Welcome to chapter 6! This one was a bit difficult to work on. Not because of the material or length, but because I am in the process of moving. Not easy finding free time between that, work, the holidays, and general life stuff.
But enough excuses. We'll watch as Frisk makes it the rest of the way through the forest and into town. They'll be fighting monsters, the cold, and their own conscience. It's a bit of a longer chapter since I wanted to end the forest area in this one, but I still think it flows pretty well.
Drivingmaster19: Indeed, and things will only get worse before they get better...if they even can.
"W-a-r-n-i-n-g, D-o-g, M-a-r-r-i-a-g-e. What's marriage?" I asked the voice in my head after reading the sign, looking around at the area. It looked like I was above the forest on some cliffs now with two ways to go. Straight ahead ended pretty quickly, while the right seemed to have a way to continue.
"What kind of life did you have where you don't even know what marriage is?" The voice said, sounding more surprised than anything. "Marriage is when two people in love say they'll spend forever together. Of course, most people don't stick to it." That's probably why I never heard of it. He never loved anyone that I knew of...
I started heading towards the south path when all of a sudden I heard a bark, and a white dog in what looked like armor came bounding towards me on its back legs. One front paw held a giant shield as big as its whole body, while the other held a sword. The monster looked at me, panting and smiling. It must have been glad to see a human it could take the soul of, as mine popped out and we were surround by what I started assuming was a magic field.
"Lesser Dog appeared. That stone sword gives it seven attack rating, but it never uses its shield so it has basically zero defense."
Lesser Dog panted a little before barking again, then got a running start and lept at me. Not expecting it, I didn't get out of the way in time and got smacked in the shoulder, sending me onto my butt in the snow. I got up and wiped the ice off, not wanting to get even colder than I already was as well as wet, then looked at the dog. Seemed that one attack was enough for it at the moment, and it just cocked its head to one side as it looked to see what I would do. I knew how to handle an unruly dog, as I'd seen him do it before.
"Bad dog!" I yelled out as I raised my hand, bringing it down right on the dog monster's muzzle. Lesser dog yipped out and backed off with its tail between its legs, before lifting its sword up. Beside me, a blue spear popped out of the ground and came towards me.
"Don't move!" The voice said just before I went to spring out of the way. I did as it said and the blue spear passed harmlessly by, only for a white spear to be right behind it.
"Move now!" I didn't need to be told twice and rushed away from the white spear, which seemed to stop in place before disappearing. I had to end the fight before it could surprise me with anything else, so I ran at the Lesser Dog and gave it a solid punch with my gloved hand right in the face, only for it to turn to dust around my hand. The armor and sword clattered to the ground and I was thankful I hadn't been hurt more. I found a small pouch tied to the armor, and inside were more of the coins they used for money.
With that, I continued, but was quickly stopped by a set of spikes on the ground. I looked around, but didn't see anything obvious to make them go down. Instead, I started checking all the trees and snow-covered rocks for some kind of switch. After checking the three trees around the ice last, I started to panic, thinking maybe there was no way to continue and I'd freeze.
"Monsters wouldn't make a trap like this unless there was a way out of it. Try heading back towards the spikes, I'll keep an eye out." I did as the voice suggested and headed back, while looking for anything I might have missed.
"Wait, over to your right! That snow looks like it's been moved recently. Check over there." I didn't know how it spotted the difference, but I took the advice and went over to it. I did notice as I got to it that the snow seemed lighter than the rest and moved easily, revealing something underneath. Moving as much snow as I could revealed some kind of drawing with a red mark on one side.
"Oh, it's a map. X marks the spot, so that would put it between the three trees on the other side. Let's look back around there." With a groan I went back up to the trees, and between them was another spot with lighter snow. A quick sweep to move some revealed a switch hidden beneath, with the familiar sound of the spikes retracting coming after pressing it.
"Hey, why the sour attitude?" The voice asked as I made my way back towards where the spikes were.
"I don't like killing dogs. On the surface most of them were nice and wanted to play." I said while passing the spikes and heading over a small bridge.
"Yeah, dog monsters used to be that way too. Whatever caused them to betray their old ways doesn't matter though, only getting out alive does." As they finished talking, I turned to continue down the path, but what I saw stopped me in my tracks. Two more dog monsters, clothed in black robes and carrying large axes, walking side by side towards me.
"What's that smell?" One asked as they drew near, sniffing at the air.
"Where's that smell?" The other asked, snout moving all over.
"If you're a smell..." the first began, "...identify yoursmelf," the second completed.
"Does everyone down here tell terrible puns now?" The voice asked as the two dogs moved all over, sniffing at everything. I wanted to run, but they were moving quickly all over the place that I didn't know if I could make it. Eventually they stopped on either side of me.
"Hmm...here's that weird smell. It makes me want to eliminate."
"...Eliminate YOU!" Why? Why was everything attacking me without giving me a chance? Why did I have no choice but to fight?
"Dogi assault you! Seems they can't see too well, so they rely on smell."
"Don't touch my hotdog," one of them said, getting into an attack position.
"He means me," the other said, mimicking the first.
They came at me with large swings of their axes, making moving out of the way next to impossible. Every way I tried to move, there was an ax there. I took a hit on my side, thankfully not with one of the blades, but it still hurt. I wasn't sure which one to attack first, so I went with the one who hit me, which turned out to be the girl. I landed a decent hit, but it didn't seem to hurt her much. Instead, she put some distance between us, putting me in the middle of them again.
"No. 2 nuzzle champs '98!" He said, with her replying "Of course we were second." Suddenly a bunch of magic hearts erupted from him and headed towards her, with half the hearts being light blue and the others white. Against the snow, it was hard to make out which was which, and I got hit twice before I was able to attack the girl again. This time it seemed to hurt her more, but she was still standing, if a little shakily.
The male then ran up and their axes came hard and fast. I tried jumping over a swing and made it, only to get knocked down by the back-swing of the girl's ax. When I looked up, I saw the boy dog standing over me, then he swung his ax down towards my head as I yelled out, and then everything went black.
"You're going to be alright..." I heard a deep, rumbling voice say in an echo-y way. "Chara, stay determined!" There it was again, that name. It was the same one that was on the save file when I touched the stars, and the first time I died too. Huh, now that I thought of it, it was odd to talk about how many times I died.
"A-are you still there?" I called out to the darkness, hoping my companion voice was still with me.
"Of course, partner. Just waiting for you to Load so we can try again." I didn't need to be told twice. I didn't like it in the darkness, not only because it meant I was dead, but it felt like something was constantly watching me. With an unsettled shudder, I hit the Load button and was suddenly back in the snow as if nothing ever happened. A quick look around confirmed I was with the microwave and frozen spaghetti.
I went back through the puzzle and even fought Lesser Dog again, this time managing to not get hurt from him. I was determined to get past the two Dogi, and when confronted by them again I struck first, hitting the male that had killed me before. They started swinging and chopping at me again, making me panic.
"Duck!" Shouted the voice in my head, which I listened to instantly. It was just in time too as I felt the wind in my hair from one of their axes.
"Dive straight!" Again, followed the advice right away and heard the thud of an ax hitting the ground right behind me. Getting up and turning around, I was able to land another solid hit on the male dog, causing him to turn to dust while his robe and ax fell to the ground.
"You...you..." I heard from my side, seeing the other dog looking at me with so much hate and anger. "I'LL CUT YOU IN HALF!" I backed away as she ran towards me and picked up the fallen ax on the way so she could use both to attack me. She got my soul two times before she stopped to catch her breath, allowing me a solid hook to her snout. It hurt, but she wasn't done.
"Man, Dogaressa is on the warpath." Well now I had a name for her, but that wasn't helpful at all at the moment because Dogaressa seemed to have gotten a second wind and was back at it, attacking quickly and giving me little chance to get away. My soul was hit again, but I wasn't going to die to her this time. She chopped with both axes together as I was near the edge of the magic field around us, but I was small enough to slip underneath her and out of harm's way. She tried to turn around for another assault but one of the axes had gotten stuck, which was lucky for me as it gave me plenty of time to get the last hit in against her back. She fell off the side while turning to dust, the axes going with her.
I watched her robe fall, the dust scattering in the air. I was on my hands and knees, breathing hard, the biting cold air feeling like it was burning in my lungs. This was becoming too much. I was just a kid, I wasn't supposed to be fighting for my life against monsters. Monsters themselves weren't supposed to have families and loved ones and feelings. Yes, they were attacking me, but I could tell how much those two dogs loved each other, from the way they talked to and looked at each other, to how devastated Dogaressa was when the other died. I wanted to cry, to scream, to wake up from this bad nightmare.
I only managed the first two. Weird ice creatures and bugs talking about hide mines or something was one thing, but dogs were supposed to be friendly and playful. Well, at least the ones I met while waiting on the surface were.
"Jeez, you big crybaby," the voice said after I don't know how long of me sobbing. "They attacked you first, you only did what you had to in order to defend yourself. Now, get up and get moving before you freeze to death and have to do all that again. And don't forget the money Dogamy dropped, you can still get that at least."
"A-alright..." I said unenthusiasticly, trying to get my sniffling under control as I rose up. I knew it was right, and I didn't want to have to come back again, so on I went. Just after the little area I fought the dogs at was a cliff with some strange stuff. Two X's between ice piles, a big button, and a sign. It said to turn the X's to O's and press the button, but it didn't say how to change them. I was looking around for some kind of switch or other device when I stepped on one and made it change. That made it incredibly easy to finish, and at the press of the button some spikes ahead retracted, revealing Papyrus on the other side. At the sound of the spikes moving, he turned around and looked at me all surprised.
"WHAT!? HOW DID YOU AVOID MY TRAP? AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY...IS THERE ANY LEFT FOR ME?"
"He's talking about that frozen spaghetti. Just tell him we left it there."
"Oh, I uh...didn't eat any," I replied to Papyrus, taking the voice's advice.
"REALLY!? WOWIE..." I was afraid Papyrus was going to be disappointed by the news. "YOU RESISTED THE FLAVOR OF MY HOME-COOKED PASTA JUST SO YOU COULD SHARE IT WITH ME?" Welp, no worries about him being disappointed at least.
"FRET NOT HUMAN! I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU COULD EVER WANT! HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH NYEH!"
As he ran off, I was trying to process what he said. He would really make me all the food I wanted, even though he was supposed to be trying to capture me? Maybe, I thought, he would change his mind about that and just help me.
"I bet it's another trap. He tries to get on your good side, then when you least expect it, POW! Right in the kisser!" I wanted to hope the voice was wrong, but it had been right about most things so far, but maybe, just maybe, it wasn't this time. With that hope, I followed the tall skeleton, and it wasn't long until I caught up with him.
"MY BROTHER STARTED A SOCK COLLECTION RECENTLY," he said as I got near. "HOW SADDENING. SOMETIMES I WONDER WHAT HE WOULD DO WITHOUT SUCH A COOL GUY TAKING CARE OF HIM."
"If he doesn't want to find out, he'll stay out of our way," the voice replied, but I made sure to not repeat that. I was just glad to be around someone that wasn't trying to kill me. I just smiled and shrugged, heading towards the puzzle I saw nearby.
"HUMAN!" Papyrus shouted as he hurried to catch up. "HMM...HOW DO I SAY THIS? YOU WERE TAKING A LONG TIME TO ARRIVE, SO I DECIDED TO IMPROVE THIS PUZZLE BY ARRANGING THE SNOW TO LOOK MORE LIKE MY FACE." Looking over the puzzle and turning my head sideways, I think it did look a little like him. It was hard to tell though.
"That is the opposite of improving it," said the voice sarcastically.
"UNFORTUNATELY, THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND. NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT! AND, AS USUAL, MY LAZY BROTHER IS NOWHERE AROUND. I SUPPOSE WHAT I AM SAYING IS...WORRY NOT, HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SOLVE THIS CONUNDRUM! THEN WE CAN BOTH PROCEED." That was a relief, knowing I wouldn't have to do this alone. Sure, the voice could help, but it was nice having someone physically there.
"MEANWHILE, FEEL FREE TO TRY THE PUZZLE YOURSELF! I'LL TRY NOT TO GIVE AWAY THE ANSWER!"
I looked over the puzzle, walking around it a few times, trying to figure it out. Starting at what I would call the top, I did a circle around an snow mound, only to step on an X twice and turn it into a box. The voice told me to go ahead and press the button, and doing so caused all the shapes to turn back into X's. Next I tried at going from the far end, and got most of the shapes changed, but got stuck and had to step on one a second time. After a couple more tries, I was starting to get irritated.
"Want some help there, partner?" The way the voice said that made it seem like not only did they know how to solve it, but they were kind of taunting me with the knowledge.
"No, I'm fine," I said with a huff, going back through again, missing the solution by one X.
"You sure? I could tell you how to do it right now..."
"I got this!" I cried out, not wanting to be bested by some little puzzle and made to look as stupid as I really was. I had to get it eventually, and indeed I got it on my next try, the spikes ahead sinking below the snow at the press of the button.
"WOW, YOU SOLVED IT! AND YOU DID IT ALL WITHOUT MY HELP! INCREDIBLE! I'M IMPRESSED!" Papyrus' words caught me completely off guard and made me forget about my anger. That was the first time I'd gotten actual, genuine praise from someone other than Toriel, and it made me feel...happy, I think is the closest word.
"YOU MUST CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO! WELL, I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE THE NEXT PUZZLE THEN! IT MIGHT EVEN BE TOO EASY FOR YOU!" Papyrus then ran off ahead, the sound of his distinct laughter echoing all around. I followed his footsteps past the puzzle, and Sans was waiting just past where the spikes were.
"good job on solving it so quickly," he said while giving me a thumbs up. "you didn't even need my help. which is great, cause i love doing absolutely nothing." The last two words were more drawn out, making it sound funnier. I was really starting to feel good and was looking forward to the next puzzle, just as long as nothing popped out to attack before then, which didn't happen. Sans held out his arm in a "go ahead" stand, and I sauntered off to the next clearing, where on the other side was Papyrus...and Sans!?
"Ok, something is definitely up with that skeleton. Makes me like him even less." I didn't mind Sans. His jokes were funny, and the way he and his brother talked was like those families I'd seen on television sometimes. I did have to admit, however, that the way he looked at me from afar sometimes gave me the creeps
There was a little bridge connecting where I was to what I assumed was the next puzzle. It made a squeak as I stepped on it, and both brothers turned to face me.
"HEY! IT'S THE HUMAN!" I could hear Papyrus yell out. In fact, I think anyone outside the mountain could hear him too. "YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE! IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT DR. ALPHYS! YOU SEE THESE TILES?" He asked, pointing to the floor between us. "ONCE I THROW THIS SWITCH, THEY WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE COLOR! EACH COLOR HAS A DIFFERENT FUNCTION!"
"RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE! YOU CANNOT WALK ON THEM!" Ok, what made it so I couldn't...
"YELLOW TILES ARE ELECTRIC! THEY WILL ELECTROCUTE YOU!" Wait, like with that invasi...invidi...
"GREEN TILES ARE ALARM TILES! IF YOU STEP ON THEM, YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT A MONSTER!" But that meant I'd have to kill something in front of them, and then they'd...
"ORANGE TILES ARE ORANGE-SCENTED. THEY WILL MAKE YOU SMELL DELICIOUS!" I didn't know colors had scents. Wonder what red smelled like, or...
"BLUE TILES ARE WATER TILES. SWIM THROUGH IF YOU LIKE, BUT IF YOU SMELL LIKE ORANGES, THE PIRANHAS WILL BITE YOU." The what would bite me? "ALSO, IF A BLUE TILE IS NEXT TO A YELLOW TILE, THE WATER WILL ALSO ZAP YOU!" Hold on, would that zap the things in the water too, or were they...
"PURPLE TILES ARE SLIPPERY! YOU WILL SLIDE TO THE NEXT TILE! HOWEVER, THE SLIPPERY SOAP SMELLS LIKE LEMONS, WHICH PIRANHAS DO NOT LIKE! PURPLE AND BLUE ARE OK!" That was helpful, but what if I smelled like both, or...
"FINALLY, PINK TILES...THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING. STEP ON THEM ALL YOU LIKE." Okay, that one was easy. So red I couldn't walk on, I could swim through the green, unless I smelled...um, yellow? Blue would shock me, and...wait, I think I mixed one up somewhere...
"HOW WAS THAT? UNDERSTAND?" I looked up at the smiling duo and scratched my head, giving a nervous laugh.
"Um...not really. Could you explain it again?"
"Yeah, that was confusing even for me."
"OKAY, I GUESS I'LL REPEAT MYSELF..." Papyrus said with just a little annoyance.
"RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE. YELLOW TILES ARE ELECTRIC AND DANGEROUS. BLUE TILES MAKE YOU FIGHT A MONSTER. GREEN TILES ARE WATER TILES. ORANGE TILES ARE ORANGE-SCENTED. IF YOU STEP ON ORANGE, DON'T STEP ON GREEN. BROWN TILES ARE...WAIT! THERE ARE NO BROWN TILES! PURPLE TILES SMELL LIKE LEMONS. WHY DON'T THE YELLOW TILES SMELL LIKE LEMONS?" He sounded as confused as I was now, having an extra color thrown in then out, and mixing all the colors and smells and such.
"WAIT, DID I MIX UP GREEN AND BLUE? THE BLUE ONES ARE WATER ONES! PINK...I DON'T...REMEMBER?" Well that one was easy, pink was impassable. I think.
"WAIT, THOSE ONES DON'T DO ANYTHING. OKAY, DO YOU UNDERSTAND BETTER NOW!?"
After a second thorough explanation, I could honestly say I was absolutely, 100%, unerringly, completely confused.
"No...what did the brown ones do again?" After my question, Papyrus was silent for a bit before letting out a sigh.
"OK, YOU KNOW WHAT? HOW ABOUT YOU JUST...DO THIS PUZZLE ON YOUR OWN? I'LL LEAVE THE INSTRUCTIONS, SO JUST READ THEM. THEN WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND IT, YOU CAN THROW THE SWITCH AND DO IT AT YOUR OWN PACE. GOOD LUCK." With that, he gave a half-hearted laugh and walked off, leaving a paper in front of the big machine. I kind of felt bad not knowing that puzzle and letting him down, but I just could not get my head around it.
I walked across the tiles and picked up the paper, but I couldn't make it out. I tried turning it around, upside down, and every which way, but I must have forgotten how to read.
"It's illegible chicken-scratch. That idiot writes even worse than you do." Well, that didn't make me feel any better, but at least I hadn't stopped knowing my letters. I tried pressing the switch on the machine, but it didn't do anything. Instead, I turned around to face Sans.
"Hi Mr. Sans." I said, a small smile on my face.
"sheesh kid, it's just sans," he replied. "and actually, that spaghetti from earlier...it wasn't too bad for my brother," he said with a shrug. "since he started cooking lessons, he's been improving a lot. i bet if he keeps it up, next year he'll even make something edible." He topped off the sentence with a wink, and I gave a small laugh even though I didn't know what edible was.
I headed off to the next area after telling Sans I'd see him at the next puzzle and the first place I came to was a large flat place with another station at it. There was just a bunch of snow mounds all over, like someone was trying to make something but it fell to pieces every time. Inside the station was just a small box of what looked like food. Next to it was a sign.
"A-w-a-r-e, o-f, d-o-g. P-l-e-a-s, p-e-t, d-o-g. Um, I think some of those words are spelled wrong or something," I said to the voice, as no one else was in the area and felt safe talking to them.
"Yeah, they're pretty bad at spelling when even YOU know it's wrong," they replied.
"Hey, just because I'm not that good with words and letters doesn't mean you have to keep bringing it up like that!" I said, my voice rising.
"It's just the truth, and the truth hurts. No reason to cry about it, unless you're just a big baby. Besides, it's not like you're the worst at it, since that loud bonehead probably couldn't even write his own name right," it retorted, seemingly either ignoring how I felt, or just not caring. Rather than continue talking to it and getting madder, I instead turned around and saw one of those stars behind a snow pile. I reached out for it and felt the now familiar magic feeling coming from it, as well as pressing save again.
Next on the path was a large area covered in ice and more X's. Testing the ice, I found it very slippery and knew if I fell, I'd keep going until I got to one of the clear spots on an X, or off the side. Looking down, I saw it was only a few feet down, and someone had made a snowman next to a pile of snow. It turned out that the snowman was actually a snowpapyrus, and the pile just had the word Sans written on it. I learned this the first time I fell off trying the puzzle, and was reminded of it the other five times I failed. The voice didn't offer to help on this one, but did laugh each time I didn't get it.
Finally, I managed to get all the X's to O's and press the switch without falling off, which somehow made an ice bridge past a bunch of trees. Some snow plopped onto my head as I went through, and fell off just past the trees. After that, there were two paths, one straight and one right.
"I think we need to hurry up. You're not looking too good," the voice said out of nowhere.
"W-what do you mean?" I was healed back the the last star, so I should've been okay.
"Have you really not noticed? You've been shivering since that electric maze, and now your lips are starting to turn blue." I went to touch my lips with my ungloved hand, but neither my fingers nor lips felt anything. I guess I never payed attention to it with everything else going on.
"What's happening!? Will we make it?" I asked, starting to panic at the thought of becoming a frozen statue out here in the cold.
"I think so, but we can't waste time. Go straight, it'll take you to the village, and then we can find a place to warm you up."
"What about you? Are you ok?" I wasn't sure how being a voice or ghost or whatever worked, so I had to ask as I kept walking.
"Psh, yeah, I'm fine. I don't feel a thing." Well that was good for it. Almost made me wish I was a voice too.
I came upon another clearing, but this time there were several large round tufts of snow everywhere. I looked one over as all the rest I'd seen up to now had been just piles of ice or snow.
"It's just a snowpoff. Keep going." I'd never heard of a snowpoff before, but I did need to get to town soon. A part of the path narrowed with a snowpoff in front of it, but as I walked up to it something popped out from the back. Right after, a dog's head pushed through the front of it.
"A dog! Are you stuck in the snow? Do you need some help?" I asked the white fluffy face in front of me. Its tail wagged and it gave two small barks, and I reached out to take some of the snow off of it.
"Frisk, get back!" Shouted the voice, and on instinct I listened, stepping back a couple paces as the snow around the dog lifted up. Where once I was looking down at a cute puppy in the snow, I was now looking UP at a dog in large armor. My soul popped out as a magic field encircled us.
"It's the Greater Dog! Careful, it thinks fighting is playing, and it always plays as hard as it can."
I couldn't help but think of how happy it looked as it stood there, wagging its tail. Suddenly, it let out two loud barks, making the air itself rush away from it. It hit me so hard I got knocked to the ground, and had just enough time to move out of the way as it barked again. After that, it looked at me, tongue hanging out and panting as though it hadn't just hurt me.
I charged at it before it could bark again, jumping in order to connect my gloved hand to its snout. Despite how painful that must have been, Great Dog never lost that happy, fun-having look. What made up for it though was the magic spear I saw coming at me from the side, flashing between blue and white. I had to time it so it would pass me while blue, and I got it with a little help from the voice.
Greater Dog seemed to have changed focus to the magic spear for a bit, getting down on all fours with his butt in the air like he wanted to play, giving me a perfect opportunity to come in with an uppercut. It felt like as I was throwing the punch, someone took hold of my arm and made it go faster, causing it to hit the dog harder. It let out a sharp yelp, turning to dust as the blow knocked it backwards, the empty armor clattering onto its back. Some coins fell out, and I scooped them up.
I didn't feel so good anymore. I was wet from the snow and sweat from the fight, really feeling the shivering all over now. Without the rush that came with fighting, I felt so tired and weak I could barely walk straight.
"Here, I think I can help a bit," said the voice, and then it felt like someone had an arm around me, holding me up in a standing position. I took a cautious step and nearly lurched to the left, but the thing holding me corrected me just enough to stop me from stumbling.
"Hey, either be more careful or lose a few pounds. I can't support you completely you know," I heard it say...or did I? It didn't matter, all that did was moving forward, getting away, finding somewhere safe again...
The next thing I came upon was a long, narrow bridge, barely big enough for me alone. I tested the bridge with a little shaking before stepping on it, but it seemed to be pretty solid and unshakable. With my voice friend as support, I slowly made my way across. I was almost at the end when I looked up and saw Sans and Papyrus standing on the other side.
"HUMAN! THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE!" I stopped in my tracks, wondering what else Papyrus could have in store for me while several lights danced in the distance behind him.
"BEHOLD, THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!" At that, I heard the sounds of mechanical whirring as several things came out of the mountain they stood on. Spears, a canon, fire, a spiked ball, and...a dog?
"WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE! CANONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE! EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND DOWN! ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN!
ARE YOU READY?
BECAUSE!
I!
AM!
ABOUT!
TO DO IT!"
I grasped onto the rope siding of the bridge, doing my best to not collapse right there and then, my eyes feeling so heavy. I think I tried to speak, but I'm not sure if anything came out, though Papyrus did turn away. After what must have been a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, Sans turned to his brother.
"well? what's the holdup?" He asked, giving me a sideways glance.
"HOLDUP!? WHAT HOLDUP!? I'M...I'M ABOUT TO ACTIVATE IT NOW!" Papyrus turned back around and said in a quieter, yet still yelling, voice. I could have been imagining it, but I swear he was shaking almost as much as me.
"that, uh, doesn't look very activated," Sans replied.
"WELL...THIS CHALLENGE! IT SEEMS...MAYBE...TOO EASY TO DEFEAT THE HUMAN WITH. YEAH! WE CAN'T USE THIS ONE! I AM A SKELETON WITH STANDARDS! MY PUZZLES ARE VERY FAIR, AND MY TRAPS ARE EXPERTLY COOKED! BUT THIS METHOD IS TOO DIRECT! NO CLASS AT ALL! AWAY IT GOES!"
I hear the mechanical parts whir again, taking the weapons back into their hiding places. When they were gone, I thought I heard Papyrus sigh with relief, and I had to smile, thankful I wasn't going to have to deal with that. I looked at the tall skeleton to see what he would do.
"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? THIS WAS ANOTHER DECISIVE VICTORY FOR PAPYRUS!" He started laughing again, but it quickly died down to nothing before he ran off again. I made it the rest of the way over the bridge with Sans standing at the end.
"i don't know what my brother's going to do now," he said as I got near. "if i were you, i would make sure i understand blue attacks." Was it just me, or were those last words actually blue? I must have been out of it if I thought I could see the colors of spoken words. With a tired nod I trudged past him.
It wasn't too much further until I stepped into a small town. There were lights everywhere and a big sign, though I didn't really stop to look at any of it. It was all I could do to keep moving at all.
"Go in here," said the voice, and I felt a push towards a door to my left. I opened it up and stepped inside, feeling the cold air dissipate away. I couldn't really feel the warmth yet, but it was a start. I looked up and noticed a woman...rabbit...person behind a counter. Somewhere in my mind told me this was a monster and I might be in for a fight, but I was too out of it to care. Instead, I let the voice's force move me to the counter.
"Welcome to Snowed Inn! Snowdin's premier hotel! One night is 80 gold." I couldn't count that high even on my best days, so I took a handful of coins out put them on the table, trying to make it look like I was counting them, but instead asking the voice to help me. It then felt like someone took my hand in theirs and moved the coins around until there was a big pile close to the monster woman, and a smaller one closer to me. She took the stack of coins closest to her, and my hand took the others and put them away before the sensation left. The rabbit lady grabbed a key from under the desk and handed it to me.
"Here's your room key," she said, then after looking at me a moment added, "make sure to bundle up!" I took the steps one at a time, slowly getting to the top, then letting the voice guide me to the room. Once inside, I removed my cold, wet clothes, crawled onto the bed, and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Thank you for reading. This is the part where I regret to say both this story and my other one will have to be put on temporary hiatus until I move, which will probably be after the holidays. Once I'm settled in, I'll get back to writing these stories, because I'm as eager as to see the rest as you are. :)