NOTE : Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. This story previews Female!Frisk. Pairings are uncertain yet except for the canons. This is slightly Underfell!AU by the way, but in my own style.
Tales of The Unknown
An inspiration from Over The Garden Wall
PROLOGUE
.
.
.
"And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles."
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
They said the seventh garden was full of dangers, unsafe for a mere child like her.
They said the seventh garden was haunted, filled with memories of a young soul like her before - tripped over to the shadows of death.
They said the seventh garden was a misfortune, those who entered might never return.
The orphanage offered many great mysteries, but not as incredible as the legends told of the seventh garden. They once said the garden was nothing more but a norm, nothing but lushed greensward and asters and oak trees. The garden was the best out of seven, though, once tended by one girl - who knows who? - whose miracle fingers had brought a simple lawn changed to a heaven of blooming, golden flowers; rich, pure gold because it was her favourite colour.
Several years had passed since anyone had heard any news of the said girl, and ever since then the garden was forbidden by the matrons. Not that any of the children would want to inch closer to the harbinger of misfortune. Death, death, death. Death was the word whispered to the ears, colouring their thoughts and clouded in their visions. Death was always the call of danger, after all, curiosity killed the cat. Foolish as they were, the children never step foot into the seventh garden. Not even those full of mischief, not the shenanigans, not the pre-teens claiming themselves as rebels. It's like, an untold rule had existed even though what the matrons told were just stories. And stories aren't meant to be a hundred percent believable. They're components of fictions, able to be falsified.
But children are still children. With their minds not fully capable of thinking under critical conditions - saved for the natural geniuses - they accepted what was told despite everything.
For years, once the surface covered with daisies and sunflowers and anything with those bright, honeycomb shades of petals; was now a nightmare of twisted old branches, forlorn bed of sheer weeds, unabashedly poking out from the flowerbeds.
It just happened to be a special case when twelve-year old Frisk came to live in the orphanage one day. A curious being she was, despite the lack of display of emotions. Olive-skinned, brunet Frisk. Nobody knows much about her, except the fact that her parents recently died because of a car accident and that she had an insatiable thirst for mysteries. The only one who befriended her - by befriending her meaning talking to her with a maximum of twelve sentences per day - was a fourteen-year old boy girl named Azure. And every word spilt was regarding of any particular secrets stashed inside the orphanage.
Of course, Azure had mentioned about the seventh garden.
Surprisingly, telling Frisk only dwelled higher curiosity burning in her chest. A dire need to discover. As if spellbounded, the legends supposedly to struck fear into any normal person brought her interested. That was the moment Azure knew she somewhat had screwed, especially one day she discovered the twelve-year old stood firmly on the ground, the forbidden garden's gate towered over her.
"F-Frisk?" she stammered, fear swallowing every fibres in her body and shivers started crawling on her skin. Why, it was summer yet the air was chilly around here. "Wh. . . What are you doing?"
Frisk said nothing. She kept on staring and staring and staring, her expression as stoic as usual. Not even sparing a brief glance toward her friend, till Azure felt that she had enough with the crippling fear building inside her and ran off to tell a matron. There was a feeling, a heavy feeling weighing her down when she was closer to the said garden. It was like gravitational pull, except the force was pulling her - inviting her - into the garden. That whichever demons were whispering, none of them meant good anyway. She shivered involuntarily, her cerulean blue eyes constantly peering over her shoulders just to see Frisk in the same position as before.
Weird girl.
She can't be helped after all. The oldest matron here, Margaret, did mentioned the similarities Frisk possessed with a certain someone. She, the Keeper of the Seventh Garden. Perhaps, Frisk too, felt the same responsibilities as the girl before. But what danger existed, as Margaret would said, didn't actually lies within the garden itself. The garden was ordinary. But what was beyond norm was what existed beyond the walls of the garden. Years ago, they said the worn, bricked walls were sprinkled with spells and dust, a barrier not to forbid one out but to keep any person from entering the woods outside.
A world of magic, oh, how it sounded nice! Of rarities and extraordinary things put together in one place, nothing else sounded better than an adventure to a magical woods with mysteries yet to be solved! But the woods was more than a portal to a magical kingdom. Beyond, an abyss of darkness lurked in the depths of the forest. Dark, not a single sunshine had ever poured into the forest's floor. Not a bird seen, not a place for flowers, not a single tree that bore fruit. No songs to fill the air, no laughter that marked joy and happiness, just an eerie silence that followed one's footsteps. Even recalling the memory tasted bitter in her mouth. Poor Margaret for remembering. Poor Margaret, wearing a pained expression, told all the secrets she was able to remember to Azure. As if she had experienced the place before, how her face contorted into an expression of despair. Her voice tightened, her weak arms starting to shake vigorously. Chestnut brown eyes clouded into a memory long time ago, the corners twitched and watered ever so often but Margaret did not weep but weakly she brought her callused hands to Azure's and whispered, "The Unknown, that's the name of the place." Though, if Azure would had been so observant, the matron had spat the name coldly.
It took every ounce of her energy to stop the quiver. When she finally succeeded, the old woman, who by now should be eighty-four, coughed up the panic-laced words; "Don't let her enter, child. He. . . They. . ." but the words trailed off because Azure had already made her chase to the garden.
It was too late, of course.
Stubborn Frisk. Curious Frisk.
It seemed that she had made her way into the other side after all. And all that Azure was able to do was to pray for her safety, and death should not befall upon her.
TO BE CONTINUED
Mozu : Hello, this is my first time writing Undertale fanfic. Please go easy on me.
Azure and Margaret only appears in this chapter. The rest will be about Frisk, don't worry! I'm excited to write about this though.
I'm aware by how Undertale fans could be a little sensitive about the characterization sometimes. Please, no bashing. I'll try my best to make them in character as possible. Oh, and please do note that this is Underfell, by the way.
X for love, O for hate.
-Mozu The Mochi (2016)