The Other Tales

Episode 04: Illusion Odyssey

The first thing Asriel saw when he opened his eyes was a grey sky. It was not the kind of grey sky where it is covered by a blanket of clouds, however. It was as if the entire sky was naturally grey somehow. Rolling over and pushing himself upright, Adriel noticed that the grass on the ground was grey as well. Taking a look around, everything around him was nothing but this dull grey color. Well, almost everything was; there was a pristine blue lake a short distance away.

A wave of dread washed over Asriel in that moment. He had no idea where he was, nor did he know how he got there. How could this have happened, he thought. Why am I here? Was there anyone else around? How am I supposed to get home? All of these questions and more flooded the poor monster's mind. His instincts told him that he should stay put and wait for someone to find him.

But no. He had to trek onward at some point, and that was exactly what he did. His best course of action was to reach the lake; there had to be someone there, or at least they would turn up soon.

In less than ten minutes, Asriel had reached the edge of the lake. He peered into the water, but oddly enough, he did not see his reflection. All he saw was just an opaque blue, as if the substance in this lake was not water to begin with. Anyway, it was at this moment that a noise shook Asriel out of his self-reflection. It sounded like someone was crying. A quick scan of the lakeside, and Asriel spotted a figure nearby, hunched over and crying into the water. He knew that he probably should not worry about this stranger, but he really wanted to know if he could help them at all. So, Asriel slowly and casually approached the individual, as to not startle them, and he asked, "Excuse me, are you okay?"

The stranger did not respond. However, they immediately stopped crying the moment Asriel spoke to them. They were silent and unmoving for a moment or two, then they bounced to their feet and turned around.

Now that the figure was upright and facing Asriel, he finally got a good look at them. The individual was female (or looked like one, at the very least), and she appeared to be sporting some type of schoolgirl outfit consisting of a white blouse and a black skirt with lederhosen suspenders. Asriel also took note of how she was wearing two different socks: an ankle sock on her left side and a knee-high one on her right side.

Speaking of two different sides, this girl's entire body was entirely split in half! Her left-hand side was yellow with a smooth look to it, but her right half was blue, and its form was blocky and polygonal like an old 3-D video game. Her straight black hair further increased the dichotomy: it started at about waist-length on her right, then it tapered into a neck-length bob cut on the left, the only part staying the same in between was her bangs. To top it off, her nose and mouth were part of her left half, making that side of her face look like a side view.

"Salutations, sir!" said the girl in a slightly masculine voice, dipping into a small bow before jumping back to a standing position. "I am doing quite splendidly today, and I thank you heartily for inquiring about my emotional state!"

Taken aback from such a response, Asriel did his best to follow up. "Uh, w-well, you're welcome," he stammered before cautiously extending his arm to the two-toned girl. "I'm Asriel. Asriel Dreemurr."

"Please, call me ENA, because that's my name!" the girl replied as she clasped Asriel's hand with both hands and frantically shook her arms (which Asriel had just realized were not attached to her torso).

Well, now Asriel had a name. This was progress. Now he just needed to know what this place was. Once ENA had eased her grip on the monster's hand, he flashed a small grin and said, "Well, nice to meet you, ENA. Anyway, do you think you can tell us where we are?"

"Our location!" she began. Before she could say anything else, however, her body stiffened before breaking down in a quick burst of static. Once the static subsided, ENA's demeanor took a complete 180, with her nose and mouth now on her blue side. "Oh, wike you'd expect an idiot wike me to know that!" she wailed in a feminine voice, falling to the ground and sobbing uncontrollably.

Asriel was frozen in surprise for a moment due to the sudden outburst, but once he had calmed down, he began to wonder what caused such a reaction. He did not say anything wrong; he just asked for a location. Come to think of it, ENA seemed to bounce from crying into the lake to bright and chipper instantaneously just a moment ago. Maybe she was just suffering from severe mood swings. Of course, this did nothing to alleviate Asriel's concern, for there was no way this girl could function on a daily basis when the slightest things set her off so easily.

So, channeling as much of his mother as he could, Asriel knelt down and comforted the individual known as ENA. He placed a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder and softly said, "Hey, calm down. You're not an idiot, okay? I didn't mean it."

As quickly as it started, ENA's trauma immediately washed away as her face shifted back to her yellow side. "Terribly sorry, friend!" she chirped, stumbling back to her feet. "Sadly, I am not familiar with our current whereabouts, but I am certain that if we start walking, we will find something I can recognize."

Asriel, understandably, was not satisfied with this answer. Unfortunately, he did not have much of a choice. He was stuck in this bizarre landscape alone, and this girl was the only other intelligent being around, quite possibly for miles. Plus, she seemed rather harmless, even with her uncontrollable mood swings.

In the end, the young monster decided to take the risk. "Good idea," he said. "Which direction do you think we should go?"

"Let's find out," ENA replied as she stepped a fair distance away from Asriel. Once she had picked a decent spot, she threw her body into a sort of ballerina twirl, with her arms spinning in the opposite direction. After a few moments of dizzying rotation, she slowed to a stop while giving her arms some time to realign with her body. When that finished, ENA stabbed her yellow arm in the direction she was facing, which, thankfully, was not at the lake, but at what appeared to be a mountain range far off the horizon.

"This way!" she declared, marching forward while keeping her pointing arm up. Asriel quickly ran to her side and followed her, both excited and afraid of what strange people and places they will surely come across during their journey.

Surprisingly (or, perhaps, not surprisingly), the journey was pretty bland. There were no bizarre locales or colorful characters to speak of. It was just the same dull grey as far as the eye can see. Since there was not much else to do, Asriel decided to explain his current situation to ENA, who refused to put her pointing arm down for even a second. As to be expected, she was unfazed by the fact that he was sucked away from his home universe and dropped here with seemingly no way back. However, she promised to help get the young monster home in any way she can. Of course, she could not do much by herself, so they had to find someone who was more resourceful.

Thankfully, the two were not alone in this world, as ENA graciously pointed out. The two-toned girl told Asriel of the many people she met during her travels. She had a best friend named Moony, two other friends who went by the names Shepherd and Merci, and dozens of various acquaintances whose names Asriel did not bother to memorize. This eased Asriel's fears slightly, but since the landscape was empty and featureless, he was still a little worried. He silently prayed for someone, anyone, to come around and assist them.

After walking for what felt like hours, our two vagabonds ended up at the base of a mountain. Naturally, their gazes moved from their feet all the way to the peak of the mountain— or where the top would be, since it was obscured by a thick blanket of clouds. ENA was so stunned by the sheer immensity of this formation that she dropped her pointing arm back to her side. They both began to wonder what might be waiting at the top, and if it may be able to help Asriel with his current dilemma. It was very unlikely that such an outcome would occur, but given the circumstances, there was not much of a choice.

Their thought process was unceremoniously cut short by the sound of a feminine voice: "Well, well, well… I thought I smelled you coming."

When the two turned around to face the source of the voice, ENA's face lit up as she dipped into a small bow. "Moony, my most loyal companion!" she exclaimed. "What events have brought you to my current location on such a splendid day?"

Moony, obviously, had the appearance of a moon, which made Asriel feel like an idiot for not expecting it. She was just a floating sphere whose right side had the featured of a cartoony crescent moon. Her right side also featured black hair and bangs, much like ENA's hairstyle, and one large eyebrow over her single eye. The left-hand side of her face had a hole where her other eye would be, and this hole was currently occupied by a mannequin arm to make up for her lack of appendages.

"Oh, I just felt like leaving my house for once and doing something," Moony replied flatly. "What that thing is, I don't know yet, but I'll figure it out."

Somehow, she completely ignored the fact that Asriel was standing right in front of her. He could not tell if it was because she did not care or if she genuinely did not notice him, but it was still annoying either way. To remedy this, he extended his arm and said, "Howdy! My name's Asriel. Nice to meet you!"

Moony gave the monster a blank stare for a moment before replying with a, "Yeah, sure… okay." She grasped Asriel's arm with the mannequin limb and gave a weak shake. Great, her train of thought was gone. Desperate to find something to talk about now, her eye darted around in an attempt to see something interesting. Luckily, amongst the bland greyness, she was able to spot something:

"Hey, ENA, what's that under your foot there?"

In response, ENA lifted her one foot, which appeared to have a slip of paper stuck to the bottom. Moony floated over to the bi-colored individual and peeled off the slip with her false arm. She scanned the paper for a moment, and when she finished, her eye looked like it was about to pop out of its socket.

"Yoooo, dude! It's a voucher for a free day of skiing at that resort on Mount MacGuffin! This is amazing! How did you not notice this?"

ENA flipped to her sad side and moaned, "I'm sowwy! I nevew pay attention to anything!"

"Man, I can't believe I'm actually holding one of these," Moony continued in spite of her friend's ongoing mental episode. "I'm gonna have so much fun!" Suddenly, her expression soured once she realized something: "Wait, you two had this first. You probably want this, don't you?"

Asriel shook his head and said, "No, not really. By all means, take it." After all, he had more important things to do right now.

"I don't wanna ski," ENA whined. "I'ww wook wike a dummy."

"Alright, then how about we make things a little more interesting," Moony said with a cocky grin, as if she heard the exact opposite of what the other two had just said.

ENA's happy side returned as she replied, "Ooh, how so, dear friend?"

"Whoever reaches the top of Mt. MacGuffin first gets to keep the coupon. So, you in or what?"

"Oh, absolutely! I do enjoy a friendly challenge! Asriel, what is your stance on the matter?"

Asriel thought about the situation for a moment. To recap, he was stuck in this weird locale with no memory of how he got there and with no way of returning home. Obviously, his top priority was to get home and back to his family. That being said, there was no way Asriel could find his way home, even with the help of ENA. He needed to find someone else with better equipment and with better knowledge of the area. Ergo, he needed to go to a place with people, and this ski resort was as good a place to start. In the end, Asriel gave a determined smile and said, "I'm in!"

Moony responded to both answers by laughing the same way a snobby rich person would before saying, "Perfect! Lucky us, we're already at the right mountain, so the only direction we have to take now is up. She quickly floated towards a rugged trail heading up the mountainside. "See you at the top, suckers! Hope you're not battered and baked by the time you make it up there!"

That last sentence left Asriel speechless with its insanity. "What does that even mean?" he wondered out loud.

"I was just thinking the same thing," ENA replied.

The moment Asriel and ENA stepped on the trail and began their ascent, the temperature had dropped by five degrees. A nippy breeze had made its presence known as well, giving ENA a violent shiver. Asriel, meanwhile, was walking like the temperature was twenty degrees warmer than it actually was. Naturally, his fur was a big help in deflecting these conditions, even without his sweater being taken into account. That being said, a part of him wished he knew how to use fire magic, because he was certain ENA could use some of that right about now.

Luckily, a few minutes later, the duo found a little stand set up along the edge of the trail. The stand had all sorts of wintry apparel: coats, scarves, gloves, you name it. Due to her requiring a boost in body temperature, ENA went to engage in conversation with the shopkeeper while Asriel continued forward a bit to get a look around. When ENA stepped in front of the counter, a short figure materialized inside the shack. It had the appearance of a low-poly rendering of an old woman wearing a gray robe.

"Salutations, purveyor of winter-themed garments!" ENA greeted, waving her arms about in a bizarre combination of ballerina movements and the Macarena. "I would like to inquire about your wares and perhaps make a purchase."

"Buon pomeriggio signorina," the old woman replied. "Prenditi tutto il tempo che vuoi."

A few yards away, Asriel saw that the path hit a dead end over a cliff, with the path continuing on the other side. At the edge of the cliff stood two torches: one lit and the other unlit. Asriel knew that this was obviously meant to be like one of those video game puzzles; he just needed to set the unlit torch on fire in order to progress. Sadly, as I have mentioned before, he does not know how to conjure any fire-based magic yet.

As the young monster brainstormed ideas on how to solve this puzzle, ENA skipped her way over to him, now wearing a red parka and a pair of white gloves. "Status update!" she cheerfully exclaimed, her voice switching to her feminine tone for a brief moment before immediately changing back. "I have just purchased several items to keep my body temperature at an optimal level. The nice lady also provided me some sage advice on how to scale this icy peak! I believe she said, 'Solo il fuoco può sciogliere un'anima gelida.'"

"I don't know what that means, but anyway," Asriel replied, motioning towards the torches, "we need to light that one torch to keep going forward. But, we don't have anything to light it with." He figured that last sentence would make ENA have another breakdown, but she was able to keep her cool this time around.

"Well, this is quite the setback," she said, putting a fist under her chin in thought. "Perhaps there is a hidden object nearby that may aid us with our predicament."

And so the two of them scoured the vicinity in order to find something useful. Asriel in particular was scrambling all over the place. He was brushing through nearby shrubs and overturning rocks, examining every single inch in an attempt to find a lighter, a match, a block of flint— something that could start a fire. Sadly, his search ended with no useful items to speak of.

ENA, meanwhile, was taking her grand old time with her searching. After a few moments of blindly staring at a couple spots, she stumbled upon a thin steel pipe snaking its way up the mountainside. Part of the pipeline was left unconnected, and it was currently leaking a green gas of some kind. It was obvious, even to ENA, that unknown gases could potentially be dangerous. However, a part of her told her she should smell it. It was screaming and clawing at her mind, shouting at her to walk over and take a whiff. Even so, she knew that she should not, and the best course of action was to turn around and go the other way. With that, the bi-colored ENA had made up her mind.

Asriel stared up at the unlit torch with sheer frustration. It stood there, taunting him, mocking his every move. One thing was for sure, he had to light that thing and keep going. It was his only chance of finding his way home. With no other options, Asriel was stuck with trying to learn fire magic on the fly. Deepening his focus, he extended his hand out, concentrating all feelings of warmth and heat into the palm of his hand. Nothing was happening, but Asriel was beginning to feel a spark of something. Yes, he just might be able to pull it off.

Suddenly, his mind was completely distracted by the sound of laughter. Removed from his meditative state, Asriel looked up and saw ENA approaching him, but something was off about her. For one, her movements were uneven and wobbly (more than usual, anyway), and the blue side of her face was completely blacked out. What was once the yellow half was now a pale grey, with one piercing yellow eye peeking out from it.

"Hey, Azzy," she groggily said, her voice slow and slurred. "I found this neat gas pipe you gotta check out. It's really cool." She let out a quiet chuckle; as she did, her image quickly glitched into that of an orange and green demon for a split second before changing back to the strange state she was currently in.

Asriel, understandably concerned, tilted his head and asked, "Uh… ENA, are you okay?"

ENA chuckled again and replied, "What are you talking about? I've never felt better." Her appearance glitched again, this time to a version where her whole body was grey except for the right-hand side of her face, which looked like it was engulfed in flames.

Wait a minute… flames…

With this stunning revelation, Asriel yanked ENA towards the torch and held her face up to it, waiting for another transformation.

"Hey, not so rough!" she lazily exclaimed. "I didn't even have dinner yet." With one last chuckle, her visage buzzed through several different forms before finally landing on the fiery one, setting the torch ablaze. Asriel set ENA'S head down and waited for their means of progress.

But nothing happened.

Asriel was stunned. This was not supposed to happen. The torch being lit should have set off some contraption and assembled a bridge for them. He began to worry about what he should do next. Were they supposed to take a leap of faith across the gap? That was just absurd!

Luckily, a few seconds later, something did happen. The entire ground shook, forcing ENA out of her inebriated state. Then, small black blocks crawled up both sides of the cliff and started connecting together at the top, forming a minimalistic suspension bridge in the process.

Asriel's face lit up. "Yes! We did it!" he exclaimed, running across the bridge.

"Yes, quite poggers!" ENA chimed in, following not far behind.

The majority of the climb after this was rather uneventful. It began to snow immediately after they stepped off the bridge, but that was about it. Slowly but surely, as they gained altitude, the temperature dropped in response. In the span of ten minutes, Asriel was finally starting to feel the chill. ENA was not faring much better. Those clothes she bought earlier worked for a while, but even they began to stop working after a certain point.

After a while of climbing (they had lost all track of time long before then), ENA turned blue again. "Aswiel, I can't take this anymowe!" she whined. "I'm aww cowd and my head's aww huwty! Can we pwease take a bweak?"

Asriel turned around and said, "Sorry, ENA. I wanna stop too, but we gotta keep going if we want to reach the top."

ENA froze up for a moment, a dead, vacant look in her eyes. Then, without warning, she fell face first into the blanket of snow. Instinctively, Asriel rushed to the distraught female's side to help her back. When he lifted ENA up, she was in an even worse condition than before. This time, her yellow half was gone, and her blue side was grey, complete with a cold blue eye staring out from it. "Weave me hewe!" she cried. "I'm not wowth it!"

"Come on, ENA! Pull yourself together!" Asriel shouted encouragingly, with a slight intonation of worry. "We gotta be close to the top by now!" All ENA did in response was tilt her head back and moan in sorrow.

This was not good. He had to bring regular ENA back quickly. She was dragging the team down, and Moony was sure to win that ticket at this rate (not that either of them really needed to win it). There had to be something nearby to cheer her up or distract her.

And sure enough, there was.

"Hey, ENA, what's that?" Asriel asked, turning the girl's head to make her look in the right direction. They turned their attention to a rock wall on the side of the mountain trail. I periodically glitched in and out of existence, sometimes leaving behind a pink and black checkerboard pattern in its place.

Thankfully, ENA quickly shifted back to normal and picked herself up. "Ah, this must be one of those shortcuts Moony keeps talking about!" she said, taking a closer look. She slowly lifted her polygonal arm and reached towards it. Asriel felt he should stop her, but his curiosity got the better of him. Soon, ENA's arm was elbow-deep inside the buggy wall. And suddenly, she was yanked inside the wall, disappearing completely.

"ENA?" Asriel called out.

But no response came.

"ENA!?"

Still nothing.

Without really thinking about what could happen to him, Asriel sprinted into the shortcut and disappeared.

He could not see where he was going, since the inside was pitch-black, but he felt himself whooshing through the shortcut like he was in a free fall. The journey was causing him searing pain that ached his whole body, as it felt like he was being pulled in all directions. After an excruciating minute, he felt himself fall out of the other side and land on top of ENA.

He picked himself up and took a look around, ENA following suit. Sadly, neither of them could tell where on the mountain they were.

"Gweat," ENA muttered, turning blue. "We'we back at the bottom."

Well, it was still snowing around them, so that could not be the case. But still, nothing seemed to point them in the right direction on where they were or how close they were to the top. However, Asriel spotted something out of the corner of his eye that answered their questions. He turned around and saw a big neon sign with flashing lights that read: "Mt. MacGuffin Ski Resort this way!", with a red arrow pointing to the right up an incline. So, the two of them followed the sign's directions and sure enough, they found themselves at the entrance to the resort, where Moony was waiting for them.

"There you are," the celestial body said. "For a minute, I thought you were gonna forfeit. Anyway, I obviously won, so I'm keeping this coupon! Bet you two feel awful right now, huh?"

"No," Asriel flatly replied.

"Quite the opposite," ENA answered.

"Anyway, I'm off to have some fun! See ya around, ANNA!" She floated off towards the front door and out of the view of the other two in the party.

Well, drat. Not only did Asriel lose the bet, but he was nowhere closer to finding a way back home. He sat down on a nearby wooden bench and pondered his current were starting to look bleak for the young monster. Was this his fate now? Was he doomed to wander these bizarre lands forever, with no contact from his friends or family ever again? No. That cannot happen. He had to get home. He just had to, no and's, if's, or but's about it.

After a moment or two, ENA sat right beside him and wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulder. It was with her blocky arm, but somehow, Asriel felt no jagged edges or flat surfaces. It felt like a real human arm.

"Do not fret, dear Asriel," ENA said reassuringly. "In spite of our current failure, I will still continue to assist you in finding your home."

"You don't get it!" he snapped back, eyes growing misty. "This was my only chance of getting back, and we lost it! I'm stuck here, and I'll probably never get back!"

ENA watched in shocked silence as Asriel ugly-cried into his sweater. She suddenly began to feel sorry for the little guy, an emotion she never thought she was capable of feeling. Wrapping her arm around the kid tighter, she pulled him closer, which Asriel responded to by resting his head on ENA's shoulder cavity. They sat like this for a few minutes, until Asriel finally calmed down and looked up at the Picasso-esque girl with a small smile.

"Asriel," ENA began, breaking the silence, "there is something that I wish to communicate with you."

Asriel nodded in understanding, waiting to hear what she wanted to say.

Unfortunately, what came out was not a voice, but an unholy beeping noise. Asriel fell off the bench and stumbled backwards, covering his ears. This had no effect; the ear-piercing noise continued to rattle his head, like a worm eating away at his brain. Asriel silently prayed that ENA would just shut up and this torture would end already.

Asriel shot up and found himself sitting in his bed, covered in his own sweat. He jerked his head over to his nightstand to find that his alarm clock was going off; a firm smack was all it took to shut that noise box up. Stepping onto the soft carpet, he walked over to his dresser and pulled out a striped sweater and a pair of black pants, his usual outfit. After dressing himself, he exhaled a big sigh in relief. He still could not believe that it had been a dream. It all felt so real...

The bedroom door opened, and in stepped Samuel, already dressed and ready to start the day. "Good morning, Sam!" Asriel greeted with a wave.

"Good morning, Azzy," Samuel replied with a smile, though his face still held visible concern. "Did you have a nightmare last night? You were mumbling stuff and rolling all over the place."

"Not really," the monster answered, grabbing his sneakers. "I mean, it wasn't exactly a nightmare, but it wasn't a regular dream, either. It's just… I don't know how to describe it."

"Well, maybe we should go see Alphys about it. She might be able to—" Sam began, stopping when he noticed something on Asriel's bed. He went over to pick that something up, which turned out to be the bed's pillow. It was a bright orange with lighter orange markings on the corners and in an oval in the center; a golden ring circled around the central oval as well.

"Where did you get this?" he asked, his face contorted in confusion and annoyance.

"Sam, what—"

"Where did you get this?" Sam asked again, his brows now furrowed in anger.

Asriel was afraid to answer because he knew what was coming. He took the pillow in question last night before bed. His usual bedding was being washed at the time, and there was no way he was going to wait for it to finish. So, he took matters into his own hands and went looking for a pillow to use. He was low on luck in finding anything until…

"I- I was looking through your closet and—" Asriel stammered, waiting for the yelling and carrying on to start. For some reason, it never came. Samuel just stood silent for a few moments, culminating in a sigh of frustration. He trudged to his closet, opened the door a crack, and tossed the pillow back inside, slamming the door behind it.

Riddled with fear and guilt, Asriel lowered his head and weakly said, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Sam replied in a low voice. "Just don't do it again." He went back to being his regular self, for he was not even that upset to begin with. Asriel would never mean to do anything terrible. He gave his brother a quick pat on the shoulder and said, "Come on, bud. Let's go downstairs."

As the boys made their way down the steps, Asriel could not help but wonder why Sam had acted so upset before. It was just a pillow, after all. There was nothing so bad about it that Samuel would need to keep it tucked away.

Right?

Calendar: April 30th

Me: *Dream Speedrun Music*

You know, funny thing: I was on the home stretch of this story last night, and I probably could have finished it. But then my Internet went down... So, fashionably late it may be, but here it is! I guess May is gonna be a double-feature month.

See you around!

CODE COMING SOON