Emblemtale: The Ancients- Chapter 5: Recon
(Sorry for the late post, procrastination hit me hard today...)
Frisk's group soon found themselves in a small town along the coast of Zephina, they decided to stop off to see if they could gather any information on the Cult, or if anyone had run-ins with the Praetorites.
They decided to split up in order to gather information; Frisk, Llain, and Undyne were one group, and Asriel, Sans, Papyrus and Alphys were the other one, with Grillby staying behind to keep an eye on their wagon and the supplies, Frisk's group decided to search the North District, while Asriel's searched the South.
In the North District, Frisk's group stopped at a square to examine a map of the town "Alright, here in this district, there are three points of interest, I'd say" Llain spoke without looking up from the map "We've got; a Blacksmith, a Tailor, and a Tavern, who should go where?" he rolled the map back up and placed it in his pack, waiting for the others to reply.
"I'll head to the Smithy!" Undyne declared, pointing her thumb in the direction of the forge "I know the old bastard who runs the thing, I should be able to get some info outta him, what about you guys?"
"I think it'd be best if I went to the tavern" Llain decided, gesturing towards the aforementioned building "Sure, I won't blend in much, but I can keep a level head, and I doubt they'd let a child in" he then turned to Frisk "We'll leave the tailor to you, think you can handle that?" She nodded with a big smile on her face "Alright, if they aren't forthcoming with information, try giving them the puppy eyes, might work."
With that, the three split off and went to the different shops, Undyne made her way into the forge and was immediately overwhelmed by the heat of the forge "Man, he keeps this place as hot as ever..." she walked up to the desk and rang the bell that sat there.
"Jus' gimme a minute, I'm almost finished back here!" A raspy, but familiar, voice called out to her "This dern hilt just won't. Sit. Straight!" every word toward the end of his sentence was punctuated with a blow of the hammer, Undyne soon heard grumbling from the back and the owner made his way to the front, he exited from the back of the shop and was revealed to be an old-tortoise like Monster "So, Whaddya want done? Armor? Weapons? I can getcha almost anything! Even tea!"
When he finally saw who was standing there, he was momentarily in shock "Hey, Gerson!, how the hell are you!?" Undyne yelled, she quickly grabbed the turtle and pulled him into a hug "Haven't had much time to come visit, sorry about that!"
"It's alright, Undyne..." Gerson gasped, trying his best not to be split in half by the hug "I know bein' captain of the guard don't leave much time for leisure!" she finally let him go and set him on the ground "So, what brings you 'round to these parts? King Fluffybuns finally let the guards have a night off?" as he talked, he gestured for Undyne to follow him to a side room, which was revealed to be a kitchen "Sit down, I'll make some tea."
"Thanks, Gerson, but that's not really necessary" Undyne said, sitting down at a nearby table while trying to stop him –but the old turtle busied himself with brewing tea that he didn't notice "Anyway, I didn't come by to catch up, I had some questions for you."
"Oh, The captain of the guard has questions for a humble blacksmith like me?" Gerson joked, setting a kettle over a burning fire "Well go on, ask away, I'll help if I can" he sat at the table across from her and waited for her to continue.
"Well, It's kind of a...strange story" Undyne began, almost about to recount the whole event before deciding against it "Uh, Anyway, that's not important- Right now, I need to ask you, have you seen anyone weird around town recently?"
"Weird?, I think you're on the wrong side of this continent if you want to see 'Normal', Wah ha ha!" Gerson laughed, getting up from the table as the kettle began to whistle "Anywho, I haven't really seen anything outta the ordinary here, though you might wanna head up north a bit, I hear there's been somethin' prowlin' around the mountains at night, could be what your looking for."
"Mountains up north, got it!" Undyne confirmed, getting up from the table "Thanks Gerson, but I gotta run!" Before she could move, Gerson was back at the table with the tea.
"You ain't gotta rush" he said, setting the two teacups down on the table "It's been so long since I've seen you, let's take a moment to catch up" He sat down and took a sip from the teacup, laughing off the pain from the heat "I'm dyin' to know what's been goin' on since I retired! How have you been gettin' on? Especially with that friend of yours, Alphys!"
"It's...complicated with Alphys..." Undyne admitted, finding that Gerson was one of the people she could truly let her guard down around, she sat back at the table and rested her head in her hand "She showed up again after months...and she didn't even say anything to anyone before she left..."
Undyne began talking at length about her problems with Alphys' sudden reappearance, and Gerson had found himself silently wishing that he hadn't brought up the subject, especially as Undyne's rant became more and more passionate, but he held his tongue and silently sipped his tea, letting her tirade continue...
Back outside, Frisk found herself mesmerized by the suits and dresses outside of the tailor shop, having spent most of her life in a small village, she was unused to this kind of beauty –as she looked on there was a laugh from the doorway and a voice spoke up "Y'know, if you keep standing there with your mouth open like that, you'll catch flies."
Frisk jumped slightly and looked at the source of the voice, it was a tall female rabbit monster, Frisk took a moment to catch her breath before replying "Um, I'm sorry, but is it okay if I ask some questions?"
"I'd be happy to help you any way I can, darlin', what do you need?" The woman asked, giving Frisk a warm and reassuring smile "Besides, it's a slow day, I think I can afford to let someone bend my ear for a bit."
"Thank you! I promise I'll be quick!" Frisk said, trying to keep her eyes off of the clothing in the shop windows "Well, My friends and I came here looking for some information, would you happen to know if anyone suspicious has been walking around?"
The woman took a moment to think, closing her eyes and resting her hand on her chin "Hmm...can't say that I have, darlin', but you'd be better off asking at the tavern –There's people from all over down there, they must've heard something."
"Oh...a friend of mine already went there" Frisk informed her, looking off at the tavern in the distance "But he said they wouldn't let me in there because of how young I am..." she turned away from the tavern and looked back at the tailor.
"Well, I can't in good conscience let a girl like you wait around all by herself" The tailor spoke, she them pointed inside the shop "Wanna wait inside? Heck, I might even let you try some of the stuff on, you'd be the first customer of the day!"
"A-Actually, if it's not too much trouble..." Frisk began, pulling off her knapsack and rummaging through it, she finally found what she was looking for and pulled the dress Grillby had given her out of it "Could you change this a bit?"
"Some alterations, eh?" The tailor asked, looking at the dress in Frisk's hands "Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard, and it'll be on the house, whaddya say?" Frisk happily nodded at the woman and followed her inside the shop...
Meanwhile, at the Tavern, Llain truly felt out of his element, monsters of all shapes and sizes walked around the bar, giving him glances every once in a while –some threatening, some scared "Well...I've had worse welcomes, all things considered..."
Keeping his head down, he made his way to the front of the bar and sat down at an available stool, still feeling the glares of the people around him burning into the back of his head, as he mentally prepared himself, the barman approached "Can I get you anything, friend?"
"...Yes, Just some ale" Llain ordered, looking down the bar and seeing more hostile faces looking towards him, as he waited for his drink, one hulking monster approached him "By the gods, here we go..."
"What's a human doing this far into the Kingdom of Monsters, huh?" the monster asked, towering over Llain, who did his best not to seem intimidated "You spyin' on us for your king, or something?"
"Well, I'd make a bloody horrible spy, if I'm being honest" Llain replied, placing some gold coins on the bar as the barkeep brought his drink "What with announcing my presence to the enemy and all" he tried to raise the tankard to his mouth, but the giant grabbed his wrist and slammed his hand back onto the counter top –causing ale to spill everywhere.
"I just assumed every human was stupid enough to give himself away..." The giant taunted, giving Llain a malicious smile, flashing his yellow teeth "Now, I'm only gonna say this once, human, get back across the border, before I throw you across."
"I'm not looking for trouble, mate, just answers" Llain replied, keeping his calm as best his could, the giant still had his hand on Llain's wrist and kept tightening his grip –causing pained grunts to escape from Llain.
"Sorry, friend, am I hurting you?" The giant asked, feigning concern, his smile soon fading to an angry scowl "I lost a lotta good friends to you humans, and I'll be damned if I let one prance through my home without any consequences!"
"I won't -Agh!- make any excuses for the war!" Llain responded, talking through gritted teeth "And I can't say that I'm innocent either..." he let go of the mug and tried to free his other hand from the monster's grasp, but to no avail "But I need information, or else both kingdoms are in danger!"
"I don't give a fig what happens to the humans!" The monster roared, lifting Llain off of his feet with one hand "And I don't see any danger to us monsters, so I say you take your lies and shove 'em!"
"Fine then...we'll do it your way..." Llain muttered, grabbing the tankard from the bar and throwing the contents onto the giants face, causing him to stagger and drop him, Llain then took the empty tankard and threw it at his opponents face, sending him reeling "I've been in my fair share of tavern brawls, mate, I think I can handle you!" soon, the whole bar erupted into chaos as multiple participants tried to take down Llain...
Meanwhile, in the south district, Asriel's group had not fared much better "*Sigh *...We've been here for nearly the entire day, and we still haven't found a lead..." Asriel sighed, sitting with his head in his hands at a fountain.
"D-Don't worry, Asriel, I'm sure Sans and Papyrus have found something" Alphys reassured, trying to sound positive, even though she herself was having doubts "I mean, they've been gone quite a while, so maybe that means they found a lead!"
As if on cue, the two skeleton brothers returned to the group, but this time with a young, armless monster accompanying them "Greetings, Alphys and clone!" Papyrus greeted, confusing both Alphys and Asriel "Sans and I have found someone who claims to have witnessed these monsters in action!"
"yeah, kid, tell them what you told us..." Sans added, patting the child on the back and pushing him towards Asriel "go on, what 'arm' could it do?" the young monster looked back at Sans and Papyrus before taking a deep breath and speaking.
"I saw this weird rock thing walking around the forest last night!" He informed them, trying to keep his voice from shaking "I was out playing with my sister like usual, and when I tried to find her to bring her home, I heard her scream!" he paused for a moment and a brief look of shame crossed his face "I-I ran over to see what the problem was, and I saw that rock thing walking right toward her! I stepped in front of her and yelled at him to stop, but he wouldn't! We woulda gotten crushed if she hadn't pulled me out of the way!"
"That was very noble of you, standing up to a daunting enemy like that" Asriel complimented, kneeling down and putting his hand on the young monsters shoulder "Now, can you lead us to where you saw this monster?, we have to find it before anyone gets hurt..."
"Yeah, I can show you where it is!" The kid said, courage and determination returning to his face "But you have to take me with you when you leave town, I saw your carriage and I know you're traveling around looking for these things, I wanna help!"
"Th-That might not be the best idea..." Alphys interjected, approaching the group "This journey isn't one a child should be on..." even after hearing her words, the young monster was not swayed.
"But you guys already have a kid traveling with you!" He pointed out, taking a step forward "And besides, I can fight!, I've been learning how to use an axe!"
"buddy, the kid we got with us is a...special case, to put it mildly" Sans gently spoke, trying not to anger the kid anymore and lose their only lead "tell ya what, you take us to where you saw that rock guy, and we'll consider you for our group, alright?"
"Better than nothing, I guess!" The kid cheered, his face brightening up again "Come on, it's just outside of town, on the east side!" as he ran off, the others took time to deliberate.
"Papyrus, c-could you tell the others where we're headed?" Alphys asked, making sure she had everything prepared in her pack "If there truly is a Praetorite here, we'll need all the help we can get taking it down."
"Do not worry, Alphys!" Papyrus responded, saluting her proudly "For I, The Great Soldier Papyrus, am also a master at delivering messages!" without another word, he was off unaware of quickly spreading news of a large-scale battle breaking out a tavern in the North district of town...
The End!
A.N: Again, sorry for the late post, I just couldn't stop procrastinating...anyway, I have a question, when it comes to the support conversations, do you guys care how often I do them? My original plan was to do them every 2 or 3 chapters (Unless there's action going on currently), do you like this idea, or should I do it more randomly? If you have any opinions about them at all, feel free to tell me, enjoy!