Gravitational Phantoms: After the Storm

Chapter Twenty: Recovery (Part One)

Annndddd the Ectofire Arc is over! I'd just like to say thank you for reading, and on with the show.

I would also like to briefly mention that in a few days I'll probably get really depressed because one of my rabbits just died, and I've had him for a really long time. Usually when I'm grieving I'm fine for a few days before I explode.

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Wendy jumped down from the trees, twirling her ax with finality. "Ta-da! Took us the better part of two months, but it's finally done almost done!"

Mabel grinned. "So can we come up there now?"

"Be my guest," the lumberjack sang from where she was perched on a thick red cedar branch.

The two thirteen year olds beamed at each other and scrambled up the ladder slats that one of Wendy's younger brothers had nailed into the side of one of the tall trees. Mabel went first, overly-large yellow sweater sleeves flopping around. Dipper clambered up behind her with a bit more tact.

Over the course of around two months, the Corduroy clan had worked together to make a trio of house-like structures in a stand of trees not too far from the Mystery Shack. They were connected by rope ladders strung lengthwise across the canopy-basically just three connected tree houses.

They had yet to be furnished with anything other than a small rug, similar to the kind that you would put in a bathroom to soak up water. There were still nails that needed to be fully hammered in, boards that needed to be sanded. The rope bridges were precarious and easy to fall from.

And Mabel thought that it was perfect.

There were little nocks in the trees where she could brace her legs and jump off, perfect crannies for her grappling hook to attach to, long twigs where she could scramble and climb and look at the stars with Danny, Dipper, and Wendy. She could find her favorite constellations-the Big Dipper, obviously, Orion the Hunter, Cassiopeia, and Andromeda-and make Dipper tell her nerd facts about each of them.

There were plenty of dangers for the trio of treehouses. Plus spiders, bats, the occasional unisquirrel, and all of the other fantastic and normal creatures that roamed the forest of Gravity Falls. There would need to be humane traps, wards, all sorts of magical protection for them.

But Dipper still thought that it was perfect.

Wendy had shown him a desk that her dad had built. It had yet to be moved to the main house, but it was already completely made. It was the perfect spot for studying, writing, and doing all sorts of other things. It was going to be awesome.

Mabel giggled and fired her grappling hook, swinging over the space between the trees. "Welcome home, Dippin' Dot."

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Danny sat on his bed at the Mystery Shack and closed his eyes. He knew that he was missing something. There was something else that had happened the night that he couldn't remember. He needed to remember. 

"Put him down!"

The Halfa winced and clutched at his head as a stab of pain went through his temples. There had been... Someone there. Two, actually. Maybe three.

A girl? 

"Danny?! Danny, please! You have to snap out of it! I don't know what she did to you, but you have to snap out of it before anything else happens!"