A/N: Gosh... I can hardly believe its been 3 weeks since this was updated ^^' I had good reason, I'll explain later. I hopefully will be back to regular updating again now though.

CHAPTER NINE

IN WHICH KODA IS ON THIN FUCKING ICE FOR THE PUNS HE'S MAKING

Romano pauses his trudging to glance over a cardboard box on the road. There was a sign on it written in all caps.

[*YOU OBSERVE THE WELL CRAFTED SENTRY STATION.]

[*WHO COULD HAVE BUILT THIS YOU PONDER…]

[*I BET IT WAS THAT VERY FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN!]

(Fucking Al…)

[(Note: Not yet a very famous royal guardsmen.)]

Koda chatters along behind him, going off about puns made on the landscape, or about himself, or even-

"Wow Romano, you're as red as a Roma-to! Hahaha!"

Romano grits his teeth.

(Kids' sense of humor is worse than Spain's Jesus Christ… If he weren't a drake, I'd give him a talking to that would make his ancestors fucking roll in their graves.)

"Oh hey, a Nicecap!" Koda cheerfully greets someone as the atmosphere picks up again.

"My hat's too loud for me to hear your compliment." The whiney voice gives away that this is another kid, probably a teen like Koda. Romano looks over to see a little creature of snow with a carrot for a nose. It was tiny, made of a series of snowballs set to make it seem humanoid. A jagged, green hat that was larger than its body sat on its disproportionate head. The hat looked like it was made of tinted ice.

[*Icecap struts into view]

Annoyed with its immediate attitude Romano glances at Koda only to realize the snowdrake was also engaged in a FIGHT with the Icecap.

Romano huffs with annoyance, checking his options. For a moment he's tempted to steal the hat from the kid, but decides against it. (Bad example to the other kid. Besides, annoying as they are… This is just a kid.) He opts instead to IGNORE Icecap, looking to see what Koda is doing only to realize the kid had chosen to do the same thing and was watching him with wide eyes.

"Whoa!" Koda seems in awe of Romano, "You knew what to do without any help or peeking at me! You must be super smart!"

"Hello?!" The Icecap whines at them from the sidelines as Romano takes a hit to his SOUL. "My hat is UP HERE!"

Romano looks to the battle board, paying attention to the situation at hand again, he spares the Icecap fighting him only a glance to confirm they weren't going to physically attack him too.

"Do you kids know each other?" Romano growls between his teeth as he ignores Icecap again, gut swimming a bit from the damage he took.

"They're in my class I guess."

"Ugh! Better a hatter than a hater…" The Icecap sighs, sounding defeated.

"Mercy time!" Says Koda cheerfully. Romano SPAREs the Icecap with him, humming to himself with relief.

"If you're done with all this, do you wanna join us? This is a human! His names Romano!"

"Wait… A human? That's… Neat I guess. Not as cool as my hat but… I guess I got some spare time."

"Of course! A hat in time saves nine!"

"I'm pretty sure that's not how it goes." The Icecap replies to Koda's pun flatly.

"I know… I-its…"

"LOOK," Romano interrupts the two teens with annoyance, "I'm going ahead, if you two wanna come along… Then keep up."

"Okay!" The monster kids both respond, Koda with full enthusiasm and the Icecap with none whatsoever.

"… You got a name other than Icecap?"

"… Edwynn. And Icecap isn't a name. It's what I am."

"Edwynn… More like Edwynn-ter!"

"Ugh…"

Romano snorts. He was starting to be reminded of some of the kids he ran into in his hometown. Ones that wandered the streets or simply had strayed from home out of boredom. Spain was always good in such situations. He was good with kids in general to be honest…

(… God I miss my home…)

"You okay Mr. Romano?" Edwynn asks flatly.

Romano's lip quirks up into a bitter smile. "Yeah. Just got some things on my mind."

"Like what?" Koda chirps, voice cracking through the falling snow.

"… Trying to get back to where I came from." Romano grumbles, reading a sign as they pass it.

[*(Absolutely NO MOVING!)]

(….. Weird.)

Romano huffs before he continues. "Shit's complicated but basically I got some friends I need to get… Back… To…"

He slows to a stop after several paces, looking around as he realizes the kids weren't next to him. He finally spots them in the treeline. Koda frantically flies in circles in the air while Edwynn watches him from behind a tree, passive but intense.

"… The hell?…"

"Did something move?..." A voice questions from behind him.

Romano freezes as he hears a gravelly growl start up behind him. He turns and sees a muscular German Shepherd rising out of a sentry station made to look somewhat like a dog house. It moves in an almost human manner, a collar around its neck reading the name Blackie.

"… Was it my imagination?" Blackie squinted as she observed the landscape in front of her. The dog's muscle shirt and cargo pants made her that much more unsettling. "… I can only see moving things… If something WAS moving… For example, a human… I'll make sure it NEVER MOVES AGAIN!" The dog ends with a harsh bark, looking intense as she launches, muscles rippling and teeth bared, out of her station and into the snow near Romano.

A FIGHT begins. Romano hardly dares to breathe as Blackie stalks around him intently, duel wielding knives as her combat boots crunch harshly through the snow.

[*Blackie blocks the way!]

(Come on… Come on… There's got to be something I can do…)

Romano CHECKS Blackie to see if there's anything more intelligent he can do than PET the weird dog.

[*BLACKIE 6 ATK 1 DEF]

[*Easily excited by movement.]

[*Hobbies include: squirrels]

When Blackie attacks, Romano sees a light blue sword sweeping across the bullet board. It takes up the full space vertically as it moves forward. His eyes widen and he freezes unsure how to counter it.

(Oh god I'm gunna be hit! I can't do shit about this it's so unfair I-)

The attack moves past him without hurting him. His eyes widen.

(Oh. I just don't move.)

Blackie wanders around him, getting close but not seeming able to spot him.

[*Blackie can't seem to find anything]

Blackie straightens, staring away from Romano intently. For a moment, as Romano looks at the dog's perky ears and silky black fur he's overcome with the urge to PET her.

The selection is made before he can even think about it. Romano feels an intense flash of fear as his hand moves of its own volition.

(SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!)

He pets Blackies head gently before his hand drops back to his side.

Blackie spazzes the hell out.

"WHAT?! I'VE BEEN PET?!" Blackie looks around frantically dashing past Romano as she scurries through the snow. "PET? PAT? PIT PAT? PET PAT PETA? POT PET PAT PUT?! PITA-PUTA-PETA?!" She howls wildly as she tries to find the source of the PET. Romano realizes Blackie's name is yellow. He'd seen that change in color from white several times now since he'd entered the underground. He tries sparing her and is successful. As the atmosphere drops Blackie seems to calm down, panting from the effort of her antics.

"S-s-s-something petted me… S-s-s-something that isn't m-m-moving…" Blackie stutters anxiously, climbing back into her station and hunkering inside under the front desk part. "I'm going to need some dog treats for this!"

While the dog is preoccupied Romano books it away, hearing the monster kids in the woods doing the same as they start laughing in the distance.

Romano flees through the snow until he spots Matt a ways down the road, smiling cooly as he leans lazily against a pine tree.

The human slows to a stop as he stumbles up to the skeleton, the kids flocking over to rejoin him again.

"Hi Mr. Romano! Hi Matt!" Koda squeaks cheerfully.

"Your fashion tastes are as bad as ever." Edwynn grumbles disgustedly in Matt's direction.

"You all look like you've been having some fun." Matt says, cheerfully casual as he takes in the group before settling his gaze on Romano. "So… I got something important to tell you."

"Wh-what would that be?" Romano pants, dusting snow off his clothes as he recollects himself.

"So, my brothers got this special attack okay? If you see a blue attack… Just don't move and it won't hurt you, got it?"

"Bit fucking late on that one. Th-this big ass dog just used the same thing on me just now!"

"It was the coolest thing! Mr. Romano didn't move an inch the whole time! I don't know how he held it together against Blackie like that!" Koda interjects, taking off and circling the group in the air excitedly.

Edwynn ducks his head and mumbles his acquiescence. "He even had the audacity to pet her… Kind of reckless if you think about it."

Romano feels himself blush as Matt starts laughing.

"Sounds like a blast. Wish I'd been there to see it. But yeah. When you see the blue attacks, just think about, uuuuh... Stop signs, okay?"

"Yeah!" Koda interrupts again, swooping down over the group before lifting back up into a loop de loop. "I guess all you gotta do is play it COOL! Just sorta… Freeze!"

"Alright, alright I get it already!" Romano whimpers as he stretches, feeling some of his muscles starting to tighten from all the stress. He takes a deep breath, centering himself before looking back to Matt. "A-anyways… I'm gunna… Keep going. I'm dying out in this snow..."

"I'm gonna take Romano to town to show him that the monsters really really will treat him nice! For real!" Koda announces to Matt fervently, eyes shining bright with optimism.

"Well… Good luck with that then." Matt waves them off with a warm smile.

Romano waves back at him as he walks, only to suddenly get jerked off balance. He trips, having walked straight onto an icy pond while he wasn't looking. He slides forward with sickening speed, hearing the kids laughing at his predicament as he zooms across several yards of ice, only stopping when he crashes into snow on the other side.

"Romano can't handle the ice at all." Edwynn sniggers.

"Roma-gooooooooo all the way to the other side!" Koda giggles, voice awkward as it breaks even worse with his laughter.

"I suppose that humans must not be very perceptive… Or graceful for that matter." Edwynn murmurs snidely.

Romano snarls, collecting himself as he spots a sign in the middle of the ice, mentally marking it as his next target.

(I'll show these lil shits that I can too be graceful!)

Romano jumps onto the ice, scrambling his way over to the sign. He just barely manages to keep from smacking his face into the ice as he scrabbles along, using his hands for balance half the time..

*North: Ice

*South: Ice

*West: Ice

*East: Snowdin Town (… and ice)

(… Fucking great. So worth the effort of nearly breaking my goddamn ankles...) Romano pushes off the sign, tripping when he hits the snow bank and falling again. He sighs as he hears the kids catch up to him.

"Hey guys! Let's visit the snowman before we head forward!" Koda suggests cheerfully.

"… The what?" Romano asks with exasperation.

"The snowman! He doesn't have legs so he can't get anywhere and gets really lonely when nobody visits him for a while…"

Romano goes to brush the idea away but stops. Considering the nature of the UNDERGROUND and what he'd experienced so far… A legless snowman eternally trapped in one place seemed… Disturbingly possible.

"… Can this snowman… Talk?"

"Of course it can, why wouldn't it?" Edwynn asks Romano back as an answer to his question, seeming annoyed he needed to ask it at all.

"… Never mind. Ugggh... Fine. We can visit the snowman… But only for a minute. Capiche?"

"Okay!" Koda squawks, weaving along with the wind as he leads the way north.

A/N: I'm officially moving out! Also had to house sit my parents farm for a week while they went to the beach so I've been... Really busy.

I still have a lot to do but I'm going to be trying to space things out so I don't wear myself out... Again ^^"

I've only had a few days free and some of those were spent recovering aha... I really am sorry about the wait!

But I do have 17 chapters (soon to be 18) of content to post! I said I'd see Snowdin Forest out and I will!

I had a lot of fun with these kid characters. I hope they're not overly annoying. Just enough to get sass out of Romano!...

Any feedback on the characters is welcome tho ^^' I worry a lot about how everything comes across... Guess we'll just see!

I don't know how long Snowdin Town will be. Hopefully shorter? Probably split into two parts between before and after a certain fight.

Unless the second part (if you've played Undertale you know which one) is set later down the line. We'll see what feels most natural.

Anyways, I'm gunna stop dawdling and start writing! Hope everyone has a happy Halloween month XD

I know mines off to a great start so I'll send you all my good vibes to you lovely readers 3