Chapter 12 - Empathy
The sun is positioned to be four hours after noon...
The second sunset that Frisk and her companions have seen will be the first for many.
Undyne and Papyrus were returning from the blacksmith with a gigantic cauldron they intended to boil the noodles with for the celebration tonight.
. . .
"Need help with the pot, Papyrus?"
"I'm fine Undyne, I got it!"
Papyrus's voice was ecstatic and excited to use their new oversized cast-iron kitchen pot. Despite it's huge size, Papyrus managed to jog back to the Monsters' ring with it held high over his head.
"Go ahead and get everything prepped, Chef Papyrus. I'll meet right-up with you!"
"On the double, Undyne!"
Without hesitation, Papyrus zoomed-off ahead; almost as if he was flying away. Undyne knew she wasn't going to catch-up, pausing.
She took a moment to catch her breath, taking-in her surroundings, looking around herself;
The Obsidian black of the place's walls and fortifications, the colorless grey grass underneath everyone's feet, the longing and absence of hope in the humans' souls...
Undyne had to tear herself away. The humans' souls passing by her were hollow, broken, or anything but destroyed and gone. These people needed help and she felt something familiar toward the situation but couldn't put her finger on it.
Undyne pulled out her phone and started typing a text message.
"Okay Lazybones. I give in."
Undyne took a deep breath, She blinked as her phone displayed that Sans had returned her message.
"gotcha. will be back before dark."
Undyne nodded her head and put her phone away before resuming her travel.
A human child waited at the outskirts of GreenGold Fortress.
Despite the pessimistic atmosphere, rumors of famine, and barely surviving his twelfth winter, a sense of optimism seeped into the back of his head.
He wore a ragged grey-and-grey striped shirt and a pair of trousers with a hole in one of the knees. Charcoal hair and green eyes...
This morning he saw a strange goat-woman try to tend a flower that was tainted with that strange, ugly mold on it. She didn't appreciate that thing's existence. No one did.
That mold kills anything it grows on.
It's the reason why so many people whisper about another famine coming - a total and complete famine that will leave nothing behind, they say...
Between that mold and the Bandits, was there still hope?
Kaido's family left him to go out and search for food in nearby towns. They said they'd be back in thirty days at noon... This is the thirty-first day, and noon was giving-way to dusk...
"Don't cry until we're together again, ok?" He remembered his mom telling him before they left.
Kaido took a deep breath. He mistook the monster caravan coming from Mt Ebbot to be his folks but it didn't discourage him. They were kind, understanding, and even gave him something to eat.
Finally, waiting at the gate for what felt like forever, Kaido squinted and saw a figure in the horizon getting closer and closer.
"This is it" he thought to himself.
Kaido got up from his seat on the ground and started walking, then the walking turned into jogging. As the figure got closer and closer, he could make it out more clearly; A small group of people walking down the road, numbering between three and six, hauling a small wagon behind them.
"A caravan?"
Kaido's jogging turned into running.
"It's mom and dad... It HAS to be... It HAS to be them! Who else would make a trek this far to this place?"
Kaido started sprinting as fast as his legs could take him.
"MOM!"
He called out.
"DAD!"
He ran until he was finally approaching the humans on their way to the Castle. He could smell the wagon. Some wheat and barley ready to be made into bread, some fish from the north mountain lakes already cooked and ready, barrels of salt with dried goods freshly preserved within them. This was it! This was the food mom and dad left so many days ago to retrieve! They're here! They had to be...
"Mom? Dad?"
Kaido didn't recognize anyone.
"Hello? Anyone seen my Mom and Dad?" He asked those passing-by, some giving him funny looks.
"Sorry kid."
"Good luck finding them, boy."
No one recognized him. Kaido was confused.
"What happened?!" Kaido meant to ask in his head, but accidentally blurted.
"Another place attacked by bandits. Why else?"
The group passed by him, and Kaido just stood there, watching them walk-off into the distance. They didn't even take the East turn into the Fortress's roadway, save one. The group continued on the road to the south coast.
"I... I don't understand."
Kaido heard footsteps behind him.
"Are you Kaido the kind?" The voice was like an endless abyss; deep, unwelcoming, yet fluid like calm water.
Kaido turned around and was greeted by an shadowed humanoid figure in a black cloak, dark as the void itself. His presence was imposing. A hand encased in an iron gauntlet held his pitch-black cloak around him. Despite looking human-enough, he towered in uncanny valley. The worst was his eyes; A pair of red irises almost glowing out of the stranger's hooded stature.
"Y-yes?" Kaido didn't know how else to respond. The figure remained silent, his eyes beaming through Kaido as if he was staring into his soul...
"Do you know my mom and dad?" Kaido was taken aback by the figure. He, or perhaps "it" was hard to look at without feeling uncomfortable.
"I did" the shadow replied. Kaido's fear temporarily subsided.
"Where are they? Are they on their way home? Are they safe? Are they ok?"
The figure stood in silence for a moment, Kaido could tell that the stranger shut his eyes because of how they stopped glowing for that moment.
"Where are they?" Kaido's voice waned, not in fear of the stranger but of what he was to say.
The stranger opened his eyes again. His eyes, though menacing, expressed an alien softness... Then he spoke two words;
"My condolences."
Kaido heard those words before. It was at a funeral about a day ago.
"No" he shook his head from side-to-side, taking a step backwards.
"No!" he said again.
"You lie!" Kaido's voice cracked in his throat, but the stranger's expression didn't change.
The stranger stood motionless. Kaido turned around and sprinted back to GreenGold castle.
He ran down the roadway, then straight through the first gate. He didn't see the yellow, armless monster kid before colliding into him at full-force, accidentally knocking him down.
"Hey!"
Kaido paused for a moment, then noticed the other monsters looking at him. He turned and ran again.
"HEY!"
Kaido heard again from behind him. He kept going straight through the next gate. He turned only for a moment to see if anyone followed him before colliding into what felt like a pillar of iron.
He fell backward from the impact. Taking a deep breath and sitting up, he finally paused long enough to feel the emotion he was trying to outrun. He sniffled a little, trying his hardest to bottle everything in.
Don't cry until we're together again...
Kaido clenched to the hard, sharp rocks that made the road around him before letting go of them to wipe the sticky water out of his eyes. He wanted to keep running, but in his heart, he didn't want to be alone...
"Hey punk, you okay?"
*But somebody came...
Kaido looked up to see a strange, blue fish-woman dressed in a metal getup that put even the greatest guards he's seen to shame.
She towered-over Kaido as the stranger did, but had a completely different atmosphere about her. The fish-lady blinked. Something about her presence felt uncannily familiar, like someone out of a dream.
"What's your name?" the fish-lady asked, holding out her giant hand encased in an iron gauntlet.
Kaido reached out and let the monster grab his hand, getting up from his spot in the dirt.
"Call me Undyne. What's you're name, punk?"
Undyne...
Kaido paused. His face, formerly of hurt and sadness blanked into an almost vague stare.
"K-Kaido..." He replied.
Undyne's smile faded for a moment, but then returned.
Letting go of Kaido's hand after helping him up, Undyne nodded.
"Kaido, huh?" She looked away for a moment, before turning back to the kid. "Cool name."
Kaido still stood there with that vague stare before shaking himself back to attention.
"I'm sorry, have we met before?" He asked.
Undyne's smile and attitude churned into a nostalgic demeanor. She forgot to answer his question.
"I..." Kaido stuttered before correcting himself.
"Have you ever felt like you're remembering something from within a dream, or maybe a dream within a dream?"
Undyne took a moment, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before bringing herself to a pleasant grin once again.
"Heh. What are you talking about, punk?"
Kaido hesitated.
"Hey, I'm on my way to get a party ready for everyone. We kick-off at dusk and you and your folks are invited if you can make it."
Undyne forced a smile and took a step forward before pausing. Kaido stood there helpless, then he heard Undyne's voice again.
"Can I help you?"
Kaido turned and saw Undyne face-to-face with the shadowed stranger from earlier.
Kaido froze, his heart beat so loudly, he couldn't hear what they were talking about. There were some words exchanged but Kaido couldn't hear any of it. The stranger with the red eyes occasionally shifted his unnatural gaze from Undyne to him, then back to whatever it was the two were talking about.
He saw the stranger hand the fish-lady a suspicious parchment of paper and walk away- disappearing back into the shadowed darkness that he seemed to be made out of.
Undyne turned back to Kaido and waved him closer.
Kaido, still afraid slowly approached Undyne.
"Hey, punk..." the fishlady said. Kaido nodded his head in reply.
"Have a home around here?" Undyne asked.
"No." Kaido replied.
Undyne paused, remembering what questions to ask next.
"Got anyone here you trust to look after you? Anyone your folks trusted?"
Kaido shook his head no. Undyne exhaled.
"My condolences about your paren-"
"THEY'RE NOT DEAD!" Kaido blurted.
"They're not... They're not! I know it!" Kaido tried to hold back, but he couldn't hide it.
"Th-...'Ey're... Live... I... Knows... They'z..." Kaido's nose became stuffy and he couldn't see out of his eyes. He tried rubbing them with his hands, but it didn't work.
He tried to repeat himself again, but his heart hurt and his throat felt sore. He tried to speak, but all he could do was weep.
Realizing he couldn't speak, he tried to focus on keeping everything inside.
"Don't cry until we're together again, ok?"
Kaido focused on his mother's parting words, but it made his chest hurt even more. He shut his eyes in a last attempt to keep everything in, but all he could see was mom and dad walking away... Kaido felt hollow, weeping both inside and out. All he could think of was them. They were his world and he was theirs... But the alternative to them being forever gone was a possibility that was even worse.
Kaido fell to his knees, the sharp road gravel digging into his exposed knee from his trousers.
His hope crumbled. His heart wanted to cry out for help, but Kaido didn't want to allow it. In truth, he was scared of being vulnerable and didn't want to show it. Everyone else felt the same.
*But somebody came...
Blind from tears, Kaido felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Dad?" he whimpered, seeing his face in his mind.
He wiped away his tears, opening his eyes to see the familiar fish-lady, kneeling down and meeting Kaido at eye-level.
"Hey, punk... There's another kid I hang out with- a human kid, like yourself. I think you'd like her, but she's with her mom right now...
"She'll be back around dark. Want to hang around us until... Until your folks come back?"
Kaido buried his head into Undyne's shoulder, crying.
"Yes" he whispered, embracing Undyne.
Undyne accepted the hug in silence.
"Right! Sorry!" Kaido stepped back, wiping his tear-soaked face with his hands. Undyne nodded.
"I'll let it slip this time kiddo, given all that's been going on".
This made Kaido smile.
"Kai-do. Kiddo is... Is what Dad called me".
Undyne smiled, nodding her head before standing up. "Wanna walk with me?"
"Yes... Yes."
Kaido kept-up the pace and walked with Undyne back to the Monsters' ring.
The wind gently walked, silence nodded it's head. The stranger was nowhere to be seen...
"HEY! YOU!"
Upon hearing those words entering the gate, Kaido immediately hid behind a confused Undyne as she preformed a double-take.
"Have you two met before, Monster Kid?"
"Yea! He dead-sprinted right-into me, then ran-off without another word! What's up with that dude?! Come on! Not cool!"
Kaido continued hiding behind Undyne, not that he did a good job at it.
"Punk, Look at him. You honestly think he's gonna bite you or something? He's a good kid. I know him."
Kaido slowly got out from behind Undyne, pausing and looking at her again, and again Undyne spoke to him.
"He deserves an apology at the very least. Come on. You gonna be cruel and refuse him at least that?"
These words resonated to Kaido. He took a deep breath, calmly walked toward the strange yellow, armless monster kid in the striped shirt.
Kaido whispered under his breath "No matter what... Just be kind...
"Just... Be kind..."
Kaido kept walking until he was in front of that strange monster child.
An awkward silence would've ensued if Monster Kid didn't try to say something.
"Hi. I'm Monster Kid, but you can call me M.K."
The awkward silence happened anyway.
"I'd shake your hand, but-"
"I'm sorry!" Kaido's mouth accidentaly blurted in a string of words.
"I didn't mean to run into you, I was- there was this stranger, and he- I was running and I didn't- I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt! What was-?"
M.K. exchanged glances between Kaido and Undyne, confused and absent for words.
"What? No, uh, It's- it's fine. What's your name?"
"...Kaido. My name is Kaido."
"Kaido? Nice to meet you. I'd take you to meet my parents, but they're still at MT Ebbot and it's going to be a while before they get here. What about yours?"
Kaido looked away with a disheartened expression.
"They're... They're away... Far away from here... I don't think I'll see them again..."
M.K. bit his lip and nodded in regret to his question.
"Hey, Kaido, right?"
Kaido looked back at M.K. with that same disheartened expression, nodding.
"There's going to be a party for all of us monsters tonight. Wanna hang out with me?"
This made Kaido smile.
"Yes" he nodded in reply. "Thank you... Thank you." Kaido continued.
M.K. nodded. "So... Friends, then?"
Kaido replied with a hug.
Hope... Such a fickle thing... Born in a day, dies in a day, but even in the darkest nights, stars still shine. In a world so bleak, devoid of any hope, dark beyond measure, light shines here the brightest. Isn't that all we can hope for? A little light in our endless darkness?