:):

I hope everyone had a good day today.

...

Yes, the backstory will start clicking together piece by piece and it's going to be getting a bit more dramatic as the chapters come out.

If you ever get confused as to who is speaking, remember to check the font!

xxx

Retry!

xxx

Staying true to his word, Sans kept an eye light on the small human as she explored the makeshift sentry station made entirely of cardboard. His brother had built that all by himself, refusing to accept any help. In the end, it was a soggy dilapidated mess but Papyrus was so proud of his handy work that Sans couldn't bring himself to try to improve it. The cardboard station was perfect the way it was. For some reason, the kid seemed impressed as well as she checked if from all angles. Maybe she was just dawdling.

Past the flimsy guard station, Fearia happened upon yet another guard station. How many were there? The superior quality of this new one was instantly noted. A wooden sign had been placed outside. 'ABSOLUTELY NO MOVING!' was carved into the wood. Why would someone make a sign like that? Ignoring the warning as if the words meant nothing to her, the little girl walked past the sentry station.

"Did something move?"

Fearia stopped in her tracks, freezing instinctively. Someone was actually in that station! The last two had been empty so she just assumed this one was as well.

"Was it my imagination?" The new voice asked again. Loud sniffing noises filled the air. "I can only see moving things. If something WAS moving..." It paused turning towards the new smell. "For example, a human..."

Fearia squeaked as she spun around.

Seeing the movement, a white and black dog in light armor leapt over the counter of the sentry station and approached the child menacingly. "I'll make sure it NEVER moves again!"

The little girl flinched at the threat but for the most part stayed really still. This new monster was a talking dog! If she had any real weaknesses, it would have to be dogs ...well... and spiders, but for entirely different reasons!

As the dog monster sniffed at the air and squinted, Fearia couldn't help but stare at his cute pointy black ears and the way they swiveled around listening. He was so alert and serious! Even so, she just really wanted to pet him. Which, in hindsight, was a really dumb thing to attempt.

Hearing a twig snap somewhere behind him, the dog monster spun around and crouched, listening carefully. The enemy was out there somewhere, he was sure of it. So focused on trying to spot movement, he wasn't expecting to feel a small hand touch the back of his head. Bristling, the Doggo readied his weapons in retaliation, but when another hand found its way to his head as well, followed by a happy giggle, he relaxed.

He relaxed?! Alarmed by his momentary slip in discipline, the Doggo leapt away from the soft gentle hands and barked. "S-S-S-Something pet me...!" He squinted. "Something that isn't m-m-moving...!" Thoroughly freaked out, the talking dog monster retreated back into his sentry station and hid under the counter. "I'm gonna need some dog treats for this..."

Frowning, Fearia stood on her tippy toes trying to see over the counter. Not seeing the Doggo, she eventually gave up, disappointed. Maybe there were more dog monsters around to play with! That thought alone filled her with Determination and she carried on.

Taking a Shortcut, Sans decided to wait up ahead for the human to catch up. That kid had zero common sense. What had she been thinking? 'What a cute guard dog! Let's pet it!'? If he hadn't been there to distract the Doggo, then what would have happened? Even then, he could have still attacked. Sans had been sweating magic watching that play out. That could have been real bad. For the kid's sake, he'd have to step up his game.

...

Adding the final touches to his puzzle, Papyrus turned to see his brother slouching nearby as usual. He could at least help! Would it be so much trouble? This was important! No time to rest!

"YOU'RE SO LAZY!" Papyrus chastised. "YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!"

"i think that's called..." Sans slid his eye lights over to his brother, grin in place. "sleeping."

"EXCUSES, EXCUSES!" Papyrus retorted easily. His attention was then drawn to the other side of his puzzle. "OH- HO!" He nearly clapped with joy. "THE HUMAN ARRIVES!"

"IN ORDER TO STOP YOU..." The tall skeleton started, gesturing to the snow in front of them. "MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES! I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE..." He paused for dramatic effect, his face filled with amusement. "QUITE SHOCKING! FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS THE INVISIBLE... ELECTRICITY MAZE! WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THIS MAZE, THIS ORB WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP!"

"SOUND LIKE FUN?" Papyrus asked eagerly. "BECAUSE! The AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE, Is Actually Rather Small I Think."

"Ok, You Can Go Ahead Now." The tall skeleton said, holding the orb firmly in his hand.

Frowning, Fearia looked at the snow in front of her dubiously. "I... I don't really want to... You said I could get shocked!"

"kid's got a point, paps." Sans shrugged passively. "probably shouldn't have told them that part."

"SANS!" Papyrus hissed. "IF I DON"T EXPLAIN EVERYTHING, THEN HOW WILL THEY KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT?! HUMAN, ATTEMP THE PUZZLE!"

Against her better judgment, Fearia inched closer. Slowly, very slowly, she stepped down onto the snow covered puzzle. From across the board, Papyrus shrieked causing the little girl to tumble backwards in fright.

"SANS!" Papyrus screeched, stomping his foot in anger as smoke wafted off of him. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"i think the human has to hold the orb." The smaller skeleton replied calmly like he'd seen this type of thing hundreds of times.

"OF COURSE!" Papyrus exclaimed. Why had he forgotten such an important detail? Taking the safe route through the electric maze, the tall skeleton stood before the stunned child for a moment before dropping the orb into her lab. "HOLD THIS PLEASE!" With that done, he quickly retraced his steps and came back to where he'd originally been standing.

"OKAY, TRY NOW!" He ordered.

Sans gave a quiet sigh, silently thanking his little brother for being so dependably careless. All the kid would have to do now is retrace his steps. He was pretty sure she was smart enough to figure this out on her own.

Fearia held the orb to her chest as she stared at the new boot prints in the snow. Standing up again, she took an experimental step on top of the skeleton's tracks. Half expecting to still be shocked, the little girl gave an involuntary flinch. A cold breeze blew through her tattered clothing causing her to shiver slightly but other than that, nothing else happened. She was unharmed. It would seem all she would have to do was follow the tracks to the other side and she would be safe. It was so simple! So easy... A frown slowly crept onto the little girl's face as she stepped back. He was giving her an out. Going easy on her! Underestimating her ability to figure this puzzle out all on her own!

"Retry!" Fearia chirped, dropping the orb into the snow.

"WHAT?!"

"what?"

"I want a retry." The tiny human demanded. "You gave away the answer." She pointed accusingly at the tracks. "I appreciate your help and all but I didn't need it."

'Difficult' didn't even come close to describing this kid. Resisting the urge to facepalm, Sans could do nothing but stand back and watch how this played out.

Papyrus nearly gasped when his mistake was pointed out. How could he be so careless?! The human could have easily just retraced his steps and not even said a word. He had no idea...

"SANS!"

"yeah, bro?"

"I HAD NO IDEA HUMANS WERE SO HONORABLE!" Papyrus smiled, overjoyed by this apparent cross-species discovery.

"what?"

"What?"

"HUMAN! I APPRECIATE YOUR HONESTY." Papyrus said, placing a hand to his bony hip. "UNFORTUNATELY, I MUST FIRST RECALIBRATE THIS PUZZLE BEFORE YOU CAN TRY IT AGAIN. DO NOT DESPAIR, HUMAN, FOR THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE SO EASY! IT IS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS! YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED!" He grinned. "I KNOW I AM!"

Fearia watched as the taller skeleton 'Nyeh heh heh hehed' away before she followed the footsteps provided to her. Once on the other side she came face to skull with Sans. He didn't look mad, just confused maybe?

"did you really want to do that puzzle over again?" He asked slightly baffled.

"Not really." Fearia admitted. "I just don't like it when people look down on me!"

"heh." Sans lifted an eyebrow bone and smirked. "kinda hard not to, kid. i mean, you're so tiny."

"I am not!" The little girl pouted. She then made a show of crossing her arms and turning her head in a dramatic display of 'brat'.

Sans chuckled at her immature actions. The lazy flapping of a sleeve much too long for its wearer caught his attention. He hadn't really felt like asking before. But now, he was just a tiny bit curious. "so, uh, mind telling me what happened?" He asked, gesturing to the child's burnt and tattered clothing. He'd expected some sass but what he received was so much worse.

Hurt and regret flashed across her amber eyes as she lift her sleeve to look at the damage. "Mom wanted to test me. To see if I was strong enough to survive out here on my own. ...I think I might have failed her test..."

"your mom?" Sans tilted his skull slightly. He hadn't expected that either.

"Yeah." Fearia nodded, a small smile reappearing on her face. "The nice goat lady who lives in the Ruins. She said I could call her mom..." The smile faded. "But... this morning I think I disappointed her. She told me that if I left I wasn't allowed to come back." Shrugging, the girl sighed. "And so I left."

"huh." Sans said, giving the girl a lazy shrug of his own. "guess that means you're stuck with us, kid." He played it cool, but he didn't like what he had heard. He wasn't sure how old this tiny human was, but he was damn sure she wasn't old enough to be in any kind of fight to prove her strength. The outcome should have been obvious from the start. He could only assume that the lady behind the door to the Ruins had lost control of her emotions and taken it out on the kid. A momentary slip, sure, but that was no excuse. The promise she had forced him to make a few days ago held more weight now. She must have known something like this was going to happen.

Sighing tiredly, Sans silently cursed the Ruins lady for this mess. She had pretty much just gone and dumped a load of responsibility onto his shoulders in the form of a small child. This was gonna be such a hassle.

While her skeleton friend was brooding, smile still in place, an idea popped into Fearia's head. Why hadn't she thought of this before! Digging into her pocket, she retrieved her cell phone. The screen was cracked now but she hoped it still worked. "Sans!"

"yeah, kid?" The brooding skeleton replied only half listening. His full attention returned in an instant, however, when something was waved in front of his skull. A cell phone? What, did the kid want his number?

"Mom always called me on this." Fearia explained as she held it out to him. "Can you make it work so I can call her instead?"

Sans stared at the child blankly, mind not quite processing the question. "so just call her. you have her number, right?"

"She didn't give me a number, she gave me a cell phone." Fearia replied, frustrated. What was the issue?

Something in the way this small child said 'cell phone' made Sans wonder if she even knew what a cell phone was. His eye lights left the device and moved to study, really study the human. It wasn't possible for a kid her age to not know about or even own a cell phone. Unless she'd been living under a rock up until now. Doubtful.

Thinking back to when he'd first spotted the little girl walking down the path from the ruins, she'd been carrying something. Something mechanical. Realization set in a moment later and he couldn't help but chuckle. Had that been the security camera that surveyed the Ruins door? Why would she take that? Unless... An idea popped into the skeleton's head and he took the offered 'cell phone'. "alright, kid, i'll call her. but first, i got a question for ya."

"What?" Fearia asked, impatience lining her voice.

"what were you carrying earlier." Sans asked. "you know, when you left the ruins. it was something big."

"Oh!" Fearia said, recalling her lost treasure. "You mean that hunk of metal I found in the bush? I don't know what it was but it was really neat." A disappointed expression befell her face at the memory. "I was going to keep it but then I dropped it."

"here," Sans gave the phone back to the child. "it's ringing."

Taking the proffered device, Fearia stared at the phone for a moment before putting it to her ear while still holding it with both hands. It rang and it rang and it rang. But nobody answered. Feeling dejected, she took the phone away from her ear and looked to Sans. "Why won't she say anything?"

"maybe she's busy." Sans shrugged. "who knows?" Though he was fairly sure he knew. The Ruins lady was more than likely screening her calls. It was really no surprise either. After what had happened she probably didn't feel up to speaking with the child.

Looking down at the crestfallen expression the tiny human wore, Sans felt his nonexistent insides squirm a little. Was she going to cry? This was bad. He didn't want to deal with this! "h-hey, don't sweat it, kid, you can always try again la-"

"SANS!"

Both child and skeleton involuntarily flinched at the sharp call from somewhere further up the path.

Oh thank god. Sans sighed in relief at the interruption. Papyrus sounded pretty ticked off right now but he'd still rather deal with his nagging little brother than this awkward mess he'd gotten himself into. Any day.

"WHERE DID YOU GO?! I BETTER NOT FIND YOU NAPPING AGAIN! THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT DAY! HURRY UP AND PREPARE YOUR PUZZLE. THE HUMAN COULD BE THERE AT ANY MOMENT! SANS!" Papyrus actually sounded like he was moving further away now. Maybe he got turned around somehow?

"well," Sans turned to leave. "gotta go. stick to the path and stay out of trouble, squirt."

"Don't call me that!" Fearia scowled but Sans was already gone. Confused, she ran ahead a little ways looking for her new friend but he was nowhere to be seen. "Huh?" Frowning, the little girl's pace slowed before she came to a complete stop.

"He's faster than he looks..."

xxx

What could Sans be thinking?

...

In the next chapter, a particular blue rabbit has a hard time saying no.

xxx

Thanks for reading!

If you are enjoying this story, why not take the time to leave me a friendly review?

Sheii Bae~