A Deal's a Deal (Gravity Falls)

Chapter 3

Mabel opened her eyes. She was in the Gravity Falls forest. Looking around, she noticed Dipper. She frowned. They were back in the dream, it seems.
A cry of pain rang throughout the forest. Dipper and Mabel looked to each other, then nodded. They had to go see.
Walking through the woods together, they came across the same sight from the night before. A wolf-like creature wrapped in chains from the night before. It wasn't looking at them, but he was sure it knew they were there.

Mabel was the first to step forward. She approached it carefully, not sure what it was capable of after what they'd witnessed yesterday.
"H-hey, it's Mabel again. Do you remember me?" The creature slowly raised its head. Its eyes looked tired and dull. They were still yellow, but this time, they didn't resemble Bill's. Mabel reached out her hand. The wolf did nothing, just watched her hand with a bored yet wary look on its face. "Hi, we're not gonna hurt you. Can you understand me?" Mabel asked gently, as Dipper walked up quietly behind Mabel. The creature looked at Dipper for a moment, before returning its gaze to Mabel's hand. She just nodded in agreement to Mabel's question.
Dipper noticed what she was doing.
"Mabel...she's avoiding eye contact..." He of all people knew what that meant. It didn't want to be here.
Mabel then removed her hand, which hadn't touched the wolf-like creature. The creatures shoulders, which were tense upon their arrival, relaxed a bit, moving the chains slightly.
Mabel stepped back a bit. "Do you need help? We can help you, but only if you let us." The creature seemed to think about it, then nodded.
Dipper took a step forward carefully, and took a closer at the chains. They were glowing blue, and Dipper could see there were locks. "Mabel, you learned how to pick locks with Grunkle Stan, didn't you?"
"Hm...yeah!" She pulled out a bobby pin from her hair. "Did you want one?"
"Yes please."
Together, they set to work on different locks. Pretty soon, they had finished unlocking them all, freeing the creature.
They took a step back simultaneously, worried about what the thing would do.
But the creature only stood there, rubbing its wrists from where the chains had kept it bound.
"Th-thanks..." came a female voice. The creature still hadn't looked up.
Mabel smiled. "You're welcome! Glad we could help!"
Dipper was watching the wolf creature guardedly. It still avoided eye contact.
"I'd better go." The wolf then turned around to leave. Mabel's eyes widened. "Wait! What's your name?" The creature seemed to stop. It thought for a minute, as if arguing with itself. Finally, she replied. "Wolfy...you can just call me Wolfy."
But Mabel wasn't finished. "Can we meet you again?"
Wolfy was thinking again. "...maybe."
She suddenly disappeared. The twins looked at each other in concern.

"What did she mean by 'maybe'?" Dipper asked. Mabel shrugged. "At least she didn't try to hurt us."
"Yeah...right..." Dipper was deep in thought. What was going on here? First, Mabel and he were in the same dream, then they meet this...person. And they've come back. The same dream twice in a row. What was happening?

(next morning)

Mabel and Dipper awoke the next morning. No nightmare, just a weird dream. And a lot of questions.

They walked down the steps together. Both of their Grunkles were, once again, in the kitchen. It seemed like they were up all night, since both had bags under their eyes. Stan was trying to read a newspaper while Ford was drinking some coffee and writing in a journal.
After exchanging good mornings, Mabel went to make herself some breakfast, while Dipper sat down at the table with both his Grunkles.
"Great uncle Ford...do you know any other dream demons? Other than Bill?"
Ford looked over to his nephew, a strange look on his face.
"No, I don't, actually. Why?"
Dipper stared at the table. Should he tell him?
"No. Just wondering."
Not yet. It could be nothing.
The smell of something burning brought everyone back to their senses.
Looking up, they could see that smoke had now filled the kitchen. Mabel was frantically yelling and screaming, running around in circles in panic.
Stanford immediately pressed the button under the table, setting off sprinklers. Stan got up and was now trying to console the panicked young teenager.
Ford resumed to writing in his new journal. "So what are you two doing today? Helping Soos, Melody and Stan run the shack? Or are you gonna go exploring? Maybe catch up with your friends?" He asked, still writing in his journal.
Dipper shrugged. "Probably walk around the town a bit."
Ford nodded. "You have plenty of summer left. Take your time, and don't rush into things." He warned, as Dipper started going back up the stairs to retrieve his things for the day.

"I will." After a few minutes, Dipper was ready to leave, with Mabel right behind him, carrying a burned piece of toast.
"See you later grunkles!" Mabel yelled cheerfully, seeming to forget she'd just nearly burned the house down.

They walked quietly through the woods, Mabel humming a tune while Dipper stared straight ahead, thinking. Both were oblivious to the world around them.
Suddenly, both tripped, letting out yelps of surprise as they fell to the ground. They felt something being thrown over them. It felt like rope.
Dipper moved his head to the side, and noticed what had tripped them.
Gnomes.
They were tying the twins down, pinning them to the ground. A familiar voice rang out, "Well! Would you look at that? Our queen has returned! Great job boys!" Dipper turned to the source. There, not far away, stood Jeff, the gnome who tried to kidnap his sister last summer.
Dipper scowled at him. "What do you want? Didn't you learn your lesson last time?"

Jeff only laughed. "Oh well! What do you say boys? Ditch the boy and take our queen?" The gnomes started cheering.

"And what do you think you're doing?"

All the gnomes went quiet, as they turned around to look at something, or someone. Dipper turned his head as best he could with the ropes tying him down, and saw someone he least expected.
"Pristella?"
Pristella was wearing a white coat, with an emerald green shirt, blue jeans, and boots.
She stood glaring down at the gnomes, unfazed by their appearance.
Jeff laughed nervously.
"O-oh, my bad, th-they friends of yours? I-i w-wasn't gonna kidnap Mabel or a-anything-"
Pristella stared him down. "Release them. Now."
Dipper felt a shiver go up his spine. Something about how she ordered them around seemed...weird.
Jeff waved his hands in surrender. "Ok! Ok! Boys untie them, we don't want to upset the lady!"
Pristella huffed, but didn't say anything.
In no time, the gnomes had incited them, shaking in fear.
Dipper and Mabel got up quickly, and rushed behind Pristella.
Jeff was surprised. "Are you serious?! Are you really gonna trust a-"
He suddenly stopped, and glanced up at Pristella, as if realising something. Or it could've just been that Pristella was glaring at him even harder.
Jeff started to sweat. "Eh-uh-I mean-"

"Go back to where you came from. Or else."
Jeff and the gnomes immediately retreated, disappearing into the forest.
After a few minutes, making sure that they were truly gone, Pristella turned to the twins. The glare gone. "Are you kids ok?"
The kids nodded. Pristella sighed in relief, then chuckled. "Good thing I was passing by, then. So I'm guessing you've met them before by the sound of it." Mabel jumped up. "Yeah! I dated them when I thought they were this really nice guy named Norman, then they tricked me and tried to kidnap me to become their queen! But luckily Dipper and I got away and outsmarted them! Right Dipper?"
Dipper was silent, instead staring at Pristella. "How did you know about the gnomes?"
Pristella stared blankly at him for a moment. Then it turned to an amused smile. "I'll just say I caught them trying to steal Lazy Susan's pie."
Mabel laughed, but Dipper was still unsure.
Pristella then looked up at the sky. "It's still early. What would you guys like to do? I can accompany you if you want."
Mabel grabbed hold of Pristella's hand, and started to drag her in a direction. "Let's go exploring!" Pristella was taken aback at first, but allowed Mabel to do so. Dipper was trying to catch up to his energetic sister. "Hey, Mabel! Weren't we gonna go to town?" Mabel didn't stop. "NOPE! We can do that later! Let's go!"
Dipper tried to object, but Mabel wouldn't listen.

They headed deeper into the woods.