One step behind
It was just one of the many islands in the large lake beneath Waterfall old covered in algae and composed of random garbage that had managed to fight the current long enough to stay in place.
But there were two facts about this particular island that set it apart from the rest one was that it mainly consisted of an old wooden construct that had recently lost a plank and the second was the small pile of broken glass laying on top of it that had been placed in a manner that made it impossible to mistake it for random garbage.
It was for this details that the tall goat monster had taken notice of the island.

She was here!
Toriel's hands moved quickly bringing shard for shard in front of her face checking it with eyes and nostrils before setting it down onto a new pile.
Smelling the metallic scent of copper had been a shock in the first few moments as she had already seen Frisk's small from the impact disfigured body before her mind's eye testifying her failure but this dreading fear was soon replaced with wild hope when she had noted the removed plank and the absence of a corpse.
Now it was only her precautionary nature demanding to check on Frisk's health by determining the amount of blood on the glass shards that prevented her from following her immediately.

Placing the last shard down a deep exhale of relief left her snout, not enough blood for a serious wound and to less oxygen as that it could be from an artery.
Getting back up her gaze swept over the lake trying to determine the flow direction of the current, but if the vial broke before she took her medicine then…
The answer to this question already in the back of her mind as she couldn't fail to notice the penetrating smell of the mixture on the shards she didn't hesitate to step forward into the lake-
A faint sound reached the white floppy ears of Toriel letting her pause as she tilted her head to determine its origin.

"...ooo..."

It was coming from above.

"...oooooo..."

Turning looking up she spotted a strange white thing that was falling fast towards the lake.

"...oooOOOOO..."

No it rather was a someone that was screaming from the top of its lungs dragging a red, cape?, behind them.
Is that? No that can not be… Papyrus?

Still falling the skeleton stretched his arms forward and straightened his body preparing to dive head first into the water.
"...OOOOOOOOOOOOOO..."
Considering his new stance the possibility of hitting the ground beneath the not so deep water transformed into a mere fact as the stance and his 'bony' body would offer almost no resistance for the water to stop him.

Shaking her head in view of this madness Toriel moved her hand in three fast circles while reciting a short sequence of syllables that blended together to a pure manifestation of might flattening the lake beneath the falling monster.
Then the small island shook in its foundation as the thunder of suddenly vaporizing water echoed through the cave.

"...OOOOOOOOOOO?-"
Shooting upwards the cloud of steam engulfed the skeleton in an instant its bulky form stretching into a slender vortex of dancing fog that kept Papyrus perfectly in its middle stopping his fall before slowly descending back down to the island.

"Papyrus what are you doing here?"
Turning her hand the skeleton rotated back upwards to face her and her from irritated questioning to rigorous reproach changing voice.
"And what by all rotten snails were you thinking would happen to you when you jumped!?"

Personified innocence Papyrus answered without hesitation, "THAT I WOULD FIND YOU OF COURSE…," scratching his chin he paused for a moment, "WELL NOT YOU BUT YOUR CHILD SO THAT I COULD WAIT FOR YOU SO THAT I COULD HELP YOU WITH YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT UNDYNE."
Mistaking her unbelieving stare he continued proudly, "A GENIUS PLAN ISN'T IT? NYE-HEH-HEH!"

Preparing for a severe curtain-lecture a polite pally voice sounding from another island to Toriel's left interrupted her.
"please excuse my bro he just wanted to help."
Surprise slowing her thoughts down old instincts leapt seamless into action letting her tighten the spell around Papyrus while her other hand raised towards the source of the disturbance already concentrating flaring magic into a formless sphere of blazing heat that could as needed stretch into a shield or collapse into a deadly projectile.

Although condemned to immobility by Toriel's magic seemed a gaze from the corner of his eyes enough for Papyrus to identify the short by twilight obscured figure that had startled her.
"OH HI SANS."

"hi bro," sending a greeting nod to his brother the smaller skeleton persisted on the other island hands still in the pockets of his blue hoodie seemingly unfazed by the blustery fire ball in Toriel's hand.
"greetings miss."

Returning the gaze from the white dots in Sans's dark eye sockets Toriel lowered the fire ball a bit, "Greetings Mr. Skeleton."
How did he came this close to me?
I should have noticed him before, her fingers moved almost unnoticeable changing the flow of energy in the proto-spell before releasing it in a short flickering of magic that reached unseen out to the smaller skeleton probing the air around him, no traces of a hiding spell… or magic at all…
Am I getting old?
Absently questioning herself Toriel brushed the small pile of glass with her feet letting it tumble down the island in a small glittering avalanche.

"just Sans miss," tilting his head he continued with causally interest, "Are you looking for someone?"

Frisk!
Toriel's gaze fell onto the field of broken glass to her feet feeling almost physical pain as she noted again the brownish taint of dried blood covering at least a third of the shards.
"Yes I'm looking for my child," letting go of the spell still holding the taller skeleton she turned towards the flow direction of the current, "Please excuse me."
Already in the water Toriel heard with half an ear Papyrus calling for her, "MISS TORIEL WAIT! WHAT IS ABOUT YOUR QUEST-!," before the remains of the spell weakened enough for gravity to pull him down into the lake ending his shout with a sudden splash.
Then she was out of earshot.

Surfacing again Papyrus needed about a second to reorientate before he noted that Toriel was gone only the sound of forcefully suppressed water dying away in the distance testifying that she had been there at all.
"SANS SHE DIDN'T LET ME HELP HER WITH HER QUESTIONS ABOUT UNDYNE..."
Standing there water at chest level unsure about what to do he stopped for a moment to think.
WHAT WOULD UNDYNE DO...?
Pausing a bit longer he tried to remember the right advice from his mentor that would apply to this situation.
WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY AND IF THERE'S NO WAY ASK FOR DIRECTIONS?
THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM?
THIS PASTA IS MISSING SALT?
WAIT AN HOUR AFTER EATING BEFORE YOU GO SWIMMING?
Until the right one appeared in his mind.
NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER LET SOMEONE DOWN!
Snapping his fingers the next infallible plan already developing before his mind's eye he turned to his brother, "SANS! COME ON! WE'VE TO FOLLOW HER! BECAUSE I'M SURE SHE WILL LET ME HELP HER WITH HER QUESTIONS ABOUT UNDYNE IF I HELP HER FINDING HER CHILD! NYE-HEH-HEH!"

Raising a hand Sans mentioned Papyrus to wait.
"easy bro she is too fast we will never catch up with her," pausing for effect winking he continued, "but since I know a shortcut we don't have to."

Already striding forward to follow Toriel this words let Papyrus pause again while he considered this and the fact the couldn't even hear her anymore.
Letting out a grumpy sigh he submitted to the inevitable stomping through the water over to Sans.
"OKAY BUT I REALLY HOPE THIS ONE IS BETTER THAN THE LAST ONE!"
Reaching the island still complaining he offered Sans a hand.
"YOU KNOW THAT ONE THAT SHOULD BRING US TO THE SPAGHETTI FESTIVAL BUT BROUGHT US TO THE DENTIST INSTEAD!?"

Grabbing his brother's hand Sans coincidentally smiling assured Papyrus, "no worries bro I got this just close your eyes for a moment..."

And then the two of them were gone.

- A / N -

So now are all things in motion, for the next part to unfold itself.

- Review stuff -

TravisUmbra: I dont really mind it I usauly see frisk as female anyways.
Good story im reallt enjoying it so far good job nice work.
I like how charas nice in this one im tired of the Charas evil or sadistic stories.
Well again good job.
Me: Whew, good to know I'm still on the right track :)
So far there was no one that would've deserved Chara's wrath, and she is just a child after all, so I'm portraying her like that.

T: Still a great story! Although when you switch between Chara and Frisk it is kind of confusing on who's talking. Maybe add a symbol or letter so we know who it is.
Me: Hi T, could you name the confusing parts? Normally Frisk's lines should address Chara before the introduction as 'the scary girl' or 'the girl' while Chara should see them as 'the crybaby' and 'they/them' (whereby this is the part where I screwed up, so this should change in the future).

- Review stuff end-

As a side note look what I've found: ¶ a Pilcrow or paragraph mark.
Looks harmless, but when you (like me), use an offline ODT document to write your story, and hit for a new line only enter (because seriously shift+enter is to much of a hassle), then it will destroy your formatting when you upload or copy & paste to FanFiction.
Because the editor (on upload or safe) will happily remove your empty lines, that were destined as line separators, and append its usually empty space after every sentence where it found the ¶ sign (so everywhere where you hit only enter for a new line), assuming that you wanted this because the signs where there, practically transforming your entire chapter into a bunch of single sentence paragraphs completely screwing your formatting.
Solution for me? Hit shift+enter to produce a new line without ¶, go up to the end of the line where you just hit shift+enter, hold shift and hit arrow right to select your new line without ¶, copy it, hit strg+h for "search & replace", tick "Regular Expressions" under "Other options", enter $ into "Find:", hit the button "Find All", and paste your previous copied new line without ¶, now you've removed every ¶ in your chapter and the editor will happily accept empty lines as paragraph separators when it converts it.
Just leaving this here for people that may have run into the same issue as I did, when my explanation isn't clear enough, search "libreoffice remove paragraph breaks" in google.

Have a nice day.

- A / N END -

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- spoiler stuff -

Undyne fight.

- spoiler stuff end -