Three years since the barrier was broken and Monsters were finally thriving on the surface. Granted the land surrounding Mt. Ebott and the mountain itself, they had quickly gotten to work constructing what was now Newer Home, named, of course, by their King.
Frisk, now fourteen, couldn't legally be an ambassador due to their age, but that didn't stop them or their adopted family from being involved in everything. Currently Frisk and their best friend Riley, otherwise known as Monster Kid or MK, were accompanying Toriel to investigate reports of possible Monster sightings. To the surprise of many, when the Monsters had resurfaced descendants of survivors from the war had come out of hiding, they were few and far in between, wary and scarred from a life of hiding, but they existed.
"Yo, Frisk!" They heard MK call. "I found something!"
They stood from where they'd been peering into some kind of burrow and jogged over to their friend.
MK pointed their tail at something on the ground. "Check it!" Frisk bent down to where they were pointing. There was a shoe shaped indentation and some kind of black liquid soaking into the ground.
They stuck their finger into the liquid, giving it a quick sniff and scrunching their nose. Ink.
MK cocked their head and eyed the footprint curiously. "Ink? What's that doing on the bottom of someone's shoe in the middle of the forest?"
Frisk shrugged and wiped the ink off on their shorts. Then they pointed to the print, tracing the unusual shape, size, and lack of treads. It wasn't likely that a human made it.
MK perked in understanding. "Oh, I get ya! So, you definitely think there's a Monster out here?" They were bouncing on their toes with excitement.
Frisk smiled and nodded. They were about to find Toriel to inform her of their find, but they were cut off by the distant sound of breaking wood and a garbled yell. Frisk and MK exchanged glances before taking off towards the noise.
The came upon a steep incline, the remnants of a bridge leading to the other side still lightly swinging, however their focus was on the whimpering coming from below.
They ran to the edge, their eyes widening as they peered down. Digging its fingers into the loose dirt walls was something very much not human, with multiple arms and mouths, mismatched eyes, and slick, shiny looking skin. It's bulging, human looking eye was rolling with fright, the toothy mouth at the top of it's head chittering while it made guttural, wordless whimpering from it's normal one. When it caught side of them, it became even more panicked, causing it to sink further down the wall and towards the water below.
The water wasn't moving fast, it wasn't even that far of a drop and there didn't seem to be any rocks or other objects to fall on, so Frisk was unsure why it was eyeing the water with even more fear than when it looked at them. That was, until they caught sight of the splatters of ink, eyes widening as the more panicked it got, the more ink that dripped from its body.
It was made of ink! If its body touched the water, it'd be washed away, and there wouldn't be anything left to find downstream.
Frisk slipped down the ledge, pulling out their toy knife and plunging it into the dirt, gripping it until their knuckles turned white. MK followed them down, slipping further and then clamping their teeth into Frisks boot.
Frisk beckoned the strange Monster and MK called out muffled encouragements. It chittered nervously, but one look back at the water had it scrambling to reach MK's tail. Its gloved fingers were inches from MK's tail when the dirt under its foot shifted, sending it sliding down towards the water.
MK and Frisk called out in alarm, when suddenly its left arm sprung forward from the strange contraption attached to it, like an old gag boxing glove, the hand clamping onto MK's tail just as the tip of its foot touched the water. It retracted the foot quickly, and they watched as the ink that had come off at the contact was swept away.
Frisk sighed in relief, then looked down at the strange Monster. They told it to climb up, smiling reassuringly as it garbled at them. They'd spent enough time around different Monsters to recognize the gratefulness behind the wordless noises.
It climbed up their small chain, chittering apologetically when it accidentally bumped them. What surprised the both of them, was that it didn't immediately climb back over the ledge, instead hanging next to Frisk and holding out it's extending arm to MK. Frisk guessed it recognized the difficulty they'd have pulling the armless Monster up.
With the strange Monster's help, they all got up safely. Frisk and MK plopped down, waiting out the adrenaline rush, while the strange Monster shifted from foot-to-foot, eyeing them a bit warily.
"Yo, you okay, dude?" MK asked the stranger when they'd calmed down.
Its top mouth clacked a few times while the bottom one clumsily tried to form words, only accomplishing more unintelligible sounds. Luckily, Monsters didn't actually need words to understand someone.
"No problem, dude! We weren't just gonna leave ya there!" They bounced to their feet, tail wagging. "I'm Riley, but everyone just calls me MK, and this is my friend, Frisk!" Frisk waved. "I'd shake your hand, but I'm a bit under-qualified, and you seem a little over-qualified."
Its bottom mouth quirked in a lopsided smile, and it let out a garbled snicker, before it clumsily forced out a shaky, guttural "Ed.. g'rrrr…"
Frisk smiled and held out their hand. Unlike the slick ink that made up most of its body, Edgar's gloved hand strangely felt like paper.
A distant sound caught their attention, an earsplitting, high pitched screech that echoed through the darkening forest. It caused Frisk's hair to stand on end and MK to hunch and pull their tail in, but Edgar visibly perked, their gibberish now much more excited. It turned, beckoning with its two right arms before hobbling in the direction the sound had come from.
Frisk and MK looked at each other, then shrugged and followed the strange Monster.
I need to get my other, more important stories done, but this was too cute to pass up.
It's not gonna be long, just like, one or two more chapters.