"Remember…a is for the nominative, ae's genitive, and dative, am's accusative, the ablative's long a."

"So, a, ae, am, and aaaaa, then ae, ae, arum, is, os, is?"

"Yes. It's masculine. Remember, five apiece."

"And a is for the nominative, ae genitive and dative, am accusative, the ablative long aaaa."

Tobias was once more sitting underneath his and Toriel's "meeting tree", as puffy white clouds slowly ambled by in the blue sky above. The sun was slightly hidden behind one at the moment as soft wind ruffled through their hair, and Tobias's cheeks turned even rosier as Toriel patted his shoulder.

"Excellent, truly excellent." She informed him as they looked down at the parchment below, filled with Latin words. "You're picking up Latin splendidly. I have to ask, though, why have you never learned this sort of thing yourself? I would have thought your father would have imparted it onto you." She added. "Don't you and your family religiously attend service bi-weekly?"

"Well, I have to cut down on it to once a week with my new duties as the prince." Tobias muttered. "My father has never gotten around to Latin. I can speak English eloquently, I can speak French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, I know several languages of those to the Far East, but I know absolutely nothing about any of the "Dead" languages."

"I assure you, you're a very quick learner. We'll fix that in no time. I used to not know Latin either, but Father White was most helpful to me." Toriel confessed as she leaned back more against the tree and wistfully sighed, letting the wind waft through her hair.

"Have you managed to figure out who or what caused that fire?"

Toriel inwardly flinched. "Oh! Uh…" She gulped a bit. "I've continued to try and ask around to see if anyone knows who really caused that arson, but if it WAS Pyrope, he, nor his family, are letting anything slip. I've made no headway. I'm very sorry, Tobias."

"Please, I'd prefer you call me "Toby" when we're alone." He admitted. "You don't need to stand on ceremony, really."

The sad thing was, Toriel was pretty sure that Pyrope had, indeed, caused the arson. She just wasn't sure if it was on purpose or by accident. She had no way of knowing for sure, but she'd found out what he had done by asking his daughter if their father had been up to some "bad things" or had talked about "doing something bad".

She'd gotten quite a surprising answer.

"Daddy said he did something he's not sure was bad. He said it was good, but also bad." Little Pyra had confessed to Toriel as Toriel took her to the local bakery, buying her a delicious hot cross bun, fresh from the oven as they sat down to enjoy their little snack. "He keeps whispering about it when Mommy and he are alone." The little pyrope confessed nervously. "They sound really scared."

"Does your father drink?" Toriel asked of Pyra. "I'd just like to know." She knew that his species were so utterly entrenched in fire that the concept of drinking sounded almost ludicrous, but if she could prove he WAS drunk, then she could at least chalk it all up to "drunken accident from an already rather clumsy idiot".

"Oh, I don't think so. But Daddy can get all super happy and funny and weird when he eats charcoal. That grey rock stuff people use in fires makes him really happy and weird." Pyra confessed.

So it got him high, acted like a drug. Toriel was honestly not sure she wanted to keep investigating, because if Pyrope was guilty…then she knew she couldn't keep it a secret, she'd have to tell Tobias, she'd have to. She was a deeply honest person, and keeping secrets from people she considered so dear a friend was a horrible idea to her, a terrible concept.

As long as she didn't get any new information, she didn't have to tell Tobias, and therefore, get Pyrope in trouble. Things could just stay like this, and this was just fine. A good place to be.

"I'm glad you think I'm a fast learner because I have to be honest, it's driving me up the wall memorizing all this." Tobias confessed as he rapped the side of his head with the flat of his palm, his hand balled up into a fist. "Latin is a language, dead as can be, it killed of all the Romans and now it's killing ME!" He proclaimed as Toriel snorted, and laughed.

"Ha-ha-ha! That's funny, that's funny!"

"You actually like it?" Tobias looked a little surprised. "Sorry, I've never had anyone say they enjoy my rather terrible poetry." He murmured nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"I enjoy more "lowbrow" humor, despite what you may think of me." Toriel insisted. "I find it cute and charming. Any other ones you know?" She wanted to know as Tobias grinned.

"How dirty do you want me to get?"

"As dirty as you can think. I'm a tremendously immature monster."

Tobias cleared his throat. "I call this one "Ode to Relief". I was inspired to write this after reading of the Chinese's fascinating development of a new kind of PAPER they have. Heh-hem. Here I sit in deadly vapor, for someone stole our toilet paper! Shall I lie? Shall I linger? Or be forced to use my finger?"

Toriel snorted again, as Tobias went on, now with a great, big, s—t eating grin on his face. "Here I sit, broken-hearted, tried to shit and only farted!"

Toriel was now laughing hysterically, wiping tears from her eyes as Tobias continued with his dirty little limericks. "I once took a shit near a wall, so big and so firm and so tall, that it balanced on end, that shit did not bend, but fell over and scraped my left-"

Toriel was now howling with laughter and rolling around on the ground, guffawing loudly, tears freely flowing as Tobias grinned stupidly. It felt good to feel so stupid and dumb and childish every once in a while.

Meanwhile, the sun had set on Captain Abel Roger's ship. A recent storm had torn at the tails and they were now drifting whilst Solomon worked tirelessly to help repair said sail, with Eri helping along, and Hadiya on guard. She had the best eyesight at night of all of them anyway because, back in her homeland, she'd often be out with her own family on guard duty for her village.

Eri was working hard alongside Solomon as the long, white-haired, dark-skinned man looked up, his thick glasses making it hard to see what color his eyes even were, though she thought she saw a faint hint of brownish/red. Perhaps he was one of those "Determined" Souls she'd heard so much about. He had his tongue slightly stuck out of his mouth as he finished sewing his spot on the sail, Eri getting distracted at the odd cross-stitching he'd done that looked rather ornate and like a-

"OW!"

She'd pricked her finger and swore viciously, shaking her head back and forth as Solomon saw the faint blood on her hand. He took it, looking her hand over but only for a moment, because Erimentha forcibly yanked it back. "Hey, none of that!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it." He murmured, looking to the side as Eri sighed.

"Don't take this the wrong way, I just…don't like you. Something about you is unsettling to me. You've been perfectly gentlemanly to me and Hadiya but there's just something about you that's "off"." Eri confessed, seeing his slightly hurt expression as he then glanced back at her, then off to the cargo hold.

"Erimentha, do you know where I'm from?"

Eri looked him up and down, resting her behind on the floor of the boat as Hadiya pretended to not be listening. But Eri could tell she was, she had her ear ever-so-subtly tilted in their direction. "Based on your name and your skin color and the faint accent, I would say…somewhere in the Middle East?"

"Yes, I'm from Palestine." Solomon said. "I know people don't much like me here. They like me less there because the Palestinian people and the Jewish people have been getting into arguments and fights and conflicts for decades. I sided more with my Israeli father over my mother and it didn't end well, there was a vicious fight and my father was basically eaten alive, didn't stand a stance. I knew I couldn't stay under that roof, so I left, but nobody else would take me in because I look the way I do…and they were frightened of me. I mean, I was a very big child, and with big hands." He waved his hands in the air. "Being good at repairing clothing and stitching things up and making linen and the like, that was my saving grace, I managed to charm some traders and merchants while living on the street at a port, and I left my homeland and never went back. I know I'm not well liked. I know I look scary. This is just the best I can do, and I'm sorry if it still isn't enough for you."

Now Eri felt very, very guilty as she put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, I had no idea. I'll try to be less…uneasy around you."

"I'd appreciate that." Solomon said, going into a belt pouch he had, getting out some bandages he quickly wrapped around Eri's pricked, bloody finger. "There. Aaaaall better." He remarked. "Listen, I know full well your friend Hadiya is hiding something. I want you to talk to her about Uttu, I could overhear them, just barely, speaking in the cargo hold." He whispered as quietly as he could to Eri. "You need to do something. She's pregnant, isn't she? And going to give birth soon. What do you think her children are going to want to eat if we don't get off this ship? The nearest big sources of meat. And that's us." He added as Eri gaped in surprise, and turned a little pale.

"Uttu's in the cargo hold and Hadiya knew?!" She whispered swiftly back.

"Yes. Look, talk to her. She's your partner, I don't think it's a good idea for her to keep keeping this a secret, because if she gives birth, everyone will know and she'll be in huge trouble." Solomon insisted as Eri decided to let him finish the sails as she made her way over to Hadiya, and tapped her shoulder.

"We need to talk privately." She said, moving Hadiya down, down to the cargo hold as Eri folded her arms over her chest. "Uttu's here in the cargo hold. Solomon told me he overheard you speaking. Why didn't you tell me about this?!" She inquired, sounding very furious, her lip a taut line.

Hadiya gulped, beads of sweat slightly popping up on her forehead. "Look, I was going to tell you, just when we got to land, I had no idea that storm would pop up and our sails would-"

"So you'd tell me AFTER you were done keeping a secret, not during. There's no real reason you couldn't tell me, Hadiya, we should be able to be honest about this sort of thing, and we shouldn't keep secrets from each other." Eri insisted.

"Uttu didn't want me telling anyone else, I made a promise." Hadiya muttered, glancing away.

"You also promised me when we first got together you'd be honest and tell me about any issues-"

"I didn't see this as an issue!"

"Well, maybe you should have!" Eri said, turning away, Uttu nervously poking her head out from behind a big cargo crate as Eri folded her arms over her chest and "harrumphed". "I mean, she's pregnant and going to pop any day now, and her kids WILL be ravenous, won't they? And we don't have a lot of MEAT on board, Hadiya. If you'd told us she was here, we could have done, like, more fishing and gotten a ton of meat-"

"Wouldn't you have suggested we toss her overboard?" Hadiya inquired. "You hate spiders, remember?"

"Well I'm not gonna say we toss a pregnant mom overboard, even if she IS creepy!" Eri defended. "Why can't you just admit you're wrong?"

"I'm not wrong, I'm just trying to do right by somebody who's terrified for her and her children's lives!"

"That doesn't mean you're not wrong!"

"And you turning away and crossing your arms doesn't mean I'm being unreasonable!" Hadiya snapped.

"Oh, I think you'll find it does!"

Uttu gulped a bit. Hoo boy, a lover's spat.

"Listen to me!" Hadiya said, grabbing Eri by the shoulders, turning her around, tossing the short sword she was using for guard duty to the ground as she flung her arms in Uttu's direction. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I just had a lot on my mind! And Uttu didn't trust the crew to not do something, even if the Captain himself wouldn't mind!"

"It's not my fault Uttu's so paranoid."

"It's not paranoia if it people are really out to get you!" Hadiya snapped, losing control, gesticulating with her hands…as it happened. For the very first time, it happened. Her yellow Soul manifested right in front of Eri, and THA-THWOOSH! From her flailing hands shot forth projectiles of yellow that embedded into the hull of the cargo hold! THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP! They gazed on in shock, Eri gasping, racing over to the yellow projectiles, looking them over.

"Amazing…Hadiya, you…you lost control and you activated your power for the first time!"

"What…are they?" Hadiya inquired as she, Eri and Uttu examined them, Hadiya looking them over, Eri poking them.

"They feel like…small thick and round arrow tips." She murmured. "How did you call them forth?"

"I don't know, I was just worked up over the thought of what would happen to Uttu if the authorities from the port or their like got hold of her and I just felt this wind rushing up inside me that was hot and heavy." Hadiya confessed as she scratched at her head.

"It must be activated by an intense sense of justice, then." Uttu offered. "When you get worked up over such things, your mage power reacts."

"I guess so." Hadiya confessed before she blushed. "But…seriously, Eri, I'm…I'm sorry, I probably should have told you."

"I'm sorry I yelled." Eri added. "I'm just glad this is all out in the open. I won't tell the crew or captain if we get to land within…three days, but if we don't, we have to tell them. Sound fair?"

Hadiya turned to Uttu, who hesitated, then nodded. "Yes, I suppose."

"Good, good!" Eri wiped her brow. "Now I think it's best we all get some sleep." She reasoned. "And Hadiya, I think, tomorrow morning, we should try to do double fishing duty."

"Good idea." Hadiya said, giving Eri a kiss on the cheek. "Again, I'm sorry."

"It's alright. I know you meant well, but from now on…no more secrets." Eri intoned gently, kissing Hadiya back in return on the lips…who returned the kiss, as their breathing became hot, and heavy…

…

…

…

… "Eli!"

Elisud looked up. Ah, thank goodness. Far off in the distance he could see Cu Chulainn's men racing towards him and his compatriots. They'd kept the green shield up the entire time, empowered by their kindness towards each other, but even that was beginning to reach its limits, there was only so much they could give. Now the young, bearded man grinned in delight as Prince Asgore saw Cu Chulainn and his men coming back for more, the red-haired, armored folk hero bringing up the rear and looking…dour, depressed, and rather disgusted. Asgore had never, ever seen him so miserable and angry.

"The dust we will bite. Best exit stage right." Prince Asgore recommended to Garamond. "We've tried the best we can, but it's clear we won't be able to get hold of this mage's soul."

"So it would appear." Garamond confessed. "He who fights and runs away does live to fight another day. Retreat?"

"RETREAT!" Prince Asgore called out to the remaining forces with him. "Fall back, fall back, we're getting out of here!"

"Yeah, you better run, you stupid goat…" Cu Chulainn muttered as his men approached the green, round shield of magic that now housed Elisud and his friends. "Well at least you're alright, Eli. I'm glad our day today wasn't an utter loss, you've clearly learned to keep your spell up to amazing degrees."

"It's all about kindness, sir." Elisud said as he laid his arms down and approached Cu Chulainn…and then hugged him, Cu Chulainn looking astounded.

"Wh…what're you doing?"

"I can tell you need a hug, sir. You're in a bad way."

Cu Chulainn normally would have shoved a man off him for hugging him. Such a thing would normally feel creepy and unnatural, and yet…he didn't mind it from Elisud. "…yeah, I reckon I do, little Eli. You've got a way with people I admire." He commented. "A softness, a gentleness of spirit in you that I can respect."

"People need to be good to each other, Cu Chulainn. Because our world won't be good to us. It's filled with sin and hardship, and that's why we're here. To make it better, to make it kinder, and to make ourselves better and kinder still. My faith teaches me to make a Kingdom of Heaven right here, on Earth, through charity, good works, and faith."

"I don't believe in your God, boy." Cu Chulainn remarked. "But it's a nice philosophy to have. In better times, I might believe in it." He added. "But right now, my wife and child have left me, and we've lost our prisoners. I very much need cheering up."

"Maybe some drinks and a rousing song around a fire?" Elisud offered.

"As long as it doesn't involve the word "wife"."

"Not a problem, sir."

Meanwhile, Grillby was overseeing the prisoners that they'd obtained from their own "prison break", Sir Grillersby the Fire Elemental pacing back and forth, hands behind his back…and a large, enormous bonfire had been erected behind him as the many prisoners stood in front of him. The sky was a beautiful, lovely shade of dark blue right now as night was beginning to fall, the faintest flicker of stars were forming as the other monsters looked on. The prisoners had been tied carefully, bound by their hands and their feet with a bit of irony…cold iron chains.

"Consider this punishment for all you've done to me and to our kind." Grillby finally proclaimed, turning to glare at them all with piercing white eyes as Courier gulped a bit, the rather terrified-looking skeleton archer moving to the far back, away from most of the other monsters. "Courier alone got taken apart and put back together a hundred times wrong. I'm tempted to do the same to all of you. Instead, I'm just going to execute you. We don't have the resources to keep you with us anyway. Consider this mercy compared to what I WANT to do."

He gave a firm, curt nod at the monsters right behind the prisoners. They all began to shove, toss and kick the prisoners into the roaring inferno, the prisoners screaming and howling in terror and pain, Grillby watching on, unblinking. Again and again, human frames were tossed into the fire to be helplessly burned up within those roaring flames, snapping and popping noises filling the air along with the sizzling of burning flesh. Grillby didn't care one iota.

He simply folded his arms over his currently armorless, bare chest, reduced to wearing only his special pair of fireproof pants now, everything else had been taken from him when he'd been taken prisoner. So now these prisoners would feel a FRACTION of the pain and agony that he had felt whilst being Cu Chulainn's prisoner. Served them right, years and years and years of mistreating monsterkind and now these…these real monsters had to gall to try and expect mercy-

And then it happened. There'd been barely any younger prisoners they'd taken with them, the others had been killed at the camp. But one mother and her infant boy had been taken prisoner by Courier, who now looked very sick as the mother got tossed into the fire, screaming, the child she'd had in her arms being tossed at it too…but landing, instead, just barely in front of it, but still too close for comfort.

Hearing the youngling's cries, Grillby suddenly felt something sharp and horrifying pierce his chest. He looked mortified and disgusted and barreled at top speed, picking the baby up in his hands and his arms, clearly disturbed by what had happened. "What the hell?! Who threw him?!" Grillby snarled angrily. "What sort of stupid, sadistic-"

But Grillby hadn't been thinking. The average human, even the average monster, couldn't touch his body, he had to concentrate to ensure that his form didn't burn things up. And the poor child in his hands and arms…

The others gasped, some reeling back. A few looked disgusted themselves, Courier covering his mouth, the slender skeleton looking mortified and his eye sockets wide with terror as Grillby now held what…had…been a little baby boy in his arms, so badly burnt that…that…

Grillby began to sob. He sobbed and sobbed, crying uncontrollably, flopping onto his hands and knees, and he wailed without end. Even when Prince Asgore finally arrived, Grillby hadn't stopped, and only finally ceased his horrified, self-disgusted screaming and wailing when it hurt his throat to much to try. He would remain curled up in his tent, and he didn't speak to anyone as the days would go by.

And he refused…to go back to the front.

Ever…ever…again.