I am so, so sorry for the delay! That writer's block kicked me really hard, and while inspiration did took its course for other stories, this one seemed to be adamant to simply not wanting to cooperate with me.

I cannot answers to reviews this time, sadly. I don't have much to say, and I'm afraid that if I did say something more, I would be spoiling the plot and worldbuilding I want to do in future chapters.

Still, thanks a lot to everyone who is still looking for this story's update! It's short, but the best I could do. I'll try to spellcheck sometime soon, and hopefully update with the next chapter faster. Can't make promises though.

You know the disclaimer here; I don't own Gravity Falls.

Enjoy!

Chestnut colored hair floated up in the waters as a low rumbling echoed painfully from the darker parts of the lake. The swimming of a colossal monster creating small cyclones underwater that took with them algae and small fish around it.

Mabel was far too enraptured looking up to even notice, her eyes wide looking at the rays of light that filtered through the water and hit her body with gentle kisses, her tail full of pink scales moved back and forth slowly, almost in an hypnotic dance.

Then suddenly, she whimpered.

The mermaid's distress was unexplainable, making her freeze up as soon as her eyes drifted towards the surface. The mere thought of swimming all the way there, of breaking towards land and air sent shivers down her spine and made her heart lurch with fear.

Something was wrong out there, terribly so.

"I…"

She swallowed, eyes glued to the light as she slowly started to sunk lower and lower into her lake. The monster guarding those sacred waters growled low, sending whatever fauna was nearby swimming away. Mabel swallowed again, her tail twisting nervously as she did so, her heart beating so fast and hard she thought it might just break her ribs if it kept going.

"I don't want to go there…"

She felt scared, terrified for some reason. Something deep inside her, her instinct, was screaming at her to stay in her lake today. That if she went out something horrible would happen.

And she believed it.

The water felt cold, icy cold. The sun seemed to mock her in some way she couldn't understand nor take, so she turned around and swam towards the near bottom, leaving the light behind her and quickly coming towards the aquatic guardian of the Lake of Eden.

The creature was just as unnerved as her, it growled and snapped it jaws in a way she thought it would be fidgeting as it swam in circles, looking incredibly distressed.

"Ohh, you poor thing."

Mabel cooed to the creature as if it were a small child, gently petting its snout and mumbling words of comfort. The creature growled at her, then slowly calmed down and swam away, further deeper into the never ending lake as the mermaid stared at its retreating back.

"What can you feel?" The mermaid mumbled, curious and afraid at the same time. "What has gotten you...us, like this?"

She looked up once again, the waters seemed to be calm yet it felt like a trap, her instinct screaming at her to simply swim down and stay there, breaching the surface would be a bad thing, a horrible thing.

Paranoia nagging at her mind, Mabel took a deep gulp of water and followed the guardian's path, swimming away from the light waters and feeling much, much safer as the lake got darker and warmer.

She just hoped it was her being silly, but if that wasn't the case, she hoped Dipper was somewhere safe.

Dipper groaned as soon as his eyes snapped open and shut in a fraction of a second, light dancing inside his eyelids as he turned around and tried to sleep again, though to no avail. Something inside him stirred and pushed him to wake and stand up fast. Instinct, probably.

But why?

The thought kept nagging him, panic spreading fast for no apparent reason until his breath became laboured and hard. His eyes opened in a snap once again as he looked wildly at every corner of the room, expecting to see something jump at him and snap his neck like some sort of wild beast. Only when the cervitaur noticed that no one would creep up on him and that the only thing around him were books and his bed did his heart calmed down.

"Wha…"

Taking deep breaths, Dipper stood there in silence for what seemed to be hours, staring at some point in the wall until his senses returned to him. He still was on alert, ears perked up and hyperaware of every sound in the wooden shack, from the thundering steps of his Grunkle to the soft whispers of wind against the walls.

Everything was calm.

But the calm felt off, disgustingly so. Like the sort of stillness and quiet right after a gun was fired or a creature roared in the middle of the night. The silence of something being preyed upon by a keen hunter, waiting.

His stomach lurched uncomfortably. Dipper swallowed his panic along with the heavy ball of saliva that was inside his mouth, the taste unpleasant and heavy and it does nothing to make him feel better.

"What happened last night…?" He mumbles, quiet concern washing over him as the young Cervitaur thinks. He wasn't stupid, far from it. Something had happened last night somewhere, something big and near enough for his instincts to scream at him to turn tail and run. Maybe even still happening right now, somewhere.

With a shaky sigh, the creature quietly manages to step outside his room, shoulders tense and ears perked up and taking in any and all sound around him, relief blossoming only when he sees his relative at the bottom of the stairs, though a deep frown marred his old, scarred face.

"Feelin' it too, kid?"

The Gargoyle's clipped tone is a dead giveaway of nervousness. Dipper nods his head, lips curling down in a grimace when Stan growls, looking at the floor before stepping away, to the small makeshift kitchen of the cabin.

He follows suit. The mood is strained and tense around them, and for a second Dipper can see Stan's claws twitching, as if grasping or tearing something invisible. "Grunkle Stan?"

"Hm."

"What's going on…?"

"...I don't know, kid." The Gargoyle's answer is tense, but surprisingly soft, almost like a whisper that hadn't been mean to be spoken. "I don't know, woke up with my non-existent heart on my throat."

Dipper frowned, nodding slightly to show that he had caught what he had said. Stan doesn't sees, his back to him while staring out from the kitchen's window, down to the dirty path of dirt that led to the cabin and the silent forest beyond it.

The Cervitaur frowns, worry tugging at him as his ears twitch, trying to catch something far beyond. Had the forest always been that quiet? That dark?

It's almost ominous.

"Don't leave the house today."

"Huh?"

His grunkle groans, snarls most likely, posture rigid from what he can see and eyes fixed at some point in the forest. The pit of anxiety at the bottom of Dipper's stomach begins to boil slowly, and he desperately tries to calm himself with deep breaths, mentally naming every book title he knew.

"Don't go out. Not today, doesn't feels safe."

Dipper nods, then suddenly goes stiff, worry edging him on. "What about Mabel?"

"She's as safe as she can be in her lake." The response is gruff, and the relieved tone the Gargoyle suddenly uses does wonders to calm his already paranoid mind. "The Guardian will protect her and the lake. Besides, it isn't as if any threat could find it."

The Cervitaur sighs with relief, having completely forgotten about the protection the Lake of Eden gave to his sister. For just a second, the feeling of fear recedes to nothing but a low buzz he could ignore.

"Yes, yes...her lake, true. I...I had forgotten."

"Mhmm." The older man grumbles, a heavy sigh escaping stone by the will of magic. "You stay here, inside. Got it?"

"Uh-huh."

"Good boy."

There is nothing more to say for a while, and Dipper slowly goes back upstairs, he doesn't thinks his stomach can even phantom the sensation of food, so he decides to read for a while, keeping up with the small favor for his sister.

The book feels heavier than last night, the images of humanoid shapes with many wings, of lion's heads with halos and just eyes with a heavenly aura are burned in his brain, information stored away as he translates what he can, pencil heavy in his hold.

Once he turns to the page of the six winged 'angel', he feels his pulse racing and the faint, muffled echo of a mocking laugh ringing from somewhere...Outside? Inside?

He cannot tell.

But the buzz is gone as soon as it appeared, and while his panic slowly diminished once again he thinks it was nothing but the result of insomnia.

Dipper frowns, scribbles in a piece of paper, and tries a bit too hard not to stare at the figure that described 'God's right hand.'