Winged Falls

//Chapter Three//

Mabel needed to find her brother.

That’s what she had been trying to do for the past week, but it was with renewed urgency that she glided out of the tree that morning, Lilith Crypt’s words still echoing in her mind. He has no idea you exist. 

Mabel wanted nothing more than to believe that the dream demon was lying. She wanted to curl up under the tree and hide in Sweater Town. She wanted to pretend that this was the dream, that in reality she and Dipper were safe at home, that they were together.

Because most of all, Mabel wanted Dipper. 

Tears pricked at the back of her eyes. He has no idea you exist. Dipper had lost all memory of Mabel, his twin, his best friend. All this time Mabel had been searching for him, assuming that he was doing the same, when Dipper had no idea he even had a sister. Had no idea he was from another world, had no idea about magic, had no idea he had wings. Had no idea who he was. 

Mabel wiped her eyes. Would he even be the same person? Would Dipper be the same nerdy brother that she loved? If Lilith could erase so much of him, what would stop her from completely changing his personality? And what if she had changed how Dipper looked? Mabel would never be able to find him then! 

Mabel took several deep breaths, trying to calm down. If Lilith had changed Dipper’s appearance, surely the demon would have told Mabel, if only to laugh at her despair. Mabel was just being paranoid.

Which gave her an idea. Her brother was the most paranoid person Mabel knew, and sometimes that paranoia, along with Dipper’s innate ability to plan and come up with solutions to problems Mabel thought unsolvable was what saved them.

What would Dipper do? 

Mabel knew the answer. Her brother would use his smarty-pants brain to analyze the situation and logic up a solution. Unfortunately, Mabel had never been much good at logic. That was Dipper’s thing— but Dipper wasn't here.

Mabel stretched her wings back, feathered lilac tips glinting in the sunlight. She rolled her shoulders, easing the stiffness of sleeping from her body as she prepared to face the day. Dipper was out there somewhere, and she was determined to find him.

“Maybe— maybe when he sees me, his memories will come back.” Mabel spoke aloud, nodding to herself. “Sure, Lilith can make him forget everything when there's no one he knows around, but when he sees his sister, surely he'll remember!” For the first time that morning, Mabel started to smile. “Now I just gotta go find him!” 

She gently flapped her wings twice before leaping into the air, feathers beating up and down to propel her into the air. Mabel shot up through the trees and into the world above, a land of the green canopy of the forest and an endless blue sky. Here Mabel felt safe, wrapped in infinity and high above her problems. 

She did a loopty-loop and soared past a flock of geese, waving at the birds. Some squawked at her, and Mabel laughed as she leveled out just above the trees. 

In the week since she had woken up in an unknown forest, Mabel had been exploring the forest to try to get a sense of what dimension Bill had sent them to. At school in Divinus, the Avem dimension, she and Dipper had learned about the other dimensions out there. Each had their own unique creatures, people, and plants, and both twins loved to learn about them.

Dipper was always fascinated by the anatomy and abilities and other nerdy stuff of the creatures, while Mabel preferred to imagine someday meeting them. The twins would pretend to be interdimensional explorers, travelling and learning new things about these other worlds together before they triumphantly returned home.