CHAPTER SEVEN: WARRIORS AND ADVENTURERS

This chapter is going to have mixed feelings in here. Angst and fluff mostly.

Shamir: That poison was strong, looks like I won't be able to fight - yet.

Me: You'll be watching over someone until you'll be back in full fighting force.

Shamir: That I will do, it is one of the things I'm good at.

Me: ...You're good with a lot of things, pal.

Shamir: *sweatdrops* ...If you think so.

Let's get this thing...rolling?


[New Home]

Two days passed since Shamir voiced his intention of training Undyne, and the former was getting better with each day, enough to fight a good while before panting with complete exhaustion. He wasn't, however, in full fighting force - much to his dismay - while his colleagues noticed the rather scornful look on the jaguar's face as if he was forced to retreat from a training battle fifteen minutes after. He didn't want to be so weak, so vulnerable, not when he had to raise someone to his own level of efficiency to work alongside him.

Even Toriel thought he was overdemanding of himself. He just aimed to be better, to be faster, to be stronger, to train each day just so he's never caught off-guard - but as his mother, she was concerned of the son she's been raising since Asriel and Chara's deaths. She remembered the day when she found the small jaguar cub at the castle's doors, enveloped in a faded yellow blanket, and a small note on said blanket that said, ["Please, take good care of me."]

[Music - Heartache (Music Box Version)]

'He was so small...' Toriel was musing as she stood in her reading chair, her gaze transfixed towards the small fireplace. 'After my children's deaths, his apparel was a small blessing to us. Who wanted to abandon such a sweet cub?'

["Look at him, Gorey. His small, button nose is so adorable!" Toriel said as she gently booped the jaguar cub's nose, while he left out a somewhat loud mewing sound.

"Yes, and his voice is strong from now," Asgore laughed, "he will be a great commander one day."

"How should we name him? The note had no name for this little one." Toriel said, motherly concern in her eyes.

"I'm pretty bad at names, you know that, Tori." Asgore excused himself sheepishly.

"I remember I have read a curious book of fables, one of them was very captivating, dare I say. That tale gave one of the characters an interesting name in there...what was it?" Toriel mused as she tried to remember the name, a thoughtful look on her face.

"I hope he will share your interest in books, Tori." Asgore said as he was playing with the small jaguar, whose azure eyes were fixed on one of the king's large paws.

"Yes, I remember the name! It was Shamir, and ...I think the author left a note in that book where he said it means "guardian" in Hebrew."

"The name is really interesting, Tori. And I think it fits the little one just right!" Asgore said as he pat the now-yawning cub's head.]

'And look at him now, doing his best to protect the Underground. The name I gave him was really fitting...' Toriel's gaze lifted away from the fireplace, and then she gently rose from the chair, heading for the kitchen. 'I'll prepare him some butterscotch-cinnamon pie...' she thought as a smile graced her snout, while Asgore was watching her in the distance, his mind on the same memory as her. He too, was concerned about Shamir's well-being, even though the two Boss Monsters struggled with trying to make the jaguar captain feel less awkward when they sat together for a meal.

What they didn't know was that Shamir was enjoying the time he spent with them, despite the moments of embarassment between himself and his adoptive parents. They were there, guiding his first steps, guiding his life towards a better path for himself and for the others. It wasn't really a surprise when Shamir himself decided to be the leading force of the Royal Guard when he reached the age of maturity - while Asgore wasn't completely sure if he would really form the Guard, the jaguar monster was up and about being the leader and making sure only the ones proving their worth will join.

[Music Stop]


[Royal Guards' Training Grounds]

Shamir looked from the sidelines, his arms folded as he was getting ready to start Parvos' spar with Undyne. While Parvos' power wasn't neglijable, he was but a beginner in sparring - and more than a perfect enemy to begin Undyne's training with. Undyne wasn't really pleased with having to learn the basics of sparring, but she knew Shamir wanted only to raise her at his own level, he was looking at her like his own daughter - as the fish monster so coyly suggested.

Parvos was still mad at the teen monster before him, and his eyes were slitted with rage. He wasn't going to let the brat just go away unscathed from this fight - it was almost as if Parvos erased from his mind the idea it was just a practice spar. And Shamir didn't notice anything, because Parvos was good enough at masking his rage, when he wanted to do so. He got out his dual daggers, made out of silver, with brown leather handles and stood in a ready-to-fight position, while Undyne summoned a spear and slitted her eyes at her opponent, waiting for Shamir's signal.

Just then, Sans and Alphys went down to watch Undyne's training from a tribune Shamir himself arranged for any monster interested in seeing the Guards in action. Alphys' glasses were shining white, while underneath, her eyes were betraying excitement in seeing her sister training, and Sans knew there won't be any Shamir vs Undyne fight, because his pal was still recovering from that sound poisoning - the cure may have worked, but after-effects would be gone in six days at least.

"I place my bet on Undyne. She's going to kick Parvos' tail easily." Alphys said as she sat down, eating some instant noodles.

"i bet something else will happen." Sans said as he sat next to his girlfriend, eating a bit of her noodles as well.

"Let's just wait and see what will go down." Alphys said, looking at the two monsters that were still in position.

"too bad shamir's still recovering. that would've been badass to see." Sans chuckled.

On the field, Shamir raised one of his paws, and looked briefly at the two monsters, saying "Before we start, you have to remember this is just for practice. The only thing you have to do to win, is to knock down your opponent." and then let down his paw, signaling the start of the fight and then folded back his arms, watching in anticipation.
Undyne began charging at the leopard before her, spear pointed forward in fury, while Parvos quickly jumped away from the fish monster's charge.

'You'll die for what you did to Captain Shamir!' Parvos was thinking as his eyes slitted and coated his blades in a dark flame, while jumping towards Undyne, the latter parrying the blow with her spear above her head, twirling it as fast as she could. 'What's got into that crazy cat? Assaulting me like that?' Undyne was thinking as she summoned a wave of spears towards the white leopard that stood in front of her, Parvos managing to dodge the attack right in time, except for one spear that made a hole in his robes. The white leopard looked at Undyne in full-fledged rage, and began summoning dark daggers that tried to pin the teen monster somewhere in place, while Undyne tried to evade the coming blows that were hurled at her almost incessantly.

Shamir noticed that Parvos was fighting far with too much fury in his eyes - but he decided that he will intervene only if Parvos will act on a fatal blow towards Undyne - and let the fight go along for the moment. Undyne then summoned a bigger spear and bit one of her fingers to coat it with blood, her teeth gritted as she wanted to give her best in this fight and yelled like an anime warrior as she charged mid-jump towards Parvos, who cast a dark flamed shield that knocked Undyne a few paces back. She then twirled the spear, forming out a rather large pale of wind while advancing towards Parvos, whose shield was down due to the strength of the wind. He grinded the two daggers against one another, forming small dark lightning bolts coating the blades and waited for Undyne's next move.

The fish monster jumped in anger, as she swiped with her spear, aiming for the leopard's face, while the latter parried with his dark-electric daggers as he sent shocks through Undyne's body, weakening her with each attack. She kept swiping the spear, with no actual hit on the leopard, and then, Parvos saw his opening - Undyne's torso was unprotected - but just as he was about to impale the fish monster with his daggers, a powerful blast was heard from the sidelines, forcing him to be knocked away from Undyne almost a yard back.

It was Shamir's Circle of Wind that cast away the leopard from hitting Undyne fatally, and the jaguar monster's eyes were still widened in shock as how could Parvos just muster the intent of killing his student. He then ran towards the weakened fish monster and gently lifted her in his paws, while he was still wincing from the after-effects.

"holy dreemurrs." Sans could only say as his pinpricks were gone.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Alphys said as she was surrounded by a yellow aura of rage.

Shamir took the weakened Undyne towards his training tent, with some difficulty and laid her on his campaign bed, while gently carressing her hand/fin and whispering some apologies towards her. She could only beam weakly towards the one that she looked at like a father. Sans and Alphys came along, surrounding her in worry, while Shamir's eyes were burning red with rage. "I still don't understand how he had the gall to lay a paw on Undyne like that. But, right now, I don't care how weakened I am, at this point. He's not leaving the grounds unpunished." the Captain said as he gently squeezed Undyne and Alphys's hand/fin and claw.

"Sans, look over them while I'm out." Shamir ordered through his gritted teeth, as he shook his head in disapproval.

"Wh-where is...Shamir going?" Undyne asked as she noticed the jaguar leaving the tent.

"he's gone full-blown papa jaguar over you, undyne. you might wanna stay here until he deals with parvos."

Shamir's eyes were slitted and a glowing red as he headed towards the leopard that was rising from the sudden gust of wind which knocked him away from Undyne. He didn't fully process what was about to come crashing down for him, and Shamir was not going to restrain himself from delivering a just punishment - the jaguar was looking forward to a nice training day that Parvos just had to ruin - and it wasn't surprising when Parvos looked at the jaguar's yellow-dotted hind paws.

"GET UP." Shamir said to the face-down leopard that struggled to rise from the spot he was in. "I SAID GET UP."

"Captain?..." Parvos asked, trying to feign ignorance, but it was obvious by the look on Shamir's face that it wasn't going to end well for him.

He was in a deep pile of trash right now, and there was no saving him from Shamir's wrath. He looked at the furious jaguar, while gulping nervously and sweat was bedding on his forehead.

"Spare me the humble speech." Shamir said as he grabbed the leopard by his robes, holding him a bit upward. "Care to explain what was all that about? And tell the truth, or I will kill you with no hesitation." the jaguar said as he tightened his grasp.

"I- I was just mad over what she did to you. And yet, you allow her to be a part of our team?!" Parvos said as he was gulping from Shamir's tight grasp.

"She is not to be harmed, under no conditions. I don't care about what she did before, I care about what she'll be doing from now on." Shamir said as he charged one of his paws with lightning. "And if you ever dare to lay again a paw on her, I will make sure you will be dead." the jaguar said in a scary voice as he punched Parvos in his left cheek, zapping the leopard in the process, and then released his grasp.

The white leopard looked with shock, somewhat relieved he wasn't outright killed - but he decided not to test his captain's patience anymore. If Undyne was going to be a Royal Guard member, then he will have to concur to his leader's wishes. Ribras and Rasha were walking out of the Royal Guards' HQ, when they saw Parvos looking rather shabbily and trying to steady himself in his walk.

"What happened to you?" Ribras said as he laughed at Parvos. "You look like you were tossed around. Did Undyne beat you?"

"No." Parvos said as he wanted to walk away from the two felines, but Rasha stopped him.

"Then who did this to you?" she asked, in a calm voice.

"Figure it out for yourselves." Parvos scoffed, leaving towards his chambers in the headquarters.

The two lions were looking at one another in curiosity, until they heard some chatter going on in Shamir's training tent and decided to check things up.

"...He's not going to hurt you anymore." they heard Shamir's voice talking to someone.

"pft, you look like you are a little softer than usual, buddy." they heard Sans' voice as well.

"Until we'll be able to spar together, I will make sure everyone will let her stay with us. And no, I'm no softy cat." the jaguar replied.

"i think you are, mr i'm-no-softy-cat." Sans laughed.

"Fine, fine, Sans. Stop teasing me, alright?"

Ribras and Rasha walked in on the four monsters that were having a break time from all the bad moment that just passed them, and greeted each of them with a curt and polite nod. Undyne smiled weakly in reconaissance, while she still held Shamir's large paw in her grasp, and to her, it felt good to have such a cool father like him, that was sure. Alphys was standing there, watching over her sister, while Sans was casually grinning, with his hands in the pockets of the blue lab coat.

"Captain, do you intend to make Undyne a part of our team?" Ribras asked, a small look of concern in his eyes.

"Yes. Please, try to welcome her well, I just want to make sure she will be top-down ready to join us." Shamir said, "And I'm warning you, if you dare to lay a paw on her..." he added in a gruffer voice, his eyes slitted.

"We will not, Captain Shamir. Your decision belongs to you only, and we will do our best to make sure she's feeling welcomed." Ribras added, while Rasha nodded in approval.

"Thank you. Good to know I have support from you." the jaguar captain said as he exhaled in relief.

[New Home]

Asgore was tending to the golden flowers in the inner courtyard, while gently humming a tune he liked so much. The birds were chirping lively, as if nature was blessed to see such a kind monster in its' midst. Days like these were something Asgore enjoyed so much, and gardening was by far the best past-time, but he missed playing a game of catch with his son. They were having so much fun back in those days, and he often wondered if Shamir missed those days as well.

Inside, Toriel's butterscotch-cinnamon pie was ready to be served, but given the fact Shamir's been late by almost an hour in his usual schedule, something must've happened for him to not arrive home earlier. She decided to put the pie back in the oven and re-heat it, just to be sure it will be warm by the time he will arrive, and went back to reading a dusty book she picked from the shelf. It was called "Rememberance", and it looked, by its' title, like a cheesy romance novel - but since she was with Asgore, cheesy romance was good enough for her.

"I'm home!" Shamir's voice was heard as he entered the castle's doors, while Asgore greeted his son with the usual "Howdy!" and Shamir did nothing else but flash one of those funny smiles of his when he was content with something. He then walked inside, to the scent of Toriel's absolutely delicious butterscotch-cinnamon pie - his mouth was awash with drool as he let himself guided by the scent. Toriel laughed as Shamir did not change with this particular thing - no matter how old he would be, he would always dash through the scent to reach out the pie, drooling.

"Nu-uh, not yet, my child. Please, wash your paws first." Toriel teased as she laid her fluffy paw against his snout.

"You know I - still - don't tolerate water." he tried to glare at the goat monster, but ended up pouting instead.

"I remember when I gave you your first bath, Shamir~" Toriel began, with a giggle. "You were absolutely adorable in there."

"Please- I am not adorable!" the jaguar said as he covered his snout with his large paws.

"Oh, but yes! I remember the nights you slept in my lap. You'd be laying against my bosom as if it was a very soft pillow." the goat monster teased as she couldn't help a faint blush over her cheeks.

"I-did that?" Shamir's fur went floof at the very mention of that, sweatdropping as he couldn't help avert his gaze from Toriel's bosom.

Asgore finished watering the flowers and walked in the kitchen, catching on the curious scene that was going on before him. The kingly monster could figure Toriel must've been teasing the poor jaguar, and then the two goat monsters started whispering to one another, leaving Shamir in that state.

"Bahahahaha! Out of every adorable moment you could choose, you chose that one?" Asgore laughed heartily, and then added more to Shamir's embarassment. "Yes, you did that, young one. You looked so content on staying there, it was very difficult for me to carry you back to bed. Tori's scent knocked you off to sleep in mere seconds."

Shamir couldn't help letting his ears down, blushing furiously as these memories were coming back to him.

"Tch. Sans was right. I'm getting softy."

[Ebotton, Kansas]

The road before them was half-empty, as scores of cars were going, while twilight was basking the landscape before them. The misadventures, until now, proved to be a lot - but somehow, Roger's gut was telling that their troubles were far from being over. After all, Sam's murderer was still at large, and whoever stole his Caddilac wasn't yet caught, on top of that he was hunting a deserted town he had the honor of being in. His mind was now set on Toriel - wherever the kind monster was - and wanted to see her again. Maybe Frisk would warm up to her, feel safer. He knew that he did feel safe in her fluffy embrace, but then shook his head, to keep steady on the road.

Frisk, on the other hand, was still plagued by lt. Richards' words about Roger - even if the latter said they weren't true, and were proven false - he thought Roger could have been bad, somewhere deep down. But the young man assured them, time and time again, that nothing would come to harm them under his guard - yet the words weren't enough to convince the child.

Roger looked incredibly focused when he was chasing this goal of his - and at times, he stopped to look for any markings, signs, anything that would lead him back in the abandoned town of Ebotton. He sighed in vexation, as he didn't know what was the answer for finding this town - how could he find it the first time and not now? He then reached the torpedo for a US Road Map and looked at it with puzzled, yet focused eyes. Frisk noticed the amount of determination stemming from Roger's resolute thinking, and was a bit impressed by the man's logical skills.

"Still going into the unknown?" Frisk asked, a curious look on their face as the man searched for their next road to take.

"Yes. I fail to understand something." Roger said, as he exhaled heavily. "I could see the town the first time. Why can't I do so now?"

"You mean, the town that's right across the road?" Frisk said as they pointed towards an abandoned town and a large mountain looming across the road, but which Roger did not see at all. He saw only desert and nothing else.

"What, there's nothing-YOU CAN SEE IT?!" Roger said, exasperation written all over his face. "Wait. Maybe because I want so badly to find the town, I can't see it." he then exhaled, clearing out his mind completely.

Indeed, after a few moments, Roger could see the town before him as well, and then silently thanked Frisk for being there with him. They took some of the rations from the Mustang's trunk and two sleeping bags, leaving the car abandoned, not caring anymore about anything else. The goal was reached, he was back in Ebotton - but the two of them were obviously very tired, and walked slowly into the town, talking about a lot of topics like maths, geography and so forth, until they reached the old library Roger walked in for the first time.

He hoped to see Toriel back here, but everything looked like it was untouched since he came down here - with the exception of one thing. There were many books on the shelves right now, as opposed to the few with unintelligible titles, and Frisk looked around with a small degree of fear, as they held onto Roger. The researcher assured Frisk they had nothing to fear in a library, while he looked for a good place for the two to spend the night in, as he left out a long yawn.

"Look, this is a good place to sleep for the night." Roger said as he laid his sleeping bag next to a fireplace in the far end of the library. "I'll light the fire with care, don't worry."

"Okay." Frisk nodded, while they laid their sleeping bag and slowly covered themselves in its' warmth, while Roger was slaving out lighting the fire.

After a few notches, the fire was gently crinkling, lighting their faces and warming up the atmosphere, and then Roger wished Frisk a good night, plopping out to sleep.
But even if the gentle light of the crinkling fire was there, Frisk was going to be plagued by yet another nightmare...

[?]

Frisk saw a small flower cowering in fear before them - but they chose to not hurt that flower - instead it attached itself on Frisk's shoulder. Behind themselves, they heard two voices, one male and one female talking about someone they were familiar, yet unfamiliar with.

"Is he...is he talking about the same Toriel that we know?"

"No...that doesn't sound like it's her."

They then felt grabbed by something soft and fuzzy, and saw before them a goat that wanted them to come with him.

Then he stopped, pointing at Frisk...and everything went dark.

[Old Library, Ebotton]

Frisk awoke, their heart beating rapidly, unable to understand what was all that about. Across them, Roger slept soundly as his breathing was rhythmic, and decided not to wake up their guardian. Instead, they crept out the library's door, and into the fading light of the morning that gently kissed these abandoned lands, still a bit chilly because they were in their pyjamas. For some odd reason, they were hearing whispers in the dark corners of the town that urged them to climb up the mountain looming in the distance, and they began walking faster, until the walking turned into a small run for the mountain ahead.

"Libera nos, libera nos..."

The dense forest that laid in front of Frisk was not going to scare the small child, as they went down on a seemingly visible path, their eyes focused on the mountain. They didn't stop in their tracks when they heard a bear from some bushes, nor when they heard birds chirping away in the depths of the forest. Frisk stopped only at the base of the mountain, the same whispers going on as ever in their ears, and decided to climb the mountain with steeling determination.

In the meantime, Roger was slowly awakening to the rising sun's soft rays that caressed the windows of the old library, and blinked for a few moments to adjust to the light. The warmth of his sleeping bag was so good he didn't really want to wake up, but he had to find out the truth about Ebotton. He then sat himself up, looked around the library, and noticed Frisk was gone. At first, Roger thought the child was merely exploring the library - but just how big could this library be?

"Frisk? Frisk, where are you? he called out, but when no answer came back, Roger could only utter, "Where did the kid go..."

Frisk was still climbing the mountain, cutting themselves in a few sharp rocks at times, but their determination to stop the voices that were calling out to them was enough to push them further. The pain didn't matter...

"FRISK!" Roger called out as he was outside the library, the chilly air greeting him while the sun was not yet in the afternoon position. 'I hope they did not venture somewhere dangerous,' Roger bemused as he looked at the abandoned houses before him, 'but I gotta check those houses and see if they're here.' He started with the leftmost house, with barren windows and a large rusty door, while the walls looked like they were about to collapse.

"Come out, this isn't fun! Where are you?" he called out when he approached the house and figured he must go in, no matter what.

The sun was slowly setting in its' afternoon position, and while Roger was desperately searching out for Frisk, the latter was already approaching the top of the mountain. The voices in Frisk's head were still there, and they looked down below, to see an endless abyss opening out for them. A part of them wanted to go back to Roger, but their other part was determined to see if the voices can stop. As they sat down on the cold snow atop of the mountain, dangling their legs, they looked once more at the scenery before them - the azure sky, the gentle sun, the forest that seemed to go on forever, and behind them the abandoned town. Then, closing their eyes, pushed themselves down the abyss below.

They fell down.

Roger's search continued until dawn, who groaned in frustration. "They are not here. Just...I can't lose the kid right now! They have to be-" he stopped in mid-sentence as he saw the large mountain looming in the distance.

Oh no.