Frisk was still rubbing their jaw as they walked down a path.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Might get a bruise, though."

"What's up?" Sans' voice arose to their right, and they jumped back, startled, hand over their chest.

"What the actual hell, Sans!?" Thought Frisk.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to frighten ya." Frisk straightened up, composing themselves, smiled at him, then walked forward, eyes on the snowy ground.

"Okay, I think that was on purpose this time."

"Think so?"

Before Chara could answer, Frisk thought they heard something behind them and whipped around. They saw Sans still there, watching them with a smile. Frisk waved and turned around. Somehow, Sans stood about 10 feet in front of them, still smiling. Frisk's eyes widened. "Uh, Frisk?" Chara reached out for a response, terror plain in their voice. Frisk turned back, and there he was, one half of the skeleton brothers, standing casually. They turned around again, and Sans was there, with no pupils and a beaming smile, but no words came. He gave a small nod, then everything went dark for a split second, and he had disappeared altogether. Frisk and Chara's shared mind was reeling. One second Sans is there, an ever so brief moment of darkness, and then he's gone, without a trace. Frisk felt like sitting in the snow in the fetal position for a couple of hours, just to feel better, and they felt like Chara was wetting themself inside their head, but just then they heard a yell to one side.

"HEY! Get out of here, you delinquent!"

"What?" Frisk turned to face an odd creature that looked sort of like a reindeer crossed with an ant, with a reindeer's body and an ant's mandible, filled with sharp teeth. The creature seemed to have random things strewn about them, like a picture of a monster, streamers made of pipe cleaners, and a box balancing precariously on it's back.

"Frisk, quick question, what even IS that?"

"Don't know, but it doesn't look happy."

"Are you here to defile me more, like all the other miserable reprobates!?" The creature yelled.

Frisk had an idea and held their hands up in a peaceful stance as they slowly walked over and removed the box. It was stuck to the fur and Frisk had to pull hard, causing the Gyftrot to reflexively kick it's legs up. Frisk nimbly dodged them, and looked at the box; it was a box of non-dog-related raisins. The creature said,

"That feels a little better."

"Oh, I see your plan."

Gyftrot's face softened a bit, but it still looked angry. It started throwing wrapped presents at Frisk, first shuffling them around. They got a glimpse of one of them having the light blue tint that some monster attacks had. Frisk remembered Sans' blue stop sign talk and got in the way of that present right before it was thrown. Frisk held perfectly still and the magical attack did no damage. They breathed again and calmly approached the creature, before removing the streamers from his antlers, careful not to hurt themselves against the sharp edges.

"Even better." His eyes widened a bit, and his mouth stopped seeming as vicious.

But the monster wasn't satisfied yet. It raised it's antlers, and started swirling them in the air, seeming to summon the beautiful but deadly winds around them, throwing clumps of sub-zero temperature snow at the human. Frisk struggled to dodge them all, especially with the immense cold that the winds brought, but they made it through. They then removed the final decoration, now known to be a picture of some jerky, teenaged, monster with a confident smirk. The Gyftrot let out a sigh of relief.

"A weight has been lifted. Thank you child, for righting the wrongs of others."

Gyftrot happily galloped away, seemingly filled with new life and purpose. Frisk was happy that was over, and happier that it gave them a distraction from the downright unexplainable events that transpired just before.

"Okay. Soooo, Chara… We need to talk about what happened."

"Do we?"

"Yes, we need to understand what Sans can do, and what he might do. To us."

Chara sighed and a chill swept through the both of them. Frisk could feel Chara's anxiety and fear permeating every fold of their brain.

"Okay, you start."

"Well, he can seemingly teleport. We know this for sure. He can seemingly tell something's up with us, or he just doesn't like humans. Either way, not good for us."

"How do you think he is in a fight?"

"I don't know, and let's hope we never have to find out. Let's keep moving."

They walked beyond the Gyftrot down a pathway, constantly looking around for signs of being watched. Paranoia was taking both of them and wasn't letting go. Until, they came to the end of the path, a cliff off a mountain, with a beautiful scenic view, miles of green trees, blanketed in peaceful snow. A cave was on their right, and Frisk was feeling adventurous, so they walked in. The inside was even more captivating than the view outside, with a straight hallway in the dark cave, the path lightly luminescent. Sparkles swirled around and Frisk couldn't help but gasp as they walked along. Eventually, they came to a small clearing, with groups of glowing mushrooms. A door stood in front of them, with the same symbol Toriel had on her gown. Frisk's curiosity was peaked and Chara said nothing, so Frisk went and turned the knob. The door clicked and refused to turn, signaling it was locked.

"Well, guess we're not getting in. Come on, let's go back to that bridge." Frisk walked back all the way, in silence. They stopped a distance from the bridge.

"So Chara, are you still giving them both a chance? Or just Papyrus? 'Cause honestly, I wouldn't blame you for it at this point."

"No. Honestly, I, uh… Well, I like Sans, I'm just worried he doesn't like, you know, us. I get the feeling he knows that something is up with us, other than just being a human. I just hope we can get on his good side, or something. I don't know-"

"No no, I feel you. I think we're fine though. Think about it, if he knew something was up, wouldn't he just confront us? Plus, he always makes jokes and is grateful for us treating his brother nice. And if he doesn't like us, I'm sure we can sway him. After all, we still have our childish charms and adorable ribbon."

Chara laughed and said, "Alright, let's go talk to them."

"HUMAN! THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE! BEHOLD THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!" Many mechanical whirs and clicks were heard as deadly implements of all kinds, spears, cannons, and fire jets came from the surrounding landscape, along with a dog on a rope, swaying gently in the breeze.

"Okay, when I said talk to them, I didn't mean run right into a death trap."

"Aww, what are you talking about, there's a dog on a rope, it can't be a deathtrap!" they said with thinly veiled false enthusiasm, meant to be a joke.

"WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE! CANNONS 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!?" Frisk frantically waved their hands and shook their head, trying as hard as they could to signal they were not ready. Papyrus noticed and his face did something funny, a slight scrunch, before he continued.

"BECAUSE! I! AM! ABOUT! TO DO IT!" Several seconds passed without activation and Chara thought,

"Why aren't we dead yet?" Sans echoed the sentiment, saying,

"Well, what's the holdup?"

"HOLD UP!? WHAT HOLDUP!? I'M… I'M ABOUT TO ACTIVATE IT NOW!"

"Well Chara, when someone learns to like some things about you, it makes it harder for them to kill you. I think that's what our friend Papyrus is experiencing."

"Well, good for us that we learned to make friends. Now let's just hope he doesn't overcome that protective wall of friendship we've made."

"That, uh, doesn't look very activated."

"WELL! THIS CHALLENGE! IT SEEMS… MAYBE… TOO EASY TO DEFEAT THE HUMAN WITH?" It was said as though Papyrus was looking for plausibility in his answer, looking from his brother to Frisk to see if they would buy it.

"YEAH! WE CAN'T USE THIS ONE! I AM A SKELETON WITH STANDARDS! MY PUZZLES ARE VERY FAIR! AND MY TRAPS ARE EXPERTLY COOKED!"

"Unlike your spaghetti."

"Oooh, nice one, Frisk." Frisk heard a clapping sound, which they imagined was Chara trying to hi-five them.

"BUT THIS METHOD IS TOO DIRECT! NO CLASS AT ALL!" Papyrus declared with a wave of his hand. "AWAY IT GOES!"

Frisk and Chara both thought, "Phew!" as Papyrus said it audibly. Frisk smiled at Papyrus in silent thanks, to which he responded,

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT!? THIS WAS ANOTHER DECISIVE VICTORY FOR PAPYRUS!" He rose his finger above his head and turned around before laughing. "NYEH! HEH! HEH…?" He looked over his shoulder on the last laugh, and he seemed to be thinking heavily about something, with his eyebrows scrunched together. He left in a hurry, while Sans waited to talk to them. "Alright, Chara, here goes nothing." Nervousness crept in every syllable in the sentence.

"Hey kiddo. Gotta say, I'm glad my bro decided not to use that gauntlet. I'd like to see you around sometime in the future without having less meat on your bones than me. Heh. Anyways, I don't know what my brother's going to do now. If I were you, I would make sure I understand blue attacks." Frisk nodded their understanding and smiled at him before walking off. "Oh, hey buddy." Frisk turned.

"Well, I just wanted to tell ya, my brother's a real cool guy. A nice guy. I told you before that he's not dangerous, even if he tries to be. Well that was true, and uh, well… If you decide he IS dangerous and want to take some sort of drastic, violent, action against him… let's just say I'd recommend you don't. Capiche?" Frisk gave a thumbs-up, trying not to betray the absolute fear dwelling in their heart. They turned around and were nearly blinded by the bright lights in front of them.

In front of them were some christmas lights, hanging on a large sign that read, "WELCOME TO SNOWDIN" in red and blue paint. The sign was very pretty and eye-catching, with snow covering the top of it. In front of them, lay a cozy town, with bright lights all around, and candlelight flooding through every window. The town looked very inviting and they immediately felt better as they were filled with a now familiar feeling, their injured jaw stinging a bit less, they're frozen body, starting to get gradually warmer. They started walking down the street, noticing that the first building seemed to be connected to the second by a hallway. The first part had a sign above the door reading, "Shop," with a small bag emblem above it, and the other had a sign that said, "Inn," with a Z above it. They felt their coin purse and were pleased by its weight, as many monsters had compensated them for trying to attack them with money. They decided spending some of that money could do them some good, and elected to enter the shop.

When they walked in the door, they found a counter about a yard away, with a purple bunny woman behind it, arms crossed but smiling pleasantly. The room behind her was well lit and filled with items.

"Hello, traveler. How can I help you?" Frisk looked out over the counter inspecting what she had. She appeared to sell gloves that looked warm and tough, homemade cinnamon buns, two pronged popsicles, and cool bandannas with abs drawn on them. Frisk decided to buy two cinnamon buns and one of the bandannas, immediately putting it on. Frisk jokingly flexed several times in front of the shopkeeper, who tried to stifle her laughs but failed and burst out laughing. Frisk laughed too, happy to have brought joy to someone. Frisk held out the ribbon that had protected them so well to the shopkeep.

"What's that, kid? You want to sell me that? Does this look like a pawn shop? I don't know where you come from, but if I started spending money on old ribbons and used bandages, I'd be out of business in a jiffy!" Frisk looked a little dejected, but then brightened when they realized that this meant they could keep the ribbon for at least a little longer.

"So Chara, do you think this lady can tell me anything about the Underground that you can't?"

"I highly doubt it."

"What about Sans and Papyrus, maybe she knows about them."

"Yeah, good idea." Frisk asked about the skeletons and she responded,

"Oh yeah, there's always them. They're new additions to the town, brothers, I think. They just showed up one day and... " the bunny hesitated, choosing her words. "... asserted themselves. The town has gotten a lot more interesting since then." Frisk thanked her and waved bye before leaving the store.

Frisk considered entering the Inn, but they didn't feel tired at all, quite energetic, actually. They had never felt better. They elected to check it out sometime later, and kept walking. Frisk noticed a box, looking just like the one they had found earlier, just outside the Inn.

"Well, Chara, I think you were right about the whole magic box thing."

"Of course I was right. I'm always right." Frisk snickered and replied,

"Jerk."

"Imbecile."

"Dumbo."

"Nincompoop."

"All right, all right, let's get going."

"Hey you didn't deny anything I said. That means it's true."

"Sure, fine, let's just keep going." Frisk said as they chuckled.

"Woohoo! I got you! I got you! I got… YOU!" As Frisk walked, Chara continued their taunting in a sing song voice to the same rhythm. Frisk rolled their eyes at how obnoxious Chara was, but was once again glad to have them; they made the Underground even more interesting than it already was. Frisk noticed a lady bunny walking a smaller bunny on a leash. They didn't speak to her, but she went out of her way to get their attention, saying,

"Isn't my little cinnamon just the cutest? Bun-buns are so adorable. Tee hee!" Frisk nodded their agreement and she happily walked away, swelling with pride in her pet. Frisk turned around and saw a rabbit watching him and the girl, looking very suspicious. They walked over and before they could interact with him, he grabbed their shirt and pulled them in close.

"That lady over there." He wildly snapped his head in her direction multiple times.

"Something about her disturbs me."

"Well, everything about you disturbs me."

"Nice one, Chara." They then examined a small igloo thing, with a sign next to it. The sign read, "Try the Undersnow tunnels! They're efficiently laid out." Frisk decided not to take them, as they wanted to explore the town itself.

Frisk turned and saw something odd: A Christmas Tree.

"Oh infinitely wise Chara, why is there a christmas tree?"

"Maybe you should ask that bear." Frisk walked up to a polar bear like monster kneeling in front of the tree, gift in his hands, and waited patiently until they were noticed.

"Awful teens tormented a local monster by decorating its tree-like horns. So we started giving that monster presents to make it feel better. Now it's a tradition to put presents underneath a decorated tree."

"Fascinating. So that deer we met, rather than take off the things bothering him, the people set out gifts to compensate. I guess all it took to cheer him up was the work of… the Determined Duo!"

"Oh so you're trying to do that again. Lovely. And here I thought it was gone, and I couldn't have been happier."

"Whatever, buzzkill." Before Chara could respond, Frisk walked up to a new monster, a yellow lizard-like creature, with no arms, and a striped shirt.

"Yo! You're a kid too, right? I can tell cause you're wearing a striped shirt."

"Wait, is that a thing down here?"

"Pretty much. It's kind of like some sort of unspoken code that kids are dressed in stripes and when they grow up, they choose their own clothing."

"Fascinating." Frisk mused. The next building was a large building with a sign that said, "Grillby's." It had an open sign, was made of brick, and Frisk could see it was a fairly packed place through the window. A bear in an orange jacket spoke to them as they looked through the window, recognizing several people he'd already met like the Lesser Dog, Greater Dog, the Dog Marriage, and Doggo. The bear said,

"This town doesn't have a mayor. But if there's ever a problem, a skeleton will tell a fish lady about it." Frisk pulled their face away from the glass and cocked their head to one side as they looked at him. "Thaaaaaat's politics!"

"Sure, I guess. Hey Chara, do you know anything about this fish lady?"

"Uh, yeah, don't worry about it, we'll be fine." But Chara's emotional cloud darkened, filling with fear and anxiety.

Frisk thought to themself, 'Guess we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.'

"Alright. Let's go inside." They entered Grillby's, a bar with no music, but lots of loud talking and joy all around. Behind the counter was the man himself, Grillby, looking snazzy in a dress shirt, spectacles, and a vest with a bow tie, using a rag to clean a mug. Frisk was a little intimidated and decided to talk to people he already knew, starting with Dogamy and Dogaressa. He couldn't tell which was which, as they had their hoods on and their barking voices were very similar, but one of them said,

"You better watch where you sit down in here, kid. Because that big guy WILL jump into your lap and give you lots of love and attention."

"Dually noted. Ha! Get it Chara, because there's two of us and two of them, so it's dually noted! Enh? ENH!?"

"Oh my God Frisk, I hate you." Chara said in between laughter. Frisk spoke to the other half of the dog marriage who said,

"We're sentries, but we never get any respect. I wish those skeletons would throw us a bone. We love bones."

"I'll bet you do. I'll bet you do." They walked over to Doggo, who flinched with every step.

"I'm thinking of getting a spiked collar to show off my personality. It makes a statement like, "Attach a leash to me and take me for a walk please."

Frisk walked past to the Greater Dog, who saw the world's best petter approaching and let out a booming bark before aggressively licking their face. He soon left his armor and tackled Frisk to the ground, licking all over before finally sitting down and settling on their body. Frisk lay there for several minutes, content to pet the dog as long as they needed to, and one of the dogs said, "I warned you!" Eventually, Greater Dog sprang back up and leapt into his armor. Frisk got up, patted themself down, then walked into the corner of the room with the Lesser Dog. The dog didn't notice Frisk, as it seemed to be focused on playing a game of poker. Frisk didn't see an opponent, and soon realized that the dog was playing against itself, and the chair opposite them, the other player, seemed to have the upper hand. Frisk decided not to bother the dog and walked over to a red, bird-like monster. She said, "Those dogs are part of the Royal Guard, the elite military group led by Undyne. She's rude, loud, and beats up everybody who gets in her way. It's no wonder all the kids want to be like her when they grow up!"

"Do you know this 'Undyne' person?"

"Well, that's the fish lady the bear mentioned. The one I said not to worry about. Don't worry though, I'm sure we'll be fine." Chara seemed even less sure of this answer than before, and Frisk was starting to get worried. Now Frisk tried to talk to Grillby, but there was silence. Then, the red bird spoke.

"Grillbz said that he would offer you a glass of water, but he doesn't touch the stuff. "Fair enough."

Frisk walked to a booth with a monster inside who was basically one giant, yellow mouth, with huge teeth. He seemed to be troubled by a thought. "Hmmm… Isn't human food different from monster food? It does things like 'spoil.' And when you eat it, it passes all the way through your whole body. Disgusting." He said with disdain. "I'd love to try it sometime."

Frisk said, "Well I wouldn't really know about human food."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Why did you do that?"

"Well, I had an idea. That kid outside mentioned that I have a striped shirt, and look like a kid. Maybe, I can convince some people that I'm just a monster kid, not a human, and avoid some fights altogether, instead of trying to convince them to let me leave with my life. This is me planting the seeds in people's heads."

"Clever. Very clever."

"My thanks, dear comrade." Frisk said with an air of fancy arrogance. Frisk walked to the other corner of the room to talk to a very large hamster like monster, wearing sunglasses indoors and with blonde hair. His voice was nasally and immediately grated on Frisk's ears. "The capital's getting pretty crowded. So I've heard they're going to start moving here. Hmmm… I don't want to see the erasure of our local culture, but I definitely want to see some city slickers slip onto their butts!"

"How insensitive, some monsters don't have butts!"

"You sure?"

"Pretty sure. There's a multitude of monster species, I'm sure at least one doesn't have a clearly defined butt."

"Can we please move onto a conversation topic that isn't butts?"

"Butt why?" Chara sighed with exasperation.

"Yeah, I walked right into that one did-"

"-Yeah, yeah you did." Frisk decided to talk to one last person on their way out, a seemingly intoxicated beige rabbit. "No matter where I go, it's the same menu, the same people. Help! I want new drinks an' h-h-h-hot guys!" "Yep, we're definitely out of here." Frisk jokingly thought. Then they walked back out into the cold.

They kept exploring the town, and to the left saw a path leading off to the left and a library. Before that however, there were two monsters, a brown mouse with large ears and a green scarf, and a smiling creature wearing a red robe with horns, making them look like a cross between a jester and a demon. Frisk walked over to the Scarf Mouse, who said, "Everyone is always laughing and cracking jokes, trying to forget our modern crises. Dreariness. Crowding. Lack of Sunlight. I would join them, but I'm just not very funny."

"Aww, that's sad. Why is everyone stuck down here, anyways?"

"I could tell you, but I'm not very good at explaining things. Soon though, we'll go to the place where I learned. You'll know the whole story of the past before long, I promise."

"Okay, sounds good. I love history." They stood in front of the Jester, who said, "We all know the Underground has problems, but we smile anyway. Why? We can't do anything, so why be morose about it?" The Jester smiled wider and Frisk thought,

"Well that's one way to look at it. Maybe even the best way." Frisk decided to check everything on this street of Snowdin before taking the other path, so they walked to the library. As they were about to enter, Chara said,

"Wait wait wait, hold up." Frisk, hand still on the door, thought

"Yeah?"

"Look at the sign again." Frisk confusedly looked up at the sign, then saw what Chara meant. The sign, in crisp letters, spelled "Librarby," rather than, "Library."

"Hunh. Interesting."

Frisk walked in, enjoying the warmth the building afforded, before walking to the librarian's counter, where a green lizard monster in a yellow turtleneck was cleaning her glasses with a small rag. She finished cleaning, put the rag away, then said, "Welcome to the library. Yes, we know. The sign is misspelled." "I wasn't going to mention it, but good that she knows it." The library itself had the librarian's counter tucked into the corner closest to the door, a table on the other side of the room, and a back wall adorned with shelves of books. The table held 3 monsters each with paper in front of them. As Frisk approached the table, they noticed that each of the papers in front of them was a newspaper. They walked up to a yellow monster that looked a little like a smaller, bipedal, rhinoceros. She looked up from her work with a smile and said, "I love working on the newspaper. There's so little to report that we just fill it with comics and games. Next to her, sat a monster with a green body, circular head, and a well-kept hairstyle of bobs straight out of the 1920s. She coughed a couple of times, then slowly said, "When I was younger, my teachers gave me word searches when they ran out of assignments. I thought they were a waste of time." "Oh believe me lady, they were." Chara remarked. Suddenly her voice picked up in energy, speed, and intensity. "But look at me now! I'm the number-one word-search creator in the entire underground!"

"Probably because you're the only one."

"Oh, we're on fire today!" The last monster at the table looked like a normal Loox, but without arms. It eyed Frisk a moment, tilting it's head slightly back and forth before saying, "That look in your eye… You're someone that has trouble doing Junior Jumbles, aren't you?" "Wow, okay. That is legitimately amazing. Let's go do some reading."

There were many books on the shelves, and after spending hours reading in the library, they had gathered this: They had learned that monsters are magical beings, whereas humans are more physical. Monsters are in tune with their souls and have access to magical powers and abilities, but humans are stronger and have more physical form. While humans are made of water and other things of the natural world, monsters are magic manifested. However, being in tune with their souls comes at a cost. As a monster is hurt, their defenses against further attack weaken, and if someone attacks with intent to hurt, the monsters are extremely susceptible. They learned the new capital of the Underground was named New Home, and the monsters feared the humans, likely due to their strength. Another book made it clear that humans were hated by monsters, calling attention to an apparent lack of emotions like compassion and love. This was a knife that cut Frisk deep, considering how empathetic and kind they'd been on their journey. They decided that if monsters had bad experiences with humans, then they would make it better, and bring humans a good reputation if it killed them. Finally, there was an interesting school report on monster death and funerals, explaining how when a monster dies, they become dust and the dust is spread over their favorite thing, so they will live on inside that thing. Chara had been silent for almost the entire session, talking only to add a funny joke or complain about how long it was taking every now and then.

Frisk put the books away, got up, stretched a few times, waved goodbye to everyone inside, and left the library. They decided to keep going the way they had been, seeing a large house in the distance. They saw two mailboxes outside, one overflowing and the other with a small plaque on the front. They read the plaque, which simply stated, "PAPYRUS."

"Oh, so this must be their house. What's that over there?" A wooden shed stood next to the house.

"Don't know. Try the knob." Frisk turned the doorknob, but it seemed to be locked from the inside. They noticed another igloo thing next to it, remembering it for later. They kept walking in the same direction, and soon the wind got chillier, like a blizzard was rolling in. Frisk could barely see 6 inches in front of their noses, but eventually they heard a voice. "HUMAN." Frisk knew that Papyrus was no longer here for japes, or puzzles, or laughs. He was here to stop them. Frisk would not fight him, but he might be able to get through him. They knew there was no turning back, but Chara and Frisk both knew they were ready to face the skeleton that wanted nothing else but friendship.

[Note: Finally we get to Papyrus' fight, can't wait to write the next chapter! Now, in case you haven't noticed, I've realized that having Chara speak might be confusing, so I went through all the previous chapters and italicized all of their lines, to aid reader comprehension. I also added a note about it to the summary. Hope this helps the flow of reading, and if you have any other suggestions, please, tell me, be it through messages or reviews. See you next time!]