"Don't get a tooth-ache, Frisk." Selendis said half-jokingly. The humans had stumbled across a rabbit-like monster who sold ice cream called Nice Cream, a joke which wasn't lost on Tenebris. All three humans decided to take a break to eat their respective Nice Creams and, like the guy who sold them said, it indeed warmed their hearts.

When they were finished, they got sidetracked by what looked like a pseudo-golf game where one pushes a snowball into a 'golf hole' at the end of the small course. All three humans each had one of go at it.

Tenebris did fine for the first half, but the ice on the course kept messing him up because of how he keeps sliding right across it. It frustrated him so much he shouted "God forsaken ice-physics!" in anger. Sans had a blast watching it from afar.

What was interesting was that the flag had a different color and gold payout depending on how fast you completed the game. Each flag had a unique message on them, as if telling what a soul represents if it's a specific color.

Frisk got a red flag when she tried. Red meant determination, which both of the older humans thought was fitting for Frisk; she was a very determined kid 90% of the time. The flavor text was: Try as you might, you continue to be yourself.

Selendis got a green flag the first time she tried, which meant kindness. The other two agreed with this as well, though Tenebris was of the opinion that Frisk should have some green in her soul. The flavor text was: Your care and concern for "Ball" brought you a delicious victory.

Tenebris got blue for integrity, which he couldn't confirm if it was true or not, since his soul was so saturated with shadow magic that it permanently changed the color. He recalled Selendis' soul occasionally swirling with blue and knew that she also had integrity as well. The message was: Hopping and twirling, your original style got you through.

Sans did attempt to sell some "fried snow" to them, but kept increasing the price every time Selendis accepted. The highest Sans got to before she refused? 500G.

The look she had on her face when he kept increasing the cost? Priceless.

They also found two sentry stations with a sign that listed various "smell threat levels" to keep in mind. Frisk made the assumption that whoever runs these stations rely primarily on their smell rather than their sight.

When they finally reach Papyrus again, it was in a smaller area. "HUMANS! I HOPE YOUR READY FOR... FOR..." He looks around. "SANS, WHERE'S THE PUZZLE!?"

Sans nonchalantly scratched his chin. "it's right there, on the ground." He points to a piece of paper. "trust me, there's no way they can get past this one."

Frisk picked up the paper and showed it to the other two. It was a word-search. Tenebris grinned. "looks like we got to 'search' for our way through this!"

Selendis facepalmed again while Papyrus shouted, "OH MY GOD, WHY?! SANS, NOT ONLY DID THAT NOT DO ANYTHING, BUT YOU LET TENEBRIS SLIP IN ANOTHER PUN!"

Sans managed to stop laughing. "uh, whoops. i knew i should of used today's crossword instead."

Papyrus looked offended as Frisk slipped the word search into her pocket. "WHAT!? CROSSWORD!? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT! IN MY OPINION, JUNIOR JUMBLE IS EASILY THE HARDEST."

"what, really dude? that easy-peasy word scramble? that's for baby bones."

Papyrus sighed. "UN. BELIEVABLE. HUMANS, HELP US SOLVE THIS DISPUTE!"

Tenebris shrugged. "I always had a hard time with word scrambles. They 'scramble' my brains up!" Noticing the deadpan looks from Frisk and Selendis he asked, "What?"

Selendis shook her head. "Ignoring the pun, how can you find word scrambles hard? Crosswords have actual difficulty; word scramble is just a guessing game."

"You can argue the same thing with crosswords."

Papyrus shook his head. "SELENDIS, WHILE I SHARE YOUR RESENTMENT OF PUNS, YOU AND FRISK ARE WIERD! TENEBRIS AND I ARE IN AGREEMENT; CROSSWORDS ARE SO EASY. IT'S THE SAME SOLUTION EVERY TIME."

This got a confused look out of Frisk. "How can that be? That argument holds ground against every puzzle in existence."

"YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY? I JUST FILL ALL THE BOXES IN WITH THE LETTER 'Z', BECAUSE EVERY TIME I LOOK AT A CROSSWORD... ALL I CAN DO IS SNORE!" That got a big laugh out of Tenebris, with Papyrus joining him before leaving again.

Selendis shook her head in amusement. "Okay, that was pretty classy."

Sans looks at the girls, Frisk still shaking her head in amusement. "papyrus... finds difficulty in interesting places. yesterday he got stumped trying to "solve" the horoscope."

Tenebris looks at him funny. "How do you go about SOLVING a horoscope when it's... oh wait." The girls started laughing and he pouts. "Yeah, yeah, I'm slow on the up-take, gimme a break..."

Sans chuckled. "guess I'll see ya next puzzle." He wanders ahead.

After Tenebris recovered from his minor loss of dignity, they came across a table that had a plate of spaghetti on it and a note beside it. The first thing Selendis did was read the note out loud, "HUMANS! PLEASE ENJOY THIS- ow, his voice is hard to do."

That got a laugh out of the other two before continuing in her own voice. "Please enjoy this spaghetti. Little do you know, this spaghetti is a trap, designed to entice you! You'll all be so busy eating it that you won't realize that you aren't progressing! Thoroughly japed again by the Great Papyrus! Nyeh-heh-heh, Papyrus."

Tenebris let out a loud, and painful, snort. "And he had to tell us his ingenious plan. As much as he gets in our way, you really can't hate the guy."

Frisk nodded. "I agree. Plus, he's funny in his own way. It's refreshing."

"Kinda like you, Frisky?"

She playfully punched him in the arm and he starts chasing her around the area, her squealing in surprise and delight. He kept redirecting her with his shadow barriers, much to her constant surprise and dismay. "No fair using barriers!"

"All's fair in love and war!"

Selendis shook her head in amusement as she inspected the spaghetti. "Alright, you bunch of jokers. Unfortunately, the spaghetti is frozen; stuck to the table."

Frisk stopped and pouted, which allowed Tenebris to catch her. "You mean we can't eat it?"

"Nope."

Tenebris looked to the side. "There's a microwave right here." He inspects it. "Every setting says "spaghetti." How dignified."

"Oh shut it, you." Selendis pushed him a bit. "Got to give Papyrus credit for trying. Besides, even if the plate wasn't stuck to the table, there's nothing to plug the microwave in to."

"touche."

Frisk had started inspecting a mouse hole that was currently squeaking at her. Knowing the mouse might one day find a way to heat up the spaghetti filled her with DETERMINATION.

*Saved

"Frisk, let's go." She jerked her head around at her sister's voice and quickly moved to join her and Tenebris. "What were you doing?"

"Inspecting something. Nothing too important." Tenebris shrugged, but didn't say anything.

When they found another sign, Tenebris was the one to read it. "Warning: Dog marriage. Fascinating." He started walking away when he did a double-take. "Wait, what?"

*Yes, you read that correctly.

Selendis deadpanned. "Oooooooookay... ignoring that for now..."

Frisk had started playing around in a patch of nearby snow, unknowingly uncovering something. Tenebris inspected it. "Looks like a map of the area. That's... actually kind of clever. Let's find what the X hides."

"Already found it." Selendis approached the both of them. "It was a switch, presumably for those spikes."

"Aw, Selly, you broke the puzzle!" Selendis snorted at how indignant Frisk sounded, but didn't comment.

The trio tried to continue on, but didn't get very far before freezing at the sight of two hooded figures with large axes heading their way. "What's that smell?" ("Where's that smell?") The humans immediately realized that these were the dogs who ran the twin sentry stations earlier. "If you're a smell..." ("... identify yoursmellf!")

Tenebris facepalmed before whispering, "That's not even a bad pun. That's just... bad!"

"Hmmm... here's that weird smell..." The humans felt a chill go down their spines, remembering the smell danger ratings. "It makes me want to eliminate..." ("Eliminate YOU!")

*Dogi, Dogamy and Dogaressa, assault you!

Frisk got the older human's attention. "Remember what that sign said. Roll around!"

Selendis blanched, not wanting to get her jeans and Tenebris' coat dirty, but did so with the other two anyways. "U-um, are you sure we're a weird smell?"

Both dogs adopted a surprised look... somehow and re-sniffed the humans. "Oh, you smell like a little puppy!" ("You all smell like lost puppies!") They suddenly attack anyways.

This baffled Tenebris. "I thought you thought we were puppies!"

"Truth be told, our vision isn't the best." ("There was a weird smell here a few seconds ago and we're trying to find it again. Sorry if we hit you.") Now Frisk was panicking. She didn't know what to do to stop the dogs from attacking them, albeit more blindly.

After their attack was done, the dogs... smooched lovingly and said some sickeningly sweet things to each other. Selendis deadpanned. "I guess this is the dog marriage we read about."

Tenebris was briefly distracted. He imagined himself being able to say sweet things to Selendis and blushed slightly because of it before shaking it off. Nothing more than a pipe dream...

An idea hit him and he suddenly petted Dogamy. This distracted the male dog. "Wow! Pet by another pup!"

Dogaressa let out a whine after hearing her fiance. ("Well don't leave me out... please?") Selendis took the cue from Tenebris and pet her. ("Dogs that pet other dogs... Amazing!")

Frisk noticed that the couple had their minds expanded and convinced them to abandon their chase of the weird smell. "Dogs can pet other dogs?" ("A new world has opened up for us!")

Suddenly the two dogs pet all three humans. "Thanks, weird puppies!" The couple scampered off, presumably to experiment.

Tenebris was blushing at the image of Selendis being pet before shaking it off. Why am I thinking about stuff like that all of a sudden? Is it because we just met a loving couple?

As Tenebris tried to rid his thoughts, Selendis had similar thoughts about him, only she started imagining him as a puppy as well and, while it confused her greatly as to why she started thinking like that, it made her blush very slightly. Frisk saw them both blushing and, for once, was confused about why. Maybe they didn't expect to be petted back?

Tenebris stuttered a bit as he tried to recollect himself. "L-let's just go on... again."

The next puzzle, if it even could be called that, was really simple. When they lowered the spikes, they found Papyrus on the other side, who looked shocked. "WHAT!? HOW DID YOU AVOID MY TRAP?" He didn't even react to them solving the "puzzle," so the humans assumed he was talking about the spaghetti. "AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY... IS THERE ANY LEFT FOR ME?"

Selendis adopted a guilty look. "We... left it." She expected him to bemoan the fact that they didn't even touch the pasta.

"REALLY!? WOWIE... YOU RESISTED THE FLAVOR OF MY HOME COOKED PASTA... JUST SO YOU COULD SHARE IT WITH ME?" That surprised the humans and Tenebris had to bite down a snort of laughter. "FRET NOT, HUMANS! I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU COULD EVER WANT!"

Frisk tilted her head cutely. "I thought you were the Great Papyrus."

"THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING BOTH GREAT AND A MASTER CHEF! HEH HEH HEH NYEH!" He runs ahead again.

Tenebris poked Frisk. "Better watch out, Frisk. You have competition for being THE precious cinnamon roll." That got a giggle out of her as she poked back.

Selendis shook her head. "I have to agree with you, Tenebris. I never expected him to interpret my answer so innocently."

Papyrus didn't really go that far ahead. When the humans caught up to him, he greeted them. Tenebris looked around. "Where's Sans? He's usually with you whenever we find you again."

"OH, I DON'T KNOW. HE'S PROBABLY SNOOZING AT HIS STATION AGAIN. SOMETIMES I WONDER... WHAT HE WOULD DO WITHOUT SUCH A COOL GUY TAKING CARE OF HIM?" He didn't explicitly say it, but Selendis got the feeling Papyrus cared about Sans as much as Sans cared about him.

When they approached another puzzle full of X's, Papyrus ran up beside them. "HMM... HOW DO I SAY THIS... YOU THREE WERE TAKING A LONG TIME TO GET HERE, SO I DECIDED TO IMPROVE THIS PUZZLE BY ARRANGING THE SNOW TO LOOK MORE LIKE MY FACE."

Tenebris gave him a thumbs up. "Looks just like you!" Both Selendis and Frisk looked a bit unconvinced. They might see the resemblance from a bird's eye view, but that wasn't within their grasp.

"THANK YOU KINDLY, TENEBRIS. UNFORTUNATELY, THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND AND... NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT!"

Frisk looked at him. "So you don't know the solution to this puzzle anymore."

"SADLY, YES. AND, AS USUAL, MY LAZY BROTHER IS NOWHERE AROUND. BUT WORRY NOT, HUMANS! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SOLVE THIS CONUNDRUM AND THEN WE ALL CAN PROCEED!" Seeing the worried looks on their faces he quickly added, "BUT, IF YOU WANT TO IN THE MEANWHILE, FEEL FREE TO TRY THE PUZZLE YOURSELVES!"

Selendis sighed. "Nothing for it but to attempt it. We should probably limit ourselves to one person trying to solve it at a time, lest we mess each other up."

"GOOD PLAN!"

Thus, the group of four attempted to solve the puzzle. Frisk went first and almost immediately messed it up. Tenebris tried with more success, but found himself trapped between two O's and had to reset the puzzle. Papyrus almost had it as well, but suffered a similar fate to Tenebris. Selendis was the closest, with her failure stemming from a bad choice of a starting point.

In the end, it was Selendis who managed to solve it to everyone's relief and Papyrus' added surprise. "WOW, YOU SOLVED IT, SELENDIS! INCREDIBLE! I'M IMPRESSED! HOWEVER, JUDGING BY HOW ALL OF YOU SO PASSIONATLY TRIED TO SOLVE IT, ALL OF YOU MUST CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO! BECAUSE OF THAT, I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE THE NEXT ONE! IT MIGHT EVEN BE TOO EASY FOR YOU!" He once again runs ahead.

Tenebris chuckled at how quickly he ran. "Full of energy, that one. Dare I say it's rubbing off on me."

Frisk beamed. "It's infectious and I love it!"

"Is that Sans on the other side of the retracted spikes?" Selendis pointed and, sure enough, there's the lazy bones himself.

He smiled wider when they approached. "took two tries out of all of you, but you managed to solve it quickly. good job."

Selendis gave him a narrow look. "How come you didn't even try to help us?"

'come on, don't be like that. you didn't need my help in the end, which works out 'cause i love doing absolutely nothing."

Tenebris sighed as he shook his head with both eyes closed. "I like your sense of humor, Sans, but you really could stand to be less- uh..." He had opened just his left eye, only to see Sans' face not how he initially saw it. Instead of a constant goofy smile, he saw a depressed frown and eyes that spoke of torture beyond anyone's control.

"Tenny, are you alright?"

Tenebris opened his right eye and looked at the sisters, who sported worried looks. When he looked back at Sans, the smile was back, albeit somewhat confused. He shook his head. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. Just felt something pass over me."

Selendis observed him closely. "Are you sure you're not getting sick?"

"Pretty sure." When they sighed and shook their heads, he closed his right eye again. Frisk's face suddenly became a determined one and Selendis sported an eternally worried, yet kind, look. This confused him greatly.

Sans shook his head as well. "you probably shouldn't keep papyrus waiting then." Tenebris jumped a bit, but nodded. As they went on towards the next puzzle, Sans couldn't help being suspicious of Tenebris. He saw something about him. What it was, he didn't know, but he was going to find out sooner or later.

When the trio saw Papyrus again, he was in front of some kind of machine. "HEY! YOU'RE ALL GOING TO LOVE THIS PUZZLE!" He motions to both the machine and the ground before him, which was covered in grey tiles. "IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT DR. ALPHYS, ASGORE'S ROYAL SCIENTIST!"

Selendis shot Frisk and Tenebris a worried look before asking, "How dangerous it is?"

"I'M JUST ABOUT THERE. SEE THESE TILES!? ONCE I ACTIVATE THE PUZZLE, THEY WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE COLOR! EACH COLOR HAS A DIFFERENT FUNCTION, SO PLEASE BEAR WITH ME!"

Sans snorted loudly, catching Papyrus' attention. "but bro..."

"WHAT IS IT, SANS?"

"i don't see any bears with you."

Tenebris and Frisk howled with laughter as Selendis gave Sans a flat look. Papyrus looked livid. "SANS, DO YOU WANT TO HAVE A BAD TIME?!"

"hey, bro, it's cool. just thought i'd mention that."

The taller skeleton facepalmed as he tried to re-regulate his breathing. "OKAY, ON THE NOTE OF SANS MAKING BAD JOKES AS PER USUAL, I'LL EXPLAIN EACH COLOR AS SIMPLY AS POSSIBLE IN LIST FORMAT:

"RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE.

YELLOW TILES ARE ELECTRIC.

GREEN TILES ARE ALARM TILES THAT'LL SUMMON A MONSTER FOR YOU TO FIGHT.

ORANGE TILES ARE ORANGE-SCENTED.

BLUE TILES ARE WATER TILES THAT ARE NORMALLY FINE, UNLESS YOU SMELL LIKE ORANGES BECAUSE THEN PIRANHAS WILL BITE YOU. OH YES, IF A BLUE TILE IS NEXT TO A YELLOW TILE, THE BLUE TILE WILL ALSO SHOCK YOU.

PURPLE TILES ARE SLIPPERY AND MAKE YOU SMELL LIKE LEMONS, WHICH THE PIRANHAS HATE.

FINALLY, PINK TILES DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. DID YOU GET ALL THAT?"

Tenebris and Frisk both zoned out in the middle of the explanation while Selendis looked like she was struggling to remember. "Did either of you two get that?"

Frisk shook herself awake. "Huh, wha? I mean, y-yeah totally!"

Papyrus sighed in relief. "GREAT! JUST ONE LAST THING. THIS PUZZLE... ENTIRELY RANDOM!"

Tenebris chuckled. "Kind of like a random dungeon generator. This'll be fun."

Selendis rolled her eyes. "If you're such an expert on them, then why don't you do this puzzle?" This got a horrified look from him.

Papyrus clapped his hands together. "TENEBRIS WILL DO IT? THEN STEP FORWARD AND GET READY!"

Tenebris stepped forward nervously as Papyrus threw the switch. The tiles started flashing all of the mention colors rapidly until... it gave him a straight path of pink tiles. Papyrus just spun away from the puzzle, seemingly appalled by the fact that he spent so much time explaining, only for that to happen.

Tenebris let out a cough. "Well... that was something..."

Frisk shook her head. "Anti-climactic is more like it."

"I think we can all agree that it wasn't Papyrus' fault. He 'did' say it was random; either I got stupid lucky, or the puzzle has some... glitches in the system."

Selendis gave him a flat look as the humans crossed the 'puzzle'. "I'd say the latter; you're not that lucky."

"Ouch, cold."

Sans chuckled. "i don't think anyone was ready for that. also, that spaghetti for earlier? it... actually wasn't too bad for my brother." Seeing their confused looks he clarified, "since he started cooking lessons, he's been improving a lot."

Frisk shrugged. "I'm pretty sure that's the end goal of most cooking lessons." Selendis mumbled something and Tenebris found the ceiling of the Underground interesting.

Sans shook his head. "true. i bet if he keeps it up, next year he'll even make something edible." He saw Selendis blanch and gave her a curious look. "What's up?"

"ugh... nothing. Just remembering when I tried to teach Tenebris how to cook spaghetti."

Tenebris snorted. "How was I supposed to know that induces uncontrollable arm-flailing and enthusiastic dish washing?" Sans almost blew his head off laughing so hard and Frisk didn't know whether to laugh or cry over the memory.

When Sans finally calmed back down, he gave Selendis and Frisk a cheeky smile. "come on, you two. don't be upsetti over spaghetti."

"Sans that isn't even a real pun, don't do this to me!"

Selendis almost lost it. Tenebris had to muster ALL of his willpower to try and not laugh. Frisk simply looked scared of her. "S-Selly?"

"Ugh, sorry. I still get worked up over that."