:):
Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews!
To answer your question, Frozermaxspigor, yes, theoretically speaking any being with magic can create runes, although the practice was most commonly used within the Kingdom of Magic. I haven't gotten to this part yet, but I'm assuming that basic runology was also taught in school there. Since monsters have their own magic, they probably had less need to create stones for themselves, therefore there are not very many that they can use.
Runestones created with a combination of monster and human magic was probably seen as a scandalous taboo outside the Kingdom. :)
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Into the Darkness
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When Sans and Frisk arrived back at the destroyed entrance to the Ruins, they were met with a disturbing sight. Blackened vines were now spilling from out of the doorway and had begun creeping around the snow covered area. Some of the inky black tendrils had even started winding around a few of the magical firs, causing the poor trees to shed their needles as their trunks and branches withered.
Releasing a small voiceless gasp, Frisk paled as she unconsciously pressed her body up against her friend's in an attempt to move away from a nearby vine that was blindly feeling around near her feet. It was too close. They were everywhere!
Feeling the panic begin to rise up inside of her, the scene suddenly vanished from her sight only to reappear a little ways away. Before she had time to adjust, however, Frisk felt a rush of disorientation come over her as the scene vanished yet again and then once more for good measure. Falling to her knees in the snow, the mute girl tried to ground herself as she fought back a sudden wave of dizziness.
"sorry 'bout that." Sans apologized. "those things were just a little too close for comfort back there."
Now far away from the immediate danger, the skeleton felt his smile go flat as he observed the damage. Tress had been sapped of their magic and the pristine white snow was now stained with dark smudges as dozens of inky black vines littered the area. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that this was a scene right out of a horror movie. Only a few hours had passed and those damn vines had already made their way out of the Ruins and into the Snowdin Wilderness.
This had officially become an emergency situation, Sans thought grimly as he stared at the invasive plants. He now had no doubts in his mind that this was, indeed, The Bane. If this thing was allowed to continue to spread unchecked, then all of the Underground would be in serious danger, and quite honestly, he had no idea how to stop it. From what he understood, this thing only had one weakness, and ironically that was the one thing they didn't have down here.
But... maybe they actually did.
"frisk," Sans began, addressing the mute girl by name. "if that sunstone of yours can really repel the bane, then this would be a pretty good time to test it."
Pushing herself to stand, Frisk gave a weak nod. From within a pocket of her silky blue tunic, she retrieved the flat runic stone. Holding it to her chest, she closed her eyes as she began to channel her magic into the small object. The golden runes lit up almost instantly as a soft white light poured through the cracks of her fingers. After a few more seconds, she uncovered the magically imbued rock, and allowed the full strength of the Sunstone to flood the snowy area.
Shielding his eye lights, Sans was truly amazed by how bright that thing could become. The kid was able to activate it, sure, but he'd never seen it used at full volume before. It was freakin' blinding.
Catching movement from within the light, Sans felt himself tense up slightly as Frisk began to timidly walk towards the vines. He knew she was just doing what he had suggested, but it still made him nervous as hell. This had better work. Following after the shining human, Sans kept close to her just in case things went south.
Sensing the presence of a potent build up of magic, the deadly vines began to react. Slowly, some of the them started to uncoil from around the trees they were currently sapping, while others snaked their way through the snow as they hungrily approached. When the first of the black vines finally entered into the radius of artificial sunlight, it convulsed violently before quickly recoiling back into the darkness.
As Frisk continued towards the entrance to the Ruins, more and more vines hastily began to extract themselves from the surrounding forest. The ones that were too slow to escape, however, began to sizzle and smoke as they rapidly disintegrated into dust particles. As if sensing the loss of a few of its appendages, the bulk of the vines retreated back down into the Ruins, pulling and ripping themselves from the magical firs as they did.
"whoa." Sans murmured in slight disbelief as the last of the vines disappeared out of sight. That had worked better than he could have ever anticipated. Frisk hadn't been kidding when she said that The Bane hated sunlight, but he hadn't expected that it would literally be incinerated by it. This put a whole new spin on the current situation - a hopeful one. As dangerous as those vines were, he now knew that they weren't indestructible. If they were careful and took a slow and methodical approach, they might be able to get rid The Bane permanently.
As the light slowly faded back into a gentle glow, Sans grinned appreciatively over to the magical human. "stellar job there, sunshine, you really showed those nasty vines the door."
Closing her hand around the runestone, Frisk placed her free hand to her chest as she released a slow shaky breath. Giving the skeleton a humored smile, she rolled her eyes slightly at his pun-filled praise. All compliments aside, though, she wasn't about to tell him just how scary that had been for her. Even though she was pretty confident that she knew how The Bane would react to the light of the Sunstone, there was still a lingering dread in the back of her mind that something would go horribly wrong.
Thankfully, nothing had.
"before we go in, i've got a question for you." Sans started, taking a more serious tone. "i don't know much about runestones, so tell me, how long do you think you would be able to keep that thing activated? magically speaking."
*Like this,* Frisk began, silently mouthing her words as she held the gently glowing stone. *quite awhile.*
"let me guess, the brighter the stone gets, the more magic it consumes. am i right?" he asked.
Giving her friend a nod of confirmation, Frisk was privately impressed by how perceptive he was.
"alright. in that case," Sans replied as he began to formulate a plan. "we should probably try to conserve as much of your magic as possible. keep the stone activated, but at the bare minimal and i'll help out with the rest." Closing an eye socket, he winced ever so slightly as he summoned two blasters into existence. "we're gonna go in single file starting with this guy." he said, placing a boney hand to one of the giant floating skulls.
Subconsciously placing her hand to the other guardian, Frisk gave a small nod as she listened. Hearing her friend speak like this, she couldn't help but feel a touch of admiration. It was obvious, this monster was a real tactician when he needed to be.
"next, i want you to go in." he continued "don't worry, i'll be right behind you. and that guy right there," he said, nodding to the blaster that she was touching. "he's gonna go last to guard us from behind."
Feeling nervous, but determined all the same, Frisk gave her friend another nod to signify that she understood before moving to stand beside the other canine skull. Placing her hand to this one as well, she silently introduced herself. From the curious look it gave her, however, she realized that maybe this gesture hadn't even been necessary. Despite this, it still seemed to appreciate the attention.
Tamping down his magic only a little bit this time, Sans released a quiet improbable breath as he centered himself. "ready?' he asked.
Holding the Sunstone securely, Frisk crossed her index and middle fingers on both hands. Bringing them together, she then gently arced them away while mouthing *Ready.*
"heh. alright then. " The skeleton replied with a smile. "after you, darlin'." he said as he gave her a courteous gesture.
Once the mute girl had taken her place behind the first blaster, the small group slowly made their way down into the Ruins.
...
As they descended into the darkness of the crumbing hallway, Frisk pressed the small stone to her chest as the claustrophobic atmosphere closed in around her. Even with the combined glow from the two guardians plus the light of her Sunstone, the shadows that surrounded them felt like a solid mass. The air smelled damp and dusty at the same time, and the once smoothly cobbled floor was now cracked and uneven.
Watching her feet so that she didn't trip over a loose rock, Frisk was nearly spooked out of her wits when a black vine shot out in front of her in an attempt to escape the light. Gasping, she stumbled back in shock as the area around them was flooded with a burst of light.
"whoa, hey-" Reaching out, Sans quickly caught the startled human as she accidentally bumped into him. "i gotcha." he said as he steadied her. Not giving him any sort of reply, the girl simply stood there frozen. Squinting his eye sockets from the bright light, the skeleton reached down and held a hand over the shining stone. "hey, uh, tone it down there, hun."
"frisk?" Studying the silent human, Sans wasn't at all surprised to find that she was terrified. He knew taking her back into these ruins was going to be difficult. From all of the resets that she had had to endure, she was most likely suffering from a form of post traumatic stress being back here. As much as he wanted to take her out of this situation, he knew he couldn't, though. Her ability to operate the Sunstone was now vital to their success. Somehow, he needed to find a way to calm her down before she burned up all of her magic.
Closing his hand gently over hers, Sans tried again to get her attention. "frisk, you're gonna be okay." he reassured quietly. "i know, these ruins are creepy and its probably the last place you wanna be, but i'm right here with ya. so, you're not alone this time."
Hearing her friend's words, Frisk slowly released the breath she hadn't known she'd been holding as she regained some of her senses.
"good." Sans said when the runestone's brilliance gradually faded back into a gentle glow. "now, let's just take this slow, one step at a time. don't worry, i'm right behind you."
Steeling herself, Frisk gave a stiff nod as she forced her feet to start moving again.
Keeping a close eye light on the timid human in front of him, Sans' focus was drawn to her ruby red Soul. Just like before, when he had found her hiding in that room, the magic inside the shimmering heart was swirling around madly. Every little noise that Frisk heard from somewhere up ahead, would cause her magical energy to spike. The Sunstone that she was holding was also flickering erratically as she tried her hardest to remain calm.
This wasn't gonna work, Sans sighed as he drew his eye lights away from the slowly panicking human. Looking around, he easily recognized where they were. "let's stop up ahead." he suggested. "there's a small area where we can take a break."
As they entered into the crumbling room, a few vines that had been creeping up the walls recoiled harshly from their intrusion. Dragging their crystal thorns over the cracked rocks, a loud and unpleasant scraping noise was heard as they retreated further into the dark tunnel. When the area was finally clear of danger, Sans led the mute girl over to the bed of flowers.
"here, sit down with me for a few minutes." Sans said as he lowered his weary bones to sit next to the golden blooms.
After nervously looking around the small room for a few seconds, Frisk finally joined the skeleton. Sitting beside him, she held the flat runestone in her lap. With a small defeated sigh, the mute girl closed her other hand before placing it to her chest. Moving it in a circular motion, she mouthed out *Sorry.*
"don't be." Sans shook his skull, rejecting her apology. "you have every right to be freaked out about being back in this place. just breath and try to relax a little. i'm not rushing you, so take as long as you need."
With a small nod, Frisk closed her eyes and focused on her breathing as she tried to calm her nerves. It was helping a little, but with ever little sound she heard, she felt herself tense up all over again. It was like she could hear those vines everywhere, down the hallway, in the walls, maybe even inside her head, she didn't know for sure and that made her even more nervous.
Letting his blasters hover around to patrol the small area, Sans silently watched the human while her eyes were closed. She had calmed down a bit, but now it looked like she was concentrating a little too hard on relaxing and that was actually having the opposite effect. It seemed like every tiny sound was putting her of edge.
Outwardly, she appeared calmer, but from the torrent of magic swirling around inside of her ruby colored Soul, he could tell that this might take some time. Maybe he could find someway to take her mind off of where she was for a little while. She needed a distraction. But what? Considering his options, an idea suddenly popped into his skull.
Stuffing his boney hand into his jacket pocket, Sans dug out his cell. Ignoring the new messages and updates that were clogging his inbox, he brought up the videos and photos he had saved on his phone. Scrolling through his collection, he stopped at a cute video he had taken of the kid. Tapping at the screen, he started the short clip.
"Sans. I just thought of the perfect name!" Fearia exclaimed excitedly.
Hearing her little sister's voice, Frisk's eyes snapped open in bewilderment. Looking around, she quickly spotted the tiny scene playing out inside a small object that her friend was holding. Unconsciously leaning into him ever so slightly, she peered down at the moving picture.
"what is it this time? tiny? fluffy? wait, lemme guess... pup-inator? that's a good one if ya ask me." Sans teased, his humored voice pouring from the small device.
"No!" Fearia rejected hotly as she gave the phone one of her signature pouts of displeasure. "It's not any one of those. This name is way better!"
"heh. alright, kiddo. let's hear it."
"Poff!" Fearia chirped, her voice filled with determination.
"what, like a snow poff?" Sans asked from somewhere out of view.
"Uh huh." Fearia nodded as she fluffed the small dog monster's fluffy white fur. "Cause' he looks like a snow poff. See?"
"eh, if you say so, squirt." Sans replied lazily. "it probably won't stick, though."
"That's not my name!"
A lazy chuckle could be heard before the scene ended abruptly.
Sneaking a side glance at the silent girl leaning next to him, Sans was struck by the mix of emotions he saw on Frisk's face. In a way, she looked happy, but at the same time she also looked a bit sad and lost. Reaching out, she gently placed her hand to the blank screen.
"i have a few more if you wanna see." Sans offered.
Nodding, Frisk leaned into her friend a little more as she stared down at the strange device. Fully absorbed in the recorded scenes, the tension slowly left her body and she finally began to relax.
Fearia looks so happy, Frisk thought as a small smile appeared on her face. She looks genuinely happy for once.
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Poff the Pup-inator!
love it.
...
In the next chapter, Sans is met with a most awkward dilemma.
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Sheii Bae~
