Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

Quickly Down The Stream

"Permission?" Norman repeated, his brow furrowing. "What-?"

"I mean pray," Dipper explained quickly. "I mean, these come from the power of the... 'gods', so we might as well ask them for help."

Norman frowned as he thought that over. "I suppose... do you think you can convince them?"

"Not me," Dipper told him. He looked over to Wirt. "Wirt... if you're up for this, I think you should try."

Hearing his name snapped Wirt out of his thoughts. He met Norman and Dipper's gaze. "Me?"

Dipper nodded encouragingly. "You're a poet, you have a way with words. Just try it."

Wirt went red. "I-er... You really think that?"

Dipper nodded, and Wirt almost moved his hand up to rub at the back of his neck before a jolt of pain made him think twice. "Oh..."

"I've heard some," Dipper told him. "You speak out loud sometimes."

Wirt froze. "Wha-?"

"Don't worry about that," Norman quickly interrupted. "Dipper's point is that you're good, so go for it."

"You think so, too, Norman?"

"Wirt, I'm starting to think you're now just fishing for compliments," Dipper said, still in a nice voice, but with a more warning tone starting to set in. "Just go already."

Wirt gulped. "Uh, alright... I guess."

His mind still felt foggy, but Wirt supposed he should try what they said.

"Um... I'm asking for them to help with the crystals, right...?" Wirt asked.

Dipper and Norman exchanged a look Wirt couldn't decipher in his current state.

"Yeah."

"That's right."

Wirt blinked. "Okay," he said, and he held up the crystal, perched precariously on his bandaged hands. He racked his brain for something to say. "Hm... You're the river behind us, the walls that surround us, and the tiny boat that saved us. You're everywhere, here, there, all powerful and all knowing. Us, we're just a little bug, lost in a storm, who needs a guiding light. We're not asking for your hand, just a little pinky finger to help. Won't you heed these little ants?"

When Wirt finished, Dipper and Norman stared at him strangely.

"Uh... that was a little weird... are you Christian, Wirt?" Dipper asked him, tilting his head.

Wirt blinked. "What? Oh... well, I might have just copied that from something I'd said before, I don't know."

Norman shook his head, and held up the crystal. "Whatever it was... did it work?"

Dipper grabbed at his crystal, too, and then frowned. "No, it didn't seem too... Hey, uh, god, what he was saying was true... we don't need a lot of help, this is fine. It'd be really appreciated, and we'd be in your debt! We'd do whatever you want us to!"

Norman gave Dipper a worried look, which was ignored.

After Dipper finished, they waited, but for a while, nothing happened, and eventually, Norman drew back, sighing.

"Sorry, Dipper, it doesn't look like it'll work-."

Suddenly, he was cut off by a sudden blinding white light that seemed to explode from their crystals. The white light enveloped everything around them, the water, the boat, and the walls of the cave, until a vast white nothingness stretched out from every side, leaving them in what looked like another plane of existence, with nothing in there except Dipper, Norman and Wirt.