So here I was, a monster in the human world, something people never thought they'd see. What was I supposed to do with myself? I know I had a plan, but now that I knew I could actually do it, I wasn't sure where to take it.
How was I supposed to get knowledge exactly? Mug a traveler? Break into a home in a human village? I wasn't quite sure what to do, I did however, notice that it was getting late, I figured I'd rest as I thought it out, maybe it'd come to me in my sleep, I leaned against a tree and dozed off.
I woke up a bit later in that night to the sound of rustling in the bushes, I frowned a bit and called out, "Who's there?"
Here's a question, do you believe in twists of fate, or insane coincidence? I'm still not sure what this meeting counts as.
Out of the bushes in the dark of night came a human, dressed in leather armor just thick enough to protect against knives, and a saddlebag hanging from his shoulder, "S-scuse me, sir, I was just wandering through here and heard you snoring."
Snoring, what an embarrassing way to be found when you're trying to be discreet.
"Sir?" I raised an eyebrow and realized that he couldn't get a good view of my face to see I wasn't human, I didn't make a campfire since I was warm enough in my fur and robes, not to mention it gives my position away.
"Oh, is that not alright, sir? I mean uh, sir, I mean-" He was talking in circles, I just sighed.
"Ralochs." I answered curtly, "You seem scared, what would someone of your constitution be doing on Mt. Ebott?"
"Oh, well uhm, would you mind if I took a seat and started a campfire?" I grimaced, pulling my hood over my face further, it could only hide so much.
Especially when I drug it over my horns so hard the fabric tore and they started poking through.
"If you're freezing, be my guest, otherwise I'd advise against it, it would attract unwanted attention." I wasn't entirely lying, the more attention you drew the more likely you'd attract bandits, I just had a bit more reason than your normal person to not be seen in decent lighting
"Oh, o-okay." He took a seat at a tree opposite of me, then started shivering, I sighed, "Go ahead and start a fire, if anyone comes I'll chase them off." He looked up at me, still not seeing me clearly, "If you say so, sir."
"So, I'll ask again, what's a kid doing out here in the wilds of this cursed mountain?" He perked up, alerted at that, "Well, I was sent here on a task, b-by my village elders." That elicited a raised eyebrow from me.
"What kind of task?" I asked, he was fiddling with the bag of goods he had on him, "Uh, uh, here, this." He said, producing a book, "The war of the monsters, my elders sent me out here because they wanted to definitive proof that it happened." My eyes shot open at that, I started to speak, "Because they're afraid it will fade into myth and..." He spoke up, finishing my sentences, "We won't be ready if the monsters return, yes!"
I knew this kid from my human life, at least I probably did. He'd been sent on the same fool's errand I was.
He stood up and started gathering sticks to make a small fire as I debated if I should try to dredge up the past.
I rolled my lips, muttering lowly, then lifted my head, "Jacques?" He tilted his head, "Huh?" "Benet?" I said again, "A-are you guessing my name?" "I am, because I think we're from the same place." He jumped up at that, "Jean?! The scholar who went missing on this journey six years ago?!"
Jean, that was my name, I had completely forgotten it amid the years that had passed.
"But... wait, why did you just introduce yourself as Ralochs, why have you been hiding yourself for six years instead of returning home?" I grimaced, I shouldn't have introduced myself. I gave a harsh sigh as I watched him fiddle with flint.
I couldn't help what I did next, my inner showman came out.
"Because Jean the human is dead." I snapped my fingers (despite that being unnecessary), causing a fireball to appear and drop onto his small bundle of sticks. He let out a surprised squeek before he looked up at me and froze, paralyzed with fear.
"I stopped being that person years ago." I stated as I pulled my hood off, letting him get his first good look at me.
He wasn't moving, just sitting there with eyes as big as dinner plates, "Relax, I know the fangs are scary at first but I use them to crack open snail shells, not arteries." I was kind of enjoying his reaction, so much so I may have been subconsciously trying to make things worse with the words I used.
I'm a terrible person in that way.
"I'd advise you not run screaming into the night, I'm your friend here, everything else in the forest probably isn't." I said, reclining against the tree some more.
I guess I did a good enough job of looking non-threatening, he eventually picked himself up enough to start speaking again, "You... you're not..." He didn't believe me, "I was." I responded plainly. "But how?" "Don't know." Again, not a lie, I really didn't, at least not in that point in time.
"You were human but now you're a monster." He was eyeing up pretty much every aspect of me, I couldn't blame him. "Boss Monster." I corrected, this caused him to go pale, "Y-you mean." "That fireball I summoned was a fragment of what I could do if I wanted."
That one, however, was a bold-faced lie. I had been in this body for less than a month, I would eventually grow to be competent enough with magic, but as I was I could barely make the spark I needed to start that fire.
He had so many questions I had to deflect, I didn't want to give away too much about how the monsters lived, less humanity decide they're getting too comfortable and strong and come back. I had never had to be such an eloquent liar, haven't since, even.
"So then, if the barrier is real, how did you get out?" He asked. I just shook my head, "SOUL." I stated flatly, "Soul?" "No, SOUL." I repeated, feeling the worst sensation of deja-vu. I didn't realize that I hadn't made up a good lie for that yet, I didn't want them knowing that SOULs could be absorbed.
"I think it's because my SOUL is both human and monster because of my transformation, the barrier didn't know how to handle me." I said, pulling something out of nowhere. "The barrier holds strong, against human and monster alike, people don't need to fear their return any time soon." I added.
"I-I see... still though, how incredible." I saw him take out a notebook, my eyes narrowed and I just barked a "Hey!" at him, causing him to scream and drop it.
"Sorry, that was uncalled for." I muttered, feeling guilty, "I know you were sent for proof, but I can't let you tell people that I was human once, or that I can cross the barrier." He went pale as snow, I hadn't considered my wording, poor guy thought I was about to kill him.
"Lie, please." I said calmly, causing the color to return to his face when he saw I meant no harm, "Tell them that you found the barrier but you didn't feel safe trying to cross it, that it looks to be holding strong but this area is still too dangerous to settle."
"But... didn't you come here years ago because you wanted them to know the truth?" He said to me, I just looked up at him, that alone caused him to shrink back.
"Is the truth worth a genocide that shouldn't happen?" He couldn't find a rebuttal for that.
Minutes passed in silence before he opened his book, writing in front of the dull campfire.
"My journey to Mt. Ebott, I found signs that the barrier exists, however, wary of its nature I chose not to cross it." He said aloud as he wrote, eliciting a smile from me, "Thank you." I said sincerely. I listened in as he muttered the words he was writing in his notebook, a necessary lie.
"So, what's it like?" He asked me as he wrote, I just smiled, "The monsters on the other side of the barrier, I was afraid at first, but I managed to hide that I was human until I changed. I can't say how it would be as a known human down there, but the monsters are all kind, some a bit odd, some a bit unintentionally violent that you have to get used to, but I'm happy and comfortable."
"You don't miss being human?" He asked, I frowned a bit a that, "Haven't considered it, actually."
"I guess not." I added, "I'll get to live forever, or at least until another Boss Monster shows up that I'd want to settle down with, in a way I get to make sure I see history by living through most of it." I didn't sound entirely certain and the frown on his face told me he picked up on that.
It was the first time I'd been made to think about just what it meant that I wasn't human anymore after the initial shock. I didn't belong anywhere besides the underground, I couldn't go home to see my parents if they were even still alive, as far as everyone is concerned I died out here. It was sobering. I closed my eyes and focused on the friends I had made down below, "No... I'm happy like this, my friends, my new family, everyone down below, this is my lot in life and I'm content with it." I said a bit more confident as everyone's faces went through my head, smiling at him and watching that shudder run down his body from it, "Are those really as sharp as they look?" He said, pointing at my teeth, "Sharper, I still cut myself on them." I chuckled.
He was full of questions to be sure, I felt bad that I told him to lie, and that I had to lie myself, all this information about monsters and he'd be stuck living his life not being able to share it with anyone. And even then, I was unsure if I could trust him. Then an errant thought came to me.
"Hey... actually, this is good for me." I said, recalling the reason I crossed the barrier and blessing my good fortune.
"I crossed the barrier because I don't want monsters to fall behind culturally and historically, how about you come back to this spot in a few years and I'll pay you for some books? And your silence." He tilted his head, I could tell he was intrigued, "How much?" "Depends on how many books you bring, I'll pay a hundred gold." He blinked at me, his mouth dropping, "Gold?! They still use gold currency?!" I blinked, I hadn't thought of how freakishly wealthy monsters are, still using individual gold coins as their currency.
Well, things worked out, huh?
So started a cycle for me, every few decades of my now endless life I would leave the barrier and meet with the scholar, and eventually his descendants, who didn't mind working with a monster if it made them money. Though it eventually stopped, I still don't know if his bloodline died out or if they just lost contact, eventually I had to fall back on plan two and start rooting through trash to find out about human history through discarded newspapers and other miscellaneous stuff.
I don't think it was always reliable information, especially the stuff that told us about Japan.
The latest books or food, eventually electricity and electronics, they would be brought to me and I would take them to the underground. All this while still scribbling down our own history, it was rather hectic.
Still, I was glad to be an onlooker for the passing of ages, there are certain perspectives you only get if you live forever.
Colonna stepped down from the royal guard to enjoy his twilight years, I wasn't sure how long skeletons lived, but it was apparently pretty freaking long, it took six-hundred years before his age saw him turn to dust.
His kid eventually became the royal scientist and had two kids of his own, albeit not until way late in his life, the guy was good at reverse-engineering... and coincidentally creating the same inventions as humans before I even brought them back, I still wonder if he didn't have some way of looking forward and knowing things before the rest of us did.
Still wonder what happened to that kid, and why just thinking about him gives me a headache even though the brothers don't get that same reaction.
Time goes forward, ever and ever forward... until that year, 201X.
You just got really pale kid, you okay? Yeah, I'm not surprised, you probably know what comes next.
So anyway, what happened next is-
Hey Frisk! You in here?!
Oh great, her.
hey kid, pap said we might find you here
SEE, I TOLD YOU HE WAS TALKING TO ASGORE CLONE NUMBER THREE!
Well, looks like I'm done for tonight. And I'm not his clone Papyrus, I'm his brother.
REALLY? I DIDN'T KNOW HE HAD A BROTHER!
...We've met before, Papyrus, we've talked at length before.
uh, lemme tell you a story when we get back home, bro
I LOVE STORIES!
Right... anyway Frisk! Toriel's wondering when you'll come home, she said dinner's ready!
Thanks for the heads up Undyne. Have we really been talking that long? You can head on home, gives me time to think of which parts of the rest of the story I should tell you. And hey, give your mom my regards, Frisk.
See ya tomorrow.