Just as Flowey had said, no puzzles hindered her path. What did was snow, mountains and heaps and layer upon layer of cold, slushy snow.
Much more than measly snow poffs.
No one had stomped it down, in a very long time. No one had shoveled, no one had cleared, and no one had walked here.
Now the snow was piled up, hiding holes and sheets of ice, a wild mess of fluffy frozen water that made it hard pick up her feet and take the next step. Only a few steps later, her muscles were protesting.
Ava followed what she hoped was an old path, long abandoned. Her feet crunched through the snow, but she never truly felt the ground under her shoes. Snow squished itself into her socks, melted on her legs under her pants, and left her shivering unhappily.
Determined? What about this could make anyone feel determined?
She knew she had to get through this, to meet Flowey on the other side. That was about how determined as she could get about this.
She felt herself fighting the urge to cry again. She was frustrated, mostly at herself.
This was her fault, and she should have never come up here — or anywhere.
Suddenly she saw a little wooden peak poking out of the snow, right by the ledge above her. Carefully, she dug back enough snow to realize she had discovered a dog house.
Did monsters have dogs? She knew they were Human's best friends. She knew also that there were doglike monsters. She didn't know the difference that well.
She had heard something about dogs coming out from the Underground.
She had come to a crossroad. Thoughtfully, she extended her hands, hoping they would tell her by the breeze which way she should be going. Then she spotted the lightest indentations on the snow… paw prints?
She decided, uncertainly, to try following the prints. She thought she could see a figure standing there.
She crunched through, already exhausted from the effort, when she came upon him.
The Snowman was smiling warmly, though he was half submerged in snow. Behind him was just dead end.
She sighed, thinking about the difficult steps to get back to the crossroad.
"I haven't seen anyone for a long time," the Snowman suddenly observed.
Ava started, but quickly recovered. "I thought all the Monsters left the Underground."
"They did," said the Snowman.
"Why didn't you?"
"I can't move," said the Snowman.
"Oh," said Ava, feeling sorry for him.
"A piece of me made it to the surface," he said, looking up at the cavern ceiling. "It went all the way through the Underground, and then it went to the surface."
Ava wasn't sure how to respond.
The Snowman looked back at her. "I didn't think I would see anyone ever again."
"Oh… well, ta-da."
The Snowman's smile seemed to grow a little. "I keep having this feeling of doom. Not that I will stay here forever, but that I might be subject to the collapse of the Underground."
Ava looked around. She thought it looked sturdy.
"I don't feel as hopeless, since a piece of me is out there. But I am full of wanderlust… Where do you come from?"
Ava seemed to answer carefully, "Outside of town. We came for a visit."
The Snowman only asked, "What is it like there?"
Ava thought about it. "Fine. The Monsters are happy, now, if that's what you mean…" She felt suddenly that saying this wasn't right, at least not entirely true. She knew something had happened. Something dark, something worse than expected. Something irreparably bad.
The Snowman waited for the answer to continue.
Ava cleared her throat. "The Monsters get along with us okay," she expanded. "Just.. one day they went away. They didn't seal off Humans. They… know better?" she said awkwardly, hoping the Snowman wouldn't think she was being offensive.
"Went away?" asked the Snowman.
"They sealed themselves off. They were mystical and ancient and everyone wanted to know about their magic. We didn't know that magic was real. I mean, we thought that the legends were stories. We didn't know there were Monsters, and now all the fairy tales just seem messed up," she added.
The Snowman stared.
Ava continued nervously, "They hid themselves. But humans didn't do it this time."
"Did the humans not attack?" asked the Snowman.
She shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. Her toes were going numb, but they hurt. "I don't know," she admitted. "It felt… different than that. It wasn't just Monsters who were scared."
The Snowman didn't respond.
Ava looked around, studying the details of the trees a little too closely.
"Can you do one thing for me, human?" asked the Snowman.
"What?"
"Shovel this snow away? One day I will see nothing but darkness. I can feel it. Can you put it off for me?"
"Yes!" she said enthusiastically. She hated this darkness, and couldn't imagine letting it get any darker, any more like nothingness.
Nonexistence scared her more than anything else.
Her fake leather fingerless gloves were still in her pocket. She slipped them onto her hands and shoveled the snow way with them, carefully discerning what was Snowman and what wasn't.
"Thank you… Thank you…" the Snowman kept saying as she dug.
She stopped after several minutes, when she felt he was out just enough.
"Can you do one more thing for me?" he asked hopefully.
Ava nodded.
"If you see a small skeleton named Sans… can you tell him a Snowman really misses him?"
Ava nodded. "I'll try," she said.
"And his brother, too," added the Snowman. Then, "It was nice to meet you, human."
"You, too." She waved at him, then turned around.
She saw the light paw prints leading back down to the crossroads.
With no other path, she followed them. Clearly, the Underground was not as empty as everyone had said.
They led her through the snow, over ice, and along the path.
She walked on, carefully sliding on ice through a small wooded patch.
She swore she felt something hop onto her head. As she slid through, she tried to grab it to pull it off, only for it to hop off.
She looked behind her, looking wildly for the culprit. However, she could see nothing. It was dark, and she couldn't stand still on the ice.
Then she moved forward again. By the ledge was another doghouse.
She looked down the path, or what she thought must be the path, and saw a rotting, swinging bridge.
The paw prints seemed to go to the doghouse. She approached it cautiously. "Hello?"
There was no answer, but the doghouse had clearly been dug up recently. Dirty snow lay around it, having been dug up around the entrance of the little house.
"Hello?" Her shoes crunched the fluffed up snow. She leaned down and looked into the dog house, cautiously, afraid of seeing a wild animal.
But the house was empty.
Confused, she looked at the snow again. The dog prints were going to the house, not away from it. But the house was without a doubt unoccupied.
Looking around carefully, she decided to move on to the ancient-looking bridge. She looked down, and only darkness could be seen. This was not a place where she wanted to fall.
Holding tightly onto the rope railing, she stepped forward, placing her feet directly into the middle of the first board. The wood felt soft and worn, and somewhat rotted.
She carefully walked down the length of it, gaining more confidence the farther she went. Then she leaped from one to the other as she saw the end of it, and came out the other side feeling relieved once again.
There was a half-covered banner, which read, "Welcome to."
She guessed it might say "Snowdin" under all that snow.
It was eerily silent. It made her ears hurt, and she felt uncomfortable hearing her own breathing.
Then she saw the Inn. Taking Flowey's word, she carefully stepped inside. But there was nothing inside, and even some of the flooring was gone. She decided to walk up the stairs inside, but to no avail. It seemed that she was somehow at the wrong Inn, though Flowey had seemed so matter-of-fact about finding Cinnamon Bunnies here.
Frustrated, she walked down a hallway into the neighboring shop.
That's when she saw them, sitting on the emptied counter. There was no furniture and no one had dusted for a very long time, but there was a dusty platter with a "free!" sign attached. On it were a few Cinnamon Bunnies, crumbling and some of them with nibbles from mice taken out of the side.
She hesitated, then grabbed all of them.
She stumbled out the front door as she stuffed them into her jacket and pant pockets, not caring much about the mess they were making.
She looked curiously at the little chest outside of the Inn.
Hoping to find anything else of use, she opened it up and peered inside. Though, whatever had been stored there had clearly been consumed long ago. She guessed, by the dog that must be roaming around here — all that could be seen was a residue of fur, oil, and the lingering smell of a dog.
She felt annoyed.
Then she moved on. She felt she was going through town, as she passed what she guessed was either a restaurant or another shop once, called Grillby's. It looked like no one had cared for keeping it up for a long time. It looked just about ready to fall over under the weight of snow.
Then, she came to another crossroad. In the Ruins, she had grown tied of long hallways and long walks, and here — well, the walk was long and tiring, but there were too many crossroads. Two were too many.
Now the question was, which way had Flowey meant?
She tried to figure out which way was "straight through town," which way would lead directly to Waterfall. She felt a growing frustration at Flowey for leaving her here to figure this out on her own. She was tired, and it was so quiet here.
She looked forward, past the library. There didn't look to be anything there… a house, in the distance, it looked like. Then, nothing. Did that signal that this was through town, on the way to Waterfall, where Flowey was supposedly waiting?
She shifted around, and decided to trust her gut. She looked north, and saw that there were more buildings in the dark. So — that must be the way through town.
She walked carefully over heaps of snow, finding more houses and what looked weirdly like an abandoned mill. She kept going, until she saw, in the distance, another ledge. She could hear water trickling past gently.
She felt herself get more frustrated for a moment, feeling she had gone the wrong way, but then the darkness on the water moved.
A face robed in the darkness itself had turned towards her, and a moment she recognized that the dark figure had been standing on top of a rocking boat.
"There you are…" said a smooth, playful voice.
She noticed right then that the boat's stern was shaped like that of a dog's. It was grinning, and she felt like it was looking directly at her.
"Care for a ride in my boat?" asked the River Person.
Ava looked behind her. "I need to get to Waterfall. Can you give me directions?"
"I can take you there," he answered the very second the last syllable had escaped her mouth. She felt like he had known already where she was heading.
She looked at the boat's dogface. It was urging her on — this had to be the right way. It had been "straight through town."
"Did Flowey tell you I was coming?" she asked, and carefully climbed onto the boat. She aggressively ignored the River Person's slowly-following gaze, ignored the discomfort of being watched despite his silence.
Then she looked up at his face, or tried to. All she could see was shadow. His robes left no part of him visible, not even his hands. Yet, she could feel a gaze on her that was otherworldly. "When was your last visitor?" she asked him, honestly curious.
His head turned away, slowly, as the boat started to rise out of the water. She held onto the sides tightly, surprised when the boat began to hop across the water.
"Tra la la…" the River Person sang. "Humans, monsters… Flowers."
Not soon enough, the boat began to slow down as it neared an entrance in the now-darker caverns.
The boat halted by a flat piece of land in a small room, and Ava quickly stepped off, looking at the dog face with new respect. "Does your boat dig around in Snowdin?" she blurted out.
The River Person's face was on her, but he didn't seem to react much. "Tra la la…"
"I better find my friend now," Ava said awkwardly, gesturing out the small room.
The River Person answered, "Temmie Village… the room before the darkening lantern room…"
"Oh… Thank you," she said sincerely.
She turned around and began to leave, ignoring the feeling of being watched.
"Tra la la…" she heard him sing, "Beware the man who came from the other world."
With a shiver running up her spine, she continued on.
Author's Note: Thank you for your support so far! Please feel free to leave criticism of any kind - I'm hoping to improve on my style :)