Jeremiah stared at the snowy forest in amazement. "It's quite the sight, isn't it?" Chara asked him. She took his stunned silence as a yes and continued. "I remember getting to see this for the first time with him. He couldn't believe it was my first time getting to see snow and he practically demanded to teach me how to make a snow angel. Sadly, I couldn't do it right no matter how long he spent trying to teach me." Chara's voice wavered for a moment before continuing. "I even messed up a few of his angels… I guess I just mess everything up." As soon as she said this Jeremiah spoke up. "Sorry Chara, what were you saying? I was a bit too caught up in the moment." Chara just sighed and told him it wasn't anything important. Jeremiah took her word for it and began to ask. "So how does it sn-"
"Magic," Chara answered before he could finish. Jeremiah nodded and started to walk down the cold and snowy path. That makes sense. He thought to himself before frowning. It's a shame that something so beautiful is a product of something so vile as witchcraft. I wonder if all the snow and trees will disappear once they stop using magic? Oh well, it doesn't matter. Their immortal souls are far more important than a pretty sight. Still, despite the magical nature of the… well nature around him, he couldn't help but admire it. What he absolutely didn't admire was just how cold it was. Sure, the clothes Toriel gave him were far warmer than his robes would've been, but it was still freezing cold. "Why don't you just wear your robes on top of what you're wearing right now?" Asked Chara. Jeremiah cringed. "The robes that are currently covered in blood and pie? No thanks. Besides, I left them back in Toriel's home, so I couldn't do that even if I wanted to." Chara let out a huff and was about to make a very clever and snarky comeback when something stopped her. It also stopped Jeremiah right in his tracks. It was the sound of crunching snow.
Jeremiah almost immediately whirled around, hoping that he just imagined it. To his relief, there was nothing there. He let out a sigh and prepared himself to be teased by Chara, but the teasing never came. Instead, she just asked him. "Did you hear that too?" His heart sank and his determination wavered. He didn't need to say anything, she could feel his fear, and he could feel her's. They quickly came to an unspoken agreement, which Jeremiah promptly honored by whirling back around and running away. As they ran, they could occasionally hear the sound of crunching snow behind them. Jeremiah felt tempted to try and see what was behind him, but Chara would scream at him to just keep running.
Eventually, he reached a bridge blocked off by several wooden bars. He froze in front of them, unsure of what to do. "Just squeeze past them, you idiot!" It took him a moment to realize that he actually could, but it was too late. "Human. Don't you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around and shake my hand." Jeremiah was frozen with fear until he processed the fact someone was speaking to him. Oh thank God, it's just a person, not some sort of monst..."Monster" finished Chara. Jeremiah nodded, feeling slightly embarrassed. They were both silent for a moment before Chara spoke up again. "Why aren't you running?" Jeremiah frowned and answered. "He said I was his new pal. Besides, aren't you all for trusting strangers?" Chara growled and replied. "Toriel wasn't some random creep who stalked you through the woods. She saved your life, fed and clothed you and even offered you a home."
Jeremiah cringed slightly at the reminder. "Chara, I agree with you that I was probably a bit too quick to condemn Toriel like that. Don't get me wrong, she's still a witch, but I'm starting to think she didn't murder any children. So that's why I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt, so I don't make the same mistake as I did with Toriel." Chara was silent for a moment until she eventually let out a groan. "Fine, just be careful." Jeremiah smiled and muttered out a thank you.
Almost as soon as they finished arguing, the cause of their argument spoke up. "So are you going to turn around and shake my hand? I need to SNOW because its pretty BONECHILLING out here." Jeremiah wondered to himself what needing to snow something meant, and Chara was far too busy groaning to explain the concept of a pun. But he quickly realized he was being rude to his new pal. So he turned around and held out his hand. His new pal was dressed in some strange blue robes that came with a neat little hood that covered his face in shadows. Jeremiah wished his robes had a hood like that, it would help prevent him from getting sunburnt. "It's called a hoodie," Chara explained. Jeremiah smiled, after he tells this new pal about Christ, he'll really have to ask where he could get one like that. His new pal lifted up his own hand to grasp Jeremiah's, as he did so, Jeremiah started to speak. "Hello, there friend. My name is Jeremiah, and I was wondering if you've heard the good news of our glorious Lord and Savior, Jesus…" Jeremiah was interrupted by the sound of someone passing wind. Jeremiah stood there frozen in shock for a moment, until he realized, much to his relief, it hadn't been him. He was about to ask Chara if it had been her, which would've gotten him called an idiot and promptly screamed at, but thankfully his new pal came to the rescue. "Ahh the classic whoopie cushion in the hand trick, it gets them every time." Jeremiah was about to ask his new pal what a whoopie cushion was, but he continued. "My name Sans, Sans the skeleton."
He then pulled down his hood to reveal a smiling skull. Jeremiah's heart skipped a beat and he realized something about himself he never knew before, he was deathly afraid of skeletons. At that moment, he just wanted to run away and never look back. But he stopped himself with a reminder that this "Sans," seemed friendly so far. "He literally stalked you through the woods!" Shouted Chara. Jeremiah was quick to respond. "He was probably just shy." Chara was about to argue further, but she remembered their agreement so she just sighed and said. "Just don't get yourself killed."
Despite his own assurances that the skeleton was friendly, the longer Jeremiah looked at him, the more nervous he became. Just because he is a walking, talking skeleton, doesn't mean he wants to kill me, steal my soul, and wear my skin like a flesh suit. Jeremiah thought nervously to himself. Jeremiah put on a fake smile, but it wasn't convincing in the slightest. Jeremiah tried to come up with something to say, but he kept drawing blanks. Thankfully, Sans decided to speak first. "So you're a human, right?" Jeremiah was about to say yes, but Sans continued before he could. "That's hilarious. Anyways, I'm supposed to capture any humans I see." San's grin seemed to somehow widen, and his two empty eye sockets darkened. Jeremiah's heart pounded in his chest and Chara was about to tell him to run away. But almost as soon as it started, the moment ended and Sans returned to normal. "But that's way too much work for a bag of bones like me." Jeremiah deflated with relief, but Chara didn't feel the same way. "What a jerk. Does he actually think it's funny to make a kid scared for his life? He's acting like such a human." Jeremiah ignored the human bit of what Chara said and sighed. "It's ok Chara, he was just being funny." He hoped Chara would just drop it and move on, but she was too filled with Determination, to stop. "Did you think it was funny Jeremiah?" He reluctantly admitted he didn't find it funny. "Exactly, he made you think he was going to kill you for no other reason than he thought it was funny. Face it, he's nothing but a bully." He was about to try and defend Sans, but Sans spoke up before he could. "But my brother, Papyrus, he's a human hunting fanatic." Jeremiah felt like he was going to be sick when he heard those words. "Is he a skeleton like you?" He asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "Yep. Oh, speaking of the devil, I think that's him over there." Jeremiah whirled around yet again, giving himself actual whiplash on top of emotional whiplash.
At first, he couldn't see anything besides a great white cloud out in the distance. He first turned his head to the right, then to the left, yet there were no signs of any skeletons. He was about to ask Sans if he had been teasing him when he realized the white cloud was getting closer, fast. He took a step back, wondering how there could be a storm underground. But then he finally noticed it, a figure in the middle of the storm. It was tall, lanky, and running straight towards him. Jeremiah stood there frozen in shock. "Is that..." he began to ask, but Sans answered before he could finish. "Yep, that's my bro right there. Looks like somethings got him worked up if he's kicking up that much snow." Jeremiah tried to work out the logistics on how the skeleton would be able to kick up that much snow, but he couldn't figure out any answers. Jeremiah handled the situation pretty well after that. Instead of panicking and trying to run away on his own, he just stood there, too wrapped up in his own fear to take notice of the world around him. Which was good because he didn't complain when Sans grabbed his hand and led him across the bridge. Chara complained about it, but Jeremiah was too wrapped up in his own fears to notice her, while Sans couldn't hear her.
"Quick, hide behind that conveniently placed lamp." The word "Hide," was enough to shake him out of his stupor. He then took note of the fact he was no longer standing beside a bridge and was now instead standing besides some sort of wooden structure and an oddly placed lamp. "Who puts a lamp in the middle of a forest?" Chara asked. Jeremiah couldn't bring himself to care about that, he was far too concerned about the fact Papyrus was even closer now.
His eyes darted around him, looking for somewhere to hide. He wouldn't be able to make it to the wooden station in time. "Were you even paying attention to what that creep told you?" Chara asked him, annoyance in her voice. Jeremiah couldn't find any words to answer with, which caused Chara to sigh and say. "Just hide behind that annoyingly placed lamp." Jeremiah quickly did so without question or complaint. His swiftness was rewarded by the fact he hid right before Papyrus showed up. Jeremiah could barely make out Papyrus from behind the lamp, but what he saw terrified him. He was practically a giant, if Jeremiah had to guess, Jeremiah would say he was about eight feet tall. He wore what Jeremiah could only assume to be some sort of armor that was adorned with a short red cape that billowed in the wind. His voice didn't help matters either. It was far too high pitched and he seemed to be yelling out every word he said. That wasn't mentioning his pearly white skull or the fact he had two empty holes where his eyes should've been. As he stared into those two empty holes, Jeremiah started to shake, then to softly cry.
Chara cursed and said. "Damn it, really Jeremiah?" Surprisingly, cursing at him just made him cry even more. Chara let out a groan and tried to push her anger down, she didn't want him to draw that creep's brother's attention. She couldn't quite hear what he was saying, but based on what she could make out, she had to assume this Papyrus was the captain of the royal guard and was someone to be feared. "Jeremiah, can I please talk to you for a moment?" If she still had a body she would've been cringing from how sweet she was making her voice sound. After a moment, he nodded, which Chara was genuinely thankful for. "Jeremiah, I understand that this is all scary for you, that you may feel like giving up. But you can't, you have to survive, you have to stay Determined." Jeremiah was silent for a moment before he let out a giggle. Chara was confused by this until he explained. "I could care less about dying. The skeletons just scare me." Chara began to sputter in shock, but before she could recover, they heard the sound of someone laughing and running away.
"It's alright to come out now," Sans called out. Jeremiah hesitated for a moment, before stepping out from behind the lamp "You oughta…" San's eyes seemed to somehow widen when he took note of Jeremiah's appearance. He was silent for a moment before saying. "Wow, I didn't realize my puns would bore you to TEARS." Jeremiah blinked in confusion. Chara took notice of his confusion and explained. "He can tell that you've been crying." Jeremiah blushed and told Sans. "It wasn't your jokes, It's just... your brother… he scares me." Somehow, his eye sockets seemed to widen even more, but he quickly composed himself and shrugged. "Well… that's weird." His empty eye sockets seemed to stare right into his eyes for a moment, causing Jeremiah to shiver. But almost as soon as it began, it ended. "Welp, see you up ahead. Don't get killed." San's then turned around and walked back across the bridge and towards the ruins. "Where do you think he's going Chara?" Jeremiah could feel her shrugging. "I don't know and I don't care. Did you see the way he stared at you right now?" Jeremiah nodded but frowned. "I thought we agreed to not argue about this anymore."
He could feel Chara shrugging at him. "We never agreed to that. I said you could give him the benefit of the doubt, but couldn't act stupid. By the way, you've done both fairly well so far." Jeremiah was caught off by guard by her sudden compliment and blushed. "Thanks." He muttered. He then perked up. "Oh, were you able to overhear any of their conversation?" Chara was silent for far longer then Jeremiah would've liked, but she eventually answered. "Yes. Based off what I heard, I think he's the captain of the royal guard." Jeremiah cringed and asked. "Is that bad?" Chara's answer was short and sweet. "Yep."
(AN) So merry late Christmas guys. I know this chapter is pretty short, but I was trying to release it on Christmas Day. Despite my best attempts, I thought I wasn't going to be able to realize it until after the new year. But one of my gifts, (an electronic typewriter that's connected to Bluetooth) helped me get most of this finished yesterday. I just had to do spellchecks and all that this morning. Honestly, I like the typewriter a lot, it's way better than writing on my phone, and I got a Bluetooth speaker so I can actually listen to stuff while I write, which helps me write a whole lot more. I'm sorry if I haven't updated in a while, I had another project I wanted to put a little work into and this Holliday season was real busy.
So about the stuff that happens this chapter. Being honest, I had no idea what to do with Sans and Papyrus because I think they're slightly overrated, so they're focused on a whole lot more. And one of my main goals in this story is to do stuff that hasn't done by that many fanfics. So after much brainstorming, I came up with the idea of having Jeremiah being afraid of Papyrus. I'm fairly certain this hasn't been done a whole lot before, at least I hope so. Just to make things clear, Papyrus isn't the captain of the Royal guard, Chara just misheard him. But there's plenty of more misunderstandings about Papyrus in upcoming chapters.
You guys probably know the drill by now. Please leave a review and all reviews are honestly appreciated. Even if you just want to tell me how much you hate my story, please do and tell me why. Tell me if you notice any grammar mistakes, (I just realized the other day, thoughts are supposed to be written in italics instead of quotes) because I know it will improve how I write.
I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas yesterday with you're friends and family. God bless and I hope you enjoy this chapter.