Chapter 5: Snow Dust

In order to escape the much-faster snowdrakes galloping after me in the distance, I leaped farther than I've ever leaped into a gap in the thicket of trees around the pathway. I let myself bump into a tree absorb the force of the jump before getting into a crouch and crawled underneath some snow-covered branches. My hands hurt from touching the snow so much without gloves, and I blew on them, rubbing them together. The stampede of a single excited snowdrake passed by, followed by a slightly larger blue snowdrake wearing pink blush, a pink bowtie and pink shoes and a... chilldrake wearing giant sunglasses that trotted by leisurely. For some odd reason, when I looked to a monster I instantly knew their name. Chilldrake stopped and looked around suspiciously, letting the dad snowdrake pass him. I stopped breathing.

"Bro! These footprints end right here!" He shouted. The other snowdrake was out of hearing distance, but the dad-snowdrake turned around. "Psh, I'm not talking to you, adult authority!" Chilldrake sighed and shook his head, before walking and looking in-between the trees on the other side. Dad-snowdrake shrugged and walked onwards. I gulped, hunched over into the darkest shadows of the branches, and stayed as still as I could. The sunglasses on the sno-chilldrake's face flashed as he looked closely at my spot, and then paused. I found I had no other choice.

"GRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I screamed in his face, and the chilldrake screeched and fell over himself trying to scramble back. I resisted my urge to laugh as I ran as fast as I could, as close as the trees as possible, weaving in and out of a few stray ones on the pathway. As a result, the duo-snowdrake stampede completely passed me.

"The human just past you! After it!" Chilldrake roared in anger. The three snowdrakes all thundered towards me at a speed I could not hope to outrun, my lungs burned from the wintery air, and I kept losing my footing on the icy and rocky ground. The only good outcome to all this was that I might be a little warmer from running so much.

"DON'T MOVE!" A dog named Doggo suddenly howled in out pathway, taking out his daggers and glaring at all of us. I think we were going to ignore him until Doggo's daggers became encased in blue energy that was ten times their size. We all skidded to a stop, a snowdrake's snout bumping into my back and making me fall over. Doggo looked very irritated at the flailing bodies and slashed at us multiple times, leaving no room to dodge. The snowdrake froze mid-position so I did the same. The blue energy of the blades swept and... passed through us, leaving me with a sensation akin to seeing someone slashed but not getting slashed myself. Doggo watched us with shifty eyes, walking closer. I made a break for it, keeping an eye on the blades and skidding to a stop when Doggo looked directly at me. He slashed at me, and I reflexively closed my eyes as the blades went through me. Blue attacks were harmless but... very unsettling. Doggo walked closer, but didn't meet my eyes, he couldn't see me it seemed. I reached up and pet his ears. Doggo freaked out and started barking wildly, "A ARM CAME OUTTA NOWHERE AND PET ME?! PET?! POT?! PET?!" He slashed at my arm with the blue blade energy, and I blinked as it went through my head. Oddly, I could still move in a blue attack, but only a little. I decided it wouldn't be a good idea to test its boundaries. "I-I'm gonna need some dog treats for this!" Doggo barked, jumping into his sentry box. I sighed in relief.

"I could take that dog! Psh!" Chilldrake boasted, shaking himself out.

"No, I think this has gone far enough! We should just leave the human to the guards. They're dangerous, aren't they?" Dad-snowdrake countered.

"No way! They laughed at my jokes! They didn't attack me at all! You snow nothin', dad!" Teen-snowdrake protested.

"Psst! Let's ditch your dad!" Chilldrake whispered loudly.

"Hey... I heard that!"

I in the meantime was casually walking onwards, leaving them to argue. I saw something smoking and the odd smell of burning dog treats hit my nostrils. It kinda reminded me of burning bread. I coughed a bit and waved the smoke away. There were some muffled wumps and I looked back to see the drakes wrestling in the snow. I snickered until someone bumped into me. Bright pink ice caught my eye and I looked, blinking, to a small snowman with a huge head and an even larger pink-iceberg cap. He smirked proudly as I stepped away from him.

"Uh, hi." I said, and looked away from him to keep going.

"Uh, HELLO. My hat's over here!" Ice cap snapped, and I felt the snow shift under me, rising up. I quickly jumped off it as it shot out spikes, only to land on another rising snow mound. The higher it rose, the icier it became, and I ended up slipping and basically crawling and frog-jumping from snow mound to snow mound, away from Ice Cap. Some of the mounds crossed over, and I landed too close to an upraised one. "Fine! I'll ignore you too." That comment from Ice Cap actually brought my guard down, and ice spikes stabbed my hands and fingers and would've gone through my head if I didn't rear back. I rolled back from that and shook my hands. The cold numbed the pain, but having hands quickly covered in my own blood was not a good time. Out of range of the mounds attack, I vaguely saw ice cap turned away from me and my hands leave red prints in the snow before I sprinted away from that monster.

I didn't see anyone chasing me, but I ran and ran until I saw a familiar face. Sans. I stopped running and almost put my hands on my knees until a pinching pain told me that was a bad idea. I ended up walking over to him, looking at the damage on my hands with a weird fascination. I swear I would see a little white through the red, and I couldn't move some of them... welp. I licked some of the lighter stab wounds out of habit, and spat on the snow because it tasted bad.

Sans spoke when I stopped in front of him and looked at him, "Hey, here's something important to remember. My brother has a very special attack. If you see a blue attack, don't move and it won't hurt you. Here's an easy way to remember it. If you see a stop sign, you stop, right?"

"Hey Sans, I gotta talk to you about something else." I said in between the natural pause after a question.

"Sorry, Kid, I don't have any food on me." He glanced briefly at my hands.

"Uh, no, I mean... Thanks for the explanation, but uh... Do you um, know how to qui-"

"THERE'S THE HUMAN!"

"THERE'S SNOW DITCHING THE BEST SNOWDRAKE COMEDIAN!"

I yelped and looked behind me to see a cloud of snow dust in the distance, along with two angry drakes.

"Tell me about it later." I looked towards where Sans spoke to see that he had disappeared. I cursed under my breath and ran off the main pathway around the edges of a frozen pond. Eventually, the cloud dust past behind me as the two drakes yelped and skid on the ice. I came across a clearing with a single snowman and hid behind it.

"Hello." The snowman said, and I yelped before I covered my mouth, "I am a snowman."

"Um, you want to see the world, right?" I whispered, "Can I take your carrot?"

"As long as you bring it far away, traveller." The snowman said softly. I peeked over his shoulder. The dad-snowdrake was scolding the drakes in the distance. Dad-snowdrake took teen-snowdrake by the frill and pulled him off, leaving a sulking Chilldrake following behind them. I then took off the snowman's nose with my scab-y hands. "Thank you, good luck!" The snowman chimed in.

"I promise I won't eat you." I muttered. Maybe I'll just give it to Sans once he tells me how to quit, and then he'll have Papyrus give it back or something. Well... if Sans tells me how to quit. I couldn't get my pockets to open with such numb and injured fingers, so I reluctantly shoved the frozen carrot into my shirt and walked onwards. How long away was the golf course, anyway? I had forgotten the map of the place... Ahead, I could hear the bone brothers arguing.

"YOU'RE SO LAZY! YOU'VE BEEN NAPPING ALL NIGHT!"

"I think that's called... sleeping."

"EXCUSES, EXCUSES!"

I licked my hands some more in a pathetic attempt to defrost/clean/heal them as Papyrus noticed me. There was a clearing of snow, revealing a square clearing of rock underneath with a light dusting from the snowfall.

"OH-HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU, MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES! I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE... QUITE SHOCKING! FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS THE INVISIBLE... ELECTRICITY MAZE!" His voice was so loud and proudly amused that it was shaking the snow off of the trees behind me.

"OH SHOOT!" I yelled back to encourage him. I felt a bit dizzy from that shout. Or maybe from the blood loss. I shook my head to clear it.

"NYEHEH! WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THIS MAZE, THIS ORB WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP!" He brought the orb out, "SOUND LIKE FUN? BECAUSE, THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE," He paused, one fist in the air to make a point, "ISACTUALLYRATHERSMALLITHINK. OK, YOU CAN GO AHEAD NOW." He lowered his arms and watched me expectantly

I eyed my audience, before a smirk grew on my face. I went up the edge of the maze. "HEY PAPYRUS, THE WEATHER'S GONNA GET STORMY TONIGHT!"

"WHAT DID YOU M-" I swung my arm out, and the orb in his glove burst into action, shocking him instead. ZZZZZZAP!

"High chance of lightning." I said cheekily, stepping away from the maze. I burst into laughter at Papyrus's shocked and scorched form.

"S-SANS! WHAT DID THE HUMAN DO?! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Papyrus yelled as he shook off the carbon.

"I think the human has to hold the orb." Sans said casually, giving me a subtle thumbs up.

"OH, OKAY." Papyrus walked through the maze, shouting at me, "QUIT LAUGHING, HUMAN!" I couldn't stop, I had the giggles, there were tears coming out of my eyes at my own joke. I am never going to be a comedian if I am this amused with myself. Or maybe I'm just going crazy. That thought did seem to calm me down somehow as Papyrus approached me. "HOLD THIS, PLEASE!" He tossed the orb and I caught it in my hands, wincing as the action broke some scabs. I immediately hugged it because it was still warm, holding it in place with my wrists Papyrus speed-walked through his maze and once he got to the other side he called, "OKAY, YOU CAN START NOW."

I followed his footprints through the maze like I've done many times before. Well, like Frisk did. I approached the skeleton brothers, and Papyrus pointed at me accusingly.

"YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL! YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY... TOO EASILY! HOWEVER! THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE SO EASY! IT WAS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS. YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED! I KNOW I AM." Papyrus moonwalked backwards back out of sight with great force, creating a gust of wind. I blinked at his speed and kind of felt nervous about fighting the guy. He was harmless, I knew, but I didn't really like getting beaten up.

"Hey, thanks... my brother seems like he's having fun. That was rather tricky." Sans said. I grinned back at him, before I dropped the orb into the snow and my smile faded.

"I gotta ask you something."

"Hm? What is it, kid?"

"Do you know how to quit the game?"

Sans's eyes seemed to lose their humor, and I immediately regretted saying something.

"I... you d-don't have to tell me now. I could help cheer up your brother if you want..." I said reluctantly.

"Well, how did you start the game?" Sans asked.

"I, uh, can't remember."

"Then force-shut it down."

"I... can't do that."

Sans looked a bit strained. "I can't help you, kid. I've... never been able to..." He diverted his eyes, "quit, myself. It's something only they can do." At my dumbfounded look, he walked off, saying over his shoulder, "I'm sure you'll find out on your own, kiddo."

"Yeah... thanks, Sans!" I said. It was genuine. Sans wasn't too big on talking about that stuff. He quickly disappeared out of sight in a snowflake-fog. Still, looks like a dead end... I kept going, and then blinked. End... The neutral ending... Flowey force-closed the game, right? Maybe I can escape then... I shook my head. No! I can't rely on him. Knowing him, he'll probably catch on to my plan and then I'd be trapped forever in this game with his stupid god-powers. I have to rely on someone else... I thought as I walked through the snow. Asriel is basically Flowey, so if I asked him, would he let me exit the game? But... what if he isn't able to? No, he broke the barrier... He should let me quit. So... I should get the true ending. Does Flowey know about the true ending? Will he stop the monsters from protecting me? He can't possibly know that much, right? I should make sure... urgh... time travel makes my head hurt. Or maybe it's all the running around I'm doing. I don't even feel thirsty, though. Do I have any right to befriend monsters so they can sacrifice themselves for me, even if the sacrifice is temporary? Well... they'll be happy in the end, so... win-win for everybody I guess. Alright... I'll try for the true ending, then. If anything else comes up before that I'll take it.

Determined to go through my plan, I raised my head high. Maybe I was weak and I was gonna probably get hurt a lot, but there was no way I wasn't going to get the ending I didn't want when I've played this game so much! I blinked when I spotted a sleepy blue rabbit leaning on an ice cream cart, dressed in a bright yellow shirt and red overalls.

"Aw... how come these aren't selling... it's the perfect weather for something cold..." He mumbled.

Food! Food can heal my hands! But... I only have 1g. I decided to pass him, and he got more depressed. I saw one of those rail-less bridges again and carefully put my weight on it, trying not to focus on the terrifying and deadly rocky drop in between the two snowy cliffs. It was stable. I backed up and ran towards the bridge, jumping and ending up high above it. For a moment, the wind rushing in my ears and the height of my jump made it feel like I was truly flying. I started dropping, and my eyes widened as I realized I wasn't going to land on the bridge. At the sight of certain death, I felt a powerful throb in my chest and my feet became encased in a red aura, slowing my fall enough to land a foot away from the edge on the snow. I skidded to a stop, and looked at my feet curiously. They were my normal black shoes, which were whiter now that they were covered in snow. Was it my imagination? My attention was quickly diverted when I smelled campfire. Following my nose, I found a fire crackling in the distance.

And, apparently, I wasn't the only one who could smell campfire... Lesser Dog, Greater Dog, Dogamy and Dogaressa were all huddled around the fire, barking at each other. What great work ethic. I thought sarcastically, crouching down. I weighed my options... I could roll around in the snow to try to smell like a puppy... and then pet them and throw sticks to distract them? Or I could sneak around them and not have to worry too much about running into them later... I walked over to some pine trees and picked up a stick. I used what remaining usable fingers I had and put the end of the stick end into the snow, using the side of my foot to rub the needles off the stick. I put the stick in my mouth using my wrists and rubbed the ends of the stick on the cliff to dull them a bit. I braced myself before rolling around in the snow, scrubbing myself as hard and quickly as I could. I felt snot drip from my nose, and wiped my face on my snow-covered sleeve. I took my pine-stick from the ground in my mouth and walked towards the fire. There was no turning back now, unless I wanted to get hypothermia and die before I even reach the next save point. Hopefully the little star got rid of sickness too.

"Woof woof!" Lesser Dog bounded up to me, the other dogs watching. I waved the stick to get his attention before grabbing it between my hands, spinning and throwing it as far as I could. The stick went a good ten yards into the golf course to my right and all the dogs charged after it. I grinned at my stroke of luck and ran towards the fire, only to be interrupted just before I can feel its warmth by four dogs tackling me painfully hard and dropping a slobbery stick on my face. I cried out in pain and they backed off, Dogi looking concerned while lesser and greater dog looked blissfully happy. I had trouble breathing for a few moments from getting the wind knocked out by a paw-to-the-stomach before picking up the stick. The dogs vibrated with excitement as I stood, especially greater dog, who was actually making a thrumming sound and shaking the air with his power. I spun around and around, and threw it even farther away. The dogs nearly fell over each other as they ran after it, barking.

"I'm gonna beat you, puppy~!" Dogamy challenged as he pulled ahead.

"Not if I beat you first, hunsky!" Dogaressa snarled. I finally sat by the fire and sighed in relief at the warmth. I couldn't see Sans anywhere. I would have to thank him when I saw him.

I heard heavy panting and looked up to see greater dog hovering above me. Like... he was a couple feet off the ground. His tail was a helicopter. I reached up and took the stick from him with both of my hands, wondering where the other dogs had gone before standing, spinning, and throwing the stick again, out of sight. Greater dog landed on the ground as lesser dog's head suddenly raised up and caught it midair. His head lowered and landed a few feet away with a small, snowy thunk. I took the stick with my partially defrosted hand and patted his head, saying, "Good one!" and his head extended and he faceplanted into some trees behind me, knocking them down. I threw the stick again, Dogamy and Dogaressa ran up and picked it up in their mouths in unison and pranced towards me. Greater dog stomped in front of them, whining, and they started sparring with axes and spears to see who would become the True Fetcher of The Stick.

I watched them duke it out as I held my hands out to the fire, feeling splendidly sleepy after the effect of the warmth after being cold for so long and the four-armored-dog tackle settled in. An attack like that would've probably taken out a good chunk of my hp... I felt a prickling sensation, bruises forming on my stomach and the arms and legs I tried to defend myself with. Lesser dog's head slowly retracted until he bounded over and joined the spar for the stick, tackling Dogamy to the ground and invoking Dogressa's wrath. Greater dog walked back, panting heavily and looking tired. I tried backing away, but the Greater dog stopped, jumped out of the suit of armor, and pranced towards me. He turned to the side and flopped onto my lap. I decided it wouldn't be a good idea to move, and slowly leaned into the white dog's fur. He didn't mind it as I curled over him. I found it harder and harder to keep my eyes open until I just ended up closing them, the dog spar becoming softer in the distance.

I think it would be fine to rest a little... Papyrus and Sans can wait a little, right? The dogs... wouldn' hurt an sleepin' friends... At that sluggish thought, my body fully relaxed and we both fell asleep.

A/N: Looks like most of these chapters are firing out to be about 3k words each... cool~

Aurawarrior13: I wasn't too sure about it either, but after writing it I realized it was really fun to do~. Also, your ice puns fill me with determination. Snowdrake would be jealous.

PenNinja1900: Thanks for reviewing this story so much! I guess stuff written for myself has at least some amusement for others, hehe. Having followers inspires me to edit more than I usually do.