7x7

Chapter 1: Just Stories

Frisk knew she would be in trouble if she fell asleep – the last time that had happened, her grandfather had whacked her over the calves with his walking stick, and she'd ended up with two big, ugly bruises the next day. That knowledge did little to keep he head from bobbing, however, and she had to prop her chin up on one fist to keep from face-planting into the kitchen table. She bit down on her tongue, trying to wake herself up before grandpa turned around and realized he had completely lost her.

Carefully, Frisk tilted her head to the side and squinted at her only classmate. Her cousin, who was six years older than her yet still expected to attend these after-school lessons three times a week with their deranged grandfather, had long sense perfected the act of paying attention while completely zoning out. Her dark brown eyes, similar to Frisk's own, were slightly out of focus and glassy, but they still managed to trace their grandfather's movements as he waved his arms around at the chalkboard drilled to the kitchen wall.

Frisk and her cousin had come to live with their grandfather several years before, after their parents had been killed while carpooling to a concert. Neither had been happy since – grandfather was a tough old man who'd been raised with the rod and had no interest in sparing it. Frisk, being younger, had managed to avoid the worst of it. Her cousin had a habit of stepping up and accepting blame, and taking the licks their grandfather served out. Frisk was left to mop up the mess – she had long sense gotten used to seeing blood, and her cousin often joked that she should be a nurse when they were grown and away from home.

"Kendra!" Frisk nearly jumped out of her seat, but her cousin barely moved. Her eyes focused on their grandfather, who was glaring at them with his hands on his hips. He pointed to the bulletin board tacked up beside the blackboard. "Where were the monsters forced into the Underground?"

"Mount Ebott."

Grandfather slammed his palm down on the table, making it shake. Frisk flinched back as it jarred her elbows, but Kendra kept her eyes on him, unmoving. "You know I expect more details than that!"

Still, the fifteen-year-old kept her cool. "The monsters were forced through a magical entrance into the Underground at the east side of the base of Mount Ebott. They were then sealed inside by the Seven Sages, who created a barrier that would be impossible to break."

Grandfather swung around to point at Frisk, who mentally cringed. "Why is it impossible?" He demanded.

"B-because to break it t-they – the monsters would need seven human souls, a-a-and no humans could get d-down into there?"

"Is that an answer or a question?" Grandfather demanded.

"A-an answer." Frisk swallowed, giving a definite nod. To her ever-lasting relief, Grandfather smiled.

"Good. Both of you are correct." He turned back to the board and began to clean it off. "That is enough for lessons today. I want you both to go spend some time outside – it's a beautiful day out." He motioned to the screen door that went from the kitchen to the backyard. "Do not go into the woods – you know the rules."

"Yes, grandfather. Thank you for the lesson." Both girls intoned as they stood, all too eager to be away from his oppressive presence. They stacked their books and notes neatly on the table, then made it out the door as fast as possible. As soon as they were out of the house, the two sprinted across the yard and collapsed beneath the biggest tree at the edge of the yard.

"Why does he make us do that?" Frisk groaned, staring up at the leafy green branches above them.

"Because," Kendra looked at her little cousin with an amused smile, and deepened her voice, "You are the seventh generation of the seventh sage and his magic runs in your veins." She stood and put her hands behind her back, standing very stiffly and emulating Grandfathers posture. "Were the monsters to come back, you would be the only things to defend humanity from their wrath! I will not leave the world in the hands of two lazy lay-a-bouts with no concept of how the magic in this world works!" She stomped around a bit, harrumphing and squinting one eye like Grandfather did when he was angry. Frisk fell to the grass, rolling around and clutching her stomach as she giggled like a fool. "Now, you just wave your wand like this," she grabbed a stick off the floor and waved it at Frisk and yelled, "Hibbity jibbity!"

The nine-year-old had fat tears of laughter rolling down her cheeks. "Oh my gosh, Kendra, stop! My stomach hurts!" She was still giggling as her cousin plopped down beside her, grinning. She poked Frisk with the stick.

"So, you feel any of your 'magical abilities' stirring yet?"

"No. You get your Hogwarts letter yet?"

Kendra flushed, but a grin kept her from looking too embarrassed. "Oh c'mon, I was eleven and Grandfather told me I'd get magic! Of course I was waiting for an owl to arrive with my letter."

"Well, I've still got two years until mine does." Frisk began tugging up blades of grass and shredding them with her nails, her gaze turning thoughtful. "So…you've never felt this 'magic' that Grandfather is always talking about?"

"Nah. Don't worry about it, though. In three years I'll be eighteen, and we'll both be able to move away and forget about all this magical seven-of-seven mumbo jumbo."

Frisk moved to sit by her cousin and leaned against her. "Can we go somewhere with lots of snow? I love snow."

Kendra laughed, hugging the child to her side. "Of course. We'll move to the snowiest place in the world!"

Things did not become unbearable until late October. The cousins still attended their grandfather's lessons, listening politely but absently as he rambled about the monstrosities that were supposedly trapped beneath the dirt. It was nearing Halloween, their grandfathers favorite time to ramble about the terrible, awful, ungodly things the monsters did that caused the humans to turn on them and force them underground.

It was during one such rant that he brought out a picture depicting hellish creatures – bats, wolves, fanged skeletons and red-eyed goats – raping and tearing apart and series of scantily-clad women. He went off on a rant, yelling in detail about what they would do to both Kendra and Frisk if the monsters ever resurfaced. Kendra, who had heard it all before, began to zone out, but a whimper caught her attention.

Frisk – sweet, innocent, would never even think of harming a fly Frisk – was clutching the edge of the table, her face as white as a sheet of paper. Her eyes were wide (which was an odd thing for the girl who liked to squint at everything, normally because her smile was too big for her face), and she was shaking from head to toe.

"ENOUGH!"

Kendra stood up fast enough that she knocked over her chair. Her bellow silenced and stilled both her Grandfather and cousin.

"Frisk, go to your room." The teen demanded, silencing the child with a glare when she went to protest. "Now."

The girl scrambled from the room, though she stopped at the top of the stairs, still able to clearly hear the row.

Kendra, unintimidated by her grandfather's glare, reached out and snatched the paper from his hands, tearing it in half. "What is wrong with you? Frisk is nine! Why the HELL would you show this to her, and then wax poetic about it!" She crumpled the paper in her fists and threw it to the table. "I mean, my god, I knew you were twisted but I didn't realize you were such a perverted sadist!"

"Kendra Aminah Hayward!" Grandfather sounded absolutely scandalized at what she was seeing. "You be qui-"

"NO! I'm not going to be bloody quiet anymore! I'm tired of this monster bullshit! It's not real! None of it is real!" She stormed around the table and grabbed some of the papers from the bulletin board, ripping them down. "Don't you get it? I'm done humoring you! And so is Frisk!" She moved to stand toe-to-toe with the taller, heavier man. "No more lessons. No more lies. No more of that," she pointed to the destroyed picture on the table. "No more monsters."

A few hours later, Kendra told a sobbing Frisk that it was okay – it didn't hurt that bad. She'd gotten the belt before, and it wasn't nearly as bad as the cane. That had just made the child cry harder as she helped clean her older cousins face, which was bruising and slightly puffy – Kendra guessed from a broken occipital bone, but wasn't about to tell her little cousin that.

"Frisk," Kendra stopped her cousin's ministrations, "do you want to disappear for a few nights? We haven't gone on a 'camping trip' in a bit."

The child wiped at her eyes but nodded. Their form of camping didn't exactly fit a normal family's views – they would pack up some food, sleeping bags, and a blanket or two, then leave a note for the grandfather about feeling the call of magic and following it so they could get in touch with their inner 'magical powers' and disappear into the woods for a few days. It was the only reprieve they had from the man, and as long as they spouted a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about being more spiritually connected to the world afterwards, he didn't mind.

"Can we go to Mount Ebott?" Frisk asked hopefully. The two had never been – their grandfather expressly forbade it.

Then again, as Kendra felt her sore face and viewed the bruises on her arms, she didn't really give a damn what he wanted anymore.

"Yeah. I heard him go to bed an hour or so ago – you go downstairs and get food. I'll get our bags." Kendra stood on admittedly shaky legs and gave her cousin an encouraging smile. "Be quiet as a mouse, just like always, okay?"

"Okay!" Frisk put a finger to her lips and crept from the room, moving silently past their grandfather's room and downstairs. Kendra shook her head with a smile, immediately stopped when it began to hurt, and got off the bed. Everything was sore, but a few pills from a bottle of pain killers hidden in her nightstand would keep her going through the night.

A cab was able to take them a good way up Mount Ebott, dropping them off at a popular campground half-way to the peak, much to Kendra's relief. She had to hand over a good chunk of her allowance to pay for it, but skipping the cross-town bus and the steeper part of the mountain was worth it. The cabbie, after seeing their bags and Kendra's face, sped off without a tip but an honest 'good luck' that made her feel a bit better. So, using flashlights and holding hands, the two headed up the mountain.

Despite it being nearly midnight, Frisk was ecstatic to be hiking up the forbidden mountain. She constantly released Kendra's hand to run ahead, commenting on the trees and plants that littered the slopes. The teen plodded after her, seeing no reason to panic as long as she could see Frisk's flashlight bobbing through the foliage ahead. After nearly a half-hour of working their way through the plants, with no true plan except going upward, Frisk found the steps.

They were carved stone, overgrown with years of vines and fallen leaves, obviously abandoned long ago. She dragged Kendra to them, excitedly asking why and how the steps were there, and who had made them. Kendra had shrugged and mumbled something about tourism and hiking trails. Frisk, ever cheerful and trusting, had left it at that and charged ahead. Kendra followed, her sore body glad for the straightforward path – she'd been getting really tired of tripping over tree branches.

"Hey, there's a cave up here!" Frisk re-appeared further along the path, face shining in the beam of the flashlights. "This is so cool, Ken! C'mon, you've gotta see this! There's, like, carvings on the wall and stuff!" She disappeared again, and Kendra picked up her pace, slightly concerned. She'd done a ton of research on the mountain at her Grandfathers instructions, and nothing she'd found had ever mentioned a cave near the summit…

There was a cave, the entrance covered with hanging vines and broken branches, hidden from first sight by the elements. Frisk bounced at the entrance, using her flashlight to peer inside. "C'mon, Kendra! We can camp here – grandfather will never find us!"

"Sounds like a plan." Kendra ruffled her cousin's hair and ducked through the entrance, eyes trained on the walls. There did appear to be carvings of some kind, but they'd been worn down by time and were hard to pick out. She ran her hands over the bumps, grinning at what looked like depictions of dinosaurs and skeletons. "Huh, must have been some kids up here having fun a while back." She laughed at a goat-monsters-thing that had been drawn. "Weird."

"I think they're cute!" Frisk moved farther into the cave, a bright smile on their face as they looked at the wall carvings. "Hey look, here's an arrow! And another one!" The girl – ever bright and curious, began to follow the line of arrows down the wall. "Huh, they were pointing in, but now they're starting to point down…"

Kendra followed close behind her cousin, squinting at the crudely carved arrows. "Maybe there's a second part of the cave? Sometimes caves will have rooms, y'know."

"Yeah! We should go look for it!" Frisk turned and took a few steps past the down-facing arrow, then with a scream vanished from sight entirely.

"FRISK!" Kendra rushed after her cousin, flashlight bouncing, and immediately saw what had happened – the cave floor ended in a large hole, extending who-knows-how-far into the earth. The teen tripped over her own feet trying to stop at the edge, and went tumbling into the darkness after her cousin.

And somewhere in the timeline, karma was satisfied.

AN: Undertale has become my favorite video game, and after spending nearly a week binge-reading all the fanfics I could get my hands on after playing through several resets, I had to wonder, what happened to the seven sages? Humans had magic, but...what happened to it? So, here's a silly little fic I'm gonna play around with to try and find out!

I hit major writers block on my FNaF's stories, but I will work on those as well, promise!

Please review if you like it! Reviews will be loved and cuddled and fed Temmi flakes!