The Everfree Forest: Next Day
Morning found the group of travelers slow to wake, their coats wet with dew, but otherwise safe and sound. Mabel was the first one out of the lean-to, bright-eyed and perky.
Soos was the only other one awake, having kept last watch. He stood just outside the shelter, scanning the woods like a hawk. A thick branch was clenched between his teeth in case anything dared to come too close.
“Morning Soos!”
He jumped, dropping his club in surprise before realizing what happened. “Oh, hi Mabel! Sleep well?” He smiled at her, and she noticed that even as a pony, he still had buckteeth.
“Eh...” She waved her hoof in a “so-so” gesture. Then she wasted no time in rousing the others.
“Wake up, guys! Come on! Get up!”
A chorus of groans was her only answer as the others tried to ignore her. None of them had slept well, having kept watch in shifts through the night, and with every unfamiliar sound putting them on edge. Stan, to his and Ford’s surprise, had slept without nightmares for the first time in weeks.
Being too small to move the others, Mabel went over to Dipper. After a moment’s thought, she grabbed the scruff of his neck in her teeth, as she’d seen mother cats do to kittens, and dragged him out from under Stan’s wing.
“Oh come on!” he complained, the lack of warm feathers and scrape of the ground through his fur being quick to wake him as he was moved.
Wendy chuckled at the sight, as she got up and stretched. “That’s pretty cute.”
Dipper put a foreleg over his eyes in embarrassment as Mabel let go of him.
Ford and Stan were the next to get up, both doing quick head counts.
“Well, nobody got dragged off and eaten during the night. You owe me ten bucks, Ford.”
Ford gave him a confused look. “When did we ever make a bet?”
Stan shrugged. “It’s obvious we were both thinking it.”
“Hey!” The others gave him indignant looks, but this only made him laugh. Then they realized he was joking, and joined in.
“Hey guys,” said Soos, as the laughter died down, “you know what else is funny? These weird pictures on our hips.” At their confused looks, he asked, “What? You dudes didn’t notice? They stand out from your coats and everything!”
“Honestly, we were trying not to look at each other’s hips,” Dipper pointed out.
“Yeah, and my brain was already absorbing too much info to notice the one I got,” added Mabel.
The others nodded in agreement. They had all been too preoccupied with adjusting to their new forms and then building the shelter to worry about the strange markings. The next few moments saw them all looking at their own marks, and then each other’s.
Soos’ mark looked like a gold knight’s shield with a blue question mark and a red screwdriver in the center. The screwdriver was placed in such a way that it looked like an exclamation point next to the question mark.
Dipper’s had a green pine tree, and below that was a magnifying glass and flashlight crossed to form an “X” shape.
Mabel’s had a gold shooting star with a rainbow tail. Under the star’s arch was a ball of yarn trailing a thread with a grappling hook tied to its end.
Wendy’s mark showed a bag of ice, and next to that was an ax with its blade lodged in the top of a tree stump.
Ford’s mark was a golden six-fingered hand that was ablaze with blue fire, and placed as though it had risen from the pages of an open book beneath it.
Stan’s mark held the stylized golden crescent from his fez, alongside a pair of dice and a locked treasure chest.
“It looks as though these marks have our Zodiac Wheel symbols incorporated into them,” concluded Ford, after seeing them all. “But I have no idea why we have these pictures on us in the first place. They also only seem to be on our fur.”
Stan yawned, then moved towards the pit that had brought them here. “Personally, I just want to get home and back on two legs.”
Mabel blocked his way, putting her forehooves on his chest and looking as cute as possible. “Can’t we stay and explore just a little longer, Grunkle Stan? Please? We’ve never been to another dimension before--except for Grunkle Ford. Plus, I have wings! I want to see if I can fly with these things!”
Stan smiled at her, but shook his head. “Not right now, sweetie. We don’t have any supplies with us. Maybe we can come back later, but first we should get back to the RV and get some food.”
Mabel’s stomach rumbled at the mention of food, and she nodded in reluctant understanding.
Another low growl echoed through the clearing just then.
Everyone froze, instantly on alert.
Stan put a foreleg protectively around Mabel. “Please tell me that was someone else’s stomach.”
A foul smell invaded the clearing as the wind shifted, and more growls followed. Yellow eyes glowed out from the bushes on the side opposite from the pit, and then several creatures emerged. In shape, they looked like wolves, but where flesh and bone should have been, there were only wood and leaves.
For several moments, the travelers were too surprised to move. Those several moments cost them dearly. Snarls came from behind them, and the group turned to see that more wooden wolves had blocked their escape to the wormhole.
“Circle the wagons. No sudden movements,” Ford ordered quietly, pushing Dipper behind him and backing slowly towards the others. Stan followed suit, pushing Mabel behind him towards Dipper, while keeping himself between them and the creatures. Soos and Wendy moved as well, closing the gaps left so the kids were in the middle of the formation with the others facing outwards towards the threat.
“Are these things really that dangerous?” whispered Wendy. “I mean, they are made out of wood.”
A twig snapped somewhere in the forest.
The wolf closest to Wendy jumped at her, grabbing a foreleg as she reared back to avoid it. She yelled in pain, lashing out with her other hoof. Her first blow dislodged the beast, and a stomp with both hooves broke its head into splinters.
The other wolves attacked in that same moment, scoring several bites and slashes before being destroyed by hard strikes from the defenders.
It was over in seconds. The wolves shattered to pieces on the ground, and the group shaken from the close call.
“Who’s hurt?” called Ford, blinking blood out of his eyes from a cut to the forehead.
“Looks like just cuts and bruises,” said Soos, looking himself and each of them over. “Nothing serious, and they didn’t even touch the kids.”
“Good. There’s a first aid kit back in the RV. Let’s go before anything else shows up.” Stan headed towards the pit again. This time what stopped him was the pieces of broken timberwolf beginning to glow, and move.
He cursed under his breath, backing away again. “Ford!”
“I see it!”
“What do we do?” asked Dipper, trying to keep calm and staying as close to Mabel as possible.
“Kill it! Kill it with fire!” yelled Soos, trying to crush several of the moving bits under his hooves.
“Really wish I had my ax right now...” growled Wendy, trying to keep as many of the wolves in sight as possible as they began to reform.
“That wouldn’t help...” squeaked Mabel, spreading a wing over Dipper’s back, since she couldn’t grab his hand like she wanted.
Ford’s mind raced as he looked around. They were completely cut off from the pit by the wolves. Though easily destroyed, the creatures were still dangerous and they were outnumbered. Several of those that had reformed already were howling, and were answered by more howls close by. Even if they destroyed this group, more were coming, and might reach them before they could jump into the wormhole. There was only one option right now.
“Run!”
They needed no second prodding. Soos barreled his way through a gap between two of the wolves still reforming, and crashed through the trees and undergrowth, the others close on his heels.
The wolves followed, and the howling from the others closed in.
As they ran, one of Mabel’s hooves caught on a root, causing her to trip. Dipper turned back at her yell, charging the nearest timberwolf with his horn.
“Get away from my sister!”
The thing shattered as he impaled it, but another knocked him flat with a paw swipe and seized a back leg in its jaws. Dipper screamed as the thing bit hard and twisted, starting to drag him away. There was a sudden shower of twigs as the wolf’s head broke, smashed by a buck from Mabel.
“Take that, you overgrown matchstick!”
“Overgrown matchstick?...” he hissed through the pain.
“It was all I could think of!”
“Kids!” Stan and the others came charging back, stopping only long enough for the two uncles to grab the kids by their scruffs, while Soos and Wendy kept the wolves at bay. Then they were running again.
They were chased relentlessly for what felt like hours. They ran through brambles and bushes, jumping logs and narrowly skirting trees. If a branch was supple enough, one of them would bend it back, letting it slam into a wolf coming at them. Once or twice they doubled back along their own trail and split off from it, trying to confuse the creatures, but there was no telling if those monsters could track by scent or not. In the end, it took them scrambling up a steep hill and sending down a small avalanche of rocks, before finally losing the pack.
It was only when they reached a small clearing, that they finally stopped. Soos dropped to the ground, gasping for air. “Go on... without me... dudes!”
“Not... Not happening, Soos...” Though Wendy was in typically good shape, this run had winded her as well. “How are you old guys holding up?...”
The two set the kids down, before collapsing next to each other.
“Worst... camping trip... ever!”
“What he said... Kids?... Are you alright?”
Mabel looked herself over. “I think I lost a few feathers, but besides that, I’m OK! Dipper?”
Dipper tried to stand, but his injured leg gave out, and he fell over with a yell of pain.
“Dipper!” Mabel was at his side in an instant, trying to see what the problem was.
The others dragged themselves to their feet, hurrying over as best they could.
“How bad is it?...” he groaned, trying to see her face without moving too much.
She winced at the sight of his leg. “That is not supposed to bend that way...”
“What?!”
She tackled him flat before he could move and hurt himself further.
Soos helped her restrain Dipper with one of his forelegs, while the others examined the wound.
“I’m no veterinarian,” said Stan, “but that definitely looks broken.”
“Not as bad as it could have been though,” Ford sighed with relief, but it was only partial. “The bone didn’t puncture the skin, but those fangs went deep. He’s lucky they didn’t pierce an artery. Infection is going to be a problem...”
“Yeah, plus we can’t exactly splint it, can we?” Wendy looked ready to spit nails in anger, but she held it in check for Dipper and Mabel’s sake. “We’ll have to figure out some way to move him. Those... things, might find us again if we stay here.”
“Actually... there is a way you could splint my leg, if you use your mouths to tie the knots... Won’t be easy, but...” he shrugged.
“You’re surprisingly calm about this, little bro.”
“The adrenaline hasn’t worn off yet, otherwise I’d probably be screaming right now. And you’re only older than me by five minutes.”
The others exchanged a look, but couldn’t think of anything else. Wendy searched for a vine, while Stan looked for a branch they could use. Soos stayed where he was, one foreleg across Dipper’s shoulders, both to hold him still, and offer some form of comfort. Ford, meanwhile, knelt down in front of the boy to get his attention.
“Wendy found some medicinal plants, but we can’t risk giving you any painkiller in this form.”
Dipper’s ears flattened against his head, eyes wide. Mabel hugged him, and Ford nodded in sympathy, before continued his explanation.
“If we were still human, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. But there’s no telling what you’ll react badly to like this. We can’t risk it this far from a hospital. Understand, boy?”
Dipper nodded slowly, and Mabel hugged him tighter. Ford gently nudged her away, explaining that they would need her help tying the vine, since she was smaller.
Stan took Ford’s place, grumbling that his brother shouldn’t have said anything. He gently ruffled the colt’s mane. They had lost their hats during the chase. “You’ll be fine. You’re a tough kid. Just... keep your focus on me. You can do that, right?”
Dipper nodded again, giving a weak smile.
“Good. Now bite down hard on this.” He shoved a small branch into the other’s mouth. The colt looked startled, but realized what it was for, and obediently clamped his teeth on the wood.
Despite the others working as quickly as they dared with setting the bone and splint, Dipper had blacked out by the end of it. There was relief at this, since he wouldn’t feel anything when they moved him, but that was quickly replaced with worry over how they were going to move him and where they would even go.
“I’ll carry him,” said Stan, lying down so they could place Dipper on his back more easily. “Wendy, do you think you and Ford can lead us back to the Bottomless Pit?”
They shared a look, then nodded. “Shouldn’t be too hard.”
“We weren’t exactly subtle, crashing through all that brush.”
“Wait, why are we going back towards the living wood puppets that tried to eat us?”
“Because that’s our only way home. Let’s just hope they found other food by now...”
Wendy soon found their trail. She took the lead, with Stan behind her carrying Dipper, and Soos behind him with Mabel on his back. Ford followed last, acting as rear guard. Hopefully, they could reach the pit and get home without further incident.