Nafi went from blissfully unconscious, to painfully awake in a split second. She sat up quickly and immediately regretted it, as her head pounded and only by sheer force of will did she not throw up.
She pushed through the pain and tried her best to observe her surroundings.
She was in a not very well-made cell, the bars between her and her cape. It looked like it was missing her sword, but the pockets looked untouched. There were two windows, both sealed because of snow on the outside, and she was on a dog bed, a dog bowl full of spaghetti sat nearby.
The sight of food made her stomach growl with a painful reminder that the last time she ate was an hour before her fight with… with
Who did she fight? Why couldn't she remember?
Doesn't matter at the moment, she's hungry. She would have liked the food or antidote in her cape, but she was in no position to get over there. What she could get to was the dog bowl. She crawled her way over, stuffed her hands in, and started eating. It wasn't good, but she had eaten worse to survive. She still occasionally got nauseous when looking at zombies.
"HUMAN! I DID PROVIDE YOU WITH UTENSILS!"
Nafi snapped her head up and scooted back as far as she could. There was a skeleton, and she was weaponless. Even if she had weapons, she was barely staying conscious. This was really, really bad.
"I DIDN'T MEAN TO STARTLE YOU HUMAN. YOU DON'T LOOK TOO GOOD, DO I NEED TO GET THE ASGORE CLONE?"
"Shut u-up..." Nafi croaked, holding her head in pain. The voice was loud, and it made her head hurt more.
She heard the door closing and she crawled closer to the spaghetti. She didn't make it before the door opened again.
"Child!"
Was that-?
Nafi clutched her head as the memories of living with Toriel finally came back, ending with her fight. Didn't Toriel die? Why was she… where were… she can't think...
She curled into a ball as the goat mother ran to her. "Where does it hurt?"
"H-head..." She whimpered. This was why she tried to avoid head injuries, they were ridiculously painful and impaired everything.
As Toriel worked on healing, Nafi saw the skeleton behind her and tried to choke out a warning.
"Tor…"
She didn't get beyond the first syllable before she lost the fight with unconsciousness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Nafi drifted between asleep and awake, she mused that she really needed to stop hitting her head. As she climbed closer to awareness, she wondered if that truly was Toriel, or a phantom created by her damaged head.
Didn't matter much, the skeleton probably killed her if Nafi didn't… but wait, didn't Toriel say that there were friendly skeletons? She hoped that Toriel was correct and didn't throw away her life on a delusion.
She opened her eyes with great difficulty, but at least her head wasn't pounding anymore. It was more of a dull throb.
She looked around. She was still in the cell, but at least she was on an actual mattress. It was even one of those good ones with the springs.
"you up? great."
Nafi looked over, and immediately rolled into a defensive position behind the mattress. A squint activated the HUD and with it came a flash of pain.
1 attack, 1 defense, 1 health, the weakest skeleton she ever laid eyes on. Shortest too, if she was being honest.
"hey, no need for that. i don't have any Bones to pick with you."
She glanced around the room for whoever was speaking - because it obviously wasn't the skeleton because it's mouth wasn't even moving - and for a weapon. When she focused back to where the skeleton was, it was gone.
She relaxed slightly and scrambled up to made a beeline for her cape. It took a few false starts walking and fiddling with the buttons, but she got it on and checked for her sword, bow, and arrows. They weren't there.
"Oh, this won't be good..."
"Child!"
Nafi whipped around, hand automatically reaching for a sword that wasn't there, and got a face full of fur as Toriel gave her a crushing hug. "Ni to se ou oo," Nafi said through a mouth of fur.
She pulled back to get a good look at the motherly goat, and to clear her mouth of fur. There were many bandages around the right arm holding it against her chest, and the right shoulder was completely smothered in them. Nafi sighed in relief, she missed Toriel's head, she didn't kill her.
Nafi hugged Toriel this time, making sure to avoid the arm. "I thought I killed you..." She whispered
"well you almost did."
The only warning Toriel had that something was going to happen was Nafi tensing, before she was picked up and whipped around so Nafi stood between her and the short skeleton.
"Skeleton." Nafi said with anger and loathing. "Where is your bow?" Same anger and loathing, but tiny bit of curiosity too.
"Tibia honest I've never owned a bow. I own a trom-Bow-ne though."
Now Nafi was even more confused, a skeleton without a bow? A skeleton with an old musical instrument? A skeleton that could talk? If that other loud thing that she vaguely remembered was not this skeleton, that would make two talking skeletons.
Toriel put a hand on her shoulder. "Child, remember how I said skeletons down here are not like the ones on the surface? He helped us, and his name is Sans."
"yo."
Nafi didn't react for a second, then jerkily nodded her head but didn't relax more than putting her hands down. Her stomach then growled.
Very loudly.
Toriel giggled, "I made pie earlier, let's go eat." She walked around the short skeleton,Nafi following. She stopped long enough to whisper to Sans, "I'll be watching you," before moving on. Toriel's pie shouldn't wait.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes, there were two skeletons. No, neither of them wielded bows, much less knew how to use one. No, they would not give her weapons back until she stopped trying to reach for them when one of them showed up. No, she was not healed yet, so Toriel would not let her leave.
All in all, a bad situation.
Not to mention the shock of finding out she could have killed Toriel if she was any less regretful of doing the deed… for some reason. She has no idea how that worked but she was grateful for it.
Then Nafi almost killed Toriel again, by hugging her too hard. That was embarrassing.
Another issue was the skeleton brothers only had two beds. Sans had given her his bed when she was out cold. They did have a couch though. Good thing she was fine with sleeping on the floor, so Toriel got the couch. She did protest this arrangement, but not only did Nafi show she didn't get a choice by picking her up and holding her down on the couch, the skeletons also pointed out she was more damaged than Nafi. Being a boss monster ment that normal healing magic didn't exactly work well on her, and she was spending all of her magic healing Nafi's head injury. But all of this magical healing had issues for Nafi's system.
Healing took a lot of energy, but most of it was already being used by the rest of her body. So many times throughout the night, she had to get up and eat a meal. Not only did this ruin her sleep, but she only packs so much food for a mining expedition.
She ruffled through her cape's pockets, searching for more ration bars. She only found one, carrot based, but it had been ruined when she had landed on it when she had fallen down the hole. It was disgusting and soaked into the fibers. She forced herself to eat the squished and linty carrot ration and walked into the kitchen to see if she could make more. There were no carrots or watermelons, but there were potatoes and beetroot. She pulled out all the required ingredients and started making the ration bars.
Normally, she could just make three of each of the four types and have leftovers when she got back home, but not knowing how long until she got another chance and only having the materials for two flavors, she made eight of both.
There was a knocking sound and Nafi glanced over her shoulder to see Toriel.
"Couldn't sleep?" She asked.
"I could ask the same of you," Toriel replied
Nafi finished making the rations, but she had to let them dry before putting them in her cape pocket. That and she had to clean the pocket out.
"Been getting hungry more often. Ran out of food. Last one had been crushed."
She sat down at the table and tried to turn out the food pocket, but was stopped by the stuff in the other pockets. She started to pull things out, and Toriel watched as Nafi pulled out wood planks, a coal bag, an ore bag, lots of stone and some flint.
"Why do you need all that?" Toriel asked.
Nafi never even glanced up when she automatically responded, "I'm a miner. I mine."
She finished pulling everything out and turned the food pocket inside out, showing the orange crumbs and paste that covered the inside.
Toriel tilted her head, confused. "Why would you need to mine, couldn't you be something else?"
She didn't even stop to think, "I could be a farmer, but mining gets me more resources that I, and others need. Farming doesn't get me stone or coal or ores to fix walls and weapons. Selling what I don't need to wandering traders gets me things I do, but otherwise couldn't get myself," Nafi said. It was obvious she wasn't paying any attention to what questions she answered.
Toriel looked up and saw the skeleton brothers looking over the railing from the second floor. An idea occurred to her and, although she felt horrible for exploiting Nafi's sleep deprivation induced autopilot, Toriel asked, "I'm guessing the weapons are for the undead. What are skeletons like on the surface?"
"Skeletons are ranged, undead humanoid hostile undead equipped with bows. To kill them you either also use a bow, or use hit and run tactics. The best place to hit is the spine or the skull. All they drop when killed is one to three bones, and zero to two arrows, with the occasional intact skull. The rest poofs into smoke. The bones are good for making bone meal and bone blocks. Bone meal is good for dyeing things white or growing things quicker. Bone blocks are only good for decoration or supports. Arrows are obvious, and the skull is useful only for decoration."
Toriel didn't know how to react to the sudden deluge of information, and neither didn't the skeleton brothers. What first hit them though, was that there was no information on personalities or anything of the sort, only information about how to kill them and what to do when they're dead.
Toriel eventually snapped out of it. "Haven't you tried talking with them?"
Nafi finally paused as she realized just what she had been saying, but she only sighed as she finished cleaning her cape. "They do not speak, they only attack. Nothing stops them attacking."
She turned the cape back right side out and started depositing every back in. It was an uncomfortable silence as she worked and everyone else left to go to bed. Finished cleaning up, she checked the wetness of the bars and tossed them in her cape once she determined they were done, eating one of the beetroot bars.
She climbed back into her makeshift pallet on the floor, leaving the house in complete silence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The events that happened that night were not spoken of, but they were most definitely thought about.
Papyrus was being Papyrus and thinking about how to make friends with the surface skeletons. At least he was being smart and planning on doing it from a safe distance.
(He wondered where the other skeletons we're when he got up to the surface the other times. Maybe Frisk would help him, wherever she was?)
Sans was trying his hardest not to think about it. He failed often, wondering how many of those undead monsters died to give the human a LV of 35. It didn't help that the poof of smoke line reminded him of dust on the wind. With how high that number was, she could kill everyone in the underground in one swing. Such a high LV for a kind soul, even if it was mixed with determination. At one point he wondered if it was a determination to be kind.
(She was so close, yet so far from the child he remembered in other timelines. What happened? Where did Frisk go?)
Toriel had it the worst. She knew how hard it was to survive up there from what Nafi had told her, but it hadn't hit her till now what that meant. Nafi was forced to use everything she could to survive in a world that rooted for her death at every turn, even if that meant using the bodies of fallen enemies, human and undead alike.
Toriel lived during the Monster/Human war, she knew sometimes you must kill to survive. Even then, she never thought of using the remains of those fallen in battle. Sometimes, she even wondered how Nafi would be able to use monster dust.
( In the part of her that remembered the resets, she wondered if that was why her determined child never came. Did she die before she ever came down because she refused to kill?)
For Nafi, life fell into a routine, waiting until she got her weapons back so she could leave. She also remembered what happened that night, and she wasn't all that happy with being manipulated like that, even if it was only slightly.
She wandered around Snowdin and the permanently open Ruins and talked with everyone, if only to spend time. Eventually, a problem someone had would come up, and Nafi's kind heart couldn't stand not helping.
Although she still couldn't stand that annoying dog
Then came the day that they gave back the weapons, or technically, weapon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Standing near the entrance to Waterfall, Nafi looked over her sword with a practiced eye, and after finding no major wear and tear, switched it to pickaxe and did the same. It would need repairing, but a pick was not needed in this situation.
She switched it back, put away the sword, and reached for the bow. At least, what there was of it.
The bow was covered in an odd film and was covered in bite marks.
Nafi asked, "What happened to my bow?"
"you would not bow-lieve us if we told you," Sans started.
"IT WAS THAT MEDDLING CANINE'S FAULT," Papyrus interrupted and finished.
Nafi was silent for a moment, staring at the destroyed bow, before sighing. "What ever happened, this is no good for anything other than firewood now."
"BUT IT STILL LOOKS USEABLE?" Papyrus observed.
Nafi explained, "With the bite marks the wood has been compromised."
She demonstrated by pulling the string back and the wood broke in half. "It's just some sticks now."
She tossed the pieces into a cape pocket.
As she moved through the snow towards the exit, she called over her shoulder, "Say goodbye to Toriel for me. If you want to talk, she has my number."
The brothers waved goodbye. Sans took a shortcut to his next job, and Papyrus headed to his rendezvous with Undyne.
As Nafi walked through a sudden fog, her foot hit stone, not snow.
