I always loved New Home's Main Park: it had plenty of green grass, lots of trees to climb, a few benches to relax after a day spent playing...the light crystals atop the cavern, with their yellow and blue lights, simulated almost realistically the sky and the Sun on the Surface...at least, Chara thought so.
We were sitting on a white stone bench as They beckoned me "Hey Asriel, look!" Chara pointed at a green female monster enjoying a walk in the park with a white dog monster: suddenly, the former tripped and fell on the ground, prompting the dog to run to him and bark worriedly. The green monster got up as soon as she could, sorry for worrying the dog so much.
"What a poetic creature, the dog." They commented "His life is tied to that of his master...as his emotions are: the dog is a mirror of his master's mood...usually, at least. When his master is happy, he is happy as well; when his master is sad, he becomes sad as well..."
"That is some real dedication, is it not? To live your life in function of someone else's...truly, he must-"
"That's not all there is to it." They had not finished explicating "What do you think happens when a dog's master dies before his dog does?" before I could reply, They answered their own question "The dog will die as well...inside, at least. If the sole reason why he is alive dies, he will die as well: he will never be the same again, he will never feel or love again...he will become an empty shell, an empty memoir of who he used to be..."
It was not uncommon for Them to say such dark things, especially when They were alone with me, and I was kind of used to them: still, looking at the dog having fun with their friend...made their words even more oppressing and terrifying; I wanted to cry, but I somehow managed to control myself.
"What do you think happens, however, when a dog dies before his master does? Surely, his master will be upset about his death...but he will get over it, eventually. Everyone does. He will forget about him, it wasn't like his life depended on his dog's, after all...the feelings the dog proves for his master aren't returned at all. All the dog leaves behind when he dies are mere memories, destined to be forgotten...even by those who should treasure them the most."
I could not keep myself calm anymore and I began crying: a quiet, noiseless cry that I was sure nobody could hear or see. I was not sure why was I crying: maybe for the dog or the owner of Chara's story, maybe for dogs and owners in general...most likely because I felt like I needed to, and it felt alright to let my emotions free.
I heard something approaching me from right in front of me: the dog, who most likely spotted me crying as soon as I started, had gotten close to make sure I was okay. Seeing that little puppy so full of life...made me feel much better; I patted the dog on his head and petted him behind his ears, something he seemed to like a lot.
After that cute moment, the dog returned to his friend, who wanted to return home; soon after, Chara hit me in the back but I somehow managed not to fall off the bench "Consoled by a dog...you truly are a crybaby! Stop crying: we need to return home."
We were walking in that infinite iced plateau when we saw a pile of snow on our left: it obviously was artificial, there was no way so much snow could have fell on the same spot...
"Oh, Asriel, can I go play in the snow? That looks so much fun!" Frisk asked me excited.
"Of course you can, Frisk...however, I must ask you not to waste too much time..." but she had already jumped in the snow pile. As she enjoyed herself making snow angels, I noticed too late her Soul exiting her body and her timer popping up "Frisk, watch out! Something's incoming!"
A dog monster covered in light gray iron armor emerged from the snow pile and jumped at her, but she managed to avoid him just in time; now that he was out in the open, I could see his small shield and his...short sword. This one, unlike the previous dog's weapon, was not azure: that could only mean it was a real weapon, one that could hurt you if it slashed right through you.
He once again jumped at Frisk, but she outmaneuvered him and got right behind him: I thought she was going to attack him from behind...but she began petting him instead.
*And here I thought she was actually going to do the right thing and fight back...but no, she's too cool for that: petting him is a much, much better idea...* the irony in Chara's immaterial voice was palpable.
The dog dropped his sword and shield to the ground, his tail swung following the rhythm of Frisk's caresses: it looked like the battle had ended before it could even start.
Suddenly, the dog's neck started...extending: the more the human petted him, the more his neck elongated and elevated itself...that made me laugh uncontrollably for a second; when the dog's neck reached a certain altitude, it turned downwards and slowly descended to the ground. I did not even want to imagine the amount of pressure his neck must have been tolerating in that moment.
*Is there an end to this madness?* They commented in my head.
"That is enough Frisk: I do not want that poor guy's neck to suddenly snap..."
The girl sighed and apologized "Yeah, I think it's enough...I never pet a dog before, and I got a little excited..." just a little, I thought?
She stopped petting the dog and walked to me; meanwhile, the dog's neck returned to normal as he barked to us and fled contented. At least someone got what they desired...
"Hey, I think we need to go over there." Frisk pointed at a bunch of spikes emerging from the ground a few feet away "The dog fled in that direction, so that's probably where we need to go..."
"But I do not see any switches around here..." I mumbled "Hmm...where could the switch that lowers these spikes be?" as I pondered that, I noticed that the snow where the human and the dog "fought" (if we could call that fighting) had something on top of it: it looked like a map of the nearby area, and there was a big "X" right in the middle of a nearby dead end. A hint to the solution, perhaps?
Frisk noticed it as well and asked me to go investigate that area: I got where she asked me to go and spotted a small white button on a nearby tree, which I immediately pressed. Frisk shouted that the spikes had lowered, so I returned to her as fast as I could.
"Good job Asriel!" she congratulated me as she clapped her hands.
"Oh, I do not deserve your congratulations..." I blushed the compliment away "You would have figured it out soon anyway..."
"But I didn't." she tried to better my mood "You are better than you think, Asriel! You're smart, intelligent, mature: you're so much better than me!"
*Not enough apparently, since you agreed to participate in this foolish voyage...*
We proceeded down the road that had been blocked by spikes until we got ambushed by two more dogs: these two were wearing two huge axes and wearing sinister black robes; the one on the left looked like a male, while the one on the right looked like a female.
"What's that smell?" "Where's that smell?"
"If you're a smell..." "Identify yoursmellf!"
They then began running around nonsensically: perhaps these two were blind as well, I wondered? They soon stopped right in front of us and pointed out:
"Here's that weird smell..." "It smells like...squirrels!"
"Oh, come on! Again with this whole "squirrel" thing? Are there even squirrels in the Underground?" I angrily asked.
"Did you hear that honey?" "It must definitely be a squirrel."
"I give up!" I summoned a few black flames and jumped backwards, ready for combat "If you get one of those axes near my friend, I will make you smell something tremendously hot!"
I was about to say some more threatening phrases when Frisk jumped in the snow in front of her and rolled in it for a few seconds; this apparently unsettled Chara, who was worried about their former clothes *No! That's my jacket! I mean, not anymore...but it still is! Tell her to stop immediately!*
"Honey, I think the squirrel's smell changed." "Yes, it did: should we re-smell it?"
Frisk got up and stood idly as the two dogs sniffed her green jacket.
"I think we made a mistake, honey." "This isn't a squirrel, it's a little puppy!"
"W-What?"
*WHAT?*
Frisk began petting the two dogs simultaneously, more or less like she did with the dogs from before: she really did enjoy petting them, and they enjoyed being pet by her as well.
"Dogs can pet other dogs?" "A new world has opened for us..."
"Oh my God..." I could not understand what was happening anymore.
*Please, I beg you, take me somewhere very, very far away from that girl...* as much as I wanted to satisfy that particular request, I could not abandon Frisk...despite her oddness.
Frisk waved her goodbyes at the monsters and then approached me as I walked away "Hey, what do you think? I'm pretty good at this whole "fighting" thing, am I not?"
"I have to admit, your methods are...unconventional, but effective. However, I must remind you that not all encounters can be solved through negotiation...or cuddles." she giggled when I mentioned cuddling.
She answered, joyous "Come on, Asriel! Being unconventional and creative is the key to success!"
"Who did you hear that from?" I asked her, curious "I have never heard such saying before..."
My question made her a bit uneasy, but she nevertheless answered "My mom...a few weeks ago. Just before she..." she did not end her sentence, and it did not even look like she wanted to.
Her rapid change of attitude, as well as the way she stopped talking abruptly, made me...suspicious: was Frisk's Mom...no, there was no way that could have happened. There was no way...was there?There had to be another explanation, something else that could have explained her behavior...
I stopped thinking as soon as I noticed the puzzle right in front of me "Seriously, Papyrus? Is this really your definition of "puzzle"?"
"I'm having fun watching these two: they're like dumb and dumber, only...even dumber." what a bad joke...but I laughed to it anyway, most likely because I knew I made even worse jokes myself "Oh, can I ask you a thing?" Dante asked me, calm.
"Yeah, sure." I answered, trying to sound as carefree as possible.
"If that girl is the one I'm looking for...who's that monster with him? The one who looks like a giant goat." he precised. He was talking about Prince Asriel, of course, and I felt like telling him wouldn't have changed things too much "He's Asriel Dreemurr, legitimate heir to the throne of monsterkind...sorta. You see, there was an accident seventy years ago and his human sibling kinda died. I don't know what happened to him after that...except that he exiled himself to the Ruins, that place where I found you some time ago." I explained as concisely as I could, as to not give away too much information.
"Exiled himself...until now." the human pointed out, finally interested in something.
"Yep, until now." I precised "Dunno what he's been doing in there all this time, but..."
"You mentioned his...human sibling died. I won't ask how he had a human sibling, but I'll ask how that guy died."
"As far as I know, he died of poisoning. Rumors have been spread on what happened next: that Asriel absorbed his Soul and traveled to the Surface, only to return barely alive. Of course, that has never been confirmed by the Royal Family. From the looks of it, his sibling is still alive...inside of him." I was actually sure of everything I had said so far, but explaining how I knew all that stuff would've been...complicated.
"So, he absorbed the Soul of his human sibling...is that even possible?" he asked, incredoulous.
"Monsters have the power to absorb human Souls, just like humans have the power to absorb powerful monsters' ones...monsters that have absorbed a human Soul become much, much stronger and deadlier..."
"So, that guy has another guy's Soul inside of him...that must be it..."
"What do you mean by that?" I was confused: what was he talking about?
"I can feel...something: it's coming from that goat's direction...it's like a vortex pulling me in, and it's made out of...hatred? I don't really know, how can that girl stay so close to him and not feel anything? How can anyone stay so close to him and not feel anything?"
I tried to play dumb, but I knew what he was talking about "Actually, I've never felt anything coming from him either...maybe you're imagining it or something..."
"No, I'm not imagining shit. What's the deal with that guy, Asriel? Is he a menace for the girl?"
"Well, he is pretty powerful. As I said, he possesses a human Soul, which makes him much more powerful...he's definitely out of your league, but I'm not sure whether he's a threat to the girl's safety or not..." I pulled a bottle of ketchup from my jacket's pocket and began drinking it "Probably not, but who knows?"
"Stronger than me? I like it..." was this guy getting cocky or something, I wondered? Maybe he just liked fighting with strong opponents: I wondered just who or what was he on the Surface...
"Dante, you're losing them." the monster and the little girl had navigated trough Papyrus' puzzle and were now really, really far away: why did I distract him like that?
"Well shit...how do I catch up to them now? There' no way I can run that fast, I hate running after all..." he sighed as he began walking in their direction; I wondered whether teaching him about the "shortcuts" was a bad idea or not...in the end, I figured out that I bet on that horse too much not to inform him of the technique that I mastered "Look, I really didn't want to teach you how to use them...but I guess it's time you learn about "shortcuts"."
"What are those?" he asked, interested.
"Follow my instructions...and you'll see that soon."
Papyrus' puzzles were not that difficult: they reminded me a lot of those pressure-plate based puzzles in the Ruins, except they were slightly more complicated...not too much, however. Frisk was solving them at an exceptional speed, and I was helping her to the best of my ability: overall, we were navigating through that area pretty quickly.
"I find it weird..." I told Frisk "That Papyrus, who expressed multiple times his desire to capture you, is not using more...violent methods to achieve his goals and is instead using puzzles to detour us..."
"Yeah, it's weird..." Frisk admitted "His logic doesn't make sense..."
To be honest, nothing really made sense: it had been fifty years since I was last in the Underground...but it felt like centuries: the atmosphere surely changed, generally the monsters were acting differently and weirdly. I felt like I was the only one sane in that cavern, and that was not a joke.
I ended my conversation with the human when I noticed Papyrus a dozen feet away from us, fiddling with a weird machine; between us and him was...like a huge chessboard whose tiles were all gray "HEY, IT'S THE HUMAN AND HER GOAT-BRO! YOU'VE FINALLY ARRIVED!" and there he was again, with his annoyingly high voice and the childish attitude "I'VE BEEN BUSY SETTING THIS MACHINE UP FOR THE LAST FIFTEEN MINUTES! I AM SURE YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE THIS PUZZLE!" there was no way whatever that thing was could have been stupider than the traps that led us there, so I raised my guard "THIS PUZZLE WAS COMMISIONED BY ME TO THE ROYAL SCIENTIST, DOCTOR ALPHYS!" he explained; funny, I never heard of any "Alphys" before: I thought the Royal Scientist's name was "Gaster" or something like that, perhaps he had resigned...
"ANYWAY, LET ME EXPLAIN THIS PUZZLE! DO YOU SEE THESE TILES?" Frisk nodded "ONCE I PRESS THIS BUTTON, THEY WILL ACTIVATE AND BECOME COLORED! EACH COLOR HAS A SPECIFIC FUNCTION: RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE, YELLOW TILES ELECTROCUTE YOU, GREEN ONES WILL ATTRACT NEARBY MONSTERS..." that was all I remember, I could not understand a word of what he said next: he spoke about differently-colored tiles, rules and effects...I spent an entire year of my life to master chess and all of it's rules, spoken and unspoken: how could I memorize such a great deal of information in mere seconds?
"HUMAN! DID YOU GET ALL THAT?"
I wanted him to explain everything one more time, but Frisk answered quicker than me "Yes, I did."
"What?" I was surprised, very surprised in fact, that she could remember everything the tall skeleton said despite hearing it only once.
"EXCELLENT! OH, ONE LAST THING: THIS PUZZLE IS ENTIRELY RANDOM! WHICH MEANS THAT NOT EVEN I KNOW THE SOLUTION TO THIS PUZZLE!" everything just kept getting worse... "GOOD LUCK ON THIS ONE!"
"You cannot be serious! There is no way she can beat this puzzle!"
"What do you mean?" Frisk looked at me puzzled "I don't think it's that hard..."
"GET READY, HUMAN, FOR I AM ABOUT TO PRESS THE BUTTON!" the skeleton pressed a button on a small remote in his hand: the tiles in front of me flashed of different colors, changing their coloring every few instants. I was waiting for the moment where they would have stopped changing color and the puzzle could be started...except that an accident occurred: the machine next to Papyrus seemingly malfunctioned, causing all the tiles to become gray for a second, then either red or pink; Frisk explained that we could walk on pink tiles just fine, so we walked solely on those until we reached the other side of the chessboard.
"I...I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY..." the skeleton looked defeated, inconsolable "PLEASE PROCEED WITHOUT ME..." he left in a hurry, without even laughing.
"...That was a bit sad. It's a shame his puzzle failed so miserably." Frisk looked a bit sorry for the skeleton; I replied, a bit surprised "I do not get it, why are you sorry? That puzzle could have been unsolvable for all we know!"
"That's the point! Can you imagine it, a puzzle that is entirely random of such huge complexity? I could've spent days, weeks, even months on that thing! Too bad I won't ever get to experience it..."
"Sometimes I really do not understand you, Frisk..." I sighed.
*Only sometimes?* They asked ironic in my head.
*Perhaps always.* I corrected myself.
*That's better.*
We walked further down the road and surprisingly we did not find any more puzzles for the following five minutes: while we were chatting, Frisk abruptly pointed in front of us and shouted "Asriel, look! That's so cool!"
In front of me was...a graveyard of snow sculptures, each of them resembled a canine monster of some kind: however, all of them had crumbled to the ground due to their...necks being too elongated. Gravity, the worst enemy of art.
"Who could've possibly made this?" was Frisk really asking herself that question, I thought? I believed the answer was quite obvious.
"A dog monster passed through here a few minutes ago." a monster approached us: she looked like one of those "cows" that are very common on the Surface, her skin was brown and she had huge horns. She wore a purple sweater, black leggings and purple boots: what I believed was the standard attire for Snowdin's citizens...that could only mean we were getting close!
"The dog came from where you did, he looked so...inspired! He made all of these sculptures by himself...but the necks were too long and that caused their heads to fall to the ground...how sad indeed..." she looked very interested in the sculptures...
I wanted to be sure we were nearing Snowdin town, so I asked "Excuse me, madame, is Snowdin town close nearby? It is almost time for lunch and we have not eaten yet..."
"Yeah, it is: just a hundred or so feet away...hey, now that I think about it, I've never see any of you two before: where did you come from?" did she not realize Frisk was a human? I could exploit that to our advantage, maybe other monsters would have mistook her for a monster as well...
Either way, I could not tell the woman the truth: I did not want anyone to figure out I was the Prince, and telling her where did I come from would have made her suspicious on my identity "We, uh, we came from the capital: we took the long way and now we are taking the short one to return back..." I sincerely hoped she would have drank it.
"Oh, that's good to hear! It's amazing people from New Home still come to visit little old Snowdin!" apparently, she did "Well, good luck on your journey, then! The capital is very far away from here..." of that, at least, I was sure. It would not have been easy to reach the Royal Palace, but we needed to do so before night...before anyone could figure out I had left the Ruins, at least.
"My thanks, madame. I wish you good luck as well, for everything you might need it." when I felt sure she could no longer hear me, I sighed of relief: I had made it, she had not found out I was the Prince.
"Hey goat-bro, why were you so nervous?" Frisk asked me.
Great, now I was nervous once more "It's...nothing, Frisk. I just...I am not the best at conversing." a sloppy answer, but an answer nonetheless "Fifty years spent alone certainly did not help..."
"You don't seem to have any problems when talking with me..." she pointed out, suspicious "Is there something you're hiding from me?" she was too smart...and I did not like it "But that is because you are special, Frisk: I feel like I can tell you anything I want, Frisk, that you are the perfect person to reveal yourself to." if she believed me now, she would always have.
She chuckled for a second before answering "Yeah, I feel like that too! It's so easy to talk with you, Asriel! You're the best friend I never had!" what a happy...and somehow ominous phrase.
After solving yet another puzzle (which was so simple I will not even bother to describe) we reached another small area: it was covered by snowpoffs, but there was also another one of those sentry posts on the side of the road.
"Asriel, I think I noticed something." Frisk caught my attention "Every time we fought a dog monster, there was one of these sentry posts. Even before, where we saw those dog sculptures, there was a sentry post on the side of the road."
"Was there? I do not think I noticed it..." I tried to remember, but evidently I did not see it "What about when we fought those two dogs with the huge axes? I am sure there was no sentry post there..."
"Actually, I think I saw two sentry posts built on the edge of a cliff a few areas before that one..." she admitted "I didn't warn you about those because you don't seem very interested in detours..."
If what she was implying was correct, then...there had to be a dog hiding somewhere in there too! All those snowpoffs...they were not random, they were hiding spots: the dog was most likely hiding in one of them, ready to attack us when we expected it the least...what a cunning scheme! For a dog, at least.
We walked slowly and quietly, afraid of all the snowpoffs in front of us: I kept my guard up the whole time and double-checked every pile of snow, but I did not find anything in any one of them; eventually, the only snowpoff that I had yet to check was the last one, which was standing right between us and a wooden bridge.
"You have got to be kidding me: is it really the last one?" a whole minute wasted trying to find a stupid dog in even stupider snowpoffs...
*Did you really expect a dog to come up with better tactics?* They asked me, ironic *Besides, it's right between you and where you need to go: on a strategic level, it's technically correct.*
I approached the snowpoff alone, suspicious: when I got enough close, the pile of snow began shaking...almost excitedly "Get ready, Frisk." I warned her calmly. A small puppy head popped out of the snowpoff, then an even smaller tail: was that the dog we were dealing with?
"It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" Frisk was ecstatic "I wanna pet him!"
"Hmm...this is unexpected." I was unsettled: this all looked too easy...
In fact, I was not surprised at all when the dog lifted itself from the ground: the cute facade was a decoy, he was in fact wearing a humanoid iron armor that was at least twenty times bigger than him and he was carrying a huge spear. That would not have been easy.
"Is he still cute?" I inquired.
"Yes he is." Frisk answered calmly.
The dog leaped towards the human and she barely managed to jump away from him: the impact caused the nearby snow to fly up in the air only to fall back down a few seconds later.
"Are you still planning on ending this fight peacefully?" I asked Frisk, whose timer now signed three minutes "Yes, I do!" Frisk looked determined as always "But I need your help: can you please find me a tree branch or something like that?"
"Why should I do that?" I asked, perplexed.
*Why? Why not? If you want to live by her rules, at least do it correctly and follow her every command!* I was upset by their mocking words, but I understood the point: if I trusted Frisk once, I needed to trust her whenever she requested it "Okay Frisk, give me a second." I found a branch right beside me, lying in the snow at my feet. I tossed the branch at Frisk, who caught it mid-air, who then showed it to the dog.
*Oh my God, please don't tell me she's...*
She threw the branch a few feet away from her and the dog proceeded to retrieve it as fast as the gigantic armor he was wearing allowed him to; she repeated the action a few times until the dog became too tired to continue and sat exhausted right next to her.
*Madness...this is madness...* Chara expressed the concept to the best of their ability.
*And you are not even living it personally: imagine how I am feeling right now.* I agreed with Them.
*I can feel your every emotion, idiot! This only makes me even more tired of this idiocy!*
"Hey goat-bro! Look at me: I did it!" I approached her calmly as her timer disappeared "I told you I could do it!"
"You sure did." I congratulated her "You are getting better and better each time as well!"
The human patted the dog monster on his forehead, who returned the human's caresses by getting out of his armor (he was actually a normal dog in a big armor) and licked the human on her front, making her giggle. After the dog left, forgetting his armor in the process, we turned to the bridge: the town of Snowdin was right across it, soon we could have rested...
"Finally! I am so hungry!" Frisk could not wait to eat something...
"I DON'T THINK SO, HUMAN!" Papyrus appeared in front of us out of nowhere: as he blocked the way to Snowdin town, he explained, a determined look on his face "I DID NOT WANT TO CAPTURE YOU THIS WAY...BUT I WILL IF I MUST! PREPARE YOURSELF, BOTH OF YOU!"
I knew what he wanted: he had finally decided to attack us directly. But I was prepared, I would not have let Frisk fall in his cold skeletal hands.
"Hey Sans?" Dante beckoned me.
"Yeah? What is it?" I asked, tired.
"That's your brother, right?" He asked, curious.
"Yep, that's him." I answered, still tired.
"Aren't you worried that he's going to fight the girl? That he's going to fight the goat?"
I pondered about it for a second, then replied "Nah, not at all. They're all gonna be fine."
"Are you sure? Didn't you say that the goat was dangerous or something?"
"Yeah, he is...but he isn't the kind of person that would hurt my brother for something silly like this..." I shivered thinking about...that "...At least, I hope he won't..."
The human didn't inquire further about it and instead asked "What about the weed? Are you seeing it anywhere?"
"I'm trying to figure out where he might be, but he's like...disappeared. Good thing you're over there, keeping an eye out on the girl and her...friend."
"Well, you taught me teleportation: it's the least I can do to repay you, right?" it scared me, how he could always be so inexpressive without even trying. This kid...was he that empty inside? So devoid of emotions?
"Let's be clear though: you don't want to find the weed just to repay me, right?" I asked, serious.
"Am I really such an open book?" he asked, sarcastic.
"Only when you want to be one." I answered, even more sarcastic.
"I want to experiment some new tricks: I'm still somewhat doubting this is all real, and I want to be sure it is...by punching that flower in the face!" finally, a glimmer of emotion! It was rage, of course...but at least he could still feel! That meant he was not a full-fledged bad guy, that he was not like...that thing. That one thing I saw in one of the reports.
"Well, I won't stop you from doing that." I told him, relaxed "As long as you hit only the bad guys, I'll let you do as you please..."