Welcome to Waterfall: It is cold and wet and unhappy
Beyond the snowy town of Snowdin was a surprisingly warm cavern; its central theme appeared to be water. In fact, a stream was running to his left, rather turbulently, in Sans' opinion. A waterfall sprouted from somewhere above and crashed down noisily somewhere far below. The only thing lighting his path seemed to be a series of small, glowing mushrooms and stones; and the ethereal, yet somehow natural, glow of the underground.
All in all, the area beyond Snowdin already seemed considerably safer than the chaotic area previous. Ever since the guard incident of Snowdin, or perhaps because of it, Sans was still cautious when entering Waterfall. Even so, Sans had seemingly gotten the guards of off his tail. Tail bone, really, if he still had the right to make skeleton puns.
(I do not find these puns of yours humorous, Sans.)
"You mean humerus." He corrected, a lilt of playfulness finding its way onto Sans' tongue. Making puns seemed suddenly important, but Sans couldn't place why. His headache throbbed loudly.
(You should move along,) the doctor continued, apparently ignoring Sans' attempts at irritating the voice, (The guards will eventually realize that you are no longer in the town. Snowdin is only so big, after all. When they finally reach this conclusion, it is safe to assume that the guard will work its way closer to you.)
"Geeze, Doc. I'm just trying to tickle your funny bone." Sans was beginning to realize that despite how comfortable he felt with the overall idea of having this doctor in his mind, he didn't really like the doctor. In all honestly, the doctor was actually a little annoying. He was always talking down upon other monsters and he never really let Sans take any breaks.
(I have told you before, Sans,) the doctor spoke after intercepting Sans' thoughts once more, (What I am doing, I am doing to protect you.) Sans raised his eyebrows below the mask, (And it is not my fault that other monsters are so incompetent.)
On a normal day, Sans may have apologized for his attitude; however, it seemed none of his days were normal anymore. Screw it. "Quit skullking, Doc. I'm just trying tibia good friend."
(…)
Sans decided maybe the doctor was right and he should just get moving. The human didn't expect any I-told-you-so's from the voice in his head, and he didn't get any. For his part, the doctor remained stoically silent. So Sans kept walking. Hurriedly, now, to make up for whatever time he lost pestering the doctor.
The path filtered out into a larger opening. Despite the guard post, the clearing was empty. Sans figured that most of the monsters were still searching around Snowdin. He remembered the doctor's warning, and started walking faster.
There was a star in his path. They were really starting to confuse the fallen human. He'd come across them... how many times now? Sans put a guess at four, five now, but wasn't entirely sure. Sans' head throbbed.
"Hey doc," Sans said, averting his oddly colored eyes from the star, searching the area for anything that didn't add to the weight of his headache, "D'you know what these things are?"
The doctor was silent for a moment in thought. Sans had the distinct feeling that the doctor was contemplating telling him anything. (I do.) He stopped, hesitantly, (I suppose you could call them save points. They are very important.)
"A save point? Like in a video game?"
A sigh. (If that analogy clears anything up for you, I suppose.) The doctor spoke slowly and deliberately, as if explaining something to a child, (They create a sort of checkpoint in reality, if you will. If something were to go wrong, one could reload from their latest save point.)
"This is a video game," Sans said, mockingly but also contemplatively, "Oh my god, this is a video game."
(This is all irrelevant, Sans. Just save your progress.)
The sound of rushing water filled Sans with trepidation.
He wasn't sure what he was fearful of.
(-)
Waterfall was a very strange place, Sans learned. Strange, though not in the good way. Almost immediately, Sans had to wade through a tumultuous downfall of water. Sans wasn't entirely sure what to do about the waterfall, so he just sprinted through it and attempted to dodge the unexplained stones that fell from somewhere above him. In the space just beyond that room, huge tufts of grass or reeds or something stuck out of the stone below.
Not ten minutes into Waterfall and Sans was thoroughly soaked head to toe.
"Seriously," Sans huffed out, trudging through the thick reeds, "Can't someone like, I don't know. Clear out a path?"
The doctor was quiet and Sans didn't mind.
"I guess not. That would make things too easy." Sans answered himself, "Being attack by everything that breaths isn't enough anymore, is it? If I don't drown on the way, my journey wouldn't be complete, huh?"
(Quiet down.)
"So he speaks!" Sans said, louder still. He wasn't sure what kind of mood he was in. It seemed to be some mix between snarky and outright antagonistic, but it held strong nonetheless, "What's up, Doc?"
(Sans, I'd advise that you quiet down your incessant chatter. Need I remind you that the entirety of the underground is currently searching for you?) The doctor replied with a collective sigh.
Somewhere to Sans' left, metal clanked loudly against the stone.
"I gotcha!"
The force of metal banged heavily onto Sans' head, and for a moment, his skull stopped throbbing simply because it went paralytically numb. He didn't have any time to react, really. Whatever had ambushed him moved with surprising speed and strength. By the time Sans regained full function of his limbs, the monster had him pinned to the earthy floor below. Sans groaned out in a pain that had been throbbing in his skull forever. Sans didn't know who attacked him, but it's not like he could see even if he sat up because the lighting became suddenly drastic for no apparent reason. Sans didn't understand anything in the underground, even now.
But then the monster hefted his form up with that same unimaginable strength and-
-wait seriously..? What was it with the underground and always surprising him? Because Sans really thought that the monster that had caught him was a royal guardsman but instead it was just... a kid?
(You shouldn't underestimate monsters, Sans.) the doctor piped up.
Sans wanted to say something about how undermining others was all that the doctor ever did, but he didn't want to speak to his friend that no one else could hear.
The monster that had brutally attacked Sans was a young fish. Her scales were blue and shining, like the monster was having a similar experience with the wetness of Waterfall that Sans was. Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail, but was still somehow tangled beyond belief. The clanging metal that smashed into Sans' already pounding skull looked to be a hastily made suit of armor. In reality, though, it just looked like a poorly put together Halloween costume. The fish monster looked to be a bit younger than Sans himself. She looked to be about the age of (REDACTED).
The fallen human realized that his mask had fallen off in the struggle.
"I caught, you, human!" She shouted triumphantly, "Now they'll definitely let me into the royal guard!"
Sans felt the urge to run away.
(-)
"There is no need."
I hate this chapter omgggg
Anyway! Just finished typing up chapter 12! I might be going on a hiatus after posting it to write ahead a bit but maybe not idkkkkk Originally the story was supposed to end after about 13 chapters but its only like half done now sooo...?
ALSO formatting is always weird on this site for some reason. Feel free to read this on my Ao3