theattic | THE SANDBOX

"A Jackalope?" Maurice squinted as Dipper pulled himself up and dirt fell down onto his face. "Sure! There's one at the bar back home. Ernie said he made it himself."

Now it was Maurice's turn. He squatted down and gave a mighty leap--missed the edge of the hole. He tried again, this time managing to grab hold of some stray roots that they'd dug loose. They popped and creaked as the man heaved himself topside.

"But I don't think you're gonna find any out here..."

"Made it?" Dipper echoed, turning around just in time to watch Maurice finally get a grip enough to haul himself out of the deep pit.

"...Well, they've got to be around here somewhere. The journal talks about them being in this area specifically...they're just...kinda elusive." And by kinda, he meant very. Very elusive.

Dipper sighed, pulling his hat down more securely on his head before examining the bruise near his upper arm. "This doesn't seem like it was here by accident...but it doesn't look like a trap of any sort, either."

"Yeah! With taxidermy!" Maurice brushed his shoulders and jeans off and turned to eye the journal that Dipper was holding. "This place comes with its own field guide? Anything about vampires in there?"

He had to ask!

But then came the topic of the hole. Maurice glanced down at it. It was creepy as hell in the dark. Just...a pit. A round pit out in the middle of nowhere. "You're right...if it was an animal trap, it wouldn't have been that easy to get out of...or there would've been bait or bell or somethin'...think somebody was out here digging for treasure?"

Oh, taxidermy. Well that bodes well for his search, at least. "Uhh...yeah, actually. Though I haven't met any other than you, yet."

Dipper turns to look back at the hole as well, careful not to get any closer than he already is, lest the uneven ground give way beneath him again. "I have no idea. I don't think so, not unless they had something they knew they were looking for. Plus...if they were, wouldn't we have seen other holes around by now?"

"Oh...yeah, you got a point." Unless they were really really good at finding treasure. His eyes wandered back over to the book that Dipper held. He couldn't help but wonder what it might say about him. He hadn't had the best 'how to be an undead abomination' teachers.

"What were you gonna do with a Jackalope once you found one?"

"Well...I kinda just wanted to find one to...prove it exists, you know? I hadn't actually thought that far ahead." He knew he probably wouldn't be able to catch it, and if he did he had no idea what he would do with it. Certainly not harm it in any way, if he could help it.

If Maurice had been a young, living person in a weird town like this, he felt like he'd probably want to do the same thing. He gave Dipper a broad grin.

"Just promise me you'll grow up to be the good kind of Bigfoot Hunter, okay?"

Dipper smiled a little at that, folding his arms over his chest, "Don't worry, I will. So I guess the bus hasn't shown up again yet, huh?" He asked, glad to see Maurice again, but at the same time concerned about him actually getting where he wanted to go without any further hitches.

The vampire's smile disappeared.

"No...but I did find a bus schedule. From like eight years ago." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "When it comes, it comes, I guess. I've decided to think of this as an extended camping trip."

"Hmm...well that's one way to put it, I guess. Do you know what you're gonna do in the meantime?" He kinda wishes there was...actually more that Gravity Falls had to offer for someone actually visiting, if only for Maurice's case.

Maurice shrugged. "Camp, I guess. Enjoy the sights. The woods are nice to look at even if they're full of weird holes."

Something deep in the woods went crunch. Then it went snap before the loud groan of a tree being felled echoed toward them. Maurice had opened his mouth to ask a question but shut it and whipped his head around to look in the direction of the sound.

"Who lumberjacks at night?"

"...not many people that I know of," Dipper answered with a frown as he followed Maurice's line of sight, but it was too dark for him to see anything properly in the thicket of trees surrounding them. There's Wendy, maybe, but there's no way she'd be all the way out here without the rest of her family.

"And I'm not so sure if that was even done by a person. I haven't seen anybody else other than you for a couple miles, Maurice..."

The dead man swallowed.

"I saw some college kids partying but...I don't think it was a wild enough party to cause that."

He tried to imagine what could possibly be big enough to push over a tree. Maybe it was just a bear...and a really old rotting tree. Maybe. Maybe.

"This is the part where we leave and find civilization again, right?"

"Usually." However, the pause that followed that seemed thoughtful on Dipper's part. And dangerous.

"...you don't think maybe we should check it out, do you? Just to make sure nobody got caught up in that."

Maurice didn't bother trying to contain a groan.

"Kid, you nearly died in a hole, I think you've met your adventure quota for today."

But Mauriiiiiiice.

"...Well yeah, but you came and found me. Someone else could be in the same boat right now."

The vampire's brows knitted. He huffed and sighed and shifted his weight from one boot to the other, even started to walk away, but his conscience dragged him back.

"Fine, we'll look. But only a quick look!"

Dipper nodded, gesturing for Maurice to follow as he started to walk toward the sound, away from the huge pit in the ground.

"It's probably nothing...but it's better to make sure anyway. Just in case."

And so Maurice followed the twelve-year-old into what could be a very deadly situation. He had found Dipper by calling out and it had turned okay. Maybe...they should yell and see if anyone was hurt by the tree?

Then he thought about what Dipper had told him about the woods. And the fact that the kid was out monster hunting. And the fact that he himself was also a monster. Yelling probably wasn't the best idea. Instead, he used his night vision to squint ahead as they walked. He didn't see any waving arms. He didn't see any holes either.

"Watch yer step." There were plenty of roots though and the last thing either of them needed was a broken nose.

A large shape that could easily be mistaken for a row of shrubs shifted up ahead. Wood creaked. A great, dark snout lifted into the air and sniffed two deep sniffs.

It doesn't help that Dipper has grown accustomed to this sort of thing by now. Before he would have been just fine with taking the safe route and going back home, but now his curiosity is getting the better of him.

"Hey, you can probably see pretty well in the dark, right? Let me know if you see anythi-"

He froze mid sentence as the shape caught his eye, causing him to stop dead in his tracks with Maurice still at his side. ...Or, at least he hoped he was still there.

"Uuuhh....M...Maurice...?"

"Hu-wha?" He'd been busy watching the ground. Then he heard it! The heavy breathing, the rustling, the--rustling that was a WHOLE HELL OF A LOT CLOSER.

There was more rustling and before they had a chance to speak or take another step, something tumbled off the high stone it had been perching on and out of the bushes. It landed not two feet away and landed in a patch of moonlight and shook the leaves from its ears before turning to blink at them curiously.

It was a baby brown bear with curious snowy spots on its back.

The vampire let out the breath he didn't know he'd sucked in and let his arms hang limp. "Oh...hah. Geez."

"A baby bear?" Dipper said with a slight frown, lowering his hand from where he'd subconsciously been gripping the brim of his hat.

"...you don't think this little guy could've made that noise, do you?"

The bear sneezed at them once and dared to pad up to Dipper's sneaker and give it a sniff. Was he where all the delicious smells were coming from?

"He's awful small..."

Maurice watched with that sort of half-scared half-enchanted face people feed buffalo slices of toast through cracked car windows at parks do. He had never seen a young bear this close before. And there was a reason.

That reason rose up out of the bushes and towered twelve feet above them and sported an impressive sixteen point rack. It surveyed the area and then spotted its baby. And them.

....Yep. Yep, he'd been wondering if this would escalate horribly within moments and he was not at all disappointed.

His breath caught painfully in the back of his throat as he took a shaky step back away from the bear cub, backing up to stand by Maurice again.

"....O...oookay I...I think it's...time to go home now..."

Maurice's red eyes grew to the size of saucers. The hell was that thing? A deer? A bear?

"BEER!" He grabbed Dipper without giving one single thought to the kid's personal bubble and took off in the opposite direction.

If their bumbling presence hadn't caused the beast's prey drive to spike, Maurice's bolting sure did. The little bear cub blinked cluelessly after them as its mother charged by like an angry truck.

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