Jeremiah kicked and thrashed in the water, desperately trying to keep his head above the water. Chara was yelling at him to calm down, but he couldn't hear her past his own screams for God to help him. Every few seconds, his head would dip under the ice-cold water and some of the water would rush past his screaming lips. Every time he kicked himself back up to the surface, he could see Papyrus standing at the shoreline, doing nothing but staring at him and smiling.
He struggled like this for a few minutes, but he eventually became exhausted and his movements became slower. So he started to sink under the water despite his pathetic attempts to kick himself back up to the surface.
He was slowly being engulfed by darkness as his lungs started to burn. Chara was yelling something about her plans getting someone else killed and attempting to apologize to him. But he wasn't paying attention, he was too focused on two things, the fact that drowning was literally the last way he expected to die, (ok, being killed by a talking flower was the last way, but that was obviously just a vision) and the fact he was about to leave this mortal coil. It'll be nice to meet Chara face to face, she should be in heaven, right? It was at that moment he realized he had never even asked Chara if she was saved, which made him feel like an absolute failure. If he wasn't drowning, he would be laughing. I couldn't even save the girl forced to listen to everything I say. He closed his eyes, trying to prepare himself for what was to come next. He wasn't prepared for the water surrounding him to seemingly vanish in an instant.
Jeremiah immediately began coughing our water. "Oh thank God you're alright!" Jeremiah just dimly registered Chara's words, but he understood what she said enough to be thankful for her concern and to decide that if she was thanking God, she obviously had to be saved. But that didn't explain how he was alright, he certainly wasn't in heaven, that much was for sure. Well, there's only one way to find out how. He thought to himself. He opened his eyes and was surprised to see he was on a boat. Not only that, someone else was in the boat with him. Well… at least he thought it was a someone. "They're the river person." Chara supplied.
Jeremiah stared at the billowing purple cloak that seemed to have no one inside it. The darkness where there should've been a face seemed to stare back at him. "Tra la la, don't be afraid. I found you in the water, are you a fish?" Jeremiah was thrown off by the sudden and odd question. Not only was the question odd, but their voice was odd as well. Their voice was light and airy, almost sounding like it was singing every word they said. He couldn't even tell if the voice belonged to a man or a woman, let alone if they sounded like a child or someone ancient. But once he got over his initial surprise, he gave them his answer which was a simple no. The river person seemed amused by his answer. "Then why were you in the water, wasn't it made for fish, and land for things that aren't fish?"
Jeremiah blinked in confusion at the river person's second question. Chara just let out a groan. "Just ignore them, the river person says and does weird stuff like this all the time." Before Jeremiah could come up with a reply to either of them, the river person laughed and said. "Don't call things you don't understand weird, fallen child." Chara's reaction was swift. "Wait, can you hear me?" Her voice was a mixture of excitement and confusion. Something about the River Person's posture gave him the idea that they were just going to ignore Chara's question. But before his guess could be put to the test, the boat suddenly jerked to a stop.
Jeremiah looked up and saw that they were in a small room, he could see Sans sitting behind one of those wooden structures, Monster Kid, and some weird red monster standing in the corner. "It appears we're at your stop. I would get off now if I was you... or maybe I wouldn't. I'm not you so I don't know what I would do if I was you." He had plenty of questions for the River Person, but he decided it would be for the best if he just left now before he could get a headache.
He stepped off the boat and onto the purple grass. He stood there for a moment, feeling slightly embarrassed by the way everyone turned to look at him. Everyone stared at him for a moment before going back to minding their own business. Jeremiah felt no small amount of relief due to no longer being the center of attention. Jeremiah wasn't sure if being so close to Sans was a good idea, but Chara made sure he knew she thought it was a horrible one. So out of a desire to stop her complaining, he went to walk out of the room without speaking to anyone. But before he could, he realized he hadn't thanked the river person for helping him. He turned around to thank them, but where there was once a boat there was now only a waterfall. Jeremiah gawked at the sight. "How…" Jeremiah began to ask in complete and utter bafflement. "Jeremiah, don't question anything the river person does, the answer will probably just be even more confusing," Chara answered before he could finish. Jeremiah didn't want to take that advice, but he didn't see any other options. So with a sigh, he walked away.
Jeremiah let out a sigh of relief once he reached the other side of the waterfall. "I told you it would be alright." Jeremiah felt like pointing out the fact the waterfall was right by a cliff, and there had been falling rocks that had almost knocked him off said cliff multiple times, but he was finally starting to realize arguing with Chara was like debating a wall. "Ahh thanks, Jeremy, I feel the same way about you." Unfortunately, Jeremiah fell for that, hook, line, and sinker. "My name isn't Jeremy, its..." He stopped when Chara started to snicker. His only response was to grit his teeth and continue onwards.
Soon enough they came to what Jeremiah could only describe as slightly mind-boggling. The purple grass ahead was at least double the height of him. Having spent his entire life up to this point in a desert, grass this tall (let alone grass that was the color purple) was something he never thought was possible. It was such a sight, it made him forget his anger for a moment. "Chara... how did this grass get so tall?" Chara's reply was quick and almost instantly crushed any semblance of joy the sight brought him. "Magic."
The only emotion the sight gave him now was disdain. Earlier, when he was in the forest, he didn't know what to think of such benign uses of magic, but now after near-drowning to death thanks to that skeleton looking to capture him for some occult ritual that involved his soul, he knew what he thought of it. "Chara, you lived down here before, tell me, how many of their own kind have they sacrificed for magic like this?" Needless to say, Chara had no idea how to even begin answering that question, but thankfully she noticed something that gave her an out. "Jeremiah, hide in that grass, I think I see Papyrus!" As soon as she said that name all of his anger evaporated and he dived into the grass.
"Where is he?" Jeremiah asked Chara in a panic.
"He's up on the ridge above us. It looks like he's talking with some guy in armor." Jeremiah strained his ears to try and hear what they were talking about, but it was no use. "What do you think they're talking about?" Jeremiah asked. "He's probably threatening whoever it is." Jeremiah frowned and felt no small amount of pity for whatever poor soul was stuck up there with him.
Jeremiah waited in the grass for a few minutes until Chara said the coast was clear. He slowly walked out of the grass, nervous about Papyrus lurking around some dark corner. As he walked out of the grass, someone else did as well. It was Monster Kid, he seemed to be excited, at least until he noticed Jeremiah. But he hid his disappointment quickly enough. "Yo, did you see Undyne right now? She was totally telling that Papyrus dude what to do! So she's definitely in charge of the royal guard, not him."
Well, that explains why they were talking to each other. "Hey Chara, do you think he was threatening this Undyne person?" Chara's reply was swift. "Of course. He's probably told her he would kill someone she cares about if she doesn't kill you!" Jeremiah nodded before realizing a flaw in her idea. "But didn't he want to kill me himself?" Chara seemed to have an answer ready as if she had planned this all out in her head beforehand. "He did, but that freak probably thinks it's more amusing to have this apparent defender of the innocent murder an innocent." Jeremiah nodded like what she said made sense. As he did so, he realized he had just been staring blankly at monster kid, who looked pretty uncomfortable. Hoping to save face, he answered his crippled reptilian friend. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but I think you've gotten it mixed it up. Papyrus was obviously threatening Undyne." Monster kid just stared at him for a moment before sighing and walking away.
Jeremiah walked into the next room and saw his path was blocked by a small body of water. He looked around him, looking for any way to cross. Chara began to explain what to do almost instinctively. "This is a bridge seed puzzle, it's pretty easy. Just do what I tell you…"
"I'm done!" Jeremiah exclaimed excitedly. It was at that moment Chara noticed that he had in fact completed the puzzle. "But how? I never told you what to do." Jeremiah couldn't help but smirk as he pointed at the plaque. "It said how the puzzle worked right there, it was honestly pretty easy once I figured that out." Chara was silent for a moment before letting out a humph. "Well then, if you don't need my help I'll let you do the rest of these bridge puzzles yourself." Jeremiah smirk remained on his face as he crossed the bridge. But that smirk quickly vanished when a monster popped out of seemingly nowhere.
It was a strange creature that had the upper half of a horse, while the lower half was covered in scales and looked like a fishtail. That wasn't mentioning the fact it had two extremely muscular human arms. "Do you lift brah?" Jeremiah blinked in surprise at the question. "What?" The creature began to flex and... dozens of miniature muscular arms began to rain down towards him. "What?" He asked again, but much louder this time. "That's Aaron! Those little arms are magic, they'll hurt you if you touch them!" Jeremiah took note of only two things she said. The first being the name of the monster in front of him, Aaron. Aaron was the name of the brother of Moses, who was also the first priest of Israel. The second thing he took note of was the fact that Aaron was disgracing the name of their predecessor by using witchcraft. Of course, because he was too consumed by the idea he was degrading the name of a great man, he didn't think to dodge any attacks.
Pain flared through him when one of the arms hit him on the head, causing him to scream and fall to the ground. As he lay on the ground, even more arms hit him. Yet despite how bad the pain felt, he could tell the pain wasn't in his body, it felt like it was hurting his very soul. This made sense, it was witchcraft and apparently, these savages were interested in souls. "Are you ok?" Chara asked, her voice laced with concern. As she asked the question the pain seemed to dull. He slowly pulled himself off the ground. "Yes, I'm ok." He glared at the smirking fish horse guy (he refused to call him by his name until he earned it). "Why glare when you can flex (;" Chara was silent for a moment before asking. "How... did he just say parenthesis semicolon? What is that even supposed to... never mind." Jeremiah shared in her confusion, but the fact even more magic arms were falling down towards him distracted him from thinking about answers.
He did better this time, mainly because he actually tried dodging. He only got hit three times this go around. But unlike last time, when one hit was enough to send him to the ground, he didn't fall this time, he was too Determined. Once the attack stopped, he glared at his attacker once more. "Listen here, you need to stop this... save yourself from hellfire." His attacker's only response was, "Wut?" Followed by even more attacks. As he dodged the attacks, Chara spoke up. "I don't think just glaring at him is going to stop him. Why don't you try flexing instead, that made the Aaron's back in my day pretty happy." Jeremiah shook his head, his anger slowly reaching a boiling point as he got hit again. "I refuse to play along with this prideful fool's game. I'll teach him why witchcraft is a sin."
For whatever reason Chara seemed to become worried by this statement. "Jeremiah, what are you planning to do?" Jeremiah let out a chuckle and said. "To teach this fool a lesson." Chara grew silent after this, but he could tell she was worried about something. When the attack finally ended, Jeremiah reached into his knapsack and pulled out his bible. He flipped through the pages and smirked when he found it. "Leviticus chapter twenty, verse six, says 'If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.' There are many other verses like this, all condemning your magic. If you don't stop using it, you will be sent to the lake of eternal fire! So repent!"
Jeremiah took a large gulp of air as he finished. For whatever reason, Chara seemed to be feeling relieved. Aaron just stared at him for a moment before saying, "Ok." And leaving the room. The pair was quiet for a moment until Chara said. "You... win? I think he left some gold on the ground." Jeremiah noticed a small pile of gold coins sitting on the ground. "Did he leave this here on accident?" Chara told him that it wasn't an accident and that monsters usually leave gold after a fight. Jeremiah shrugged and picked up the gold and counted it, there were ten gold coins in total.
Jeremiah sighed. "At least he left..." Jeremiah was interrupted by his own sudden and violent coughing. He instinctively raised his sleeve up to his mouth as he coughed. After a minute of violent hacking, it finally passed. He let out a sigh of relief as he pulled his arm away. "Oh my God, are you alright?" Jeremiah was about to tell her not to take the Lord's name in vain, but he took note of her question. "What do you mean?" He could tell that question angered and baffled her. "What do I mean? You just coughed up blood!" Jeremiah blinked and looked down at the sleeve, the green and yellow were now replaced by red. "Oh, that's normal."
After a whole lot of screaming on Chara's part about how coughing up blood isn't normal, Jeremiah was finally able to explain that was just a side effect of the blight. That seemed to calm her down, albeit only slightly. "Well even if that's normal, I still want you to rest." Jeremiah raised an eyebrow. "Where am I supposed to do that? I don't care about sitting on the ground, but I rather not have Papyrus murdering me in my sleep." Chara was silent for a moment before answering. "I know a spot."
Chara had told him to put the bridge seeds towards the bottom of the room. The seeds sprouted and made another small bridge. He walked down said bridge and found a small room just like Chara described. Inside the room were a bench and a blue flower. As he made his way towards the bench, a voice appeared from seemingly nowhere. "I just couldn't handle the responsibility." Jeremiah looked around the room in a panic, searching for the source. But the only other thing in the room beside him or the bench was the flower. He took a slow step back. "Chara... is that Flowey? I know he wasn't blue but..." He was interrupted by her bursting into laughter. "That's just an echo flower. It repeats whatever the last thing it heard." Jeremiah stared at the Flower in disbelief. "You're lying." He said aloud, hoping to prove her wrong. "You're lying." The flower repeated. Chara snickered at him, but he couldn't help but have a big dumb smile plastered on his face.
After spending a few minutes telling the flower different things, Chara asked something. "What do you think they meant about not being able to handle the responsibility?" Jeremiah hummed in thought for a moment before replying. "I don't know." Chara was silent for a moment until she said. "I think I see something underneath the bench." Jeremiah turned around and lo and behold, Chara was right, there was something underneath the bench.
Jeremiah got on his knees and pulled out whatever was underneath the bench. It looked like a completed version of the pie Toriel had baked him. "Looks like you found the abandoned quiche." He knew Chara was saying it in jest, (although he had no idea what a quiche was and how Chara knew it was one) but something about the fact someone had so carelessly left this poor and innocent quiche in the middle of nowhere, in a place anything could find and kill it, made him feel horrible. He could tell Chara was feeling the same emotion as him, even though he had no idea why a bloody pastry of all things was making them both so emotional.
Eventually, he couldn't take the guilt and opened his knapsack up and stuffed the quiche into it. This action gave the pair some relief, but as he laid down on the bench to sleep, he couldn't help but think how much of a cowardly savage that quiche's parents had to be. To leave him in the wilderness to die, just because he was born the wrong way.
Sans sighed as he walked into one of the many rooms in waterfall. "I did what you asked. You gonna keep up the end of your bargain?" The other person in the room just stared at him, at least Sans thought they were staring at him, with this weirdo it was always hard to tell. "You let the child almost drown to death." Their voice was blank but held a hint of irritation. Sans just shrugged and responded. "Hey, I was pretty dog-tired after tricking the royal guard and the entire population of Snowdin into leaving the kid alone. Besides, I figured water is your territory, so I knew you'd save the kid." The River Person was quiet for a moment before letting out a humph. "Fair enough. Your debt to Grilby is now a thing of the past." They were both quiet for a moment before the river person added. "Well, I have to get back to watching a human in the water and a fallen child. Tra la la, don't forget slothfulness is a vice." With that, their boat sprouted legs and began to run along the river, leaving Sans in the room alone.
(AN) So... It looks like Jeremiah might have a slight abandonment problem. Anyways, I have some stuff planned for the River Person that I'm not sure if it's really cool, insane, or just really dumb, hopefully, it's just one of the first two. I tried to plant a hint that's honestly really obscure, that's more than likely is just going to be completely overlooked unless one is looking for it. Also, I actually made an outline! Yes, this story so far was mostly just me winging it with a few vague ideas of what I wanted to happen in the story. But now I have an actual, admittedly very vague outline. Although I've slightly broken it already by combining two chapters into this one, but that doesn't matter. The total amount of chapters is going to be around twenty-eight, including the ones I've already done, so we're looking at around twenty more chapters. But chapters may be combined like this one was, or maybe split into two, we'll have to see. The next chapter will feature the mandatory Gaster Cameo, pretty sure there's a fine if you don't include him. But despite me thinking he's an overrated character like Sans, (yes, I know that saying Sans is overrated will get you lynched by the fandom) I think I have a pretty unique idea on how to handle him.
A little tidbit about this chapter, it's actually my first draft. I usually make three drafts, the second one being just me remaking scenes I didn't like, and the third being a mesh of different parts I liked from both drafts and spell checking. But I really liked the way this chapter turned out, so I just went ahead and mildly changed some scenes and fixed some spelling mistakes. Hopefully, this wasn't a horrible mistake.
Also in IRL news, next month should be my last month on Accutane! Thank God, I don't have to worry about chapped lips and the occasional bout of depression anymore!
I hope you enjoyed this story so far, if you did, please leave a review. (Thank you to the guest who left me a review, I really appreciate it and I hope that I can finish this story.) But even if you hate this story, please leave a review and tell me why. Criticism, no matter how harsh, can only help improve someone. Also, I just love seeing what people think about my work. Have a wonderful day, and God bless.