Chapter Text
The chilling January wind created a crimson flush against Stanford Pines’ nose, and he tried to cover his face even further with the black scarf around his neck. After a long day at work in the lab underneath the Mystery Shack, he needed a break to reconnect with nature. Unfortunately for him, nature seemed at odds with his efforts. The news had declared this month “the coldest New Years in fifteen years,” though Ford could neither confirm nor deny that opinion due to his thirty-year-long disappearance.
Despite the snow flurries, Ford kept trudging along. He had made it his mission, along with his and Stanley’s seafaring and tracking down anomalies, to experience the world around him—a hobby he had taken for granted before the portal and which had been reawakened when Dipper and Mabel were in town. He wanted to explore the forests, listen to the birds chirping up on the branches; he yearned to regain his childlike wonder.
However, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
Ford kept glancing down at his watch, waiting for alerts of nearby anomalies. His head swiveled back and forth, searching for something amiss in the foliage. He thought himself paranoid from the lack of results, but there was an itch in his body begging to be noticed.
Nothing seemed to catch his attention until something crunched under his boot.
What seemed like a simple tree branch unfurled into a hand as Ford brushed the thick snow away with his gloves: the fingers, deathly pale, were curled around the hem of a thin pink sweater. Ford’s findings led to an arm, to a torso, and then to another arm, enveloping a tattered pink stuffed rabbit. As he kept digging, more frantically now, his eyes widened and he let out a small gasp.
A face had poked through. She couldn’t have been more than six years old, though her body was thin and fragile like a toddler. She was barely moving, barely breathing, but with one ear against her chest, Ford knew she was alive. Without hesitation, he scooped the small child up into his arms and unzipped his jacket, pressing her close to his torso for warmth. He pocketed the stuffed rabbit and then sprinted back where he had come from, screaming for Stanley’s attention.