Perseverance

She looked up from her notebook, gently kicking at the river which lapped at her shins. Her doodles, her writings trying to act as a net, trapping her very surroundings in simple dots of ink. She straightened her glasses, and scrunched up her face. No matter how she tried, she couldn't quite capture the visage of the castle. How it glowed with a grand incandescence in the distance, framed by the sparkling stars ingrained in the cavern ceiling. It taunted her that she could not do it justice, that she seemed incapable of representing it's beauty. Re-adjusting her glasses, she tore the page out of her notebook and crumpled it up, setting it beside her as she set pencil to paper once more. "I can always try again" she thought to herself, beginning the sketch once more.

She had been holding the notebook when she fell, and hadn't released it yet. She remembered crying at first. Her glasses were cracked, darkness surrounded her, only the golden flowers she was sitting upon provided comfort. That was before She appeared. She...Toriel, had lit the cavern with fire magic, looking upon the child with a look of hope and fear mixed together. She had not released the child's hand as she led her home. No monster came close to Toriel or the child. None dared. Toriel had showed her her new room, had reflexively patted her head, and had not let her out of her sight. The child stayed with her. For how long, she did not know, but by the end she was certainly used to her bed, to Toriel's worried stare, her neuroticism. Each day the child had listened to the monster, taking notes not only of what she was taught, but how Toriel acted, what she spoke of the rest of the underground, the dangers of the monsters. Eventually the child had asked Toriel how she would get home. She had frozen. Told her she was already home. Told her to remain in her room. That night, she could hear soft sobbing fill the house.

But she persevered.

Each day she asked Toriel at the end of their studies whether she could go home. Each day Toriel refused. The child did not argue, did not rebel, but listened, took notes, milled it over. One day, Toriel caved. She told the girl that if she truly wanted to leave, she would not let her go to her death as so many others had. She taught her everything she knew about the monsters, about the underground, about ASGORE. Most importantly, how he fought. Still, the child took notes.

Without those notes, she would never have made it to Waterfall. She had learned what to expect from monsters. How they attacked, how they reacted to different actions. How to avoid not only killing them, but from being killed by them. Such it was that every conflict she found herself in she defused, expertly dodging their strikes, carrying out the moves she had rehearsed countless times in her head. Even when she was struck, she had thorough plans, strategies, and could recover flawlessly. She had killed none, and had no intention of doing so.

The child breathed out a deep, relieved sigh. She had finally finished her sketch. She had finally captured the beautiful profile before her. She savoured the moment. Eventually she stood, pulling on her shoes and beginning to walk once more, hugging her notebook to her chest. It was a beautiful region, sparkling, calming, careless. Back with Toriel, she had considered simply staying in the underground, living her life as she would on the surface, but with monsters as her friends rather than humans. She had dispelled that thought from her mind, knowing that when she had fallen, she had wanted nothing more than to return home, and she wasn't going to give up on that.

It was deeply interesting to the girl that Waterfall could feel so claustrophobic, but stretch so high up into the darkness of the ceiling. Yet life bloomed, echo flowers sprouting and chattering away as she passed, great tufts of grass rising from the floor, thick as they were tall, bridge flowers blubbing softly in the waters, forming a living crossing. She made her way into the grass, softly pushing aside the larger fronds as she picked carefully through it. At the other end yawned a cave mouth, glowing crystals beckoning from beyond it. She continued to walk, the luminescence of the crystals both beautiful and intriguing, she made another note as they pulsed wave after wave of light into the room. In the end, she found herself at the foot of a short mountain within the mountain. It proved to be more of an archway, expanding off into the distance, twisting off out of view. Still she walked onwards, knowing that with each step, she was coming closer to her freedom. She smiled to herself, thinking to herself about everything she had done to get here, confident that nothing could surprise her, that she had every monster's number, even ASGORE.

She passed through the archway, taking the first corner. A large electronic sign buzzed beside her; "Welcome to Hotland". Indeed she could already feel the first hints of warmth on her face, could see the hints of a deep red glow ahead, could hear the bubbling of lava begin to overwhelm the sound of water flowing behind her.

It was then she realised she wasn't alone on the path. A broad figure stared back at her, backlit by the radiating light of Hotland, robe closed and face solemn.

The girl flipped through her notebook, hands shaking slightly. She put her finger on the page detailing all Toriel had told her about ASGORE, and had not a doubt in her mind that this was him. Anticipation flared within her as she approached the figure.

"Hello A...Asgore." she said simply, eyes still wandering to her notes.

The King raised his head, a small, facade of a smile painted across his lips.

"Howdy! It's so nice to finally meet someone else who shares my love of reading . Have you ever been to Snowdin's Library? It is definitely worth a visit while you are in the underground."

The King's face looked so….endearing….on the surface. Below, she could see a man whose hand was forced, who, no matter how hard he tried, could not rid his mind of what he would have to do.

She ran her eyes over her notes once more, closing the book.

"Yes...actually, I went through it on my way here. The selection of books was not ideal, but I certainly learned a lot."

"Perhaps you wish to return there before proceeding further. I would understand it you.."

"I know much about you...King Asgore." the child interrupted "I know what you have done to the other humans who have fallen down here, I know what you are going to try to do to me. You should know that I'm not going to fight you."

The King blinked in surprise.

"Um….well you see...I was just saying that if you wish to go back, to appreciate the underground any more before…."

He noticed the way she was looking at him. Asgore sighed deeply.

"Human. It was nice to find someone who shared my love of books. If we could have had more time to discuss, perhaps we would have been good friends." Asgore drew his trident slowly. "Goodbye."

The girl opened her notebook and straightened her glasses.

She knew what he would start with.

He lashed out with the spear, attempting to stab at the girl. Her notes ran through her head, her endless revision. She took a nimble step to her left, briskly avoiding the thrust. His eyes fell to the floor as she shook her head, clasping her notebook tighter.

Magical fire erupted from Asgore's hands, raining down upon the girl. But still she took her time, remembered her notes, and nimbly dodged each fireball. She shook her head once more as his attack finished.

His trident flashed red, swinging it in a broad motion at the child. She ducked, the weapon whizzing harmlessly overhead. She shook her head.

So it continued, each blow revised, memorised and avoided in turn. Asgore's face ran with sweat, body trembling with agony at each new moment the fight continued. If he could land one hit it would be over. But he could not. Each swing she avoided, each chance she had to strike back she simply shook her head. He was….predictable. Asgore grimaced. He hated himself more with each second. He wanted this to be over, regardless of how it ended. An idea flashed in his mind.

The girl continued to dodge, Asgore becoming visibly weaker over time. If she had wanted, she could have struck back, crippled the king in this fatigued state, but she refused. This was not what she had worked for. But her knowledge spread only so far.

Great rings of fire materialised around the girl, slowly spinning towards her. He brain raced. This wasn't in her notes. Toriel had never told her about this. No One had ever told her about this. Panicked, confused, she attempted to duck underneath a ring of fire, finding it spin downwards into her, leaving raw burns on her skin as she stumbled backwards. The next ring spun towards her legs, trapping them and causing her to fall to the ground, crying out in pain. Her notebook slid away from her, her glasses falling off of her face. Her mind became cloudy. She couldn't see anything, she couldn't remember anything she had written down, she couldn't avoid anything with this pain.

She looked up at Asgore, his trident flashed somewhere in the distance, a colour she couldn't quite discern. She tried to remain still, and praying the flash be blue. She cried out into the darkness as it descended, begging Asgore with every fibre of her being to let her live, to stop his assault. To have mercy.

She guessed wrong.

Shock ran through her body. She couldn't feel a thing and couldn't decide whether that was a good or a bad thing. She could hear the gentle gushing of water somewhere far away, the sparkling tinkle of the stars in the underground, Toriel's homely humming. The sounds of someone sobbing.

Then she was gone.