"So I take it you were in the Ruins for a long time, Toriel?" Grandt asked as they walked away from the guard dogs.

"Yes. I sealed myself away in them about twelve years ago." Toriel shook her head. "Honestly, I never planned to leave."

"I can't imagine how lonely it must have gotten."

"It wasn't that bad," Toriel replied, smiling a bit. "Many of the monsters with me were very friendly, and of course Sans visited often."

"Once a day, every day," Sans added with a chuckle. "Somehow, we never ran out of jokes."

Grandt idly stroked his beard. "In that case, it sounds pretty nice." He paused for a moment, considering his next words carefully. "Still, I have to wonder why you holed yourself away in the first place. I can't imagine it was just for fun."

Toriel didn't respond. She just looked down at the snow.

Grandt shook his head. "If you don't want to tell me, that's fine."

"No, it is not that," Toriel replied. "It's just… It's complicated."

"I understand." Grandt looked over at her. "Just… No, don't worry about it. If you ever want to say anything, though… Well," he added with a quiet chuckle, "I'm all ears."

Toriel smiled slightly. "I will try to remember that."

Sans stopped ahead of them. "Oh, hey. It's a puzzle."

"Another one?" Grandt asked, turning his head forward.

"Looks like it."

"Huh."

Indeed, just ahead of the trio sat a simple-looking puzzle. There was a group of large rocks arranged in a pattern that resembled a sideways "H," or at least a short, very fat "I." From his current position, Grandt could see that inside the alcoves of the rock pattern, there were a pair of switches, each marked with a large blue "X." Aside from the letters themselves, the switches were almost the exact same color as the surrounding snow.

Sitting in the snow directly above the puzzle was another switch. This one, however, was much more visible, most likely because it lacked any sort of symbol of its own. Below the puzzle was a sign, and off to the side, Grandt could see a barricade of tall spikes that jutted out from the snow.

Grandt sighed and began walking down towards the sign. "Alright, let's see… 'Turn every X into an O. Then press the switch.'" He looked up, eyebrow cocked. "Turn them into 'O's? How in the world do you do that?"

Sans shrugged. "Why not give it a try for yourself?"

"Alright," Grandt replied.

He ran a hand through his beard as he briefly thought it over. Did he just have to step on the switches? Would that change their symbols? If nothing else, it was at least worth a try.

Grandt stepped over to one of the two marked switches inside the fat "I." He slowly set his foot on it, pressing down only when he was certain that he was completely safe in doing so. For a moment, there was no obvious change. Then there was a soft, barely audible click, and the image on the switch completely changed.

The lines on the "X" shifted, moving out towards the edge of the switch and becoming softer and rounder. The color shifted from blue to red. In a matter of mere seconds, the shape had completely changed from an "X" to an "O."

Grandt stared at it for a moment, and then he shrugged and stepped over to the other switch. He stepped on it more casually this time, knowing that if nothing else, at least it wasn't a disguised mine or something of the sort. Once again, the symbol shifted.

That should be both of them, Grandt thought to himself. Now I just have to step on this switch over here, right?

He walked through the ankle-deep snow to reach the silver switch. There were a few rust marks on it – signs that it had not been painted, and that the silver was its normal color –, but overall it seemed to be in working condition. Grandt placed his foot on the switch and pushed it down harshly, earning a jolt of surprise when it lowered much more easily than he'd expected. In the same way someone may have stumbled at the bottom of a staircase because they believed there were still steps left to go, Grandt stumbled forward a bit. Fortunately, he caught himself before he plunged face-first into the snow.

Toriel hurried over to him. "Are you okay?" she asked, looking incredibly worried.

"Y-yeah…" Grandt replied uneasily. He could feel his heart beating quickly in his chest, but the pulse quickly returned to normal. "I should be fine, now."

"What happened?"

Grandt sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "I thought that switch would be harder to push in. Turns out it wasn't."

"Heh, hard or not, ya got the way forward open," Sans said, gesturing towards the barricade.

Grandt turned around. Sure enough, the spikes had retreated into the ground, leaving the path ahead open.

"Well, that's a relief, if nothing else," Grandt muttered.

They passed the now-open barricade and walked further down the snow-covered path, stopping when they saw Papyrus standing by what looked like another puzzle, arms crossed.

"Hey, Bro," Sans said casually as they stepped over to him. "You look puzzled."

Papyrus turned around suddenly. "Sans!" he bellowed, stamping his foot in the snow. "Where have you been?!"

"Snowdin Forest."

"That's not what I meant! I–" Papyrus stopped as soon as he noticed Grandt, and he blinked.

"Human!" he gasped. "How in the world did you avoid my trap?!"

Grandt placed a hand on his chin. "Your trap? Oh, you mean the spaghetti?"

"That's the one! It took me five whole minutes to make it!" Papyrus added proudly.

"I could, ah… I could tell." Grandt reached into his pocket. "I had a bit," he explained, pulling out the frozen chunk of undercooked pasta, "but I wanted to get to Snowdin quickly, so I took some for the road."

"You can do that?!" Papyrus cried, excitement showing in his eyes. "Wowie… I never realized the possibilities of travel spaghetti!"

"The pasta-bilities?" Toriel offered, giggling.

"No, of course not!" Papyrus replied. "Human, don't worry about ever running out! I, master chef Papyrus, will make you all the spaghetti that you could ever want!"

Grandt smiled. "Good. And I, mediocre chef–"

Toriel coughed.

"– moderately above average chef Grandt," he corrected, "will be more than happy to give you some pointers if you want."

"Can you cook spaghetti?" Papyrus asked.

"Yes."

"Oh my God,you're the best human ever!"

Grandt rubbed the back of his head, feeling a bit embarrassed by the sudden praise. "Well, I'd hardly call myself… In any case, about the puzzle behind you…?"

Papyrus gasped and turned to Sans. "Sans, look! He's just like me!" He turned Grandt around so they were standing side-to-side. "We're both tall, combat experts, great chefs, puzzle lovers, bald… And we both have skeletons! It's like we're the same person, only completely different in multiple ways!"

Sans choked.

Toriel excused herself to laugh uncontrollably.

Grandt shifted uncomfortably, suddenly feeling very aware of every visible liver spot on his head – which was to say, every liver spot on his head.

"Er… So about that puzzle…"

"Right, right," Papyrus answered, eyes gleaming excitedly. "You were all taking so long to get here that I decided to improve this puzzle by making it look more like my face. Now the snow froze to the ground, so the solution's completely different. Fear not, though!" He tapped his chest. "I will solve it quickly so that we can move forward! Meanwhile, feel free to try the puzzle yourself. I'll try not to give away the answer."

Grandt nodded. "Alright… Well in that case, let's see if I can't solve this one, too."

He stepped over to the large puzzle – which, Grandt had to admit, did in fact resemble Papyrus's face – and began his attempt to solve it. It looked to have the same "'X's to 'O's" trick that the last puzzle had, albeit on a larger and more complicated scale. It more resembled a maze than anything, so it only made sense for him to try and map it out a bit before he stepped through.

Then Grandt took a step forward regardless, deciding that, while he could take the time to map it out and plan his every move, it would not be a bad idea to at least get a feel for the puzzle before he did so.

He stepped forward calmly. Grandt could feel everyone's eyes boring into the back of his head, but he wasn't about to let that affect his performance. At least, not too badly.

Grandt walked through the maze, stepping on the blue "X"s and turning them into red "O"s without too much difficulty. He worked out his position as he went along. After all, he didn't want to corner himself, or he would certainly fail the puzzle.

And then he cornered himself, anyway. There were rocks to his left and right, and "O"s both in front of and behind him. Grandt groaned when he realized there was no direction he could go without stepping on an "O" again. He stood still for a while and rubbed his temples.

"I think I failed the puzzle," he announced, frustrated.

"Nah, you got it. You hit all the switches, didn't ya?"

"Sans, there's no direction I can go." Grandt sighed and leaned himself against one of the rocks. "Here – I'll come back, and I'll try it again."

Sans chuckled. "Don't worry about it. Just stay where you are."

He walked over to the silver switch, hands in pockets, and stepped on it. There was a sharp click as the "O"s all turned yellow, followed by the sound of metal against metal as the spikes descended back into the ground.

"Sans!" Papyrus cried, looking mortified. "You… You can't do that!"

"Sure I can. I just did."

"That's not what I meant!" Papyrus stamped his foot in the snow. "You just cheated!"

"How?" Sans winked. "The rules don't say anything against it."

"It's just not in the spirit of things! Imagine if you were telling one of your dumb jokes, and I came around and spoiled the punchline! Wouldn't you be angry?"

"Nah, I'd just tell another joke."

"Well I can't just–!"

"Um… I'm sorry, Papyrus," Grandt said, drawing their attention to himself. "If you want, I can redo the puzzle."

Papyrus stared at him for a moment, and then he sighed. "No, that's fine. It's not your fault that my silly brother chose to ruin it for you." He clapped his hands together, suddenly looking excited. "Oh, I just had a great idea! I've got a much better puzzle just ahead that I'm sure you'll love! Yeah, it'll be much better than this old thing! And for someone who loves puzzles as much as you, it'll be perfect!"

Nyeh-ing and heh-ing, Papyrus ran off towards where the barricade had once been. He vanished into the distance, looking positively giddy with himself.

Grandt walked out of the puzzle and over to Sans. "Did you really need to do that?"

"Eh, probably not," Sans replied, shrugging.

"Then why?"

Sans winked. "Well in this case, it's my fault for cheating instead of yours for failing."

"Papyrus doesn't strike me as someone who'd get angry about failure."

"He isn't. He'd be disappointed, though."

Grandt slowly nodded. "I see… Well, thank you for helping me."

"Sure thing." Sans's grin seemed to grow. "Next time you mess up on a puzzle, I'll be there to give you a hand."

"… what do you mean, 'next time'?"

Sans chuckled.

Toriel stepped back in, hand clutched over her mouth and cheeks bright red. "Alright, I'm good," she said, clearly trying (and failing) to stifle her giggles. Then she lowered her hand and looked around. "Where is Papyrus?"

"He left," Sans said. "Grandt and I solved the puzzle."

"Sans cheated," Grandt deadpanned.

Toriel looked over at Sans, clearly taken aback. "What?"

"I helped Grandt solve the puzzle," Sans explained. "Papyrus wasn't too happy about it."

"Is he going to be okay?" Toriel asked.

"Papyrus? Please." Sans winked. "He'll forget about it soon. I can't think of a single time he's ever held a grudge."

Toriel sighed. "Well, that is a relief. Now what?"

"We keep going forward," Grandt replied, and he began walking. "Papyrus said he's got a great puzzle up ahead." He grinned. "And honestly, I'm a bit excited to see what it is."

AN: This chapter was hard. I don't know what made it so difficult, but it was much harder to write than anything that came before it. That being said, Papyrus is incredibly fun to write, and the banter between him and Sans is even more so.

Also, more progress. I swear we'll reach Snowdin soon, guys.

But until then, thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed, reviewed, or even just read this story up to this point! I'll see you all next week for when I'll hopefully have an easier time!