Chapter Text
Dipper came to her when she was working the morning shift. He was by himself, apparently Mable was out with Candy and Grenda. As she brought him his waffles, he asked her a question.
“Hey Pacifica, when do you get off work?”
“Around noon, why?” Pacifica asked.
“How would you like to go on an adventure with me? A really simple one, just going to a cave and looking at some dinosaurs.”
“Dinosaurs?” Pacifica said, her voice filled with doubt.
“Yeah I’m serious, me, Mable, Stan, Soos and Mcgucket discovered it when a pterodactyl stole Waddles.”
Pacifica stared at him for a moment, “I want to think you're lying, but knowing your family, it's true.”
Pacifica stood there thinking for a moment, “Yeah sure I’ll join you, beats going home. Pick me up around 12.” she said walking away.
“Great, it's a date.” Dipper said, Pacifica froze for a moment, her face red then she went off to take other orders.
When Pacifica finished her shift Dipper was already there waiting for her. She got into his truck and gave him an amused look.
“Sorry if that sides a bit. . . glittery. I’m usually driving Mable around.”
Pacifica let out a small laugh, “Yeah I thought it was a bit bright for your taste.”
She took a good look at Dipper, he was wearing a flannel shirt with jeans along with some boots, he looked good. She also looked around the red pickup truck, it had clearly been used for a while but it seemed to be in good shape, “Where did you get this truck anyway?”
“Wendy gave it to me as a Christmas present. She said since she had enough money to upgrade to something stronger, I could have it.” Dipper said.
“That was nice of her.” Pacifica said as she buckled her seat. Dipper nodded and he started the car, driving off to wherever this adventure was supposed to be.
Eventually the pair of them arrived at a very old looking wooden building. Pacifica couldn’t see anything odd about it so she was curious as to why Dipper had brought her here. Then Dipper walked past her, but he was carrying something.
“What’s that?” Pacifica asked, matching his speed.
“Rope ladder, it's a bit of a drop so I got this. Should be more than long enough.” Dipper answered.
“A drop huh? So you’re bringing me into a cave. What’s in the cave?”
“Live dinosaurs.” Dipper responded.
Pacifica started to laugh, “That hilarious Dipper, seriously what's down there?”
“I’m serious Pacifica.” Dipper said as he entered the wooden building.
“How is that possible? They've been extinct for tens of millions of years.”
“These ones were trapped in amber, it preserved them for all this time.” Dipper said as he tossed the ladder down a deep hole and secured it in place with some stakes, “That’s how the pterodactyl that stole Waddles got out.”
Pacifica stilled, “Wait, so you’re telling me that four years ago this amber melted and one of them got out?”
Dipper nodded.
“So how do we know more haven’t gotten out?” Pacifica asked.
Dipper, who was already on the ladder shrugged, “Guess we’ll find out won’t we.”
Pacifica stared at him for a moment before getting on the ladder, “You’re going to get yourself killed one of these days you know that?”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Dipper responded.
The two of them went silent as they reached the bottom. Dipper handed her a flashlight and the two started looking around. The cave was fairly interesting, it had some cool looking plants. Eventually they entered another part of the cave and it was amber rocks with dinosaurs in them.
“Wow.” Pacifica said, “You were right.”
“I know.” Dipper said, with a smug look on his face.
Pacifica rolled her eyes, “Yeah, yeah better take a photo because I’m never going to say it again.”
Dipper just smiled at her and it made Pacifica’s stomach do loops. She walked around the cavern, looking at all the dinosaurs. She never really was obsessed with them as a kid but it was cool to see them anyway. While she was looking around, Dipper was taking a video of each dinosaur. Pacifica was looking at a three horn one, Triceratops maybe, when she glanced to her right and saw something that made her freeze. One of the amber rocks had melted, and there wasn’t a dinosaur in there.
“Hey Dipper.” Pacifica called.
“Yeah?”
“There’s some melted amber over here.” Pacifica said, her voice nervous.
“I told you a pterodactyl got out, remember?” Dipper called back.
Pacifica looked at the shape that remained in the amber, she was pretty sure a pterodactyl was a large flying creature, but the outline of this amber was a small creature that looked like it had two legs. Pacifica got closer to amber and exclaimed it closer, on each of the feet, there was a large sickle like claw on the inside most toe.
Suddenly Pacifica heard a little chirp and looked up. Through the amber, she saw a distorted figure. Then it jumped around the amber. Pacifica moved back a bit in surprise and got a clear look at it. It was about three feet tall, covered in feathers, had three claws on each hand and a snout full of sharp looking teeth. Pacifica started to panic, this was clearly a predator and it could attack at any moment. The dinosaur jumped forward slightly and Pacifica moved back. It chirped at her again and Pacifica was getting ready to run, maybe if she was quick she could find Dipper and get out.
Just as she was about to make a run for it she heard Dipper, “Pacifica, do not move.”
“Are you crazy? It's going to eat me!” she responded.
“No it won’t. It’s testing you. It just got out of a several million year nap, it has never seen a human before. It’s testing to see if you’ll be too much effort to eat, it doesn’t know if humans are an easy meal or not.” Dipper slowly walked to her side, the dinosaur now focusing on both of them. Dipper grabbed her hand and squeezed it, “If you run, you’ll activate its predator drive, and it will run you down. If we slowly back away, we can make it to the ladder and get out.”
Pacifica was still scared but Dipper’s hand helped her relax slightly. So she nodded and the two of them started to slowly back away. As they backed away, the dinosaur watched them with curiosity. Every so often it would hop after them, keeping them in its line of sight. Eventually the two of them made it to the cave with the ladder. The dinosaur didn’t follow them into the cave, but it watched them from the entrance, covered in shadows so only its eyes were visible.
“Alright, up you go.” Dipper said.
“What about you?” Pacifica asked.
“I’ll follow you up, now go. I want to get out of here before it decides it's hungry enough to risk it.” Dipper responded, eyes still locked with the creature.
Pacifica stared at him a moment before starting her accent. When she was about halfway up she felt the part below her get pulled tight, she let out a sigh of relief in knowing that Dipper had gotten on. She stopped for a moment and spared a glance down at him. He was already a few rungs up. Then she glanced back into the cave and froze. The dinosaur had stepped into the light and was crouched down low with its head forward, flexing its claws. Then it charged, she was shocked by how quiet it was.
“DIPPER CLIMB NOW.” Pacifica yelled.
Dipper didn’t look back, he moved up the ladder quickly, as did Pacifica to get out of his way. She heard him yelp and looked back down. The dinosaur had jumped 12 feet and latched its jaw around Dipper's boot. Despite his shaking it would not release its grip, so he resorted to kicking it with his other boot. This however caused the ladder to sway back and forth. Pacifica stopped moving and held onto her section for dear life. Eventually Dipper managed to get the dinosaur off and continue his climb, prompting Pacifica to do the same. The dinosaur kept leaping after Dipper, even when he was clearly out of reach. Eventually Pacifica made it over the ledge and turned around to help Dipper up. They were both panting from exhaustion so they sat there for a moment. Then Pacifica saw the ladder go taunt and looked over the edge. Pacifica was shocked by what she saw, the dinosaur was climbing the ladder. Crudely yes, but it was still climbing.
“Dipper, it’s climbing.” Pacifica said, panic clear in her voice.
Dipper looked over the edge and his eyes went wide. He looked around rapidly before landing on the stakes holding the ladder up. Pacifica didn’t need instruction and started pulling one up while Dipper got the other. Dipper got his first, but that made Pacifica’s job harder since all the weight was against her stake. Dipper moved over to help Pacifica and they made good progress. Then Pacifica glanced at the ledge and saw the dinosaur peaking over. Just as it put its claw on the ledge through, Dipper and Pacifica got the stake out and the dinosaur fell back into the hole. Dipper and Pacifica just stared at where the dinosaur was, saying nothing.
Then Pacifica did something that surprised even her, she leaped onto Dipper engulfing him in a tight hug. After a moment Dipper hugged her back. When she released him, she had a glare on her face.
“We could’ve died!” Pacifica yelled.
Dipper nodded, “Yeah that was a close one.”
“Next time we do something stupid like that, we are bringing a weapon.” Pacifica said, standing up.
“Yeah not a terrible idea, it was pretty fun though.” Dipper said, standing up and looking over the edge. After a moment he pulled out his camera and started recording.
“Here we have a dinosaur, probably some dromaeosaur. Me and my-” Dipper glanced back at Pacifica before looking back down in the hole, “Me and my partner were lucky to escape it by climbing back up the ladder we brought. We are even more fortunate that it was by itself, these types were usually pack hunters.”
Pacifica blushed slightly as his wording, “You're an adrenalin junkie you know that?”
DIpper laughed and stopped recording, “Come on, we can go to the shack and relax, or I can bring you home if you want.”
“Shack.” Pacifica said, maybe a bit too quickly.
If Dipper noticed he made no comment as both of them walked back to the truck.