The day after Gideon's date, Paz is relentless in pestering him about everything they did last night. Where did they go? What did they do? What did they talk about? What did she wear? He tried to answer all of her questions but she asked them all so fast he couldn't keep up.

It's another normal day at the Shack. They're sitting in the gift shop with Robbie behind the counter. He's hiding his smile while he listens to the kids talk about Gideon's date while Bud is giving tours to customers.

"Did she kiss you?" Paz finally blurts with her signature smile.

"No!" Gideon turns pink. "And that's none of your business anyway!"

The rest of the day goes by exceptionally slow so when Bud finally tells them they're done for the day, Paz races outside. Bud gives Gideon a look.
He just shrugs and says, "We'll be outside."

Gideon catches up with Paz and takes the journal out of his vest once he deems them far enough from the Shack. It's time to see if this journal is real, once and for all.

"What do you wanna look for?" Paz asks excitedly, reading over his shoulder. "We could try an animal. Let's do an animal!"

It's hard to hold back his smile. "Okay but nothing bigger than us," he says. Some of these monsters are huge.

"What about that one?" She points to a page with a drawing of a rabbit with wings and antlers. "It's small and it's pretty cute."

"Yeah, that should be easy," he says. "It's just a rabbit."

It says the Wolpertinger can be found on their own or in pairs all over the forest. The hard part is getting close enough as they're just as easily startled as regular rabbits. Only instead of hopping away, they fly away or bite. Apparently they have fangs too.

So they started walking around as quietly as they could, hoping to catch even a glimpse of one. Several times they saw a rabbit in the distance and crept forward only to see a regular rabbit instead of a Wolpertinger. They'd been at it for almost an hour when they decided to stop and take a break. They found a log, one side covered with moss and sat down.

After a moment of silence, Gideon sighs. "I don't know what I was expecting," he says, adjusting his hat. "I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up."

"Hey, it's fine," Paz says with a smile. "It said they were hard to find. Besides, maybe this is the time that they go to sleep or something."

"Thanks but I doubt it," Gideon says.

She casually glances to her right, past Gideon's shoulders, and gasps. "Gideon." She puts a hand on his arm without looking away. "Look." She shakes him slightly.

"What?" He follows her stare to a stand of trees to the right and restrains the urge to jump up from the log they're sitting on. "Oh my gosh!"

"Keep your voice down," Paz says. "You'll scare them away."

There, nibbling the grass by the trees, are two Wolpertingers. While one eats, the other keeps a watch until it's his turn to eat.

"I wish I had a camera," Gideon murmurs, still staring.

"You don't need one. It's in the book," she says. "And don't you know what this means? It's real. If this is real, what else could be?"

"I-I haven't read anything really dangerous in it. Just gross or weird," he says. The rabbits crane their necks and hop away from some unseen danger. "If these are real then why couldn't we find those fairies?"

"If they were easy to find," Paz says standing. "We would've had proof of fairies a long time ago."

"We should go back to the Shack now," Gideon says it like a realization. "We found what we were looking for."

They start walking but the questions don't stop.

"Should we tell my dad?"

"I'd rather not," Paz says slowly. "I love him but he might go hunting for one."

"Dad doesn't hunt."

"No but he might put one in a cage. That's no life for a wild animal."

"But this is proof! The whole book is," Gideon keeps glancing around while he talks. Like he's seeing things that weren't there before. "We have to tell someone."

"No we don't," her head snaps over to look at Gideon. "We don't have to tell anyone."

"Why not?"

"Because people would scare them away," she says. "Or hurt them. Or they would get hurt. They'd ruin it."

"You don't know that-"

"Look at all the campsites back home," she says. "There's no rabbits or deer. They're too scared of people. If you want to see them you have to go far away from the camp and look."

"But Paz, this is amazing," he says. "We have to show someone!"

"Gideon, please," she puts her hands together in a begging motion. "Can't this be our secret? Just between cousins?"

He starts to say 'no' but part of him argues that she's right. People might scare them out of their natural habitats and then where would they go? He can picture it so easily: a whole tourist attraction built in this very spot just for a chance to see a Wolpertinger. It reminds him so much of home... He hates it.

"Okay," he says finally. "We'll keep it between us."

Paz almost jumps on him. "Thank you, thank you, Gideon! Thank you so much!"

He pushes her off of him. "You're welcome," he says grumpily but he's trying to hide a smile. "Now let's go home before dad starts to worry."

A/N This took me way too long to write...