Chapter 2

Asriel woke up that morning feeling much better than the night before. Although a part of him was still sad about what happened at the school, it didn't weigh on him as much as it did. Besides, he was almost certain his wish was going to come true.

"You seem to be in a better mood this morning," Toriel commented as Asriel entered the main room and sat at the table. Asgore was seated at the head, newspaper in his massive paws as his coffee sat just within reach. Toriel was setting a massive stack of freshly made pancakes on the center of the table.

Knowing not to speak his wish or else it won't come true, Asriel merely shrugged and replied, "I guess you're always right when you say I'll feel better in the morning, huh, Mom?"

Toriel smiled and tapped her son on the nose, earning a laughing protest from the child. As both father and son claimed as many pancakes as they wanted from the stack, Toriel told Asriel, "Your father and I have some business to attend to in town today."

Whenever either of his parents used the word "business," Asriel knew he was going to be in for an extremely boring time. "Do I have to go?" he asked, aware he sounded as if he was whining.

"Of course not," Asgore answered. Before Toriel could protest, Asgore set his paper aside and told his wife, "There is nothing to worry about, Tori. Asriel is old enough now to take care of himself. Besides, Home is the safest place under the mountain. He'll be fine."

With a frown then a sigh, Toriel turned to Asriel and said, "Your father is right, you are plenty old enough to take care of yourself. You do not have to attend the meeting with us."

Just as Asriel was about to whoop for joy, Asgore cut in with, "We are trusting you to be responsible, Asriel. There will be no wandering too far from the castle, you won't talk to strangers, and I most certainly don't want to hear from anyone later that you were causing trouble. Are we understood?"

Nodding enthusiastically, Asriel chirped, "Understood!"


Since Asgore never told Asriel how far was too far from the castle, Asriel didn't see a problem with walking out of town and towards the entrance of the Underground. He wanted to see the sunlight again, not to mention solving the puzzles was kind of fun.

After monsterkind was sealed away fifty years ago, some paranoid monsters would not feel safe unless there was a defense mechanism of some kind. Fearful the humans would change their mind and decide to eliminate the monsters instead of leaving them below ground, some of the smartest monsters developed puzzles at the start of Home. If the humans decided to attack, they would have to get through all those puzzles first. However, they didn't seem to be the best defense system against humans, Asriel thought. A kid should be able to solve even the hardest puzzles.

Asriel walked along with his hands clasped behind his back. Most monsters he passed along the way greeted Asriel with a smile. Fortunately for the young prince, none questioned why the child was out wandering alone.

Minutes passed, and Asriel traveled further away from the castle. He was no longer in the town, instead somewhere by the river. This part of Home was practically deserted. He solved the puzzles as easily as he did the other day. Things were going smoothly.

"Hey there, little prince," greeted a newcomer, and things were no longer smooth.

Recognizing the voice, Asriel went stiff. He turned around to see Roy grinning at him. Like Asriel, he was far from home. Unlike Asriel, he wasn't out alone.

"So," began a blue bunny monster missing an earstanding a few feet away from Roy, "this is the little prince."

"Awww," purred a reptilian monster of some sort also within the group, "he must be lost. Nobody of royal blood would be hanging out in a place like this. Alone."

"What do you say, Leroy?" asked a monster who appeared to be a bigger version of Roy as he rubbed Roy on the top of the head. "Think we should help out your little friend?"

Heartrate jumping up dramatically, Asriel turned around and ran away before Roy could open his snout to answer. All the monsters with Roy were much bigger and stronger than Asriel. He was not about to figure out the type of help they had in mind to offer their prince.

Asriel wasn't sure how long and how far he ran, but he didn't stop. By this point he had already gone through most of the puzzles, so there wasn't much left for him to solve. When Asriel came to a dark, empty room, he dropped to the ground, pulled his legs to his chest, and rested his head on his knees as he struggled to catch his breath.

Minutes later, after his heart stopped pounding in his chest and his breathing returned to normal, Asriel sat upright. He didn't know he was crying till he saw the tear stains on his knees. Wiping his eyes, Asriel sniffled and hoped the other monsters were gone so that he wouldn't have to pass them again on his way back to the castle. If his parents knew he had gone so far . . .

Spine rigid, Asriel froze when he heard something. His heartbeat quickened again, and Asriel held his breath to see if he could hear the sound a second time. For a moment, nothing, then a sound from the other room.

Rising slowly to his feet, Asriel walked towards the noise. All logic told him to turn around and run away. His insatiable curiosity told him to keep moving towards the sound.

"It sounds like it came from over here . . . ," Asriel told himself as he kept moving forward.

As he was passing the doorway, Asriel understood what the noise was. Within the room, there were muffled calls for help. Someone was hurt.

Overcome with the need to see if the person calling for help was all right, Asriel rushed into the room.

Asriel didn't make it ten paces in before he came to a sudden halt at what he saw. "Oh!" he shouted, paws flying to cover his mouth. All it took was one glance for Asriel to know that the small creature was unlike any monster he had ever seen before.

Stepping closer, he studied this new monster. It lied facedown, moaning but otherwise not moving. There were long, chestnut locks on the monster's head, but its hands had no fur whatsoever.

As Asriel drew nearer, he sensed something wasn't right. This was an empty room, the only entrance being the one Asriel just took. He didn't see anyone else on his way here, and there was no explanation for this monster to be hurt if he was alone the whole time. The only thing unusual – besides this injured person, of course – was the sunlight coming in from the hole in the mountain.

With thought of the hole, Asriel swallowed as he forced himself to look up. The hole was still there, open and wide. For the first time in his life, Asriel considered that sunlight wasn't the only thing that could enter through it.

Asriel knew the stories. He heard the legends. Even without ever seeing one before and never imagining that he would, Asriel knew what it was lying before him.

A human. . . .

Instead of fear swelling up in his chest, prompting him to run away from monsterkind's greatest enemy, Asriel was overcome with compassion. The human let out another moan for help, their voice sounded weak. Monster or human, this person was hurt. Asriel could not leave them behind.

"You've fallen down, haven't you. . . ." Asriel closed the distance between himself and the human. "Are you okay? Here, get up. . . ."

Lending a paw and helping the human up, Asriel allowed the human to rest their weight onto him as they struggled to get to their feet. The human kept their head directed downwards and held it in their hand. Asriel quickly looked over the human for any signs of injury.

The human wore tattered brown pants and a ripped green shirt with a yellow stripe running horizontally through the middle. The long fur on their head stopped at their shoulders. They were about as tall as Asriel.

"Thank you," muttered the human.

It was at this moment Asriel fully processed that this was a human. Swallowing his heart, Asriel asked if the human could walk. After they answered they could try, the two slowly began to take step after step. The human was limping, but they were moving forward all the same. They still held their head down.

Overwhelmed with curiosity, Asriel asked, "What's your name?"

The human spoke so softly Asriel almost missed the answer. "Chara."

"Chara, huh?" The human groaned in affirmation. "That's a nice name. My name is Asriel."

They walked perhaps a dozen paces or so before the human came to a sudden halt. Frowning, Asriel began, "What's wro—"

Before Asriel could finish, Chara pushed him away. The sudden force from the human was enough for Asriel to trip over his own feet and fall to the ground. When Asriel looked up again, he finally saw the human's face.

As with their hands, the human had no fur on their face. Their skin was only a little darker than the white monsters that populated most of Home, and their cheeks were a bright pink. The human's hazel eyes were wide as they stared at Asriel. Red trickled down their face. There must have been a cut somewhere behind their fur, leaving blood to trail over the human's right eye.

"Sta-stay back, you mon-monster!" Chara shouted, and it was at this moment Asriel realized the human was holding a knife.

"Hey-ey!" Asriel threw his paws up, palms facing outwards. "Please, don't hurt me! I was only trying to help!"

Breathing heavily, Chara studied Asriel for a moment. They opened their mouth to say something, but they then groaned and struggled to regain their balance. The attempt was futile, and the human fell facedown, dropping their knife as they fell over.

For a moment, Asriel stared at the dangerous human. A knife. The human had pulled a knife on him. Perhaps it was best Asriel leave the human behind. After all, Asriel knew the legends, and now he knew from experience that humans were dangerous.

Yet as he rose to his feet, Asriel found that he couldn't walk away. Chara buried their face in their arms, and it sounded as if they were heaving into the dirt. This human wasn't dangerous, just scared.

"Hey . . . ," Asriel took a cautious step forward, "are you crying?"

"N-no!" Chara shouted, face still in the dirt. "Big kids don't cry."

A human kid?

"I'm not going to hurt you," Asriel promised as he again reached out to the human. "I only want to help you. Come on, take my hand. I'm going to take you someplace safe."

For a moment, Chara hesitated. Then, with a heavy sigh, Chara pushed onto their forearms. Wet eyes locked with Asriel's, Chara said, "If you're lying to me, you're going to regret it."

"I'm not lying. Now, here we go. That's right, just like before."

Once Chara was again on their feet and leaning against Asriel, the two kids resumed their journey to the castle. They made it two steps this time before Chara stopped again. "My knife," was the only explanation they gave as they pointed at the fallen weapon.

"Umm, yeah. Here, let me get it for you."

Asriel picked up the knife and handed it to Chara. Nervous, Asriel watched as Chara slid the knife through their belt loop. Then Chara looked up and caught Asriel staring.

"You promise not to hurt me, and I'll promise not to hurt you," was all Chara said.

"I promise," Asriel replied.

Trying to get through all the puzzles in Home with an injured person was not as easy as Asriel would have liked it to be. Sometimes Chara would need to sit down for a moment. Other times Asriel had to solve a puzzle with Chara leaning most of their weight onto him. Yet Asriel somehow managed to do it even as Chara spent most of the journey looking at the ground. Even better, he did not run into Roy and those bigger kids on the way back to the castle.

"Asriel, where have you been?!" Toriel, running out of the castle, cried out when she saw Asriel approach the front door.

"I told you not to go far from the castle!" Asgore shouted, not far behind his wife. "What one earth where you—!"

Both Toriel and Asgore suddenly stopped when they saw Asriel was not alone. They stared at Chara. When Toriel covered her mouth with both paws and Asgore muttered about how he hasn't seen "one of their kind in fifty years," Asriel knew his parents were completely aware that Chara was human.

"Please, Mommy, Daddy!" Asriel pleaded. "Chara's hurt. Is there anything we can do to help them?"

"Them?" For the first time in more than a few minutes, Chara looked up. "I'm a bo—"

Chara choked at the sight of Asriel's parents. Asriel watched as Chara's face, pink cheeks included, turned as white as most of the monsters who lived in Home. They didn't move.

"It's okay, Chara," Asriel tried. "Mom and Dad will know what to do."

For a moment, nobody moved. Chara, Toriel, and Asgore were all stuck in place. After a solid minute passed, Chara was the first to react.

The corners of their lips rising slightly, Chara let out a single, humorless, "Heh," before their eyes rolled to the back of their head and their knees gave out from beneath them.