Okay, so to make up for not posting a chapter last week, you guys are getting a double update today. :)
Chapter 7: The Story-Part 1
Gaster took a deep breath. "Many years ago, us monsters lived peacefully on the mountain, staying away from humans so that we didn't cause alarm, although some humans often came to visit us and if anyone got lost in the mountains, we would offer them shelter until they could be reunited with their fellow companions.
"Even though we only had the mountain as our home, it was enough for us and we had no qualm with our human neighbors, but…that sadly changed quite suddenly."
He saw the three children were listening very closely. "The humans came and surprised us monsters by driving us out of our homes and into the mountain that they had been secretly hollowing out for a while and had dumped all sort of materials down there too. Forcing us to walk up the mountain, they shoved us into the same hole that you three children fell down in. Lady Toriel had been pregnant at the time and it took all of us to help her land safely, but at the same time, it was time for her child to be born."
Chara moved a bit closer. "Was the baby okay?" She asked worriedly.
"Thankfully, yes," Gaster said. "A strong, healthy boy."
He then sighed gently. "It seems like so long ago now, longer than a millennium," he said. "Over the first hundred years, the monsters built the Underground to what it is today and it was during the building process that we discovered the barrier that blocked us in the mountain. We could stand by it and just barely could see the colors of the sunset, which was something we looked forward to, as it was mostly bleak down here. But when we found some cave crystals that shone brightly, we tried to unearth as many as we could to add some color to our homes. Amazingly enough, if flowers were exposed to some of the crystals, they became echo flowers, which not only added more color to our homes, but would also repeat any words or phrases spoken near it. Some of us would do it for our friends, who wouldn't know about it until they walked by the echo flowers and would hear the words. Many times, this helped many of us to be cheerful.
"But it was hard to be cheerful when we couldn't get out of the mountain and every day, we all went up to the barrier to see if it was gone or if we could go through it, but it was unfortunately a very strong barrier that was erected up by the humans who hated us, a hate that was strong enough to put up the barrier. However, there was one human who took pity on us and visited us. She was afraid that if she entered the barrier on her side, she'd be trapped with us and we were equally afraid of that, but that didn't stop her from bringing us food or other necessities that we needed to survive and one day, she found out that she could cross the barrier with no trouble. While this made us happy, it led to her telling us about how the barrier could be broken."
"How?" Asriel asked.
"Only the seven traits, which are determination, bravery, justice, kindness, patience, integrity, and perseverance, could break the barrier, which meant that to gain these traits…we'd have to kill seven humans," the skeleton said sadly. "We immediately didn't want to do that, but as it sank it, we realized that it might be the only way, until our friend told us of a rumor that had been being spread where she lived. The rumor was that three souls would come to the Underground someday. One would be a pacifist, one would turn to genocide, and one would have to die.
"This made us feel even worse as it meant we'd still have to kill humans and Asgore decided, with the rest of the monster race unanimously agreeing, that we'd stay in the Underground for good. But…we all knew deep down that we would wish to be free again and because of that, Asgore and Toriel made a very difficult decision."
The siblings gathered closer, along with Sans and Papyrus. "What did they decide to do?" Frisk asked.
Gaster's face contorted into a heart-breaking look. "They gave their child the kind woman who had been helping us and begged her to find a family to take care of their young boy because…if Asgore had to hurt humans, he didn't want his son to witness it. The kind woman agreed, but in doing so, she could no longer visit us, something that hurt her and us deeply. Asgore and Toriel, along with the rest of us, cried as we said goodbye to the goat prince and the kind lady promised he'd be taken care of. We later found out that she herself raised him, but…monsters age much slower than humans, especially the young when separated from their parents. Before our friend died, she found another good family to raise the young goat monster, who accepted him warmly. When they died, the little boy went to other families, all of who raised him well."
The tall skeleton then noticed Frisk looking at Asriel and he nodded. "The child's name…was Asriel," he said softly.
At that, Asriel broke down, going into a mini-panic attack as tears began falling down his face. "It can't be true," he said. "Mom and Dad…they…,"
He couldn't finish and Frisk hugged her brother. "Mom and Dad made Chara and I promise to never let you be separated from us," she said. "No matter what."
Chara sat up a bit more. "Toriel must not have recognized Asriel because it had been so long since she had last seen him," she said. "We ran into her when we fell down here. She healed us."
Hearing her brother crying now, the red-eyed girl joined her sister in hugging their brother and comforting him as Sans looked up at Gaster. "There's more, isn't there?" He asked questioningly, but also softly knowingly.
Papyrus looked at his brothers sadly. "Must it be heard?" He asked, seeing the three siblings looking upset and he gathered them in his arms, holding them as they clung to him.
The oldest brother also looked like he would rather end the story there, but he sighed. "Yes," he said sadly. "I'm afraid so."
Read on! :)
