Forged In Bone

In the war, many monsters are killed. Many species even cease to exist, and some are driven to the brink of extinction. One of these, is the Skeleton. It leaves only two natural skeletons left; and leaves them wavering on extinction. Follow the story of one of these two monsters left behind, and how they stand their ground for what they believe is right.

IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END! PLEASE READ! THANK YOU AND ENJOY THE NEW STORY!

Chapter 1

That day was hell… when the humans declared war on monster kind. They were branded with spears and knives, all sorts of weapons and had taken down the first of the monsters, holding their body on a steak as it crumbled to dust to express it to all what was going to happen to all of us. Of course, I didn't understand what it meant, when I went to cross the human boarders that day. When I saw the corpse of a Froggit on that stake, I was the First monster to have witnessed it… but when that happened, there were yells from both sides. I felt sickly as an arrow got shot in my clothes- it nicked my spine on the way through. It was then the panicked cries rang out through the monsters domain…

The humans wanted war.

They wanted this place all to themselves.

I didn't understand. I was but a child. My parents left every morning from our hut, crying in fear that they would never see me again. Though, they always came home. I didn't see what the problem was… until I snuck out to follow them. It was horrible, watching the carnage. Monsters, some lay with bodies, some were blood and dust on the ground. No one had noticed as I ran behind my parents, as I had chased them to battle.

As I had seen them turned to dust and ashes.

The human who had done it seemed to have pride in them, a red evil glint in his eye. He had raised his sword to strike me as well, to join my parents in their death. It was only fire that had spared me from such a cruel fate. The human ran as they began to burn, and I remember being scooped up in furry arms… and all I could do was look back, to cry and scream, reaching out for dust that blew away in the wind. It was horrible, being only such a small child then… small and naïve. I wasted my energy, crying and fighting in the white furred arms that had protected me, and the last I heard was a loud, booming voice, telling everyone to retreat… that we had lost the war.

Humans dominated the surface.

We were sent to a place called the Underground, to seemingly perish.

-ooo-

A candle (or rather, just a candle sized flame of fire magic) flickered, darkness remaining in the rest of the room. A weak small child stirred in bed, her eyes, or rather, sockets, shut weakly. She opened them faintly, and she gazed around. There wasn't much to see with the limited light, but when she heard noises other than her own breathing and the candle fluttering, she instinctively pulled the blanket up to her face. She watched in fear at the little opening she could hardly see in the dim light, and the voices grew.

"-I'm telling you, she has nothing and no one left. I've asked all the remaining guards and as many people as I could reach out to, there were no skeletons left. Gaster is the only one, but his practices aren't safe for her" The voice was feminine, and it seemed to have a deep sense of passion for what it was talking about. There was a soft groaning sigh that belonged to a male, and it seemed he was preparing a response.

"Toriel, what can we do? We can't… raise it ourselves. Its not a monster of our race" The voice was deep, strong, just as a man should have a voice as. The small child in bed recognized it as the voice that had picked her up before she was struck. She shivered, fear glossing in her features and she shut her eyes, not out of fatigue, but of fear, and tried not to make noise. She ended up making a small yelp like noise, and she could hear mumbling from the female again. "You've woken her up, Asgore" The thin entrance was opened to show a grand goat anthro looking creature in a soft purple dress. She looked over at the child in bed, and her face turned into a very soft look. "Shh, child… " She cooed gently, walking over and kneeling next to the bed that the child had been laying in. It wasn't much, it was some cloth that wasn't burnt or torn fitted over as many soft materials that could be found.

The tiny little girl sniffled a little, despite not having a nose. The kind goat like woman pulled her thumb over and brushed the underneath of little weeping eye sockets, wiping away forming tears. "No human will hurt you here" She said gently, and the small child sniffled again. "Can you tell me your name?" The goat woman asked. She knew it already, but she didn't want to scare the child. She was the youngest Skeletal child, and had been the only to survive. The small collection of bones nodded, and rubbed under her eye socket too. "O… Op…ti..ma"

"Optima" The goat woman said for clarification, and the little skeleton, identified as Optima, gave her a curt nod. "Mhm"

The goat woman seemed to put a smile on her own face. "My name is Toriel"

"Tor…i…" She seemed to struggle to pronounce the difficult name, but Toriel gave a small lighthearted laugh, and shook her head. "Need not worry about it now, Optima. How do you feel?" She asked, something she hoped the small child could understand, to which she did. She gave a simple nod to Toriel, muttering the word "okay" before she curled her body tight under her blankets. She was a bit cold… but now that was expected with the small blanket she had. Toriel looked at her expression and how she had moved under the blanket, but she frowned. There wasn't much she could do, they weren't in a mud brick home, they were in what could have just been stated as loosely gathered blankets and cloths. If she had lit a fire bigger than what was already there, she would have burned it down. She couldn't help it, and looked at Optima sadly. "I wish there was something I could do for you, Optima" She said gently. The child looked up at her, pupils small in her big eye sockets, and she gave a tiny whimper and decided to outstretch her arms. Toriel took a moment to analyze this before she got the idea. "do you… want me to hold you?"

Optima nodded. "Pease?" She asked, her small child mouth unable to properly form certain words, and making her sound more adorable than she was. Toriel accepted it, and she carefully picked Optima up. The child giggled a little, feeling the fur tickle her bones, and was wrapped up in her blanket, then hugged and cuddled to Toriel. The goat monster sat gladly with the child in her arms, finding much comfort in this particular moment. She was always willing to help one of her subjects, including those small and parentless. Asgore probably wouldn't allow her to adopt the child, but she could still do so much more. After a little bit, it had seemed that Optima drifted back to sleep, leaving Toriel to be cuddling her. The goat monster sighed in content- she had always wanted to be a mother anyway. She supposed that dream was still oh so far away… but at least she could practice here. As she could feel the skeletal child slowly breathe in her arms, she frowned a little. The entire skeleton race had been wiped out except for two of them… their royal researcher was hidden well so he would not be discovered, and Optima… she was saved from murder. Toriel looked up as she imagined the stars in the sky. There was seemingly no way to restore the royal guard to its original status. As she shut her eyes, she decided she too could sleep a little more, and allowed Optima to cuddle her while they both had slept.

While they did, another goat like figure peeked in as they were sleeping, and sighed tiredly at his wife, but gave a weak smile nonetheless. If this was something she wanted… something that would make her happy, then perhaps it was the right thing to do. Besides, who was the Great King Asgore to not take in an orphan? Well, he supposed he could have forced the child on Gaster, but knowing him… Gaster would have wanted her for… other purposes. For now, he left them alone and walked to his own tent room, hoping that one day, all of this would be… well, okay.

For those who came to this fanfiction from the navigation, Welcome to the story of Optima! A Natural Skeleton left behind by the war that shoved monsters underground. A skeleton of my own design that is Heterochromatic as a nod to one of my original stories. I hope you will enjoy the story and this somewhat different and new interpretation on the before story of Undertale.

If you're here from my watch list, I very much apologize for my inactivity. I will soon make a tumblr post on my Tigr Talks blog explaining EVERYTHING from the last time I updated Better Than Revenge (Back in May) to now. It is a long and complicated story that i cannot condense into an A/N. Please find it under the url tigrtalks (placed in proper tumblr url format of course) and I urge you to follow both that and my main, Tigrissa18 as that is where i'll be posting many of my original things.

I do hope you all will enjoy this story and are open to this sort of interpretation, and I will warn EVERYONE NOW, there WILL be the following in this fanfiction:

Alcoholic Substance use with a Minor
Hints of Rape Culture
Hints of Sexism/Stereotyping of Women's Roles
Spoilers for the game

Just because I write these situations in my story, DOES NOT mean i condone them. I'm so desperately sorry if someone winds up upset because of the content in this fanfiction. Otherwise, enjoy the story, and See ya soon! As the usual with most of my new stories there will be a second chapter VERY Quickly.

Don't forget to Review, Favorite, and Follow if you'd like!

~Tigrissa18