for any mention of standing stones or bare patches of earth. I read.

Standing stones are often used to channel magical energy into one centre to imbue objects with powers or to trigger magical events. Said stones will always be placed in a circle to best channel the energy and rituals would always happen at night. 

I looked around, the stones weren't in a circle but were seemingly randomly placed in the clearing. I passed my darklight over the page just to check there wasn't any hidden text.

Stones, are always engraved with the runes of the beings that own them and are often incomprehensible to me at the moment.

The stones in this clearing looked bare and smooth almost as if chiselled to shape. There was no mention of a bare patch of earth on the page.

I backed away, I'd angered gnomes, gremgoblins and a dream demon so far this was summer. I didn't need to anger anyone else just yet though I'd mention it to Ford later. The fact that the Draco appeared to vanish intrigued me. I turned my back and left, a wind whipped up just as I left the clearing. 

I made my way back to Soos who was making good progress with the wheel, having taken it off and nearly securing the spare in place. I removed the patch of earth containing the print and made my way over to him.

"Whoa, dude, did the dragon bleed in his own paw print." I laughed.

"Nah Soos, it's just a cast. I thought I'd document the Draco while we are here." I lied. With a final turn of the spanner the wheel was replaced and Soos got in the car while I took the print to the golf cart and we drove back to the shack.