Wendy didn't normally care too much for the fact that her aunt and uncle ran the local petting zoo. After all, wasn't it just for little kids? That had long since been her personal feelings on the subject.

However, at the moment she was now having second thoughts, thanks to the friends she had brought along for a quick visit. Whether it was because she had two fresh sets of eyes to view the place through, or maybe because the Pines twins were always fun to hang out with, she really couldn't tell. What the teenager did know was that she was currently enjoying herself far more than she expected, although her happiness was currently paling in comparison to the joy of a certain preteen brunette.

"Today is the absolute greatest day of my entire life!" Mabel proclaimed for at least the third time in the last five minutes , and began giggling up a fresh storm as she lay sprawled out in the grass. The look on her face was one of pure bliss as several fluffy ducklings crawled all over her. As much as Wendy didn't want to admit, the spectacle was so utterly adorable she couldn't help but break out smiling from ear to ear with only one glimpse.

Before she could accidentally put herself into a diabetic coma from the excessively sweet sight, she refocused her attention back to her other young friend, who was currently having a comical amount of trouble with one of the zoo's more exotic attractions

"C'mon, Dip. It's not that hard. Just hold out your hand, let it eat the stupid pellets." She encouraged with a chuckle. Dipper grimaced as he inched a smidgeon closer towards the towering flightless bird standing on the other side of the mesh fence.

"I know! I just...I'm just taking my times." The flustered boy lied. He was so not wowing his crush right now, it pained him. However, he couldn't help but be a little uneased by the way the animal gazed unblinkingly at him with its piercing orange eyes.

Wendy folded her arms and snickered some more. "You're not scared of the emu, are ya?"

"No!" He involuntarily shouted back, and then hastily tried to recompose himself. "Uh...I mean...n-no, of course not! Who would be scared of something as goofy-looking as -"

The bird's head temporarily became a black blur as it leaned over and pecked the food from his palm in one swoop. Dipper let out a yell of surprise as he tumbled flat onto his rear, and immediately triggered Wendy into a fierce fit of laughter.

"...I so could've handled that better." He murmured ruefully under his breath as he clambered to his feet. Still laughing uncontrollably, Wendy gave him a playful sock to the arm.

"Good job, Braveheart." She playfully teased before she noticed a stringy woman waving to her from the nearby house.

"Okay, got it!" She shouted before turning to her friends and grabbing their attention. "Sorry guys, Aunt Maggie's given us the five-minute warning."

Mabel immediately set up a miniature symphony of protest from beneath her duckpile. "Awwwww, do we really have to go now?"

Wendy shrugged as she tucked her hands into her pockets. "They have a birthday party comin' here. They gotta get ready, and so we gotta scram."

"Sounds okay with me." Dipper muttered as he and the emu briefly shared dirty looks. The massive bird suddenly let out a wicked hiss, and the boy quickly decided it wasn't worth it. Hastily he scampered off to join his crush

"So, uh..." He immediately began to wrack his mind for a way to redeem himself. "Think you'd be up for a game of security-cam narrators when we get back to the shack?"

Wendy beamed and flashed an approving thumbs up. "You know I always am!"

Dipper grin and gasped a sigh of relief; as usual, his fretting had been entirely in vain. However, as he immediately catalogued the memory of the moment away forever, he also realized their little group was still one short. "Hey! Mabel, we're going!"

"I'm coming!" She trilled in singsong as joined up with them. "Sorry about that. Okay, so let's get...what? What are you guys looking at?"

Her brother rolled his eyes as she tried to act believably innocent. It didn't exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on with the tiny wiggling lump that was peeping beneath her pale blue sweater. He jabbed a finger at her and started, "Mabel-"

"What duck? I don't have a duck!" No sooner did the words roll off or her tongue did she realize her proclamations of innocence came a few moments too soon, and she slapped her forehead with a dismayed groan.

"Put it back." Dipper ordered. His sister grumbled morosely under her breath, but did as bid. She reached beneath her sweater, produced a small chirping fluff ball and delicately placed it on the ground.

Wendy meanwhile couldn't find it in her to get upset. It was all simply too ridiculous for her to do anything else, and so she just reminded dulcetly, "It's okay, I got a family connection. You can come in for free, remember?"

"Yeah…" Mabel said softly as she watched the tiny animal waddle off back to its mother.

The teen chuckled and ruffled her friend's hair. "I think you'll survive. Okay, so you guys finally ready to head back?"

"Yeah, I think we're..." Dipper trailed off with a sigh once he saw a second curious little lump crawl a few inches up one of Mabel's sweater sleeves. Quickly realizing that the jig was up yet again, she tried another go at playing innocent, and promptly failed spectacularly the moment she opened her mouth.

"What now?" she asked as she flashed a nervous smile. "I gave you the duckling back. It's not like he wasn't the only one or anything."

"So what is this?" Dipper gave the tiny lump a very gentle poke, and immediately it let out a faint peep.

"A bee sting?" she blurted out the first thing that popped into her mind, and unsurprisingly she wasn't very persuasive.

"Take it out." He grumbled, sounding more like a pint-sized exasperated parent. "Now."

With a loud, almost over-exaggerated sigh she did as asked, and pulled out another slightly confused duckling that she put down on the ground.

"Okay, now let's...oh, come on." He groaned as he threw his arms up in the air.

The good thing about having a twin who prided herself on honesty was that it was always laughably easy to tell when she was attempting to hide anything, like right now. Although he couldn't see anything moving or hear any shrill quacks, he could still read her nervous expression like an open children's book.

"And the other one." He ordered flatly. Mabel whined, but without a word of protest she reached under her sweater, removed yet another duckling, and delicately sent it running off to join its freed siblings.

Dipper however wasn't anywhere close to convinced that they were done here. Staring wearily, the asked, "And...the other one?"

It was almost like she was a magician, for without a word she guiltily produced another fluffy yellow baby bird. At this point, Wendy was a little blown away with utter astonishment. She had to admit, the preteen's downright to hide away tiny animals was downright masterful, to say the least.

"So...can you give back the other one, too?" she joined in, curious to see what would happen

Moaning unhappily, Mabel reached into another knitted sleeve and tugged out one more. While the redheaded teen just gawked in awe at the seemingly never ending hidden stockpile of cuteness, Dipper's patience had begun to run short.

"Any others?" he asked as he tapped a sneakered foot. "Let's go, take them out."

Again, she did as her brother asked, and once again every single scrap of her body language practically screamed that they weren't finished by a long shot.

"All of them! C'mon!" He persisted. No sooner had she reluctantly produced two more than he added, "All of them. Seriously, you've not allowed to keep any. They have to-AUGH!"

A surprised yell erupted from his throat when his sister reached into her thick brown locks and produced yet another baby duck. Wendy gasped sharply in dumb shock.

"What...?!" Wendy babbled, stunned by the sight. "You were hiding on there? Do you have more in your hair?"

No sooner had she asked when three more ducklings were brought out in quick, if somewhat hesitant succession, to the teenager's amazement.

"And...and the other one?" Dipper asked for good measure, and out came another one from a sweater sleeve.

Getting more weirded out withe very passing second, Wendy pried once more. "Any more?"

She was answered with the appearance of two more ducklings. This continued on for at least a full minute, with the preteen girl reluctantly producing duckling after duckling, until by the end she seemed to be flaunting the very flaws of physics with the amount of waterfowl she seemed to have been trying to sneak home. At this point, her brother could hardly take it, and as she dug out one more from beneath a clump of chocolate-brown hair, he was practically begging for it to stop.

"Okay, you're...you're done, right? Right? Please tell me that's it. C'mon, that had to be almost every single baby duck from the zoo."

"Yeah, and...uh, that's not...really cool..." Wendy was so perplexed by all that she had just seen, she honestly couldn't remember how to sound stern.

"So That's all...right?" Dipper asked again. He was simply unable to even begin to imagine where else she could had possibly stowed away hid any more. Unfortunately, despite the silent nod she gave, his twin instinct caught on to her fib instantaneously.

"Where is the last duckling, Mabel?" At the end of his rope, he couldn't help but be a little bit short. With another sigh, Mabel took a few steps towards their teenaged friend, and suddenly hopped up and snatched Wendy's trademark hunting cap right off her head.

"Hey! What are you-" The teenager spoke no further, for she had been completely stunned into awestruck silence by the sight of the girl removing no less than two more ducklings from the hat before she politely handing it back with an apologetic grimace.

Dipper's jaw nearly hit the ground before he managed to sputter breathlessly, "How...h-how did you do that?"

While the others looked like they were about to pass out from near-overwhelming bafflement, Mabel flashed a sheepish smile as she finally explained herself. "What? C'mon, they're just so small and fluffy..."

"...All right, and that oughta do it."

It was several hours later, and not surprisingly, they found themselves waist-deep in intrigue and mystery again, as per usual. Dipper shut his yellowed book of secrets tight and triumphantly held high in the air a piece of scrap paper packed to the margins with his messy scribble "Okay, took a while, but I copied down those old riddles. How are you doing?"

"We got water, flashlights, first aid stuff, snacks, bug spray, a compass, sunscreen, aaaand most importantly..." Mabel stuffed her scrapbook into one of the two backpacks sitting on the floor, then flashed a grin at her brother. "All donezos with the packing!"

"Now just give me one more sec..." Her twin meticulously set the clock, and finally their preparations were complete. "There we go! So first thing in the morning, we go and head up to Witches' Bluff-"

"And then we'll be that much closer to finding Leroy the Mountain Hermit's treasure!" Mabel finished as she bounced up and down with excitement.

"Let's hope so. You ready for tomorrow?"

"Ready, Freddy!" She chirped as she raised her arm and waved it demandingly. Dipper laughed as he returned the high five.

"All right, then let's go try and get rested up. G'night, Mabel."

"Good night, Dipper!" With this, the two headed into their separate beds, as tomorrow was not only a brand new day, but a brand new quest for the Pines siblings.

However, barely had he turned off the light and begun to dream about tomorrow's adventure when an odd sound from the next bed piqued his attention. He listened hard, and there it was; in the midst of the curious string of muffled giggling from his twin's bed, there was also a muted, but distinguishable peep. Needless to say, his mood was quickly dampened.

"Okay, new plan." He announced crankily. "Tomorrow morning, we go to Witches' Bluff after we stop off at the petting zoo. Got it?"

With that, he pulled the sheets up, and rolled over with a chagrined groan. A long awkward silence followed, before Mabel finally let out a huff as she pet her fuzzy yellow bedmate.

"...What part about 'small and fluffy' do you not understand?"

The End