(2)

Her Majesty, Queen of Monsters, Toriel Dreemurr, marched through the corridors of the castle on padded feet wishing she had either a cane or a staff or something to knock against the polished marble floor so as to relieve some of her frustration. Things only seemed to be getting worse for her that day.

If the day's normal set of petty nonsense had not been enough, the interruption of a messenger insisting that they be seen immediately certainly pushed her over the edge. What could be so important that she needed to be pulled away from a summit to prevent an entire city from practically seceding from the rest of the kingdom? (Unfairly represented her royal tush!)

She paused for a moment by a window and looked out over New Home, trying to calm herself. She still hated that so grand an achievement for monsters had such a silly name, but had to concede the point to her husband that it was appropriate. Plus there was also the fact that she had failed to come up with a better one before it stuck, much like its predecessor.

There had been a time when Home had been all that was left of monsters, and now they were threatening to split off into a kingdom all on their own. The implications did not sit well with her.

The boss monster looked over the clusters of buildings and at her people milling about within them. More than any other place she had been before, that city had the feel of permanence to it. It felt like nothing would ever tear it from the earth it was built upon. She tried to remind herself that this was not the first problem of such a magnitude that she and her husband had dealt with, and they would solve it all the same. It was also not something that would be decided that day no matter how the summit had gone, so she supposed a small break could not hurt, in the end. Pushing down her frustrations and smoothing her features, she continued on through the halls at a much more reasonable pace.

She met the guardsman in the atrium on the lower levels, just where the messenger had told her they would be waiting. Toriel thought the Astigmatism looked a little ridiculous in its suit of plated armor clutching a spear that barely reached her waist, but Gori said it gave them a sense of pride and unity, so she kept such thoughts to herself. Though, she did spend a moment to think of a way to casually remind them all that one did not need armor to look like a warrior at some point in the future.

The guardsman jumped as he saw her approach. The metal of his costume rattled together and his helmet fell over his eyes before being hastily pushed back up. He recovered quickly, however, and immediately went down on one knee. Toriel rolled her eyes while he was not looking. Why did they all insist on doing that?

"Y-Your Majesty!" the monster stammered.

"Please, stand," Toriel told him, trying not to sound too curt. This monster was not to blame for any of her frustrations, she reminded herself. "You said you had an important message that needed to be brought to our attention immediately?"

The monster hesitated for a moment, refusing to meet her gaze though he did rise, albeit slowly. "F-forgive me, Your Majesty," he continued to stumble over his words. "I was hoping to give this message to the king…"

Toriel let out a slow breath. That explained why the messenger had asked about her husband before anything else.

"The king is a bit busy at the moment," she told him. As was she, but she kept that to herself as well. "I am certain that whatever it is I can handle it just as well as he can."

The monster tapped a claw against the haft of his spear, digging into the wood. "I don't doubt that, Your Majesty. It's just that this matter…"

Toriel did not have time for monster's sidestepping. Every minute she wasted there was another minute her kingdom was threatening to fall apart. "Out with it," she snapped, a little more hostile than she intended.

The Astigmatism jumped again. "Y-yes, Your Majesty…" He paused. "You see, there's… uh… There's been an… an incident." His last words were barely more than a whisper.

"An incident?" She questioned.

The monster continued to fiddle with his armor as he spoke. "Yes. We believe it may be connected to the others."

"Others?" the queen interrupted. "What others?"

The monster looked up at her like it was something she should already know. "The string of pranks that's been happening throughout the city? Have you not heard?" He made a yelp as he realized he probably should not have said that last part.

The queen's lips drew into a line. No, she had not heard about such a thing, and she did not like that she was just finding out about this now. She did not let the monster know that, however. "Continue," she instructed.

The monster's nerves did not lessen as he went on. In fact they seemed to be getting worse. "Well… you see… this time they've graffitied the castle wall."

Toriel's eyes widened at this admission. That was certainly a brash move by whoever had done it, and quite the disrespectful one at that.

"We've already began cleaning it off," the monster went on, "but-"

"Show me," Toriel interrupted.

Instead of moving to do as she said, the monster continued to hesitate, shifting his weight between his feet. "Are you not going to tell the king about this first, then?" he asked.

"Why on earth would I?" Toriel shot back.

The monster flinched at her sudden anger. "Well, like I said, I was hoping he could… handle this matter."

Toriel tried not to scowl down at the guardsman and knew by his sudden spike in fear that she must have failed. What could it possibly be that this monster did not think she could handle it? "Show me," she repeated.

This time the monster did as he was told. "Y-yes, Your majesty."


Hey again.

So, you may have noticed that the chapters for this story are a bit on the small side compared to some (all) of my others, and the majority of them will probably will be under 2k words for the whole story. There was no real reason for it. That was just sort of how it happened. Because of that though, I should be able to put them out more frequently and consistently (once I get my act together again).

Also, to clear up a couple things that got mentioned with the last chapter, no, you do not need to have read any of my other stories to understand what's going on in this one, though doing so may give you a little something extra. This story comes first in the timeline of all of the stuff I have written so far. The other thing along that vine was that this story will have all new characters aside from the ones direct from the game, so there's nothing you should know about any of them besides what I've said so far and will say in the future.

Lastly I wanted to say, if you've read my Chara story as well, you may be thinking to yourself, "Wait, how is the castle there already if this story came first?" To that, I say that it is not an inconsistency, and that you have to trust me. All will be revealed in time :3

Happy Holidays.