194X
In a city very far away, a human child and a monster child are arguing outside of the school they go to. The human kid is bullying the monster kid. It's become physical lately… The human will poke and prod and slap and kick the monster child and laugh at them for being weak. They say that they could kill the monster if they "weren't careful."
On this day, the human finally takes it too far. The two get into a physical fight and even begin to wrestle violently. But finally the monster has to use their magic to get the human away from them. The human is frightened for a few moments... A monster has never used their magic on the human. The human tries going for the monster again, determined to get a bigger reaction. And they get it.
The monster sends a wave of their magic at the human and knocks them over onto the ground. The human receives several scrapes. From the parking lot of the school, the child's parents rush over and accuse the monster of starting the fight. The Monsters parents show up just in time to see the end of the altercation and refuse to apologize. Their child wouldn't use magic unless it was in self-defense! The OTHER child must have been the one to start this fight!
Each side glares at each other until finally they manage to part ways and return home. But the human parents tell everyone in their neighborhood about this fight… And the humans decide that this is enough. They begin to gather weapons to defend themselves with. Some go further and get weapons to ATTACK with.
The human child and the monster child run into each other on the street of their neighborhood. The human has convinced themselves that they were attacked by this monster and now they will take revenge. The Monster's magic flares up and they defend themselves carefully. But when the child makes a final lunge at the monster, the magic blows out of control.
The human child is dead. They lay still on the ground and the monster feels the pit of their stomach sinking. No… No this wasn't supposed to happen! It was an accident! If that human had just stayed away! The Monster runs over and gets on their hands and knees and yells at the human to wake up. The human's colored soul comes out of their body.
Some humans heard the commotion and have begun to pop their heads out of their doors and windows.
The monster isn't sure what to do… Put the soul back in? They put their hands in position to push, and when they do, a bright light completely whites everything out.
When the light fades, the human's soul and the monster's soul have combined… They have fused and made a new more powerful monster. The humans watching gasp and panic. This monster has killed a human and has STOLEN THEIR SOUL.
The humans take up arms and rush outside to kill the beast. The monster looks at their hands terrified. The human's thoughts and their own have become jumbled and confusing. The uncontrollable magic is more powerful, but completely unstable now. Humans rush the monster and begin to shoot them and hit them with things.
The godlike monster never attacks. They have no idea what's going on. But everything hurts. They're so scared. THEY'RE SO SCARED. Why is this happening? Why why why?!
The monster tries to escape, but they become cornered. The humans show them no mercy. They attack them until their body begins to turn to dust. Tears roll down their face as they sob and scream in pain and die slowly, begging for their life… Finally, a pile of dust remains. The white monster soul shatters and the humans scream and shout in victory. It wasn't hard to kill the beast at all.
They cannot allow this to happen again. The humans start kicking down the monsters' doors to their homes and start dusting them one at a time. Guns, knives, bats, crowbars, anything at all that can be used as a weapon, is.
The monster homes begin to wake up hearing the noise and realize what's going on. This is war. The humans have started a war! They're attacking in the middle of the night while they're vulnerable! And so the monsters rush out of their homes and begin to fight back with their magic.
It's a complete and utter slaughter of both sides. Almost neither species is left in the neighborhood. The incident isn't covered on the news. The humans are keeping it a secret… and whatever monsters are left are taken in and killed with their hands, claws and wings tied behind their hands.
()
Gaster hums a dandy little tune while he washes dishes in the kitchen sink. Sans is pulling at his pant leg with boredom and groooaaannnsss.
"GOODNESS SANS, I CAN'T QUITE TELL, ARE YOU BORED OR SOMETHING?" Gaster says with a laugh and looks down at his knee high son. Vrinda comes in from the laundry room and puts away a few towels and drapes one over Gaster's shoulder. She picks Sans up and gives him a small toss into the air.
"Did I hear that my baby was bored? Unacceptable Gaster! Come on, let's all go outside and play. You can finish those dishes later." Vrinda snuggles Sans and gives Gaster a happy smile.
"I'LL SAY. HOW DID WE MANAGE TO LET THE DISHES PILE UP SO MUCH? IF I SEE ANOTHER WHITE DISH I THINK I MAY ACTUALLY GO INSANE." He chuckles and walks outside with his wife and son.
The family plays many games. Tag, catch, and tic-tac-toe in the dirt. They also use their magic to toss Sans back and forward between the two of them. Sans laughs and screams, absolutely having the best time flying in the air. Purple and yellow magic take turns embracing him.
It's a very nice day out. Spring has just sprung and it's nice to finally get to play outside without all that snow getting their clothes wet. The flowers are blooming and the birds are chirping. On days like these, EVERYONE should be outside enjoying the sun.
"Hm?" Vrinda looks past Gaster's shoulder towards the west. In their small little farm town, a plume of smoke is beginning to rise.
"Gaster? What is that? Is someone actually using their fire place in this beautiful weather?" Vrinda wraps Sans in her yellow magic and brings him down into her arms, then walks up to Gaster who turns around to look. The smoke is white and slowly turning gray. But he notices that there's another plume of smoke of similar colors coming up from somewhere next to it. There's NO WAY someone is using their fire place at this time of year. The placement of the smoke plumes is beginning to worry Gaster. He squints and puts his hand over his eyes to try and gauge where the smoke is coming from exactly.
"HUH. IT SURE LOOKS LIKE A FIRE… BUT UH… UH…" His voice slows from curiosity, to worry. The smoke starts to turn black. It starts to get bigger. Something… something is….
"MY PARENTS' HOUSE IS ABOUT THERE… I'M GOING TO GO CHECK IT OUT AND SEE IF A FIRE HAS STARTED IN THE KITCHEN. I'LL BE RIGHT BACK." Gaster gives Vrinda a kiss and rushes off. Vrinda watches with growing fear. A fire? Even with the old ovens and fire pits in this town there has NEVER been a fire. The smoke is growing huge now and its turning completely black.
"Oh no… that's a huge fire. I want to help… Oh darn it, I can't leave you at home baby. I hope everything is okay." Vrinda decides to go in the house and watch from the window. Something is wrong. She can feel it in her bones… Something is absolutely not right. And Gaster has run right towards the bad feeling.
Gaster runs quickly to the source of the smoke. As he gets closer, he can see houses from further down the street with their doors open. But there are no sounds. A few of them have begun to catch fire as well. What the hell is going on? What started this fire? Why are so many doors open? Did they come over here too, to stop the growing inferno?
He gets up to his parents' house which is already completely aflame.
"OH MY GOD… MOTHER! FATHER!" Gaster rushes to the door and finds it open. No. This is wrong. Something is not right!
Gaster enters the home and yells for his parents. He has to get out soon or he'll be caught… He rushes to their bedroom where he sees—…
Two piles of dust. One in bed and the other spilling over his father's rocking chair.
He thinks he may pass out. His parents are dead… They wouldn't have died in bed and on the chair though. Not from this fire. Someone… Oh god someone must have-...
"NO… NO NO NO! NOOO NO NO NO THIS…" He grits his teeth and both of his eyes glow a bright purple. Who has done this? Who would have DARED do this?
All those other doors were open. That means all of THOSE monsters are dead too. No this CAN'T BE! PLEASE be imagining things, PLEASE BE IMAGINING THINGS.
Wood beams begin to crack and crash down around the small home. He has to get out… God he has to leave his mother's dust! His father's dust! Gaster can't even give them a proper burial…
Gaster rushes out of the back door of the home to see if he can find the culprit. They couldn't have gotten far in this small town. But what he finds is horrifying. A huge group of humans are burning the crops and killing several monsters. Gunshots begin to pierce the sound of the roaring fire.
The humans have one of Gaster's childhood friends in their grasp. His friend begs for his life, but they ignore him and stab him directly in the chest. He gasps and begins to choke on liquid before he goes limp and turns to dust. It happens in the blink of an eye. Some monsters begin to fight back harder than before and actually start shedding human blood.
Across the way, the owl monster, another of Gaster's friends is being yanked by her wings. She screeches and struggles hard to escape. Gaster can't watch another friend be killed again. He WON'T watch again. He throws his hand out and his magic grabs three humans and throws them aside into another group of humans. He rushes over and helps the owl up.
"Gaster! Oh th-thank you! They're killing all of us! M-My mom and dad! O-oohhhh!" She sobs and screams. Gaster shakes his head quickly, unable to understand. He can't believe this…
"WHEN THE HELL DID THIS START, DO YOU KNOW?!"
"Just a while ago! A g-group from our town saw the h-humans coming at us from the west! They just came in and killed them! O-only a couple got away to try and warn some of us, but they were killed too! Oh Gaster! Gaster what are we going to do!?" She screams and sobs.
Gaster's eyes glow brighter and he swings his head to look at the humans and monsters fighting. He stands straight after yanking his owl friend to her feet.
"WE FIGHT BACK. DON'T LET THEM KILL US! FIGHT THEM!" He screams, hoping others will hear him over the angry rolling grumble and snapping of the blaze that has taken over a chunk of their town.
"THEY WON'T SHOW US ANY MERCY, SO DON'T SHOW ANY BACK!"
"Gaster, where's Vrinda and Sans? You can't stay here! You have to tell everyone ahead of us to run!" The owl grabs Gaster's arms and stands in front of him. She's shaking violently, terrified. He knows she's right but…
"I'M…. DAMMIT ALL! YOU HAVE TO COME WITH ME. I CAN'T TELL EVERYONE ON MY OWN. HURRY! THIS WAY!" He grabs her talon and runs away as fast as he can. His heart is heavy, having no choice but to leave the others to fend for themselves. He feels HORRIBLE… He can't save them… He couldn't save his friends or his parents! God, Vrinda's parents may be dead too. Oh god, oh god, oh god!
The two finally get to houses that haven't been dusted and they rush up to each door and scream as loudly as they can to evacuate. They go to every house, and then the people who leave their homes rush to other houses to warn them as well. It's a domino effect of help. Enough monsters are warning other monsters that Gaster knows he has to get to his wife and son. He looks through the crowd and makes eye contact with his friend. She nods and Gaster runs as fast as he can towards his home.
As he runs, a human steps out from behind a house and slams Gaster in the right side of his face with a shovel. A disgusting THUNK CRACK reverberates in his head and he can feel his HP go down. Gaster crashes into the dusty ground and grabs his eye. A ringing sounds echoes all around his skull until he can't hear anything more than muffled laughter. He can feel the small crack he already had split so far up his skull that it begins to reach the back. When he opens his eyes, he can't really see out of his right eye… It's blurry.
Another shovel swing to his chest this time almost knocks the wind out of him. Once he looks up, he gets a half clear half blurry view of some 20 year old with a short pointed shovel. He uses his magic to rip the shovel out of the kids' hands and hits his legs with it, breaking one of them. The human screams in agony and goes down. Gaster stands up on wobbly legs and looks forward, still dizzy and still with ringing ears. He runs forward though. He HAS to get to Vrinda and Sans!
Once he gets to his house, the door is still closed. Thank god!
From inside the house Vrinda is in shock at how big the smoke has gotten. She's been watching several monsters run around to each home and everyone trying to evacuate. This is it. Something truly is wrong. SO wrong that they have to LEAVE. But she has to wait for Gaster. She won't leave without him… Sans can hear the screaming and the panicked yelling outside and starts to whimper, grabbing at his mommas dress.
"It's okay Sans, Mommy's got you." She bends down and picks him up. Once she looks outside the window again she sees Gaster running up to the house… Oh god in heaven he's hurt… No! This is an attack. She knew it! SHE KNEW IT! But God no, not her husband! She runs to the door and opens it before Gaster can. The two crash into a big hug, Sans almost smushed in the middle.
"Gaster oh my god what's happening?! Are we being attacked?!"
"Y-YES. THERE ARE TONS OF HUMANS AND TH-THEY'RE KILLING EVERYONE. WE /HAVE/ TO LEAVE! MY FRIEND SAID THIS STARTED NOT TOO LONG AGO. THEY JUST WALKED IN AND STARTED BUSTING IN TO HOUSES AND KILLING THEM! G-GOD MY P-MY PARENTS… THEY WERE IN BED FOR GOD'S SAKE…" Gaster puts a hand to his face, half in pain from the shovel and half because he's trying to hide his pained expression.
Vrinda slowly shakes her head, her eyes wide with terror and disbelief. If Gaster's parents were killed, then so were hers. Their houses weren't far from each other…
"No way… I'm so sorry Gaster… What happened to you—oh—OH! Your face! N-No they got you!" Vrinda reaches out to Gaster, but she's unable to touch the giant crack tearing up her husband's face.
Sans begins to cry hard, not understanding why everyone's yelling, why his parents are scared and talking in that tone, and why his daddy is hurt.
"OH NO NO, DON'T CRY SANS, IT'S ALRIGHT. WE'RE LEAVING. WE'RE GOING TO BE OKAY. MY FRIEND AND I STARTED TO TELL EVERYONE TO LEAVE AND THEN THOSE MOSNTERS STARTED TELLING OTHERS TO LEAVE TOO. THE HUMANS GOT A HEAD START, BUT WE'RE GOING TO MAKE IT OUT. COME ON, GET THE IMPORTANT STUFF AND THEN WE HAVE TO RUN AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE."
Vrinda's eyes begin to fill with tears. Gaster takes Sans from her and holds him close while Vrinda runs around frantically trying to get anything she can together. It has to be light she imagines. She cries the whole time.
Sans reaches up and touches his fathers cracked face. When Gaster winces at the pain, Sans takes his hand away and leans on his daddy's shoulder and cries. He's so scared. All Gaster can do is hold him close and quietly shush him. The pain in his face is almost unbearable. Gaster swears he can feel every single movement shaking the crack further and further open.
The back door is kicked in. Gaster hears Vrinda scream and his left eye glows. Only his left eye. He rushes in and a rather large man has grabbed Vrinda by her arm and is yanking her outside violently. Gaster can hear Vrinda's bones grinding together.
"Get off of me!" Vrinda screams. She uses her yellow magic and pries her arm free and throws the behemoth far out of her way. She loses her footing and slips onto her side in what sounds like a painful series of thuds.
"VRINDA!" Gaster runs over to her and Vrinda scrambles to her feet and crashes into his chest trying to run to him. The giant man stands up and holds up his large axe.
Gaster has had. ENOUGH. His eye begins to leave a trail of magic as he hands Sans to Vrinda and walks outside.
"Gaster no, get away from him!" Vrinda screams after him in a shaky voice. He gets near the human and raises his hands a little bit, both completely flaming with magic.
"HOW DARE YOU, YOU WORTHLESS SACK OF MEAT! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK MY FAMILY! MY HOME! MY TOWN AND MY FRIENDS! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Gaster shouts. The human points his axe at him.
"You freaks started it! One of you creatures killed a human and then you took the kids soul! HIS SOUL YOU BASTARD! It turned into an even bigger demon! And we ain't gonna let things like you exist anymore if that's the kinda shit you can do!"
Gaster is shocked for a second. A monster actually took a humans soul? On purpose? He wishes he knew more. But right now he's too mad to think very straight. All he can feel right now is ANGER. And he wants revenge.
"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THAT. THAT DOES NOT REFLECT ALL MONSTERS YOU MORON! BUT NOW YOU'VE CROSSED THE LINE. YOU'VE KILLED INNOCENT MONSTERS WHO'VE DONE NOTHING TO YOU! AND NOW YOU ARE GOING TO PAY FOR IT WITH YOUR LIFE!" The glowing socket of his left eye becomes completely purple and his magic nearly takes over his entire body. The human is confident though that he'll be safe. He charges Gaster and swings his axe. Gaster swiftly jumps out of the way and materializes a giant version of his own fist and he smashes the human down into the ground. The hand grabs the human's legs from under him and then Gaster smashes him in the ground several times until he's nice and bloody and broken. Once the human is unconscious, he throws the human as far away as his magic will allow. He figures the fall may kill him.
Gaster's magic dies down. A sharp pain jabs his right eye and his hand flies up to it.
"DAMMIT ALL… MY DAMN EYE…" He grunts and leans over in pain. GOD that hurt! Vrinda runs over to him with the old baby bag full of anything she could grab. She puts a hand on his shoulder.
"Gaster? Gaster sweet heart say something! Or move! Come on, we have to go. They're catching up to us, we'll never make it if we wait! God I'm so sorry you're in pain Wingdings—"
"IT'S FINE. YOU'RE RIGHT, LET'S GO. ARE YOU OKAY?" Gaster stands up as straight as he can and keeping his right eye closed, he grabs Vrinda's hand and starts to run.
"I'm fine. Thank you Gaster…" Vrinda holds Sans tightly and runs with him. Sans wraps his arms around his mom's neck and looks at his house as it starts to get smaller and disappear… He doesn't stop looking until the house and garden and town are just a small little speck that's caught on fire… He watches hundreds of monsters escape the town like ants from an ant hill. They run and scatter and scream. It's a nightmare. It's hell.
It's war.
()
Days later, Gaster, Vrinda and Sans make it into the mountains with apparently most of the members of their town. Several other towns and cities full of monsters had the same idea. Into the mountains. Get higher ground so when the humans attack again they can have a vantage point.
The family finally settles down and are relieved when some of the monsters begin to make a small temporary settlement. Some infirmary stations, food stations and family meet up stations are being put up all around.
Vrinda sets Gaster and Sans down on one of the benches of an infirmary and lightly takes her husband's face in her hands to get a good look at his eye and face.
"Oh sweet heart… Oh my sweet Gaster… They took your eye…" She holds back tears at what seems to be a grim diagnosis. One that Gaster didn't need.
"W-what can you see?" She says with a shaky voice. Gaster speaks quietly and evenly.
"MY LEFT EYE IS PERFECTLY FINE. MY RIGHT EYE IS... DIFFICULT TO SEE OUT OF. IT'S SO BLURRY I DIDN'T BOTHER USING IT ON THE WAY UP HERE… IT DIDN'T MESS UP MY MAGIC THOUGH. SO UH… REALLY I'M FINE."
"Don't you dare lie to me Wingdings Gaster you are NOT fine…" Vrinda scolds. "Your poor head has a… a huge crack in it. It cracked your skull!" Vrinda begins to sob as she holds Gaster's face and just takes in the sight. She just watched him leave to help with the fire and BAM she almost lost him. Just like that!
Gaster takes her hands and holds them close to his chest. He can barely raise his voice. Everyone is so tired from running, so hungry from not eating, so weak from no sleep… Gaster's no different.
"VRINDA PLEASE… PLEASE DON'T CRY. I'M ALIVE. YOU AND SANS ARE ALIVE AND WE'RE ALL TOGETHER. I'D TAKE ANOTHER SHOVEL TO THE FACE IF IT MEANT WE'D BE ALIVE AND SAFE TOGETHER. SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T CRY MY LOVE."
Sans watches his parents slowly begin to fall apart… He tears up and scoots closer to his dad and hugs him around the waist. He doesn't know what's going on or what to do. He just knows that he wants his mommy and daddy. Gaster looks down at his son and brings him onto his lap in one swift movement.
"THERE'S MY BIG STRONG BOY, RIGHT? LOOK AT THAT, ISN'T THAT BIRD OVER THERE PRETTY?" Gaster takes one hand and points off up into a tree. A vibrant blue bird sits perched with a couple other birds of the same color. The birds snuggle together and peep.
"Pretty…" Sans echoes sadly. They are pretty but they don't make him feel better… They still manage to distract the toddler. Vrinda sniffs and looks up at her husband who is still managing to smile for his family when everything has gone so wrong. His eye doesn't work now for heaven's sake! His parents were murdered and he actually saw their dust! He watched a friend get killed and then lost the owl friend he helped escape. Vrinda stayed home and was protected… Why the HELL is Gaster smiling?! She lets out several quiet sobs and holds Gaster's other hand tightly in both of hers.
He's right though. They're all alive and together. It really could be worse, oddly enough. Gaster could have actually died. SHE could have died. Sans might have been alone… Vrinda tries to count her blessings. She wipes her tears and stands up taking a second to adjust her red scarf just so her hands have something to do. Her parents red scarf… A monster runs up to her. It's a monster that she worked with at the hospital before she was fired.
"Vrinda! I'm so glad you and your family are okay! Would it be terrible if I asked for your help?" They ask. Vrinda looks over at them and is happy to see them again. She looks at Gaster, curious about his reaction. But Gaster looks up at her and nods. Still smiling, damn him.
"GO. USE ALL THAT COOL STUFF YOU LEARNED TO HELP SOMEONE. AND THEN TEACH ME SOME OF THAT COOL STUFF. I WANT TO HELP TOO."
Vrinda gulps… and nods. HE wants to help?... Selfless jerk.
"I will. Sans, sweetie, mommy has to help some people. Are you going to be okay with daddy?" Vrinda asks and bends down to eye level for Sans. The toddler nods and gets a kiss on the forehead.
"Alright, Mommy will be back soon. I love you, baby. And I love you, Gaster."
"I LOVE YOU TOO, VRINDA." The two have a small moment to look into each other's eyes before giving each other a kiss.
The nurse and Vrinda both rush off quickly, leaving the boys alone.
Gaster sits silently with Sans in his lap for a long while. He stares off into space, not thinking. It isn't until Sans sighs with obvious boredom that Gaster is taken out of his trip to lala land.
"GOODNESS. DID I DOZE OFF SANS? I'M SORRY…" He rubs the top of his son's skull and sighs a little. His poor boy… Just a babe and already he's lost his home. Everything he's ever known is gone now… Gaster wonders if children Sans' age can even think that deeply. Can they truly understand the magnitude of this?... No… At least not entirely. He knows something's wrong. It's obvious… Gaster can't stand these thoughts suddenly rapid firing in his head. He feels like he has to distract Sans and show him that there are good things in the world away from humans that he can like.
"SANS, DO YOU WANT TO GO PLAY?" Gaster says with a tired smile. Sans looks up at his daddy and then back down… He nods.
"Yeh." It's the only word Sans has said this entire time. It's a start.
Gaster stands up and walks off, nodding at some of the monsters as they pass. The other monsters are just happy to see that the only child from their town made it out.
The two explore nearly the entire area. They spot plants and flowers and even some possible sources of food. Mostly animals… But there sure are a lot of berries! Gaster makes sure to note every plant and every tree around them. Some are better for animal traps than others. Some are better for lookout posts if they end up using such a thing. He notes paths and shortcuts and hidden spots that could be useful…. Gaster doubts they'll stay in this place long enough to use much of these things… Maybe another week if they're lucky.
After several hours of note taking and Sans playing with everything, exploring and jumping in a river they find, the two return to camp. It's night time now and nearly everyone is stargazing. They've been too busy looking at the ground they're running on and each other to make headcounts. Gaster gets to a spot near the infirmary station Vrinda left the boys at and lays down. He lays his tired boy on his stomach and Sans fall asleep immediately. He played pretty hard in a new environment after all. Eventually Gaster himself falls asleep, one arm behind his head and the other draped over Sans' back.
Gaster isn't sure what time it is when he's awoken by someone shaking him. He opens his eyes as much as he's able in his stupor… which isn't much. Vrinda is hovering over him, sitting on her legs with… a big smile on her face.
"VRINDA?... WELCOME BACK, BEAUTIFUL WIFE OF MINE. YOU SEEM HAPPY." Gaster can't stop a small exhausted smile from creeping up on his face. Vrinda giggles quietly and tickles his face with her red scarf playfully. She whispers.
"I am very happy. I learned a lot of useful things today…. I learned more than I EVER could have at the hospital. Being on the field gave me so much more. It was scary, but I'm glad I went." She touches the right side of Gaster's face, thumbing his cheek as lightly as she can. She knows it hurts…
"GOOD. I HOPE YOU'LL BE TEACHING ME ALL THIS COOL STUFF. I KNOW A DECENT AMOUNT… BUT I WANT TO BE ABLE TO HELP YOU SO YOU AREN'T DOING EVERYTHING ALONE…" Gaster is quiet for a second. He sighs.
"I GUESS THAT'S SELFISH OF ME… I KNOW YOU AREN'T ALONE, BUT…"
Vrinda smiles wider and nods.
"I know honey. You want to be with me. And you're so sweet because of it. I want you to be with me too… We really are just like back then huh? After we started dating it was pretty much impossible for the two of us to be apart. I remember how much it hurt, and how often I cried when you weren't there with me." Her sockets begin to tear up a little just remembering it all. Gaster reaches up and thumbs her cheek back.
"DID YOU REALLY CRY THAT MUCH?"
"Of course I did. I'm a sensitive soul Gaster, and being apart from that other half of me is so… empty. Like a void… I'm so lucky to have you and Sans."
The two stare at each other for several long moments, just being so in love… Vrinda finally is able to snap herself out of it when she remembers the reason she was so excited.
"That's right. Gaster sweet heart, hold still for me okay?"
"OH? ALRIGHT. I WASN'T PLANNING ON MOVING ANY TIME SOON." Gaster chuckles.
Vrinda moves her hand from her husband's cheek and moves it up to the giant split going up his skull from his eye. Her yellow magic covers her hand and she focuses quietly. Gaster wonders what she's doing exactly… But he feels a tingling where the crack is and can't put his finger on what exactly is happening… Vrinda's magic disappears and then she thumbs the crack. She managed to close it nearly all the way. It's still a long crack, but it's closed significantly.
"There. I learned to heal bones. Something I honestly should have learned years ago. But tonight… it seems it was fate that I learned it at this time. It's not all gone, but it's better. Do you feel anything?" Vrinda says with a smile. Gaster reaches up and feels the spot. It doesn't hurt nearly as much. The area of pain is much smaller, and the small part mostly feels like he ran into a wall while walking rather than having been literally hit in the face with a metal shovel.
"WOW. THAT IS SOME EXTREMELY HELPFUL MAGIC. I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER. IT HARDLY HURTS AT ALL NOW." Gaster is actually pretty amazed…. God he loves his wife so much. He smiles widely at her and takes her hand, kissing her knuckles.
"THANK YOU SO MUCH MY LOVE."
Vrinda can't stop tears from coming up again. She leans down and kisses Gaster's head.
"I'm so happy I could help you." It's a huge weight that's been lifted off of her shoulders. When Gaster is in pain, she is in pain. It hurts her to see her love in such constant agony. So now that he feels better and she got the best smile she's seen in three days out of him, SHE feels better. Confident. Confident in herself as a wife, a healer, and she's surer of her magic than she was before.
Vrinda lays next to Gaster and pets her son's head. The two talk for a while longer in quiet whispers about what they all did that day, and finally the parents fall asleep under the stars.
A week goes by very slowly for everyone. Even if it is summer, the nights are still cold for many monsters, even ones without skin and flesh. Vrinda starts teaching Gaster everything she knows about healing monsters and even humans. Gaster listens to every word she says. But half of his brain makes different kinds of notes… Like how he can kill a human quickly, quietly and without using much energy or magic. He doesn't tell Vrinda this of course, but he never stops making those small notes in his head. When Vrinda is not at their section of the camp, Gaster takes up the healing role for monsters who still may be hurt. It's been ten days and there are a lot of monsters…. He gets through most of them, but it's tiring. Gaster had no idea how much magic it took to heal this many monsters.
On the seventh day, the family is walking from their section of camp to the edge of the settlement so they can have some personal family time. It's nice. Sans plays with Vrinda a whole lot while Gaster watches, occasionally getting a Sans crashing into his chest in a toddler hug.
Gaster throws Sans in the air once and catches him, jiggling him side to side in his hands. Sans laughs. But behind the laugh is another sound. Coming from somewhere else. Someone else. Gaster brings Sans down and looks over to where he heard the noise. Down the mountain nearly at its base is… The Owl monster!
"Ho there!" She yells up at the family. Gaster and Vrinda gasp and hug their friend tightly when she makes it up to them.
"I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE OKAY! I DIDN'T SEE YOU AND I WAS SCARED THAT YOU'D BEEN DUSTED!"
"I was so worried about you! Gaster told me what happened!" Vrinda says once she leans back to take a good look at her friend.
"I'm sorry I worried you both. I was pretty busy… Ah, little one!" The owl says, picking Sans up in her claws. She snuggles him up in her brown feathers and makes a delighted purring noise. Sans laughs at the ticklish feathers, but snuggles her back.
"Goodness, in just the ten days I've been separated you've already grown a little bit! Ah, anyway, I'm sorry you two. This reunion is just the bees' knees, but I don't return to you with very good news."
Gaster and Vrinda give each other a small worried look.
"ARE YOU ABLE TO SIT AND TALK WITH US ABOUT IT?" Gaster says, motioning for them to sit on the pushed down grass. The owl hoots a tired sigh and nods.
"I'd like nothing more. I've been flying and walking for so long now. A sit down would be very nice." The family and the owl sit down and they can tell that their friend has been working very hard.
"I'M JUST GLAD YOU'RE SAFE TO BE HONEST, FRIEND. I'M SORRY I WASN'T THERE…"
"I'm sorry as well, Civetta. I wasn't able to help at all during the attack." Vrinda says. Civetta. It isn't often they call her by name, since she hates it so much.
"Oh don't worry at all you two. Thank you for your concern. I ended up being… alright. I wasn't physically hurt after that attack, and while I've been away I was able to cope with my own loses. My brothers and sisters were all dusted. My parents too."
"I'M SO SORRY… WE BOTH LOST OUR PARENTS TOO… SO WE CAN EMPATHIZE." The three nod solemnly.
"Terrible, just terrible… Anyway, what I've been doing for the last ten days is… recon I suppose one would call it. I managed to find a group of other monsters who'd also had their town attacked. We decided we couldn't allow this to go on without finding the reason. Nearly across the continent from us, a human child and a monster child got into a fight. The monster killed the human by mistake and took their soul also by mistake. The humans panicked and only saw the monster child taking the humans soul. They rioted and ended up completely wiping each other out almost… We also learned that any monsters that were left were tortured before being dusted."
Gaster and Vrinda stare at Civetta in horror…
"The humans won't listen to reason. When some of the group I was with tried to explain the misunderstanding to the humans who were going around killing everyone, they completely ignored us and… we didn't make it out with everyone. And yet even with that small loss on top of our other ones, we kept going. We spied on the humans from a distance. Some of us with our superior eyes, and some with our superior hearing or hiding skills. There was a large meeting of humans at one of their town halls in the east and they… Gaster, Vrinda, they're learning to use their own magic."
"W…what? Humans haven't been using magic for decades! I thought magic was dying out for the humans." Vrinda says, gripping her red scarf nervously.
"THEY HAVE BEEN. WHILE I WAS STILL WORKING, I LEARNED THAT STATISTICALLY, HUMANS WITH MAGIC HAVE BECOME LESS AND LESS. EITHER HUMANS ARE BORN WITHOUT MAGIC, OR EVERY NEW GENERATION HAS LESS MAGIC IN IT BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF USE FROM THE PARENTS."
"You aren't wrong. But they know that while they are already physically stronger than we are, we are far better than them at using magic. Their arrows and bullets can only do so much when we have our magic to defend AND attack with. And the days of humans wearing metal and leather armor are long gone. So they decided that to counter our magic, they were going to learn theirs… They really mean to start an all-out war with the monster race. They want to dust us all until there are none of us left…"
The adults are quiet, absorbing the terrible information. Sans looks at all three of them one at a time. He can't tell what they're saying mostly, but there are still a lot of words he does understand. And he can tell that things aren't going well right now.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE THE KING AND QUEEN DOING ABOUT THIS?" Gaster says, suddenly angry. He can't believe that the royal family hasn't done SOMETHING about this.
"I honestly doubt that they even know. The humans aren't covering the incident on the news at all. They're pretending that this isn't happening. Security has been upped and any monster that tries to report to the government or to our King and Queen are killed on the spot. But even if they did know I'm sure they'd try diplomacy first…"
"DIPLOMACY?!" Gaster can feel a mouthful of angry words stewing in his mouth, but for the sake of his son he swallows them bitterly. Vrinda reaches and takes his fist lightly in her hand. She and Civetta already knows that Gaster has zero faith in the Royal Family. So naturally he'd take this news harshly.
"DO WE HAVE CODE WORDS SO WE DON'T HAVE TO SAY MEAN THINGS IN FRONT OF THE BABY?" Gaster says nearly through his teeth. Civetta can't stop a small laugh.
"We don't need code words dear, the look on your face says it all."
"I'm not a baby!" Sans says finally. But it's about all he can say. Toddlers his age can really only string together sentences with few words.
"Goodness look at this one, he's telling you right off Gaster!" Civetta hoots a laugh and Sans is glad that something he said was able to make a smile appear on someone's face. He wonders if saying more things will make them smile and laugh more.
"Ah, but getting back to the point. That was all bad news. But even worse still. The humans from that meeting I spoke of know that you are all here. And they plan to raid the place and dust anyone they can. It's magic training for them. So I knew since I was the only flier I had to come down here as quickly as I could to tell everyone on this mountain that they had to leave."
"UNSURPRISING. I KNEW THEY'D FIND US EVENTUALLY."
"You even called the date, Gaster. How I wish you and Civetta were wrong…" Vrinda says sadly. She shakes her head and sighs.
"But you're right. It was inevitable. I'm so glad we heard about this. We never would have known and it would have been a repeat of our home town. Thank you, friend for coming all this way to warn us."
Civetta nods. "Not to worry. Luckily there were several other monster groups I found towards the east that I was able to tell as well. After I rest here for a while I'm going to tell other groups ahead of here as well. I'm hoping they have some fliers to so that I can come back and take a vacation!" She smiles and fans herself with her feathers. Gaster nods and thinks, looking down at the grass.
"LET'S SEE… I WONDER WHERE WE SHOULD GO… THERE ARE GOING TO BE SO MANY MONSTERS MOVING AROUND THAT WE'RE BOUND TO GET NOTICED. BUT SPLITTING UP ISN'T THAT GREAT AN IDEA EITHER… THEN AGAIN IF WE WERE TO MOVE IN A CERTAIN FORMATION OF GROUPS…" Gaster stops talking to the girls and begins to mumble to himself, thinking of routes they could take. Vrinda loves when he gets like this. He's so focused and he often makes funny thinking faces. It's adorable.
The reunion ends after another hour of talking and Sans gets bored and starts talking at the same time as the others. Civetta waves everyone goodbye and flies off to find the next group of people. The skeleton parents take Sans to give him a nap, and then while he sleeps, they run around telling as many monsters as they can about what they learned so they can start the ripple effect and spread the information more. They just hope it doesn't turn into a game of Telephone…
That very same night, people pack their things and begin to take down anything they'd build. The fewer tracks they make the better. And the next day after everyone's had a good night's sleep, they escape from their temporary home and scale the other side of the mountain.
Gaster has been appointed a scouter since he was the one who looked at most of the paths and shortcuts while everyone else was building or healing or gathering food. He guides everyone stealthily and safely through many long miles of rough and rugged terrain. Four days of traveling pass slowly. Everyone is sore, but also thankful for Gaster (and the other few scouters that were given their roles when Gaster would get tired doing it all himself.)
A few of the scouters find a perfect opening at the bottom of a mountain. It's huge and it appears to have housed thousands of humans at some point in the distant past. Buildings and houses and huts and even some crop fields are inside this mountain. It's perfect to fit everyone!
So everyone moves right in, claiming homes and other living spaces. But even as Gaster and his family take a home for themselves, he knows they'll have to leave this place too… Vrinda on the other hand is convinced they'll be able to stay in this place for a very long time.
Civetta and a group of many others return with good news this time. The humans are dumbfounded that the monsters weren't at the spot they thought they'd be! Gaster now thinks that maybe they really can stay in this mountain hideout for longer than he'd anticipated. It brings hope to everyone.