Continuing from “What you Baa-ying?”
((“These are thoughts.” Also Wendy calls the Psychic Singularity, The Weirdness))
Wendy trekked through the upturned walkway, occasionally stopping to scrape a couple dream shards from the cracks in the floating pavement. Stopping at an intersection of floating debris, she brought out a notebook and a map from her jacket, checking them side by side.
“Let’s see, this should be Gopher Lane, there should be a couple logs lashed together from last time leading to Main Street.”
Looking amongst the debris she managed to spot the remains of some rope that had been torn apart. Swearing under her breath, she rechecked her notes.
“Damn Storms, that means the Water Tower is the only way through, I hate the water tower.”
Putting away her things, she stretched her legs getting ready to jump into the debris, when she spotted the Gnomes, they still hadn’t seen her but they were crossing the debris field in groups, making ladders and bridges by using their bodies. Holding her breath, Wendy moved backwards and hid behind a broken Mailbox and let them pass. It wouldn’t do any good facing them alone.
Gnomes hadn’t been much of a problem in the past, the dumb little men were at their worst a pest, raiding garbage cans and stealing food, but since the Weirdness they’d taken a more proactive approach to their survival. Having the numbers to overwhelm humans for once and the ability to cross the unstable parts of Gravity Falls much faster than them, they’d risen from common annoyance to dangerous rival to the Humans of Gravity Falls. In fact they’d claimed the old Mystery Shack as their own, that being the largest piece of Stable ground in Gravity Falls and seeing as their own glade had been torn apart by the storms, this gave them a very strong base for their raids on other groups.
“And speaking of other groups, here they come.”
With a loud crash and thud, a pair of Manotaurs landed on the debris field, sending most of the pieces spinning through the air, with a huff they prepared for another of their jumps before spotting the gnomes. With a roar they charged at them, while the gnomes rearranged themselves into a larger figure to face them.
The Manotaurs hailing from the Man Cave, as they called it, had been a surprise for most of the humans. With their strength and high jumping abilities they could be found all across Gravity Falls and took whatever they needed, but they weren’t malevolent, just Hungry. Luckily they hadn’t taken to eaten anything apart from pre-packaged foods and Jerky, as such giving them some of these things made them go away, generally. There were some exceptions, such as the occasional jerk wad of a Manotaur who decided to pick on one particular group for fun and food, Wendy herself was quick to make examples of these, lest more of them start doing it.
“Seems these two groups are going to be here a while better sneak by.”
But before she could move, a cold wind passed through, followed by the sky and surrounding void darkening, the Gnomes and the Manotaurs stopped fighting and looked around in dread. As one the Gnomes began to retreat in haste with shouts of “Retreat!”, “Run!”, “It’s coming!”. The Manotaurs letting go of the gnome they were fighting, stepped back and ran in terror. The Sky darkened further, and the normally featureless grey void of Gravity falls was dark as night, only the flickering of the broken lamp posts and the orange glow of the Dream Fragments offered any light. Wendy began to back away from the Intersection, but a surge of pain inducing terror stopped her in her tracks, struggling to concentrate she hid behind the Postbox again and hoped it wouldn’t find it.
As the darkness became more oppresive, two yellow eyes opened in the darkness, featureless and with a cruel and bestial look they surveyed the area, in a flash of movement, one of the flickering lamp posts was smashed, briefly revealing a long and svelte creature of darkness, akin to some sort of reptile or evil rodent. It’s eyes were the only thing that could be seen in the darkness, as it prodded and searched amongst the debris. Wendy covered her mouth trying to hide her pained breathing as the Nightmare continued its methodical search for prey.
The Nightmares were the worst of the things to happen to Gravity Falls in this, they weren’t a beast or monster, they were more akin to forces of nature. Generally staying in the more unstable areas of Gravity Falls, they occasionally ventured out following the more destructive Reality Storms, tearing apart anyone foolish enough not to run, the few who didn’t, were dragged away into darkness, luckily they never entered the Stable Areas, but Nightmares had been known to stay in the same area for days, waiting. Luckily they weren’t completely immune, they were weary of fire and light, weaponised fire had been used successfully to drive of some Nightmares but only defensively.
Covering her mouth with one hand she reached for a small satchel in her jacket labelled Magnesium. The Nightmare’s eyes turned towards her hiding spot, Wendy could feel the yellow eyes through the twisted metal of the Mailbox and prepared her lighter. With a sudden rush of air the Nightmare left and the darkness began to lighten and Wendy sighed in relief putting away the magnesium.
“This better be worth it.”
backup 