Several days had passed, and the guild had been more busy than Frisk could've ever anticipated. More supplies came in and more of the shops in New Home became sold out of various things. Jobs slowed down as monsters realized that the guild would be leaving. And, one night just before dinner, Papyrus suddenly made the announcement that the next morning, the members for the expedition would be announced.
That night, just after the dinner had finished, Frisk actually stayed up a bit later than normal, just thinking about several things. They knew if they weren't chosen, Monster Kid would be completely crushed. And, being completely honest, they would be extremely upset as well. The two had been working extremely hard ever since the Perfect Tomato incident, although part of Frisk felt like it still wouldn't be enough. They sighed, turning over in their bed and preparing to fall asleep. That is, until the random observation that they hadn't had one of those dizzy spells recently.
It took a while for them to finally fall asleep, only because their mind decided to point out several other random things. That morning, they felt extremely sluggish, more so than usual.
"alright everyone. you guys all know what time it is." Sans said after the routine morning cheers. "pap? you got the list for me?" Papyrus nodded happily, pulling a piece of paper out from...somewhere before he handed it to his brother. "thanks. anyways, let's get on with the whole thing.
"if your name is called, then stepped forwards. our first member is…..madjick." Sans announced, reading off of the paper. The magician monster looked pleasantly surprised, before floating forwards.
"Just as I had foreseen in my orbs! Tinkle tinkle hoy!" It said, sounding confident. But Frisk swore they could hear one of the other apprentices go "Wasn't he worrying about whether or not he'd be chosen?" in a whisper.
"nice. next up is….tsunderplane." Sans continued. The plane monster just flipped her hair (That she had somehow?) as she flew forwards and next to Madjick. "after her is…..well, ain't this a surprise? our next member is snowdrake!"
"W-W-What?! M-Me?!" Snowdrake asked, his feathers puffing out considerably and even making the air in the room several degrees lower. "D-Dude, you can't be serious, m-me chosen?!"
"uh….you gonna be okay, kid?" Sans asked, possibly raising his eyebrow if he had any. "c'mon, just step up." However, the ice-type monster just stayed still, shaking slightly. He seemed completely paralyzed by shock. "uh….alright, anyways. next members are….whimsun and shyren." The two monsters exchanged a surprised glance, before floating forwards as well. "and, looks like that's it! those are all the members for the expedition."
Frisk felt their shoulders slump slightly, while they heard Monster Kid groan slightly behind them. Even after all of that, nothing. Papyrus must've been extremely angry with them even after-
"er...wait, what?" Sans suddenly said, squinting slightly. "shoot, looks like there's more members…." Secretly, the skeleton didn't want to admit he hadn't seen it before. Papyrus had….eccentric handwriting and sometimes, it was rather messy. He tried his best, however, to decipher what it said. "looks like froggit, parsnik, vegetoid…..oh, and team determination are all coming as well. and that should….wait a second!"
"SOMETHING WRONG SANS?" Papyrus asked, tilting his head slightly.
"yeah, major problem. pap, this seems to be literally everyone in the guild." Sans pointed out. "if we go like this, then we'd be leaving the place empty. are you sure about this?"
"ABSOLUTELY!" Papyrus replied, grinning and placing his hands on his hips. "THE THOUGHT OCCURRED TO ME LAST NIGHT, AND I COULDN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT. WE'D BE LOUD, NOISY, AND HAVING A LOT OF FUN! I COULDN'T EVEN SLEEP!" He stepped forwards, causing Sans to step back slightly. "ALRIGHT EVERYONE, YOU HEAR THAT? WE'RE ALL GOING ON THE EXPEDITION TOGETHER! AND WE'LL BE DOING SO IN TEAMS!"
"uh….yeah." Sans said, rubbing the back of his head. "so let's see….we're going to be heading out to this place known as hotlands."
"Hotlands?" Monster Kid repeated. Sans nodded, instructing everyone to open their wonder maps.
"hotlands is this place to the east. people say that there's a magma lake in that area, but no one knows for sure since the area around it is completely covered in this overwhelming fog." Sans explained. "rumors also say that there's a really big treasure somewhere in the lake as well. which is exactly why we're going. but since it's real far away, we'll be splitting up into teams."
"I HAVE THE LIST HERE! LET'S SEE!" Papyrus pulled another piece of paper. "LET'S SEE….OUR FIRST TEAM IS VEGETOID, MADJICK, AND WHIMSUN! THEN, WE HAVE PARSNIK, SHYREN, AND FROGGIT IN THEIR OWN TEAM. FINALLY, SNOWDRAKE, TSUNDERPLANE, AND TEAM DETERMINATION WILL TRAVEL TOGETHER."
"guessing this means you and me are gonna be team if that's the case." Sans continued, glancing over to his brother. "i would say we'll have a cool time, but we are going to hotlands after all."
And cue the groan from Papyrus.
"anyways. team skull is also gonna go on their own. we'll all meet up in the desert just outside hotlands." Sans said. "so. you guys all get ready. then come to me, i'll tell you what route you're gonna be taking. let's all try to get to the base camp in like….couple days times. dismissed for now, i guess." With that, both him and Papyrus both went straight to the back room, while Team Skull turned and walked out immediately. The rest of the apprentices instead met up with their respective travel party members.
"Yo, I'm so excited! I didn't think we'd actually be chosen! Any of us!" Monster Kid said, practically bouncing with excitement. "I'm really happy to be working with you two!"
"Just as long as you don't get in my way!" Tsunderplane shot back, rather irritably. "Besides, it'll probably be way too hard for inexperienced explorers like you three. You might as well just keep away from me!"
"Sheesh. No need to be that cold with us." Snowdrake said, earning a rather well hid snort from Frisk. "Anyways. You guys meet us at the crossroads just outside of New Home! I can go get our route from Sans if you need me to!" Tsunderplane just gave a small huff as she somehow managed to flip her hair….which she also managed to have despite being an airplane.
"Hmph. I guess so. See you idiots all there." She said sharply, before she flew away.
"I guess we'll be going too then. See you then, Snowdrake!" Monster Kid said, trying to give him a reassuring smile. "C'mon Frisk, let's go! We'd better go get some supplies!" Frisk nodded, and the two both ran off, while Snowdrake waved after them.
Time for a new adventure.