I DO NOT OWN SVTFOE, GRAVITY FALLS OR THE OWL HOUSE. ALL RIGHTS AND OWNERSHIP BELONG TO DISNEY.

(Mabel's POV)

The Boiling Isles flies beneath me as I sit on the back of Willow's palisman. I look around and see the clusters of buildings built in between the trees, streets connecting them in haphazard and intricate ways. I look forward, Willow's frame sitting between me and skyline, as we fly through the air. "This place reminds me a lot like home," I say, reminiscing about Gravity Falls.

Willow turns her head to look at me. "Oh really? How so?"

"I don't really know, it's just very similar. Small town, kind people, rustic housing tucked away in a dense wood." I trace my finger along the horizon, the sun now having raised fully above it. "I would say the magic is the only difference, but to be honest Gravity Falls has things there that rival what I've seen today. Not surpass it by any means, but you'd be surprised the things me and my friends have been through."

Willow looks at me sceptically, disbelief written all over her face. She puts her hands on her hips, which is incredibly impressive considering the speed we are flying, her sass radiating from her pose. "Oh really? What kind of things have you seen in the human realm that could rival the wonders of the Boiling Isles."

I shoot her a cheesy grin. "Well, where do I begin?"

"How about the beginning."

I begin counting on my fingers. "Gnomes, vampires, entities from another dimension, water monsters, psychics, killer video games, aliens, magic but not the type found here, shapeshifters, creatures of the night, creatures of the day, mind erasing cults, giant robots and demons, one of which I'm currently dating."

Willow chuckles. "Ok, ok. I concede that you have seen some pretty insane things, even if I don't understand what half the words you just said mean."

"That's just in Gravity Falls. When Zach and Stella introduced me and Dipper to Star and Marco things only got weirder. We travelled the world, went to different dimensions, even saved the world once or twice."

"Saved the world eh? I've done that before. Of course it was mainly Luz, but she couldn't have done it without us supporting her."

I smile. "What are friends for, right? Got to support them no matter what."

"Very true." The colour of the leaves bellow us starts to change from red to teal and we start to descend towards them. "Well, regardless of what you've seen in the human realm, I guarantee you've never seen anything like this."

We land in amongst the trees, these ones looking different from the ones before. The trunks are blue and knotted, the leaves teal instead of red. I get off of Willow's palisman and look around. The canopy is denser than it was around the Wild Magic University, the light from the sun almost completely blocked. The surrounding area was lit by the few strands of sunlight that could penetrate the thick leafage and glowing fungus that had grown along most of the bark around me. Shelves have been cut into the trunks around where we landed, with sculptures of animals inserted into the gaps. I look around, taking in the scenery. "This place is really beautiful Willow, it really is. I have seen sculptures before though."

Willow hangs back with her palisman, leaning against one of the trees. "I guarantee you've never seen sculptures like these. Go ahead and touch one."

I walk over to one of the trees and reach out my hand to touch a sculpture that looks to be a squirrel of some kind. As my hand brushes against the wood, the statue lit up for a second. The blue wood started to move, the joints and limbs of the statue acting like the actual animal would. "Woah, this is amazing," I say. The statue, now emulating a squirrel perfectly, climbs off of its shelf and across my arm, perching on my shoulder while nuzzling my cheek. I giggle like a schoolgirl as it does it. I reach across to another shelf, this one with a turtle like creature on it. I tap the sculpture and just like before it comes to life. It makes a noise half way between a gasp and a squawk and climbs onto my back, jostling me around as it crosses me. Willow walks over to the tree and touches a few more sculptures, these ones of various types of birds. The birds chirp to life, flying around me in a playful manner, singing a brilliant birdsong. I can't help but laugh, my enjoyment bubbling over. I manage to get a few words out between my bouts of laughter. "What are these things?"

A voice comes out of the dense woodland, carried over the sounds of the animals dancing on and around me. "They are unfinished palismen."

I look towards the direction of the voice. A man appears from between the trees. He is tall, and looks closer to my age than Willow's. His hair is long and bright blonde, draped down bellow his shoulders in a ragged fashion. A huge scar cuts across his face and his left ear, faded now by time but still noticeable. He is wearing a shirt beneath a big leather apron covered in patches. He is polishing a knife, putting it into a pocket on the front of his apron as he aproaches.

"Hunter!" Willow walks over to him wraps him in a hug. Hunter hugs her back and lifts her off the ground slightly.

"Hey gorgeous, it's good to see you."

They let go of each other and Willow turns back to me. "Mabel, this is my boyfriend Hunter." She turns back to Hunter. "This is Mable, she's part of a group of humans who managed to stumbled through the portal door."

Hunter walks over to me. "It's nice to meet you Mabel. Here, let me help you with that." He reaches out and gently picks up the palismen one at a time and places them back on their shelves, each one turning back into a statue as it makes contact with the tree.

"Unfinished palismen you say?" 

Hunter takes the last palisman off me and puts it on the shelf. I straighten up, now not having to contend with little critters crawling over me. "Yeah, unfinished. They've only just been carved, they don't have any colour yet."

I look at Hunter, then back over to Willow. "So if the unfinished palsimen can do that, does that mean your one can too?"

"Yep. His name is Clover" The large bee like creature on the top of Willow's stat disconnects, the staff itself disappearing into nothingness. It buzzes over to me and rubs its fluffy body against my hand. "I didn't say anything cause I thought this place would be better as a surprise."

I start petting Clover, his happy buzzing echoing around the forest. Hunter turns to Willow as I continue to play with Clover. "So what are you guys doing here?"

"Well the rest of the gang split up to show Mabel's friends a load of different stuff. Luz and Amity are teaching two of them about magic, Gus is teaching one about the history of the Demon Realm and Vee is teaching one about shapeshifting. Mabel here kind of got left out since she didn't really come here with any sort of plan, so I decided to bring her here since she said she loves animals."

"You're a big fan of the palisman are you Mabel?" Hunter turns back to me as he says this, looking intently at me as I roll around playing with Clover.

I look over to him briefly. "I didn't know it was palismen that Willow was talking about, she just asked about animals and took me here."

Hunter looks at Willow, who shrugs, and then back at me. He thinks for a moment, rubbing his chin. A spark of inspiration shines across his face as he is struck by an idea. "Hey Mabel, do you like arts and crafts?"

I shoot up from the ground, now sitting up staring directly at Hunter. "I love arts and crafts. I used to scrapbook all the time."

He walks a little closer to me. "You any good at painting?"

"I would like to say so."

"Well, I have to finish a whole lot of orders today and I don't think I'll be able to get them all done in time. Since your friends are all busy, how do you feel about helping me finish the paint jobs on some of them?"

I look at Hunter confused. "You have to paint the palismen?"

Hunter chuckles. "They're made of wood. How did you think they gained their colour?"

I look at the sculptures on their shelves built into the trees and then look down at Clover who is still buzzing happily in my lap. As hunter pointed out, while Clover has the colorations of a bee the other palismen are very obviously made of wood. "I don't know, I guessed it was magic like everything else around here is."

Hunter pulls his own palisman out, a blue jay with black markings. It tweets happily at hunter as it flies around. "That's not a very strained conclusion to draw, this place is very magical. However, a palisman is a labour of love as well as a powerful magical artefact. Each palisman is different, much like people, and the old ways of making them are still the best ways. We carve them by hand and paint them by hand and impart a piece of our self into them while we craft."

I consider for a moment then stand up. "Ok, I understand. I'd love to help you."

Willow walks up to the two of us. "I'm glad you two are getting along. I need to shoot off for a little while." She gets onto her tiptoes and places a kiss on Hunter's cheek before flattening out her feet again and clapping her hands together. "Come on Clover." Clover flies over to Willow and transforms back into a staff which Willow mounts. "I'll be back in a few hours. Have fun."

Willow flies off into the sky. I look back at Hunter who has started to collect the palismen from their shelves. He picks up the sixth one and bundles them all in his arms before walking off, beckoning me to follow him. We walk through the clearing for a bit before arriving at some stumps set up like chairs. Hunter sits down and gestures for me to do the same. I sit next to him and he hands me a palisman. "Here, you can start with this one."

I'm hesitant to take it. "Won't it just come to life again?"

"Just ask it not too. They want to be finished as much as we want to finish them."

I reach out to take the palisman, a bird that looks almost like a sparrow, from Hunter's hand. I whisper to the sculpture as I take it. "Please don't come to life, I want to help finish you." My hand touches the sculpture and nothing happens, the animal stays as a piece of wood.

"See, I told you." Hunter reaches out for another stump with some pallets and paint brushes on them. His palisman flies across the clearing and brings back over a bag full to the brim with paints. "Thank you Waffles." Hunter takes the bag and opens it up between us, grabbing a few paints and applying them to his pallet. "Most of the paints are made with materials collected on the Boiling Isles, but Luz brought me some oil paints from the Human Realm as a gift not to long ago if you feel more comfortable using those." He picks up his paintbrush and gets to work, working the paints into the bristles and applying them in thin layers to the palisman in his hands. I reach into the bag and pull out some paints, some shades of greys and browns, as well as a black and white for some shading. I apply the paints the other pallet and work them into my brush before starting to apply them to the palisman. Me and Hunter continued to paint for a few minutes, working in silence, no noise being heard other than the sounds of the trees rustling and small creatures scampering around the forest. Suddenly, Hunter broke the silence. "You shouldn't be afraid to be your own person you know."

I'm stunned, the paintbrush in my hand stopping as I turn to face Hunter, his eyes still intently glued on his work. "Excuse me?"

"Well, Willow said you were somewhat lost when your friends all went off to do their own things. I just wanted to say that I know what its like to not feel like your own person, and that you shouldn't have to live like that."

"Oh." I'm still a little stunned by the statement. "It's not what you think, I am my own person."

Hunter looks over to me as he puts down the palisman he just finished, picking up another one from amongst the few on the floor. "Oh, but Willow said..."

I cut him off, putting my own finished palisman next to his and grabbing another from the remaining few. "I know what Willow said, but it really isn't like that. I came here with my friends, I hadn't seen most of them for a long while. I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible since I'm moving half way across the country soon and it will become even harder to see them."

Hunter stops painting. He looks at the palisman in his hands and place it on the stump in front of him. "I'm sorry. I misread the situation. I assumed you were being dependent on your friends and it was eating away at you as an individual."

"Why would you assume that?"

Hunter sighs. "I don't know. I experienced having no independence, not being my own person, its no way to live. I just assumed the worst I guess."

I pick up a fresh palisman. Hunter seems lost in thought, staring up at the sky. I start to paint this new one. "I mean, I wouldn't say I don't depend on my friends. When you have been through what we have it gets hard not to constantly look over your shoulder for them, but that doesn't mean I'm not my own person as well. I'm moving away to stake out my own life."

Hunter seems to snap back to reality, picking up the palisman in front of him and finishing it off. "Maybe you're right. But surely after all this time looking back for your friends and finding them right there, it'll be scary to look back and not see them."

"I mean you aren't wrong. I've spent my entire life with my brother, and a large majority of it with Stella, Zach, Avery, Star and Marco. We've been through a lot together, I rely on them all. I would be lying if I said having to leave them behind isn't a scary thought."

"As I said, you shouldn't be afraid to be your own person. I spent so much of my life before I met the others looking over my shoulder, relying on people who didn't have my best interests at heart, that when I finally broke away I was terrified. I didn't notice how healthy it was for me, my new friends giving me the freedom to be myself." He looks over to me and notices that I have stopped painting, my eyes focused purely on his. He looks at me with a parent like level of care and concern, becoming flustered and beginning to backtrack. "I'm not saying that you are like that or that the situation for you is in any way similar, I'm just saying, learning to be your own person is healthy and not something you should be afraid of."

I take a breath. "You're right. However it doesn't change the fact that I'm going to be finding no one over my shoulder every time I look, and that's going to feel strange for a while."

Hunter puts down the final palisman next to the five others we had painted. "Trust me, it never gets any less strange, only less scary." He looks down at the group of painted palismen we had finished. "With your help we got those done in record time." He stands up and walks over to some papers that had been pinned to a board. "The customers aren't going to pick these up for a few hours, thanks for your help."

I stand up and walk over to stand next to him at the board. I look across it and see two other sheets of paper pinned in the bottom corner, apart from the rest. "What about these orders?"

Hunter thumbs through the papers. "These two orders are new. I haven't even carved out the models yet."

"Well why don't you teach me to do it?"

Hunter turns to me. "You really want to learn to carve palismen?"

I smile at him. "You want to teach me to reclaim my independence, be my own person. What's more 'striking out on my own' than learning something new that I enjoy."

Hunter sniffs a little, rubbing under his eye with his index finger. "Ok, grab some palistrom wood from the pile and lets get started."

I walk over a small pile of wooden logs that look the same as the trees around us, grabbing two and bringing them back over to the stumps. I hand one to Hunter and sit down next to him. Hunter pulls out two small knives and hands one to me. "Now watch closely, this is how you are going to want to make your cuts."

The blade Hunter is holding glides across the wood and takes of small shavings, carefully cutting down the wood into the desired shape. I mimic his movements and as such the knife glides across the wood in the same way.

Hunter looks over to me. "Good, good. Now lets get the palisman thats inside of that wood out."

I give him a nod. "You got it teach."