Chapter 5
When I got down to this area, I saw that the puzzle was simply pushing two different x marks on the ground by stepping on them and then hitting a button, one that looked similar to the buttons in the Ruins that Toriel showed me. I then went onward and saw Papyrus on the other side of the spike trap.
"Ah! Mute! How did you get past the trap?!... And more importantly... is there any left for me?" Papyrus asked, me smirking at him.
"~That spaghetti tasted really good...
At least that's what I would have said... if it wasn't frozen to the wood...
It looked good... but I can't eat that kind of frozen food...~" I sung, Papyrus frowning at that.
"Dang... didn't you see the microwave?" he asked.
"Sorry, it was unplugged and the settings just said spaghetti on them all... even if it did work, I wouldn't know what button to press," I smiled afterwards without singing.
"I see... I shall be more careful in the future, Mute! And as for the spaghetti looking good... after I capture you, I'll feed you as much spaghetti as you want!" he smiled at me widely.
"That'd be appreciated," I smirked as we then both proceeded forward and we came across another tile puzzle.
"Uh, I don't know how to say this, but you took a while to get here, so I had the spare time to rearrange this puzzle to look exactly like my face!... Now go ahead and solve it so we can both be on our merry way," Papyrus said, me smirking and doing just that, managing to finish it with ease. "Incredible! You did it without my help! You're very clever, Mute the Human! Now, onward I go!... Just, stay still for about 13 seconds so I can get a head start!" Papyrus smiled, me smirking as I started to count, Papyrus going over the the next area and me staying put until I counted to 13 seconds. I then moved forward and saw that there was a large puzzle in front of me made entire of what looked like a disco floor. And Sans and Papyrus were on the other side.
"Mute the Human, this is your next puzzle! It's a puzzle with multiple different-colored tiles. I will explain how it works... Red tiles are impassible. You cannot step on them, as they have invisible walls. Yellow tiles are electric. They'll shock you. Orange tiles are safe to walk on and smell like oranges. Blue tiles are filled with water. If you step on a blue tile while smelling like oranges, the piranha will attack you! Also, if a yellow tile is next to a blue one, it'll also be electrical. Purple tiles are slippery. You'll slip to the next available tile. But they will make you smell like lemons, which the piranha hate! And finally, there are pink tiles. They do absolutely nothing, walk on them as much as you want. Do you understand my rules?" Papyrus asked, me smirking and noting them in my head.
"Red tiles can't walk on, yellow tiles dangerous when next to blues, orange tiles make piranha eat me, purple tiles slippery and make piranha hate me, pink tiles safe and do nothing. Is that the gist?" I smiled.
"Right! You're good at listening to directions!... Anyways, one last thing. This puzzle is entirely random! When I hit this switch, it will form a puzzle that has never been seen before! Not even I will know the answer! Get ready, here we go!" Papyrus smirked as he pushed the switch on the machine and the tiled floor started to light up all around and continued to do so faster and more colorful with each one until it finally formed the maze... and it was a straight line of pink with red tiles surrounding it... and it was a straight shot for me to move forward. "Oooh come on..." Papyrus groaned in defeat as he then spun in dizziness off into the east. I smirked and simply walked through the puzzle, looking at Sans with a smile.
"He's funny when he messes up," I smiled.
"heh, i think he's funny too. but he doesn't appreciate puns. to be honest, it just makes me want to tell more to him," Sans smirked, me smiling at him. "by the way, that spaghetti? it wasn't that bad. since he's been taking cooking lessons, my bro's been improving. i'm sure next year, he may be able to make something actually edible," Sans said, me frowning at that.
"That wasn't funny. That was rude," I frowned.
"yeah, sorry, shouldn't have said that. i'll just catch up with ya later, i guess," Sans said as I then went on my way and saw something that amused me. The dog I'd befriended from earlier (the one who had the extendable neck) was rushing all over the snow trying to make snowmen in the shape of dogs... but his extendable neck kept on making him build higher and higher and, with each one he tried to build, the neck eventually snapped off. But he was too excited to care about the failed attempts.
I simply walked right past him and the dog didn't pay me any mind. And it was here that I came across a puzzle that truly was worthy of the Great Papyrus. It was a x mark tile puzzle like the one in the shape of Papyrus's face, but this one had ice that was surrounding it as well as nothing guarding the edges! I looked at it for a bit and went up to the top most part and started skating across it in a square-shape, finding that the tiles with the marks on them were unaffected by the ice. I did this until I finally touched the button and a small bridge formed through a thicket of trees. I smiled and skated my way through, reaching the other side to see... a deer with a mandible jaw and having a bunch of things on its antlers that it didn't seem to want on them.
"Ugh... I hate being like this... damn kids putting stuff on me. I'm not a decoration piece!" the deer complained as I simply went up to him and, while he was looking away, I went to the decorations on his horns and started to take them off. Only then did the deer notice me and he looked at me angrily at first before he then saw what I was doing. "Wait... are you... taking that junk off me?" he asked, me smiling at him.
"Yes, yes I am," I smiled at him as I simply continued to take the stuff off of him until only his tree-shaped horns remained. "There ya go, all cleaned up," I smiled.
"T-Thank you, miss! I'm Gyfftrot. Please, tell me who you are," he smiled at me with his mouth... at least I think he was.
"Name's Mute... it's actually a nickname because... I can't talk at regular volume unless I sing. Any other time, I can only whisper," I smiled.
"That's pretty sad, if you ask me. Who was the one who did that to you?" he asked.
"Well, if you count a fire as being a person, then the fire that hit my house when I was 4 years old was the one who did that to me," I said.
"Damn... so that means you're not a monster, but a human?" he asked, me nodding at that. "Yeah, Ice came through earlier talking about a very kind human girl that was coming to arrive in Snowdin. Said you helped him get over his self-consciousness about his hat. He was actually super happy and was quick to tell everyone to be nice to you," Gyfftrot smiled.
"Well, I try to be nice to most of the creatures I've met down here," I smiled at him. "Though I have to ask... there was this one bad monster I came across earlier that said that the law of this world was 'kill or be killed'. Please tell me he's just a whack job and that nobody down here follows that line of thinking," I frowned at him.
"Of course not! Who would even dare say that the monsters here are killers?! We're all incredibly peaceful. We just want back to the surface, so most humans who fall down here are taken to Asgore and he keeps them around," Gyfftrot said, me sighing and shaking my head.
"That's not what I heard... I met the former queen awhile ago, who is in hiding... and she said that Asgore, when he finds a human... that he kills them and steals their souls," I said, Gyfftrot sighing at that.
"Dammit... I really didn't want to get caught in a lie... sorry, but that's how Asgore thinks it'll work. But if ya ask me, it's total bullshit that he's doing this, considering how he loved the first human who fell down here, Chara," Gyfftrot frowned.
"Yeah, that's why the Queen went into hiding. She wanted nothing to do with the plan," I frowned.
"So... just wanted to let you know, the folk of Snowdin have the same mindset as we do. They do want the barrier destroyed, but they hate the methods being used... in fact, that could be said for the entire Underground."
"Thanks for talking about this to me, Gyfftrot. I appreciate the fact that I can talk things out with most monsters down here," I smirked as I then went forward and saw that there was a very long bridge. I simply went forward on it until I got to a certain part, where I saw Papyrus and Sans on the other side and they smiled at me widely.
"Aha! Human, this is your final puzzle! Bring in the gauntlet!" Papyrus exclaimed as I then saw... my demise incarnate. Flame jets, spears, a large spike ball, a large sword, and a small dog appeared and all of them were aimed at me. I sighed and shook my head, knowing that if Papyrus gave the command, then I'd be dead.
"~Aaaavee... Marrrriiiiiiaaa...~" I sung as I simply stood in place, Papyrus looking at me with a smile, but as he stood there, he soon noticed that I had a face of despair on me.
"Uh... I'm going to hit the switch... aaany minute now..." Papyrus said as I saw his hands shaking.
"uh, that doesn't look very activated," Sans frowned.
"W-Well... this puzzle... it seems... may be too easy to defeat the human with! Yeah! We can't use this one! I'm a skeleton with standards! If I'm to capture someone, I want it to be absolutely fair! Away it goes!" Papyrus said as the traps then retreated and I sighed a breath of relief and I simply sat on the ground, crossing my heart happily.
"Safety... how I missed you..." I said with a small, sad smile. Papyrus then sighed and went ahead, me then slowly walking up to Sans and him frowning at me for a change.
"what was that song? it seemed to really make him think twice," Sans said.
"It's a song usually played at funerals or during death scenes in movies. Italian words, basically saying 'I lived a good life, but now I need to move on to the great beyond'," I said with a small smile.
"i see. well, i'd be careful from here on out. and remember to watch out for blue attacks," Sans said, me nodding at that as I moved forward some more and saw... sanctuary. A sign that said Snowdin Town and a bunch of furry folk walking around the town and having a good time.
"Finally, I can have a rest stop..." I smiled as I then looked at the nearest place and saw it was a shop. I felt that'd be the first place to visit, just in case they had anything I needed. When I went inside, I saw that the one manning the post was a rabbit woman with a chubby, but cute figure and she wore pink for her clothes and had a hat on her head.
"Oh, hello there, traveler. Are you that human that Ice mentioned was coming?" she asked, me nodding at that.
"I see the word travels quickly around these parts," I smiled at her with my raspy breath.
"And your voice is just as quiet as he said... and then I heard from another that you were able to sing at any volume, but you can't talk unless its a whisper because of a fire, right?" she asked, me nodding at that before I did a double take.
"Wait a minute... who told you that part? I didn't mention that to anyone but Gyfftrot, Sans, and Papyrus. And the duo of skeletons only recently got back and I met Gyfftrot on the other side of the bridge," I frowned.
"Well, believe it or not, a flower of all things told us," she said, me feeling like my heart sank right down to the bottom of my feet.
"That flower... he's been spying on me this whole damn time!" I growled angrily.
"What's the matter?" the shopkeeper asked.
"That flower has tried to kill me when we first met and claimed that this world was kill or be killed. And now he's spying on me and telling others about me! If I see him again, I'm going to force him to stop spying on me, even using scare tactics if I have to!" I frowned angrily.
"Well, I never! A flower that's evil and tries to kill someone as nice as you? If you do see him again, tell him that he's no longer welcome in Snowdin and if we happen to see him, we will not hesitate to uproot him!" the bunny girl said angrily.
"Damn straight..." I frowned angrily as I then regained my composure with a couple deep breaths. "Ahem... anyways, what kind of items do you have?" I asked.
"Well, we have a couple different options for you, including one that I'm sure you'd love to have," the bunny girl smiled as she then showed off some different food items and, the kicker, an old pink tutu with matching ballet shoes. "The tutu and ballet shoes once belonged to one of the humans who made it to Snowdin, but got captured in the Waterfall by the Royal Guard. I'll give them to you as a bargain for only 60 gold coins," the bunny girl smiled, me smirking as I saw I had that and more from the monsters I'd been encountering both in the Ruins and the different creatures in Snowdin. I smiled and handed her the 60 gold and she then gave me the stuff, which I immediately put on and I smiled at how cute I looked. Also helping was the fact that the ballet shoes were just the right size for my little feet!
"Fits like a glove," I smiled. "And how much for the cinnamon bunny?" I asked, seeing that it was a bunny-shaped cinnamon roll.
"Each cinnamon bunny costs 25 gold," she smiled. I looked into my pockets and managed to find enough to buy one, the bunny girl smiling at me and giving me the cinnamon bunny after I gave her the coins. I then got a to-go container from my bag and put it in there for future use. "And word to the wise, if you do happen to get injured in the Underground, just eat any kind of food item to regain your lost health," she smiled.
"Thanks for the tip. And here's one for you," I smiled as I gave her 10 gold as a tip and she smiled at me happily.
"Aww, thanks, miss! Your name is Mute, right?" she smiled at me.
"Yes, that's my name," I smirked at her. "I'm going to go meet with the king now... though I have to ask, do you happen to know what Papyrus's special blue attack does?" I asked her.
"Oh, that attack? It turns your soul blue and forces you to stay on the ground. You're only going to beat Papyrus in battle if you jump over most of his attacks," the bunny girl smiled at me. I smiled at that and gave her five more gold for the tip and she giggled at me. "You're too sweet, Mute," she smiled at me.
"Gotta show my gratitude in some way," I smiled as I then left the place and went on my way forward, though I did note to look all around me in case Flowey was eavesdropping. If I ever caught him in the act, I'd surely give him a fright he'd never forget.