That night Grillby had something he couldn't rightly call a nightmare. It was unsettling, but it was nothing like the shiver-inducing terror his previous nightmares had held for him. But before he could grasp it long enough to remember what it was, a persistent nudging dragged him awake. Grillby blinked tiredly up at Gaster. The skeleton was smiling at him, excitement gleaming in the depths of his eye sockets.
"Well it's about time," Gaster grinned when the elemental finally yawned and stretched, "You planning on sleeping all day?"
Grillby chuckled and allowed himself to be helped to his feet, "You're just upset because I make the breakfast around here."
He flickered a frown when he noticed Amathea was gone, "Wow, she's being sucked into meetings already?"
"Yeah, she woke me up a while ago when she left. Guess they've still got a lot of planning to do," Gaster smirked, "I'm surprised she can get up in time for that stuff."
"Yes well, if you had your way you'd nap the day away," Grillby chuckled, "Come on. Let's get some breakfast."
"Only breakfast?" Gaster hummed expectantly, the ridge above his unbroken eye raising coyly as he followed Grillby from the room.
"Uh… Not sure what else we could have," Grillby laughed with a flustered spark.
"Oh come on Grillby," Gaster grinned and signed excitedly, "There's absolutely nothing else that you could possibly want to do today?"
"Not really?" Grillby smirked confusedly.
Gaster laughed exasperatedly, finally signing in big emphatic movements, "The other elementals, Grillby!"
"Oh…" he'd hoped to forget about that, "Ammy told you about that… did she?"
"Well yeah," Gaster chuckled, "I'm supposed to be your stand-in escort for the day - or something like it anyway? I don't know really. Hopefully nobody expects me to know what I'm doing-"
Gaster stopped mid-sentence and mid-stride when he realized Grillby wasn't walking with him anymore. He caught the elemental in a concerned smirk, "What?"
Grillby frowned at the stone beneath his feet, flame flickering through pale and worried hues. Finally he hissed out a sigh, "Maybe… It's not such a good idea to meet them."
"Oh come on Grillby," Gaster groaned good-naturedly and rolled his eyes, "Look I know you're nervous, but seriously, even if you do embarrass yourself, what are the odds you're ever going to see them again?"
For a few seconds Grillby just stood there, shifting through uncomfortable colors. That creeping, icy feeling was wriggling its way through his chest again and he felt… tense.
"I'm not… nervous," the elemental finally said, and flickered a humorless smile when Gaster scoffed at him, "Really, I'm not."
He moved to join Gaster again, and together the two of them walked out of the barracks and towards the morning. More to himself than Gaster, Grillby muttered, "Just don't take anything they say too seriously."
It was midmorning by the time Grillby and Gaster finally made their way to the elementals. Though the encampment itself was small, with so many new monsters inside it there was quite a struggle to find anything - even something so out-of-the-ordinary as a group of stone elementals. For a few glimmering, hesitant seconds Grillby had to wonder if the King had needed them last-minute, and Grillby wouldn't actually have to meet with them. The nervous, unsettling tension he'd awoken with quickly turned to anxious dread when a monster pointed them in the right direction.
The two of them walked out of camp into the less claustrophobic space beyond it, where a large group of monsters had begun training and drilling - and where off to the side, isolated from the rest of the monsters, the stone elementals watched. Their bejeweled eyes gave the most imperceptible flickers of amusement as the spoke quietly with each other. Huddled together like that, they looked a little less imposing than when they were on horseback or standing guard.
"This is going to be amazing," Gaster whispered to Grillby, "You elementals are awesome. I can't wait to see their magic."
He split into a grin when Grillby said nothing, "And you said you weren't nervous."
Grillby managed an anxious laugh back. Maybe Gaster was right. Maybe Grillby was just nervous.
Or maybe he really didn't want to be here.
The elemental who approached him the night before was the first to notice him coming. Their opal eyes turned in strange colors and their mouth parted in a smile, "There you are!"
They moved to meet him, clasping a hand firmly yet welcomingly on Grillby's shoulder. Grillby's core gave the smallest of shudders. He could feel the other elemental's magic seeping into his, the emotions behind it, the intent. He probably should have known that would happen. Grillby could always feel these things when other monsters' magic passed through him, and elementals were made completely of magic in one form or another.
Still, the feelings that swept through Grillby in that touch - cold, muted, dull, as if they weren't fully felt - they were unsettling. Grillby's soul turned in his chest. Another feeling came to him as well, more thought than magic. It was like peering into the elemental's soul: His name was Terros.
"It's about time you found us, Grillby," Terros hummed - though the pleasantry in his voice didn't make it to the feeling of his magic, "For a moment I thought I'd scared you off."
"To be fair, it's not that hard to do," Gaster signed with a smile. He offered a hand to Terros to shake, and the elemental accepted it with a nod, "Wing Ding Gaster. Just Gaster works fine though."
"Terros, summoned in summer," he answered simply; "You are... a friend of Amathea's?"
"Oh yeah!" Gaster smiled excitedly, his hands a flurry of signing movement, "Me and Ammy have known each other for a few years now. Er… she asked me to stick with Grillby today. You know, since she's meeting with his Royal Highness."
Terros smiled, "I see. Well, he will be perfectly safe with us here. If there's anything you'd rather be doing than watching over a bunch of elementals?"
The excitement on Gaster's face dulled slowly into confusion, "Uh… safe?"
"I understand the concern," Terros continued unfazed, "A group of elementals getting together can be a bit nerve-wracking for other monsters. But I can assure you none of us are even the smallest bit unstable, and I doubt we'd be doing anything today that might cause any upset in your charge."
Grillby flickered a frown at this, a bit of anger bubbling up slowly in his chest. Unstable? He was not unstable! But Gaster was already rebounding, and signing quickly.
"Oh! Uh, no I'm not worried about anything like that," he said with a nervous laugh, "Really! I study magic, and I was just hoping to be here to see some of yours. I'm kind of Grillby's escort for the day…? But really I'm more here as a friend."
There was a pause where Terros looked between Gaster and Grillby a bit disbelievingly, before he shrugged and said, "Alright. Do as you wish."
Then to Grillby he smiled, "Come. I'd like you to meet the others."
As they followed, Gaster flashed a confused frown at Grillby, signing incredulously, What was that about?
Grillby sighed and didn't bother signing back. Today was going to be a long day, he could tell already.
Terros introduced Grillby to the others, and Grillby did his best to remember their names. It was… interesting… trying to tell them apart. There weren't many differences between the four of them. Gravin, was the tallest out of the four, just barely; and also the quietest. They had dull, reddish eyes that caught subtly in the light when they inclined their head towards Grillby in greeting. Grillby also noticed a crisscrossing of patterns across their arms, and a bit across the neck and chest that was exposed from their tunic. The patterns were long and branching, cracks in the stone of the elemental's form that served to make them seem ancient. In a way, the elemental themself reminded Grillby of the walls of Adwick he'd seen what seemed like forever ago now - old as time itself, but forever standing.
There was also Umber, whose pleasantness seemed a bit more whole-hearted than whatever it was that Terros had. They offered Grillby a hearty handshake upon meeting him, but before they could actually touch, Umber yanked his hand away - laughing a joke about being burned. Grillby… had a hard time seeing the humor in it, somehow managing to force a flickering smile. It didn't matter much though - Umber laughed as if it were the funniest thing they'd ever said, pale blue eyes flashing as they did so.
The last was Ora, who was the shortest of the four and the roughest, as far as the stone on their form went. They were the elemental with jade eyes that had first noticed Grillby in the crowd, and they smiled excitedly when they were introduced. When they shook hands, Ora pulled him closer and yanked up his sleeve in the same motion. Grillby couldn't help but spark in surprise. His discomfort had to be pouring through his magic in waves, but if Ora felt it they - no, she, Grillby realized through her touch - paid it no mind. Instead she radiated back at him giddy excitement.
"What in the world are you doing?" Umber laughed, the split tone in their voice sounding nearly deeper than the earth itself, "Leave the poor boy alone."
"He's made of fire though!" Ora protested, "And he feels warm."
"Seriously?"
"Fire… tends to do that," Grillby stammered, ducking a bit when Umber moved to tower over him. Grillby was seriously wondering if he should be trying to pull his arm back or not. But they weren't hurting anything and he certainly couldn't burn them… right…?
Ora released him, their voice chiming in an echoing laugh, "Sorry sorry! I've just… never met an elemental that wasn't made of stone, you know? You're so different."
Umber grinned above him, "The warmth is new as well! It's a little hard to feel things like that through stone, wouldn't you know it?"
"Do you feel warm things?" Ora asked suddenly, eyes wide and sparkling.
Grillby flickered nervously, taking a step back away from them - just in case they moved to grab at him again, "Mostly just cool… really. Except maybe in the forges, or inside a large fire."
He added mostly as an afterthought, "Your hands feel cold to me."
If Ora's eyes could've gotten any bigger, they would have, and Grillby couldn't help but smile at it. The elemental was almost as curious about their first meeting as Gaster had been - and that was a feat! Gaster himself was standing off to the side, looking every bit as curious about the whole exchange was Ora was. And he was signing to himself, taking mental notes Grillby was sure. Grillby had to fight not to roll his eyes at it.
"You'll have to forgive Ora," Terros hummed, "She's the youngest. They summoned her just a few years ago, when the King grew interested in fighting in the war himself."
"I was summoned in fall!" Ora declared pridefully, "What about you Grillby?"
"Winter," Grillby smirked, "Uh… just last year, actually."
"Huh, weird time of year for a fire elemental," Terros chuckled, "I would've expected summer."
"You're so young," Umber rumbled, "And you've already been fighting? Ora hasn't even seen her first battle yet. Well… not a real one."
"Do you still remember who summoned you?"
All heads turned to Gravin, who had finally spoken. They uncrossed their mighty arms and sat down in the grass, motioning for the others to sit as well. Then they hummed, and Grillby could feel their voice shudder him all the way down to his soul.
"I was summoned by our King's father, long before His Majesty took the throne," Gravin explained, "It seems as if an eternity has passed; I no longer remember what he looked like outside of paintings. But I remember his voice. It was the first voice that ever spoke to me."
Grillby sank down to his knees, leaves crackling beneath him as he moved. Ora sat close beside him - of course - watching his every movement as if she'd never see it again. Gaster darted over to sit at Grillby's other side, his own eye sockets shining with that hungry curiosity Grillby knew him for.
"Well…" Grillby breathed, tilting his head to the side as if the motion could help him remember, "I remember there was more than one of them. I woke up in a circle of light, completely surrounded by monsters. And…"
Grillby scowled. An overwhelming feeling of cold washed over him, the smell of the inside of a cramped tent, wafting campfire smoke and painfully bright light. He remembered being summoned, he remembered being scared. He remembered feeling… a little less real than everything else around him.
"Grillby?" Gaster was watching him, a worried frown on his teeth.
Grillby shook his head, shooing the memory away before he could conjure up any more of it, "I don't… remember much worth mentioning."
Grillby hissed out a breath of smoke before adding, "I do remember the first voice that spoke to me though. She was tired, and… I'm not sure I ever saw her again. I was given away to an escort pretty quickly to train with, and none of them really bothered to tell me their names."
"Huh, rude," Gaster snorted.
"It's best that way," Terros said, their fragmenting voice aloof and cold, "Elementals work best when they don't have any… distractions."
Gaster frowned at this, but before he could form a proper question to ask, Umber was running away with the conversation again, remembering fondly when they had been summoned. From the sound of it, they could have talked for hours on their first day of life. They remembered their first smell - damp earth, they'd been summoned in a cave by a handful of humans. It had been summer, and they'd used the elemental to build a great monument of stone maybe a year or so before the main fighting of the war had started. When the humans were finished, they had intended to dispel Umber, send them back wherever their soul was summoned from. But the elemental proudly boasted that they had been too strong for them and escaped.
Grillby couldn't remember nearly as much about the weeks following his summoning. It was all just a blurry haze of new. He did remember his first escort. How the monster hadn't even bothered to tell Grillby his name. How every day he was told to repeat his purpose. How this was the only thing he was summoned for. He remembered being told he wasn't a monster. He was something else. And no one bothered to tell him if something else was good or bad. If being an elemental was good, they why had all of them treated him like he wasn't completely real?
Grillby frowned confusedly.
Why did Gaster and Amathea bother to treat him so much differently than they had?
"So why stone elementals specifically?" Gaster's voice cut short Grillby's train of thought, "Wouldn't it have been easier for the King to just… grab a few elementals who were stationed in the capital?"
Terros smiled at this, "It might have been easier sure, but at the end of the day, you need the strongest and the most stable elementals to protect the King himself. And you don't find many elementals more powerful than stone."
Gaster shot Grillby a sideways look, raising the ridge above his unbroken eye quizzically, "Really? Cuz I've seen Grillby do some pretty amazing things."
Before Grillby could stop himself he was flushing in hot colors, flustered blues and greens rippling through his flame. He muttered with an embarrassed spark, "I've done very normal things."
"Don't belittle yourself Grillby," Terros chuckled, "Flame elementals are quite impressive. And you've begun setting yourself apart from the rest haven't you? What with this… Mage-Slayer titleship."
"You have a title?" Ora gasped, bejeweled eyes glittering in awe, "How did you get that?"
"Well it wasn't… a big deal really…" Grillby sputtered nervously.
Grillby was immediately met with an uproar of excited babbling from the monsters around him - along with some laughed signing from Gaster as well. Most of the noise came from Umber and Ora, who insisted he start telling them about his adventures - did they even count as adventures? - and how he'd gotten this new fated name. Then there was Terros, reassuring Grillby that he really was being too modest, and Gravin, who silenced them all by saying if Grillby shared some of his stories, they would share some of their own.
And so, with a little more encouragement from Gaster's excited signing, Grillby began. He… honestly didn't even know where to start. The past year had been so eventful. Damning and hopeful. Grillby was equal parts glad to be alive and surprised he'd made it this far at all. So he started with the first thing he could remember, the very first battle he was ever put forward to face a mage, a battle he'd fought with Gerson before Amathea and Gaster had walked into his life. It was a tame story, lacking any of the near-death anxiety of recent months, but it left Ora watching him with awe, and gleaned a few nods of approval from the elementals around him. And then there was Gaster, who'd never heard the story before, and who soaked it in with quizzical wonder, signing questions to himself to ask later.
When he was finished, Gravin spoke slow and calm about the first mage they remembered fighting - one years ago before the war between monsters and humans had even started. They talked about using stone to build walls and labyrinths, trapping the wretched terror inside before pulling the world down around them. It was… amazing to listen to, to imagine how another elemental could work.
Then Grillby was talking again, this time a little more boldly, about the battles he'd faced and the mages he'd seen. Honestly, Grillby could've talked like that for hours, sitting in the shadow of an elemental that had seen years more than Grillby could ever imagine. As they swapped stories it became obvious that Gravin was the oldest there, and the most experienced in battle. Terros only had one story to tell, and then the battle had been over before they had ever faced the mage they'd seen. Meanwhile Umber and Ora sat awestruck, neither of them having ever faced a mage before.
Grillby had… never realized just how much he'd fought in the short time he was alive. He told them about the mage that had almost killed him, the one who'd cast the rain spell, and watched as even Gravin leaned forward ever so slightly, eager to hear how Grillby had managed to survive - and all of them looked surprised to know it was Gaster that had saved him. He told them about Thistle, and showed them the piece of magic she'd left in him and the scar in his side. And Grillby noticed the amazement around him turned a bit more somber - Ora especially seemed scared. Grillby flickered with a hint of nervousness.
Listening to him speak, the war was becoming real for them, and he could see it. Suddenly it wasn't just stories of grandeur. Suddenly their mortality was becoming a bit more real. Grillby had seen that look on the faces of every monster in every unit he'd been apart of. He'd seen it in Gaster. He'd felt it in himself.
"You've been through much, little brother," Gravin said at long last, after Grillby had exhausted the stories he could tell, "But you've come through it strong, even by elemental standards. You have a lot to be proud of."
"He deserves a medal," Gaster mused, "Maybe after all this is over, you'll get some recognition Grillby."
"I doubt they'd bother," Umber hummed, "Elementals get dispelled after they've completed their purpose. But it is a nice thought, isn't it?"
Gaster blinked at Umber uncomprehendingly, a frown writhing it's way across his teeth, "Wait… what?"
"We are summoned for only one purpose," Umber explained slowly, confusedly and with a casual smile, as if he couldn't understand Gaster's confusion, "When our usefulness has been exhausted, whatever mage summoned us will just send our magic away again. Even we, as the King's escorts, aren't excluded. In times of peace, the King will have no need of a bunch of elementals to fight with him in battle. They'll dispel all of us… except perhaps Gravin. He's been a part of the King's court for so long I doubt they'd lose him now."
There it was again, that creeping, icy, clawing feeling rising up in Grillby's chest. Though instead of the slow crawl of it he'd felt the night before, now it devoured him in leaps and bounds. A numbing feeling, something that dragged his thoughts away. That familiar feeling that overcame him the first time he was summoned, when he realized the monsters around him could care less he was there. That feeling that enveloped him while he was with his first escort.
Worthless. But in a way that wasn't self-depreciating. Expendable.
Gaster frowned at Umber, his hands signing through a few troubled sentences before he finally settled on what he was going to say, "I'm... sure that won't be the case. I mean, nobody can expect you to fight and die for them only to throw you away after this is over."
Terros laughed at this, earning himself an incredulous look from Gaster, "Be careful there friend. You're starting to talk like we're actually monsters."
"But… you are," Gaster said with a humorless, confused laugh before turning to blink in Grillby's direction, looking for some sort of validation.
Grillby flickered an uncomfortable frown, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, "I mean… I think we are. But you've said so before yourself, a lot of monsters would argue otherwise."
"Most monsters would argue otherwise," Terros spoke up then, their voice cool and emotionless, "And they'd be right. We're powerful creatures but without a purpose, we're destructive and unstable. That's why we're summoned for war, or to build towers, or to guard tombs and similar things. A mother doesn't summon a creature like us because they want a child, or a lonely monster because they want companionship. We're summoned to be used."
Gaster frowned thoughtfully before speaking, and this time Grillby noticed the skeleton wasn't signing. Even his voice was quieting, ever so slightly, "So... your purpose then. It's to protect the King, right? And that's the only thing you'll ever do?"
Terros straightened a bit, prideful and confident, "Exactly! We are to keep the King from falling in battle, using whatever means necessary to us."
"And what happens if you fail that?"
The stone elemental was unfazed, "Then I will protect whoever succeeds him, or be dispelled."
Gaster once again cast his gaze towards Grillby, "And what about you. What was the purpose they gave you when you were summoned?"
Some reflex Grillby forgot he had sent a bitter pang through his chest and he said quickly, "Protect the monsters in my unit, follow orders."
Gaster blinked at him for a moment, surprised by the sudden answer. Then he asked, "And what happens if you can't do that?"
Grillby hesitated for a second before saying, "If I can't do that? Nothing, since I'm probably dead."
"Okay. What if you just… decided not to?"
Grillby coughed a laugh at this, "I can't just… not follow orders."
"What if the orders are unreasonable?" Gaster persisted, and Grillby flinched against the bitter edge building in his friend's voice, "Like… when that mage cast the rain spell. If Amathea had ordered you to keep fighting, that's unreasonable. She'd be leading you straight to your death. You wouldn't have questioned that?"
Grillby clasped his hands together to keep from fidgeting nervously. He really didn't like where this conversation had headed. His stomach was twisting into knots just thinking about… everything. But he already knew his answer, and he knew Gaster wouldn't like it.
"No," Grillby answered slowly, his voice a sigh of smoke, "I wouldn't have."
"And what would happen if you did?"
Grillby let out a nervous chuckle, "I mean, that's not what happened, so there's no use really worrying about it-" Gaster raised the ridge above his unbroken eye, and Grillby flickered a frown - "If I disobey any orders, I'm labeled unstable."
Gaster blinked at the elemental uncomprehendingly, and Grillby explained slowly, trying his hardest to keep his nervousness out of his voice as he spoke, "If I'm unstable, that means I could turn against the monsters I'm supposed to be working for - and there are very few monsters out here who could stop me if that happened so it's… a big deal. Amathea could still decide to just punish me for the insubordination, but most likely she'd have me killed because of the threat I'd pose to the units I'm attached to."
Grillby crackled a bitter spark, "They give us escorts who are strong enough to deal with us for that reason. Amathea has her singing magic. Gerson had water magic. I'm sure my first escort also had some kind of magic they could have killed me with if they'd needed to."
Suddenly Gaster was looking at Grillby as if he were seeing the elemental for the first time, and Grillby could do nothing more than flicker self-consciously in return.
Finally Gaster mused - more to himself than anyone else, "I guess I'm learning all kinds of new things today."
The other elementals began speaking again, their conversation meandering slowly from one topic to another - sometimes broken by a peppering of questions from Gaster, or Ora when she thought of something new to ask Grillby. It was sickeningly casual, as if everything they'd just heard was completely normal - but then again, for elementals, it was supposed to be. It had been like this since before even Gravin had been summoned, and it would always be this way. Grillby did his best to keep up with the conversation, but the nervous stillness that had fallen over Gaster kept pulling at his attention. He could tell the skeleton was worried, and his imagination was probably running wild with a thousand different thoughts that he shouldn't be thinking. Grillby wanted to reassure him, but really the elemental had no idea what to say. And that cold feeling was clawing at him again, making him feel trapped in his own body.
At some point during all the talk and story-sharing, Grillby felt himself slowly start to relax again. He spoke a little more, some of the nervous color faded from his flame just slightly. Grillby had no idea how much time had passed before the elementals were bidding him a good evening, and Grillby himself was stretching and sighing and turning to leave…
… only to realize that at some point Gaster had slipped away from the group, leaving Grillby standing there, alone.
Author's Notes:
Woo got a small list of news this week! But fiiiiiiiiiiiiiirst... fanart feature! Which is linked on my AO3 account or you can look up "Standing Apart" by Flyingshadow451 on Deviantart! They drew their rendition of one of the stone elementals :'D I cried a little their art style is adorable
Next news! I did end up making that Tumblr accound. Feel free to follow at your contentment! I'm over at "theblogofcastingrain". Asks are open, submissions aren't... I don't think... hmmm gonna have to check that again. But! I'm taking doodle requests of the gang for Inktober, and also writing requests and questions and things. So join me if you'd like! :)
Second news! I'm not sure how many of you guys that read this also write fanfictions, but please be on the lookout for a somewhat suspicious character going around FF, asking people about promotions and publishing their work. They haven't done anything 'bad' yet, that I know of, but I was talking with another Undertale writer on Tumblr and we figured out we got identical messages from them. It looks a lot like they're looking for an easy target for something, because as soon as you start asking questions they get dodgy and vague. Just politely remind them that Toby Fox doesn't allow mass-production and sale of Undertale items, stories included.
Last news which has absolutely no relevence to the story: I am so sore and tired :'D I fell down some stairs last weekend and I still hurt owwieeee. I mean, I'm sure I'm just bruised (the bottom stair hit me in the middle of my back, and that's what's still sore) but hot damn if it isn't the most inconvinient thing! Especially sense I draw large-scale drawings for my art school, which involves a lot of reaching and bending and things. This week has been a pain.
