(27)

After leaving Alphys' lab, Leontius was again on the path through Waterfall. It was a largely tranquil stroll at first, with the undead's attention split between thoughts on his time in the lab and attempting to enjoy the scenery of the walk as he went. He noticed a few things he'd missed previously, such as the fact that the river that ran beneath part of the path seemed to have large, seemingly purposefully-cut rectangular blocks of ice floating down it every now and then. He gave the strange sight only a passing thought and was soon through the large separating mound and in Waterfall proper.

The first thing he saw as he passed through the large crevice was a monster who looked to be fidgeting with a small crate. Leontius wasn't at all keen on bothering the monster and intended to walk right on by, but the moment he was about to pass by the monster piped up, speaking in an elderly sounding and crotchety voice.

"Now hold up there, you're not planning on messing with my puzzle before it's finished are ya?"

Leontius halted abruptly, not expecting the monster to bother talking to him. "No…? What puzzle are you referring to?"

That seemed to put the somewhat fungus-like elderly monster in a rather bad mood. "What puzzle, he says… ya must be blind! Or maybe even worse off than all the kids nowadays, not even bothering with the classics of puzzling…" He slapped a limb atop the crate he was sitting next to, with what Leontius could only describe as pride. "This here is the granddaddy of puzzles… the humble box!"

Leontius silently stared at the monster and his proclaimed 'humble' box, unsure what to say in response to his tirade.

The old monster gave Leontius an almost smug look before continuing. "Struck mute by its glory, eh? You can push it, stack it, climb it, heck even break it if need be!" He then pointed a limb at the still-silent undead and continued his monologue. "You be sure to appreciate boxes, metal, wood, cardboard, or otherwise! A good box puzzle will never let you down. Now git!" He then turned back to his oh-so-special box, now completely ignoring the human's existence.

Leontius could only oblige the monster's final request, turning about on his heel and leaving at a somewhat swifter walking pace than he'd been before. He passed over the thin bridge section, through the flooded corridor of echo flowers, and was back in a familiar spot. This was where Undyne got the drop on him using one of the flowers situated at the end of a small corridor, and said flower was currently occupied by a pair of monsters.

From what Leontius could see from his position behind them, they looked like they were purple reptilians, though different from both Alphys and the quieter of the two Royal Guards he'd encountered in Hotland. One was most definitely an adult, being just about as tall as Leontius and rather stockily built, though the heavy gray coat, pants, and tucked boots he had on could have been making him just appear larger. He lacked hair, having a smooth and mostly featureless bald head which ended in a roundish snout. An occasional turn of his head to the other monster revealed that he had bright yellow eyes.

The other monster was sitting in a four-wheeled handcart which also had three familiar boxes situated in it. This one was much smaller and younger than the other, looking to be around Asriel's height when Leontius last saw him. He reasoned the small monster must have been a young girl, considering the length and style of her dark purple hair as well as the large white ribbon that was keeping it out of her eyes, which were the same yellow as the older monster. She too had on a jacket and thick pants with tucked boots, but her set was a bright teal coloration with mint-green trim.

Leontius couldn't quite make his mind up about the two, he was unsure if they were father and daughter or older brother and younger sister. He quickly dropped it and figured to continue on, seeing as the duo was busy inspecting and talking at the flower, the young girl seeming rather amused by its unique parroting ability.

As Leontius set foot in the flooded section of the room and started sloshing his way out, he heard a lightly-accented and gruff voice call out from behind him.

"Hey! Hold on a sec, I need to talk to you, guy!"

When Leontius turned, he was unsurprised to see that it was the reptile man who'd called out to him. He was currently briskly walking over to the edge of the flooded section of the room, pulling the handcart with the chests and seated girl behind him as he went.

When he got close, he gave the undead a look of utter relief, while the girl put her jacket's large hood up and stayed quiet. "Oh boy, you have no idea how glad I am to see someone else. My daughter and I are trying to get through here to get to Snowdin, but…" He then pointed to the path ahead of Leontius, which led into the pitch-black parts of Waterfall. "...there's this dark maze or whatever in the way. We tried asking a local for help, but he just kept flexing at me, no idea why, and then he just up and vanished into the dark and I haven't seen him since. Can you do us a solid and help us get through here? We've been stuck waiting for a while now."

Leontius turned about to better face the confirmed father and daughter and responded. "I suppose, I am headed to Snowdin as well. Helping you through will be easy, I have been through this area enough to know the way."

The lizard man gave Leontius a toothy smile, revealing a set of sharp yellow teeth as he did so. "Say, thanks guy! This place is nice and all, but being stuck was starting to get irritating." He walked closer, carefully wheeling the handcart into the slightly lower flooded section as he did so, then held a clawed hand out to the undead man. "I'm Charly, and that's my daughter Suzy in the cart there."

Leontius momentarily eyed the offered hand, somewhat wary of the reptilian monster's rather sharp looking claws. Despite his apprehension, he took Charly's hand and shook it while introducing himself, noticing the monster actually seemed to be minding his claws rather well as he did so. "I am Leontius."

Charly raised a brow at that. "Leontius, huh? Never heard a name quite like that, not in New Home anyways. You said you were heading to Snowdin too, yeah? You live out there or are ya moving there like us?"

Leontius beckoned for Charly to follow as he answered, the monster pulling his belongings and daughter along behind him. "I have a home there."

Charly nodded his head at that. "That's good, I hear the housing situation out there is better than at New Home. The crowding in the city is pretty bad, that's why we're making the move out there. That and Suzy wasn't happy going to her school there, and if my daughter's not happy, I'm not happy, so I pulled her out. So uh... you a native or did you recently head out there?"

Charly sure seemed like the curious, talkative type to Leontius. He wasn't annoyed by it or anything, he supposed this was just the monster's way of getting to know people better. "It was recent, not even a few days ago, in fact."

"Really? How're you liking it out there? I know it's pretty cold in that area and it's mostly the furrier kinds of people who live there, and you got that big coat and hood on like us, but we're sorely lacking in the whole fur department."

They were coming up on the beginning of the dark area now, so Leontius unsheathed his claymore and held it above his head to cast a Light spell, the magical luminous orb floating above his head where his sword point was. He then sheathed his weapon and turned to the trailing monsters to answer Charly's question, barely noticing that Suzy had been staring at his sheathed sword as he did so.

"...I rather like it in Snowdin, it is a calm and quiet place for the most part and has a smaller community. The area's cold is not an issue for me either." He then gestured down the corridor into the dark maze area behind him. "The paths are tighter here thanks to the walls, you will want to be careful to ensure your cart does not get stuck."

Charly too was interested in Leontius' sword, but addressed the undead's statement and held back on voicing his curiosity on the weapon for the moment. "Alright, I'll make sure to watch the turns and all that. So… what brings you out this far into Waterfall?"

Leontius remained focused on heading the right way and answered briefly. "I was in Hotland speaking with Alphys, the Royal Scientist, about some things."

Charly couldn't help but give a rather amused look at that, but Leontius didn't see it. "Had to walk all the way from Snowdin to talk to her, eh? Couldn't just call her up or send her a text message?"

Leontius could only give a brief response to that, it was the truth of the matter after all, and the monster's subtle cheekiness went by entirely unnoticed by him. "I do not own a cellphone."

Charly's amused look dropped a little, not expecting the curt response he got. "Oh. Well, if you chat up the Royal Scientist of all monsters, you must be important. You a Royal Guard? I know those guys like to keep their weapons handy like you do, you know, in case a human ever shows up. Though... some rumors about that have been getting around lately…" He let that implication hang, not elaborating further.

Leontius didn't need any clarification, he knew exactly what Charly was implying considering he'd already come across the rumor in question. "I am not a member of the Royal Guard, but I suppose I am 'important' to a certain degree."

Surprising both Leontius and her father, it was Suzy who spoke up next. She'd been utterly silent up until this point. "Do you know Undyne?"

Leontius couldn't help but peek back to the monsters behind him for a second before answering, refocusing on the path shortly after. "I do."

The group was silent for a few moments while they took a particularly tight section back to back turns, and it was Suzy who spoke once more when they were through. "I heard she fought a human with a really big sword. A sword with gold parts and a white cloth thing on it."

Leontius could see where this was going. "She did."

Charly seemed to catch on as well, but his daughter asked the question before he could. "...Are you the human?"

Leontius could see the end of the dark section just ahead… "I am."

Suzy was quiet again, and just as the group got out of the dark maze Charly broke the silence. "Wow. I was kinda skeptical about the rumors I was hearing, but uh… here you are walking us through Waterfall. Guess that explains why you get to talk to important people, then."

Leontius' Light spell petered out just as he slightly turned to ask a question, the group stopping for a moment now that they were out of the pitch-black maze. "Those rumors you mentioned, what have you heard?"

Charly looked a bit unsure for a moment but answered despite his hesitance. "Well… less than Suzy has, apparently. All I heard is that there was a human in the Underground and that he helped us out somehow, so the Royal Guard was told he was a friend. Other than that, not much else. I still don't even know what you or humans in general even look like. That's got me real curious by the way, why the really shady getup? Don't want people to see your face or somethin'?"

Leontius motioned to keep walking before answering, Charly and Suzy close behind. "I am not particularly a fan of getting too many people's attention. The possibility of being in the public eye especially worries me."

The group passed over a pair of gentle waterfalls that went over the path, and walked into the hall that led to Gerson's cave and the enigmatic river person's jetty…

Charly could sympathize, being the talk of literally the whole Underground would likely bother just about any monster. Except for Mettaton. Mettaton lived for that. "I think I get ya, but you said you have a place in Snowdin, right? That place is pretty small, so don't people there know you better then?"

Leontius idly reapplied his sword sheath's safety latch while he answered, still leading the way. "I do have some friends and acquaintances there, but for the most part, I am a stranger to many of its residents. My home is also technically in Snowdin, but it is a good distance away from the town itself."

Charly nodded his head at that last part, he could definitely sympathize. "A man of privacy, huh? I can respect that, it'll be a nice change of pace getting out of the big city, that's for sure. Place is so cramped and crowded you can't walk a block without bumpin' into someone. A place all to yourself, a really quiet and private place? That just ain't anywhere in New Home."

The undead and monsters walked into the house area of Waterfall, and as they passed by the path leading to the fishlike house Suzy seemed to get excited, pointing at it and getting the group to stop. "Hey, that's Undyne's house! One of my classmates showed me a picture of it her cousin took, it was… um… actually pretty bad, half the picture was covered by his teeth…" She got rather quiet towards the end of her initially excited exclamation so the two present adults didn't hear her comment on the picture's quality, but she still seemed rather interested in the house.

Leontius found the idea of making a house vaguely resembling its owner's species rather strange at first, then he found himself reasoning that it made an odd amount of sense in a society as cosmetically varied as the monsters have, but he then fell somewhere in the middle when his thoughts eventually turned to what a 'human' house would look like. The idea of a house having human features of any kind ended up being disturbing rather than charming. He shook the imagery out of his head, and instead addressed Suzy's comment. "Are you a fan of Undyne's? You would not be the first child I have met who seems to idolize or at least like her."

Suzy was quiet at first, but a look from her father got her to answer. "Um... yeah, she's really cool, and strong, and nothing ever stops her, and…" She quietly trailed off, and Charly took over for her.

"A lotta kids really look up to Undyne, she's the Underground's biggest hero and the leader of the Royal Guard. She really appeals to rambunctious little squirts, but my daughter wouldn't know anything about that, ain't that right, 'Sooz?"

The girl gave a sigh and rested her head atop her hands on the cart's frame, giving a disheartened "Yeah, dad…" as she did so.

The reptile man gave a proud look at that and made to keep walking on the path, now side by side with Leontius. "Mhm. My daughter's gonna grow up and do something smart with her life, not punch people for a living like her ol' man or Undyne."

Leontius was somewhat confused by Charly's last statement, he beat people as a profession? "What do you mean by that Charly? That you 'punch people for a living,' as you put it."

Charly looked sidelong at the man as if he'd asked an odd question. "Hmm? What, humans don't have boxing?" A simple head shake from Leontius made him continue. "Well, it's a sport. Ya see, two monsters put on the gloves, step into a ring, and duke it out. Goal's to knock your opponent out or win by a decision made by judges who keep score through the fight. It's a great time, tons of people show up to watch and it's good money. I spent a lotta my life doing it, 'course I also met Sally midway through my career." He took on a rather wistful expression and got quiet after mentioning 'Sally,' and Suzy seemed to get rather down as well.

The group was now on the long straight path leading up to the small chick's gap...

Leontius had to ask, his curiosity was getting the better of him. "Who is this 'Sally' you mentioned? Is she your wife?" If she was, he found it odd that she was not traveling with the pair.

Charly's expression shifted somewhat, a kind of longing practically exuded from the look he gave as he stared ahead down the path. "Mhm, and meeting her was the best thing that ever happened to me. I swear, she was the most beautiful, most thoughtful, smartest woman in the whole Underground."

Was. Leontius realized he'd again managed to tread upon a sensitive part of someone's past. He should have seen it in the monster's face, but it didn't register.

Charly continued, a hint of a smile slowly working its way onto his face. "Met her after one of my bigger bouts, she came up to me on the street outside the venue. Said she was a 'kinesiologist' and wanted to watch me train, as a kind of medical research thing for therapeutic applications. I was a kinda clueless guy at the time so I just went with it, and sure enough, she showed up at my gym the next day, watching me do my thing while she wrote the hours away. Went on like that for a while, and I started seeing her in the crowds of my fights more and more too. We became friends, I started to see more in her, and I realized I was absolutely smitten with the gal. I noticed I'd actually fight worse if she wasn't in the stands, like all those people watching or the money hardly mattered, like she was the only one I was doing it for. Told her what I felt, and she said she felt the same, like the time she spent not watching me was time she just didn't value. We were a thing from then on, got married a few years later, and had little Suzy here not long after." He looked back at his daughter for a second, giving her a big, proud smile, rather embarrassing the girl, who quietly moaned "Daaaad…" while her bangs hid her eyes.

Charly looked forward again, his hands in his pockets and his smile waning. "Yeah… that's about when Sally started to show me that she knew better than me. I was pretty old for a boxer then, and she started worrying about my health. I didn't just ignore her or anything, but I had to keep fighting, we needed the money. I shoulda listened, because it wasn't many fights later before the sight in my left eye started to go. I realized she was right and decided to quit while I was ahead. Didn't want to try my luck, what with a family that needed me at home, not in the hospital. We managed to make do with what we had from Sally's published journals getting reviewed and used, and the years were good to us. But... uh… that changed two years ago."

Charly looked over to Leontius, catching a glimpse of the man's eyes beneath his hood as he did so. "...You know what the falling sickness is, Leontius?"

Leontius didn't break his gaze away from Charly's as he answered. "I do."

Charly looked away back to the path, nodding his head as he did so. A slight quiver came to his lower lip, but he bit it away as his eyes began to tear up somewhat. He didn't say anything after that. Suzy's silence only added to it, the quiet girl's eyes seemingly hidden in the shadow of her bangs.

Leontius could only walk with them, and his own thoughts drifted away from the broken family beside him to his own as he too looked to the path ahead. His wife, his child, he'd lost them, likely just as many other people above lost theirs. Like Charly and Sally, there too was a story behind Leontius meeting and loving his wife, having their child, and living the years with them, but he didn't know it. It was all lost to him, so too was any semblance of feelings or grief like what was on display beside him.

He felt nothing, except for the echo of warmth that pulled his mind towards Toriel.

He decided not to voice anything, he felt like attempting to sympathize with Charly through their similar situations would be hollow, like it would be a contrived effort that would ultimately just be disrespectful to the man who'd lost a loved one he still yearned for.

For a time the group continued down the path in silence, the dark mood slowly lifting as they went. The group eventually came to the gap and the determined little bird that watched over it. The bird recognized Leontius, only landing atop his head for a moment to look into his hood and chirp at him. It then jumped over to Charly, attempting to lift the monster up by his lowered hood.

The confused reptilian shot a look at Leontius, as if in question.

Leontius was somewhat amused by the scene, but he decided to not leave Charly in the dark. "The bird wants to carry you over the gap. It tried with me before, but I am a bit too heavy. Just the nature of being human, we are much more physical than monsters."

Charly looked up at the bird, then back to Leontius. "I guess I might also be too hea- whoa hey!" The small bird interrupted the monster man by actually lifting him, it seemed to be straining somewhat, but it did it. Charly could only look about somewhat shocked at the tiny bird's surprising strength as he was slowly carried over the gap and dropped on the other side.

The bird then flew back over the gap to Suzy, who gave it an uncertain look as it sat on the edge of the cart, chirping at her. "Um… okay, little bird?" She carefully got out of the cart and stood near the gap, the bird hopping from the cart to the top of her hooded head, flapping its wings steadily and lifting her off the ground much quicker than it did with her father. She was over and beside her father in no time, the bird landing next to them with a proud air about itself.

Leontius picked up the cart and walked it over the gap to the waiting monsters, setting it down for Suzy to hop back in and Charly to take up its handle once more. The group was again walking the path, leaving the pleased little bird at its small gap in the path, waiting for more travelers to come by.

As they went, Charly visibly seemed like he had something on his mind that was bothering him. Leontius was about to ask if he had something he wanted to say, but the monster actually speaking answered that question for him.

"Hey, Leontius, about earlier, I uh… kinda dropped a lot on you. Sorry about that, didn't really mean to give ya my whole life story, but… it's just rare that you meet anyone who cares enough to listen, ya know? You just don't get that in a big city."

Leontius looked to the monster, giving him a sympathetic look, or at least as much as he could with his hood in the way. "Think nothing of it, being able to speak to someone about things that are weighing upon you does good for the mind."

Charly seemed to find that statement rather funny for some reason. "Yeah... you know, you sounded a lot like my neighbor just then, she says some funny things. Don't get most of it, a whole lotta stuff about 'fate,' 'auras,' and the 'spirit and mind.' Don't get me wrong, she's a nice lady, but boy does she have some ideas that are really out there."

A previous encounter came back to Leontius. He saw that clam man and what looked to be a clam woman walking towards Waterfall, talking. The woman mentioned Suzy's name, if he remembered correctly. "Your neighbor, is she a dark blue clam woman?"

Charly nodded as he answered. "Yep, that'd be her. Why, you seen her?"

Leontius looked ahead briefly, noticing that they were nearing the area Sans had been waiting in during the first trip through Waterfall with Toriel. "I have, I was headed to Alphys' lab in Hotland when she and another clam person walked by on the way to Waterfall. I believe they were talking about you two, considering I heard her mention Suzy's name."

Charly didn't look at all surprised about that. "Makes sense, she's awfully concerned about me and Suzy, always checking up on us. That other clam person, was it a pink guy?" Leontius gave a simple yes, and Charly continued. "That's her brother. He lives out here in Waterfall. It was actually their idea to get us to move out of the city. Kinda weird, considering-"

Leontius kept walking forward for a moment, initially just thinking Charly was just deciding on what to say. When nothing came, he turned around, believing they may have stopped and he didn't notice.

They were gone.

Leontius looked about the corridor they were walking down together, and he didn't see a single trace of the two monsters. Not even their cart was still there. He looked down the corridor both into and out of Waterfall, and he came to a realization.

He couldn't see the ends of the corridors anymore, they seemed to just go on infinitely, terminating in non-distinct points of darkness far off in the distance on both sides.

'What…?'

He also noticed it got rather quiet as well, none of Waterfall's trademark sounds of distant water could be heard.

He blinked hard and shook his head, looking about himself again. As he wheeled about, he found that a large gray door suddenly appeared on one of the walls of the corridor beside him.

The confused undead glanced around for a moment. He wondered if he should call out, but he doubted anything would come of it except echoes of himself simply yelling into the dark. The door remained there, seemingly inviting him to walk through it with its mere presence alone. He hesitantly reached for the doorknob, feeling it was a perfectly neutral temperature through his thin fingerless gloves.

Leontius narrowed his eyes somewhat, shifting hands to open the door with his left and be ready to draw his claymore with his right, flipping the sheath's latch off as he did so. He cautiously turned the knob and pushed the door open, stepping into a small and perfectly rectangular room that was a uniform undetailed gray. There were no light fixtures anywhere in the room, but it was perfectly lit nonetheless. The room was dominated by a single entity sitting in its center.

'A monster, or a man…?' Leontius was totally uncertain about just what he was looking at. He walked further into the room, his hand still on his greatsword as he did so. The door automatically closed behind him without a sound, but he didn't take his eyes off the strange figure before him even for a moment.

The thing before him was vaguely humanoid. It had an unevenly shaped pure-white oblong head, with what looked like black eyes and a mouth cracked into its surface, the right eye drooping with a crack running along the top of its head coming from it, and the left eye wide open with a vertical crack connecting it to the crooked and slightly open mouth. Its body was somewhat wide and cylindrical and looked to be pure black, with a white line coming down its middle as if to suggest it was some kind of clothing covering a form beneath. What seemed to be white hands curled into tight fists were held close to the body. All across its form, one aspect rang true. It was entirely lacking detail or texture, and the differences between white and black were stark and abrupt. It cast no shadow upon the gray floor of the room and was completely motionless and soundless.

Leontius slowly approached the thing, still prepared to draw his claymore. He was beginning to become more and more unnerved the closer he got to it, his initial confusion morphing into a deeply unsettled feeling. He got close enough to touch it, so he slowly reached his free hand out to prod it at about where he roughly guessed its right shoulder would be.

His hand passed straight through it, and the thing made no indication that it even noticed.

Leontius' eyebrows knit into a slight furrow. This… creature, person, thing, was incredibly strange. It went beyond even the oddity of the amalgamated monsters. He could sense absolutely nothing within this thing, if it were some escaped amalgamate he would at least be able to detect Humanity within it.

Leontius tentatively decided to attempt to communicate with it. If it was the one responsible for drawing him into the infinite corridor and this strange room, perhaps it could send him back. "Hello…?"

That certainly got an immediate reaction out of it. It jolted somewhat as if it had been awoken from a deep sleep in a singular instant. Its eyes opened wider, white pinpricks of light appearing in their centers. It looked about for the span of a single second before its attention rested solely upon Leontius.

The undead and thing stared one another in the eye in uncomfortable silence. Leontius felt he had to say something, the humanoid's gaze was most off-putting. He spoke slow and evenly, uncertain if the thing would even understand him. "You… did you bring me here?"

The thing's originally drooping right eyehole squinted somewhat and its head cocked to the side. Its eye-lights roved about as if it were inspecting Leontius. It said nothing, its stare eventually settling back to looking the undead in the face. It then did something entirely incomprehensible to the man. It began motioning with its hands, uncurling them from fists and forming them into all manner of shapes in a quick flurry, moving them to different parts of its body in rapid and jerky ways, and all the while it kept staring at him with a look that could only be described as 'inquisitive.'

The undead could only shake his head slightly in confusion. "I… have no idea what you are doing. Can you speak…?"

The being's other eyehole squinted, just about matching the other. It made more hand motions, still staring.

As Leontius watched the display, he couldn't help but feel he was missing something, it was at the tip of his tongue, and then it hit him. This… thing… the river person must have been referring to it during their string of whispered warnings, they told him of a 'man who speaks in hands.' They also told him that he should beware of it, but thus far the 'man' was not being hostile, more like it was just... enigmatic. He slowly moved his hand away from his claymore.

He wanted to ask it questions, but this strange communication barrier between him and it ensured he'd likely not get an understandable response. He decided to try anyway. "Can you help me out of… wherever this is? I must return to the version of that corridor outside that is not an endless and black void."

The being's eyeholes widened a bit from the squint and it initially began to make more hand signs, but abruptly stopped as its attention was drawn to Leontius' equipment belt. It stood stock still, eyes wide as it stared at one of the pouches hanging from the man's belt.

Leontius couldn't help but raise a brow at that, and slowly reached down to the pouch in question, the being's eyes occasionally darting between his hand and the pouch as he did so. Leontius flipped open the pouch, reached in, and procured the pair of eye orbs he'd recovered from Kirk's ashen remains. Sure enough, the entity before him had its attention locked onto them.

Leontius turned the eye orbs about in his hand, holding them out a bit closer for the being to see. "These? You are interested in these?" He passed the blue orb to his left hand, and hesitantly held the red eye orb close enough for the being to take, but it seemed wholly uninterested in it. Its eyes were still steadily locked onto the blue eye orb.

'Of course it had to be the unique one that I have never seen before…' He dropped the red orb back into the pouch, and carefully held the blue eye orb out.

The 'man' extended his hands out to accept the orb, pulling it in close to its body when Leontius let go of it. It quickly examined the orb, turning it this way and that, prodding at the eyelids, and eventually, it ended up staring into the half-lidded eye and ceasing all motion for a while.

Leontius could only wait, so he did. He looked about the room and himself, contemplating if he should check the corridor to see if it had changed at all, but his thoughts were interrupted by the entity moving again.

It seemed as though it was done staring into the eye, and it again was turning it about, looking at it as its mouth slowly changed into a crooked and wide 'smile.' It then looked back to Leontius and held the orb back out to him.

Leontius inched forward and took the orb into a hand, the strange being still looking rather pleased with what it had done. As to what it actually did, Leontius was not wholly certain. The orb had only undergone a single change, that being the fact that its eye was no longer half-lidded, but fully open, exactly like the red-eye orb would be when there was an undead target within range. The undead looked away from the orb to see if the strange being was doing anything else or making more gestures, but…

It was gone.

Leontius' eyes slowly scanned about the now empty gray room, mouthing silent words of confusion. He gave an airless huff as he dropped the altered blue eye orb into the pouch with its red counterpart. 'This day has turned out to be a series of oddities, one after another…' He decided to leave the gray room, turning and heading for the door. As he laid a hand upon the doorknob he blinked, and the next moment he was no longer in the room. He was back in the regular non-infinite corridor.

Charly was next to him again, still talking as if nothing had happened or he hadn't been interrupted at all. "-that she's perfectly fine living in New Home, but absolutely did her best to convince me to get outta town."

Leontius had stopped walking, he was beyond confused at this point.

Charly stopped as well, watching the undead as he looked about. "You alright buddy? Somethin' bothering ya?"

"No, I…" He reached into the pouch at his equipment belt and retrieved the blue eye orb, silently inspecting it.

The eye was still open.

Charly looked at the small blue orb in Leontius' hand, curious. "What's that you got there?"

Leontius was snapped from his confusion, dropping the orb back into the pouch and closing it up. "Nothing. Ah… what was it you were saying? I believe I got lost in thought for a moment and accidentally ignored you, my apologies."

Charly didn't seem overly concerned by the man's sudden strange behavior. "Oh, don't worry about it, man. I was just saying it's weird that my neighbor did her best to get me to leave New Home, but she still lives there herself."

Leontius tried to seem interested, but he was still almost entirely preoccupied with trying to figure what he'd just experienced. "I see… that is strange. Hmm… let us keep going, we still have a good distance to walk before we are out of Waterfall."

Charly slightly nodded his head, changing his grip on the handle of the handcart as Suzy fidgeted about in it attempting to get into a lying position. "Alright, lead the way."

The group continued on, leaving behind the strange section of Waterfall, but the undead leading them had most definitely not forgotten what he'd just seen, his thoughts plagued by the oddity of the man who spoke in hands.

(27)