Chapter Text
Dipper Pines was a young, inexperienced Angel of 16. His twin sister, Mabel, was the more gifted of the two, and everyone knew it. She was popular, both among the other angels their age and their tutors. Mabel got on well with everyone, and was good at her studies, if a little excitable at times. Dipper, on the other hand, couldn't even grasp the basics of magic. He struggled to get his head around the angelic words, and even when he thought he understood he spell failed to work right. His teachers were frustrated with his lack of progress, but none of them more so than himself.
That was why, when Mabel was assigned yet another mission, Dipper had decided that this time he was going too. No one need to know. When his sister passed through the gate that connected their home world to earth, he slipped through behind her. No one cried out behind him, no alarms were set off. He'd made it through. Earth.
By the time he recovered his senses enough to look around - the first trip through the gate was always disorienting - Mabel was gone. He was alone... And, immediately, lost. The gate appeared to come through in the middle of a forest. Dipper supposed that made sense - they wouldn't want a stray human to get caught in the gate when it opened. He dimly recalled one such case in the history books, and it had had awful consequences for the poor human. But unfortunately for Dipper, it meant he had no idea where he was or which way led to civilisation.
That was when the panic set in. He was alone, lost, and no one knew he was even gone yet. He assumed, anyway. They were not likely to have noticed yet, since his next lesson hadn't been for another hour at least. He bit his knuckle, trying to think his way out of his predicament. He'd been terrible at Magic, that much was true, but no one could deny that he was a smart boy. Where Mabel had talent, Dipper was a young genius. Sadly that genius was not helping at this moment in time. He absolutely could not think of anything to help him find his way - Mabel had already flown off in search of her given goal, while Dipper himself still could not fly. Yet another area where Mabel was ahead of him - her wings had blossomed out into beautiful hazel pinions, large enough for flight already. To Mabel's delight, her wings had turned out to be the narrower kind, more suited to faster flight and tight manoeuvres. She still tired quite easily when flying, but at least she could fly. Dippers wings were too small, pathetic little dirty white things that fluttered uselessly against his back. If only they were big enough... He could get out of this mess so easily.
Ah, at least it couldn't get any worse, he supposed. He could just sit tight till someone realised he was missing, wait for them to come find him. He'd be scolded for sure, but he'd be safe, too.
And that was when it all got worse.