When Grandt and the others stepped forward and passed by the now-down barricade, they found themselves at the edge of another steep cliff. There was a bridge – again, looking like someone or something had spilled brown paint on it at points – that covered the gap, and on the other side stood a giddy Papyrus and a large machine. The snow had seemingly been replaced by a series of monochromatic tiles, six down and eight across, which sat directly against the edges of the cliff on each side, until it stopped where Papyrus and the machine stood. From there on, the path continued forward, and the ground had become snow again.

"Hey, Human!" Papyrus cried, eyes sparkling. "You're gonna love this puzzle! It was made by the great Dr. Alphys!"

"Dr. Alphys?" Grandt asked.

"The royal scientist," Sans explained.

Grandt raised an eyebrow. "You have a royal scientist?"

"Of course not. The royals do."

Grandt grimaced and placed a hand to his forehead. "I hate you so much."

"No you don't," Sans replied, grinning.

"So, Papyrus," Toriel said quickly, "what is this great puzzle of yours?"

Papyrus nodded. "I'm glad you asked! Well, you see these tiles?" He gestured at the area in front of him. "Once I throw this switch, they will begin to change color! Each color has a different function! Red tiles are impassable! You cannot walk on them! Yellow tiles are electric! They will electrocute you! Green tiles are alarm tiles! If you step on them, you will have to fight a monster! Orange tiles are orange-scented. They will make you smell delicious! Blue tiles are water tiles. Swim through if you like, but if you smell like oranges! The piranhas will bite you. Also, if a blue tiles is next to a yellow tile, the water will also zap you! Purple tiles are slippery! You will slide to the next tile! However, the slippery soap smells like lemons! Which piranhas do not like! Purple and blue are okay! Finally, pink tiles. They don't do anything. Step on them all you like."

Papyrus clapped his hands. "So do you understand?"

Grandt blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"Red tiles are–"

"No, no!" Grandt waved his hands frantically. "You don't need to repeat it! I, uh… I understand."

"Oh, great!" Papyrus said. "Then there's one last thing!"

There was more?

"This puzzle," Papyrus continued with a slight flourish, "is entirely random! When I pull this switch –" he gestured to the nearby machine "– it will make a puzzle that no one has seen before! Not even I will know the solution!"

Toriel stared at him for a moment. "Don't you think this puzzle is a bit… difficult?"

"Silly shaved Asgore!" Papyrus chastised. "Who ever heard of an easy puzzle?"

"That's not what I meant," Toriel said, evidently brushing off the "shaved Asgore" bit. "I mean, do you not think that this puzzle is a significant step up from the previous ones?"

Papyrus nodded. "Well, that's the point. Sans cheated the human out of a fun, difficult experience, so the human gets a better puzzle instead!" His eyes seemed to light up a bit. "Also, I finally get to try out this puzzle idea! So thanks, Sans!"

"Yes, thanks, Sans," Grandt muttered.

"You're welcome."

Grandt sighed and ran a hand over his forehead. Why did it seem that everything was going wrong? Certainly, he was enjoying himself to some extent, but it felt as though the cosmos themselves were conspiring to give him the most difficult time imaginable. Or maybe it was just Sans.

It was probably just Sans.

Papyrus placed his hand on the lever. "Nyeh-heh-heh! Get ready!"

He pulled down, and Grandt noticed that the tiles began to shift. At first it was slow, with each change coming every few seconds. Then the speed increased, and Grandt could only watch in shock as the colors shifted rapidly. Red became green became blue became yellow became red again, all in the span of a single second. Grandt didn't even want to blink for fear that he'd miss something important.

And then, just as suddenly as it began to shift, the puzzle came to a sharp, immediate stop.

Grandt blinked. The stop had been so sudden that he feared it may have given him whiplash. It was clearly the only explanation for the ridiculousness of the new, apparently random configuration. That, or the machine was defective.

He looked to either side. Toriel stood speechless, jaw-dropped and wide-eyed. Sans, on the other hand, was clearly trying to keep himself from laughing. Papyrus merely stared for a moment before he turned around and walked out of the area completely. Not that Grandt blamed him, of course.

After all, every tile was orange.

Grandt stared at the puzzle for a moment. "This is dumb."

"You're gonna complain that the puzzle's easy?" Sans asked.

"This isn't even a puzzle," Grandt muttered. "It's just… It's stupid. It'd be like if I told you to 'solve the puzzle' and then handed you an unopened bottle of ketchup."

Sans chuckled. "Sounds challenging."

"Don't even start." Grandt rubbed his forehead slowly. "Alright, let's just… Let's just get this over with."

"Yes," Toriel said, smirking a bit. "Let's open the ketchup bottle."

Grandt, Sans, and Toriel began to walk across the field of orange. Every step forward sent up a spray of some sort of orange-scented gas that covered them from head to toe. It was a difficult ordeal, but through sheer determination, they managed to reach the other side unscathed.

"So, Grandt," Sans said casually when they reached the other end, "how're you holding up?"

"Scent aside," Grandt replied, taking a moment to sniff his arm, "not too bad."

"I don't know," Toriel teased. "I think you smell delicious."

Grandt grimaced. "Don't you start, either."

Toriel just giggled.

"In any case," Grandt said, "we should probably keep going." He turned to Sans. "Are we getting close to Snowdin?"

"Yep. Really close."

"That's good," Grandt murmured. He leaned back against the machine and shifted his legs.

Toriel looked over at him. "Are you alright?"

"Yes. My legs are just a bit sore, is all." Grandt chuckled. "I guess I'm not used to walking this much. Especially not through all this snow…"

"Do you need to take a break?" Toriel asked, looking concerned. "We can stop for a few minutes if you–"

"No, it's fine," Grandt replied. He stood up tall and stretched his legs out a bit. "I can rest when we get to Snowdin."

"Are you sure?"

Grandt nodded. "A few days ago, I climbed halfway up Mt. Ebott without a guide. I'll be fine walking just a bit longer." He chuckled again. "Of course, one of you might have to carry me when we get there."

"Sure thing," Sans said, "but I'll probably wind up dragging your head through the snow."

Grandt grinned. "That's good. It might wash off the smell."

"What, ya don't like being orange-scented?"

"Well, it could be a problem if we come across piranhas," Toriel supplied.

Grandt pushed himself away from the machine. He stood tall for a moment, ignoring the slight pain and stiffness in his legs as he took a few steps forward. His legs felt heavy in the snow. Heavier than before, at any rate.

"Alright," Grandt said. "Let's finish this up and get to town."

They walked on down the path, not bothering to look back at the field of orange tiles as they went. Instead, they focused on the area in front of them, which gradually shifted from the edge of a cliff into another large, open area with a large cluster of trees to the side. There was another guard station near the trees with yet another sign beside it. Grandt could see one of those dog monsters inside the station, panting with its tongue out.

The dog seemed to notice their approach, and it began barking excitedly. Unlike any of the others, it didn't say anything. In fact, based on its current behavior, Grandt questioned if it was capable of speech at all.

That idea was only reinforced by the sign next to it, which read, "AWARE OF DOG! pleas pet dog," in awkward, scribbled letters. At the very least, it was apparently literate. Not particularly intelligent, but literate.

"Oh, hey, Lesser Dog," Sans said.

Grandt raised an eyebrow. "That's a bit rude, don't you think?"

"Nah, that's just its name."

"You're kidding."

"Nope." Sans walked over to the barking dog, which suddenly began to vibrate. "It can't talk, so Undyne just calls it 'Lesser Dog.' The name kinda stuck."

"Undyne?" Grandt asked.

"Captain of the Royal Guard," Sans explained.

"Huh." There was a pause. "So another question."

"Go for it."

"This dog can't speak," Grandt said, "and it doesn't seem too reliable in a fight."

"That's right," Sans replied, now casually petting Lesser Dog.

Grandt crossed his arms. "So I guess the thing I'm asking is… Well, how weak is Papyrus if this dog can get into the Royal Guard before he does?"

Sans paused in his petting, which caused the Lesser Dog to let out a small cry. He turned to Grandt and looked him in the eyes. For about a minute, there was no sound except for the weak cries of Lesser Dog. Grandt's heart began to pound in his chest as Sans just kept staring at him wordlessly.

Then Sans winked. "Yeah, Papyrus is pretty weak."

Grandt breathed out a slow, quiet sigh of relief. For a moment, he'd been afraid that he'd offended Sans, but it seemed as though that wasn't the case.

"In any case," Toriel said quickly, "perhaps we should keep moving. Grandt, how are your legs?"

"They're fine," he replied. "Still a bit tired, but nothing too bad. I can make it."

"That's good. Just let us know if you need to take a break, alright?"

Grandt nodded. "Alright. Thank you."

He stepped forward a bit. His legs were a bit stiffer now, but that could easily be fixed. It was the pain that worried him, along with the fact that a lengthy break would mean less time that he could spend getting out of the Underground.

The three left again, thanking Lesser Dog for not stopping them with more pets – and Grandt could have sworn that its neck had gotten longer since they got there, but that was ridiculous, right? – before they got on their way.

They walked further down the snowy trail. The trees continued to their left, but the path ahead got narrower and the cliff seemed to grow steeper as they went along. Then, once more, the area suddenly got wider, giving the three more room to breathe.

There was another set of switches marked with "X"s in front of them, this time set into a large sheet of ice. This time, there didn't seem to be any signs telling them what to do, but Grandt had seen this puzzle enough times that he understood how to solve it.

He stepped forward and examined the area carefully. To the right sat a downward slope, but Grandt ignored it. After all, the puzzles always seemed to mark the way forward.

"You think you got this?" Sans asked.

"I should," Grandt replied, looking over the ice carefully. "It doesn't look particularly difficult."

Sans chuckled. "Then go for it. Open that ketchup bottle."

Grandt grimaced. "Alright then… Let's see, here…"

He took a single step onto the ice and slid forward, stopping only when he hit a switch. As before, the switch's color and shape changed from a blue "X" to a red "O."

"There we go," Grandt said, grinning to himself. "If I keep slipping until I hit a switch, then the next logical step should be…"

He stepped forward again. Then when he hit the next switch, he moved to his left, and then to his left again, and so on and so forth. Grandt followed the natural and logical lines from one switch to the next, until he finally hit the metallic button at the very end. The ordeal had taken maybe a minute or two at most.

As soon as he touched the last switch, a low rumbling began to sound throughout the area. Suddenly, the ground before him extended outward and linked itself to another snowy cliff a good distance away. The two pieces locked together perfectly, to the point where anyone looking at it now would have no way of knowing that they had ever been separated. Grandt stared at it for a moment before he turned around and slid back towards Sans and Toriel.

"Hey, good job," Sans said when he got back. "It's almost like you knew what you were doing."

"Thanks," Grandt replied a bit sarcastically. "I try."

"I can tell." Sans looked on ahead. "But really, that was pretty good. You didn't even need my help this time." He turned back to Grandt and winked. "Which is great, 'cause I love doing absolutely nothing."

Grandt rubbed the back of his head, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Um… Thank you, Sans."

"But you still smell delicious," Sans said casually as he walked by and slid off towards the newly formed bridge.

Grandt sighed. "Well, at least I have something going for me."

"You have a lot of things going for you," Toriel said, smiling as she stepped up next to him. She extended a hand. "Now, then… Shall we?"

Grandt looked at her for a moment, and then he smiled back and took her hand. "Alright. Let's go."

And then they both stepped onto the ice and slid forward, making their way ever closer to Snowdin.

AN: This chapter went on for longer than I'd initially planned. At first, it was only supposed to cover Papyrus's tile puzzle and the meeting with Lesser Dog, but it wound up being too short, so I added the puzzle at the end to give it just a bit more meat. On the plus side, that means that the next chapter will be the one where we finally finish off Snowdin Forest!

The tile puzzle was probably my favorite part of this chapter. While I enjoyed writing out Lesser Dog's scene and the ice-physics switch puzzle, they were much more difficult to write (and much shorter) than that piece. Not to mention that Papyrus is just ridiculously fun to write.

As far as the scene with Lesser Dog is concerned, I initially wanted to make it a bit longer, but I ultimately didn't because there was no way for me to write that scene without making it feel like padding. Grandt isn't the kind of guy who would stop just to play with a dog for a bit, especially not when he's starting to get tired, so I let the scene remain short. Likewise, the ice-physics puzzle is very simple in the game, so I thought I'd have that carry over to the scene itself by making it short and sweet. And orange-scented, of course.

As always, thanks to all of you who have favorited, followed, reviewed, or even just read this story up to this point! I always get really excited to see that people enjoy what I've written. And of course, I'll see you all next time, for when we finally finish off Snowdin Forest and make our way into Snowdin!