Hi guys! So, I'm uploading this next chapter only a week after the previous one. Don't take it for granted though, I only do this because I already had it pre-written. I expect the uploads to be less frequent than this in the future. Which I'm sorry about, by the way; but, you know, I have other things to do as well. :D
Also... What do you think happens to flowers that noone waters for seven years?


Chapter II: The Only Option
(Lynx's perspective)

Lynx woke up to another hot, cloudless day. It was Saturday and summer holidays were just around the corner, which meant she felt no guilt over the fact that she left her bed at about 10:30.

Because she was kind of counting on that in advance, she had agreed to meet with the skeleton guy in the afternoon rather than morning.

Exactly one week ago, Sans shooed her and her friends away from the mountain. During the brief time she spent with him while he "graciously" escorted her to the town's outskirts, Lynx found out he was much nicer than he made himself out to be. Sans made an impression of a weird, grumpy and slightly sadistic man who constantly made bad jokes which only he himself found amusing. She quickly figured out that the first impression was not far from the truth – and that was the reason she wanted to get to know him better. He was so strange and full of puzzles that decrypting the particular traits of his personality felt like unravelling a mystery. And aside from loving mysteries, it was nice to know someone who she didn't learn to read within the first hour.

Perhaps that was the key to liking Sans: one had to live in his universe for a while, a place where nobody knew what will happen next. Not many people would exactly love that idea – at least Lynx thought so. Upon reaching adulthood, nearly everyone entered the world where everything could be planned, known, observed. Friends were reduced to individuals with several qualities which hinted towards what other people could expect from them, whether in terms of work, free time, kind of movies they can watch together, etc. Life sure was easier that way, but for Lynx, it wasn't enough. She liked the element of surprise and (controlled) chaos, and Sans happened to provide both very generously.

Of course she didn't tell him that. The official reason they were about to meet again was that they had absolutely no luck in finding her baseball cap the other day, and Sans proposed to accompany her back into the woods to help her look for it. Lynx appreciated his gesture even though she probably shouldn't have; rather than being a gentleman, the skeleton simply didn't want to let her wander around the mountain on her own, fearing she might try to sneak in again. In all fairness, the desire to see the underground had not left her, but being friends with a monster seemed a satisfying goal for the time being.

The weather wasn't any less sultry when she walked outside of town that afternoon. Lynx felt lucky there were at least trees on the mountain to protect her from the sun.

"hey." she heard a voice somewhere above her.

Speaking of trees... She looked up and saw the skeleton casually sitting on a branch of a pine tree, looking at her and smiling cheekbone to cheekbone.

"I'm afraid to ask, but... why are you sitting on a tree?" Lynx replied to him.

"'cause i'm not a dog," he answered.

"...what?"

"you ever saw a dog on a tree? i'm not one, so i can be on a tree all i want."

Sans knocked on the tree trunk and added: "although, there is a lot of bark up here."

Lynx looked down at the ground and giggled with her hand kept over her mouth. When she turned her head back upwards to say something in response... he was gone.

She stared at the empty pine branch. Was it just her imagination? Was she nuts?

"excuse me, haven't you seen me somewhere around here? i appear to have lost myself," he spoke behind her back.

Of course.

She turned towards the skeleton. "Do you do this often?"

"you'd be surprised. well, actually, perhaps you wouldn't," said Sans.

They began their search, and this time, Lynx carefully tried to follow the exact path that she and the gang took last week. It was much easier to do from down there. Some time had passed without any success.

"say, lynx," Sans asked; "why did you waste your time with your friends the other day?"

"Pardon me?"

"it's probably none of my business, but... judging from what i've seen, you probably don't go very well together." The skeleton gave her a speculative glance. "i know i didn't get to know them that well; they told me about fifty words total, and a fair amount of them were calling me names i wouldn't dare to repeat in front of you. not that they ain't true," he added and cackled; "but still, i can tell you're not like them. in many ways. so i ask you again: why did you waste your time with them?"

Lynx took a while to think about what to tell him and what to keep to herself. On one hand, she did hang out with them mainly because of Sara. The other guys were ok, but she didn't necessarily like them all that much. But on the other hand, it was also true that going with them into mount Ebott, she was following her own reasons – reasons that Sans might not be enthusiastic about. Telling him she only wished to see the place that magically attracted her wouldn't change anything, he was protective of the underground's secrets.

But as she was thinking about it, Lynx realised something odd: she trusted him. They've only talked to each other for less than three hours up to this point, and she somehow knew that if she told him the truth, he wouldn't make a big deal from it. Sans pretended to be strict and threatening, but in reality, he was a laid back guy who didn't really care about that many things. And besides, if she brought up the subject, chances were she might persuade him into telling her more about the world of monsters which she so wanted to understand.

"You see..." she started hesitantly.

"i don't, i have no eyes." Sans snorted. "apologies, please continue."

Lynx quietly called him something awful, but just loud enough to be sure he could hear it. "Well, my friends are... interesting people. They usually just meet up and are lazy together."

"sounds like my kinda friends."

"Yeah, well, sometimes I find it hard to really enjoy their company. Save for my friend Sara, she's amazing." Lynx lifted her gaze up, to the top of the mountain. "It was strange of them to decide to go into the underground, but it was finally something I was really up to. If you don't mind me saying it."

"i see. you love to break the rules." Sans was looking at her mockingly.

"No, it's not that! In principle, I mean." Approaching a two-way split, she paused for a short while, trying to remember which way did she and the group go the other day. Eventually, she took the right path and Sans followed. "But sometimes, breaking the rules is the only option."

"in order to what?"

"To reach something you want."

"well of course, if i wanted a million dollars right now, breaking the bank would be the only option for me." Sans mimicked a gun from his hand and pointed at Lynx. "unless you have them, that is."

"Oh no," she played along and put her hands in the air. "Please don't shoot me with your imaginary gun! Just take my million imaginary dollars and go!" And the two of them laughed.

"Seriously though," Lynx spoke as they continued to walk forward, "I didn't mean it's something just to satisfy your greedy soul. Like..." She tried to think about a good explanation. "What makes you happy in life?"

"let's see... ketchup, naps, my bro... i dunno, why?"

"You and your brother are pretty close?"

"oh yeah, me and papyrus are bon-e-ded. except he pretends he doesn't like my puns."

"I'm not surprised. So, imagine he ends up locking himself inside a vault in a bank. I believe you'd do anything to break him out, right?"

"naturally."

"Well," Lynx concluded, "I don't know if it's that good of an example, but... You break the rules all the same in this case, but you do it for something you really value."

"and i can still take the money, right? since i'm already there..."

She sighed. "What I'm trying to say is, even though I did try to get into the mountain, I wasn't going to cause any trouble or profit from it or brag about it. It's just... I felt seeing the underground would, in a way, make me happy."

"huh." Sans only seemed a little surprised. "and why is that?"

Lynx was looking at the ground. "I don't know... I guess I like exploring interesting new places." She recoiled. "No, that's not it. I wanted to explore the underground in particular, simply because I was curious about your world. The monsters', I mean. And I still am. You'd be surprised how many people don't care about your kind, but I do."

"yup, most people don't care about our history, and that's just the way we wanted it," Sans assured her. "why do you think we didn't want anyone to sniff around our old home? which, ironically, we used to call 'new home'... but the point is we don't want anyone to dig in the past, humans or monsters. everyone was happy to leave that place for good."

The way he said it sounded like he didn't fully agree with that policy. Lynx remembered something. "Why were you out there, then? Last week?"

The skeleton's composture tensed a little bit; he looked like a boy caught stealing candy. "you know, i was looking if anyone tries to break the rules. lucky i was there, don'tcha think?" he said. It wasn't very convincing.

"Sans, come on. I told you the truth, so you might as well be honest with me too."

"fiiiine, but don't tell anyone i said this," he gave up. "i sometimes miss that old place, you get it? i miss the memories. 'cause you see, life wasn't all that bad. sometimes, it was even great. i like to walk through the old city and remind myself of it."

"Because your life now doesn't seem all that great?" she guessed.

"careful now, young lady," Sans stopped and for the first time she heard him talk, he actually seemed to be getting a little upset. "you don't know anything about my life."

Lynx knew she went too far. "I'm sorry, Sans."

"nah, it's okay," he calmed down and returned to his joking mood. "just next time, think before you say things to someone who has something of yours."

"What? What do you have of mine?" she asked, genuinely confused.

"gosh, what do you think this whole expedition was about?" said Sans and suddenly put his left hand up. In it, he held-

"My hat!" Lynx screamed in a brief moment of extasy. "Where did you find it? And when, that's probably more appropriate question."

"just over there... and, well, a moment ago." The skeleton was smiling, proud of himself. She approached him and took the baseball cap. It was the one she had lost, no doubts about it: a black one, with a white winged skull on the front. Lynx put it on her head. "Seriously, thank you!"

"you're welcome. although, that picture kinda creeps me out... but i'll just pretend it's supposed to be me."

"Oh yeah, the skull... But, you know, you don't have wings."

"hey, you don't know that."

"Do you have wings?"

"well, no, but in principle, you couldn't have known."

Lynx giggled. Sans looked behind her.

"oh, looks like we found it just in time. perhaps it will keep your head dry for... about sixty seconds."

"What?" she said and followed his gaze. Right behind her back, on the sky, an evil-looking blanket of dark grey clouds was being spread all across the sky. Lynx realised the sun is gone; it probably had been for a while now. Wind was beginning to play with the trees which replied with a disapproving rustle.

"Oh crap." Lynx turned around and looked in the direction of the town. It was way too far to get there in time. She was slowly starting to feel anxious.

"what's the matter? fear you might drop down from a little rain?" Sans asked, smiling as always.

"Sans, I..." She looked at him. A distant sound of thunder roared above them. Lynx shook.

The skeleton's look changed into a more concerned one. "not a fan of storms, huh?"

"I'm afraid of storms, ok? And on top of that, we're in the woods on the highest freaking mountain around!" She rapidly took off, walking down the path back to the town. "Let's at least get as low as we can before it hits us."

"hey, wait a second."

Lynx didn't turn around.

"lynx!"

She blinked. Sans was suddenly standing right in front of her, causing her to stop.

"What?!"

They stared at each other for a couple of seconds; Lynx curled up in her own arms, stressed out and scared; Sans casually standing there like he used to do, with his hands in his pockets, his expression seemed kind of wise, like he always knew better. Wind was pulling on her hair and his cape alike.

"do you trust me?" the skeleton asked.

"Yes, but why do you ask that now?"

"then if i told you i knew a shortcut... would you believe me?"

"Do you really? Is there a hideout around here somewhere?" Lynx immediately looked around like she expected to see a bunker. Even a cottage made of gingerbread would do.

"something like that." Sans stepped forward and reached out to her. "come."

Lynx looked at him and despite the situation couldn't help but smile. "I swear to God, if this is another whoopie cushion trick..."

"what kind of moron would trick people like that?" he asked and grinned. "come on!"

She reached out as well and took his hand into her own.

Suddenly, the world around her disappeared in a blinding flash. Lynx reflexively closed her eyes and screamed; at first, she thought a lightning struck really close, if not them directly. But she soon realised she heard no thunder. She dared to carefully open her eyes again.

"fast shortcut, huh?" Sans let go of her hand.

"What... where..." Lynx could only see an inside of what was probably a cave. Some light was shining in through the entrance to the left of her, a good distance from where they stood; the sky was just as dark as before, and rain started to fall. Soon, there will probably be an impassable thick wall of water everywhere. "How did we get here?"

"let's just say i know ways to get around," was all that the skeleton said about it. "welp, since we're already stuck here... it shouldn't hurt to show you."

"Show me what?" Lynx asked and looked at Sans. He was already on his way deeper into the cave. "Hey, wait up!"

She caught up to him just as they arrived into a room with nothing but a big chair - or perhaps a throne - in the middle; the floor was covered in dead flowers.

"sorry about this," said the skeleton in regards of them; "looks like noone has any plants with them anymore."

"Um... Where are we?"

Sans approached a window and beckoned her to come closer. "see for yourself."

Behind the window laid a huge cavern. There were a couple of small holes and cracks in the ceiling, apparently letting in some mild amounts of light from the surface. Apart from that, hundreds and hundreds of strange blue crystals grew out of the rock, giving a light of their own. Thanks to that, Lynx and Sans were able to see the whole city below them. There probably weren't more than a few hundred houses, but the fact that they filled the entire cavern made the city seem enormous. The blue crystals on the ceiling made all buildings look like they were shining slightly.

"Wow..." Lynx only stared at the unexpected beauty, slowly processing what she was seeing. "This is the underground? Why did you take me here?"

"because," said Sans and winked at her; "sometimes breaking the rules is the only option."