Dipper Pines Images Novels & Stories

It was only March, but the weather had been unusually warm, and the gum was running in thin viscous threads imperceptibly slow, but the cup was half full of the sticky whitish mass. “I declare, we can begin dipping soon!” Joe said to himself, glancing around at the other pines, which were all similarly blazed and tapped. This was the best corner of the Burnam turpentine “orchard.” The trees that grew here were splendid long-leaf pines, shooting up straight as arrows almost a hundred feet before they broke into palm-like branches; and many of them were so large that the turpentine gatherers had been able to chip them on both sides, and hang two cups on them.

The Harlow Inn sat at the end of a quarter-mile gravel drive that wound through old-growth Douglas fir, the trees tall enough to turn the afternoon light green and cathedral-dim even before the clouds had properly settled in. Eli drove it slowly, partly because the rental car's suspension was already complaining about the state of the road, and partly because the inn appeared in stages through the trees and each stage gave him something new to calculate.

Nyx stirred inside me, her presence a restless pulse beneath my skin, as if she could sense the approaching storm long before I could. I pulled on my jacket and slipped out of my small cabin, the cold morning air biting at my cheeks. The forest was eerily still, as though holding its breath. The tall pines stretched overhead, their needles shimmering faintly in the early light, casting long, wavering shadows across the mossy floor. The camp was quiet, save for a few early risers preparing for the day. Mara sat on a fallen log, sharpening her claws on a stone with slow, deliberate strokes. Her usually fierce gaze was softened by worry, her brow furrowed as she looked up when I approached.

The campsite clearing opened up near the top of the ridge, a beautiful flat area surrounded by tall pines and a small stream trickling nearby. Jake and Dylan had already worked efficiently. Two large tents were pitched, a fire pit was dug and ringed with stones, and the food supplies were properly hung from a high branch to keep them safe from animals. The late afternoon sun bathed everything in golden light, but the air was starting to cool as shadows lengthened across the mountains.