"Down there!"
Tarn looked down at one of the old trees; his student was pointing down at something sticking out from a notch in the bark. The Burrowing Owl made a steep bank and turned back towards the unidentified object to better examine it.
It was a feather; a Barn Owl's feather, probably coming from the bird's back. And it matched Ginger's color perfectly.
"Good eye, soldier! Wind's still blowin south, and judging by the angle it blew into the tree, I'd say she went north towards..."
He turned in that direction, and there, not far in the distance, was a single mountain. The trees just barely extended up past its base, and up from there, it was covered in nothing but grass and scrub. Just like the local birds had described it.
"Mount Ebott..."
"What?" Phillip questioned.
Tarn shot forward and increased his flight speed. Sure, the whole monster thing was probably just the stuff of fairytales, but that didn't mean there weren't any hungry bobcats or raccoons hiding in the mountain cavern, both of which posed a danger to owls.
"Come on, boy! We've an owl to find!" he barked.
Upon hearing his voice, the Sooty Owl instantly knew that his instructor had a bad thought. He was usually a very collected owl, and one of good spirits; it was very rare for him to get uptight about things, even the case of an owl gone missing. Especially Ginger; he'd seen her fight off entire mobs of crows in one sitting and receive nary a scratch!
Whatever terrible thing Tarn had fathomed about the young general, he hoped it hadn't happened.
I just hope she's safe...
...
"Well, I'm not safe!" Ginger exclaimed. "I hate to cut this short, Papyrus, but it looks like I gotta get up and go!"
"YOU CAN CUT THROUGH WATERFALL! I'LL TRY TO KEEP HER BUSY IF I SEE HER!"
"Sounds like a plan. Just make sure she doesn't get anywhere near me!"
She rushed back out to the shed, packed her belongings back up, pulled the hood back over her head and stepped back outside, where the skeleton was waiting for her.
"I'll...see you around, Papyrus."
"HERE; TAKE THIS BEFORE YOU GET BACK ON THE ROAD, S-SINCE YOU DIDN'T GET THE CHANCE TO TRY IT EARLIER."
He handed her a warm plastic container. It was full of spaghetti, and it was probably just re-heated before she finished packing her stuff. She took it, pushed her cloak away and slid it into her bag pouch with the slice of pie.
"Thanks for that. And everything else."
"I..."
Once again, Ginger found herself being scooped clean off the ground into another embrace.
"I'M GOING TO MISS YOU, HUMAN. I KNOW WE'VE ONLY KNOWN EACH OTHER A HANDFUL OF HOURS, BUT...YOU REALLY ARE ONE OF THE CLOSEST FRIENDS I'VE EVER HAD."
Ginger didn't flinch this time; in fact, before she realized what she was doing, she returned the gesture.
"...Me too," she finally answered. "But I gotta get a move-on."
"RIGHT. GOOD LUCK, HUMAN. I'M TAKING A SHORTCUT SO I RUN INTO HER BEFORE YOU DO! I'LL BE WITH YOU IN SPIRIT!"
He put the human down and dashed ahead of her, and she followed the boot prints he left in the snow at a brisk pace. She passed over the path on which they battled, and she saw the blanket of snow on the ground begin to thin, until there was nothing left under her feet except for solid ground. A few light pebbles stuck out amongst the dark earth, and the little bit of glow the caverns gave off made the dark ground look almost indigo. The ground siding the pathway sloped and dampened until there was nothing on either side of the path but water, and smaller cascades flowed quietly down from several nooks in the earthen walls.
She was in Waterfall.
The path took a turn, and revealed a wider section of walkway. A large, blue flower was growing not far from a sentry station sitting just up ahead, which was manned by...
"Sans?"
"'sup, kid? heard about what was goin' on. just remember, if you're ever in a jam, come on over. you're always welcome."
"...Thank you."
She let out a lengthy yawn before starting again.
"tired, huh?"
"You could say that; I've been through a lot over the past few hours."
"well, i'd probably be the same if i fell down a mountain and was surrounded by things i didn't think existed."
"That reminds me...Is there a way of telling time down here?"
"we use the rotation of the earth, magnetism, stuff like that. and in case you're wondering, the time right now is..."
He pulled out his phone and had a look.
"six in the morning. now i know what you're thinking; everyone's awake. it's been night this whole time. what's up with that? well, since there's no moon or sun, we can pretty much sleep whenever we want, as long as it doesn't mess with our work. besides, some of us are nocturnal."
"Oh, really? Me, too."
"so you're a night owl too, huh? nice."
"Yeah..." She grimaced. "Night owl..."
Why did he have to say it like that?
"well, i'd like to sit and chat, but we've both got things we have to do. see ya later."
She nodded, waved, then finally passed the station, glancing over another box on the path as she went by, and encountering a wider, faster-flowing fall. Large stones were tumbling down with the water and rolling down into the darkness, and she stepped over them as she waded through, fighting to stand against the rushing water. Finally, she made it to the other side, and planted her feet on terra firma yet again. Ginger sat down to catch a break; six a.m., he'd said. It was just about sunrise on the surface. Shame she was going to miss it; the sunrises were always the prettiest during the autumn. She was tempted to fold up the hood of her cloak, use it as a makeshift pillow and take a nice long nap to recharge before she went any further.
But she knew that if the captain of the Royal Guard came along, she'd probably end up passing away in her sleep...Then again, Flowey had said that her ability to Save, Load and Reset came with the ability to come back from the dead, right back to where and when she last Saved...
When WAS the last time she Saved?
Uh-oh. The last thing she wanted was to be taken all the way back to Snowdin, before she went to Grillby's or anything like that if she did end up being attacked. Come to think of it...didn't she see a Save Point by Sans' station? She hadn't really acknowledged it at the time, but now she really hoped it hadn't been her imagination.
Running through the water was easier than walking through it, despite the moving rocks, and soon enough, she was back at the sentry station. Sans was snoozing.
I thought he said you could sleep if it DIDN'T interfere with your work schedule.
But that didn't matter. The shimmering star was waiting for her in between the plant and the station, and she brushed her hand through it.
*Waterfall-Checkpoint
*File Saved
Before she turned back towards the waterfall, she took a peek at the bright blue flower to the left of the Save Point; was this an Echo Flower? And did they really repeat the last thing they heard over and over again? She cupped her ear to the flower; it was snoring.
Sans...
Oh, well. What he did was none of her business. Instead of running across the shallows to the other side again, this time she waded behind the waterfall, finding an entry way to a tiny den. The blue stones embedded within the cavern walls glimmered softly, as did the tiny blue mushrooms poking up out of the ground.
A perfect place to collect her thoughts.
She wrapped the cloak around herself a little more; it wasn't far from Snowdin, and the dampness of the area did made it even more chilly, and she was without feathers or the sort. She pulled Snowdrake's feather out of her bag pocket, wondering if she'd ever get the chance to thank him, considering the way things were going.
...You know...This probably wouldn't look bad on the cloak somehow.
And it'd be a nice gesture, too. She smoothed the feather out, took her cloak off for a moment, trying to ignore the nippy air, and flattened the hood. She took a look at the feather's quill; it was surprisingly sharp for something of the sort. Maybe its owner had sharpened it on purpose with the thought she could use it for a pen.
Makes this easier for me.
She poked the feather through three folds she pinched in the hood fabric, then straightened it out, and the feather held fast where it was. She spread the cloak out on her lap, then reached into her bag and pulled out the spaghetti Papyrus had made her; it came complete with a disposable fork.
Eagerly, Ginger snapped the lid off, twirled some of the noodles onto the fork, then hungrily shoved the bite into her mouth.
And she instantly raised an eyebrow.
It tasted somewhat bitter; maybe he'd used too much oil. And was that a hint of...cardboard? Did he drop the box into the pasta while it was cooking? She felt her teeth bite through something soft and unexpectedly sweet; she separated it from the noodles and the sauce, then took it out to see what it was.
A banana slice? That didn't go in tomato sauce...did it?
She plucked a meatball out of the container and popped it into her mouth after she swallowed the noodles; okay, the meatball was fine. It actually tasted somewhat like the meat in the burger she'd had at Grillby's, so that was a plus.
Alright, so Papyrus's spaghetti wasn't EXACTLY the work of a master chef, as he so often claimed, but Sans was definitely exaggerating how bad it was. She'd definitely put worse-tasting things in her mouth, and the meatballs in the dish were its saving grace.
She snapped the lid back on the container and put it back where it belonged, then slid the cloak back on and stepped out of the den. She'd have time to finish it later.
Before she could continue, she saw something attached to the dirt wall beside her. It was an odd-looking device, similar to the one she'd seen in the bushes back just outside the Ruins. The decide rotated some, and then she was faced with a round lens. Ginger felt strange looking at it. It was almost like it was...
Watching her right back.
Wait a minute. Didn't humans have devices that recorded video feed at whatever they were pointed at? Was that...
"Is..." she stammered. "I-i-is that a camera...!?"
Oh, Glaux. The last thing she needed was somebody watching her. She gave the lens a dirty look, then swiftly pulled the cloak over her head, so hard that it almost went entirely over her face, and hastily passed underneath the flow, and finally made it back to the other side. When she finished, she turned back and took a look at her reflection in the water.
The feather in the hood sloped back and upwards on the hood. She was barely able to appreciate how cool it looked before the image of the camera came back to haunt her.
Cameras...Someone's watching me...Flowey? He could probably figure out how to work them; he's the one who's been down here for so long...I'll have a bone to pick with him, and I'll make sure I bring Sans when I see him.
She finally started down the path again. Just up ahead, the path on her left rose into a cliff, and right in the middle of the walkway was a patch of tall grass. It smelled marshy, but the ground it was growing out of was fairly dry. Interesting.
It looked like the only way to the other side was to cut right through the grass. There was no way she was swimming in the water flowing along the right of the path; not only was it probably dirty, but odds were it was cold.
"What do you mean, 'you didn't capture it!?'"
The unfamiliar voice came from the cliff rising above the path. It was somewhat muffled, and had an odd echo about it, as though its owner was wearing something metal over their face. Something metal...something like, per say...
...A helmet...?
"I-I'M SORRY. I TRIED VERY HARD, UNDYNE, BUT IN THE END...I FAILED."
Ginger heard what sounded like a frustrated snarl. Well, now she knew who the voice belonged to; she could distinguish it as feminine, but it was remarkably deep and loud. It almost sounded like Nyra's voice, but even deeper than hers, and not as smooth and sophisticated, and, of course, lacking the Hoolian accent.
"Don't you grasp how important this is!?" she scolded.
"YES, I DO, BUT-"
"Forget it. I'll do it myself. And when I find it, I'll rip it to shreds and use its spattered blood as a wall decoration!"
Ginger ducked further down into the grass to avoid being seen, hoping to Glaux that this was just an exaggeration.
But from what she'd heard about Undyne, it probably wasn't.
"UNDYNE, WAIT. YOU DON'T H-HAVE TO DESTROY HER! YOU SEE, SHE'S..."
"She's WHAT?" the captain spat. "Is she 'nice?' Let me tell you something; I don't give a CRAP how nice she is; it's a ruse, used to take advantage of anything and everything. She's still the scum of the earth, just like all the other ones."
The skeleton gave no response; Ginger could just imagine him shaking in those bright red boots of his.
"Don't you know what they did to us!? Don't you remember what they did to the prince!? Don't..."
Her fearsome demeanor seemed to falter, just for a moment.
"...Don't you remember what happened the last time one came down here?"
"YOU'RE...STILL UPSET ABOUT THAT, ARE YOU?"
Papyrus's voice had an unnatural sympathetic tone to it, and it got Ginger thinking; what HAD happened the last time a human fell into the Underground? Not anything good, from what she was hearing.
"...You could say that little incident was the icing on the cake. Now are you in with me on this or not?"
"...I UNDERSTAND. YES. I'LL HELP YOU IN ANY WAY I CAN."
She heard the skeleton head west, and no other sound followed. The human decided that it was safe to continue, and she pushed through a little bit more of the grass.
A series of loud, metallic noises followed her movement, and she instantly stopped short again. The loud "Clang clang clang" was rhythmic, like footsteps. The sound was a stark difference from the "ka-CHINK ka-CHINK ka-CHINK" that an owl in battleclaws made when it walked. And heavier, like...
Boots.
Undyne. It had to be. She'd seen her wearing her armor on the television.
She'd heard her.
Ginger peeked out from the blades of grass and watched in horror as the monster hovered over her, looking this way and that for the source of the noise. In a flash of light, she summoned something from thin air; something long and pointed, and glowing a fierce, otherworldly blue.
A spear.
She had SPEARS.
The next ten seconds felt like an eternity to the young human, but they finally ended when the foreboding creature let the spear dissipate, and she stepped back. Ginger could hear her heavy metal footsteps growing farther and farther away. She'd left.
She was in the clear.
Still careful not to make much noise, she pushed through the rest of the grass, and when she finally made it out to the other side, she let her weak knees cave in underneath her, and she collapsed. Her heart was beating at a mile a minute, she could barely get her breathing to slow down. Her brow was beaded with a cold sweat.
She felt like she was going to pass out any moment.
Finally, she regained her breath, and tried to stand back up. Right when she did, she was alerted to the sound of something else in the grass. Ginger turned...
And she saw that armless lizard monster from back in Snowdin, the biggest smile spread across his face.
"Yo!" he greeted ecstatically. "Did you SEE the way she was staring at you! That. Was. AWESOME! What'd you do to get her attention, huh!? I wanna be able to do that!"
It was THEN that Ginger remembered that this was the kid who'd told that Jerry guy on the news about her, who it turn tipped off the captain who'd just about murdered her right there in the grass. He'd essentially ratted her out. It was HIS fault.
"Y-yo...you okay? Come on! I know what'll make you feel better! Let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!"
He seemed oblivious to what he'd just caused, running ahead of her and falling on his face again before going on his way. Ginger almost wanted to give him a piece of her mind...and maybe a taste of her open glove, while she was at it, but something was stopping her from carrying her thoughts out.
He was only a child, and he had only intended to help her. And help her he actually did, since one of the more trustworthy monsters he'd visited had given her the cloak she now wore. She couldn't toss the notion of his kindness aside for an honest mistake.
Another Save Point caught her attention, and she was quick to interact with it; she wanted to save as much as she could with the captain on the prowl.
*Waterfall-Hallway
*File Saved
Good. Now she could keep going. She went into the next part of the dark cavern, and she noticed a plaque on the dirt wall, similar to the onesin the Ruins. But this was a black slate instead of a white one, and the text was the same soft blue as the pebbles and mushrooms she'd seen.
"When four Bridge Seeds align in the water, they will sprout."
She looked ahead; there was a break in the path, full of gently flowing water, and four of the so-called bridge seeds were scattered about to her left. Was she supposed to float them through the water until they made a path for her to cross over? That sounded about right.
The human was just about to try it out when the phone rang.
Toriel? she hoped. Maybe she noticed that she'd missed Ginger last two calls. I'd like to hear her voice right about now...
She answered.
"Hello?"
"GREETINGS, HUMAN!"
Papyrus? Well, it was the next best thing she could ask for.
"How'd you get this number?"
"SIMPLE! I JUST DIALED DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS OVER AND OVER AGAIN UNTIL I PUT IN THE RIGHT ONE!"
Well, he certainly got lucky.
"HOW ARE THINGS ON YOUR END OF THE LINE? I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I JUST HAD A FEW WORDS WITH UNDYNE CONCERNING THE SITUATION. SHE, UH...DOESN'T LOOK LIKE BUDGING AT THE MOMENT ON THE WHOLE 'CAPTURE' THING. AND WHAT'S WORSE IS THAT SHE DOESN'T JUST WANT TO CAPTURE YOU...NYEH HEH..."
"I know; I heard everything. I was right there in the grass below the cliff."
"OH, MY...IT'S A GOOD THING YOU DIDN'T MAKE ANY NOISE."
"...Yeah..."
"ANYWAY, I HAVE AN IDEA. TRY TO MEANDER A BIT THROUGH WATERFALL; ODDS ARE SHE THINKS YOU'RE GOING TO CUT STRAIGHT THROUGH SO YOU CAN GET TO THE CAPITAL FASTER. AND I'LL TRY MY BEST TO KEEP HER DISTRACTED! WHO KNOWS! MAYBE SOME OF THE LOCAL MONSTERS WILL ALSO BE KEEN ON HELPING YOU OUT!"
"We'll see about that last part. But I gotta go. It looks like I have some more puzzles to solve."
"GOOD LUCK! ERM...MAYBE, IF WE CAN MANAGE IT, WE COULD SNEAK YOU BACK TO SNOWDIN SOME TIME IF WE GET HE CHANCE? THAT WOULD REALLY THROW HER OFF YOUR TAIL ONCE THE CHASE HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH."
"I'll consider it. And by the way, I tried your spaghetti; it needs improvement but at least it's edible!"
She said the last part quickly and hung up; as much as she wanted to hear his response, she had things to do.
She drifted the unopened flower buds across the water until they were all lined up neatly in a straight line. And the moment she finished with the last one, they unfurled, and the soft pink and blue petals spread out wide for her to walk across. They shifted ever so lightly with her movement as she treaded across them, and when she made it to the other side, she looked back at them; fortunately, her dirty footprints were nowhere to be found on the enormous flowers. She breathed in; the aquatic blooms gave off a scent as sweet and soft as their pastel colors.
She moved on, crossing over a small wooden bridge, and she took one last look at the four Bridge Seed Flowers.
"...They really are nice."
"Tell me about it."
"What the-!?"
Someone poked their head out of the water and jumped out onto the shore, right next to her. The strange hybrid creature had the head of a horse, exceedingly muscular human arms, and a long, green, somewhat eel-like tail in the place of legs.
"You know, if you were to hold up all those blooms in the mirror, you'd see the five prettiest things in the world."
He pointed and flashed her a wink.
"Buh-SCUSE me?" Ginger exclaimed. "Who do you think you are?"
"Name's Aaron. And even if you don't have a library card, you can check me out all you want."
He proceeded to flex his muscular arms...and then a series of similarly-shaped bullets came her way. Ginger made a face, and hastily dodged the attacks.
"Go back in the water where you belong," she said to him.
"Come on, you'll change your mind."
"I'm-"
She saw another array of bullets headed her way, and she spoke while she swerved around them.
"Taken! I'm taken, Aaron!"
"Well, it's no wonder, is it? But how well can he flex?"
He tensed his muscles again, striking a pose.
"Get out of here, you creeper."
"Aw, man..."
Finally giving up the case, Aaron retreated back into the water.
But not before leaving a good 30G on the edge of the bank.
"Call me."
And with another wink, he retreated back into his watery abode.
"Yeah, I don't think so," the human replied, though she took the gold anyway; she might need it for something better later on.
The path continued due north, and there were more Bridge Seeds waiting to be aligned; it looked like if she aligned them vertically, they would connect the land and allow her to pass to the next cavern. She pushed two of them along through the water, and then realized something...
She could probably clear the one shorter distance in a jump, like she'd done with a similarly-sized gap in the floor of the Ruins.
She backed up, then ran and leapt over the hole, her show almost pushing down into the water as it pressed down the unopened bud. Puzzles...She didn't always need to do puzzles, did she? What harm would it do? Wasn't this the way everyone got around in these parts? It wasn't like she was cheating, or anything like that. It was just thinking outside of the box.
The human entered the next cavern. The plaque on the wall directly in front of her read "WISHING ROOM", and Echo Flowers were sprouting up along the pathway. She listened to what the one to her left had to say.
"A long time ago, monsters would whisper their wishes to the stars in the sky. if you hoped with all your heart, your wish would come true. Now, all we have are these sparkling stones on the ceiling..."
She tilted her head up, the hood of her cloak falling away as she did so. Sure enough, the dirt ceiling of the tiny earthen hallway was dotted with beautiful, glimmering white stones, and they looked very much like stars in the night sky.
Ironic, seeing that by now the sun was probably coming up on the surface. But a pretty sight nonetheless.
She listened to another Echo Flower.
"Thousands of people wishing together can't be wrong! The king will prove that."
The King...What was he really like?
All of a sudden, Ginger was completely doused with a blast of water that came out of nowhere!
"HEY!"
The assault of water was mixed in with white attack bullets, and she found herself taking on damage. When the mysterious attack ended, she whizzed around to find a stout, four-legged monster, pointing what looked like a hose at her. It was still dripping, and the water in his clear tank-like back was sloshing soap bubbles around its surface.
"What the hagsmire was that all about!?" she screamed at it.
"You had some tomato sauce on your cape," he replied. "Just trying to clean it off."
"There were BULLETS mixed in with that water!"
"Just trying to help," he apologized, shrinking back a bit.
Ginger looked at herself in disgust; she was cold, dripping wet and soggy, and she smelled like soap from the hood of her cloak to the soles of her sneakers.
"I-I can make it better. I promise," the monster told her.
The human sighed.
"How? What did you have in mind?"
"I can rinse the suds away, a-and then dry it. Just make sure to watch out for my white attacks and run into my green attacks. I promise, i-it'll work."
Ginger was skeptical, but if the monster could really fix her back up, then she wouldn't decline the one chance she might have for a long time.
"...Alright. Show me what you got."
"Great! Green means clean!"
The water he now sprayed was free of suds, and was notably warmer than the first blast. There were white drop-shaped bullets mixed in with the flow, and she ducked around them, grabbing two of the green drops that came her way in the spiral. Upon touching them, the wounds given to her by the first attack faded into nothing.
She was still soaked, but at least the soap was gone.
"And now for my grand finale..."
The tip of the hose the monster had used grew wider, and an enormous gust of hot air blew out, engulfing the human. This continued for about a minute, and when he finished, Ginger was completely dry. It was almost as though she'd never been soaked in the first place.
Except for the fact that she felt that much cleaner.
"Not bad," she commented. "You really did do well."
"Thank you! Now if you'll excuse me! Woshua has the whole world left to clean!"
He left 25G behind for her as he scurried off...Come to think of it, where did he keep that gold? Did the tank on his back have pockets? It was an odd thought.
The human pulled her hood back up before continuing, turning north and passing a telescope...What good would a telescope do underground? Oh, well; maybe they just liked taking closer looks at the dirt above. The human passed through a doorway, and found a row of more plaques lined up along the walls. The text written on them looked very old, and some of it had chipped away. Nonethe less, she could read it as she followed along the bridge path.
"The War of Humans and Monsters"
"Why did the humans attack? Indeed, it seemed that they had nothing to fear. Humans are unbelievably
strong. It would take the SOUL of nearly every monster just to equal the power of a single human SOUL."
"But humans have one weakness. Ironically, it is the strength of their SOUL. Its power allows it to persist
outside the human body, even after death."
"If a monster defeats a human, they can take its SOUL. A monster with a human SOUL...A horrible beast
with unfathomable power."
The last plaque had a drawing displayed on it, and it made Ginger shudder.
The creature in the image looked strikingly similar to Toriel, even wearing the same robe, but with longer horns, desperate black eyes, and a black streak running along each side of its face. A mob of humans was attacking it, and one of them was just about to stab the monster in the back with a dagger.
She had seen the face of war many times, but something about the assault depicted in the ancient artwork made it all the more disturbing.
The human finally pulled her eyes away, then followed along the dark, narrow bridge path taking her east. The path was very dark, and the gentle flow of the water was the only thing filling her ears.
When the bridge broadened again, Ginger looked back at the wall covered in plaques. They didn't really give a description of the supposed war itself, more tell of the powers of human and monster SOULs. Well, they hadn't been useless; they had at least explained some interesting things to her.
Her gait slowed to a crawl, and she suddenly felt very apprehensive. The waters had completely stilled, and the reeds growing out of them shifted ever so slightly with the very light air about the cavern, too light to even make the smallest ripples in the water. To her left, crude stone pillars came out from along the bank and towered above, nearly as tall as the trees in Snowdin Forest, and nearly three times as wide around. The only sound she could hear now was the light, tip-toeing sound of her own footsteps, and the small amount of light shining in from the Wishing Room cast an eerie shadow across the wooden planks.
Her shadow.
She tightened the Tough Glove on her hand and made a fist, fixing her face into a menacing glare, so that if someone took her by surprise, she'd be able to instantly flash them a scary look. As she went on, she slowly turned herself around. Her eyes and ears were wide open. The tiny hairs on her arms and legs stood on end. Ginger knew this feeling...She was tense, insecure, threatened...
And that was when she realized.
She was being watched. No, not just watched...
STALKED.
She heard the sound of magical energy conjuring from somewhere in the shadows cast by the pillars, and she bolted forward just in time to dodge something that flew right at her. She tumbled forward and rolled out of the way, then turned back around to see just what had been cast.
There, jutting out of the bridge, embedded within the wood, was a spear.
Oh, NO.
All she had to do was catch the slightest glimpse of the armored captain coming out of the shadows, and she took to her heels. This couldn't be happening yet! She wasn't ready! She wasn't anywhere near ready! She swerved with the path of the bridge; she could hear the sound of more spears being summoned and flying through the air, just missing her as she ran. One arm was held straight behind her while the other one reached up to keep the cloak's hood from flying off her face and revealing it, and she leaned forward, cutting through the air.
It was like flying on the ground.
Even so, she was barely fast enough to dodge the relentless barrage of spears being hurled at her. And she didn't want to know how painful it'd be to be hit by one.
Ginger came to a series of sharp turns. She moved with the first one, but on the second, she simply hopped the water to the other bend. And then she saw a series of the missiles coming at her from the front.
Again, she ducked and rolled along the swerve of the bridge, just barely avoiding falling into the dank marsh water before pushing herself back up and continuing her run. Another set of three pointed down and across at her, just up ahead, waiting for her to slam right into them as she ran.
She skidded to a stop just at the right moment, and the spears flew just an inch or so past her face, the tips of them tearing through the fringe of the hood as they sped across the bridge and disappeared into the water. Her heart skipped a beat; that was WAY TOO CLOSE a miss.
The rest of the bridge was a straight path that lead into another large patch of grass; if she could get there and hide herself among the plants she'd probably be able to make it out. Her legs pumped even harder, and she made a beeline for the grass, spears still flying her way.
She felt the bridge shake with the weight of something big and heavy landing on it just before she dove into the greenery. Undyne. She'd jumped out from off the bank and onto the bridge.
The human rolled farther into the grass, then once she slowed, sat tight where she was, curled up into the fetal position, turned towards the way she came in case she saw the monster's metal boots shifting through the grass and coming her way. In the position she was in, she couldn't see them yet, but she could sure as hagsmire hear them; the loud, heavy clanging sound of metal on wood.
And soon they came shifting through the grass, and the next thing Ginger knew, a dark shadow was being cast directly over her...Did she see her? Had she lost her?
The armored beast rose her arm and cast in into the grass. She felt it grab something, and she pulled out the mysterious being right by the side of its head.
...It was a kid.
The one without any arms that sometimes followed her around. The smile on his face grew even bigger as she lifted him up out of the grass to see.
As soon as she identified him, she lowered him back into the grass, somewhat confused, then stomped off back the way she came.
Right when the sound of her boots had disappeared, Ginger scrambled back onto her feet and pushed her way out of the grass, barely able to stand. Her heart felt like it was about ready to beat itself right out of her chest.
She turned back again when she heard something else come out of the grassy patch; it tured out to be that same kid again. The side of his face looked a little red, but his expression was of one who'd just won the lottery.
"Y-yo...Didja see that!? Didja!? Undyne just...She...SHE TOUCHED ME!"
"I...can tell," she replied, noting the red marks on his face where it looked like fingers had dug into.
"Oh, man, oh man, oh man, oh man! I am never. Washing. My face. EVER AGAIN!"
He seemed about ready to pass out himself, though for reasons very different from the human's.
"Boy, did you get the crummy end of the stick," he told her, shaking his head in sympathy. "If you were just a LITTLE bit more to the left, maybe you've have gotten lucky!"
"Kid...If it'd been the other way around it wouldn't have been a pretty sight."
"Why not? Sure, she beats up bad guys, but what's wrong with you?"
Did he...not know? Maybe be didn't know what humans looked like, and just thought she was another monster like everyone else. Of course, he'd never seen a human in the flesh until now, so it made sense that he didn't know.
"Yo, don't worry! We'll get another chance to see her again!"
And he took off-and faceplanted-and got back up again, disappearing down the cavern. Ginger treaded slowly behind him; she was going to need a breather after everything that just happened.
The next room had another table with cheese on it; the dairy product had been sitting there so long that it had crystalized. An Echo Flower grew next to the hole where another mouse presumably made its home, and just past it was another Save Point. Ginger went up to it and did what she always did.
*Waterfall-Crystal
*File Saved
After she finished that, she went to see what the blue flower had to say.
The human couldn't help but giggle a bit when she heard it squeak. And then the flower laughed right back.
She nodded. Now that she'd Saved once more, she could finally give herself that well-deserved rest.
She hunkered down right in the corner of the wall, lifting the hood farther over her head, taking the cloak in her arms and wrapping it around herself. Surely by now, the sun had come all the way up. All of her companion owls on the surface were probably sound asleep...
No...She'd been gone for so long. Somebody HAD to be looking for her up there.
That got her thinking...if one of her fellow owls found the hole she'd made the mistake of flying down, what would happen to them? Would they also turn human? Would Toriel take them in and try to keep them in the Ruins? Would she try to stop them when they tried to leave?
...Would they kill her by mistake, not knowing how weak she really was?
She hoped not. And she hoped that she could get out of the mountain before the entire Pure One fleet decided to raid the Underground if they found it.
But she had DETERMINATION. As long as she held fast onto her goals, she could do far more than just hope.
A/N: Betcha didn't expect to see another update this quickly, did you? I'm not following a very strict posting schedule, so there may be some surprises along the road, but as long as I get at least one or two chapters done a week I'm satisfied. And here's a weird tip that works: if you want to keep yourself from abandoning a story, write down how it ends in your docs. This way if you don't finish the story you'll forever be plagued by that wasted ending sitting in your files. XD
Oh, and didja see what I did in the dialogue between Ginger and Aaron. Yes, I did do that on purpose...
...What do you mean, "that's a dead meme"!? I'll have you know, That meme. Will NEVER. Die. EVER.
Well, thanks again for reading!
...
...
...
so we back in the mine,
got our pickaxe swingin' from
side to side
side, side to side
this task a grueling one,
hope to find some diamonds to-
night, night, night
diamonds toni-
okay i'll shut up now...